On Fecklessness

The good news.

John Howard explains the Iraq War:

He said the handover was crucial not only for Iraq and the Middle East but the world.
"If Iraq can become the first democratic Arab state that will be a very historic event and it will, over time, alter the dynamics of the Middle East for the better," Mr Howard said.
"On the other hand, if this experiment fails, if the terrorists win, the cost of that in the Middle East will be very severe indeed.
"And the cost around the world, the boost it will give to terrorism around the world, will be quite incalculable."

Still unclear? Let's see if I can assist:
Scenario A - Democracy catches on in the middle east; resulting prosperity/security pushes Islamic Jihadis to irrelevance.
Scenario B - Democracy fails; eventually Islamic Jihadis acquire and use a nuke; US protects itself by nuking Islamic Jihadis and whatever Arab cities they happen to be in.

Either way the Islamic terrorists lose - it's just the amount of glass that varies.

Mohammed gets it:

Having witnessed the way the allied forces stormed into the country, overran major towns and took control of Baghdad last year, how many of us would have expected this power transfer to happen so soon? Even when many of us expressed optimism about the eventual exit of Paul Bremer and his men, there were lurking fears whether the handover time schedule would be kept up. It could have dragged on for one reason or another.
And, how curious it was to note the fact that it was the US coalition authority that was more keen on handing over power, and also that the reason why they advanced the ceremony by two days was that the forces of disruption would not get a chance to harm and hurt the civilians on the scheduled day of power handover. The allies wanted it to be a surprise, so that no evil designs could succeed. See, how they care about people. And, all these days, some people were crying, "Occupation!, Occupation!". But, what have they got to say now?

Here's what Paul McGeough is saying in Australia:

Iraqis retook control of their country in a furtive Baghdad ceremony yesterday intended to wrong-foot any insurgency plans to disrupt a formal handover that was to take place tomorrow.
At 10.26 local time (4.26pm Sydney time) on a sultry morning, the US administrator, Paul Bremer, handed a blue-bound document to the Chief Justice of the Iraq Supreme Court, Midhat Mahmoud.
There was no flag-raising or brass bands as officials of the new government gathered with Mr Bremer and David Richmond, his British counterpart, in a windowless room amid intense security.

Furtive! No flag raising! No brass bands! No windows! Doom! Gloom!

For a period yesterday I was the not so happy owner of two top of the line cordless meeces; the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 2 and the Logitech MX-700.
I've had the Logitech since it was first bought out and it hasn't impressed. I've had to pull it apart three times now to "adjust" the buttons (think plastic vs soldering iron); they just stop working as the microswitches wear a small indentation in the plastic underside of the button. The drivers are uninspiring to say the least.
So I bought the top of the line Microsoft offering; the cordless Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 2 (with leather look - don't ask). I saw it for $100 at Hardly Normal's and had a $100 gift voucher. It was fate - a marriage made in heaven.
The honeymoon ended the moment I used it. It had about 20 degrees of "lean" to it. Not really a problem says I, the orientation tab will take care of that. If there was an orientation tab. Bugger. Opened Firefox to see what the www thought I could do about this. Found the second problem; the scroll wheel is very sensitive and the middle mouse button is very insensitive. Several attempts later I managed to middle click on the URL. Nothing. So I opened the driver software again and found the buttons tab. Stumbled into the third problem - you cannot remap the middle mouse button to "middle mouse button". Unbelievable. While I was there I looked to see what choices I had for the tilt switches attached to the mousewheel. None. It will only scroll horizontally which is pointless if you have a 21 inch screen.
So I drive, swearing, back to Harvey Normans and find the "service" desk.
"It's not a button - it's a wheel" claims the moron behind the desk. After 30 seconds of turning the box over in his hands, as if it somehow has more than six sides, he admits that he is wrong. After 10 minutes of incredibly slow paperwork I'm off to get my money back from the cashier.
The cashier is dealing with a woman who has refunded two items and wants a fax. She also has a credit from somewhere else and wants an extended warranty. Time slows to a crawl...
Anyhow, if you're an ubergeek, or just an overpaid nerd bachelor looking to buy a new mouse be warned that the world's two most expensive mice are complete trash.

Put up with popups? Firefox blocks popups straight out of the box.
Register for access? Not now.
Surf through ads? I think not.

Try it - you won't go back.

Fairfax are pushing the boundaries with their scare quotes in this article.
In a report under the headline British troops 'tortured' Iraqis is a paragraph which reveals that the entire story is very likely to be incorrect:

A doctor at nearby Amara hospital who was the first to see the bodies cast doubt on the claims, however. The doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, examined the corpse of Jemindari.
He said: "What we saw on examination is multiple bullet entries and exits. Also I can say is his arm wasn't severed like what was written on the form by Dr Adel [Majid]. His right shoulder was severely destroyed yet still the right arm was connected by some tissue.
"Also, you couldn't say whether the right eye was removed after death or before. But such an injury might happen in war, perhaps a bullet came into his right eye and pressed it inside the skull. And as for the signs of slashing around his neck it could be another bullet passing very near to his neck caused that wound."

