Trying Twice

Nothing is straight forward. I can't get the pictures to work on the blog. The uploading mechanism just won't work. I don't know why.

The story continues, and I have to dash off to work in a minute:


"Around the Cross all the boys pretended they were straight and only on the game for the money. He could never admit his attraction for his friends. They would all pretend there was a girl waiting for them round the corner. He played the part too, or got very coy when his own sex life was discussed. Try as he might, he still hadn't managed to lose his heterosexual virginity. Still, there was no shortage of men. There was always a sugar daddy dangling. He went from one to the next, worshiping at the knees of corrupt saints.

He wanted to be looked after. The hostility of his father, the belt snaking out towards him, the endless brutal anger, the absolute lack of affection, was replaced by an ancient kindness. He lapped it up. He was always so pissed by the time he ended up in bed he couldn't have cared less who or what was gobbling him off, as long as he had a bed for the night.

They would buy him cars, rent apartments, take him out to dinner, listen as he told them, drunk and excited, of all the things he was going to do in his life. Old men, young boys, it was a time honoured relationship. He learnt a lot from them. Some did their best by him, encouraged him to go back to school, read books, listen to music. Took him to concerts, restaurants. Paid his school fees and later university expenses. It wasn't just sex they wanted, though they always wanted that. Their physical repulsiveness was overstepped by emotional intricacies. They all wanted to be loved, and the preposterousness of expecting love in return from a sixteen-year-old boy never struck them.

HUNTING IN PACKS 2007

It's the time of the month to do my Hunting in Packs column for the local rag the South Sydney Herald so here goes. It's supposed to be in by midday - an hour's time.

HUNTING IN PACKS MAY 2007
In case you missed the news I'll repeat it here: Australia has been ranked 35th and 39th in the world in terms of press freedom by two international journalist organisations, Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House respectively. That puts us down there with El Salvador and Bosnia.
Australians love to pride themselves on being open-minded and tolerant. Our academics spout endlessly about "diversity" and "multiplicity" while cheerfully condemning the media. The truth is another country.
Australia is little better than a communist country with a capitalist gloss. Any independent minded reporter is confronted with a bewildering variety of restrictions on what they can and cannot cover.
If you don't believe me, try a few politically incorrect experiments.
Try and find out how many acts of vandalism have been perpetrated against christian churches in 2007. You won't get very far. Try and find out what the travel budgets are for the country's most senior judicial figures. The travel budgets of the Supreme Court or the Family Court are reputed to be an open scandal. But just try and get a breakdown of their travel budgets. Or to quote an example which has been making the news, try and get a breakdown of the hundreds of thousands of dollars of your money being spent on the Prime Minister's wine cellar. You won't get anywhere.
Under our now frequently abused Freedom of Information laws police have refused to release a list of the pubs with the highest numbers of alcohol-related incidents, including assault and robbery. Think you have the right to know which schools in this state have the most violent incidents - perhaps so you can avoid sending your child into a dangerous schoolyard? Forget it. A major newspaper has spent more than $40,000 on legal fees so far in an attempt to get a report from the NSW Department of Education on violent incidents, but after repeated attempts still can't get the full report.
The extent to which this secrecy in our public life has developed simply defies belief. A newspaper has even been denied a list of the names of NSW restaurants fined by councils for breaching health food regulations.
One simple but effective tool government's have used to rort FOI laws has been to make them too expensive for the average citizen. Don't believe me? Try and get your own health, tax or police records; try and find out what information the government has on you personally, and you'll be immediately hit with extensive delays and massive costs. Recently a major newspaper was refused an auditor'[s report on suspected rorts of Commonwealth MPs' travel expenses. The paper appealed to a tribunal and won, but then the government tried to charge $1 million in fees to hand over the report. The paper could not afford it.
Under much duress the Federal Government has finally agreed to release its 18-month-old polls into what the public think of the WorkChoices legislation - but not until after the forthcoming election. Funny about that.
A newspaper recently lost its High Court appeal to get the government to release figures on how much extra tax workers have to pay when they get a pay rise. The case cost the paper half a million dollars.
Also recently, the Federal Government claimed it was "not in the public interest" to release information on the first home owners scheme, including the number of wealthy people fraudulently claiming the $7,000 grants under the scheme. A newspaper took the case to the High Court and lost.
Australian laws now contain more than 500 separate prohibitions and restrictions on what the public is allowed to know. Some vary from state to state, creating huge barriers to accurate and full reporting. Courts are routinely suppressing information, often on spurious grounds. A decade ago, there were fewer than 100 court suppression orders on the media. Now there are more than 1,000 at any one time.
Federal prosecutors have a policy of tracking down and prosecuting any public servant found to have leaked official information, even when it is demonstrably and dramatically in the public interest that the information be in the public domain.
One of the most disgusting sights in recent times has been the sight of a judge declaring that he was seriously considering a jail term for the whistle blower convicted for exposing the shocking state of security at our airports and revealing that a number of employees at Sydney airport had serious criminal histories or potential links to radical Islamic groups. This whistle blower's common decency in exposing the systemic flaws at our airport facilities led to a $22 million upgrade of security and the travelling public is now much safer as a result. He himself is likely to spend years sitting in a jail cell.
We are paying taxes so yet another arrogant and out of touch member of the legal caste can jail someone for following their conscience and doing the right thing by the country. Go figure.
We are all of us, from those in the media to your average punter, fools for having allowed this to happen. We are all complicit in our own oppression.
Both Labor and the Coalition are guilty of abusing Australian democracy by with-holding information that should be in the public domain. But there is no doubt the Howard government has been particularly evil in this regard.
It was Prime Minister John Howard, to quote just instance, who decided it was more important to play lapdog to the Americans and participate in the immoral disaster known as the Iraq War, in the face of extensive public opposition. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into utterly dubious foreign adventures with virtually no public support; but just try and find out any information at all on what our troops are really up to. It as become almost impossible to get balanced reports from war zones, as it has been in the past. Our military will cooperate only with embedded journalists to ensure the official line is reported.
To combat the mantle of secrecy which has enveloped the operation of governments at all levels in this country Australia's largest media organisations, traditionally fierce competitors, have united to form a new coalition to run a public campaign Australia's Right To Know.
The group includes News Limited, Fairfax Media, the ABC, the commercial television industry body FreeTV, its radio equivalent Commercial Radio Australia, SBS, wire service AAP and broadcaster Sky News.
At a press conference in May the group outlined plans for a major reappraisal of laws and regulations t hat censor free speech and undermine the right of all Australians to get information that is relevant and important to their lives. The industry coalition will commission a national audit on the state of free speech in Australia. This report will form the basis of a campaign of public consultation and discussion with government and opposition parties and the judiciary.
A joint statement by the group urged all Australian governments to embrace urgent reform to redress the erosion of free speech.
The statement read in part: "We have joined together because we are deeply troubled by the state of free speech in Australia. Freedom of speech is one of the fundamental pillars of a free and open society. It is as important as parliamentary democracy and the rule of law in guaranteeing the freedom and rights of all Australians. Our freedom to express an opinion, honestly and openly, is under threat. Equally, our ability to report to Australians facts about how they are governed and how our courts are administering justice is being severely hampered. Australia now lags well behind most major democracies. Australians deserve to be trusted with information in the same way as citizens of other democracies."

