* When we look at Golf Digest’s ranking of Washington golfers, all we see is a whole lot of strokes. [Golf Digest] MORE »

Yesterday we blogged about how the Georgetown law school students who protested Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s speech by turning their backs to him also had “tap this” written on their rears. A reader directed our attention to this message board — for the San Antonio Spurs, of all things — which features photos of the students with “tap this” on their asses (such as the one shown at right, by Charles Dharapak for the AP). MORE »

A recent New York Times story about the NSA domestic eavesdropping program included the photograph above (Mike Theiler/European Pressphoto Agency) of students protesting Attorney General Alberto Gonzales by turning their backs to him during his speech. MORE »

• Su Lin? Straight up OWNED. Butterstick? Currently keeping scientists busy recalibrating all known measures of cuteness. MORE »

You can’t be surprised that President Bush goes all out whenever the Congress is out of session. Now that he’s hit his three hundred and sixty-fifth day of vacation in his fifth year as President, he’s managed to turn the highest station in our government into something of a recess appointment itself. MORE »

As we approach the coming of Abramoffukkah, we learn more and more about the origin story behind the scandal. It goes something like this: Our parents always told us that the problem with Washington was that with all the lobbyists and special interests and money moving hither and yon, there was too much skin in the game. Now we learn that most of that skin was wrapped around the manyly bone structure and vital internal organs of Jack Abramoff, who may have influence-peddled his way into the bosom of a considerable number of well-heeled politicos.

We only have Abramoff on the hook today because his partner, Michael Scanlon, rolled on him. And, as Raw Story reported today, we may only know about Michael Scanlon because of a jilted former lover, Emily Miller, who avenged herself after Scanlon took up with a manicurist by going to the FBI and dropping the proverbial dime. You may remember Miller from the time she famously attempted to prematurely end a Meet The Press interview with Colin Powell.

But wait, it gets even more enjoyable.

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• “Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment.” Thus spake those pinko-liberals from that bastion of Maoism known as…uhm…wait–this is from Barron’s? [The Big Picture] MORE »

In the wake of the disclosure that the Bush administration had been conducting surveillance on American citizens without legal authority, defenders of the practice actually had one plank in its argument that wasn’t spurious on its face. Rolling the dice that no one with standing would try, they shrugged and said, “So sue us!” MORE »

In the wake of revelations that the Bush administration conducted a campaign of illegal wiretaps pursuant to matters that are widely claimed to be vital to the national interest yet simultaneously devoid of any evidence that the legal avenues available to the President were insufficient to the pursuit thereof, it’s possible to imagine that dull-witted, tranked-up press corps failing to ask any number of questions. Like: Why, Mr. President, are you so angry about the Patriot Act filibuster when you seem jolly well disposed to conferring whatever powers you like upon yourself? Like: What part of “You have seventy-two hours to seek a warrant after the initiation of a wiretap” don’t you understand? Like: Why can’t you and the idea of separation of powers just hug it out, bitch? MORE »

Despite the fact that working in the United States Senate offers a person like Jeanine Pirro to do what she does best, namely, staring stupidly into space for extended periods of time, Republican Party officials are saying today that she will drop her bid to unseat New York Senator Hillary Clinton. A replacement candidate has not yet been named. MORE »

Last Friday’s news of President Bush authorizing extralegal espionage continues to resonate throughout Capitol Hill as the Senate reups for another Patriot Act showdown. Democrats continue to hammer away, believing that maybe at long last they’ve found some ground on which their bald tires will gain traction. For his part, the President and his surrogates continue to thrust their fists against the posts and still insist that they have the right to listen in on your calls. MORE »