rickeyre.com

Wishful thinking. Sigh.

The Everything-New-Is-Old-Again Labour Party wasn't expected to win the Henley by-election. It was, after all, an extremely toffy-nosed Tory seat, made vacant when Boris Karloff became Lord Mayor of London. But how many people expected Labour to (a) come fifth, behind even the Greens and BNP, and (b) score less than five per cent of the primary vote, thereby losing its deposit, so to speak?

At least Richard McKenzie (Labour, 1066 votes) outpolled such lumninaries as Bananaman Owen (Monster Raving Loony Party, 242 votes) and Harry Bear (Fur Play Party, 73 votes).

One of the most shameful episodes in Australia's history has come to an end, with the commencement of the withdrawal of our combat troops from Iraq.

The withdrawal came more or less with a whimper, and certainly not telegraphed in advance. Earlier this year the Senate Estimates Committee was told that Australia's role in Iraq was complete, and this was confirmed by Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston yesterday (video). We, of course, should never have been there, an aggressor nation (along with the USA, UK and numerous smaller members of the "Coalition of the Willing") invading a sovereign entity on the other side of the world, on the basis of fabricated "intelligence". The acronym for the original (subsequently discarded) US name for the invasion, "Operation Iraqi Liberation", sums up the underhanded motives fairly well.

My third change of address in three years out of the way, it seems to becoming a seasonal thing. Ah well, back in business, and wireless broadband to boot.

From the land that gave you the Second Amendment, comes this special offer from a car dealership in Butler, Missouri. Buy a new car from Max Motors and get a free handgun.

"I’m telling them to get the semiautomatic because it holds more rounds," the dealership's general manager, Walter Moore, told the Kansas City Star. He's not talking about the car.

Video from MSNBC.

I make no comment, I give no endorsement, I just link to Russia Today's report.

Working families binge drinking their baby bonus away for lack of affordable housing? Not in Schwarzenegger's California, where they have another solution for mortgage stress. CNBC takes up the story.

Counting down the three outstanding political quotes of the past week:

Number Three:

"...there are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That's bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population."

- George Walker Bush, assigning blame for the global food shortage, 1.5.08

Number Two: