Information..disinformation..
"A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a "good PR move to draw attention".
Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and "a tactic to further the jihadi cause", but taking their own lives was unnecessary." This, from the London Times, today's edition.
"Muslims have protested outside Scotland Yard against the tactics used by police in an anti-terror raid in east London.
Brothers Abul Koyair, 20, and Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot in the shoulder, were released without charge a week after the raid in "Forest Gate". This from the same paper.
One could read any of the Sunday papers from any part of the country, and would get basically the same message. And what might that message be?
One, that the US is treating the Guantanamo deaths as 'stunts', and two, that the Forest Gate raid and arrests were necissary, but misguided.
We are slipping more and more, faster and faster, into a situation wherein those in charge, those we have elected, supposedly, can do whatever they like in the name of the 'war against terrorism'.
There have been those in this country, who have been killed, such as Tom Kelly.. those who have been charged with spurious breaches of the law and imprisoned amidst great publicity, only to be released, quietly, a month later, their credibility and careers ruined, their finances left in tatters.
This is not uncommon.
Eventually, even the most determined couch-potato, the most desensitised of our citizenry, must ask 'why?', and then follow with 'who?'.
The President of oil giant BP seems assured enough to make a public statement to the effect that oil will begin flowing in greater quantities soon. So, we can put our concerns about looking for alternate fuel supplies on the back-burner for a while..
We are, all of us, living in what amounts to a fantasy, and the unfortunate truth is, most individuals within this Game enjoy their anonymity, their unconcern.
We will never learn. History has never been that popular a subject in high schools, nor has geography.
We cannot expect a change either, unless there is an end to the bread and circus offerings, be they centered about one's television, or one's Mullah.
Let's continue a bit.
Chad is accusing it's neighbour the Sudan of 'exporting war', of sending it's armed troops into another sovereign territory to deal with specific targets. This is a powder keg,, one which could easily blow into a full confrontation, putting the issue of Darfour out of peoples minds for a while.
Kim Jong Il.. now there's a leader we can all have a chuckle at, having watched Matt Stone and Trey Parker's caricature in Team America.. and indeed The little that is known about Kim Jong-il, North Korea's leader, conjures up a caricature of a diminutive playboy, a comic picture at odds with his brutal regime.
Diplomats and escaped dissidents talk of a vain, paranoid, cognac-guzzling hypochondriac.
He is said to wear platform shoes and favour a bouffant hairstyle in order to appear taller than his 5 feet 3 inches.
But analysts are undecided whether his eccentricities mask the cunning mind of a master manipulator or betray an irrational madman. Mr Kim may well encourage the myth-making surrounding him precisely in order to keep the Western world guessing. North Korea has little to bargain with, and ignorance breeds fear.
Ignorance, there's the key.
It is to be expected that the man on the street will be content with the illusion his or her vote means something in determining their country's foreign, domestic, and economic policies. The sooner we open our collective eyes, the sooner we can demand change.
One must pray to all gods, greater and lesser, and to whatever collective conciousness yet remains, that this illumination is soon in coming.

Just a note here.. It seems this blogging has taken off over the past five years or so, and there is a need to complete a directory of those intent on continuing with their comments.
Ergo... Technorati Profile
More later..

