Jimmy's weblog

And my mate (am I allowed to call him that?) Pete feels like he’s Prime Minister of Australia.
When asked on the Nine Network’s Today program yesterday if he was ready to lead the country, Mr Costello said that, as Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader, “I feel in a sense that I do lead in this [...]

Well, maybe not poor in the financial sense, but it seems that Bernie’s not having a good month of June. To go along with the court cases and public humiliation resulting from the recent US Grand Prix, it seems that his medication may be wearing off.

Patrick received a telephone call from Ecclestone last week [...]

After years of being told over and over again that “Terrorists hate us for our democracy”, I was nearly convinced. Until today, when I found out that in the federal Liberal Party, it’s the terrorists who insist on democracy.

Sophie Panopoulos has accused her colleagues of holding the Government to ransom.
“There is an arrogance in [...]

Give the recent media hype about Scapelle Corby, you could be excused for thinking that Australians are strongly against harsh drug sentences handed down by (allegedly) unfair justice systems. Well, you’d be wrong (unless I missed the live television coverage of this Vietnamese drug case).

A 46-year-old Victorian man has been sentenced to death [...]

Just so you know - I’ve declared War on the War-on-inanimate-nouns.
From the War-on-terrorism trumps the War-on-drugs department:
American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares.
The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be [...]

Believe it or not, this isn’t a satirical article by The Onion, but rather a legitimate poll from CNN.
No more US politics for me after this (I promise). I’ve been studying up on my Irish history and culture and hope to write about some of the places I visited during my recent visit to [...]

A week back in Australia has been enough time to catch up on politics, particularly the US variety. After taking the country to war over a “crisis” involving weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush now is moving on to the “crisis” of social security reform.
Expect a similar full court press campaign from the [...]

Written in early December (yes, I’m still catching up on news!), the New York Times has a perceptive article by Thomas Friedman on the root cause of a lot of the problems the US is facing in Iraq.
What’s the problem? In short, the human “mushrooms” that grew in the dark of Saddam’s rule and [...]

Does Mike know something about George’s values that we don’t?

Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.
Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they [...]

Map of United States counties by election results with Republican victories marked in red and Democratic in blue.

Population density of the United States

Combined Republican and Democrat results.

Cartogram of state results weighted by electoral college votes.
Maps and commentary at Crooked Timber.