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Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions — WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 - A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members …
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Smoking Gun on Manipulation of Iraq Intelligence? 'NY Times' Cites New Document — NEW YORK Ever since the Democrats briefly closed the U.S. Senate from view earlier this week, to protest alleged Republican foot-dragging in probing Bush administration pre-war manipulation of intelligence …

MARKETING THE WAR....UPDATE....Via Atrios, this is an example of what I was talking about yesterday. It's a preview of an article in Sunday's New York Times by Doug Jehl: … On balance, the CIA genuinely appears to have believed that Saddam Hussein was pursuing WMD programs before the war started …
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Ezra Klein

Did Harry Reid Hit Bill Frist This Week With The "Smoking Gun"? — When Harry Reid shut down the Senate earlier this week due to Pat Roberts and Bill Frist's stonewalling of a Phase Two investigation over how the Bush Administration used intelligence in making its case for war, many of us wondered why now?

L'Intifada (continued) — From Deutsche Presse Agentur (Hat tip Lucianne.com): … I prefer to fight Baghdad in Baghdad. — You know the French rioting is serious when Jo at Jo's Cafe starts blogging about it. She is a military wife whose priorities are more focused on the light …
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The Fall of France — If Nicolas Sarkozy had been allowed …
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The Belmont Club, Jihad Watch, Six Meat Buffet, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Blogs of War

Paris When It Sizzles — THE FRENCH USE THE EUPHEMISM …
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Austin Bay Blog


FRANCE'S INTIFADA — It's hard to find some good reporting …
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Weapons of Mass Destruction

The FBI's Secret Scrutiny — In Hunt for Terrorists, Bureau Examines Records of Ordinary Americans — The FBI came calling in Windsor, Conn., this summer with a document marked for delivery by hand. On Matianuk Avenue, across from the tennis courts, two special agents found their man.

Cheney urges exception to torture ban for CIA — Vice president makes closed-door appeal to GOP senators — WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody …
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Credentials Are Fine, but Values Matter, Too — Thus sayeth the high priests of far-right conservatism: To be worthy of appointment to the Supreme Court, a nominee must be scholarly, a great intellect and a possessor of sterling conservative credentials. In addition, the nominee …
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reasoned audacity …
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Alito Smear #3: The Rock-Ribbed Racist's Candidate
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Confirm Them

Finally, the spotlight has started to swing away from Lewis Libby and his allegedly perjurous grand-jury testimony toward where that spotlight should have focused all along: on the CIA's incompetent, weird - and possibly treasonous—response to Vice President Cheney's inquiry about Iraq's interest in purchasing yellowcake from Niger.

Pick Your Battles — Democrats shouldn't waste their time filibustering Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. There are bigger fights coming down the pike. — Nov. 4, 2005 - Democrats shouldn't filibuster Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court unless he really bungles the hearings.

'Team of Rivals': Friends of Abe — Mathew Brady/Corbis; Time Life Pictures/Getty Images; Mathew Brady/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Hulton Archive/Getty Images — MORE books about Abraham Lincoln line the shelves of libraries than about any other American. Can there be anything new to say about our 16th president?

JERSEY GOVERNOR RACE TURNS UGLY: CHARGES OF ABORTION, AFFAIRS DRIVE LAST DAYS — New Jersey Public Radio & Television aired a report Friday night in which New Jersey Democratic Candidate for Governor Jon Corzine was grilled about whether a staffer he allegedly had an affair with — had an abortion.

Some in GOP Regretting Pork-Stuffed Highway Bill — The highway bill seemed like such a good idea when it sailed through Congress this summer. But now Republicans who assembled the record spending package are suffering buyer's remorse. — The $286 billion legislation was stuffed …

MONEY FOR MCCAIN — Sen. John McCain, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, has gotten a tepid response to a New York City fund-raiser Monday for his "Straight Talk America" political action committee. — McCain signed a Sept. 27 letter announcing his appearance at the St. Regis Hotel Nov. 7.