It may well be, that the consensus is that most Westerners are not that well versed in the history of relations with the Levant, and that the latest moves by the US towards alligning with Europe in the Iran Nuclear Issue might be seen by most to be a step forward.
That, would be a misunderstanding.
What we have had here is first, an offer from Europe to aid the Iranian nuclear power effort, with the US standing like John Wayne, saying 'not a chance'. That, of course, was turned down outright by Tehran, with a retort to the effect of 'screw you, we're doing it our way'.
Meanwhile, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenejad along with the Ayatollah Khameni continue insisting that the US is the Great Satan, and must, along with it's insideous ally Israel, be removed from the map. Standard rhetoric.
Now we hit the second stage, wherein representatives the likes of Condaleesa Rice sends a message to a mid-level Iranian politician, in this case their Chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, that the US would be willing to abandon their plans of economic sanctions, and allow the Iranian power deveopment continue, under supervision. Other incentives are said to include the lifting of restrictions on the use of US technology in agriculture and support for Iranian membership of the World Trade Organisation.
The package was delivered to Tehran by the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
To this, the Iranians have not said no, for it was an agreement that is approved by those who have traditionally backed the Iranian side of this issue, the likes of France, Germany, and China.
It's 'soft force', according to Condaleesa, and speaking after a meeting with Mr Solana, Mr Larijani said that they had held "constructive" talks, adding that Europe was right to try to use diplomatic negotiations to solve the problem and Iran was open to resuming talks to try to find a logical and well-balanced solution.
This is yet another effort on the part of the Iranians to gain time, to see what they can possibly get for outright cooperation. That, by the way, will never be achieved.
It never has.
But now Europe, the 'E3', as Britain, France, and Germany, are to come to the fore in these talks, and these powers, from personal history in that area, might gain some time for the West, to decide whether it's worth throwing the entire area into armed conflict to prevent Iran from developing the Bomb.
It will be interesting to see this unfold. There have already been warnings from Tehran that oil could become scarce should nothing go their way.
Again, this should be enough to prompt those who lead us to work ever harder in reducing our need for that which they produce. Were it not for oil, those countries in the Levant would reduce themselves in quite a short time, to mere Third World powers.
It is time.

A last thought for the night..
Eight oil workers, six Brits, one Canadian, and one American, have been kidnapped by men armed with automatic rifles, from their rig in the Niger Delta. The men apparently managed to get a radio SOS out before they were taken off..
Now it's not unusual for kidnappings in that particular area of the world, in fact it might be said to be close to a national industry.
But what it does is underline the need we have, to distance ourselves from Middle Eastern and African oil.
We are working on arrangements now with Russia to supply us with natural gas. This is a move that is multi-faceted, one of which is to forge an economic alliance between Britain and Russia, over a long-term. This would solidify both the British and the Russian positions among those comprising the European Union.
It also puts some pressure on Russia, to continue the trend which seems of late to have been reversed, that of capitalism, and all it entails. This includes allowing gay-rights marches. Closer ties between Russia and Britain would seem to be inevidable, and with the G8 meetings planned for Moscow, it would enhance Russia's economic credibility within that group to announced a deal for gas exports to a country already credible and established, a country the other members of the Union would like to see more involved in the Unification process.
It can't do us any harm either, knowing Gran's fire will not peter out when our own supplies do.

It's drawing to the end of Tony's visit to Italy, and as it had to come, he and the new Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi met, and, like the walrus and the carpenter, 'talked of many things'..
One would have enjoyed being a fly on the wall at those discussions, which no doubt centered on Italy's withdrawal of troops from Iraq..
Mr. Prodi is not the same man as his predecessor, Mr Berlisconi.. he is not as much of a friend to the US or, in fact, to anything outside the growing boundaries of the European Union. Mr. Prodi would like to see his country be as pre-eminent in this new hegemony as either Germany or France, and a view which is in itself more traditional, a view which is much more cordial with Iran and Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, is doubtless one he will pursue.
As said, Mr. Prodi likes not George, or what he stands for, and despite Tony's influence in getting Mr. Prodi the position of European Commission President back in 1999, a move which by the way didn't turn out to anyone's real satisfaction, relations between Romano and Tony have soured over these past few years..
Iraq is not about to lose one of the major players in that particular war, but Europe is going to see an Italy which is willing to spit in George's eye, should that happen to benifit the Union.

Ahh, and that little terror of an Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is proclaiming from rooftops that neither he nor his physicists will bow to 'Western pressure' and abandon it's rights to nuclear technology. This comes a day after six world powers called on Tehran to bring a halt to research which could, and almost certainly will lead Iran into the group of nuclear powers.
The Director of National Intelligence in the States says Iran could have nuclear capabilities within ten years.
I'd give odds on three or four, tops.
Just in time for the total political confusion to reach it's peak in the West.