From Pai

Most of the pictures on this blog are taken on my camera phone (Sony Erricson K800i) but this one came from browsing on the net; and is a picture near the Cafe Del Doi which is a few k's out of town and has absolutely magnificent views up and down the Pai valley. Why would I want to go anywhere? they ask. We have one of the best views in the world right here.

The story continues:

"He had always been wanted. He never had to worry about where the next drink was coming from There was always someone who wanted to make love to him. Adopt him. From the first time, in a back alley of the motor show when he had wandered away from his father and his brother, lonely and upset and bewildered by7 the chaos of pubescence. A man had been kind, interested,k listened to him. Had led him away from the crowd, up a back alley. Had kissed him. He had been completely astonished when the man's face had disappeared to below his belt.

"Desperate to lose his virginity, he nonetheless had no idea what was happening. He'd never heard of oral sex. While he had looked up homosexuality in the Britannica, he had no idea what the act involved. He tucked the man's telephone number into his school trousers and rang it a fortnight later, at the beginning of the school holidays.

"While men were readily available, the opposite sex remained a mystery. None of the girls at school would go out with him, though he screwed up courage several times and asked. In a beachside suburb he was the ultimate wierdo - he read books. He watched the other boys in the showers after Physical Education, intoxicated, frightened, curious. His classmates sent him up, taunted him, picked fights. Hit me with your handbag, hit me with your handbag. He could hear the chant in the roar of the surf. Hit me... Hit me... Later he found out his worst tormentor was simply jealous and had only discovered his predilections because he was getting blow jobs after school from the same man."

THE BIGGER STORY:

We live in interesting times and the country is completely fed up with Prime Minister John Howard:

Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has told his conservative government that the government could be annihilated in an election later this year.He said voters appeared attracted to the opposition Labor Party despite the government announcing handouts of more than $A60 billion in the 2007 budget and spending more than A$110 million to advertise its programmes.A spokesman quoted Mr Howard as telling a closed meeting of government lawmakers that Labor's projected vote was the highest since he first won office in 1996.After Mr Howard's 11 years in power and four election wins, the polls have shown a strong surge this year in support for Labor and Kevin Rudd, who took over as leader in December.Mr Howard is due to call national elections in the second half of 2007 and is widely expected to go to the polls in late October or early November, after hosting the Sydney summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group leaders in September.The prime minister told coalition colleagues on Tuesday the polls suggested an emphatic win for Labor.The comments came as the latest Newspoll in the Australian newspaper found the government trailing Labor by 14 points, with 43 percent support against 57, on a two-party basis.The coalition won a 27-seat majority in the 150-seat parliament at the last election in October 2004, taking 52.7 percent of the two-party preferred vote.Labor last won a national election in 1993. It needs to gain 16 seats to return to power.© NewsRoom 2007

Tickle the Future

"To be a queen became for them an honourable title, a badge to be worn with inverse pride. When he first began there was no Mardi Gras, no gay pride, no Oxford Street. There weren't gay saunas or bookshops or coffee houses, newspapers or magazines. Instead he entered a wonderful, subterranean world, where a drag queen trailed a finger across his cheek and told him how beautiful he would look in a dress, a world where he was instantly popular, a million miles from the soulless suburb where he grew up.

