really illegal war

Charlie Rangel was on hannity&colmes and Colmes mentioned the "spikes in activity" (aka the really illegal war) story. I can't find a transcript, but C&L has the video, of course.

Alan Colmes: "There is a report in the British press over the last couple of days that we doubled bombing runs in the run-up to the war - they tried to provoke Saddam Hussein prior to the actual beginning of the war, we have the downing street memos. None of this of course was addressed tonight, we kept the same old tired rhetoric, no new information, no new rationale. In fact, the same old rationales that have already been disproven - like links between Saddam Hussein and 911, as he opened up his speech..." (my transcription)

the cat really seems outta the bag given that Hannity and Colmes mentioned it. (i watch it, so that you dont have to (TM) - update, the newshounds have a partial transcript)

in other news, georgia10 interviewed michael smith the other day:

Q: And finally, if you were a member of the White House Press Corps, what would you ask President Bush with respect to the Downing Street Documents?

A: Mr President. Did you in any way whatsoever authorise Donald Rumsfeld to order US aircraft to step up bombing attacks on targets in southern Iraq during the summer of 2002 and if not why did you not point this out at the National Security Council meeting on August 5, 2002 at which Tommy Franks said he was using the increased flights over the southern no-fly zone to make the Iraqi defences "as weak as possible" in preparation for war?
I have a follow-up question Mr President. When did Congress authorise you to take military action against Iraq?

apaprently Smith doesnt realise that blinky cant handle more than one question. i wonder if anyone in the press corpse would be able to connect the dots.

(for more on this, heres michael smith's LATimes op-ed, see here and here for rawstory, and here for WhyAreWeBackInIraq)