American troops will now have to undergo 'ethical training' in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha..
That's really going to do a lot of good.. sure. It might placate some of the softer radical groups, but it will be scoffed at, as it should be, by those who pull the strings.
Now, picture this. You have a young, corn-fed boy of a man, a 'Jolly Green Giant with a gun' who's been sent thousands of miles away from his home, to face intensive attack by insurgents who look exactly like the civilians..
Sound familiar?
Now these boys wander into a ville, and one of their buddies, maybe someone they grew up with, is blown to shreds by a bomb. They have no idea now who the enemy is, or where the next attack might come from. They lose it, and in doing so commit an atrocity.
The name Lt. William Calley, and a place called Mai Lai comes to mind.
While not condoning the murders of innocents, one must keep in mind the immediate pressures of being in harms way, constantly.
Truth be told, the wars the United States has committed troops to recently, in neither case were sufficient actions taken to prepare it's fighting forces for that which they have encountered.
War is Hell. For everyone.
Those who fight it from the comfort of an office in Washington are responsible for this mass murder, at least, if not more, than the boys who pulled the triggers.

An interesting statement from Tony today. He has linked his poitical future to that of his Deputy Prime Minister and gremial friend John Prescott..
There has been increasing pressure, for the most part from the Chacellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, for a date for tony's abdication. This may well be in the near future, if Tony's sincere in standing and falling with Prescott. There is a consensus among the media that Labour could be facing one of it's worst challenges early in the new year, as the party cight be facing the replacement for both the Prime and Deputy Prime Ministers, at the same time.
Now Gordon Brown feels he's a shoe-in for the top post, at least until the next general election, and this may well be so. But whether Brown can carry the next vote, is moot.
His policies are not universally approved, even among his own backbenchers.
And with George having only the support of 33% of the American electorate, we could be looking at a future in which both Britain, and the United States, develop a sense of isolationism..
Foreign wars are becoming tedious to the man on the street. The geo-politics has been discussed and debated ad nausiam, and we as a society are tiring of this Sword of Damoclese George and Tony have hung over our collective heads with constant warnings and preparations against terrorist attacks.
It will be exceedingly interesting to see how the scales tip when these next elections come around..
They may be a couple of years in the offing, but what a difference a day makes, in politics..

One has to wonder how a Pope could question the intentions of his God.
Referring of course, to the remarks of Benedict XIV as he visited Aushwitz, and deplored the actions of his country against a particular group.
One has to wonder how long the Germans must apologise for the actions of a few megalomaniacs, and a people who would have followed Beelzebub himself to escape from the Depression and the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty.
Now don't go thinking the Holocaust didn't happen, nor that it should be forgotten, but one in good concience can only hold a sword over a defeated peoples for so long, before it becomes more of a weight to the holder than a danger to the target.
And for a Pope to wonder aloud how God could have allowed such an arocity, is to question the Deity itself.
Even the Jewish folks have come to the point, that if God wanted to kill millions of them in a hideous manner, there must have been a reason. Divinically speaking, of course.
One might even go so far as to say the Nazi's were Gods instruments, but that would border on justifying insanity, and that would not do. Divine or not, genocide is abhorrent.

There is relief in Washington tonight, with the landslide victory of President Alvaro Uribe in Columbia. Uribe has been an ally, as much as his economy will allow, with the US on the war on drugs, and it's always nice to know the Devil you work with , rather than one you're not too sure of.

Iraq's president has called on its new government to send a team of high-level officials to Basra to deal with a deteriorating security situation there. Jalal Talabani is reacting to increasing violent incidents in that area, one hithertofore relatively quiet. It's where our British troops are deployed.
The small Sunni minority in this overwhelmingly-Shia region has come under increasing pressure too.
In the past few weeks two Sunni clerics have been shot dead.. Much of the instability in Basra has been blamed on Shia militia groups and on rivalry between different Shia factions.
One of these factions, the Fadhila Party, controls the governor's office.
There are fears its leaders could order their supporters in the oil industry to stop working normally so as to hold up exports - exports that provide most of Iraq's current revenues.
That is why President Talabani has called for Iraq's new prime minister, Nuri al-Malaki, to send a delegation to Basra with powers to dismiss and appoint new officials.
To some extent this is a power struggle between the capital and the regions - a healthy sign of political development you could argue - but this is a region that the new government in Baghdad cannot afford to lose control of because of its crucial role in Iraq's economy.
One can only wish them the best of luck.. cooperation among the myriad of interests in that region has historically been impossible.
Odds are, it still is.

