Well, yes, they can.

They have demonstrated they have utterly no understanding of this part of the world, how it operates, or what drives its politics.

I was in Syria for the 03 invasion of Iraq,?

Sorry, I just wet myself a lot about the Arcade Fire.

BUT, did anyone else notice that they'd skimped on an entire speaker stack on the main stage this year? It left the sound very muddy on the left side. I certainly hope?

hope they tour NZ again sometime soon

Have to say I just don't get LCD Soundsystem. What's to like?

Here's a fascinating glimpse into what the current neo-conservative viewpoint is on?

Have to say I just don't get LCD Soundsystem. What's to like?

'All My Friends'? Or, more particularly, the mighty cover of it they got John Cale(!) to record for the single?

I presume they'll be playing in the tent, so there'll be loadsa techno fun to be had.

OTOH,?

Here's a fascinating glimpse into what the current neo-conservative viewpoint is on the prospects of an attack on Iran – presumably this way of thinking has at least some currency within the administration.

Wow. That's optimism to the point of certifiable insanity:

Let's look downstream the day after and observe?

I feel so alienated.

The war in Iraq is already a proxy war on Iran because of the Shia connections – real and imagined and that is patently not working.

The story also touches on what the Bush Cultists happily refer to as "the miracle of Anbar" — wherein the Americans have solved the?

and how about radiohead releasing their new album for free? i don't know if that's a very smart business model.

Yes, I think Radiohead need to have a serious talk with their accountant. They really ought to release the album on CD, then six months later release a "special edition"?

Peter W. Galbraith goes into detail about how the invasion of Iraq has been a strategic gain for Iran.

As usual, Galbraith is superb. The day's other required reading.

I can understand why the BDO is easier to deal with!

I'm reading Ben Elton's 'First Casualty' at present. The hero objects to the first world war and refuses to fight because of the economies of scale involved. He can cope with an individual injustice but slaughter of a whole?

After all, they have history of blowing up nuclear reactors, and if earlier reports are anything to go by, have already drafted their own plans for knocking Iran's nuclear?

Vietnam analogy – the current US strategy in Iraq is a little like supporting Ho Chi Minh against Diem to prevent China from increasing its influence in the region.

and how about radiohead releasing their new album for free? i don't know if that's a very smart business model.

on the contrary..uber smart.
a) they are giving away only the first part of it
b)Radiohead fans are fanatical
c)everybody is talking about it
d) the CD package (for 40?

Me and a dutchman had a huge debate with them into the night. We kept oputting it to?

A female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time.

So she went to check it out. She went to?

Doesn't giving it away signify that you couldn't actually sell many copies? It may be a smart move but only for someone that no longer has the market power they once had. Is everyone really talking about Radiohead's giveaway – yes I know I am but only about?

Doesn't giving it away signify that you couldn't actually sell many copies? It may be a smart move but only for someone that no longer has the market power they once had.

I was walking through campus last week, and two attractive young women offered me a can of coke.?

Although in an email to my mate I lamented the fact that there is no mention for a solo gig in NZ. They have still never played solo in NZ despite strong album sales here.

I have a?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123803

Wishlist/predictions: QOTSA, Wilco, Klaxons, Ricardo Villalobos

Be keen to hear other people's forecasts/wishlists...

Prince has always?

But it comes back to the point. He gave it away because it was worth more to him than selling it.

But a hell of a loss leader, you must admit. The thing about Prince is that he's managed to increase his live take year in and year out since?

Be keen to hear other people's forecasts/wishlists...

One thing that's a bit of a problem with the BDO is that the lineup is always contingent on Australian tastes — which means very little reggae. I'd dearly love to see Damian Marley play again — his St James show last year?

One of the lowest points in modern music has gotta be the Pink Floyd reunion – a bunch of leathery skinned sixty-year olds who've spent the last twenty years collecting sports cars and suing each other singing (very badly) about the perils?

And I'll take a big punt now and say that Simian Mobile Disco will also appear in the tent.

And/or Justice per chance...?

It?s hard to get a handle on how reliable his anonymous ?former intelligence? sources are, if they do exist. But if they aren?t just making things up to sound important once again then they must?

I did especially like this paragraph

The scale of the American miscalculation is striking. Before the Iraq war began, its neoconservative architects argued that conferring power on Iraq's Shiites would serve to undermine Iran because Iraq's Shiites, controlling the?

Hersh is either working for the Cheney team or lives in a land of make-believe.

Really? Since either choice is ridiculous to anyone who's followed his career, can we have option c/ "Neil has no idea what he's talking about."
(Ok the dirty double-bluff idea is amusing. We know Kissenger?

Hersh is either working for the Cheney team or lives in a land of make-believe.

He's generally been on the money. He reported years ago that Saddam had offered, via the Egytptians, to vacate Iraq before the invasion — which was confirmed this month.

It?s hard to get a handle?

For?

