SPENT SOME TIME WATCHING CABLE: Fox, CNN, MSNBC — even ABC and NBC. They’ve spent a lot of money so that their correspondents can beam images back via videophone. So far all it’s producing is a lot of blurry images of the rear ends of tanks and AFVs while color commentators desperately try to make it interesting.

Personally, I think that’s a good thing. When your invasion is unopposed, and thus boring, things are going well indeed. But the network executives must be gnashing their teeth. So far the TV coverage of our war is pretty dull.

If you get bored, try checking out this collection of maps and links to maps, courtesy of Quana.

TONY ADRAGNA has a firsthand report from the rather unimpressive D.C. antiwar protest.

FUNNY, you don’t hear much about North Korea at the moment. And North Korea’s being awfully quiet itself, too. If I were the suspicious type, that would make me wonder.

JIM HENLEY has a pretty damn interesting suggestion for who ought to be in charge of postwar reconstruction in Iraq: Vaclav Havel. Read the post.

I wonder what Matt Welch thinks about it?

HMM. Limitations on aircraft near Disneyworld and Disneyland went into effect Tuesday. There were some others involving the New York and D.C. areas, but I agree with John Moore that these seem a bit, well, specific. I wonder if they’re in response to an actual threat, as opposed to mere precautions?

THE UNITED STATES is confiscating Saddam’s assets:

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, hereby determine that the United States and Iraq are engaged in armed hostilities, that it is in the interest of the United States to confiscate certain property of the Government of Iraq and its agencies, instrumentalities, or controlled entities, and that all right, title, and interest in any property so confiscated should vest in the Department of the Treasury. I intend that such vested property should be used to assist the Iraqi people and to assist in the reconstruction of Iraq, and determine that such use would be in the interest of and for the benefit of the United States.

(Via Mike Campbell, who reports that it’s $1.4 billion).

SUPPORT FOR WAR IS INCREASING among Australians, just as it is among Americans and Britons.

ARE THE ANTI-NEOCONS Saudi stooges? Matt Welch explores the question.

PRO-BLIX DIXIE CHICKS NIX PIX FOR STIX! Heh. Let’s see if Kaus can match that one.

GERALD HANNER EMAILS:

I just saw a CNN segment done in Dearborn MI. The reporter was interviewing people at a mosque just after evening prayers. They were Iraqis, and they were very much in favor of ridding Iraq of Saddam — even if a few more of their countrymen die in the action. All of them had lost family to Saddam’s tender mercies.

Seems to me that trumps anything the anti-war [folks] put up.

I wish I’d seen it.

IN RESPONSE TO THIS POST, READER ERIK JOHNSON EMAILS:

While “High Noon” is an excellent refutation of Tom Friedman’s errroneous Western-posse hypothesis, one need look no further than “The Searchers,” the greatest Western ever made. John Wayne gets a posse together (the UN) to hunt for his niece, but then ditches them when they don’t have the stomach to stalk the Apaches (Iraq) who kidnapped (terrorized) his family (the US and its allies). He takes one cousin (Britain), albeit reluctantly, in a relentless search for his niece, whom he eventually finds while destroying a good part of the tribe that performed the kidnapping (terror). He returns her safely (regime change) to family friends so she can live a normal life (democracy and freedom).

In my very humble opinion, Tom Friedman has not watched enough of the great Westerns. Otherwise, he’d find perfect parallels in these two movies. Whenever anyone calls someone a “cowboy,” I think of John Wayne and Gary Cooper — who better represented our American ideals? Whoever thought of “cowboy” as a term of denigration? It’s the highest compliment you can pay an American!

Indeed. That’s about the size of it. . . .

Heck, has Friedman even seen City Slickers?

Meanwhile Scott Rogers emails from Washington University School of Law:

Here at WashU’s law school we’ve been showing different movies to that highlight aspects of the law. This message went out yesterday. I only mention it per your link to Geitner Simmons.

“In view of the international events taking place this week, the award winning Japanese film–A Taxing Woman–which as to be shown this week in the Harris Institute International Film Series will be postponed. In its place we will show as A Paradigm of American Justice, the classic film–High Noon–starring Gary Cooper (who won an Oscar for his role) and Grace Kelly. The film will be shown at 2 pm in the small courtroom.”

Bravo.

REUTERS CALLS IT the day of the warblogs. (Via Jeff Jarvis).

SADDAM’S BUNKER HAS BEEN LOCATED — sounds plausible to me.