Quite the President those Iranians have..
Mahmoud Ahmadenjad has told Der Speigel, that German's should stop feeling any guilt for the Holocaust, and in fact he doubts it ever happened at all. In the same interview, he is quoted as saying 'the Germans were undoubtedly restrained by Allied Forces from writing 'the truth' about the Final Solution, and that he would happily go to Germany for the World Cup tournament. Iran's first World Cup match is against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 two days after the tournament starts and German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says he would be welcome to come because Germany wants to be a good host.
The invitation sparked protests from other political leaders and groups who said his anti-Israeli comments were unacceptable.
"My decision (on whether to go) depends on a lot of different things," said Ahmadinejad, a soccer fan. "Whether I have time, whether I want to and some other things."
He said he could not understand why his possible visit had caused such debate but was not surprised by the row.
"I was not at all surprised because there is a very active worldwide network of Zionists, also in Europe," he said in the rare interview with Western media that was published today. This is the man who has vowed to 'wipe Israel off the map'..German Chancellor Agnela Merkle along with other leaders have said Mahmous was just going a bit far..
Ahmadinejad's latest comments were condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Rabbi Marvin Hier, a founder and dean, called on Merkel to keep him out of Germany.
"On a day when the Pope is in Auschwitz to remind the world of the horrors of the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad questions it again," Hier said. "For him to be at the World Cup and sit in a VIP seat would be a desecration of the memory of the Holocaust."
Asked by Der Spiegel, in its cover story entitled "The man the world is afraid of," whether he stood by his earlier view the Holocaust was a myth, Ahmadinejad said: "I only accept something as the truth if I am truly convinced of it... In Europe there are two opinions on it. One group of researchers who are by and large politically motivated say the Holocaust happened. There is another group of researchers who have the opposite view and are, by and large, in prison for that."
Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany, punishable by up to five years in jail.
Pity, that thing about Diplomatic Immunity..
Ahh.. and Mahmoud continued by saying that if the Holocaust did indeed happen, then Europe should shoulder the responsibility, and bring all the Jews back from Israel to their country of origin, leaving Palistinians to recalim their land.
On occasion, one has to feel content with George and Tony. et al..
In comparison, they're choirboys.

It's one of those thought trains which keep one up at night..
There is something inherently abominable in a system which promotes mediocrity, which deliberately extolls the virtues of self-absorbtion and offers legislative paths to maintain the attitude that we don't know what's really good for us, but the government does.
Now, there must be agitators to start vapid movements which allow us to think we're in control, with the 'facts' in hand. But what is happening is we're being led by the hand by a select group, who foment public outrage towards picayune issues which we, as a whole society, can feel morally content as having 'done the right thing'.
Smoking is one such chimera. Led by California, the United States, and these United Kingdoms,those who successfully campaigned against smoking can sit back, self-satisfied in the belief we've done a good thing by stopping cigarette and cigar smoking in public. This, while we happily walk our streets inhaling the fumes from fossil-fueled conveyances which pump literally a million times the carcinogens a mere fag does into our systems.
It's been said the Germans are an easily-led race. That they'll follow any cause to maintain a status quo, or to edge a little further towards a better standard of living. Now this is grossly unfair to the German people as a whole, but does apply to all those who come from European stock.
Take the British educational system, once thought to be a benchmark for the rest of the world. At one point, one could walk through the streets of Calcutta or Mumbai, as Bombay is now called, and see plaques outside Doctor's offices reading 'Dr.So-and-so. Graduate of the Bombay School of Medicine, Oxford School of Medicine (Failed)'. This once hallmark standard of Britain, is now as bad as any on earth, or at least in the Western world.
Any system who's government can legislate personal habits, other than those which are dangerous to others, such as serial murderers or others with obvious psychological problems, is a system that will breed elitism, cronyism, and the maintenance of an uneducated workforce.
It is advantageous to only a few, to have 'the great unwashed' kept in their place. Yet we see on a daily basis, those who would break the mold revilled, discredited, and ostracised. It is to the advantage of only a few, to be led on the basis that 'it's what we've been told'.
And the shame of the entire matter is, that if some rise above the imposed ceiling, they will be absorbed by material incentive into the fold of the elite.
Not into the cadre of those in control, but among those who will shut up and discard their more radical thoughts to keep their incomes high.
It's a wonder sleep comes to anyone, when it's beyond one's power to changea societal attitude that has been growing for 50 years or more.
One last thought, another example of how we are changing.
It is not uncommon now, for children to stay living with their parents until their late 20's. The idea of having someone else to take responsibility has spread, like an insidious rash, throughout our young.
One wonders where this will end. When finally, a work ethic will re-appear, and pride in a good job well done will again force society itself forward.
If we continue as we are aimed, even the watered-down version of 'democracy' we today enjoy will disappear. And what's worse, we'll be told it's for our own good.
And we'll believe it.

