Governor Trump?

Bush To-Do List for 2006: Stopping Iran's nuclear program. Limiting the growing influence of an increasingly authoritarian Russia over the former Soviet empire. Making more friends than enemies in the Arab world.

"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

2005: The year the US government undermined the internet

Loyality above all else: "After two wars, devastating strikes by terrorists and hurricanes, a bruising re-election and countless legislative battles, President Bush's team is continuing the trend — defying history and shakeup rumors to remain almost entirely intact five years in."

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush's secret domestic spying program.

About 22% of U.S. adults believe Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11, the poll shows, and 26% believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. Another 24% believe several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, according to the online poll of 1,961 adults.

Weaknesses in FEMA's response system during Hurricane Katrina were just one symptom of major management challenges at the Homeland Security Department, an internal report concludes.

A state judge could rule soon on whether Alabama must give driver's license exams only in English or can test potential motorists in 12 other languages as it has since 1998.

Why Haven't Online Newspapers Gotten it Right?

House Democrats charge that the Homeland Security Department hasn't kept 33 of its promises to better protect the country.

Running for Alabama Governor: A Republican incumbent who alienated his base with a proposal to raise taxes. A chief justice who lost his job over his Ten Commandments stand. A former governor under indictment. A lieutenant governor who helped her ex-husband run for governor.

A proposal to change long-standing federal policy and deny citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil ran aground this month in Congress, but it is sure to resurface -- kindling bitter debate even if it fails to become law.

Officials in Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown of Graz quietly and under cover of darkness removed giant metal letters spelling out his name on a soccer stadium.

The California governor had asked for his name to be stricken from the 15,300-seat arena after critics in his birthplace, where opposition to capital punishment runs high, scorned him for refusing to block this month's execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams

Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith has an unusual bedfellow in the Supreme Court fight over her late husband's fortune: the Bush administration.

What the Whitehouse doesn't want Google to see.

(Geek Alert: This is a listing of urls on the whitehouse.gov web site that they don't want Google and other search sites to index for searching. via Digg)

The college student who claimed he was visited by Department of Homeland Security agents after requesting a copy of Chariman Mao's "Little Red Book" admitted he made the whole thing up.

The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of e-mails and phone calls -- without court orders -- than the Bush administration has acknowledged.

New "Dead Presidents".

"It's been a good year for the American people." -- President George W. Bush

Controversial (anti-GTA and other) video games crusader Jack Thompson has bought shares in the video game company he was suing in court.

One VP's iPod to Rule Them All -- During Cheney's flight home, "most of the electric outlets went on the fritz. Working passengers began lining up their laptops to share the power from a couple of working outlets - particularly the reporters who urgently needed to prepare their articles to transmit during a quick refueling stop in England. But when Cheney said his iPod needed to be recharged, it took precedence above all else and dominated one precious outlet for several hours."

Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, facing trial on fraud charges Jan. 9 in Florida, is negotiating a possible deal with the Justice Department, in which he would agree to plead guilty and cooperate in the wide-ranging political corruption investigation focused on his dealings with members of Congress and executive branch officials.

Reuters Pictures of the Year 2005

The GOP-controlled Senate on Wednesday approved a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act to keep the anti-terror law from expiring on Dec. 31. President Bush gave it his grudging blessing.

George W. Bush on wiretaps. (QT Movie circa 2004)

Law-enforcement authorities dismissed early reports of widespread rapes in New Orleans during the lawless days following Hurricane Katrina. But a growing body of evidence suggests there were more storm-related sexual assaults than previously known.

A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program.

"In the weeks after 9/11, while America and the world were grieving, President Bush built a legal rationale for a dictatorship. Then he started using it to avoid the law."

The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to cut federal deficits by $39.7 billion on Wednesday by the narrowest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote.

"Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.

U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called the Republican-led Congress "the most corrupt in history" on Sunday, and distanced himself from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, at the center of an escalating probe.

House lawmakers opened the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and approved $29 billion for hurricane relief during an all-night session Monday bringing their legislative year to a close.

A county supervisor asked Florida state elections officials to reexamine their voting machine certification program after computer experts conducting tests hacked into Diebold voting machines and altered the vote count.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful's nonprofit.