WHO ARMED SADDAM? And who does he owe the most money to? Take a wild guess.

STRIKE TWO for the Dixie Chicks — posing for a PETA anti-fur ad? What were they thinking? Here’s the money quote:

THE TRIO POSED in a field of flowers, wearing nothing but blossoms and their strategically placed instruments. A photo of the ad can be seen on the photographer’s Web site, sebreephoto.com.

It turns out that the Chicks are staunch animal-rights supporters, but at the last minute the group’s management put the kibosh on the ad.

“The Chicks themselves were lovely about the whole thing, but their management got worried that some of their fans were rifle-toting, Bambi-shooting types who would take offense at an anti-fur, pro-animal message,” says a source. “They forbid release of the ad because they were worried about backlash or boycott. They even tried to pay PETA $10,000 to say it never happened.”

Somehow, I think those “rifle-toting, Bambi-shooting types” will be buying CDs by some other artists from now on.

UPDATE: Meanwhile some people are muttering darkly of “blacklists” because of anger at antiwar celebrities. Hey — it’s not a blacklist when you piss off your fans. Calling it that just serves to underscore the combination of overentitlement and moral unseriousness that marks entertainers today. As Yvonne Zipp writes:

A boycott is not the same as a blacklist. No one is hauling celebrities in front of committees and threatening them with prison. Nor are they being told they can never work again if they don’t “name names.”

Entertainers are free to use their fame to promote their political views, and those people who don’t find them entertaining anymore are free to change the channel.

It’s called the free market.

Maybe that’s why so many celebrities hate that, too.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

“Somehow, I think those ‘rifle-toting, Bambi-shooting types’ will be buying CDs by some other artists from now on.”

In that case, I’ve got the perfect headline for you: “Pro-Blix Dixie Chicks nix pix for stix!”

I love it.

DOUG “InstaLawyer” WEINSTEIN took some pics of the rather lame protest at the federal building here in Knoxville. I believe that they managed to turn out a lot more people — though still not that many — for the previous Gulf War. I think the anti-war movement is dying, for lack of a rationale. Note the dummy sprawled on the pavement. I don’t know what that signifies. I guess I could suggest that it stands for the movement, but that would be needlessly cruel. (There are a few more people off to the right, shown in some other pics, but not many).

Doug’ll have more pictures on his site a bit later. I’m hosting ’em for him on my server, since he’s blogspot-only, the poor bastard.

UPDATE: Doug’s got his pictures up now. Here’s a link, though of course the one above works, too.

BRYAN PRESTON writes that there’s an Iraq connection to the Paris ricin discovery.

“SHOCK AND AWE” — PR JiuJitsu taking advantage of anti-American hyperbole?

We’ll see. I love the idea, though.

STREAMING VIDEO of air raids in Baghdad at the MSNBC front page. Click on “video.”

RICIN IN PARIS? Hmm. I guess that appeasement stuff isn’t working.

PARIS (Reuters) – The French Interior Ministry said on Thursday that traces of the deadly toxin ricin have been found in the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris.

A spokesman told Reuters that two small flasks containing traces of the poison were discovered in a left luggage depot at the mainline railway station which serves the south of France.

In January, British anti-terrorist police arrested several people in connection with the alleged discovery of ricin in a tiny north London flat.

I wonder if any Algerians are involved?

VICTORY CONDITIONS: How will we know when we’ve won? Discussed over at GlennReynolds.com.

STEPHEN REINHARDT, ARCH-FEDERALIST: This 9th Circuit opinion says that non-commercial kiddie porn can’t be regulated by Congress under the Commerce Clause. I’ve barely skimmed the opinion, but I note that the Sixth Circuit, in U.S. v. Corp held the same thing, and the opinion was written by Harry Wellford, a rather conservative judge.

Reinhardt’s evil hidden agenda, however, was no doubt to render my latest law review article — which just came out a couple of weeks ago and deals with the general reluctance of Federal appellate courts to take Commerce Clause limitations seriously — immediately obsolete. Oh, well: you want timeliness, read the blog. Er, which you are, of course.

(Via The Volokh Conspiracy).

JASON KOTTKE and Taegan Goddard are wondering if the start date for the war was leaked to media folks early. Meanwhile, Gotham predicted the date a while back, using a rather different methodology.

HOWARD OWENS is blogging up a storm.

L.T. SMASH BLOGS FROM THE FRONT:

Saddam fired a couple of those Scuds that he doesn’t have at me this afternoon.

He missed.

Heh.