Another Round Of The City The Girls The Delinquent Characters He Loved Them All

*

There was an infinity of loss, that was for sure, but equally in his startled and erratic psyche there were moments of peace, destiny, a profound surrender to these oh so short lives. You papa, you gaw, old man, many year, the boys would say, and he would laugh it off because what else could you do. Taking care of papa. There were many times when he could of, should have, sought something else. Timae? Why? Why you sad John I worry you, his old partner in crime would ask. And he would simply shrug. I want you happy. You happy me happy. They were both desolate and exhilarating times. He liked it most when the sky started to lighten and the never say die nocturnal animals would gather outside the karaoke bar. He was, as always in these situations, the only foreigner. They were kind to him. As Thais tended to be when they weren't tricking you out of money, or even when they were. As long as they got their share they were happy, and would protect you against yourself and the city's more ruthless denizens. The taxis lined up along the edge of the street outside the giant ramshackle brothels, the final customers spilling into the dawn, some of the men taking someone home with them. Little bit? the boy would say, and he would sigh in despair. He was too old for it all. He should have been home in bed tucked up with a nurse, or watching television, not inflicting his physical presence on this netherworld, night world he loved so much.

He watched the girls taking their final customers for the night. Some of them were drunk and not very attractive, pests really. He mostly ignored them if they tried to attract his attention, except to offer them some of whatever was on the table, whatever he had paid for this time. The cruelty of it was what got him, that these moments couldn't last for ever, these moments he alone was interested in, saw as the peak of the day, the week, his life. No one else did, as they amiably finished singing the final song of the night. And some of them would assure him the boy he was with was good. He like lady, whisky, mak mak, very much, they would tell him, as if he didn't know that already. Whisky and ladies were the test of a very fine fellow. Kow Jai mai kahb, do you understand? Not really. He had been cursed with an unusual temperament. It didn't really hold together in the light. It didn't match his body; now pohm poohey, plump, nor did it match his interior monologue, which was not about being old but wild, on the outer fringe of everything, stabbing into points of ecstasy, infinity, a profound love of urban landscapes, rotting, chaotic, crowded, the cute boys, well they were young men but everyone called them boys, milling outside the bar as the sun began to dapple the sky. They were up for anything. He knew exactly what they were like. They would spend most of the day asleep. They were always for sale. They were nearly always straight but could put on a show for money with few if any of the reservations common in the west. They were lazy and funny and thought everything was a great joke, especially each other, especially foreigners.

They made stupid comments about the departing girls. Most of them didn't have the 500 baht it would have taken to bed them briefly in the small, sweaty, smelly rooms upstairs. He paid the bill, as was his role. He watched his friend arguing with his girlfriend at a table outside. Timae, why? he heard him ask. She had come along to the karaoke bar at four a.m. with them and been sour the entire time they had been there. Perhaps she was shocked by the easy availability of the cheap girls; although why that should be a surprise in a city like Bangkok heaven only knows. And Thai men being the way they were, easy easy. The consternation, the regret that was in their faces as the final shards of night fled into the day! Everything had to end. They must known that. Small groups or couples wandered off into taxis. Some of the boys were having breakfast, or whatever it could be called, before wandering off home to sleep, to laze around in their flats and houses and get in the way of everybody else. Thai women all complained about how feckless, lazy and unfaithful their men were. Although even their harshest critics would often admit a sentence or two later that some of them were lough, handsome, a decorative addition to any home. He was back at meetings and even though in Bangkok they only lasted an hour they seemed to last forever; he couldn't stomach the bullshit. If you want what we have... The only people who do not get this simple program are those incapable of being honest with themselves. The worst piece of self serving logic. Sometimes he would just as rather have been outside those bars, watching the night turn into day and watching the final customers dissemble into the light, all pumped and happy with an adventure on every lip. Sandy had just got back from London and New York. You live the life, he commented. I do, she smiled. He climbed off his new bike. Doesn't the traffic worry you? she asked. It's alarming, he replied, completely alarming, adding, I miss Maria. She kind of adopted me after I called the meetings a cult. Now she was off in Rome, making a whole lot of noise in a whole different place. Yes, I miss her too, Sandy said, a wizened, wise and wealthy old thing. You going upstairs, she asked, gesturing at the Bangkok Christian Guest house. Yes, he said with what could not be called bracing enthusiasm; at the same time asking the passing parking attendant, tinae, where? See you up there, Sandy said, while the parking attendant gestured to a space behind the cars. He was the only one who knew those dawns, those karaoke places, the places where working class Thai men went to relax, drink, flirt, gossip, get their rocks off and "sing a song".

