2005

So says Doug Farah in a new post over at his blog. Farah states that Kellogg, Brown and Root are still using the Bout system in Iraq despite public protestations that all the contracts were cancelled. Regular TYR readers will recall that this should come as no surprise: back when they first said the contracts…

It’s your last chance to VOTE FOR ME in Fistful’s European Weblog Awards, as voting closes tomorrow. I promise NOT to pose in satin pyjamas in the event of a win, unlike some other bloggers I won’t mention.

From the Torygraph, an interesting report on the latest European Constitution poll. ICM’s survey, the first to be carried out using the actual question to be asked in the referendum, showed 39% in favour and 41% against – radically better figures than any previous poll. Naturally… “The ICM findings will fuel the debate over the…

1. Yes, It Wasn’t Any Worse Than We Thought Indeed, quite a lot of people voted (latest figure 57% or perhaps somewhat less depending on reports). And there was no bloodbath comparable to (say) the slaughter of pilgrims in Najaf last year… 2. But That Ain’t Saying Much ..but some 44 persons were blown up…

As seems to be the way of it, as soon as anything seems to get better we find it’s just got worse. You would have thought that it was nothing but good news that the people detained in Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act (that’s the one which allowed them…

Anthony Wells has a very interesting post about the possible sources of surprises in the election campaign over at the Polling Report (a species of advanced headquarters he’s set up for the campaign). Read it, it’s worth while. Broadly, his argument is that the apparent stability of the polls conceals a considerable potential for shocks,…

Via Kos, it is reported that wounded US servicemen returned from Iraq are being billed $450 a month for their meals in Walter Reed Army Medical Centre. Now, you can probably think of a few things to snarl about this without my assistance, but things aren’t that great over here. After all, the Reserve Forces…

The Dutch armed forces have, it seems, encountered a slightly unusual difficulty in Iraq, where they contribute 1,350 troops to the British-led MND(SE)’s northernmost sector. Simply, the soldiers’ trade union isn’t happy about their T’s and C’s. Yes, you read that correctly – the trade union. It’s called the AFMP and it’s angry that the…

Not so long ago I responded to a post on Mark Kleiman’s weblog concerning the “competitiveness leagues” that (usually) rightwing organisations like to prepare. I produced some methodology questions and some questions about content, here. I also proposed to check the performance of one of these against results, and in the end I did. The…

Neeka’s Backlog refers to this really unpleasant and deeply weird story from the Moscow News. Apparently some 20 Russian MPs (drawn from the batshit crazy Liberal Democrats of Vladimir Zhirinovsky but also the Communists and the “Motherland” group, which some claim is a front for the government) have signed a petition for the prohibition of…