[NBC News 15]
Halliburton admits accepting kickbacks for contracts to supply U.S. troops in Iraq.

[Boston.com]
Watergate II: Breaking & entering to spy on the Democrats in the 21st century. But will the press care this time?

[New York Times]
A group of former intelligence officers is pressing Congressional leaders to open an immediate inquiry into the disclosure last summer of the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame. In the letter, the former officers called on Congress to act "for the good of the country" and said it was time to "send an unambiguous message that the intelligence officers tasked with collecting or analyzing intelligence must never be turned into political punching bags."

[independent.co.uk]
Important stats from Bush's first term.

[The American Prospect]
America as a One-Party State: Today's hard right seeks total dominion. It's packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself. —Robert Kuttner

[FindLaw's Writ]
The Supreme Court to take up five cases that "test the president's power to act alone and without interference from Congress or the courts." Bush has had almost twice as many such cases before the Court as Nixon had, in half the time.

[CBS News]
The federal government is planning to overhaul its employee drug testing program to include scrutiny of workers' hair, saliva and sweat.

[UPI]
Foxes in the henhouse: two senior officials on the panel set up to investigate why the United States failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were so closely involved in the events under investigation that they have been interviewed as part of the inquiry.

[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment.

[The New Republic]
Excellent article on Howard Dean, countering many of the myths about him that his opponents and the media are already manufacturing and trying to sell to the electorate.

[Los Angeles Times (via Common Dreams)]
Middle East connections and conflicts of interest of four generations of Bushes.

[Deutsche Welle]
Germany to abolish military draft, just as U.S. contemplates reinstating it.

[CBS News]
O'Neill also claims that the Bush Administration began laying plans for an invasion of Iraq, including the use of American troops, within days of President Bush's inauguration in January of 2001—not eight months later after the 9/11 attacks as has been previously reported.

[Financial Times]
George W. Bush's performance at cabinet meetings resembled that of "a blind man in a room full of deaf people," according to Paul O'Neill, who was fired as Treasury secretary in 2002.

[Wired News]
The FBI demanded Las Vegas hotels turn over their guest lists leading up to New Year's Eve to check against a U.S. master list of suspected terrorists.