Upstairs in the Bangkok Christian Guest House he could barely sit still long enough, could barely wait for the hour to be over. One day everything he loved so much would last forever, all his peculiar yearnings frozen in an instant. One day time would stand still, for him, for everybody his strange desires were populated with, those people he embraced for friendship, companionship, love, sex, amusement, curiosity, to satisfy his peculiar eye for beauty amongst the dishevelled denizens as they departed into the dawn, into this most fascinating, most alluring of cities.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/pm-caves-on-broadband-details/story-fn59niix-1225960509953

JULIA Gillard has buckled to political pressure from independent senators to save Labor's proposed National Broadband Network.

The PM has abandoned her refusal to release the business case for the massive communications project.

After insisting last week that information in the business case was "commercial in confidence", the Prime Minister yesterday released a summary of the document to secure support from independent senators for a bill that would deliver structural separation of Telstra and pave the way for the NBN.

It was clear last night that senators Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding would support the legislation, ensuring its passage when it is put to a vote today.

Senator Fielding says the NBN would transform the health and education sectors and could even lead to the establishment of a free online university.

"I strongly believe that technology, including telecommunications infrastructure, is a vital building block for any advanced economy that wants to remain competitive in a global market," he will tell the Senate today.

The breakthrough in winning over the independent senators came as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy last night revealed that the basic internet access package offered under the NBN would provide download speeds of 12mbps, which is already available through ADSL.

However, Senator Conroy refused to reveal the price of the basic package.

Buoyed by her success, Ms Gillard last night used an address to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to champion the NBN as a fundamental economic reform that would transform the nation's economy. With parliament due to rise for the year this afternoon, Ms Gillard has been racing to round up crossbench support for the Telstra legislation. She was aware that not securing its passage would be portrayed as a failure in her first major negotiation over legislation since she became Prime Minister in June.

Government sources said last night her about-face was evidence of the Prime Minister's deft negotiation skills.

Senator Xenophon, who extracted the concession, said he had forced the government to a compromise.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull said the business case summary was inadequate, short on detail and little more than "a sop" to win the support of independents.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has struggled for weeks to win approval for the Telstra legislation.

He conceded last night that the bungled attempt to impose seven-year gag orders -- later revised to two weeks -- on MPs who were given access to the NBN business case was the brainchild of "some very eager officials in some of the departments".

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/pentagon-contradicts-obama-on-war-gains/story-e6frg6so-1225960415155

A PENTAGON report has warned that coalition forces are making little headway against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Violence was at an all-time high as insurgents capitalised on NATO plans to hand over security to Afghan troops by 2014.

The Pentagon assessment, which talks of "uneven" progress in the war against the Afghan extremists, appears to contradict assurances by President Barack Obama last week that the insurgency was in decline.

Its release heaps further embarrassment on the White House a day after it was revealed the main Taliban protagonist in recent reconciliation talks with the Afghan government was not, as he claimed to be, the insurgents' No 2 commander, Mullah Akthar Muhammad Mansour, but a Pakistani shopkeeper from Quetta.

Initial reports suggested the man had been paid large sums of money and given safe passage by NATO forces to Kabul for the talks and was even granted a meeting with President Hamid Karzai - which the presidential palace denied yesterday. The Taliban yesterday gloated over the ruse, with spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi telling reporters: "The Americans and their allies are very stupid and anyone could fool them."

The US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, denied the US had been duped. "There was scepticism about one of these all along and it may well be that scepticism was well-founded," he said, adding the revelations, reported in The New York Times, were no surprise to either US or Afghan intelligence agencies.

US and Afghan officials had previously stressed any discussions between Taliban commanders and Afghan officials were simply "talks about talks", designed to sound out trusted Taliban conduits.

Although the impostor's motives remain unclear, Afghan officials yesterday suggested he may have been sent by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency to see what Afghans would offer.

The issue highlights the complexities involved in coalition efforts to exit Afghanistan through a negotiated settlement, just as the Pentagon assessment underscores the difficulties of fighting an enemy now preying on locals' fears of an imminent NATO withdrawal. The report, which assessed progress from April to September 30, found cause for optimism in coalition forces' ability to "localise" the insurgency in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, where the US military surge focused its efforts. But it was pessimistic about the prospects of a further Pakistani crackdown on militant sanctuaries within its territory, despite increased co-operation between the US and Pakistani military.

