Dan Hardie wants to know what is happening in the area between the southernmost US troops in Iraq – around Najaf if memory serves – and the northernmost British, now that the withdrawal to Basra Air Station is complete. Call it the grey zone – the populous, Shia-dominated gap astride the main supply route to…
Read More Welcome to the grey zoneJamie K remarks that Thaksin Shinawatra’s botched attempt to buy Manchester City FC and install Sven-Goran Eriksson is the worst deal he did, except for the time he tried to swap SARS-condemned chickens for Russian jet fighters. It’s more impressive that Man City’s management’s due diligence appears to have consisted of running around the office…
Read More Taxin’ the City wastaSo our fine Immigration Minister, Liam Byrne is going to launch an “international marketing campaign” in order to attract more immigrants. Does anyone now remember that David Blunkett launched a propaganda campaign to put immigrants off, emphasising fine British institutions like rain and railway disruption? Clearly Byrne doesn’t. But perhaps he’s hoping to target the…
Read More The stupid – it’s Byrne’s!Charlie Stross’s space-colony überthread brings a couple of things to mind. First up, the best thought-through space elevator project is costed at $40bn, not far off £21-22bn. The Al-Yamamah contract was £43 billion – two space elevators. The degree of corruption involved is, literally, mindblowing. Perhaps the BAE managers and Tory bagmen I regularly insult…
Read More Your circuit’s dead – there’s something wrong!The Dallas Observer reports on Richard Chichakli’s lawsuit against the feds, and also runs his reply. Essentially, the court threw out his case, but good. The Observer also gets the honour of Chichakli comments spam – like this blog and Eurotrib, a sockpuppet calling itself “Graceland” rocked up to claim that he’s innocent, on the…
Read More Bout-Chichakli updateBack in December, 2004 this blog was after the details of Bernie Kerik’s brief, mouvementé tour of duty in Iraq. We discovered that, essentially, he did nothing constructive, posed with South African mercs, and vanished into the distance after the first big carbombs, leaving the mess to DCC Douglas Brand of South Yorkshire Police and…
Read More Bearpark, Brand, and Kerik, againThis tale about Steyr-Mannlicher sniper rifles was thin enough to start with, but it’s now been officially disavowed by the US Army’s press chief in Iraq, who states that no such weapon has ever been recovered anywhere in Iraq.
Read More Another Iranian-arms story officially deadHas Dan Hardie actually infiltrated the Chief of the General Staff’s private office? Mick Smith reports that Dannatt is gagging to create another brigade or so of infantry, which is not only roughly Dan’s prescription, but would just about equal last year’s four battalion cut. Hell, there are some fine old colours laid up in…
Read More Just Who Is the 5’O Clock Blogger?This DeLong vs Krugman post, and the comment from James Galbraith, raise an interesting issue regarding redistribution of income, free trade, and globalisation. Namely, as trade creates both winners and losers, but with a positive sum, it is both just and politically necessary that the winners compensate the losers. You could consider it a side-payment…
Read More Who needs remote control?I nearly forgot. It’s four years and five days since the very first post on this weblog. And it’s Magna Carta day! To mark the blog’s anniversary, I’d like some of the lurkers to stick their heads out from their stones. Who are you all?
Read More Four More Years!