The new Nixon Law is introduced — that which the President does is legal  —  (updated below)  —  Michael DeWine yesterday introduced what he is calling The Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 (.pdf), co-sponsored by those independent maverick Republicans Olympia Snowe, Chuck Hagel and Lindsay Graham.

New Documents from Saddam Hussein's Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs  —  U.S. Government Releases Papers From Saddam's Reign  —  March 16, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of four of the nine Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which were released by the U.S. government Wednesday.

Witness Tampering Cited in Moussaoui Case  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for two airlines being sued for damages by 9/11 victims prompted a federal lawyer to coach witnesses in the trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui so the government's death penalty case would not undercut their defense, victims' lawyers allege.

Distinguishing gay marriage and polygamy.  —  Charles Krauthammer says legalizing gay marriage paves the way to legalizing polygamy: … If Krauthammer has been writing about this subject for 10 years, it boggles the mind that the obvious distinction has not yet dawned on him.

Senate Approves Budget, Breaking Spending Limits  —  WASHINGTON, March 16 — The Senate narrowly approved a $2.8 trillion election-year budget Thursday that broke spending limits only hours after it increased federal borrowing power to avert a government default.

Judith Miller's New Excuse  —  The former Times reporter tells Vanity Fair the "slanderous" bloggers destroyed her.  —  Judith Miller has a new alibi—the blogs done her in!  —  Writer Marie Brenner presents Miller's latest defense in an April Vanity Fair feature story about the fallout from the Valerie Plame investigation.

Campaign Finance and Blogs: A Simple and Non-Legal Explanation  —  I updated this to include the media exemption, which I had forgotten.  —  Ok, so campaign finance regulations make my head hurt, so I'm going to try to explain the basic idea behind the differing bills instead of the legal ins-and-outs …

Operation Overblown  —  BAGHDAD — Operation Swarmer is turning out to be much less than meets the eye, or the television camera, for that matter. … That sounds exciting!  But according to a colleague of mine from TIME who traveled up there today on a U.S. embassy-sponsored trip …

Declassified Truth  —  The War On Terror: The government is finally getting around to unloading some of Saddam Hussein's secret documents.  A look at just a few pages already leads to some blockbuster revelations.  —  In the early stages of the war that began three years ago …

Fighting Smarter In Iraq  —  BAGHDAD — Three years on, the U.S. military is finally becoming adept at fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq.  Sadly, these are precisely the skills that should have been mastered before America launched its invasion in March 2003.

US evangelicals warn Republicans  —  Prominent leaders from the Christian right have warned Republicans they must do more to advance conservative values ahead of the US mid-term elections.  —  Their message to Congress, controlled by Republicans, is "must do better".

Claude Allen's Mentor  —  Shoplifting and Bushonomics.  —  Last week, Slate broke the news that Claude Allen, until recently the White House chief domestic-policy adviser, was arrested for theft in suburban Maryland.  The president has expressed his shock and disappointment.

Flying Cow Leaves Two Police Cars in Flames  —  Watch this story...  Talk about a wild night near Seguin.  A cow came flying out of its trailer, sent DPS and police scrambling, and left two police cars going up in flames.  —  "It was almost hard to believe," said Detective Sergeant Maureen Watson.

Bush names Idaho Gov. Kempthorne interior secretary  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush picked Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne on Thursday to be his new interior secretary, selecting a pro-development Western Republican to push for more oil and gas drilling from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska's North Slope.

Ginsburg Faults GOP Critics, Cites a Threat From 'Fringe'  —  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg assailed the court's congressional critics in a recent speech overseas, saying their efforts "fuel" an "irrational fringe" that threatened her life and that of a colleague, former justice Sandra Day O'Connor.