More about justifying his own opinions than looking at the reality

Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas)’s ex-wife plans to run against him for Congress. She’s working on a doctorate in marriage and family therapy, with a minor in irony.

For major irony, though, you need a Republican. White House spokesmodel Scott McClellan says that Paul O’Neill is “more about justifying his own opinions than looking at the reality.” About Iraq! Iraq!! Tom Tomorrow says that by the end of the week, O’Neill’s grandchildren will think his first name is “Disgruntled.”

There was supposed to be a peace conference of Israeli and Palestinian legislators in Ireland under the auspices of the Irish government, but Shin Bet decided to prevent a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council leaving the country, calling him a security threat.

In the interests of balance, I must also report that the Jordanian fencing association has banned Israeli fencers from the world fencing championship.

The Saudi government has set up a news channel to compete with Al-Jazeera, which is banned from the country. To attract viewers, it is using scantily-dressed anchorwomen, wearing only “a jacket, a white blouse and a black head cover.” Interestingly, according to the Guardian, “Female TV presenters in Saudi Arabia do not have to wear the black cloaks that women must wear in public in the kingdom.” The sluts.

And the US is transferring control over Iraqi state broadcasters from a defense contractor (!) to the Harris Corp., Lebanese broadcasting, and a publishing house from Kuwait, of all places. The sluts.

So Howard Dean never appointed a single black or Latino to his cabinet as governor during 12 years in that office.

The mullahs in Iran make another bid for power at the expense of the electoral system, banning hundreds of reformists from running for parliament, including dozens of incumbents (the exact number is not yet known, but one figure is 80, out of 210 reformists and 290 total seats). The right-wing is pissed that the government, trying to improve relations with Egypt, renamed a street named after the guy who assassinated Sadat. In theory the government could decide that the council had no power to exclude candidates without good cause, and keep them on the ballot. Or cancel the elections.

Belfast is turning into the racism capital of Europe. Loyalist paramilitaries have been trying to ethnically cleanse the city of blacks and Asians. Northern Ireland is only 99.15% white, so you could see why they’d be concerned.

As I said would happen, several of the candidates running against Putin were told to run by Putin in order to bring turnout over the 50% hurdle. There are no serious candidates running, although Vladimir Zhirinovsky did send his bodyguard to run.

This Modern World (for Jan. 11, scroll down to it if necessary) has a screen-shot from Fox News, featuring a “Fox News Alert: Howard Dean Loses His Temper on the Campaign Trail.”

The puppet Afghan government admits to 3,000 soldiers having deserted the new army after finishing their training (30% of the total). It says if they don’t return, they’ll have to pay for their training. Unclear how many just thought $70 a month was insufficient pay, how many worried about being hopelessly outnumbered by the warlords, and how many took their training to those warlords. Basically the same situation as in Iraq.

A Saudi teacher has been forced to retire. He is 100.

The smallest country in the world is about to give up. Niue, pop. 2,100, was just hit by a cyclone, and everyone’s leaving. It is the only nation in the world with nationwide wireless internet access. And coconuts, it’s got coconuts. And it sells webnames with a .nu domain.

NATO forces make the 934th failed attempt to arrest Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. This could get embarrassing.