Bloody Royals.

With Bahrain being one of those countries where the media look the other way on protesters being killed and disappeared I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Bahrain's crown prince is to be a guest at the Royal Wedding on Friday. I suppose hereditary dictatorships recognise their mutual interests.

Top UK Terror police fears theres not enough funds to profile every brown in the country.

With current funding levels the UK's anti-terrorism police have only failed to stop two attacks (1) (2) although in the case of the Glasgow airport attack perhaps high levels of funding magically caused the terrorists to be incompetent. So obviously in the face of funding cuts of 25% for nearly every government department Assistant Commissioner John Yates has turned to scaremongering to try and maintain his budget. The Home Secretary has, not unreasonably, pointed out that Yates is being alarmist for personal gain. Nonetheless a politician accusing someone else of being alarmist about terrorism can't help but seem a bit hypocritical.

What will a cut to the budget of our department dedicated to keeping us constantly afraid do? Will a plague of Brazilian electricians be unleashed upon us? Only time will tell.

Virgin Mary gives Bobby Jindal divine plan to exploit Gulf Oil Catastrophe.

It is hard to find a more stinging criticism of someone than to say a person converted to conservative Catholicism as an adult but that is exactly what Bobby Jindal did. Is this relevant to his exploiting of the Gulf Spill? Possibly not but its worth highlighting how much of an idiot he is without excuse of his views being ingrained from his upbringing.

So anyway turns out Jindal's grandstanding and self aggrandisement is not only hollow posturing to gain national attention but also likely to make the impact of the oil on Louisiana worse than it otherwise could've been. But of all the mistakes hes made and misdirections hes using to heap more blame on Obama that is logical his greatest sin is probably:

He cut $750,000 from the budget of the oil spill research and development program and moved the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's office from the governor's direct oversight into "a basement in Facility Planning" at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

In a country with a functioning media (that is to say a mythical one) hypocrisy like that might bite him in the ass.

Read about what an asshole he is here: http://www.alternet.org/story/147364/is_gov._bobby_jindal_sabotaging_gulf_efforts_for_political_gain?page=1

The Hypocrisy of Empire

A counterpoint to the prevailing theme about McChrystal, this editorial suggests that his openness and honesty in Rolling Stone was not really a problem compared to the double talk and hypocrisy which characterises modern global politics and foreign policy. Key to its' points is that winning "hearts and minds" as an occupying force is possible only once the natives have been pacified. Thus the former deathsquad commander was a wise choice to head Obama's "softer" approach to Afghanistan but one that made the rhetoric seem deeply hypocritical.

It is thus suggested that in that light Petraeus may be a better hypocrite but likely worse for Afghanistan.