"It didn't take long for the poison to arrive. Through the dream, the discovery which went on for years, person after person flung themselves at him, declaring undying love. Their deaths or their threatened suicides became the ultimate emotional blackmail. Yet another he had spurned died the day after, drinking a bottle of scotch before noon and collapsing right in the middle of Sydney's most famous gay bar.

"For months afterwards the boy's friends screamed at him out of car windows, blaming him. It was easy to believe that he was inherently evil, that to love him was to court disaster."

THE BIGGER STORY

Hicks likely to touch down today
Frank WalkerMay 20, 2007 SMH
DAVID Hicks is expected to arrive back in Australia today, after spending more than five years in a high security US military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
A thick veil of secrecy has been thrown over the operation to fly Hicks home from Cuba to Adelaide, but sources said his military plane was due to land in Tahiti late last night to refuel.
The US military plane carrying Hicks, 31, his Adelaide lawyer David McLeod, two senior South Australian prison guards and military personnel is expected to land at the Edinburgh RAAF base near Adelaide this morning.
Hicks, who pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism under a deal that allowed him to serve out a nine-month jail term in Australia, will be taken in a prison van from the base to the high-security Yatala Labour Prison a few kilometres away.

Black Matter

This is a NASA picture. I love the material they put out: "How do we know that dark matter isn't just normal matter exhibiting strange gravity? A new observation of gravitationally magnified faint galaxies far in the distance behind a massive cluster of galaxies is shedding new dark on the subject. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope indicates that a huge ring of dark matter likely exists surrounding the center of CL0024+17 that has no normal matter counterpart. ...Next, a close inspection of the cluster center shows several unusual and repeated galaxy shapes, typically more blue. These are multiple images of a few distant galaxies, showing that the cluster is a strong gravitational lens. The relatively weak distortions of the many distant faint blue galaxies all over the image, however, indicates the existence of the dark matter ring."

The story continues:

"The past was one of surviving on the street as young men have always survived, of never having sex without a gain, usually material, shifting through endless relationships and casting himself loose in gay bars. Sydney had acted as a spectacular backdrop to this own wild adventures, the dazzling light of the bays and the beaches silhouetting his own enthusiasms. He emerged before the moustachioed clones and the claims of pride. In those whispering furtive t imes it had been like endering a secret, underground society.

"There was a sense of adventure, of singularness, a belong in their outrageousness among the crowds he met. But so many of the figures that cut a swathe through those bars and late-night coffee shops were doomed. Happy endings were few. Successful couples unkown. Love, which he did not seek, was chaotic, dark.

"His was an age-0ld curse. Limp wrists and perversions, a lingering self-hatred. Gay men weren't strutting the sidewalks and sweating it out in the gyms, but perched on bar stools, convinced they were aberrant, not true men. They swallowed the lie, the beliefts of their taunters. Their faces did not glow with health or confidence. They reached dep inside, and waved in everyone's face their own deviance. Michael passed among them, seeking experience, in love with all their personal demons."

THE BIGGER STORY:

Hamilton Spectator:

Two leaders on their way out of office -- one sooner, one later - patted each other on the back in the Rose Garden yesterday and expressed no doubt about the war they rode to unpopularity among their people.
President George Bush and retiring British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they had no regrets about the decision to go to war in Iraq, saying the country has become the main battleground in the war against global terrorism.
"It is an important part of protecting the United States," Bush said. Blair said he was proud of the close partnership the two leaders forged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"And sometimes it's a controversial relationship, at least over in my country," Blair said. "But I've never doubted its importance."
Blair leaves office next month, a premature resignation forced in part by Britons' increasing dissatisfaction of their prime minister's support for the war.

You Are Still Alive

You are Still Alive. Redfern Gateway to Waterloo. So read the signs in a funny little alley I never knew was there. Of course Redfern was never the gateway to anywhere. We live in an astonishing and turbulent age. You can be in Redfern in the morning, fly 1200 ks to Broken Hill, drive 77 kilometres out of town, transmit pictures and stories and be back the next day doing yet another presser for yet another minister in the uncomfortable foyer of the government offices. We live in an astonishing and turbulent age where everything has layered over itself in rapid cascades of information and drama.