Ricardo Villalobos

on the BDO... slap me silly, now that would be amusing

I was expecting a rather flat lineup and must admit I am pleased to say its not

Arcade Fire are meant to be off the hook live

Bush started?

Bjork seems to have stolen the show.

Also playing: LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire.

I'll go out on a limb and guess that the BDO lineup might look a bit similar. In which case, come on down M.I.A., Peter,?

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG Squee!

Sorry, I just wet myself a lot about the Arcade Fire.

Likewise. Thank god they're playing Sydney too! I've been hanging out to see them for ages.

__Stratfor has seen indications that Iran is planning to up the ante in Iraq by supplying its militant proxies with shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). These man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) are short range and are only able to shoot down?

I would never rely on anything Hersh reported

So let's pretend Mai Lai never happened, and Cheney just wants to make friends with Iran. While we're at it, can I sell you the latest radiohead album?

I hear they're also planning to burn down the German Parliament.

I'm listening to Prince as I type, but even I accept that he is past his peak as a power in music

naaaaah..... 3120 was very, very strong.

Once upon a time, the tour promoted the album which paid the cheque that built the house the rock star lived in. In the download age, its become the other way round.

That happened a long time before downloads. As long ago as the 80s and 90s bands would find?

I'll go out on a limb and guess that the BDO lineup might look a bit similar. In which case, come on down M.I.A., Peter, Bjorn and John, and Wilco.

If this turns out to be true, I will have a nervous breakdown trying to negotiate all of my band?

Whosoever Stratfor are, he/they/it sound ignorant.

A right wing analyst in, I think Texas, who has quite a reputation for, uhhh, getting it wrong. They make all sorts of predictions which rarely come to pass, and make all sorts of claims to inside information which they clearly do not have?

Not only did the Petreaus report reset the clock so Bush can have a large troop presence in Iraq until the end of his term

One assumes you are taking the proverbial...outside the hard right, who needed something, nobody bit. Being generous James, it was twaddle, made up, manipulated tosh..and?

- The purpose of the war is to position the US in the heart of the region, so as to be able to bring to bear overwhelming pressure on surrounding?

He's generally been on the money. He reported years ago that Saddam had offered, via the Egytptians, to vacate Iraq before the invasion — which was confirmed this month.

But he was wrong. Exile was offered to Saddam and he refused. I'm surprised this is news. In the [[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/21/iraq/main541427.shtml|Dan Rather?

Anything else I can clear up for you?

Just the bit where in the Dan Rather interview Saddam refuses exile. From the horses mouth. No intermediaries.

He was given that option, it was given a lot of attention at the time –

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/17/sprj.irq.main/

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/622/eg1.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/2003/01/31/policy_ed3__4.php

http://www.iht.com/articles/2003/03/18/a1_21.php

it's just that he?

The actual result was basically?

Just the bit where in the Dan Rather interview Saddam refuses exile. From the horses mouth. No intermediaries.

But we know Saddam was a a boastful liar. Was he really going to surrender on camera in an interview with an American TV network?

I think the El Pais transcript is?

OTOH, given recent statements from the French leadership ...

They've nobbled Brown and Sarkozy, clever bastards. Watch out RB.

I think that should play a part in everyone's thinking as the ad campaign for the next adventure rolls out.

yeah it does, be assured.

dangerous fruit loop # 1, John Bolton

Isn't he just?

I saw the end of a TV interview between Bolton and John Pilger a few years ago, just after Dubya went into Iraq.

Pilger asked some question that Bolton didn't like. Bolton's reply was – and I quote word for?

At the moment I'm just hanging out till Kristen Hersh plays down here (Wellytron).

You'll love it, she's really good live. I saw her (and interviewed her!!) at the Paramount Theatre in Wellington in '94, promoting her first solo album Hips And Makers and pretty impressed.

Then in '95 she?

The worrying thing is that Cheney listens to Podhoretz.

So does Giuliani.

Maybe Hersh's sources are people that disagree with Cheney and are pushing back against his plans. The SecDef is no fan, by some accounts at least, and many in the military (particularly the army) are rather strongly opposed?

BDO checklist.........

Oh no, Kiwis en-masse – check

Many white dudes with dreadlocks – check

Ugly pacific-celtic armband tattoos – check

Exposed overweight hairy buttcrack – check

Exposed?

dangerous fruit loop # 1, John Bolton

Okay look. I know his version of 'Dock of the Bay' is pretty ghastly, and anyone who'd want to do Nicolette Sheridan obviously has some dubious taste, but "dangerous"? I think that's a bit much.

I saw her at that show at the paramount, and also saw Throwing Muses at orientation (just after?

...eventually we started telling people they were, and as the day went on, we then said they'd just played (and they were AWESOME).

So I like to think there are people who will have a false memory of having seen Rage Against The Machine at the Big Day Out in?

