On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate approved a $636 billion defense-spending bill, a few billion less than what the Obama administration actually requested and significantly more than the Bush administration’s last appropriation’s bill. 

The LA Times reports that the administration probably won’t meet its deadline to shut down Guantanamo. “It’s going to be difficult,”the Attorney General told reporters at the Justice Department Tuesday. The administration’s plans have apparenlty been complicated by a House vote to prohibit the transfer of terrorism suspects to US prisons. 

On the subject of executive authority, the administration had little interest in Sen. Russ Feingold’s hearing on so-called “czars.” When it comes to executive branch appointees who do not require senate confirmation, Robert Gibbs said, “I would assume that Congress and Senator Feingold have more weighty topics to grapple with than something like this.”

Finally, Politico reports that during the president's visit to the United Nations Senior Advisor David Axelrod met with Fox CEO Roger Ailes over coffee. Apparently they discussed news coverage and the “relationship between the two organizations.” HUH? 

Now, I’m no defender of Fox as anyone who watches this show knows. But why is the president’s top advisor meeting with the network? And which organizations is he talking about? Maybe we need a czar to find out. 

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, public television and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com.