"Anna looked weary. 'Ill be so glad to be going, to get away from you all,' she shouted over the noise of the plane. She would say anything to wound. Meeting him having the kids, were the worst things that had ever happened to her. She was determined to let him know what a colossal failure he was. It was his fault they weren't rich, living like the people in her favourite magazine, Vanity Fair. You'd think, the way Anna went on, she'd been living on the Champs Elysees being courted by the fabulously rich, wonderfully entertaining, beautiful European playboys rather than in a flat above a rock band in Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia. 'I lost my outh when I met you,' she said; and when he failed to respond: 'I can't stand the way you just stand there.' He bowed his head under the tirade and counted the hours. Go, by all means go!

"It wasn't just his own hypocrises, the stabs of passion and memory - the sexual trace elements, guilty, pornographic images - or the uncertainties that he felt over his love for her that bothered him, but the hypocrises of everyone. He was sick to death of Sydney. The too-bright harbour, the soullesss business heart, the idi9t tourists gawking in the Cross, the rotten little junkies, the wasted displays, the North Shore middle class, their truly horrid wealth and self-possession, he was sick of the whole damn lot.

"It hadn't always been so."

THE BIGGER STORY

Prince Harry won't go to Iraq, and Britain is divided over decision
The Associated Press
Published: May 17, 2007

LONDON: Some said it was a sensible judgment and should have been made long ago.
Others said the decision not to deploy Prince Harry to Iraq was ridiculous, and that backtracking handed "a victory" to insurgents who had threatened the third in line to the British throne.
The decision not to send Prince Harry to Iraq was debated on talk radio and the Internet on Thursday — just like the original announcement that the 22-year-old tank commander would serve with his Blues and Royals regiment in the southern city of Basra.
"I think the general public — and to a greater extent the military — are quite annoyed at how things have been handled," said Amyas Godfrey, a military expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
Some military families expressed their unhappiness at what they saw as special treatment.

"It is not safe for any of them out there," Gella Tomlin, the wife of a British soldier, told the British Broadcasting Corp. "Who do I need to speak to in order to stop my husband being sent there later in the year?"

Stop Complaining

"Stop complaining', he snapped, fumbling as he tried to strap in the kids, even more annoyed than usual at the useless seatbelts.

It had been a long winter, his lungs hurt and the rank smell of unleaded petrol and aviation fuel enveloped the house.

After a lifetime of being out, of travel and adventure, just going to work, battling through the traffic and days just to spend the evenings at home, felt very commonplace. He had become a cliche, the journalist who wanted to write. The cardpack of dreams had vanished at the same time as his life had become full with the love and complexity of a woman and the endless demands of children. There was no question now of giving up his job. There were financial worries, distractions, nights when he went to bed too early and could barely remember the man who didn't like to go to bed at all. For the first time in his life there was responsibility for the lives of others. With a one- and two-year-old crawling over him constantly, adoring ever-demanding worms - my daddy's a good boy, Sammy would shout loudly - it began to seem as if reading was for childless people. He was becoming illiterate. He had been reared in a magical realm, taught by books that there were greater, loftier ideals than daily work rituals and keep a roof over his head.

THE BIGGER STORY:

What a bunch of hypocrities; but hardly the first to kowtow to the economic might of the Chinese.

Brown blasts MP's silence on Dalai Lama visit17.05.2007
By KATHY SUNDSTROM
THE Dalai Lama's planned visit to Canberra next month has sparked a "step backwards in silence" from many politicians, including Sunshine Coast MP Peter Slipper, who is part of an official welcoming committee.
However, late yesterday, both prime minister John Howard and opposition leader Kevin Rudd appeared to be considering meeting the Dalai Lama after considerable public pressure through talkback radio.
Originally, Mr Howard said he would see if he could find time, and Mr Rudd said he would not meet the Dalai Lama as it was the job of opposition foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland.

On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy advised Australia's leaders not to meet with the exiled Buddhist figurehead.
Greens senator Bob Brown said he was surprised that an "outspoken federal MP like Mr Slipper" would also toe the party line.
"It is sad that any MP in Australia – Peter Slipper is not the only one – feels frightened to speak out on such a clear-cut issue and such a popular issue, about giving the Dalai Lama a proper reception," Mr Brown said.
Mr Slipper is part of the Tibetan parliamentary group. It includes Mr Brown, Labor backbencher Michael Danby and Democrat Natasha Stott Despoja, and is expected to host a small reception next month for the Dalai Lama.
When the Sunshine Coast Daily approached Mr Slipper's office for a comment yesterday, none was forthcoming.
Mr Brown said that as Mr Slipper was part of the parliamentary group, he should make comment.

Won't you miss me, she whined...

"Won't you miss me?" she whined, screwing out some indication of affection from him. His thoughts were getting ruder by the day. Shut your fucking face, for Christ's sake, just shut the fuck up. "Of course I will," he said, his mind skating. Who was bringing who down here?

