On certain days, it's just so deep that you need a shovel, or several. Mr. Rumsfeld speaks:

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and other Democrats on the committee reminded Rumsfeld that in September 2002 he said"we know" where weapons of mass destruction are stored in Iraq.

Explaining that remark, Rumsfeld told the panel that he was referring to suspected weapons sites, but he acknowledged that he had made it sound like he was talking about actual weapons.

The remark"probably turned out not to be what one would have preferred, in retrospect," he said.

Read the rest of the story, for all the various explanations as to what happened to Iraq's WMD. They went to some other country (just in case another war seems helpful, what with the election and all), they were destroyed, it was all a charade, everyone was fooled, including Saddam (and us, not coincidentally)...you know the drill.

Oh, and the last one in the story:

The findings of the Kay group, he added, so far have"not proven Saddam Hussein had what intelligence indicated he had and what we believed he had. But it also has not proven the opposite."

I would offer a long explanation about the dangers of the arbitrary, and where the burden of proof properly lies. But I've already done that.

Besides, I'm not altogether sure he would understand it anyway.

Meanwhile, anyone got a deal on shovels? I have a feeling I'm going to need a lot of them in the next few months.