A few stories that just must be mentioned.

First, remember the report that came out yesterday that was supposed to blow a big hole in Bush’s rationale for war?

Check out Powerline’s analysis:

Saddam was convinced that the UN sanctions – which stopped him acquiring weapons – were on the brink of collapse and he bankrolled several foreign activists who were campaigning for their abolition. He personally approved every one.

…

To keep America at bay, he focus[ed] on Russia, France and China – three of the five UN Security Council members with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.

With Iraq’s economy badly damaged and U.N. sanctions, Mr. Duelfer’s report says, Saddam’s plans for a skeletal weapons program that could be mobilized quickly led him to pursue the needed materials through illegal and indirect channels.

Starting in 1997 and peaking in 2001, he developed a giant smuggling operation that hinged on the establishment of “a network of Iraqi front companies, some with close relationships to high-ranking foreign-government officials,” the report says.

Those officials, it says, “worked through their respective ministries, state-run companies and ministry-sponsored front companies to procure illicit goods, services and technologies for Iraq’s WMD-related, conventional arms, and/or dual-use goods programs.”

Also, the political violence is heating up- right here in America. Professor Bainbridge has a summary.

Both via Instapundit. This is why I don’t blog politics all that much- Instapundit usually has the goods, and Powerline or LGF or NRO or Drudge or any number of other sites give all the substantial analysis you could ever want.