An old woman in black watched them from the other side of the road, holding her grand-daughter, fiddling with the hose, preparing, despite the worst drought in living memory and repeated warnings on the news, to wash down the concrete in front of their house. Most of the neighbourhood women completed the same ritual each morning, just as their ancestors had done in the remote white-washed villages of their birth. He didn't knokw her name. She was Tony's mother, recently arrived from her village on the other side of the world. She didn't speak a word of English. Tony, tubby, plain, trapped by an even plainer wife, driving an old, once flashy, metal tank of a car, was his favourite neighbour. He was the only one who would lend him money when things got bad.

Bound by an industrial estate, an airport, a highway and the most polluted river rin the country, this part of Tempe was a pocket of late nineteenth-century working cottages whose charm had been totally desecrated by the Macedonian and Yugoslav emigres squeezed there by property prices. Brick cladding and concrete drives were symbols of success in a new country. He and Anna had bought what they regarded as the best house in Tempe, an 1880s wooden cottage farm house. They had sanded the floors, added a verandah, planted dozens of trees all round. His neighbours came to commiserate. They had been young once, and hadn't been able to afford cladding either.

THE BIGGER STORY:

The Story Begins

This is the view of my backyard in Tambar, and this is the story as it continued:

"The children cowered in the park. Conversations stopped. Television shows were viewed in gaps made by thunder. I wish I was on it right now, Anna whinged for the umpteenth time, putting his own discontent into words for him to reject. He just wanted to get to work. Being late every morning of his life made him conspicuous, which was the last thing he needed right now.

"Mornings were not Anna's best time, and this morning was no exception. She was going to INdia the next day, having scammed a trip he couldn't afford for himself, forcing him to be the bigger person. By all means go, have a good time, I've been there several times, I'll look after the kids. Enjoy yourself. After all, you were pregnant for two years in a row, he said, c-oopting her argument. Take the opportunity. We can't hold each other back just because we had children.

"The truth was, he had forgotten what it was like to be on his own and wanted to remember, to think his own thoughts. There were floods of affection, of feeling wanted, settling into an identity. Becoming a man, a husband, a father. And now the anger."

THE BIGGER STORY:

Belfast Telegraph:

Troops told to shoot rioters as death toll mounts in Karachi
Monday, May 14, 2007
By Rachel Shields
Pakistan's government authorised paramilitary troops to shoot anyone involved in serious violence yesterday as the crisis triggered by the dismissal of Pakistan's top judge took an ominous and bloody turn.
Seven more people were killed yesterday, bringing the death toll from a weekend of violence to 41. President Pervez Musharraf suspended the judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, in March but he has since become a focus for protesters trying to end military rule.
The BBC's correspondent in Karachi said five of those killed on Sunday were kidnapped and executed. One of them was a worker from the pro-Musharraf MQM party. Two more were reportedly tortured and then shot in the head.
Funeral processions were accompanied by gun battles, ambulance crews were attacked, and at least two people died in clashes between traditional rivals in Karachi.
Fighting between the Pashtuns, and Urdu-speakers linked to the MQM raised the spectre of a return to ethnic bloodshed in a port city of 15 million people that serves as the hub of Pakistan's economy.
The violence marked a serious escalation in a crisis that began with President Musharraf ousting the head of the supreme court on 9 March, and which has hardened opposition to plans for the general, a key US ally, to extend his rule.

Ugly Rants Fade Away

There's little time in the fury of the morning to get ready, attend to the caffeine addiction, put on a nicotine patch, face the world with a barrage of substitutes.

I don't know why, but herewith begins extracts from a story called And Then A Funny Thing Happened. It was published in an anthology called Men Love Sex. Never liked the title. It briefly flashed on to the best seller lists, being number one for one week, in 1996.

That, as were so many years around that period, a time of turbulence and torment; of hopeless disarray and a profound, tormented despair; walking along the bottom of a lead aquarium; every move almost impossible, so deep was the depression. So much had I become a person I never wanted to be:

"At 9.15am, already running late, everything looked tawdry, the colours just plain wrong. A Qantas 747 was taking off half a kilometre away. They watched it climb in the winter wash. Red kangaroos in industrial skies, poetry out of chaos, promises never fulfilled. The din was unbelievable. Assured by the Federal Airports Commission that things would improve for their loing-neglected suburb when the new runway went in, at a mere cost of $320 million, things had instead got decidedly worse..."