Leaders at last weekend's NATO summit agreed in principle to Mr Karzai's demands that security for the country be handed over to Afghan forces by late 2014 or 2015. But evidence of mass corruption in September's parliamentary elections - a year after Mr Karzai was re-elected in a poll widely condemned as rigged - has done little to boost confidence in the Afghan administration.

http://storage.koinup.com/090430x144905/144905-6.jpg

blog.koinup.com

Well...

*

Well the book was finished. Chaos At The Crossroads. He lost track of time. Had barely slept for ten days; or was it more. Two weeks? Twenty days? He couldn't remember now. He had spent twenty hours a day at the computer and it ultimately came in at 176,000 words, twice the length of the average novel. He first began it in 2004 and an early draft had been up on the web ever since. It was a time to finish things. To forget old obsessions. To move on. But this was beyond obsession, beyond hard work, in a different place, really. Rats scuttled through the grass. The boy stared at him bewildered. He would never be the same again. Not ever. You broke my frozen heart; that was more or less what he said. I know you like me. You old man. Papa. Sure. I like you. Always have, always will. This strange obsession with street boys as they climbed, climbed. She have power over you, he observed. After, after, hah bee, sip bee, five, ten years, she will be big, gangster. You, too, careful, careful,, mai koowey, no talk, never say anything to anybody, just progress, climb. You still very handsome, he said. It was true, unfortunately. He had sacrificed everything. Every element of common sense. Nothing changed. He had changed. It was all wrong. It was his fault. He understood that now.

There were days when he could hear the engines of every motor cycle as they passed the house along the narrow soi, or passed up along the even narrower alleyway beside the house. He could never identify which was which. He was waiting, haunted. You old man, I can do, sometimes, business. You good to me. Falang, foreigner, they like me. In the bar, many, many boy, working, no customer. Me, on the street, I have falang. Sure, sure. He took the news of competing interests in good cheer. He could see that there were many ways clear to a foreign future. That he had made serious mistakes. That if not unfaithful in body he was unfaithful in mind. That he treated the boy as if he was an impediment, which he was to a large degree. The house was beautiful. Everything was beautiful. But he was not happy. He couldn't indulge in his most demented fantasies. Pretty, sure, passionate, never. He could hear the contempt drifting down the line as he made up yet another excuse why he wasn't home. Moi, moi, he said dismissively. Whatever. He sat on the second floor of the Bangkok Christian Guest House and could see a million reasons why he shouldn't be there. The only people who don't get this simple program are those incapable of honesty, he heard for the hundred thousandth time, this self serving and ludicrous logic, if you don't agree with us you are dishonest, sure, whatever you say, and he listened to the Americans droning on. How on earth did they do it? He would never know.

The over-arching fly ways, the crumbling windows, the dirty curtains which had never looked out on any more than an indiscriminate industrial scene, the massive concrete station which had never been opened. He thought of trying to ask timmmae, why, what, as they whisked down the street past that strange empty billboarded concrete edifice which must have cost quite a considerable sum to have even got it that far, millions of baht, thousands of hours, the fallanxes of concrete, even the parking station with the sign: "Cars this way." He always passed that empty, unfinished station on the way to some pointless, obsessional, delinquent assignation. The girl friend was never far away; and even she had come to accept him as someone with problems but best of all, a foreigner always prepared to pay whatever price was demanded. He had no personal integrity or self worth left. Yet he had finished the book. Crazy as it was. Mad as it was. In the large font he had been working in, it came in at over 1,000 pages. Beautiful, he said of the finished project, as if any of the working boys he was talking to had the slightest idea of what he was talking about. Make money? That's what they were interested in. Well not entirely. There were various scandals. Him being one of them. But if in all those rivulets, all those strange corridors, all those uncompleted passageways and side pathways leading nowhere there had been at least some breath of humanity, something that could be passed on, he would have been happy. As it was, the chance of anyone relating to this distant state of mind was remote. Yes, I love her, the boy said. Yes, I can see, he said. She has power over you. What was money then, if it was not power? Come take me apart, corrupted heart. The lights of the fashionable restaurant reflected across the hovering staff, and for a moment, just a moment, he stared into those dark, tricky eyes. You understand me, the boy asked. Sure, he replied, sure.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/turnbull-to-make-a-quid-out-of-nbn--swan-20101122-182ww.html

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull privately supports the National Broadband Network, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

It has been revealed that Mr Turnbull owns $10 million worth of shares in technology company Melbourne IT, which stands to profit from the NBN.

