Ah well,

The Czech Republic finally has a Government confirmed, and few in the media care. There is of course not much enthusiasm in the MSM for a right of centre Government (yet bizarrely they all- BBC, VOA- produced articles when the leftists said they would not help form a government just a few days ago), but I'd have thought that finally having a certified "Government" after having seven months without one would be reason for the BBC to make at least one measly report. But no; in that they're following the pathetically hip and idiotic Prague Post who are mainly concerned about what the public think about Prime Minister Toplanek's affair with a colleague or whether he got the TV coverage he wanted.

The Government, now confirmed, probably won't be functional- but that would be news, and pave the way for another election once it falls apart. One would hope.

A Big Day

... for the Czech Republic (for the time being chez moi) as they might get a government for the first time in seven months since their elections. A good flavour of the nature of the CR politics can be got here from a small quote on the prospect of two MPs acting decisively:

"CSSD president Jiri Paroubek announced expulsion from the party procedures would be launched against Pohanka and Melcak as well as charges on suspicion on bribery.

Topolanek has praised the two parliamentarians as 'constructive.' He rejected the CSSD's charges of corruption and said Pohanka and Melcak had achieved changes in the coalition's tax and health policies"

CSSD are the leftists. Toplanek the rightist Prime Minister (since a few months ago). Paroubeck the fat controller former PM, and the two men mentioned apparently plan to leave the voting room and their CSSD party to break the 100-100 deadlock and allow democracy to allow democracy to get on with things again.

Michelle Malkin and Bryan Preston are back from Iraq (what? You didn't know they were away? or "who are they?"), and Bryan has some fascinating observations to make about Iraq on the ground.

"Calling Iraq a “civil war” misunderstands the nature of Iraq and the term “civil war.” Most of Iraq’s warring parties don’t have any chance at taking over the entire country and don’t seem interested in doing so. Most of them are reacting to the vaccuum of power since the iron grip of Saddam slipped off the country. Most of them are reacting to threats they perceive are either coming from the presence of foreign troops, or from the presence of Wahhabi-influence terrorists (al Qaeda) or from fellow Iraqis who belong to the other major sect of Islam, or from Iran. Most militia fighters would probably lay down their weapons if the overall environment improved, and by that I mean improvements in the basics: the economy and education as well as the security environment."

The Trouble with posting about good news (see below tentative post) is that with it comes a sense that one has to report bad news too.

HotAir carries a pretty good round up of rather bad news from Iraq (not difficult to compile thanks to the tendresse of the MSM), beginning with the shocking and evil bombing of the university today in Baghdad.

Iraq- better than you thought.

Or at least that would be the conclusion to make based on this interesting article from a senior British officer there.

So far in January the casualty rate among coalition soldiers has been low (about 1 death per day), and the civilian rate seems to have gone down too.