THE BIGGER STORY

Al Qaeda claims Iraq soldier abduction in Internet posting
The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a group led by Al Qaeda, say in an Internet posting it is holding three US soldiers who survived an attack south of Baghdad at the weekend, in which the US military says four troops and an Iraqi Army translator were killed.
Thousands of American troops have been searching for the three soldiers missing after an ambush on Saturday (local time) in which Al Qaeda says it seized "crusader" forces.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told CNN television Al Qaeda appeared to have abducted the soldiers, though he was not sure the website that carried the group's claim was authentic.
"No one can be complacent about Al Qaeda and its affiliate organisations and perhaps one can say because of the pressures on Al Qaeda in Baghdad ... they are adapting and moving into other areas in trying to inflict mayhem in those areas," he said of the attacks carried out.
Major-General William Caldwell, chief spokesman for the US military in Iraq, told a news conference US troops would make "every effort available to find our three missing soldiers".
Yesterday, the US military said it had identified the bodies of three American soldiers and the interpreter who were killed and said it was still hunting for the three missing US soldiers.
The attack on the eight-member US-led patrol took place in a rural area south of the capital that is a stronghold of Al Qaeda militants.
A fifth US soldier was killed in the attack, but has not been identified.
In a statement, Islamic State in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack on the US patrol, but gave no proof.
"God has enabled your brothers at the Islamic State in Iraq on Saturday ... to clash with a crusader patrol in Mahmudiya area at the southern part of Baghdad," it said.

You and Your Music and the Wind and I

This is a picture of Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas at Sydney airport.

Who are these people, I asked, when given the job. Ask your children, I was told, and so I did, and for the first time in their life they thought I had the coolest job in the world. It was pretty funny. But then I asked someone who this Snap Dog person was while Sammy was standing next to me. He blushed bright red. His dad really was the biggest dag on the planet.

It was a typically manufactured event, a string of stars passing through the airport on the way to the MTV awards. Brigette, who I had never seen before but perfected, as the spiels online said, the 1940s pinup look, all pale faced with dark hair and bright lipstick, black expensive clothing. Snoop Dog had been banned by the government as being of inappropriate character. Just a few gun and drug chargers, said the MTV journo come television host, typical rapper behaviour, nothing to get too excited about. He was doing a spoof piece, holding up a sign saying Snoop and asking everybody who got off the plane if they had seen him, which of course they hadn't.

I had seen him on TV before but I wasn't going to tell him that.

I've been doing pop stars on and off over the past 30 years; and yes, it's true, I was more ofe with other generations. The entertainment paps, that we never see at all the ordinary news jobs, flashed as the various stars made their way through the crowds. Fergie was probably the best, mincing cooperatively, asnwering the inane questions I threw at her. All in a day's work doll.

THE BIGGER PICTURE:

Here's an extract from a brilliant piece from the Yorkshire Post after an avalance of coverage of Tony Blair's resignation:


http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/comment?articleid=2867149

Al-Qaida's monstrous terrorist attack against the United States on 9/11 changed the entire political landscape. The Prime Minister could not be faulted at the time for offering steadfast support to Great Britain's closest ally. The decision to ally Britain so closely to President George W Bush's Neo-Cons has led to a prolonged military struggle in Afghanistan and the bloodbath that is now Iraq. How the latter conflict was mis-sold to the wider public has seriously damaged Mr Blair's reputation and credibility. The non-existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction, contrary to various "dodgy dossiers", was, frankly, a betrayal too far which has had far-reaching consequences for the erosion of the public's trust in the political process. For, even if the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was the right decision, the government's initial deception – and the absence of a long-term plan to bring stability to Iraq – has left Britain seriously compromised. This backdrop makes it very difficult for future Prime Ministers to deploy the Armed Forces, however legitimate the mission in question. In the meantime, Britain has become a prime target for Islamic extremists and home-grown terrorists such as the West Yorkshire suicide bombers who inflicted so much carnage on London on July 7, 2005. It is a threat that will not vanish when Mr Blair leaves Downing Street for a final time. Quite the contrary. The fact is that even if his successor extricates Britain from the quagmire that Iraq has become, Muslim aggressors will not halt their war of hate. They will simply embark upon new methods to exacerbate community divisions. That is a primary reason crowds will not be demanding "more" when Mr Blair exits Downing Street. Voters may feel more prosperous than when he came to power, despite the economic
gloom gathering aplenty and today's likely interest rate rise. They may welcome the investment in public services before conceding that New Labour should have done better. But do they feel safer? No. And do they trust politicians more? Definitely not. The sense of disillusionment, and increased cynicism, is deeply felt. And that, frankly, is why voters – and the Labour Party – ran out of patience with their leader. Anthony Blair came to power 10 years ago with the opportunity to become one of the great reforming Prime Ministers. Instead, he leaves office ingloriously having squandered that opportunity, and under a political cloud entirely of his own making. History is unlikely to be kind to Mr Blair. And, because of this, he leaves his successor facing a daunting task to restore not just the Labour Party's credibility, but the credibility of the entire political establishment.

Evening Times & False Luck

These were the evening times, when even I could catch a glimpse of things beyond the here and now. It was an old time operation, professional, with Fairfax billboards and demonstration an old fashioned protest. Bile and vile sentiment continue to circle outside the door, driven by money and conflict, chaos theory in full reign. Revenge. Not served cold. I was pleased one cycle was coming to an end.

Rudd looks shell shocked after the budget, washed by a tidal government blitz that has left him bleatingly cornered. But no matter how devious the twist, the election was coming, inexorably. These were remarkable events.

