Category: politics

Forgive me.

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workforce of me


It’s now about twenty till eight on Tuesday night, and the message boards are once again alive with rumors of a Neon Bible leak before 11pm Eastern (about 40min from now, my time). These days though, with anticipation running higher than Paula Abdul on a Monday morning, everyone’s pulling the old “zOMG it leaked!!!” gag – so I remain cautiously optimistic. Ehhh… the waiting. I should know for sure by the denouement here, so let’s get down to brass tacks (what the hell does that mean?).

In the coming days you may be surprised to see some newish looking content on the Sounds Familiar frontpage. That’s right, I’ve integrated some minimal Google AdSense text-advertisements into the entry loop near the bottom. Hopefully, these won’t detract much from the glory of my writing, or pigeonhole my blog as a simple front to make ducats. I just figured, why not try and make some cash from page impressions… if I’m getting them and all, the ads are pretty non-intrusive to me, and really don’t bother me much (especially if I get a check every month). Pat joked that I’d get a whopping $2.53 a month, and he’s probably right – but I want to at least give a shot and see what happens. So, in short – I’m selling out and I don’t care. Maybe the ads’ll stay, maybe they won’t. But for now, watch for ’em.

Sometimes, at work, I wonder what it would be like if all the people I managed were me. I mean, if they were all clones of me. At first the idea seems sort of good, all moral aspects of cloning aside, because I know and trust myself to do things right. You know what they say, “If you want something done right…” Unfortunately, that’s largely true for me – I really do think I do a good job on most things, so why wouldn’t my me-cloned workforce do just as good? Maybe they would. Often times I catch myself thinking that I could do things faster and better if I just did them myself. This notion is one part asshole, one part bravado, and one part truth. That’s not to say that I’ve been unsatisfied with things I’ve owned at work before, but I knew as I was working on them that I’d ultimately be less-than beaming with pride over them in the end. I also knew I could change that, but deemed the means unjustifiable based on the ends. But, back to the workforce-of-me…

As rosy as the me-workforce may look at first glance, the more I think about it the more I realize how much it would suck. For instance, if I were managing a bunch of mes, there’d be all sorts of limitations: I’d have an entire group working to only about 70% of their potential; I’d have no way to overcome the limitations of the group (like the long ramp-time before they possess enough self-confidence to be truly effective, and their on-again/off-again motivation); and their inherent laziness and favor of flight over fight when things get unpleasant. I’d always wonder if the tasks given to them ended up falling in the 80% “give my all” bucket or the 20% “half-ass it” bucket, and worse always know that division is purely arbitrary. See, I’m an opportunistic procrastinator who’s good at hand-waving and smoke and mirrors. But, maybe, when you get down to it, every workforce is a sometimes-motivated workforce. Hell, there’s even procrastination science, check it:

Desire to Complete Task (U) = Expectation of Success (E) x Value of Completion (V) / Immediacy of Task (I) x Personal Sensitivity to Delay (D), or U=ExV/IxD

Sooo… by that logic, my desire to complete the work I was doing this morning would stackup something like this (I have no idea how to use the equation, so I’m assigning everything a value between 0-10):

Desire to Complete Task (U) = (10 x 10) / (8 x 3) = 4.17

I guess that means I less than half-fully wanted to do the task. Hmmm….

Lot of news around the internet about Sen. Obama’s continuing lean towards casting his lot into the ’08 race, but it’s still just a “strong maybe” as far as I can tell. The hopes of the partisan-disenfranchised moderates are running high though, as Mr. Obama seems to exude some sort of middle-of-the-road intelligent sensibilities and charisma that draws folks in. Personally, my positive feelings for the guy were based pretty much solely on his patriotic, impassioned and eloquent public speaking – but I admittedly know little about his true “stance” on many things (funny how good public speaking can make you just want to “assume” that because he seems like a “nice, logical guy” he’s got sensible positions and ideas – the power of charisma). So, I took to the internets to see what the deal is. One of my favorite sites to visit for a quick idea on where a politician stands on the issues is onthissues.org. While their site design is craptacular, their Obama page is a good point of reference. It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep the warm fuzzy going through to when then herd really starts to thin – what a job for his PR guy(s).

I read this story on off-grid.net the other day (off-grid is a great place to keep up-to-date on the whole, well, off-grid movement – which I’ve fantasized about many times before). How cool would it it be to have a machine that just “makes” water from the air? Now, if I could only figure out how to run that machine hydro-power, and using its own water for the hydro part…hey, I just invented a perpetual motion machine! Please line up to my right for Nobel Prize votes.

