Wheat and Chaff

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.