House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) “net worth has soared from no more than $290,000 to more than $6 million during his 19-year tenure on Capitol Hill.” Hastert has made most of his money through land deals, sometimes using federal earmarks to turn a profit.

"What these revelations provide is a window into Babylon or the last stages of Rome," explains a source with knowledge of the multiple ongoing investigations. "Many felonies went undetected because in the Defense Department a lot goes on in secret, and these crimes grew in the shadow of both 9/11 and one-party rule—with little scrutiny. So what you're looking at is a world where money, secrecy, sex, and indulgence were all in play. Where everyone is guilty of something."

...Ironically, photos were taken with Secretary Rumsfeld's permission.

The reprehensible lynch mob hysterics - Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, Red State, David Horowitz - spent the weekend screaming that the Times was guilty of gross recklessness and/or a deliberate intent to have Rumsfeld killed, by virtue of publication of this article. That bloodthirsty frenzy caused other bloggers to publish the home address and telephone number of Spillers and urged that other NYT editors and reporters be "hunted down." Other followers of Malkin and Hinderaker suggested to their readers that this was yet more evidence of the unpatriotic recklessness of the NYT.

Britons have never had such a low opinion of the leadership of the United States, a YouGov poll shows.

As Americans prepare to celebrate the 230th anniversary of their independence tomorrow, the poll found that only 12 per cent of Britons trust them to act wisely on the global stage. This is half the number who had faith in the Vietnam-scarred White House of 1975.

Most Britons see America as a cruel, vulgar, arrogant society, riven by class and racism, crime-ridden, obsessed with money and led by an incompetent hypocrite.

Right-Wing Blog Asks Readers to "Hunt Down" Info About NYT Editors' Children

The larger point is that journalists have taken up the task of holding this administration accountable. Congress has done nothing. A new book, “The Broken Branch,” by congressional scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann, makes the point that the Republicans who vaulted into the majority in 1994 are either crusaders, for whom the institution is incidental, or opportunists, getting rich at the expense of the institution. Ornstein has been around a long time and has a strong stomach. He’s seen all manner of financial and sexual escapades over the years, “but now it’s not just illegal stuff, it’s the stuff that’s legal,” he says, pointing to the 10-fold increase in “earmarks” since the Republicans took power. These are pet projects that benefit individual members tucked into legislation without scrutiny at the last minute. “There are members making killings in earmark transactions,” says Ornstein. Among them is House Speaker Dennis Hastert who bought a piece of rural property in his Illinois district and then worked hard to earmark $207 million in federal money for a major highway nearby. He sold the property for a $2 million profit. When news of his windfall made the front pages, Hastert blamed the “unrelenting Democratic media.”