Goodnight. (Oh, 11pm now and still no leak. Sharaun says I’m the only one who wakes up every two hours to check… I doubt that… right?…. Want in on the fun? This blog is surprisingly “tied in.” Enjoy.)

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constructive criticism


Busy busy hump day for me, lots to think about lots to do. Now I’m sitting at home blogging while Sharaun watches the M-TV and complains that, somehow, I’ve made the whole couch smell “like a giant fart.” I don’t know how that’s possible, maybe she’s mistaken the reeking foulness of this hip-hop shite on the tube for something else. Blech, will popular “urban” music ever be able to recover from the worn-out self-masturbatory mantra of sex and money?

Well, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group released its much-anticipated report today. You can read the entire thing here, if you’d like – but why do that when you can read my very own “best of” picks from the document right here? So sit back, and let me do the reading for you (or, take some initiative and read it yourself… it’s 160 pages long, but the text only covers about 30% of each page and there’s lots of fluff). Be warned, I didn’t really try to pick all negative bits… it’s just that the report is largely gloomy and there’s not much positive other than hopeful recommendations that the administration will act according to its recommendations.

On the current situation in Iraq:

The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved.

The situation in Baghdad and several provinces is dire. Saddam Hussein has been removed from power and the Iraqi people have a democratically elected government that is broadly representative of Iraq’s population, yet the government is not adequately advancing national reconciliation, providing basic security, or delivering essential services. The level of violence is high and growing. There is great suffering, and the daily lives of many Iraqis show little or no improvement. Pessimism is pervasive.

On the current level of investment and cost of war:

The United States has made a massive commitment to the future of Iraq in both blood and treasure. As of December 2006, nearly 2,900 Americans have lost their lives serving in Iraq. Another 21,000 Americans have been wounded, many severely.

To date, the United States has spent roughly $400 billion on the Iraq War, and costs are running about $8 billion per month. In addition, the United States must expect significant “tail costs” to come. Caring for veterans and replacing lost equipment will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. Estimates run as high as $2 trillion for the final cost of the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

On the consequences if the current direction is not changed:

If the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, the consequences could be severe for Iraq, the United States, the region, and the world.

A slide toward chaos could trigger the collapse of Iraq’s government and a humanitarian catastrophe. Neighboring countries could intervene. Sunni-Shia clashes could spread. Al Qaeda could win a propaganda victory and expand its base of operations. The global standing of the United States could be diminished. Americans could become more polarized.

Despite a massive effort, stability in Iraq remains elusive and the situation is deteriorating.

On “staying the course”:

Current U.S. policy is not working, as the level of violence in Iraq is rising and the government is not advancing national reconciliation. Making no changes in policy would simply delay the day of reckoning at a high cost. Nearly 100 Americans are dying every month. The United States is spending $2 billion a week. Our ability to respond to other international crises is constrained. A majority of the American people are soured on the war. This level of expense is not sustainable over an extended period, especially when progress is not being made. The longer the United States remains in Iraq without progress, the more resentment will grow among Iraqis who believe they are subjects of a repressive American occupation.

Summary of the Study Group’s recommendations:

Our most important recommendations call for new and enhanced diplomatic and political efforts in Iraq and the region, and a change in the primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq that will enable the United States to begin to move its combat forces out of Iraq responsibly. We believe that these two recommendations are equally important and reinforce one another. If they are effectively implemented, and if the Iraqi government moves forward with national reconciliation, Iraqis will have an opportunity for a better future, terrorism will be dealt a blow, stability will be enhanced in an important part of the world, and America’s credibility, interests, and values will be protected.

The behest:

The ability of the United States to shape outcomes is diminishing. Time is running out.

If you read the whole thing, you’ll notice I pulled some quotes “cafeteria style” from different portions of the document, but don’t get it twisted… I’m not misrepresenting the spirit of the thing. How much must it suck for the president to read this thing, for him to be briefed on it… talk about “constructive criticism.”

Goodnight.

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plasma-nuked by bleepblorkians (an iraq exit strategy)


Wanna know my exit strategy for Iraq? Just leave. Get the fuck out. Go.

Now, I know, you’re all saying, “Dave, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. How can you call yourself a bleeding-heart liberal and not want to stick around to fix what those bloodthirsty republicans did to that poor, poor nation?” Well, I’ll tell you how – I just don’t give a shit. We fucked up, we lost, everyone already hates us – let’s just pick up stakes and ride out. Oh sure, I don’t mean leave here today gone tomorrow, but let’s get a seriously accelerated and real timetable for leaving. Something like, give the new government money to rebuild all the infrastructure we wrecked, maybe give some humanitarian aid, and then bolt.

