May 23 (Bloomberg) -- House and Senate leaders challenged the constitutionality of an FBI raid on a lawmaker's office, saying it broke a 219-year precedent and raised concerns about the separation of power between the administration and Congress. ``The actions of the Justice Department in seeking and executing this warrant raise important constitutional issues,'' House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said in a statement last night. ``I expect to seek a means to restore the delicate balance of power among the branches of government that the founders intended.''

"We have to pray for your brother. He's in real trouble," [Supreme Court justice Clarence] Thomas told a wide-eyed Koch [the President's sister, Doro Bush Koch], whose older brother is, indeed, suffering from near-catastrophic public-opinion ratings.

it's very heartening to see that the awful mood of fear and intolerance is finally beginning to lift, thanks to brave, hardworking people

Two top CIA officials will bolster prosecutors' charge that Vice President Cheney's chief aide lied to them, court papers show. .....documents allege Libby asked top CIA official Robert Grenier on June 11 why the agency sent Wilson to Niger to see if Iraq tried to buy uranium. Grenier replied that Plame was an agent and "believed responsible" for arranging her husband's trip. The other official was Craig Schmall, a CIA briefer whom Libby complained to about the Wilson trip on June 14, court files allege.

Grenier, the CIA's station chief in Islamabad, .....then joined the CIA's Iraq Issue Group, hatching operational plans for invading Iraq. "Bob had to go to lots of White House meetings in the runup to the war," said one colleague.

Via Mickey Kaus, watch Jackie Shire catch Judith Miller hyping the WMD threat from Libya. I think she just can't help herself

Grenier replied that Plame was an agent and "believed responsible" for arranging her husband's trip.

Grenier replied that Plame was an agent and "believed responsible" for arranging her husband's trip.

after even he began to doubt some of the original story.

if they had the sand to just admit it, in timely fashion, and carry on.

Mayaki said, however, that in June 1999,( ) businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted "expanding commercial relations" to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales. The intelligence report also said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq."

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake -- a form of lightly processed ore -- by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.

It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.

In September 2002, however, Niger re-emerged. The British government published a "white paper" asserting that Saddam Hussein and his unconventional arms posed an immediate danger. As evidence, the report cited Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium from an African country. Then, in January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

I was asked to help formulate the answer. I did so, and I have every confidence that the answer I provided was circulated to the appropriate officials within our government.

In short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired.

The question now is how that answer was or was not used by our political leadership.

(Cheney's)...March "Meet the Press" appearance, Mr. Cheney said that Saddam Hussein was "trying once again to produce nuclear weapons.")

Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush cited a claim by British intelligence that Iraq sought uranium from Niger, saying "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." This is a claim the British government still maintains despite the forgery of some of the public documents released by the U.S. and British governments.

Wilson was criticized by the Senate Select Committee on PreWar Intelligence alleging, wrongly, that he claimed his trip to Niger proved that Iraq was not seeking uranium from Niger. A former Minister of Niger told Wilson, that he, during an OAU minister meeting in Algiers in 1999, had an informal meeting with an official from Iraq, who wanted to talk about "trade" between the two countries. But their talk never came to any clear topic. The Minister let all matters drop because of UN sanctions against Iraq. And he told Wilson he didn't know if the official wanted to talk about uranium. (Pages 39-44). (See also Joe Wilson's book The Politics of Truth, page 28.)

Wilson's central claim was that several reports and investigations were done on Niger, among them his own on a journey in 2002, and all found the claims from President George Bush about a contact between Iraq and Niger to be unsubstantiated. He claimed the information given by the American government before the Iraq war was based on deceptions and false information.

In the press release, CIA Director George Tenet said it should "never" have permitted the "16 words" relating to alleged Iraqi uranium purchases to be used in the State of the Union address, and called it a "mistake" that the CIA allowed such a reference in a speech Bush used to take the United States to war.

On May 10 ... Vladimir Putin declared in his annual speech to the nation, "The stronger our military is, the less temptation there will be to exert such pressure on us." He continued, "As the saying goes, Comrade Wolf knows whom to eat. He eats without listening and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone." Putin was publicly formulating concerns of ruling circles in Moscow who see a growing threat in the increasing aggressiveness of the US. Putin went on to reproach Washington: "Where is all this pathos about protecting human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests?" He added that the worldwide arms race was not yet over. Quite the opposite, a "new technological level" had been reached internationally. The arms race was accelerating. He pointed out that the US defense budget was 25 times larger than that of Russia. With regard to the controversy over Iran's nuclear program, Putin indirectly warned against the use of force. Such methods only rarely brought the desired success, he said. More...

Illegal aliens arrested-begin the ACLU countdown

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

Iraqia est omnis divisa in partes tres

Overall, just 3% said they think Congress in general is trustworthy, compared to 24% who said President Bush is trustworthy and 29% who said they can put their faith in the national court system, the survey shows. Corporate leaders in America are nearly as widely distrusted as Congress - just 7% said they are trustworthy.

"That dog won't hunt."

Ad absurdum

GM on Tuesday announced a promotion that caps gas at $1.99 a gallon for one year for buyers of certain full-size sport-utility vehicles and midsize cars in California and Florida. Consumers will receive a monthly credit to a pre-paid fuel card for the difference between $1.99 and the average price of premium gas in their state.

anyone except those who want to play lawyer and do "survelling"

According to the report, which was referred to the U.S. president George W. Bush, Mossad agents had been operating in Iraq with the aim of liquidating Iraqi nuclear and biology scientists, among other scientists, and prominent university professors.

about 300 academics and university administrators have been assassinated in a mysterious wave of murders since the American occupation of Iraq began in 2003. About 2,000 others, he says, have fled the country in fear for their lives.