memeorandum: THIS WEEK AT WAR — Week's War-Related Events Recounted (CNN)

2:55 PM ET, April 8, 2007

Top Items:

al-Sadr calls for attacks on U.S. troops — BAGHDAD - The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate their attacks on American troops rather than Iraqis, according to a statement issued Sunday.

Discussion: NewsHog, QandO, Riehl World View, The Moderate Voice, New Pairodimes, Joust The Facts and Brilliant at Breakfast

John McCain / Washington Post:

The War You're Not Reading About — I just returned from my fifth visit to Iraq since 2003 — and my first since Gen. David Petraeus's new strategy has started taking effect. For the first time, our delegation was able to drive, not use helicopters, from the airport to downtown Baghdad.

Discussion: All Spin Zone, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Cliff Schecter, TPMCafe blogs, Daily Kos, The Democratic Daily and Rising Hegemon

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Sadr: It's On — Moqtada al-Sadr has decided to finally acknowledge that the surge strategy in Baghdad will undermine the basis of his power in Iraq, and has ordered the Mahdi Army to resist American and Iraqi forces trying to put him out of business. In a missive to his forces today …

Steven R. Hurst / Associated Press:
U.S., Iraqi troops fight Shiite militia

Discussion: Hot Air and All Spin Zone

Dr. Steven Taylor / PoliBlog (TM): Sadr Orders Attacks on US Forces

Telegraph:

Buoyant Teheran warns of further kidnappings — Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity. — The bullish reaction from Teheran will reinforce …

Discussion: Washington Post, Captain's Quarters, Washington Times, NewsHog, The Arab American News, Belfast Telegraph, Tehran Times, The Corner, skippy the bush kangaroo, The Strata-Sphere, The Moderate Voice, Blue Crab Boulevard and Power Line

Faiz / Think Progress:
Kristol: Proper Response To Iran's Kidnapping Of Soldiers …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias and Little Thom's Blog

Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Mother Of All Blunders

Discussion: BBC, Outside The Beltway, View from Iran, Pandagon and The Sideshow

Dahlia Lithwick / Washington Post:

Justice's Holy Hires — Monica Goodling had a problem. As senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Justice Department liaison to the White House, she no longer seemed to know what the truth was. She also must have been increasingly unclear about who her superiors were.

Discussion: Firedoglake, DownWithTyranny!, The Moderate Voice, Economist's View, All Spin Zone, Rising Hegemon and Booman Tribune

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Who's the Boss? — HOW PAT ROBERTSON'S LAW SCHOOL IS CHANGING AMERICA.

Discussion: The Impolitic and skippy the bush kangaroo

Michael J.W. Stickings / The Reaction:
Jesus Camp for law students

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Detroit News:

Plug it in, fire it up, Mr. President — Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation. — Mulally told journalists at the New York auto show that he intervened to prevent President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank …

Discussion: NewsHog, Bark Bark Woof Woof and CorrenteWire

Nico / Think Progress:

Lieberman Says Pelosi Syria Visit Was 'Bad For America,' Suggests Syria Was Behind 9/11 — Today on CNN, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said he "strongly disagrees" with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) bipartisan delegation to Syria, calling it a "mistake" and "bad for the United States of America."

Jamie Holly / Crooks and Liars: Guess Which One Was Defending Pelosi's Trip?: Hint: It wasn't Lieberman

Associated Press:

Pope: 'How much suffering' in the world … VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI decried suffering in much of the world in his Easter Sunday message, lamenting that "nothing positive" is happening in Iraq and voicing worry over unrest and instability in Afghanistan and bloodshed in parts of Africa and Asia.

Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:

Iran's bluff humbles Britain — Watching Tottenham Hotspur fans taking on the Spanish constabulary at a European soccer match the other night, I found myself idly speculating on what might have happened had those Iranian kidnappers made the mistake of seizing 15 hard-boiled football yobs …

Times of London:
Fury as the hostages sell stories

Discussion: EU Referendum, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, On Deadline and Riehl World View

CNN:

THIS WEEK AT WAR — Week's War-Related Events Recounted — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, THIS WEEK AT WAR: Iran releases its hostages. Syria's president sits down with the speaker of the House.

Telegraph:

Hero's tale is 'too positive' for the BBC — Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain's forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out. — Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and Samizdata.net

Popular Mechanics:

BMW Hydrogen-Powered 7-Series Hybrid: New York Auto Show Test Drive — Traffic outside the Javits Center, site of the New York International Auto Show, is heavy—even by Big Apple standards. That means that you probably could walk across 11th Avenue from the roof of one taxicab to another without seeing asphalt.

Alexandra Zacharios-Haight / The Huffington Post:

The Helen Mirren Effect: With Notes on the Diane Keaton Scandal — I knew it! I felt it coming. I could feel it in my bones. — Ideas about about beauty (aesthetics), politics and power are changing. That Helen Mirren won every major acting award this year is not just poetic justice …

Discussion: TalkLeft

Doug / GraniteGrok:

No fury like a mother scorned— The Movie — In this prior post, I reported on the Friday visit paid NH's 2nd Congressional District representative, Democrat Paul Hodes, by a group of relatives, friends, family members, veterans, and supporters of our military.

Tim Watkin / Washington Post:

Self-Help's Slimy 'Secret' — It's the publishing phenomenon of the year so far, a small book with a parchment-brown cover engraved with the image of a red wax seal. — "The Secret," its title proclaims matter-of-factly, as if the slim volume held the answer to life's deepest mysteries.

Discussion: Hot Air