So the scare quotes in this case mean "this report is almost certainly untrue and completely unfounded but we are hopeful our readers are too stupid to actually read past the headline"

I don't believe much in coincidence. So I'm looking forward to more details about how the Saudis managed to kill Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin just after Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin's group killed American Paul Marshall Johnson.
The Saudi security forces knew where Abdulaziz Al-Muqrin was just after Paul Johnson's death - so it's reasonable to suspect they knew beforehand. Or claim they stumbled across him keystone cops style.

This may be a more significant event than it first appears, the US may use this failure to force the Saudis to finally join the War on Terror.

I have a fantastic headache, the domestics to do (as in cleaning etc., not wildly rogering the scullery maid) and a generally crap day ahead. Till I read this:

A MAN who had been sitting up a tree since April to protest against a Queensland development has fallen from his perch, forcing protesters to change their strategy.
Daniel Jones, 28, was taken away by ambulance with a broken wrist and ankle on Saturday night as his protest against a supermarket on the Sunshine Coast hinterland came to a crashing halt.
Mr Jones had been perched in the bunya pine since April 14 in a bid to stop it being cut down to make way for a Woolworths store in Maleny.
Protesters have vowed to continue their fight against the development on the ground, saying the tree-top vigil was too dangerous to continue.

To top this off the last thing he should have heard before the ambulance door closed is the chainsaw starting up.

The current headlines on Google News Australia:

Garrett now in the ALP - The Age
'Super significant': Garrett's ALP membership approved - Sydney Morning Herald
Peter Garrett supports Tasmanian pulp mill - ABC Online

The UN is attempting (the UN is attempting again) to build housing in the Jenin camp for the peace loving Palestinian people. The peace loving Palestinians don't think the houses are large enough.
So the matter was settled the traditional Palestinian way - gunmen repeatedly threatened the workers till the work was suspended.

Mark Latham's decision making process scares me.
Cons:
Peter Garrett doesn't live in the electorate,
he isn't a member of the Labor party,
he hasn't voted in 10 years,
his nomination has met with disgust from local party members,
and he disagrees with Federal Labor on key environmental/greens/democrat issues such as Pine Gap and logging Tasmanian rainforests that no-one ever visits.

Pro:
Peter Garret will appeal to the youth vote. As much as a 51 year old millionaire has-been can appeal to youth voters.

Scarier still is the suspicion that the average young Australian can't see this for the cynical manipulation that it is.

I'm not contributing much here at the moment; I'd like to blame work but they just pay me a bucketload to turn up and work my arse off for 36 hours a week. I'd like to say I have a hectic social life but that's just laughable. Truth is I'm getting lazy.
So I'll only post if I find something worth posting about that I can add some value to.

Apparently some of the Islamic rank and file "militants" don't recognise their propaganda arm when they see it.

RIDDLED with bullets, BBC correspondent Frank Gardner pleaded for his life in the Saudi capital shouting to bystanders to help a fellow Muslim, a police officer told AFP today.
"I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim, help me," the British father of two daughters cried in Arabic, the officer said.
Gardner was stretched on the road, covered in blood from multiple bullet wounds in a slum area of southern Riyadh known as a hotbed of hardliners.
A fluent Arabic speaker with a degree in Arab and Islamic Studies, he was carrying a small copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, a device used by Westerner reporters to try to reassure Islamist militants.
He was gravely wounded and his Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers killed yesterday evening as they filmed near the home of Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a wanted terror suspect killed in a clash with security forces in the area last December.
Gardner was in a coma on today at King Faisal Specialist Hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.
"He is in a coma and very critical," one doctor said, adding however that bleeding had stopped and "he has improved in the last six hours."
The 42-year-old was hit by many bullets to the stomach and feet and transferred to the capital's Al-Iman Hospital.
Saudi newspapers reported that the gunmen had left him for dead.
"Frank is in a critical but stable condition in intensive care after surgery," a British embassy spokesperson told AFP earlier today.

Note that he may or may not actually be a Muslim. Don't make me explain which side the BBC is on.

Some time ago I got dragged along to watch the last of the homo-erotic Hobbit love stories. We stood up to leave three times but it just wouldn't bloody stop. Some people in the audience were loudly wondering where baby hobbits come from if all the male hobbits were gay.
But even filled with pudgy underage boys, pedophiles and Hollywood "wank", the movies were incredibly popular. With straight people too. How the hell does that work?
We have a girl at work who has pictures of the effemininate Legless or whatever his name was all over her cubicle. I was bored recently so I asked her if she realised she was bisexual. Unhappily she wasn't interested in someone more manly, namely me. On the plus side I still have my job.

Anyway, my dislike of the Hobbits is dwarfed by Mike Jerico's obsessive hatred of the Lord of the rings.

And he didn't think much of Legless either; the "pointless transgender creature in Lord of the Rings".

It's not only espionage novels that combine elements like these:
A Federal opposition ALP MP
The Hezbollah secretary-general
The Lakemba Mosque
The Federal seat of Watson
Moslem extremist Sheikh Hilaly

The Gnu Hunter joins the dots.

If this is what he's been unable or unwilling to conceal what sordid deals are going on out of the public eye?