] "We do view Google more and more as a competitor. We
] believe that we can provide consumers with a better
] product and a better user experience. That's something
] that we're actively looking at doing," Bob Visse,
] director of marketing for Microsoft's MSN Internet
] services division, said.
]
] Visse said the company was making some significant
] investments in developing a better search engine. But the
] company has not offered specific plans.

Microsoft says to take aim at Google

] But we should all be listening. Rumsfeld's poetry is
] paradoxical: It uses playful language to address the most
] somber subjects: war, terrorism, mortality. Much of it is
] about indirection and evasion: He never faces his
] subjects head on but weaves away, letting inversions and
] repetitions confuse and beguile. His work, with its
] dedication to the fractured rhythms of the plainspoken
] vernacular, is reminiscent of William Carlos Williams'.
] Some readers may find that Rumsfeld's gift for offhand,
] quotidian pronouncements is as entrancing as Frank
] O'Hara's.
]
] And so Slate has compiled a collection of Rumsfeld's
] poems, bringing them to a wider public for the first
] time. The poems that follow are the exact words of the
] defense secretary, as taken from the official transcripts
] on the Defense Department Web site.

Selected poems: The Unknown, Glass Box, A Confession, Happenings, The Digital Revolution, The Situation, and Clarity.

The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld - Recent works by the secretary of defense.

] A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the
] first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved
] virtually intact from the surface of the ocean.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Super squid surfaces in Antarctic

] York daily, Newsday. Palestinian Authority Chairman
] Yasser Arafat was instrumental in gaining the release of
] two Newsday reporters covering the war in Iraq and jailed
] there for eight days without trace.
]
] The two are reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer
] Moises Saman, of Palestinian origin from the West Bank
] town of Beit Jala, and they were covering the offensive
] in Iraq on behalf of the New York Daily, Newsday.

Ha'aretz - Arafat plays role in release of Newsday men in Iraq

] TEN MILES FROM THE IRAQI BORDER — J. and I are
] sitting in the middle of mountain valley, protected
] from surveillance by scrub and rocky outcroppings.
] Overhead the roar and rumble of bombers echoes
] against the mountain walls. Every now and then,
] we can hear the dull thuds of exploded ordinance
] — over Mosul? — as the sounds of the blasts roll
] through the valleys and off the sheer faces
] surrounding us. It is overcast, which is lucky.
] Tonight, we will ford one of the Tigris’
] tributaries and then walk two to three hours on
] foot — with a guide — into Iraq.

Christopher Evet appears to have made it to Iraq.. Lets hope his sat phone dosen't crap out on him again.

Back to Iraq gets back to Iraq

] Intel e-mail case heads to state high court
]
] Ruling could redefine parameters of free speech rights in
] cyberspace

Intel e-mail case heads to state high court / Ruling could redefine parameters of free speech rights in cyberspace

] A Muslim fundamentalist source claimed Wednesday that
] Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network captured five
] coalition troops in Iraq.
]
] The source who requested anonymity told United Press
] International by telephone that the kidnapping of four
] U.S. troops and a British soldier, took place last
] Saturday in al-Zubair region of southern Iraq, close to
] the Kuwaiti border.
]
] He said the "kidnapped troops will be equally treated as
] al-Qaida prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay."
]
] He said al-Qaida will soon release a videotape of the
] captured soldiers and will ask to swap them with al-Qaida
] suspects being held by the United States.

United Press International: al-Qaida holds coalition troops

] One of Wall Street's leading economists is predicting a
] global recession this year, prompted in large part by
] fears surrounding Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
] (SARS), the "mystery illness" with cold-like symptoms
] that is blamed for 78 deaths in 15 countries, CNNfn has
] learned.
]
] Morgan Stanley's chief economist in the United States,
] Stephen Roach, will formally advise clients Friday that
] he's forecasting a world recession in 2003. His previous
] forecast was for an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent.

Economist predicts recession, partly linked to SARS - Apr. 2, 2003

] 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.

(Comments Decius)

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

] But the real success story is the Contras, or rather
] their modern successor: al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden's crew
] is a band of government-funded anticommunist
] counterrevolutionaries who grew up and cut the apron
] strings. These new-model Contras don't need state support
] from Washington, Moscow, or any Accessory of Evil. Like
] Project Democracy, they've got independent financing: oil
] money, charity money, arms money, and a collection plate
] wherever a junkie shoots up in an alley. Instead of
] merely ignoring and subverting governments for a higher
] cause, as Poindexter did, al Qaeda tries to destroy them
] outright. Suicide bombers blew the Chechnyan provisional
] puppet government sky high. Cars packed with explosives
] nearly leveled the Indian Parliament. We all know what
] happened to the Pentagon.
]
] The next Iran-Contra is waiting, because the
] contradictions that created the first have never been
] resolved. Iran-Contra wasn't about eager American
] intelligence networks spreading dirty money in distant
] lands; it was about the gap between old, legitimate,
] land-based governments ruled by voters and the new,
] stateless, globalized predation. The next scandal will
] erupt when someone as molten, self-righteous, and
] frustrated as John Poindexter uses stateless power for
] domestic advantage. That's the breaking point in American
] politics: not when you call in the plumbers, but when you
] turn them loose on the opposition party. Then the Empire
] roils in a lather of sudden, indignant fury and strikes
] back against its own.

Wired 11.04: The Secret War Machine (Bruce Sterling)