Mr Swan said he didn't believe what Mr Turnbull was publicly saying about the NBN.

"Publicly Mr Turnbull says he wants to demolish the NBN and privately he wants to make a quid out of it," Mr Swan told Fairfax Radio Network on Monday.

"That just demonstrates the absolute hypocrisy of the Liberal Party when it comes to the NBN.

"Mr Turnbull is simply doing what Mr Abbott told him to do, which is demolish it, when he thinks privately it's a real goer."

Mr Swan also said it would be irresponsible to reveal the business plan for the network now.

"We've got some advice yet to come from the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) at the points of interconnection, that doesn't come until the end of the month," he said.

"When that's with us cabinet can take a decision on the business plan.

"But until we do that ... you simply cannot release it, it wouldn't be responsible."

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/a-tilt-of-the-head-can-lure-a-mate-20101121-182en.html

Forget diamonds, fine dining and romantic walks in the sunset, all it takes to lure a mate is a tilt of the head, according to new research.

By simply tilting their face forward a woman's face can be judged to be more feminine and more attractive, whereas a man's face is considered more attractive when tilted backwards, this latest research has found.

Dr Darren Burke and Dr Danielle Sulikowski are the husband and wife team behind the research, which has been carried out at the University of Newcastle and Macquarie University.

While a lot is known already on the influence of feminine and masculine features on attractiveness, there is a gap in the evolutionary origin of what is considered masculine and feminine about facial features, according to Dr Burke.

"Our research investigated if looking at the face from different perspectives as a result of the height differential between men and women influenced perceived masculinity or femininity," he said.

"The research found the way we angle our faces affects our attractiveness to the opposite sex."

Typically taller than women, men view women's faces from above so a female face was deemed more attractive when tilted forward, simulating this perspective.

The opposite was then true for men whose faces were judged more masculine and attractive when tilted backwards as though they were viewed from below.

Dr Sulikowski said these findings offer some clues to help unravel "the mysteries of mateship rituals" in this century.

"The next step is to determine if people use this effect in real-world mate-attraction scenarios," she said.

The findings are published in the latest edition of Evolutionary Psychology.

survivalistboards.com

Try Again

*

Everything went every which way. Scattered origins, scattered futures, boys idling away the day in back sois. He would never be one of them; that he knew now. Although he still envied, sometimes, Baw's great ability to get lost in the karaoke bars of Bangkok, to get lost in the whisky and laughter and fine scale attempts to divide the heavenly divides. The policeman in the corner. The handsome, should that be pretty, girl in his lap. He had always been the only foreigner. Always. In these places no foreigner ever saw. And even now, when he sat amongst them and watched them touting for customers, it seemed that the French or the Europeans or whoever they were, ugly as sin to a man, never even acknowledged his presence as they were ushered inside. Often enough they would emerge shortly afterwards, underwhelmed or overwhelmed, it was difficult to tell, because they were suddenly the only customer in a bar of semi-naked, increasingly desperate boys. The nights wore on and customers were scarce.

So when he was overcharged for drinks, for their endless cokes and soda one night his reaction was immediate and angry. He wasn't an ordinary customer in any ordinary sense. He wasn't looking at the boys. He wasn't taking any of them home. He had been blind sided yet all these things were a terrible waste. Wasn't there a better life than sitting in a back street watching male prostitutes peddle their wares. He wasn't so sure. Even the strange light that played upon the buildings seemed immensely beautiful. Some where's, some why's. Some of the places in between. A broiling sky, a dark conscience, a soothing sanity. It had all been a terrible mistake. Once the darkness fell there was no way out. Once Christmas dawned he could only hope for compromise. Perhaps he really should be prepared to reach out, to stroke his hand along the fabric of things, to engage in the discourse, to surrender, confess, reveal. Not bloody likely, he thought. Not for you bunch.