"This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States." -- President George W. Bush

Commentator Robert Novak, who hasn't been seen on CNN since swearing and storming off the set in August, will leave the network after 25 years and join Fox News Channel as a contributor next month.

President Bush pledged to rebuild New Orleans' shattered levee system taller and stronger than before Hurricane Katrina struck, requesting an additional $1.5 billion to buttress the system that failed and left the city flooded.

The Senate scrapped a Democratic-led effort to renew the USA Patriot Act for just three months, increasing prospects that provisions the administration considers indispensable to the war on terrorism may soon expire.

Iraqis voted in a historic parliamentary election Thursday, with strong turnout reported in Sunni Arab areas and even a shortage of ballots in some precincts. Several explosions rocked Baghdad throughout the day, but the level of violence was low.

Baby Bush Toys -- "Many of today's children's products are focused solely on finding 'the right answer'. All of our toys have multiple correct answers, except some that don't even have answers. Or questions."

Bush in the Bubble -- "He has a tight circle of trust, and he likes it that way. But members of both parties are urging Bush to reach beyond the White House walls. How he governs -- and how his M.O. stacks up historically."

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. ... And I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we're doing just that." -- President George W. Bush

The Grinch Who Doctored Photos.

"You can call me anything you want, but do not call me a racist." -- President George W. Bush

The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider the constitutionality of a Texas congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay that helped Republicans gain seats in Congress.

An ABC News poll in Iraq, conducted with Time magazine and other media partners, includes some remarkable results: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, 7 in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.

42%.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday he is prepared to strip Democrats of their to ability to filibuster if they try to stall Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Student suspended from school... for speaking in Spanish.

Sen. Joe Lieberman's staunch stay-the-course defense of President Bush's Iraq policies isn't winning him any friends among fellow Democrats.

Oil conservation as a matter of national security? After years of trying to wean Americans off oil with warnings about arctic drilling and air pollution, some environmentalists are focusing their appeals on national security -- and using the movie Syriana to help make their points.

When the national press devoured a new union-sponsored poll released last week by uber-pollster John Zogby claiming that a majority of Americans believe that "Wal-Mart is bad for America," not reported were serious ethical issues which call into question the integrity of the much-ballyhooed survey.

The US has admitted for the first time that it has not given the Red Cross access to all detainees in its custody.

"What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military... The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have... Why do you think they nominated you? ... Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?" -- CBS News reporter Mike Wallace

House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the government's premier anti-terrorism law, before its major provisions expire at the end of the month.

Happy Holiday Season from President Bush.

Congressional failures to approve emergency funding for roads, schools and housing construction have stalled Mississippi efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, the state's Republican governor testified Wednesday.

Headline of the day: Castro calls Fla. Gov. Bush a 'fatty'

President George W. Bush criticized Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Tuesday for saying it is wrong to think the United States will win in Iraq, calling him a pessimist trying to score political points.

"To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks." -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld

A Texas judge's ruling expected this week could force Rep. Tom DeLay to stand trial on conspiracy and money-laundering charges, as well as decide the future of the House Republican leadership and further shake a GOP hit hard by recent scandal.

Is George Bush the worst president -- ever?

A key senator and the country's top military commander said today that a Pentagon propaganda program was part of an effort to "get the truth out" in Iraq.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco agreed Friday to postpone New Orleans' Feb. 4 elections for mayor and City Council for up to eight months because of the damage and dislocation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Democrats lack a unified position on the war in Iraq -- other than disliking President Bush's strategy. "There simply is no party position on Iraq... It's every man and woman for themselves."

Conservatives want to regulate more than just the "public airwaves" of television for "indecency": they also want to control cable and satellite TV, which isn't controlled by FCC regulation.

Justice Department lawyers objected to a Texas redistricting plan orchestrated by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, but top agency officials brushed aside concerns about diluting minority voting strength and approved the plan anyway.

First Kerry, now Bush is called for jury duty. "We will be working with the court to reschedule his jury duty. ... Jury duty is an important civic responsibility and it's important that people do serve."

Hundreds of children marched Thursday from the site where Rosa Parks made history 50 years ago, commemorating the anniversary of the day she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man.

"Staying the course is not a policy." -- Rep. John Murtha

"There is no option other than victory." -- Chairman of the Joint Cheifs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace