Former Bush Interior Secretary and Jack Abramoff pal Gale Norton, who earned that position after a successful career corporo-raping the United States environment, is in trouble for doing the thing that every Bush administration official did, but she did so very much! “The Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton illegally used her position to benefit Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company that later hired her, according to officials in federal law enforcement and the Interior Department.” HMM WHO KNOWS? [LA Times]

Well, the Lakota Indians have fucking had it. The people that brought us such leaders as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse announced today that they are withdrawing from their treaties with the US of A and are becoming an independent nation on account of all 33 of those treaties being totally ignored by the government they signed them with 150 years ago. Maybe it has something to do with the decades-worth of royalties on the oil extracted from their land the Dept. of the Interior refuses pay them. Just a wild guess. MORE »

Dustee Tucker, the HUD spokeshottie about whom we have blogged extensively, has many defenders. One of you emailed the photo at right and wrote us: “For the love, gotta get a new photo of Dustee. Here’s one from Christmas. Cropped out others to avoid the backlash I am sure I will get.”

In other Dustee-related news, we’ve heard that she is the niece of former Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Can anyone confirm?

Finally, one of you — who met Dustee while vacationing in Hawaii last week — wrote us a long email about her general fabulousness. The full message, including a dig at Dustee rival Stormie Janzen, appears after the jump.

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Striking similarities exist between the U.S. and British governments. Consider the following ways in which the Brits are just like us: MORE »

If, while out on this beautiful sunny day, you suddenly had the strange feeling like all the trees and fluffy woodland creatures had just breathed a silent sigh of relief, as if one of their natural enemies had just been dispatched, WONDER NO LONGER! MORE »

Past installments of our Senior Administration Official Guessing Game haven’t been huge hits around here. But you may feel differently about the latest edition. MORE »

• Supreme Court agrees to review Texas redistricting; Justices may want to impose new guidelines. [WP, LAT, NYT, WSJ, USAT]
• Bush says 30,000 Iraqis have died in the war. Bush: “Knowing what I know today, I’d make the decision again. . . The long run in this war is going to require a change in governments in parts of the world.” [WP, NYT, USAT, WT]
• Bush is “confident” that a deal can be reached with Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) regarding the treatment of detainees. [NYT]
• Bush says race was not a determining factor in the government’s response to Katrina. [NYT]
• Federal budget deficit hit a record-high for November, up 43% from last year. [WSJ]

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