by Chris Marlowe
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Stolen from a comment with links added by b.
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There is a certain irony in the Bush administration’s attempt to
"isolate Syria" by complaining about Pelosi’s visit to Damascus. Many
Americans don’t seem to understand it, but on the international stage,
America under the Bush administration is about as popular as Typhoid
Mary.

Sure, everyone wants to do business with Americans, but that’s about
it. Hollywood films are not as popular as they once were, and American
culture and appeal has lost its gloss. Coca-Cola and McDonald’s
symbolize cheap and unhealthy junk food, not fashionable trends.
Americans are thought of generally as consumption hogs, driving big
cars and eating cheap unhealthy foods and as being overweight, arrogant
and ignorant.

The industries America is best well-known for, such as media and
entertainment, are crumbling under the assault of the Internet, which
represents a whole new world which cannot be so easily dumbed and
controlled by four media conglomerates. Many of my acquaintances
celebrate the collapse of the old media model.

Cont. reading: Reflection On America

Open Thread …

Unfortunately Today in Iraq seems dead. Folks from there, dancewater, friendly fire, if you need help to get it up again please let me know.

As I left in comments somewhere here today, the LA Times had a regular piece on Iraq that included deep down this sentence:

There has been a surge in bombings in Iraqi towns and cities as American and Iraqi forces have launched a crackdown on insurgents in the capital.

That involuntary description of The Surge certainly fits.

Cont. reading: Iraq Update

Prof. Cutler has more musing on the House of Saud: Trouble with Abdullah. The Cheneys and Likudniks must hate the recent steps taken by the Saudi king and Abdullah has some internal opposition. Such has solved before:

Cont. reading: Some Treats

Smoking grass is not really good for one’s memory. Alcohol is even worse. Still, nothing beats the kool-aid.

By recent Congress hearing witnesses:

I have no recollection …, I don’t remember …, I’m not aware …, to the best of my recollection …, never my understanding …, in hindsight, that wasn’t a good idea …, only generally aware …, no specific knowledge …, I don’t know …, I believe I …, I believe that I believe …, I have no reason to doubt that …, at the best of my memory …, at some point somone may …, as best as I can remember …, can you say that again …, my role was to aggregate and present, but I forgot what information was provided to me by whom and when and I kept no file of any of that …,

On can feel the sword of damocles perjury dangling over their heads.

As former British ambassador Craig Murray points out, the British seem to have faked a maritime boundary.

The British Ministry of Defense has released coordinates where fifteen British sailors and marines were picked up by Iranians after searching a merchant ship:

"As shown on the chart, the merchant vessel was 7.5 nautical miles south east of the Al Faw Peninsula and clearly in Iraqi territorial waters. Her master has confirmed that his vessel was anchored within Iraqi waters at the time of the arrest. The position was 29 degrees 50.36 minutes North 048 degrees 43.08 minutes East.

The MoD asserts that this position is within Iraqi waters:

This places her 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters. This fact has been confirmed by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

Additionally the MoD provides a map with the position marked and with a line labeled "Iraq / Iran Territorial Water Boundary".
I have taken this map and made two circles with the ship-position the MoD marked as the center. This is a part of the graph.

The complete bigger graph is here

Cont. reading: Blair’s Faked Border

Balkinization has posted the House and Senate bills on the Iraq war financing. The brouhaha about these bills somehow restricting Bush seems overdone. The House bill will retract troops other than are needed for:

Cont. reading: Kabuki Over Iraq

The Cheney administration made an effort to "realign" the Middle East with an Arab front of moderate dictators. They were to deliver an Israel friendly solution on Palestine and a united front against Iran. The effort has faltered.

This was first visible when the Saudis fixed a deal for a unity government between the Abbas’ Fatah and Hamas.  With this done in Mekka, I suggested the Saudis were in a bind and had to deliver or lose their cred in the proverbial Arab street.

It is not yet clear how far the Saudis will really go to support the Pals, but the recent steps taken are certainly unfriendly to Cheney’s agenda. As Jim Hoagland reports, Saudi King Abdullah has canceled a state dinner at the White House:

Cont. reading: Time For A New Initiative

News & views …

Now I have to confess that I do get a bit nervous about an imminent start of a war on Iran.

Maybe inducing nervousness is what is intended and nothing immediate is planned, but  there are some actions done that make a war now likely, even if unintended. Some ominous signs:

Tony Blair is hyping the capture of some British soldiers that crossed or did not cross some undefined border to Iran to check for possibly smuggled cars. Why are cars "smuggled" into Iraq the Brits’ business anyway? Didn’t Bremer’s economic laws allow for free imports?

The New York Times today delivers a long piece about alleged Iranian support for some bombs in Iraq – no news, lots of words and no proof at all. So why print this now at all?

Some Russian Col.-General last week said that a U.S. attack will start on April 6th. Today the Russian news agency RIA Novosti cites a Russian military intelligence officer:

"The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

The same time the U.S. is starting

its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

Over 100 planes in the confined international air space of the Persian Gulf is a guarantee that some accidents and/or mis-navigations will happen.

