Independent in Even-Handedness Shock! posted by Richard Seymour

Well, almost. The Independent this morning has an article headed "Palestinians Retaliate With Attack on Israeli Army". Yes, that word. Used in reference to Palestinian actions. The punchline is, although the headline is written clearly in bold print on my morning edition, I can't find the damn story on the website anywhere. Presumably, the Indie editors knew they had many international (read American) readers looking at the site, so left it out. It's political correctness gone mad.

On another note, I had better acknowledged this . Yesterday, I cited an opinion poll which gave Iyad Allawi no more than 23% support from Iraqis. This latest poll is a neat reversal giving him 73%. Even more important to acknowledge is that I failed to stipulate as I have in the past, that opinion polls emanating from Iraq are not a good guide to one's politics. I have mercilessly mocked Johann Hari for forcing himself into all sorts of ideological contortions in a bid to mirror Iraqi public opinion.

Nevertheless, the support for the "coalition" presumably remains as weak as ever, and my point that Allawi has no business speaking on behalf of Iraqis, much less to praise the "coalition", remains valid.

And finally, it seems that Paul Bremer has had to go home early . The early "handover" to the puppet government is presumably a bid to avoid large-scale attacks by insurgents on the day. On a smaller scale, they could be trying to fuck up the Stop the War Coalition demonstration scheduled for this Wednesday, demanding real democracy and a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.