* "US President George W. Bush today said there was no point in taxing the rich because they just dodged their tax bill anyway." http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10399463%255E1702,00.html

* does ahmed chalabi look like noss? just a bit? (lets not forget that chalabi was convicted in absentia in jordan for embezzlement)

* iraq reinstates the death penalty - thankfully its 'only for serious crimes'. actually, the abolition of the death penalty (by bremer) was one of the funnier moments of the war (funny in a catch22 kinda way) - nice to see the americans spreading their ideals around the world. well, not exactly 'their' ideals - but a nice ideal nunthaless.

* who remembers the last true thing that came out of the mouth of anyone in the cadmin?

* i think we can hang onto to our fictional 'no election' bets - it seems likely that we can trade out of these positions at a better price at a later date. in the meantime, it looks like nader is not gonna get on the ballot in california - and tradesports has 43 at about 12/1 for winning in california. if we can sort out the technicalities of what 'winning the electoral votes' means - the 12/1 looks pretty tasty (although it might get even tastier). also, we might consider picking up some tinfoilhatcompany stock ;-)

* "Bulgarian officials said Monday they had examined the video but were "unable to identify the executed man because of the material's bad quality." what is it about video quality in iraq? perhaps its all the orange jumpsuits that make the camera go all fuzzy or something. or praps they lose something in the pal/ntsc conversion. thats always been a problem.

* did anyone see the krugman/oreilly 'debate' via russert? lol

* "CIA executives gathered in Santiago de Chile revealed in contingency plot to overthrow Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias" - the referendum will be muchos funos this weekendus. http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=22356

* 'yelp' is on the way