House Judiciary committee sues to force 2 Bush aides to testify; human rights group warns Guantánamo trials "tainted by coercion"...

11 March :: NY Times reports "The House Judiciary Committee filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to force the White House chief of staff and the former White House counsel to cooperate with the committee’s investigation into the firing of a group of federal prosecutors"; Bolten, Miers have been protected by Bush-appointed AG Mukasey, who refused to pursue contempt charges against the two White House officials... Watchdog Human Rights First says Guantánamo trials "tainted by coercion", alleges at least 66 inmates have credible claims of abuse, warning that the unprecedented "military commissions" system set up by the White House "makes justice for the victims of 9/11 and other acts of terror less rather than more likely to happen any time soon"; Human Rights Watch also denounced the system as violating Constitutional requirements for due process, calling on the administration to "end this failed experiment with military justice"... A record 56.7 million people visited the US from abroad last year, the first time since Sept. 2001 that the 2000 record figure of 51.2 million was eclipsed; according to Reuters, "Foreign visitors also spent a record $122.7 billion in the United States last year, a rise of more than 50 percent from a low set in 2003 in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks"...

Senate vote one short of passage of energy bill; judiciary committee votes for contempt charges against 2 Bush aides...

13 December :: Pro-industry forces in the US Senate have blocked the sweeping energy-policy reform bill that Democrats have touted as necessary for future economic and ecological wellbeing of the nation; "in order to bring the bill to a vote, Democrats were forced to drop a provision that required utilities to obtain at least 15% of their electricity from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power. These industries have now suffered another blow because the production tax credit for wind and the investment tax credit for solar, which both expire at the end of 2008, still don't have the funding to extend them"... US Senate judiciary committee imposes contempt citations on White House chief of staff Josh Bolton and fmr. Bush aide, Karl Rove, for refusing to cooperate with probe into firing of federal prosecutors, allegedly for political reasons; White House maintains the firings were performance-based and says Bush's aides are protected from being called to testify by the principle of 'executive privilege'; Sen. Arlen Specter, the committee's top Republican, was one of two Republicans to vote for contempt charges, saying the refusal to testify violates the Congressional subpoenas issued... A major prosecution of what the Justice Dept. has called "homegrown terrorism" has ended in mistrial, Washington Post reports "A federal jury deadlocked over charges that six men from a fringe religious group conspired to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and instigate a war against the United States", while another defendant was cleared of all charges; new trial to start 7 January 2008...

Bush vetoes bill to fund education, healthcare, jobs, signs record Pentagon budget; Congolese children persecuted as 'witches'...

14 November :: Pres. Bush has vetoed a spending bill for education, healthcare and job training, while signing record Pentagon budget; IHT reports "President George W. Bush vetoed a major spending measure on Tuesday that would have funded education, health care and job training programs, saying it contained too many special projects, even as he signed a $459 billion bill to increase the Pentagon's non-war funding"... Orphaned, abandoned children in DR Congo, Angola, commonly condemned as 'witches', in some cases beaten or drowned as punishment... The New York Times reported yesterday that "Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004"; the suit also alleges the incident was part of a campaign by News Corporation to support Rudolpoh Giuliani's run for the presidency... Federal judge has ordered White House not to discard or destroy any record of electronic communications, pending several lawsuits seeking information about messages that have disappeared from a 2 1/2 year period; the judge rejected the White House argument that the order was unnecessary, as per its record-keeping assurances...