In the land of endless compromise, in the land of hungry ghosts, all of it shed for weakness all of it shred for strength, he couldn't help but pine for something more profound. Sure he paid them. Looking for love in all the wrong places. But then he knew that already. He watched the trissy boy he didn't particularly like with his new customer. French. Old. Gaw mak mak as his own companion whispered to him. Very old. He knew the boy didn't like foreigners. They made him sick. He had told him once he was allergic to them, like allergic to a cat. If he stayed with them for more than three or four days he became ill. Yet there he was acting all friendly to the French man, boyfriend. The European seemed clearly besotted, massaging the neck of his victim with what appeared to be affection. He watched them as they disappeared down the soi. That was one thought that was not erotic. There was darkness in the buildings all around; all the office workers had gone home; and the only life was in the ground floor level bars, Nature Boys, Night Boys, the Golden Cock, the disco Hot Male Station slowly stirring into life as midnight approached. I want to go home, he declared loudly to the boy, demanding the keys. He had suddenly had enough of it all.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-ruffles-feathers-to-be-in-clinton-limelight-20101109-17m2c.html

Kevin Rudd gatecrashed the special ABC television broadcast with Hillary Clinton on the weekend, demanding a place in the heavily promoted event to share the limelight with the US Secretary of State, an official said.

Mr Rudd's last-minute decision to attend the town hall-style meeting sent organisers at the ABC, the Foreign Affairs Department and US embassy into a spin - coming only hours before the event was due to be recorded.

Mr Rudd was not scheduled to be among the VIP guests at the recording, which included Australia's ambassador in Washington, Kim Beazley, the businessman Hugh Morgan, Melbourne University's vice-chancellor, Glyn Davis, and the US ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich.

Advertisement: Story continues below
But after a dinner with Mrs Clinton on Saturday night, Mr Rudd insisted he attend. An Australian official familiar with the event said Mr Rudd had stridently demanded plans be changed to include him. ''The behaviour was disgusting and he deserves to be called on it,'' the official told The Age.

There was confusion that Mr Rudd was actually asking to be seated on stage alongside Mrs Clinton and the ABC host, Leigh Sales, for the broadcast dubbed, Hillary Rodham Clinton: An Australian Conversation. This threatened to undo the careful planning for the recording, which involved some six camera positions spread among an audience of about 450 in a Melbourne University lecture theatre.

But Mr Rudd has denied he or his staff asked for a seat on stage. ''No, not at all. I didn't ask to go on the stage at all,'' he told The 7.30 Report on Monday.

''I said to Hillary, 'Oh, you're going to the university tomorrow? That's terrific. I know the vice-chancellor. I'd like to come along and have a look. That's terrific.'''

Mrs Clinton has made a habit of engaging in televised special conversations with younger audiences around the region, including in Cambodia and Indonesia.

She has never previously shared the stage with another foreign minister. Mr Rudd described as a ''bit of mischief'' suggestions he sought a place on stage.

He arrived early at the event and walked up and down the aisle, shaking hands with the audience. He then took a seat in the front row and later attended a morning tea hosted by Melbourne University Asialink following the recording.

After a hectic two days of meetings, where Mrs Clinton repeatedly praised him for his expert knowledge of foreign affairs, Mr Rudd has now fallen ill.

On medical advice, he has pulled out of attending a regional summit in Japan, with the Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, to represent Australia in his place.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/rudd-waged-war-on-alp-howes/story-fn59niix-1225948549170

PAUL Howes has accused Kevin Rudd of being responsible for the damaging leaks against Labor during the federal election campaign.

He claimed the "vindictive" former prime minister waged a "dirty war" designed to wreck the ALP's bid for re-election.

Mr Howes also revealed how Mr Rudd privately briefed union leaders at Kirribilli House on Labor's planned mining tax several weeks before the government announced the plan in May this year, and prior to the mining industry being told.

In Confessions Of a Faceless Man, his inside account of the election campaign, Mr Howes wrote that he became so angry about Mr Rudd's alleged behaviour, he drafted a set of charges against the former prime minister to justify expelling him from the party. He never filed them.

By the second week of the campaign, Mr Howes wrote, he believed Mr Rudd was responsible for the leaks that were damaging Julia Gillard. "It seems that the same person who leaked last night's story to Laurie Oakes has now given similar quotes to Peter Hartcher at The Sydney Morning Herald. It firms up my suspicion that Rudd is waging a dirty war against the Labor Party."

Mr Howes, the national secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, who played a role in the Prime Minister toppling Mr Rudd in June, wrote how his mood of depression about the leaks "morphed into outright anger".

"I now believe that Rudd is doing everything he can to wreck the campaign," he wrote.

Mr Howes recounted a mid-campaign encounter with former Liberal Party Victorian president Michael Kroger, who told him: "You guys are gone, mate".