"We will never give up, we will never back down, and we will never be defeated". Interesting words from George. We'll come back to them in a moment.
But first, from the same speech George promises 'freedom to all the peoples of the world'. This is intruiging in itself. For what does George, or Tony for that matter, mean by 'freedom'?
Does it mean having elected officials who will represent the best interests of their consituents? Can't mean that, for that's not often the case.
Does he mean freedom from debt while achieving a higher standard of living? Can't mean that, because we don't have it.
Does he mean freedom in the sense that it is one person, one vote? Can't mean that because the 'votes' of funded lobby's mean more than yours or mine.
What is this 'freedom' of which he speaks then?
Does it mean the security of walking the streets at night in safety. Can't possibly be that because that's not the case in 99.9% of cities who number themselves among those in 'free countries'.
Does it mean freedom of trade and commerce, with equitable profit passed from owners or stockholders right down to the consumers? No.
One suspects that George means the freedom to sit, almost disenfranchised, to develop a sense of well-being, especially throughout the lower levels of society.
A freedom to 'trust' our leaders, regardless of whatever evidence might exist that proves their incompetence.
A MacDonalds and a Taco Belle in every village, hamlet, town and city in the world perhaps.
That might be Georges' 'freedom'.
Inco is in the northern Ontario town of Sudbury. t would be hard to imagine a more inhospitable place, a town with little at all to recommend tourism other than the 'Big Nickel'. That, by the way, is a gigantic nickel coin which greets you as you enter the place.
What Sudbury has is INCO, and little else, and what INCO has, is the most nickel in the world. That mine pumps out mega-tonnes of that metal a year, and markets have become dependent on the continuing production of the stuff.
The price of nickel has jumped more than $600Cn a tonne over the past few days, because the 'Stinko' miners, as they are locally known, are threatening a strike.
Personally, I can't fault them. It's among their 'freedoms'.
But back to George and his committment to spreading the Western Way. It is an indicator of the American economy that the President has committed the nation to another 'Cold War'. A war in which there can be no winner, and one maintained for nothing other than a myriad of economic reasons. It is ominous to think that we, once again, are facing a diplomatic and economic situation which depends entirely on conflict, and refusals to compromise.
While we're here, let me show you this path through the garden...

