Cursor's Media Patrol - 12/21/05

A federal 'Spy Court Judge' who reportedly resigned in protest is said to have "expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work."

Inside Job The New York Times reports that Bush's surveillance program spied on "purely domestic communications," despite the White House's own requirement "that one end of the intercepted conversations take place on foreign soil." Plus: 'Why Times ran wiretap story, defying Bush.'

William Arkin goes 'Inside NSA's World' to dispute Bush's claim that "the fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy," and ChangeLog rounds up information on 'The Tech Behind The Tap.'

The Village Voice's Sydney Schanberg takes "a reporter's walk" through the 'Wretch-Stained Ink' of "Bush's propaganda machine," wondering whether "a populace bone-tired of bad news is even interested in separating the honest journalism from the fake."

A Washington Post account of Rep. Tom Delay's donor-financed spending habits, at "places of luxury most Americans have never seen," reveals "a picture of an opulent lifestyle."