"His rationale is that the recent leaks are just a preview of what's to come," Mr Howes wrote.

"He is positive that Rudd is behind them and that, as an outsider without any loyalty to the party, Rudd will do all he can to destroy our chances at the election. I think he's right."

At this time, Mr Howes's depression had become "overwhelming". "I'm now certain that Labor has lost," he wrote.

"(Tony) Abbott will become prime minister not because of some major mood for change among the Australian people, nor some ambitious policy that has captured their imagination, but because of the vindictiveness of a former Labor prime minister who is determined to make sure that, if he can't be PM, then no one else on our side can be either.

"I throw myself into my work for a few hours, but then my mind turns to the election again and I draft a set of charges against Kevin to justify expelling him from the party. I'll never file them, but it makes me feel better."

Mr Howes said that Labor faced "electoral annihilation" under Mr Rudd, with an internal party poll taken four days before the leadership change on June 24 showing the ALP would have lost 23 seats, with another nine going either way.

A spokesman for Mr Rudd declined to comment yesterday on Mr Howes's claims, referring to the Foreign Minister's previous comments that while people were entitled to write books about the election, he would not participate.

http://lh4.ggpht.com

Tahm Peet

*

At lest he had learnt a new Thai word, Tahm Peet, mistake. Maybe that was something. Anything. Everything crashed. Fire streaks falling to the ground. The battle scarred regions. The place where we would never be the same again. Shadows were everywhere. He had repudiated the light; for no particular reason except it wasn't him. Perhaps he just wasn't designed for happiness. Stupid things to say. Everything came falling down. Those cheap hotels in decaying parts of Bangkok, my God they were sleazy. Short time. Short time indeed. Well that was the mood he woke up in. Nothing worked, nothing came. In a nice house with a nice boy; and all he could wonder... Johnny Cash droned in the background. Before my time... before my time. If there was any blessed way to escape. Any way to make any bigger mistakes. Any way to encompass change. Things which should have been so easy never were. A time which should of been of peace and joy, haunted by doubt. He could smell his own foreign smell on his shirt even after a few short hours. The Thais didn't seem to smell at all, and if they did he delighted in that sniff that passed as a kiss. Gary lay down on the cool tiled floor, causing great uncomfortability to the boy who had grown up trying to keep his head below every superior person. But there wasn't any way you could get below someone lying on the floor.

To be sure, there were other ways of doing things. He had experienced them in brief interludes for years now; the sunshine streaking through the window, making the laptop hard to see. The quiet peace that was their lot. The days that were both triumphant and decimated. The mistakes that crowded in. The bottle of duty free vodka his friend had left and which they put in the kitchen as if it was some sort of sauce. And which he kept staring at, wondering. Sometimes he would take the lid off and smell it, like petrol. The squirrels jumped from tree to tree. All around the working class suburbs stretched out into a foreign world. He could never make his way. There were other things that would answer through the ether. Brown sugar. The Happy Hippy. Hey mister, you want something. The Aqua Pan Club virtually next door. Massage boys. Promised delight. If only he could be contained in a simple physical body. Already time was mustered. Their random coughs. Their collapsing lungs. The way things were going to end. The recovery process. The partitioned fence. Tahm Peet, mistake, that's all it was. Everything.

He should have gone and lived in the hills. He should have gone and done the typical tourist thing and lived down on the islands. He could see everything come swirling down. He was mad, mad with it. The stupid regret. One day it wouldn't seem so bad, but that wasn't today. Right now he was full of regret and self recrimination. It wasn't very useful. Everyone made mistakes. Particularly here. They're masters, he had been warned, at getting your money out of your pocket; why, why had he paid no attention. It was a silly thing. The regret went on for days. Everything was wrong. At least the previous boy was going to the islands to see his family, and therefore wouldn't be calling him all the time. Suggesting one thing or another. It wasn't the new boy's fault. Boys do what boys do. He'd always liked it himself when some old queen bought him a car; and he flashed around Sydney in one of the smartest little sports cars of the era. It just seemed his destiny. He never thought it odd. It was his role, his place, his due. Of course. Let them pay a high price to touch him. It was only right. And then he'd jump in the sports car and drive a thousand kilometres a week because he could never sit still; up and down the coast, from friend to friend. Manipulative little thing, some suggested. So damn what. Bye bye. There was always another on the pile; fawning, desperate if not desperately sad. Let them pay. If they're that stupid that's their problem.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A35MR20101104

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama seems to be in denial about the full meaning of congressional elections in which Republicans made big gains, Republican leader John Boehner said on Thursday.

