annual celery

MEDIA
* "Kojo Annan, who now lives in Nigeria, was educated in Switzerland and England. At the age of 22, he joined Cotecna on a $US200,000 ($A260,000) salary as a full-time employee and consultant from 1995 to 1998." LINK
spot the lie in this sentence
the article says that its a piece from the Guardian, which surprised me. so i looked it up, but i cant see it at the Guardian. or anywhere else. odd.

* yesterday i pointed to this quote:
"Australians are as just as concerned about United States foreign policy as Islamic extremism and regard the US as more dangerous than a rising China"
and then i added: "- and thats with the media here ranked 41st in the the world in terms of pressfreedom - imagine what the numbers would be like without murdoch... "
murdock op-eds were all over the issue today, as u mite have imagined:

"The foreign policy class in Australia is especially prone to this paradigm paralysis, as evident in this week's Lowy Institute poll on Australians' attitudes to foreign policy. The truth is that the foreign policy class in Australia is at war with the Howard Government as well as the Australian public."

and

"The really disappointing thing about the Lowy poll is that it indicates that the Lowy Institute could end up being just another familiar echo chamber, as the same narrow group of people quote to each other from the same sacred scriptures to support the same tired orthodoxies. The two groups you'll never influence this way, of course, are the Government and the public."

indeedy.

* fauxnews is playing the anti-DeLay ads in full. sweet.

OTHER STUFF
* "The entire Jewish community is watching closely. As one Jewish leader who asked not to be identified said, "If AIPAC is targeted in this fashion, it is not good news for the rest of us. AIPAC would be only the beginning."" LINK

* "Unlike George W. Bush, Blair's reputation has been seriously damaged. He could still win re-election in May, but only because Britain's squabbling opposition Tories under Michael Howard have put on a pitifully inept performance... Now, however, the feckless Howard is beginning to contemplate what seemed impossible -- becoming prime minister. Opinion polls show only a two-point gap between the parties." LINK
as ive mentioned before, the betting markets tell a completely different story.