They're like bubble wrap – even if the US manages through military effort to stop Iran getting one, there are plenty of other states that might get them: Pakistan already has them and?

I actually think that the proliferation of nukes is both inevitable and less scary than people think.

I agree. But I think non-proliferation would be better and will always argue for it. Why arm up, just to disarm? Better would be to disarm now.

However, just because it would be?

(drum roll ...)

The war in Iraq is over! According to John Key:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10467590

So who won?

The war in Iraq is over! According to John Key:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10467590

So who won?

On the day, war was the winner.

Most impressed with Keith Lockes reply

"Until Mr Key put me wise, I had assumed the US and its coalition allies were bogged down fighting an intractable insurgency in Iraq that had seen a surge in US troop numbers earlier?

"The war in Iraq is over! According to John Key"

2007 will almost certainly be the worst year yet for US military deaths in Iraq. Should someone tell Mr Key?

I found out about that gig too late to get tickets (only being in Wellington for part of the summer holidays), and trooped down there in the early evening to try and beat someone up at the door to get in. No luck unfortunately.

Ahhh man that sucks – was?

I think there are highly practical applications theorized as an outcome of this maths. Quantum computing, for instance, which has the potential to make the silicone revolution look like a mere stepping stone. I especially like the idea of a computer?

Hmm who do I believe, Keith "pol pot" Locke or Helen "the Yanks are buggin my phone" Clark? This is a really hard one...

Dammit, you're right. The war's been over for years. All those people dying is just damned carelessness.

It was quite the best mind-scrambler I've encountered for some time...thanks Russell!

Sounds like you're with me — I can hold the idea in my head, but I get dizzy about what it means ...

Basically, the universe(s) is/are stranger and more complex and beautiful than we can imagine.

I think Iran is a huge sabre rattling exercise for an administration desperate to take focus from Iraq.

That's one possibility but it doesn't explain why countries other than the US are more than a little concerned about Iran. France, you know – that country that spent a lot of?

Could someone who knows the Dead C pass that one on? I think they'd enjoy it.

I bump into Michael and Robbie now and again, so I will.

Dude, I'm concerned about Iran. But I don't think bombing them is going to help anything. And the French are not exempt from sabre rattling just by virtue of?

And the French are not exempt from sabre rattling just by virtue of thinking Iraq was a stupid idea. They certainly don't want any other 4th rate nuclear powers out there. That would undermine their own tenuous status as the lamest power to have the UN Security Council veto.

yeah,?

A moral argument against a scientic theory perhaps?

I don't follow your logic when you say:

But if at every opportunity of action the universe splits?

Helen Clark said in her Oxford Union speech this week

"Iraq did not meet our criteria for intervention in 2003 and we did not participate in the war there."

So Helen Clark only two days ago obviously believed the "war" was over just like John Key

She then says?

They weren;t civilians. THey were soldiers. But I think you mean they were working on civilian projects.

But the distinction was made clear at the time – we didn;t send military to fight the war but did so to clean up afterwards.

They weren;t civilians. THey were soldiers. But I think you mean they were working on civilian projects.
But the distinction was made clear at the time – we didn;t send military to fight the war but did so to clean up afterwards.

Yes, and then we brought them home and?

OF course that was what he meant – anyone with half a brain knew that was what he meant. Hence my amazemnet at the beat up on this and the devclaration that it makes Key not fit to be PM, yet Helen Clark can effectively say the exact same?

"Iraq did not meet our criteria for intervention in 2003 and we did not participate in the war there."

So Helen Clark only two days ago obviously believed the "war" was over just like John Key

She then says "We?

we are not fighting the fire

Yup, they say exactly the same thing if it wasn;t for those pesky tenses. I'd blame the Greeks if I thought I could get away with it.

LOL, can't resist this, but English is so ambiguous. When I said civilian reconstruction engineers I see you attached civilian as a modifier to engineer, rather than as a modifier to reconstruction. But?

RNZ, bless their poor unbias hearts, just went over the top this morning with their interview of some poor woman whose son had died. Just bizarre. But it is the school holidays so a mini silly season.

There's one thing we can agree on — RNZ's handling of it was?

I think it's evident that al Qaeda's men in Anbar have done the coalition a favour by being so vile that even the Sunni insurgency wanted rid of them.

But do you not see an irony in the US arming thousands of Baathist insurgents and declaring it all?

I found the post 'Steps without a casket' quite moving.

I think any time you're coming up with a moral argument against a scientific theory, you've forgotten what science is. Unless of course you deeply believe that the universe is ultimately moral.

I was being mildly ironic but yes, I have a proof of a moral argument against science but?

There are available to us an infinite number of choices so therefore there must be an infinite number of consequences.

That's not trivially true,?

I'd be interested to read it at length if you have a link.

That was my attempt at humour again, Fermat and his famous lack of space.

I haven't got time to reply, maybe later this evening.

...until you check to see who is dead?