Boehner is likely to become speaker of the House of Representatives after Republicans routed Democrats in Tuesday's elections and picked up at least 60 seats, the biggest shift in power in decades.

"There seems to be some denial on the part of the president and other Democratic leaders of the message that was sent by the American people," Boehner told ABC News.

"When you have the most historic election in over 60, 70 years, you would think the other party would understand that the American people have clearly repudiated the policies they've put forward in the last few years," he said.

Obama said on Wednesday that the election results were a reflection of frustration by Americans at the sour economy and an appeal for the two parties to work together.

Boehner appeared to take issue with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has said Republicans' top goal should be ensuring Obama is a one-term president.

"That's Senator McConnell's statement and his opinion," Boehner said. "I think the American people want us to focus on their message during the election: stop the spending, get rid of the uncertainty. Let's get around to creating jobs again and staying focused on what the American people want us to focus on is my number one priority."

ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer asked Boehner if he would agree to what Obama has jokingly called a "Slurpee summit."

A Slurpee is a flavored ice drink that Obama famously referred to on the campaign trail by saying Republicans were standing by idly sipping them while Democrats struggled to get the economy going.

"I don't know about a Slurpee. How about a glass of merlot?" Boehner replied.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/1104/After-shellacking-can-foreign-policy-be-a-bright-spot-for-Obama

The midterm elections this week were far and away about domestic economic concerns, but President Obama is likely to feel the impact of Tuesday’s Republican tide on a number of foreign-policy issues, ranging from trade to Afghanistan.

On Asia trip, Obama to get an earful about China
Obama calls midterm elections a 'shellacking' for Democrats
But foreign policy may also present a wounded president with a silver lining, some presidential analysts say.

Mr. Obama is going to have to present the American people with a standout success as he makes a case for reelection in 2012, they argue – and his room to maneuver such a feather into his cap is going to be wider on the international than on the domestic front.

“Presidents always have more leeway in foreign policy than they do on the domestic agenda,” says Brent Scowcroft, who was national security adviser to the first President Bush and President Ford and who remains a leading expert on international affairs. “This president may find his opportunities largely in the field of foreign policy because of his difficulties with the new Congress.”

An Obama who could present the American electorate with a breakthrough deal with Iran, or better yet a done Middle East peace deal that guarantees both Israel’s peace and security and a viable Palestinian state, could restore his stature with the US public.

But in the short term, Obama’s foreign-policy agenda may present almost as many pitfalls and opportunities for setbacks as does the domestic front, some foreign-policy analysts contend.

Picture: Peter Newman.

He Woke Up

*

He woke up feeling like a shot of vodka and a cigarette, worried by the mere mortality of everything, and thought: you're just so crazy. The vodka was not a good idea on top of liver disease. The cigarette was not a good idea on top of emphysema. Why would he want to destroy what they had worked so hard to create? This perfect house, this perfect life. The handsome boy who took care of everything. The garden in the middle of Bangkok, so that he never wanted to go out. Suddenly, after being stupid enough to let the boy talk him into buying a car he did not need, he was desperately worried about money. His ideas of wafting away at the Happy Hippy when the money ran out seemed all the more immediate. Calcutta. The dead zone. Honestly John, some days I think a lot about taking myself out, Gary said after flying in from some disastrous situation in the Phillipines. Put it off till tomorrow, he advised airily, as in, I feel like a drink, put it off till tomorrow. Put off disaster for another 24 hours. It's just a daily program. Today is all we have. Blah blah blah.

Gary wrote:

"The black dog awaits my every move. It stands as a sentry of the devil in front of me. If I dare go left it goes to its right, to my right it goes to its left. It is uncompromising. It is there to wear me down, to see that my destruction comes to a completion at my own hands. It has fun in its abuse of my mental faculties.
It amuses itself by giving me nano-second glimpses of life being alright before it launches its assault on my self-esteem, my feelings of hoplessness of my future, helplessness to take action, thoughts of my body image, and finally urges to take the action to depart this world.
It further amuses itself by having the victim try to explain himself to some Asian half-wit who thinks I am down because my Thai gf (pro) dropped me, that your silly romance theory has norhing to do with this. It is impossible to explain the concept of the disease in this portion of the world. "Drink mango, you'll have your eyes white, teeth bright, and makes childbirthin' a pleasure. Plus it good for lines on face."
I will call you when my phone charges."