With the public prepared through some outrage about the British sailors, wouldn’t that be a fine excuse for Cheney to launch a real full fledged attack?

In a consulting gig today, I had yet another discussion on incentive pay. "Can we motivate these  people stronger by increasing the bonus part of their pay," I was asked. I recommended to abolish incentive payments at all. There are technical arguments against it and more serious philosophical reasons.

Let’s start with the technical problems:
In its simplest form you pay the guy who makes the nuts more if he produces more nuts. You do the same thing with the girl who makes the bolts. The guaranteed outcome will be either too many nuts or too many bolts and more money spent than needed to make an equal and sufficient number of nuts and bolts.

Cont. reading: Incentive Pay

Ynetnews, the website run by the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth – "Israel’s most-read newspaper", comes up with an "Exclusive" currently at the top of its main-page. The Telegraph’s Con Coughlin will be certainly jealous of this scoop.

Next to the picture of a big explosion it is revealed that – Iranian scientists research fuel-gas bombs:

A document obtained by Ynetnews, jointly authored by three Iranian scientists, "seems to contain military applications for fuel-gas bombs," an expert on Iran said.

During a fuel-gas explosion, a cloud of fuel is set alight by a detonator to produce an explosion. The resulting wave flattens all objects close to the proximity of the epicenter, and produces widespread damage beyond the area of the cloud.

Cont. reading: A Ynetnews Exclusive

You can’t see the Smithian invisible hand because it doesn’t exist.

Gonzales, likening himself to a chief executive who delegates responsibility to others, said he knew few details about how Sampson was orchestrating the prosecutors’ removal.

"I was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on," he said. "That’s basically what I knew as the attorney general."
Gonzales: ‘Mistakes Were Made‘, March 14, 2007

The President acknowledged that he had "made a mistake" in not more closely supervising campaign activities.
…
But the tapes can be heard, he said, and will prove that he was not involved in the Watergate cover-up, he insisted.
Nixon Tells Editors, ‘I’m Not a Crook’, November 18, 1973

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior advisers discussed the plan to remove seven United States attorneys
at a meeting last Nov. 27, 10 days before the dismissals were carried
out, according to a Justice Department calendar entry disclosed Friday.
Gonzales Met With Advisers on Dismissals, March 23, 2007

News & views …

The Iranians snatched some British sailors that were controlling ships in the Iraqi/Persian Shatt-al-Arab. Such has happened before and was solved without much trouble.

Maybe the UK boats really were in Persian waters, maybe they were not – maybe there was some intent for a conflict on either side, maybe not – who knows or will ever know for sure. Anyhow, this is certainly no reason to start a war.

Another piece of anti-Iranian propaganda was launched today via the BBC:

Cont. reading: Psych War On Iran

The LA Times had sent staff reporter Edmund Sanders to report from Sudan. Unlike the usual black and white media installments his reports catch some of the complexities of the conflict.

Some of the latest are:
Search for oil raises the stakes in Darfur, Rebels pose a new threat to Darfur’s displaced and In Darfur, gritted teeth behind smiles.

Today LAT publishes Sanders’ latest – Darfur’s less-known victims:

Cont. reading: Hypocrisy of Genocide

With subpoenas authorized, but not yet issued, for Rove and others, the stage is set for a possible fight in front of the Supreme Court over executive privilege. In 1974 the SC set a precedent:

The court, in a unanimous decision by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, also said the case for executive privilege was strongest where there was a need “to protect military, diplomatic or national security secrets.”

Cont. reading: Not The Fight They Planned For

This morning the NYT reported: Russia Gives Iran Ultimatum on Enrichment. I was curious and wondered what might have changed the Russian position against further pressure on Iran. The NYT piece gives no real reason:

Cont. reading: What’s up with Bushehr?

7:15am today: Gonzales has "strong backing" of Bush
5:45pm today: Bush statement on the AG

If, like everybody expects, Bush announces Gonzales resignation, those were ten and a half hours of "strong backing". The presidents support for Michael Brown and Donald Rumsfeld had more stamina. Rove and Cheney – next please …

President Bush sent a powerful message of support Tuesday for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, calling his longtime friend to express unwavering support in the face of calls for his resignation.
…
Bush called Gonzales from the Oval Office at 7:15 a.m. EDT and they spoke for several minutes about the political uproar over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, an issue that has thrust the attorney general into controversy and raised questions about whether he can survive. The White House disclosed Bush’s call to bolster Gonzales and attempt to rally Republicans to support him.
"The president reaffirmed his strong backing of the attorney general and his support for him," Perino said. "The president called him to reaffirm his support."
Bush Affirms Support for Gonzales

THE PRESIDENT WILL MAKE A STATEMENT ON THE U.S. ATTORNEY MATTER SHORTLY AFTER RETURNING FROM KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI AT 5:45 PM, EDT, TODAY, MARCH 20, 2007, IN THE DIPLOMATIC RECEPTION ROOM
White House announcement