Sunday, August 07, 2005

Tony O. with the deep analysis

My esteemed bro, Tony O. wrote me a great email which made the following point about the Rove/Plame fiasco: Now that she has been outed, have other countires done any research on their own to discover who her contacts were, and have any actions been taken against them? Are there American sympothisers out there who are paying with their lives for Karl Rove's political play?

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Because Jason wants to know, that's why

Jason Meaux sent me a list of questions he demanded that I answer. Who am I to look free content in the face. (Look, if you don't like mangled metaphors, why do you come here?)

1) What is your prediciton in regards to our exit of Iraq? (This question
must be answered in a Rhetorical fasion)


Easy one! We will declare victory and go home. After the Iraqi constitution is hammered out, the Shia will really start agitating for us to leave and might even ask us to get on the next train out of Baghdad. The Sunni have already made their position on the occupation clear. The Kurds can defend themselves and want us to stay just long enough for them to solidify their hold on Kirkut. The Iraqi Christians, Jews, Zoroastians and Sufis haven't given a position on an American pullout as they are too busy cowering in the interior rooms of there homes to communicate effectively.

So we will try to stay on and train the Shiite militia until they can brutally supress the Sunni insurgency on their own. They won't mess with the Kurds as it would mean battling the Peshmerga on their home turf in the mountains of Northern Iraq and that would be suicide for the untested Shiite forces. (The only question is what they would do in the event that the Kurds begin expelling Sunni and Shiite from Kirkut. But since it's mostly Sunni who where settled there by Saddam, they probably won't make too much of a fuss.)

The Republicans will be agitating for a big drawdown before the midterm elections in 2006, as Iraq is an albatross, so many if not most US forces will come out before then. I would expect our US supported Islamofacist nightmare state to be up and running mostly on its own by the next presidential election in 2008.

2) I'm happy many of our local citizens decided actually find a voting
booth to cast thier ballot for fiber, but the one area I am unsure about it
our payment method. With the advent of superior technology arriving
quicker each year, what will happen when fiber is considered to be of
"dial-up" importance way before it is paid for? (Remember, your answer must
have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion)


No technology can concievably take the place of fiber in the foreseeable future, as it runs on that most quicksilver of applications, light. Wireless networks are on the horizen, but the nodes must run on fiberoptic. We'll pay for this system before they discover something faster than light, and you can quote me on that.

3) In regards to politics, it is my humble opinion that we will not
achieve anything worth talking about until honest, intelligent, and
fearless citizens decide to enter the ranks of politics. So, when are you
and Ricky going to run Joe?


I see myself more as a philosopher-king than civil servant.

4) Although we still have way too damn long for this lame-ass-duck of a
president (lower case p on purpose) to leave office, can you give us your
pick for 2008?


If Jeb Bush wants it, it's his. Hillary's negatives are way too high.

5) What are the top five CDs your are rocking to right now?

I only have three in heavy rotation right now:

Lost Bayou Rambler's Pilette Breakdown
Uncle Tupelo's No Depression
White Stripes' Get Behind Me

Friday, August 05, 2005

Moore's Law and the internet

You remember Moore's Law, right? Microprocessor speeds double every 2 years. Here's a great article discussing exponential growth on the internet (for example, the number of blogs is doubling every five months). Makes you wonder what the porn curve looks like.

Link Review: redux

From time to time the editorial board here at MG...ifos takes a little time to introduce the 3 regular viewers of my blog to some of my favorite links (You do still visit my site every day, don't you Mom? Mom?). Today's link spotlight is Blackspot Anti-corporate Shoes.

Have you ever thought "Gee, it seems to me that corporations can be amoral, soul sucking, faceless entities that crush workers (but somehow, not upper management) underfoot while blindly seeking to increase the stock price in the next quarter. But is there any other way to build a company? Well, the people at Blackspot Shoes thought the same thing. They picked a sector where workers are exploited and started a company that paid workers a living wage, put the consumers in charge of the company's direction and kept upper management costs to a minimum.

The result? Well paid workers, a profitable company and a kick ass product.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Bob Novak meltdown: a beaut!

Is the pressue from the turd blossom's insider info making Novak exclaim "This is bullshit" and storm of the air? How else to explain his outburst live on CNN? And now he's been suspended indefinitely. Let's hope he doesn't end up with a new show on MSNBC, like another disgraced CNN pundit. Now if only the Fox anchors would begin imploding, too...

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Nice viral type thingy...

Here's a fun and infectious little thing going around. Got it from Viva Las VegASS, which is a good place to get lots of infections. But hey, it's legal over there!

This is a different deal from all of those personal quizzes we all just love to get and do. Here's the deal: I will create five personalized questions about you--all you have to do is ask. I will then post your questions in the comment section, and you answer them on your own site. Or mine. Do it however you wish.