Ahh.. an inspiring day all in all for the most recent graduates of West Point. George himself gave them their main address, saying "we will take the 'War On Terror' to every shore and outpost in pursuit of enemies like none before, not relenting until their defeat.."
Definately a flag-waver, but the underlying message to these young officers is, that they, unless they get a Staff appointment, will at some time, have someone shooting at them.
..It's more than a job, it's an adventure..
Problems and nothing but more problems for the Indonesians.. the death toll from the Java quake has passed 3 thousand, and this as UN orders non-essential staff out of East Timor as a new coup develops.
Going to take just that little bit longer for help to get to the Javanese, but politics, is politics..
Watch Columbia this Monday, or Tueday.. might be Wednesday actually before we hear the results of their Presidential election.. This could have consiquences leading to changes in George's attitude towards that country, and their attempts to turn cocoa farmers away from that insideous plant..
Problem is, they've yet to find a plant that grows quite so well in that climate, that offers even a fraction of the income cocoa brings..
Meanwhile, the Russians being quite content with the assumption they're always drunk, apparently will not be seen as homosexual in any way shape or form. More than 70 have been arrested, as Moscow held it's first ever Gay Rights Parade.
Of course it had been banned by the Kremlin.. While diplomatically one can deal with a pissed politician, it's a certainty there would be problems with an alcoholic faggot..
Odd folks, these Russians..

ZPG has finally caught up with us..
Tony's had to announce today that State Pensions, that which literally millions of Britons depend upon for their total income, are to be radically changed.
For hence forward, pensions will be tied to earnings and contributions. Henceforth, one will be 68 before they can claim a pension. And, perhaps most telling, workers will be forced to deposit 4% of their gross income towards their pension.
Now really, they can't even call this a 'hidden tax', without breaking into a small smile, behind their hands.. it's just too obvious..
It had to be seen coming though. With fewer and fewer workers, and more and more infirm old gits hanging on to life through medical breakthroughs, there had to be a calling of accounts. It's obvious that tony's, or in fact anyones government could simply print out cheques and expect them to be honoured when that particular account is well overdrawn.
Now, it's time to start paying the piper, and one expects these recent ammendments to be only the tip of the iceberg.
State Homes for those without a private pension may well be in the future. Even those who own their house, thinking it would be a place to finally breathe their last, may be forced in the future to sell their assets and move into an institutional environment, to defray the cost of longevity.
We have been working towards a nanny state, in the true sense, since the end of the Second World War. We have sat back, and allowed those who govern us to make daft laws, idiotic decisions both domestically and abroad, and ridiculous policies which make life easier in the short run.
We are reaping that which we so blythly sown, and it's going to be a bitter harvest.
An Addendum.
Now that ZPG has been abandonned, and populations are growing at a near to normal rate, the question arises for employers, as whether to hire a 22 year old, or a 57 year old, who're applying for the same job. Ageism is rife in the workplace, and the question was effectively rhetorical.
Secondly, supposing one has spent their working life in a trade, such as construction. Are we to believe that construction workers will be able to continue, without major injuries, after their sell-by-date?
This is a conundrum for all governments, at least all in charge of industrialised nations. While it has become an issue in Britain, it will undoubtably become one for all eventually.
Perhaps it's time to recall golden ages gone by, where the family took care of their own, and where age was revered, rather than reviled.
But while we live in a society which pumps up the values of youth, the appearance of youth, the necessity of youth, we will be as those depicted in that old chestnut 'Logans Run'.
We'll all be playing Peter Ustinov's role in the not too distant future.

There is a well respected television program over here named 'Panorama'. This is perhaps our version of '60 Minutes', although the lines set for the BBC production appear to be slacker than those binding it's American counterpart..
However, be that as it may, the reason for mentioning the program at all, is that this week it will air what almost might be seen as an attack on the Bush Administration.. it's refusal to engage itself in the Kyoto Accord. The producers will go so far as accusing George and his cronies of 'misinformation, of harassing the scientific community. Of gagging scientists, re-writing major reports and of allowing the oil and coal companies, and all those downstream, to dictate government policy.
Now it's not that this isn't common knowledge. But it is an attack on a friendly administration by a program funded by tax dollars, and so might well be seen as the 'sotto voce' of the government.
This environmental issue is beginning to be taken seriously by the public. Too many breakfast table conversations reflect on the fact the glacier has disappeared entirely from Mount Kilamanjaro, and that floes the size of Dorset regularly break off and melt in the Southern Seas..
With the news of yet another serious hurricane season for the Southern States, people there are going to start asking why..
It's almost a voice in the wilderness, this program.. but one we can rest asured. is a well-researched one..
Like the tree falling in the forest... eventually, someone will hear.