So he sat here watching the native squirrels do their little morning escapade along the electric wires. The birds twittering in the trees. The luxury, seemingly empty houses coming into view. He could never understand why he had gone so far down. Why the light was not more enticing. Why he found himself yet again the only foreigner in a cheap hotel in a decaying part of Bangkok tourists never saw; with cheap porn playing on the television. Short stay hotels. A buffalo woman trying to charge them extra because he was a foreigner. The boy wasn't having a bar of the buffalo, and went straight to the front desk. He alighted from the bike he had paid for and stood there impervious. Nothing was anybody's business. Everything was going crazy. So he came home soiled from unhappy sex in cheap hotels; back into the garden and the fully equipped house and the handsome, considerate boy and thought: why risk everything? Why bother with the dark adventures of the dark lords? Surely you're too old now? His defences were down. He let the boy talk him into buying a car he did not need for twice what he had been prepared to spend; and thought, why, why. Perhaps it was guilt. Only he suffered when his money ran out. Everyone else in this seething city moved on to another warm body. Time was never going to stand this still. But it had. And now he wanted safety. Reform. Another heart.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Credible-terrorist-threat-against-our-country-Obama/articleshow/6839360.cms

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has said there is "credible terrorist threat" against America after two suspicious packages, containing explosives material, were found in cargo jets originating in Yemen with two Jewish centers in Chicago-area being their destinations.

There has been a "credible terrorist threat against our country" Obama told reporters at a hurriedly convened White House press conference after he was briefed by his top intelligence officials and national security aid on the latest terrorist threat to the US.

Obama was first informed about it at about 10-35 pm on Thursday and has been updated on the developing plot throughout.

The Administration will not spare any efforts in investigating the origins of the suspicious package, he said.

Obama said agencies have "identified two suspicious packages bound for the United States, specifically, two places of Jewish worship in Chicago."

The packages were identified in Dubai and Britain, he said.

"Initial examination of those packages has determined that they do apparently contain explosive material," he said.

In his statement, Obama vows to take "whatever steps are necessary to protect our citizens of this type of attack," and he announces that there will be "additional screening" of some planes in Newark and Philadelphia.

More "protective measures" will be taken for "as long as it takes," he said.

http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2010/oct/29/3/perriello-obama-must-renew-past-virginia-magic-ar-616891/

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - On a cold, clear late October evening, an excited, standing-room crowd waited for hours in a downtown outdoor amphitheater waiting for a glimpse of Barack Obama.

That was exactly three years ago, when the Illinois senator was a long shot for the Democratic presidential nomination and a deeply unpopular Republican was in the White House.

On Friday night, President Obama returned to the same venue to campaign for Rep. Tom Perriello, an endangered freshman Democrat running in a moderate-to-conservative rural district with their party now unpopular.

It's the first trip Obama has made in the 2010 midterm elections for a House candidate, and a gamble that the president's visit will motivate more uncertain voters to support Perriello on Tuesday than those who favor Hurt.

In 2008, Perriello edged deeply wounded Republican Rep. Virgil Goode by 727 votes out of more than 300,000 cast in the Democratic sweep of Virginia that Obama led. Now, polls show Republican Robert Hurt slightly ahead. But both campaigns concede that the race has tightened in the past few weeks.

Joan Wicks of Charlottesville was among several thousand people who waited for hours to see Obama at the Charlottesville Pavilion, just as she had to three years ago when another overflow crowd included children costumed for Halloween trick-or-treating.

"Oh, there's no shortage of enthusiasm here. There's as much as there was that night. Really, I think there's more," said Wicks, who canvassed door-to-door for Obama's campaign in 2008 and did the same for Perriello this fall.

What Obama must do for Perriello, Wicks said, is persuade the thousands of young, new voters he energized two years ago that the reforms they wanted will be reversed unless they show up at the polls for Perriello next week.

Greg Varney of Charlottesville was also in the pavilion three years ago when Obama spoke. The Navy veteran said that even with Obama at his side, Perriello has a tough task persuading an impatient and frustrated public that the Democrats policy priorities can still rescue a floundering economy.

"The general public is buying the political rhetoric," Varney said. "People have been led to think that you can turn things around instantly. You can't turn it around in a year, or even a couple of years."