Anyway, here are notrightaboutanything's Ian McGibbony's questions and my answers:


1) Lafayette voters opted for fiber in amazing numbers, yet typically vote against government and for business at every opportunity. In what ways does this completely blow your mind? The more graphic your answer is, the more credit you get.

This blows my mind in the following way: did you ever see the 80's sci-fi/horror movie "Scanners"? The head exploding guy was me on election night. Some people attribute the fiber win to a race of pinko commie pod people who took over the city, but if this is true, then where were they during the last presidential election and can you tell them they can stay at my place in November, 2008.

2) Compare and contrast Iraq and Vietnam. Or, as an alternative question, explain why doing that would be really depressing.

Vietnam was united in there vision for the future: non colonial communism. Iraqis have lots of different ideas about there future: Islamofacism, seccession, civil and religious wars and secular Western style democracy. Just kidding about the last one.

3) As the Cajun saying goes, "pass a good time." But why on earth would you want to let it pass?

As a man who has passed many things, I choose not to answer or even ponder this question.

4) Same question I asked Zac, but who hasn't yet answered it: If the old saying goes that "Politics is show business for ugly people," then how do you explain Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.) ? Show your work.

She's no Kathrine Harris, that's for sure. She needs more lipstick, IMHO.

5) Finally, if you were a teacher and you had a student like Horshack, would you ever actually call on that person?

Sure I would, if he was as famous as Horshack is.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Iraq: Progress (?!?) Report

So how are we doing?

I mean, aside from the now 1800+ US and >23,000+ Iraqi civilian dead (but c'mon, who cares about Iraqi casualties. Let's get real.).

And overlooking from the fact that there were no WMD's there.

And putting aside for the moment that Iraq was not exporting terror before the war but is now the worlds number one producer of that strange fruit.

And discounting the case that Saddam was contained and not a threat to his neighbors.

And ignoring the reality that our nation's credibility has never been lower in it's history.

And forgetting that the original problem was in Afghanistan but our focus and manpower has shifted to Iraq while Afghanistan drifts.

And let slide that Osama remains at large and, in fact, George Bush "does not care" where he is.

And excuse for now that this war has cost (184 billion and rising)

And let's agree to forget that, at the very least, we were misled into the biggest armed conflict since Vietnam.


Let's get past all that, can't we. There's nothing we can do about any of that stuff. What are our prospects now for a united, free and democratic Iraq? Well, um lets see. Nil, nil and nil.

While we are fighting hard to provide security and quell the insurgents (neither is working very well) the Kurds and Shia are fashioning there own states without Sunni participation in the formation of the new Iraqi Constitution (due out Aug. 15!). And we don't have the manpower, political capital or acumen to stop them.

The Kurds possess the only dependable homegrown security force in the country, the Peshmerga. And they want the constitutional right to lead and direct them as they see fit, and to recall them at any time. Oh, and no non-Peshmerga forces in Kurdistan, err, northern Iraq, please. Also, they want to make their own laws, manage their own oil and water resources and maintain the semi-autonomous status they have enjoyed since George I slapped a no fly zone over them after Gulf War I. Is that so much to ask?(Almost forgot!- they want Kirkut back, too. Oil field under it, don'tcha know.)

The Shia, on the other hand, know that since they are in the majority, they can sit and wait out the occupiers and then install their own state through "democracy". Neat trick, huh? And since they sit on top of 80% the oil, they will also control the capital. Another interesting bit of unintended consequence is the alignment of the Iraqi Shia and Iran. Iraqi Shiites endured decades of brutal repression to which the U.S. was largely indifferent (remember when GHWB called on the Shia to rebel follow Gulf War I, which they did, and we sat on our hands and they were slaughtered en masse? They do.) Iran, by contrast, was a good friend and committed supported of the Shia, harboring insurgents and giving aid where it could. The Shia have already elected pro-Iranian religious parties that are seeking to create an Islamic state. Women's and minority rights are not expected to be protected too stringently. There's a name for brutal domination of a minority by the majority. It's call fascism. And it's (GASP) democratic.

And brutal it will be. The Sunnis can only lose in a Shia dominated Iraq. They are outnumbered in most provinces, even in Baghdad. The only land they control is desolate and oil and water impoverished. They really have no choice but to attempt to strangle the newborn Iraqi state at birth. They have the motive and the firepower, and their will does not seem to be flagging.

So how are we doing? Well, if you wanted a nightmare state of Islamofascists trying to suppress a civil war in the Sunni triangle while the Kurds secede and are invaded by Turkey and Iran to try and stop Kurdish independence (which will cause the US to be forced to choose between a stable Kurdish pro-western moderate Islamic state and keeping Turkey in NATO), then you have to be liking how the situation is shaping up.

Otherwise, keep repeating the mantra "But we got rid of Saddam, doesn't that count for something?"

Unfortunately for Iraq, it's possible for things to go from bad to worse. This is worse.