Nottingham Council is absolutely outraged!
There's been a report published which, city by city, shows crimes, per capita, and Nottingham tops the list..
London comes in at a lowly 21st, and according to the numbers, Southend is the safest place on the Island to live..
Now it must be said, that this report can be taken with a somewhat wry smile, for while it is factual, it does not take specifics into account, and is, in effect, exactly the type of report the government itself would produce. This is perhaps one reporters attempt to follow the Parliamentary lead..
You can do or say almost anything with statistics..
It's all dependent on which numbers you use..

This computer age, it's enormous...
Now the question one must ask, is why on earth would an employee of the Veteran's Association take the personal details of 26 and a half million vet's home with him..
VA Secretary Jim Nicholson assures us that the medical or financial records of these vets were not among those statistics stolen.. Identity theft is not, at this point, a concern..
Now this is the government talking about a government screw-up...
But again, what were they doing outside a secure location?
Tony was gladhanding in Iraq today.. saying 'there is now no need for the bloodshed.. it is now time for the Iraqi's to take charge of their own destinies..'
So easy to say, and historically impossible to maintain without an occuptying force.
If we want Iraq to be pro-West, we must be there to prop up a pro-West government. Otherwise, the situation will almost immediately deteriorate into first, electoral chaos, second, factional divisions, third, armed conflict between those factions, and fourth, a military coup with yet another Saddam, under a different name.
It's like having faith in fairy tales to hold to the conviction that the peoples who occupy that particular area of the world, would detour from anything other than the tenets of a civilisation that has dominated for millennia.
Unless, of course, there are others to blame, those who occupy their land and keep them free, to whatever concept 'freedom' has to the locals.
The average Iraqi is more interested in where their next meal will come from, and whether or not their job will be there for them today.. and what the chances are they'll be blown to bits while sitting having their morning pipe and coffee, than they are in who is named as the next Minister of the Interior, or Minister of Defence..
They know, that whomever is named, they will be corrupt.
They know the bombings will continue, in spite of who's in charge.
It's to be expected, for as the Rubayat says.. " The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. Nor all thy piety nor wit can call it back to cancel half a line.."
It's their culture.
Meanwhile, yet another dozen or so killed by a semtex-vested zealot..
They were, most of them, having lunch..

Yet another brief note concerning the afformentioned story, on the numbers incarcerated in the US..
Are these numbers included in the annual Unemployment Firgures? Or are they considered 'employed' through the work they perform while in prison? We're talking 2.2 million people here..
If they are employed, and recieving a wage (in Britain working' The Sheds' adds about £5 a week to your canteen account. In the States, it varies between $.65 to $1.20 a day, again added to one's account.), is this 'income'? In Britain, this is considered a 'pittance', and is therefore outside the laws governing a 'citizen'. There is no tax paid.
But, say, In the States, this income is taxable. That the government takes back a percentage of what it gives, which makes inmates taxpayers.
Now normally, inmates are not considered 'citizens'. Their rights have been curtailed, suspended for the length of time they are at the government's pleasure. But, if they're paying taxes, that must grant them the same legal rights as any other taxpayer.
The right to vote. The right to Unionize. The right to maintain a lobby at Capitol Hill, under their own ageas.
Now, that's if they're not included in the unemployment figures.
If they are, there's a damn good reason they didn't show up for work this morning.
Another point to ponder. There are reports that many medium and minimum security facilities offer their inmates better work, at better pay... they man the call-center lines, for catalogue or direct television buying. Just imagine, ordering that china bust of Elvis, and giving all your personal details to a prisoner in a State or Federal prison.
One has to wonder, are the Homeland Security people only involved with terrorism, or might they have problems within their own systems? Perhaps it's the FBI that's responsible for something like this..
Who knows?

