What a weird idea:

The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, …

Coordination between the various departments and agencies is THE job of the national security adviser. Hadley, currently in that position, has no formal authority to "issue directions" to State and DoD, but Bush could easily delegate this to Hadley.

So there must be something else behind the idea. What and who would be affected by such a new position?

Cont. reading: Cheney’s ‘War Czar’ Raid Attempt

THOUSANDS of Iraqis have draped themselves in national flags and marched through the streets of two Shiite holy cities to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad’s fall.
Link

Tens of thousands of people waving Iraqi flags staged a peaceful rally in the southern city of Najaf
Link

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shias have demonstrated in the holy city of Najaf, …
Link

One seldom knows if there is ignorance or intentional lowballing of such numbers. Sometimes it is both. A usual scheme for U.S. print media seems to be this: the headline will have the smallest number, the lede will include a medium number and buried in some quote down in paragraph 12 or so will be the real number.

Anyway – it is good that Iraqis are still proud of their flag – a symbol that has not split on sectarian lines and may heal some differences. A smart move by the radical, anti- american, diabolic al-Sadr.

After the somewhat dissatisfactory performance of its sailors and marines in Iran, the British Ministry of Defense yesterday allowed them to take money for talking to the press. But as Craig Murray writes:

It is worth noting that the MOD have announced that the ex-captives will be "Advised" by MOD press officers in writing their stories, which will be subject to approval by their commanding officer. Both the MOD, the ex-captives and the tabloids will have an interest in exaggerating the horror of their captivity.

Cont. reading: Paid Pipers

• A nice piece about a street musician: Pearls Before Breakfast
• Upps – Plame outer Robert Novak was in Palestine and asks: Worse Than Apartheid?. The answer, though not spelled out in one word (that would not have filled a column) is yes. AIPAC must be in panic mode …
• Bob Herbert about 6-Year-Olds Under Arrest (non-arrested version)

>There was a problem, though. The handcuffs were not manufactured with kindergarten kids in mind. The chief explained: “You can’t handcuff them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have to handcuff them up by their biceps.”<

Plus other news & views …

Instead of colored eggs, find a caption for the picture …

Nobody should be surprised that the criminals who did the former deals are committing the same crimes today again. Iran-Contra:

involved several members of the Reagan Administration who in 1986 helped to illegally sell arms to Iran, an avowed enemy, and used the proceeds to fund, also illegally, the Contras, a right-wing guerrilla organization in Nicaragua.

Hey, they got pardoned once, so why not try a similar crime again today?

Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

…

The rest of the linked NYT piece is filled with insane citings of one jobless John Bolton … I’ll skip those …

Cont. reading: Iran-Contra Again

Duncan Black, i.e. Atrios, at Eschaton thinks he has caught the Washington Post in manipulating news. He is wrong. It was not WaPo that changed the content presented under a certain web-link but Reuters. It also was most probably no bad intent, but dumb programming. Duncan avoids the real questions.

Cont. reading: Atrios Is Wrong Here

In the first few days after the captives were seized and British diplomats were getting no news from Tehran on their whereabouts, Pentagon officials asked their British counterparts: what do you want us to do? They offered a series of military options, a list which remains top secret given the mounting risk of war between the US and Iran. But one of the options was for US combat aircraft to mount aggressive patrols over Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases in Iran, to underline the seriousness of the situation.

Buzzing military bases in Iran would certainly and rightfully have been interpreted as an act of war. Some Iranian air defense would have hit some U.S. fighter – the U.S. would have responded with an all-out bombing campaign. A simple local conflict over an undefined border would have escalated into a region wide slaughter. The British sailors and marines would certainly not be free by now.

The British declined the offer and said the US could calm the situation by staying out of it. London also asked the US to tone down military exercises that were already under way in the Gulf.
…
The British government also asked the US administration from Mr Bush down to be cautious in its use of rhetoric, which was relatively restrained throughout.
Guardian

Is the report true? I am not sure, but given the actors it is quite plausible.

So whoever took the decision in the UK to turn down the US offer – thanks.

Whoever ordered that offer to be made in the first place, should be court-martialled for intending to start a war of agression.

Could the U.S. Congress now please find some spine and restrict such offers and pointless aggressive actions?

In the 1940s Germans were treated to daily radio announcements. The German Armed Forces High Command (OKW) "gave notice" on this or that. Early on they mentioned some perfidious attack by Polish troops on German radio stations. Later it was usually the huge victory achieved in some Russian town west of where such victory happened the day before.

But the real frightening bits were in the section where they read off intercepted enemy orders which proved the utter bestiality of the adversaries.

According to my elders, "OKW gives notice" turned into a running joke …

Since than the art of propaganda has evolved quite a bit. "Wag The Dog" was a nice movie, but even that is ten years old. Modern marketing campaigns start with some warming up.

Al-Sahab Expected To Release New Bin Ladin Video

Cont. reading: CentCom Gives Notice …

News & views & colored eggs …

The contest for president, presidential candidate or other voted-on jobs in the U.S. seems to be concentrated on who is the most bribable gal/guy in the crowd.

As more bribes are taken in, the better are his/her chances.  When more money is raised by someone than the competitor managed to do, additional points supporting that candidate are given by the media – traditional and blogsphere alike.

