DSM Read 'ems

You know the wingnuts are getting scared when they start up the smear campaign. With the AP and other MSM sources starting to give massive coverage to the Downing Street Memos, the right-wingers have swung into action, shifting tactics from their claim that the memo reports "nothing new" to claims that the memos are fakes. Riiiiiiiiight. Kevin Drum reponds:

Now, unlike the Killian memos that were at the center of Rathergate, there are quite a few principals in this case who either wrote or received these memos and therefore have absolute knowledge of whether or not they're genuine. The first memo, for example, was written by Matthew Rycroft and distributed at the time to David Manning, Geoff Hoon, Jack Straw, Peter Goldsmith, Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, Richard Dearlove, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, and Alastair Campbell. So far, not a single one of these people has claimed they're fake. ... Give it up, guys. They're real.

Other critical linkage: the amazing and tireless Shakespeare's Sister gives an excellent summary of original memo, the Iraq options paper, and the Iraq: Legal background document. And Freiheit und Wissen, which I have GOT to add to the blogroll already, blows the whistle on the US's use of DU-enriched weapons and possibly - shudder - napalm.