All this palace propaganda is a bad idea. For a start, one only need loot a few hundred mil for a nice set of palaces. Where the REAL money went is into the nuclear program and into bank accounts in Switzerland and (no doubt) France. Also the military, bribes to big guys, and bunkers which are more expensive than palaces b/c they're underground. But palaces are a cheap sell on the TV, and more accessible which is I guess why we're treated to so much of them.

Recently published Saddam's Bomb and Coughlin's Saddam Hussein biography are very interesting reads by the way, the former absolutely terrifying.

Of amusement however, are the big pics of Bush's berserk daughters on Uday's villa walls - CNN wonders why. I KNOW why. B/c Uday is a tasteless cunt and were I to be devoid of taste I'd like those hideous drunken Bush twins also. Jenna is out there thinking “HHhmmm, maybe I could get a boyfriend in Baghdad…”

I notice the spelling change of the young Hussein - now spelt Odai – which looks stranger and more menacing though I don't know who started this respelling. Probably the same people who changed Osama to "Usama" despite the Arabic rules of spelling (the Pentagon?). You watch - Qusay will soon be Kyysei just like the journalism rule that has mashed the leader of Libya’s name into about a dozen permutations, and the irritating way American journalists (or rather anchors, they’re NOT journalists whatever they try and tell us) mispronounce Qatar as Gutter. If you report in a region with one language FOR A LIVING, you’d think you could at least learn the pronunciation of COUNTRY names! I’d watch AlJezera if their credibility wasn’t utterly shot.

I’m sick of fucking Wolf Blitzer, intellectual lightweight, monotone voice, bad delivery. CNN is so crap, if only Rupert’s Fox wasn’t the voice of Ayatollah Ashcroft and Ghengic Khan they’d be able to really marginalize CNN.

The BBC is the last refuge of decent TV news in the west. And not only because they don't jabber on ALL DAY about fucking "SENDING A MESSAGE" UGH! And they say "now" not "at this time" UGH!

I bet Damascus is interesting this time of year, lots of looking at the sky. It’d be bad if our successes in Baghdad result in us taking on absolutely EVERYBODY in the Middle East under the logic that if the 30 year entrenched Ba’ath can be removed in 3 weeks, surely Syrian Ba’ath or the unpopular Mullahs in Tehran can be whacked in an afternoon. Because that’s probably the case in Syria but to screw up in Iran, although an American tradition, could be really catastrophic this time around.

D.
NYC

I have been travelling. For three weeks I was in Australia as a cold weather refugee, and behold, it was WARM – fantastic. I went to visit some friends/family there and recover from the bar exam, burn off some frequent flier miles, etc.

This time I visited Sydney which is SUCH a pleasant, worth it city, and Melbourne where I was born, which is absolutely not. Melbourne is for the human element. It was nice staying in public housing with my Russian friend Kesha. Notices to the residents of the “Housing Commission” are written in English, Somali, and Vietnamese in keeping with the ethnic mix of the 12 story tower. Telling people one stays/lives in the Housing Commission is akin socially to admitting to syphilis, but they are my favorite place in Melbourne and were I to return as US Ambassador, big shot attorney, etc I’d absolutely live there. The eating and drinking in Melbourne is good and I recently switched to gin and tonics as my new drink, the drink of the professional alcoholic as Kesha tells me.

A friend of mine in Melbourne threw himself in front of the slow moving but heavy public transport (train) while I was there. He lived, minus an arm, a foot, and some fingers, and told me he never would have done it if he’d have known I was there (I was delaying speaking to him the first few jetlagged days) at which I almost murdered him myself. This is his fifth and most spectacular suicide attempt.

Opposition to the war was big in Oz and I had just bought a full sized US flag as a gift for Kesha when we ran into a 30,000 people strong anti-American rally. He wanted to unfurl the flag, I wanted to live, so we didn’t. Their feelings were more anti-American than anti-war and they were protesting for all the wrong reasons I think. The women were, I mean, because we all know why men go to such protests.

I also visited Auckland, New Zealand where I have spent a lot of time in my life which was particularly enjoyable. Auckland is really one of the most beautiful cities on earth. Spent time with my cousins and a friend, all of whom were in good health and spirits.

The flights were very long but I bought nicotine gum and a new nicotine INHALER which is fantastic. NYC banned smoking in bars the other day and there was a murder here last night over it. I was not personally involved however.

And for the last few days Meredith (who didn’t come to Oz/NZ) and I were in Paris which was fun. We saw all the compulsory Paris things. I can see why people get all weak at the knees at Paris; it is very attractive, well turned out, well dressed, etc but even though I speak enough French, I wouldn’t live there and much prefer Italy where I hardly speak a word. We went to a restaurant on the Champs Elysees and I ordered in French, then the waiter shouts out “The Americans want….” Which amused me. Couldn’t we be British, Lao? Almost added that I’d like to order a coherent foreign policy but the waiter wouldn’t have been able to find one of them in his restaurant or his country. The French foreign policy is one step less depraved and horrific than the Iraqi one, a short step at that; witness Mugabe/Zimbabwe, Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, etc and the picture I saw on TV of an exhumed Iraqi torture chamber with the “Torture for Dummies” manual in Arabic and French. Syria or North Korea aren’t “next” – France IS.

We stayed at Hotel de la Tulipe.

The wedding we went to France to attend was fantastic. It was between our Canadian friend and her new French beau. It was held in a castle outside Paris and one could tour the beautiful stately home. Amidst creepy wax mannequins was a music room that had MANY fake mechanical cats playing fake musical instruments, in silence. I suppose if you lived in a house like that amassing a fake cat orchestra is just something one does as a matter of course. Such an orchestra would look good in the Iraqi National Museum which, I note sadly, was looted. I bet their inventory contained the finest collection of portraits of Saddam ever amassed; oils, watercolors, gold statues, anthrax petri dishes shaped like a big moustache, etc. I’d like to publish a coffee table book of big face’s portraits. I’ve been a little turned around on the war given a) Bush isn’t running it, b)we will/have killed fewer Iraqis than Saddam does in a week, and c) I don’t believe in Anti-Americanism just for the sake of it. I would appreciate regime change in Washington however. I guess we won’t find the Monster, he’ll just go live in Karachi or Brooklyn or France like Osama and Mullar Omar. Pity he couldn’t have been mashed.

D.