In the News - Mar. 28

Iraqis demand US cede control after mosque assault - 27 Mar 2006 at 4:36pm - Iraq's ruling parties have demanded US forces cede control of security as the government launched an inquiry into a raid on a Shiite mosque that ministers said involved "cold blooded" killing by US-led troops.


Moussaoui says he was to hijack 5th plane - 27 Mar 2006 at 3:58pm - ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified Monday that he and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House.

Did Moussaoui explain what part Reid's midflight attempt to blow up his own shoes played in the greater strategy to fly an airplane into the White House? NPR this morning described Moussaoui's testimony as a great vindication of the prosecution's decision to pursue the death penalty. I think it may just as strongly support theories that Moussaoui is a) nuts, b) bent on making a martyr of himself, or c) both.

And, speaking of nuts...

Rumsfeld: U.S. Losing War Of Ideas - 27 Mar 2006 at 3:50pm - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the United States deserves a grade of "D" or "D-plus" for the way it makes its case to the rest of the world on the war on terror.

Maybe the United States could get better grades if it would stop referring to everything as a "war". Why not simply call things what they are? For example: "war on terror" = attempts to justify imperial ambition and pretty-much-whatever-we-feel-like-doing as self-defense; "war of ideas" = propaganda.

White House chief of staff Card to resign - 28 Mar 2006 at 8:18am - WASHINGTON -- White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Josh Bolten, an administration official said Tuesday.


Voinovich warms to U.S. ambassador to U.N. - 28 Mar 2006 at 3:05pm - WASHINGTON -- The Republican senator who upset the White House last year by opposing President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador now says John Bolton is "a changed man" whom he might support should Bush try to renew the appointment.


A million French protest against youth job law - 28 Mar 2006 at 3:03pm - PARIS (Reuters) - At least one million people marched in French cities and unions staged a one-day national strike on Tuesday, urging the government to scrap a youth jobs law in one of France's biggest protests in decades.

A million Frenchmen can't be wrong?