Bob Barr, the guy who managed the Clinton Impeachment, tells fellow conservatives that the debate over the presidential power grab and NSA spying is "a debate about whether or not we will remain a nation subject to and governed by the rule of law or the whim of men." He gets booed by his own people. Go figure.

And this on the Washington Post's front page. The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year says that the Bush administration pushed the war on Iraq with faulty information, and with the intent of "making a case" for war instead of critically interpreting the data.

The Bush administration, Pillar wrote, "repeatedly called on the intelligence community to uncover more material that would contribute to the case for war," including information on the "supposed connection" between Hussein and al Qaeda, which analysts had discounted. "Feeding the administration's voracious appetite for material on the Saddam-al Qaeda link consumed an enormous amount of time and attention."

More news: NOLA mayor Ray Nagin reaching out to other countries to aid in the rebuilding of the Big Easy, since Bush seems to have forgotten his promises.

And why do we need Venezualan president Hugo Chavez to help the American poor heat their homes? Because our own country doesn't give a shit. Granted, its probably a political move for Chavez, but it will do more good than anything the Bush administration has come up with so far.

To round it all out, the Grammys had Bono and Kanye West attending, so who finally goes and makes a direct political statement? Well, Springsteen made a "bring 'em home" blurb at the end of a song, but actually it was Burt frickin' Bacharach, who made the most to-the-point political assessment, albeit not one that made the broadcast (go figger). Here ya have it:

"At one time, if the president had just gotten up and said 'I made a mistake, I take full blame for it. There are no weapons of mass destruction. Bear with me, and we'll get this together."' said Bacharach, "I never like to be lied to by a girlfriend or an agent and certainly not by the president of the United States."