Now some who don’t like such bribe comparisons say that such folks, when elected with the help of these bribes, are good people and will choose the best way to go forward independently anyhow.

But if you do so, you actually acknowledge that they are just lying to get the money and then go off to do whatever they want to do.

Why is such a system depicted as Democracy?

Even though some spin-masters will not agree, the release of the British marines and sailors by Iran is an obvious victory for Iran.

This was badly handled by the British: Blair was furious and tried to play hardball. He ran to the UN Security Council only to be asked "What borders are you talking about?" Then he wanted the Europeans to put up economic pressure: "What for?" they ask.
Only when the Iranian top negotiator gave an interview to UK’s Channel 4 and talked about an obvious diplomatic solution did Blair climb down.

The U.S. freed one Iranian, and 5 others detained in Iraq were given access to the Red Cross and probably to Iranian diplomats too. Of course there was no call from Bliar to Bush to make this happen …

An interesting sidenote is again the difference in reporting in various media.

Is Ahmadinejad’s mentioning of Passover regarded as not welcome by some?

In his press conference, Ahmadinejad said, "On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet [Muhammad] … and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people – with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial – forgave those 15," he said, referring to the Muslim prophet’s birthday on March 30 and the Easter holiday. "This pardon is a gift to the British people," he said.
Christian Science Monitor: Lessons learned: Iran’s release of British prisoners

"On the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great prophet of Islam, and on the occasion of Easter and Passover, I would like to announce that the great nation of Iran, while it is entitled to put the British military personnel on trial, has pardoned these 15 sailors and gives their release to the people of Britain as a gift."
BBC: Excerpts: Ahmadinejad announces release

Cont. reading: Ahmadinejad and Passover

You have pets? I currently don’t but I succumbed to two cats over the
last years. Recently the neighbor’s cat acknowledges me for opening the doors to
let it in or out the garden and it sometimes humbles itself by graciously
accepting my food offerings.

As a rule, pets get the same quality of food as any humans I feed – it just may not look the same.

That is seasonal, organic, locally produced and without chemicals as
much as possible.

But it’s not standard as few can sustain such. Given
current regulations and tax/trade disincentives what I eat and feed is quite expensive food.
That and corrupt regulation authorities have the predictable results:

In finally identifying itself today, the U.S. importer of the melamine-tainted wheat gluten — the unappetizingly named ChemNutra — revealed new information that is sure to anger aggrieved pet owners:  Menu Foods knew their product was causing problems as early as March 8, a full week before the first recall was made public.  And while ChemNutra insists that none of its 792 metric tons
of contaminated wheat gluten shipped to facilities that manufacture
food for human consumption, one can forgive suspicious consumers for
not accepting the suddenly talkative company at its word, especially
considering that this assurance directly contradicts
an FDA report from earlier today. For whatever the true risk to our
food supply, the corporate and regulatory response is shaping up to be
a textbook example of failed crisis management.

… are leaving the ship? Or just normal attrition?

Peter Wehner, the head of strategic initiatives, and political director Sara Taylor are expected to be heading for the White House exits soon, according to a person familiar with the situation. Barry Jackson, a longtime aide to Karl Rove, also is thought to be leaving soon. A White House spokesman confirmed Wehner’s imminent departure, but declined to comment on the others.
White House Faces More Departures

—

Cont. reading: Rats …

The title of the open thread below, One Cannot Not Communicate, was chosen to reflect on the recent death of Paul Watzlawick.

Not much of an echo to that. No wonder – the U.S. media have zero entries about his death. The only English source right now is from Romania.

Cont. reading: R.I.P – Paul Watzlawick

News & views – open thread – …

Olmert reminds Rice: Bush is still her boss writes Haaretz in a salivating report :

On her penultimate visit to Jerusalem six weeks ago, Rice discovered upon her arrival that Olmert had informed the media about his telephone conversation with Bush the previous day. "The prime minister and president see eye-to-eye," said a high ranking political official in Jerusalem.

The message was unmistakable: What Rice had to say barely mattered. Olmert had it all worked out with the president.

One wonders who is the real boss here. Bush allows Olmert, a Prime Minister with a 3% popularity rating in a small country, living on borrowed time and U.S. donations, to undermine his Secretary of State. Is Bush really the boss in that triangle?

Uri Avnery calls Rice a Pussy Cat. But those have claws and Rice seems to have none at all. Writes Avnery:

Cont. reading: Who Is The Boss?

Senator John McCain driving in an unarmed humvee through Baghdad.

Agencies report:

McCain .. responded .. to a question
about remarks he had made in the United States last week that it was
safe to walk some Baghdad streets .. "The American people are not getting the full picture of what’s happening here."

Some weeks ago, I had the chance to listen to an interesting lecture given to some strategists. Here is my recap (I’ll leave the religious crap out of the narrative – it isn’t relevant at all).

The educated, bearded and renowed teacher started off with some recent experience:

We knew they were preparing to come after us soon. Their plans were ready but they still needed some preparations on the ground. Their troops were not in place yet and the hot phase of their public campaign had not even started.

My fellows were prepared on the military side. We had everything in place where we would need it and we even had some nasty surprises prepared. There wasn’t much more we could do.

So why wait? We didn’t. We decided to take the initiative.

Cont. reading: The Lesson