By Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen, New York Times When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February…
Nick Juliano, Raw Story The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked President Bush’s attorney general nominee whether he would block criminal contempt proceedings against current and former administration officials. In a letter sent Tuesday to nominee Michael Mukasey, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asks whether, as attorney general, he would go along with White…
DAVID ESPO, AP President Bush cast a quiet veto Wednesday against a politically attractive expansion of children’s health insurance, triggering a struggle with the Democratic-controlled Congress certain to reverberate into the 2008 elections. “Congress will fight hard to override President Bush’s heartless veto,” vowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Republican leaders expressed confidence…
JENNIFER TALHELM, AP At least three years before the deadly August accident at Utah’s Crandall Canyon Mine, Bureau of Land Management inspectors noted serious structural problems that they feared could cause the mine’s roof to collapse, Congress was told Tuesday. Yet the government’s mine safety office didn’t know of the bureau’s concerns until after the…