“But Dave, those corrupt Iraqis will spend that rebuilding money on corruption!” So what? Fuck them. If they want to do that, so be it.

“But Dave, we went in there and tore up these peoples’ country and now you want to just abandon them to their own internal warring factions, complete lack of stability, and shit quality of life?” Yeah, that’s right, I kinda do.

“But Dave, what about spreading the goodness of Democracy?” What, our new-fangled version of Manifest Destiny? Give me a break. Is it really a “gift” if you have to give it with bombs and tanks?

“But Dave, what about our strategic role in the Middle East? How will we control our oil interests if we don’t have any presence there?” Easy, we don’t. Hows this trade sound to you: money and spilled blood spent on war vs. money and no spilled blood spent on alternative fuels. Not bad, right? I wonder if, over these past three years, instead of fighting this sham of a war, we’d taken the entire expenditure (some $340 billion dollars) and instead devoted it to developing a viable gasoline alternative – where would we be now? In fact, let’s talk about that last one a bit – partly because I know there are several large and obvious holes in it.

Just because you come up with an alternative fuel, it doesn’t end your need for gasoline. There’s a huge transitional period you’ll have to go through. OK fine, can’t we offset that too? I don’t know how much any of this would really cost, but I’d bet we could get creative with that $340 billion and not only develop a viable alternative fuel, but also help offset the gasoline-to-whatever transition in the places where it would hurt the most (like industry, shipping, etc.) I’m betting the $340 billion would fall significantly short, but it wouldn’t be a bad start. We could define the gas-to-whatever ramp with our own crude supply capabilities in mind, wean off at a rate we could handle entirely on our own reserves and active drillings.

We are industrious people. We built the best damn nation in the world from the ground up. You’re telling me that, were the world’s supply of oil to completely dry up, we wouldn’t be able to figure something out? You bet your ass we would. You’re talking about the nation that invents things like fast food drive-thru windows so we don’t have to get our lazy asses out of our cars to get our cheeseburgers, Segways so we don’t have to burden our legs with the act of transporting us around, and remote controls for ceiling fans. Trust me, we can figure it out. Now, back to the “But Daves.”

“But Dave, what about terrorism!! You want to just abandon that whole area and leave it the most fertile breeding ground for extremism and terrorism thought on Earth?” Terrorism-schmerrorism. As I’ve said before, terrorism is here to stay. Right now, it comes in the form of Islamic extremism, but it’ll always be around. Right now, it comes from the Middle East, but it’ll aways come from somewhere. In fact, in 2079 the United States may live in fear of hovercar plasma-nukings at the hands of the devoted followers of Martian God Bleepblork. People of 2079 will think back to quieter times when all they had to worry about was a 3,558,000 square mile bit of land on Earth with an extremely small number of extremists who were trying to kill us one airplane at a time with their sneakers and Gatorade. Yeah, what we call terrorism today will be some piddly nickel-and-dime ham-and-egger bullshit compared to what the legions of extremist Bleepblorkians will be capable of.

The here and now is always scary. But, much as we now look back in disgust on our “Jap”-interning days gone by, so will we eventually recall our outside-the-Geneva-Convention “hostile combatant” prisons. There will always be a new hotbed for hatred.

Anyway, there it is without my usual self-criticism and admittance of shortsightedness. Pick it apart in the comments. And we’re done with that.

Before I go, I wanted to say that I totally love the raw, unbridled anger in the latest comment on my (rather popular) iTunes is Crap entry.

Goodnight.

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invite the terrorists to dinner


Wednesday night (I’ve decided that it’s kinda my “thing” to begin my blogs with a simple statement of when I’m writing. I don’t care if you saw it somewhere else first, it’s still my thing) and I’m over at Anthony’s. At the moment, everyone has left me here to go somewhere else – and I’m all alone in the house save for my sleeping baby and Anthony’s sleeping daughter. Seeing as this is, understandably, not the most exciting of times, I decided to write to pass the time.

Today work was a regular blitzkrieg… an assault on all fronts. One of those days spent mentally juggling task after task, all the while driving to get as much done in the time available. I’m actually proud of my efforts today, I got a lot done – and allowed only a few distractions to sidetrack me. It’s at times like these, these “peaks,” that I feel like I earn my pay. It kinda makes up for that time I lied and said I had a dentist appointment and instead went home to take a nap, or that time I hid out down in the cafeteria reading, or when I purposely don’t answer the phone when the caller ID tells me it’s someone with whom I’m going to have to have a long, drawn-out conversation. Yeah, totally makes up for all that.

Big day today for the left-leaners out there today, the house, the senate, the don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-Ashcroft. Yes, big day indeed. