Having been on break for about a week, let's ease into things...

...Poor David Kelly. We can all wait to see if Scaife/Coors/Starr/etc think the Clintons were behind his death, a la Vince Foster.

...It seems Rush Limbaugh will be doing commentary for ESPN football. I never thought, nor did I ever wish, to say this, but at least Limbaugh is to the left of Dennis Miller. And hey, if there's a team out there that wishes to bulk up its offensive line... nah, he wouldn't be able to hear the signals. (he called chelsea "the white house dog", i can make any joke i want)

...We're seeing the Bushies trying to fight back against the buck, you know, stopping, on yellowcakegate, but even the "new" evidence they're releasing leaves a lot of questions:

Even as the Bush administration concluded Iraq was reviving its nuclear weapons program, key signs - such as scientific data of weapons work and evidence of research by Iraq's nuclear experts - were missing, according to several former intelligence officials.

The public case that Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons was built primarily on several suspicious items Iraq reportedly tried to import, such as uranium, aluminum tubes and precision machinery. But the uranium story is now in dispute, and many of the other items had possible uses unrelated to nuclear weapons.

Other information was either lacking, or suggested that no nuclear program was in the works, said the former intelligence officials, who analyzed Iraq's weapons during the run-up to the war.

Boy, that Tenet statement feels like ages ago. The situation here is such that no quick-extermination of this issue is possible. And believe me, the administration has tried every trick in the book ("it's tenet's fault!", "it's just one sentence!", "it was technically accurate!", "it's just one piece of a large assortment of evidence!", "the french screwed with the intel!", "sean penn hid the uranium in his buttcrack!") . . . and nothin doing.

AGAIN, I SHOULD PROBABLY MENTION THAT...

...The Facts Machine is on break for the week, expect little-to-no posting until friday.

All those blogs that I list on the left are well worthy of your time.

TODAY'S ANSWER TO "QUESTION NEVER ASKED"

From Condi's Fox News Sunday appearance:

"It is ludicrous to suggest that the president of the United States went to war on the question of whether Saddam Hussein sought uranium from Africa," Rice said. "This was a part of a very broad case that the president laid out in the State of the Union and other places."

Nice try.