Mission Counter

2 this week.

More Politics

Nothing came of the warrants, unsurprisingly. (If you wield any power in opposition to an important member of the Iraqi Police, you probably have a warrant out on you or have been actually detained at one point.) So the Shia have coalesced behind the IP chief, while the Sunnis favor the Qada (county) engineer.

And so there's a big argument, wasting an entire council session, over some procedural quibbles under the new provincial powers law that would exclude the former. Eventually they voted, and since the Sunnis have a majority on the council, they won that battle.

Imagine that.

Upgraded!

Or is it downgraded...we went and traded in our old trucks for new trucks, bigger trucks, with more armor, that weigh 6.5 tonnes more. They kinda suck. Everything that was kinda unslow about the old one is now MEGASLOW. Doors open, on a good day, in 5-6 seconds. Have to floor it almost constantly to keep up with the Strykers. And it's got all kinds of little quirks, like dash lights randomly going out, refusing to open, it's a joy.

Not only that, but I just spent 3.5 hours rearranging the equipment inside. Not a big deal, except that about 2 of those were spent looking for the last goddamn lock. Still have no idea where it is. Rigged up an ugly, ugly solution.

Man this job sucks.

Halfway Point, Mk. 2

I just hit the 3 year mark on my six year contract. Yay pay raise.

Iraqi Politics

So, the city council chairman got elected to the provincial council. Somebody has to take charge until the city council elections. The state department guy here stands up and recommends the city engineer for the job, since he gets shit done. Sure, fair enough. The mayor also seems interested, and since he gets shit done too, that's cool.

But of course, there's one rich fuck sitting on the council who doesn't contribute a damn thing, but wants the job. So what does he do? Gets together with the IP general and has warrants issued for the arrest of the engineer and mayor. Charges? Who needs charges? Just keep them in jail or in hiding until I get elected to be the chairman.

Fuck you, Iraq.

Thunderstorm

Got one rolling in. You have no idea how RIGHT it feels to get rained on.

Some of the Things

I wanted to be when I grew up.

Basketball Referee
Computer Game Programmer
Electrical Engineer
Tour Guide
Nanotechnology Researcher
President
Criminal Mastermind
Doctor
Volunteer Firefighter
UN Diplomat
Policy Analyst