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 …

Time for Facts, Not Resolutions  —  We understand the frustration that led Senator Russell Feingold to introduce a measure that would censure President Bush for authorizing warrantless spying on Americans.  It's galling to watch from the outside as the Republicans and most Democrats refuse …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Jessica Simpson, Smiling Up a Storm  —  Jessica Simpson is 30 minutes late; the scrum in Room 1539 of the Longworth House Office Building is getting vicious.  AP, People and "Inside Edition" are here, bumping up against Christian Broadcasting Network, ESPN, Modern Health Care — all snarling for a good angle.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What Democrats Want  —  JEROME ARMSTRONG AND MARKOS MOULITSAS are pioneers.  Armstrong founded MyDD.com, arguably the first political blog of real prominence.  As for Moulitsas, he's the founder and proprietor of Daily Kos, by far the most widely read of all political blogs.

Is it Clooney or is it Memorex?  —  A couple of reporters asked for reaction to l'affairianna Huffington, in which the Huffingtonpost pasted together George Clooney quotes and posted them as if he'd blogged it himself, reputedly with his flack's OK.  I'm embarrasased that I'm behind posting something here.

Teflon Europe  —  The prison at Guantanamo Bay was designed to interrogate terrorists and jihadists swept up from the battlefield: the idea was to keep them as prisoners of war in a war that was undeclared, and as enemy combatants without uniforms or officers.