As if the answer was contained just out of reach. As if the glance in the street meant something. As if, when the stopped and looked back, everything could change, the walls of sad isolation broken, water, or was it love, flooding everywhere, excitement back in your step. Get a dog.

THE BIGGER STORY:

An election cometh:

TREASURER Peter Costello has accused Labor of giving tax cuts to foreigners in preference to Australian families.
Mr Costello was less than impressed with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's alternative Budget pitch to the nation, which included extra funding for technical education, a plan to fix leaky pipes around the nation and money to encourage the study of Asian languages.
He accused the Labor leader of being short on vision and failing to do the hard work to grasp the economic detail.
"It had no really new initiatives, he had no economic plan," Mr Costello said after Mr Rudd delivered his Budget in reply speech last night.
"Economic management takes a lot of effort and a lot of work.
"Mr Rudd was caught out because he hasn't done the work and he hasn't done the thinking."
And he castigated Mr Rudd for outlining no tax cuts for Australian families - but giving them to non-residents.
Mr Rudd said Labor would halve the withholding tax on distributions from Australian managed funds to non-residents from 30 per cent to 15 per cent - costing $30 million a year.
"Apparently he would rather give tax relief to foreigners than to Australians," Mr Costello said.
"I think that's a misguided priority."

Ways Forward

This is the view from Sydney Park in the evening; where we sometimes walk the dogs. I'm on the phone to Bill in Brisbane while the kids run ahead, the dogs, hopeless house dogs, already exhausted and heading towards the car. I've been deluged with a thousand things to do, worried about the lack of armour and resources to fight off any potential catastrophe, getting through the days and that's about all. Except that the days are much more organised than they once were; the financial drains nowhere near as catastrophic; the gathering storms disappearing back over the horizon.

Story after story pile upon each other. The climate change column is out; Hunting In Packs; masquerading as a rightwing columnist, it's great fun, I joked with the pseudo-editor, Trevor; and he arched an eyebrow, used to me by now, and asked: are you really masquerading? I laughed. The letter writers sure do take a lot of stirring up. The male version of Miranda Devine; without the audience. The turbulence of other people's lives pass through my own; the separated dad Murray Robertson who did a runner with his three kids for six weeks, acting as if his moment of notoriety might really change things, but it will do nothing of the kind.

Everything here in Australia is oriented towards the coming election. The budget's just been handed down; widely praised by the pundits as economically repsonsible. I basically get nothing, well $14 a week in tax cuts immediately chewed up by the extra taxes I pay on gas, electricity, petrol, food and everything else since Howard introduced the GST. The sight of these people, their self aggrandizement, as they grandly give away our money, just makes me puke. His latest is to give a $500 bonus to the elderly, for no reason. So we all work hard so these pricks can give away our money to others; so they can get themselves elected. It just makes me sick, the whole damn thing. We'd all be better off if they left us to manage our own money, but they just won't do that. Australia is virtually a communist country, so bound down are we with government regulation; most social activity proscribed in one way or another. It's now a crime to serve a drunk person in a pub; so not even the bars are havens of chaos and freedom and outrage anymore. We are a silenced, subdued people. And it shows. Just try walking down the street. Try being different. Try genuinely thinking outside the square.

We've produced whole generations of people who's minds run in ruts while the professional classes pick off their money as best they can. There are few originals, few creators; and barely a single soul less who can think for themselves. That was the country we fought and died for, our families, our pasts, their blank faces staring out bus windows; not just subdued, downright downtrodden.

THE BIGGER STORY:

Costello denies 'having paws in honeypot'NEWS.com.au, Australia - 2 hours agoBy Colin Brinsden. AN ebullient Treasurer Peter Costello today lapped up the mostly positive response to his big-spending, pre-election Budget. ...
Budget might not close the gap HowardSydney Morning Herald, Australia - 2 hours agoPrime Minister John Howard says the public will judge if the budget is good enough for the Coalition to start closing the gap on Labor in the opinion polls. ...
Rudd expects 'pounding' in post-Budget pollsThe Australian, Australia - 3 hours agoLABOR leader Kevin Rudd says he expects to take a "pounding" in opinion polls conducted in the wake of the federal budget. The handouts in Treasurer Peter ...
Spending 'won't bring rates hike'NEWS.com.au, Australia - 6 hours agoDESPITE doling out $65 billion in goodies to voters in their election-year Budget, the Prime Minister and Treasurer have denied the spending spree will ...