A line or two on a noteworthy story..
It would appear that one of every 136 people in the United States, is an inmate of a State or Federal Prison. That's 2.2 million people, give or take a thousand or so..
Now what does this say of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave..
For one, that it's not free for all, and two, not brave enough to find an alternative to incarceration.
Now, it's likely the economics of the matter.
The statistics say prisons.. State and Federal.. housed some 1.4 million.. about two-thirds of the pie. The rest, some 750 thousand, are being held in local jails, under local juristiction and the source of Federal and State compensatory funding.. Makes sense for the town to have their own regulars in their own cells, it's always the usual suspects and there's always room for them..
That's just the economic side from the direct point of view.. there's downstreaming to all communities that have jails with inmates banging the bars..
It's also a statement of how willing the American Judicial System is willing to go, to avoid political incorectness. The backlog facing the parole services, the welfare services, the entire prison system both inside and without the walls, must be mountainous. And, in fact, it's an impossibility to maintain any type of supervision of those released, when there are still so many inside.
Allan J. Beck is the source of these numbers, by the way. He's the Chief of Corrections Statistics, for the Bureau of Justice Statistics..
Yes.
Back to what it says about the American Justice System.. it's made itself into an industry, one with a never-ending stream of raw material. It would not to be to any financial advantage in the long run, to re-assess lesser cases, with inmates serving their first terms. It would not make financial sense, to de-criminalise certain recreational drugs, or so the lobbyists for the bad guys will tell us, because it would release thousands of dope-smokers on society.. It would not make financial sense for the Judiciary to assess it's system of sentencing, for that would mean less grist for the mill..
Americans are encouraged, coerced, forced in some cases, to break the law. It keeps America running.

Nouri al-Maliki is the man holding the unenviable post of Iraq's Prime Minister, and in true political form today, he has promised to bring an end to the 'brutal insurgent and secratian violence' currently gripping his country...
Now that's a promise worthy of a politician, indeed.
Mr. al-Maliki says the appointments of the key Defence and Interior Ministers, who will be independant and without ties to Iraq's several armed groups.. will be complete within two or three days..
That is a promise, that if fulfilled, would seriously make one consider the presence of God.
Any particular God, for that matter.
Meanwehile, the killings go on, with the semtex-vest brigade claiming another 20 or so victims at a Baghdad restaurant.
One tends to lose count of the victims. And this in itself, should give those in charge of these military cells, pause. For if it becomes too commonplace to be blown to sheds while munching one's hummus in a public place, then the impact is lost.
It becomes, as it always has been in reality, pointless murder.
'Maximum force' is what has been promised by the new government. We'll see what effect that has, and how in effect it differs from the approach the Americans and British have been following since they set boots on that foreign soil.

Now, again, we're back to a matter of trust. This time in the Middle East, where the consiquences can be much more explosive (no pun intended). There's to be no nuclear deal between Iran and the United States, because each has been quite frank in their dislike and distrust of each other's systems.
It seems likely there is good reason for Tehran to be deveoping nuclear weaponry. It's stated goal is to wipe Israel off the map, and take the last genuine foothold the West has in the Levant away. However, there is also the good argument, that Iran needs power supplies, and who can fault them for opting for nuclear, when we in Britain are doing the same.
So, it's all 'trust'.
Personally, I deplore the day the internal combustion engine was invented.

Just a brief note here..
The Chinese have virtually completed the world's largest hydro-electric facility, the 'Three Gorges Dam'. Now this was a project pondered as early as 1918 by the Nationalist leader Sun Yat-Sen.. an idea Mao Zedong waxed poetic on his vision of a 'great wall of stone' from which a 'smooth lake' would drown the gorges..
The completion of the massive wall was broadcast on State Television, but there were no high-ranking officials there, as a cost cutting measure..
Really. It would have had a pricetag of over a million yuan if it had been a State Occasion.. Instead, they marked the pouring of the last stretch of concrete with a small brass band and some confettii..
There's still work to do, but it's mildly disturbing to ponder the fact, that this sleeping giant is realling beginning to stir..
Ahh.. and as a final thought. The Chinese have imported foreign help for the first time for this project. German Engineers have been recruited to ensure the safety and integrity of the construction. This marks the first time any foreigner has been asked in, for any reason.
If credibility is what China seeks, allowing the techinal Germans to endorse the work would certainly accomplish that end.