Nothing like bloggery on a Friday night. posted by Richard Seymour

A few links and comments, then. First of all, did you know that "It's fun to shoot some people" ? It's true! Thanks to a revolutionary new product from the Whitehouse, any moron who can do fifty push-ups can experience the thrill of the kill. Lt. Gen. James Mattis says it's "fun ... a hoot"! Call now. Operators are standing by.

The bad man of southern Iraq is back and ready to tussle.

Juan Cole is suggesting that Allawi's coalition may not even get into the new government. Allawi's approval ratings had been sliding since his new Interim government had received broad backing in Iraqi opinion polls at the end of July 2004. Even in the largely Sunni Baghdad, about three times as many voters backed the United Iraqi Alliance as backed Allawi's coalition. With a large majority, the list blessed by Ayatollah Sistani could simply coalesce with the Kurds, who are likely to get 20%. I don't like the politics of either group, but Cole hints at a possible 'historic compromise' between the two groups. Such a deal negotiated over the heads of the Sunnis is unlikely to succeed, however, particularly given tensions between Sunnis and Kurds in some northern Iraqi cities. Meanwhile, the rumours that say Allawi shot dead six prisoners roll on and gather moss. And, why does the UN still apply sanctions to Iraq?

The doyens of despair among the American left can take heart! A majority of American disapprove of Bush's Iraq policy, as well as his social security policies and his handling of healthcare, the budget deficit, the economy, and immigration. What more could he possibly be wrong on? Well, prepare to grind your teeth:

Bush got high approval ratings for coping with terrorism (61 percent) and education (56 percent). In foreign affairs, environmental issues and taxes, respondents were divided.

However Bush's overall approval rating stood slightly higher than last month at 52 percent, and 55 percent of those surveyed said they expected him to do a better job as president during the next four years than he did in his first term.

Yeah, those first four years were just him arsing about. He's about to get serious any minute now.

And, as the Whitehouse spews bellicose smoke and fog about Iran, the Christian Science Monitor reports that US servers are shutting down Iranian blogging services:

Some Iranian bloggers argue that it suits Tehran's hard-liners, as well as hawks in Washington, to silence the Iranian public on the international scene, enabling both to manipulate the reality of Iran to advance their agendas.

'Hawks' and 'hard-liners', two sides of the same dismal coinage.

Finally, a word to London's taxi-drivers: I'm not interested. Whatever it is, I don't give a fuck, and don't tell me about it. To explain. Some cabbies get a bit bored driving silent, sullen passengers around all day. The passengers are silent and sullen because they know the cabbie is taking the route most likely to be clogged with traffic and seems to drive like a snail over empty patches of road. So, to get round that, the cabbie starts a conversation. It's usually about Livingstone and congestion charges. Last week, I had a crumpled, grey, bespectacled man in the front pissing and moaning about the proposed extension of the zone. I nodded and yeahed, chipped in with uncontroversial comments and generally appeased the bastard as one does. He began on traffic wardens. "Yeah, I had this woman in the back and she's had her car pinched - totally illegally, course - and I've taken her dahn to the place, and she's gone 'here y'are, could you come in and I'll pay ya', so I've gone in. So, she's in there and I'm standing about, and I says 'they'll never give it back to yer love, not unless you pay 'em that two hunnerd pahnd they're gonna charge yer'. But you see, these people are very smart, oh yeah, very smart. Cos they employ these Africans and they's raised to be ig'rant, know what I mean? Then it's all that 'me know know, me not know' malarky. I'd ship 'em outa the country meself. She had to pay the fine and everything, and she was only a workin class girl, couldn afford it. Its like I says to her..."

I now understand why London cabs have bullet-proof glass separating driver from passenger. Because if it had been up to me, his fucking head would have struck the steering wheel a hundred times in quick succession before being detached from its natural home and tossed out the window. Shut it, cabbies. I overpay you to drive, not to dribble fuckheaded opinions.