] Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing
] more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses,
] schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs
] were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up
] Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.
]
] The letters all read "All your base are belong to us and
] you have no chance to survive, make your time."

Oh my god, these people are screwed... The local police chief is calling this an "Act of Terrorism."

'All Your Base' Signs Land Seven in Court

] Two decades of fighting have created a nation dominated
] by warlords that is ruled not by law, but by the gun.
]
] "Afghanistan has never had any problem writing
] constitutions," Manawi said. "The problem has always been
] implementing them."

Afghans Debate New Constitution, Government

] On Thursday, March 20, 2003, our friend and colleague
] Maher (Mike) Hawash was arrested ("detained") as a
] "material witness" by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism
] Task Force in the parking lot of Intel Corp's Hawthorne
] Farms parking lot.

This case is interesting on a number of levels.

1. The obvious ... the government can spirit you away without charging you with a crime. They can hold you arbitrarily. We ought to demand that when the government takes people they explain why and for how long. "Material Witness" rules were not meant to be a loophole in the requirement that the government have reasons for holding people. If this is the Patriot act at work then this is definately not acceptable.

2. The fact that you know about this. Over the course of two weeks this website has gotten a lot of coverage in blogistan. This story has not really been covered in the mainstream press (do a google news search).

I'm posting this because I want to see more information.

Free Mike Hawash

] The Iraq invasion is the first major war on the Web. Now
] that the tanks have started rolling, millions of
] Americans are crowding the Internet to catch up on the
] latest news, see pictures, and send e-mail to loved ones
] in danger. After you've checked out Slate -- it was your
] first stop, right? -- here's where you should you go for
] updates, speculation, on-the-ground blogging, official
] statements, and even war comedy.

Link-o-rama from Slate.

The War on the Web - Sites to see on the road to Baghdad. By Avi Zenilman

Opinion roundup.

United Kingdom, Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian
Saudi Arabia, Nicolas Buchele in the Arab News
Philippines, Adrian E. Cristobal in the Manila Bulletin
Australia, Editorial from the Sydney Morning Herald
Ghana, Editorial from Accra Mail
Israel, Editorial from Haaretz
Russia, Boris Kagarlitsky in the Moscow Times
News Iran, Parviz Esmaeili in the Tehran Times

Salon.com | The world on the war

Just some some crazy footage on CNN. The reports had no explanation about what was going on, so I'll just describe what they showed.

You see a car with a smashed window parked sideways on the street in the middle of a group of protestors in front of The Gap on Market Street.

A guy with a mohawk is taking swings at a number of protestors. A protestor reaches into the car and takes the keys, at which point he is tackled by about five people who proceed to beat and kick him until he gives the keys up. Mohawk guy takes the keys and gets into the driver's seat of the car. After he closes the door protestors proceed to kick the car.

Someone get fed up with the traffic jam and drive into a "blocked" intersection?

I'd be interested in any reports on this footage if they show up.

A good encyclopedic summary of Iraq's history, from Mesopotamia in 4000 BC to modern times, including all the messy power struggles along the way.

History of Iraq - Wikipedia

] On one extreme is the title of an editorial in the Syrian
] government daily "Teshreen," which characterizes the
] tripartite meeting in the Azores on Sunday as "The Summit
] of the Bloodthirsty." On the other extreme is an
] editorial in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan which calls on
] Saddam Hussein to "Leave or You Will be Dragged," a
] reference to a known event in Iraq's modern history when
] its leader's (Nuri Sa'id) corpse was dragged behind a car
] in the streets of Baghdad amongst the enthusiastic cheers
] of the crowds.

Translated excerpts of editorials about the war, pro and con, from daily newspapers in Kuwait, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt.

MEMRI: '[Saddam] Leave or You Will Be Dragged' - Editorials in the Arab Press

] As one watches protest marches, antiwar advertising and
] local arts events, one has to wonder whether the left has
] really weighed the moral issues posed by the horrors of
] Saddam's regime -- weighed life by life the repression of
] the 24 million Iraqis who live in a ruthless police
] state, not to mention the thousands or tens of thousands
] who have been imprisoned without trial, tortured, exiled
] or killed. It sometimes seems that the left is so averse
] to war, especially war waged by America, that it is
] prepared to turn a blind eye to even the most ghastly
] realities. Perhaps it is because the left no longer sees
] these realities that its antiwar arguments tend to
] justify continuation of the status quo.
]
] That, too, is a form of paralysis. But it is emblematic
] of an evolution in leftist values that has occurred so
] gradually over a period of decades that the profound
] nature of the shift is often not noticed. Today, the
] political counterculture and the antiwar movement in the
] West often seem to be one and the same. Instead of
] fighting fascists or other genocidal tyrants as it might
] have during the Spanish Civil War or World War II or even
] during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s, the
] modern left fights war; because the United States is the
] world's most significant military agent, and because it
] has so often used military power to support
] anti-democratic governments, the left understandably fights the
]United States. Such opposition to war is reflexive, and too often
]outweighs its outrage on behalf of the oppressed. Its capacity for
]the kind of muscular empathy that leads to action has atrophied,
]leaving only the possibility of reaction, of opposition. The
]antiwar left does not mount massive protests against China,
]Pakistan or Egypt. Millions do not pour into the streets on behalf
]of the student-led democracy movement in Iran. And Saddam Hussein
]and Osama bin Laden are not angrily compared to Hitler -- that
]treatment is more often reserved for George W. Bush.

Salon.com | See no evil

Get Your War On; It's a go.

Catch the president at 10:15 ET.

U: OK, so NOW they are talking about how this might take longer then expected???

You've got ... War.