Lizard Queen Snipes at Critics

Apparently it was all true in Bosnia. It is so hard to believe what you read in the press. They must have it in for her.

Thanks Norfolk Blogger

And in another shocking turnaround, Her Hillaryness has offered to negotiate in good faith with the Armani suited mean bitter and twisted one, to ensure that The Candidate of Destiny with the most experience in the White House, who can drink with the best of them..... the best candidate gets the nomination.

Whew. I thought it was just about to get really nasty there.

Update: Seems that they have agreed on a compromise.

*vomits quietly*

Thanks Simon

Delusions of Grandeur

Why Nauru is like Bear Stearns.

Nauruans were high on the hog on a mix of Bird Poo and Coral until they dug it all up and spent the money on frivolous things. And then along came Kevin Rudd and shut down their last cash cow, the immmigration detention centre with about two refugees and two hundred employees. Cash cow to beat all cash cows.

Nauruans realise that the party is well and truly over.

Now comes the hangover and then, with luck, some sort of recovery. But it will take squeaky clean governance, hard work and rock-solid investments for Pleasant Island to once again live up to its name.

It may not yet be paradise lost, but it is most definitely paradise postponed.

And delusional Bear Stearns employees, who believed that everything would always go up in value lost that bet when their customers smelled the roses.

The deal values Bear Stearns, which has been at the centre of the US mortgage debt crisis, at just $236m (£116m).

Its shares have lost 98% of their value since their high of $158 in April one year ago, when the bank was worth $18bn.

Sometimes life is just not as rosy as we would like to think it should be.

Qantas Bid - Pop Go the Weazles

Very interesting insight into the thinking and practices of hedge funds and how one clever clogs derailed a multi billion dollar bid for Qantas, by betting wrongly on the level of acceptances that were in the market and sleeping through the deadline. In the process, he deprived some of his best hedge fund buddies of millions in a major miscalculation. I mean what is a few hundred million between friends. Very healthy I say. From what I read, this was just a short term hurdle to keep the bid alive and to allow more speculation to continue. Australia's takeover panel has kyboshed plans to keep it going, making the very good point that all the players had plenty of notice and new well the deadline. The scheming and gaming came back to bite them big time. Very embarrassing for all parties.

The whole thing seemed very sus all the way through, with huge bonuses on the table for management and lots of commissions, fees and profits for advisors. That, along with the likely reorganisation (job losses and off shore exporting of services) required to make the economics of the deal work to return profits to the private sector backers, it may well be not a bad thing.

At a very basic level many Australians want Qantas to remain an Australian company, not a play thing for hedge funds. It is a national icon and this despoils it.

Fair Go for Aboriginal Communities?

From The Australian

Fifteen years after the Australian High Court's historic Mabo decision, an explosion of land-use agreements between Aborigines, mining companies and governments has failed to deliver significant outcomes for many of the indigenous people who signed them.

A five-year detailed examination of 45 contracts by Griffith University academic Ciaran O'Faircheallaigh has found that half the agreements were either "basket cases that should never have been entered into" or had delivered few cultural and monetary benefits to Aborigines.

Many agreements were poorly constructed deals that deprived Aborigines of a share in the unprecedented opportunity flowing from the resources boom.

Australia's wealthiest mining regions had the worst record and in many cases indigenous people were trading off rights to protect culturally important areas for limited, short-term benefits.

David and Victoria meet Ozzy Osbourne

I mean totally gross.

"At the moment neither David nor Victoria are majorly famous in the States, but starring in their own show on one of America's biggest channels would catapult them to instant stardom," a source told People.

Another good reason for not watching Fox.