Costello bites back on broadbandThe Age, Australia - 9 hours agoTaxpayer dollars should not be spent on upgrading Australia's broadband network, Treasurer Peter Costello says. The treasurer this morning defended the ...
Australian Budget spending prompts rates warningNew Zealand Herald, New Zealand - 9 hours agoAustralian prime minister John Howard has shrugged off a warning that treasurer Peter Costello's big-spending Federal Budget could increase pressure for an ...
Costello lures voters with tax cutsNEWS.com.au, Australia - 10 hours agoBy Steve Lewis. TREASURER Peter Costello and Prime Minister John Howard began the possibly not-so-hard sell on a Budget packed with giveaways today as Kevin ...
Rudd warns of post-Budget poll poundingNEWS.com.au, Australia - 11 hours agoLABOR Leader Kevin Rudd said today he expected to take a pounding in opinion polls following the federal Budget. The handouts in Treasurer Peter Costello's ...
Federal Budget - howSydney Morning Herald, Australia - 12 hours agoPeter Costello delivered his 12th Budget yesterday and there's something in it for everyone. If you vote, you'll find at least one gift, maybe more. ...
Rudd says Budget fails future testNEWS.com.au, Australia - 13 hours agoBy staff writers and wires. THE 2007 Budget was not capable of securing Australia's long-term future, Labor leader Kevin Rudd said today. ...
Australia's Tax Cuts Raise Prospect of Rate Increases (Update1)Bloomberg - 13 hours agoBy Hans van Leeuwen and Gemma Daley. May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's government will cut taxes and spend more on child care, pumping more than A$67 billion ...
Tax cuts won't alleviate stingNEWS.com.au, Australia - 13 hours agoBy Nicki Bourlioufas. THE Government has granted big tax cut aimed at keeping Australians happy, but in reality, we are still heavily slugged with income ...
Budget secures the future: HowardMelbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 13 hours agoBy staff writers and wires. THIS year's Budget is an investment in the future and contains some of the Government's best ideas, Prime Minister John Howard ...
Hard work paid off in Budget: CostelloThe Australian, Australia - 13 hours agoBy staff writers and wires. THE hard work of world-class economic management has paid off in the latest Budget, Treasurer Peter Costello said today. ...
Howard says budget secures the futureThe Age, Australia - 14 hours agoPrime Minister John Howard says the budget can be summed up as "locking in the gains, investing in the future". Treasurer Peter Costello on Tuesday night ...
Management 'pays off in Budget'Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 14 hours agoTREASURER Peter Costello said the hard work of economic management has paid off with the latest budget. Mr Costello promised cuts for all taxpayers and ...
Costello sells his PM credentialsNEWS.com.au, Australia - 16 hours agoBy Steve Lewis. WITH a post-election eye to The Lodge, Peter Costello has kick-started the Coalition's election campaign with a big-spending Budget that ...
Costello, Howard to sell budgetStuff.co.nz, New Zealand - 16 hours agoCANBERRA: John Howard and Peter Costello will hit the airwaves today to sell Australians the treasurer's pre-election budget packed with $65 billion of ...

Grab for Labor's turf aimed at teaching Rudd a lessonThe Age, Australia - 17 hours ago'The revenue bonanza . . . has meant that Costello has had plenty of room to spend, spend and spend. ' Education policy has traditionally been seen as an ...
Minchin denies budget inflationaryMelbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 20 hours agoTHE Federal Government denies its big-spending pre-election budget will put pressure on inflation, raising the risk of another interest rate rise. ...
Australian Cuts Taxes to Woo Voters Ahead of Election (Update3)Bloomberg - 8 May 2007By Hans van Leeuwen and Gemma Daley. May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's government will cut taxes and spend more on child care and the environment to woo ...
Australian Government to Cut Income TaxForbes, NY - 8 May 2007By ROD McGUIRK 05.08.07, 6:53 AM ET. Prime Minister John Howard's government unveiled on Tuesday an economic plan to cut income tax by 31.5 billion ...
Australian government to cut income taxBusinessWeek - 8 May 2007By ROD McGUIRK. Prime Minister John Howard's government unveiled on Tuesday an economic plan to cut income tax by 31.5 billion Australian dollars (US$25 ...
Australian Government to Cut Income TaxHouston Chronicle, TX - 8 May 2007By ROD McGUIRK AP Writer. © 2007 AP. CANBERRA, Australia — Prime Minister John Howard's government unveiled on Tuesday an economic plan to cut income tax by ...
The Treasurer's speechMelbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 8 May 2007Read a full copy of the Treasurer's official speech introducing the budget to Federal Parliament. Australia is different to the way it was 10 years ago. ...
Costello splurges on familiesMelbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 8 May 2007AVERAGE workers will get an extra $16 a week in their pay packet and most Australians will share in a string of cash handouts in a blockbuster Budget aimed ...
Budget fails the 'future test'The Australian, Australia - 8 May 2007Treasurer Peter Costello unveiled a voter-friendly pre-election Budget with tax cuts for all Australians, one-off payments to families, carers and aged ...
Tax cuts no threat to economyMelbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 8 May 2007By Colin Brinsden. TAX cuts worth $31.5 billion over the next four years are the centrepiece of Treasurer Peter Costello's 12th Budget, and he is confident ...
Costello's Budget bonanzaThe Australian, Australia - 8 May 2007By Neale Maynard and Paul Colgan. THE average worker will get an extra $16 a week in their pay packet and most Australians will share in a string of cash ...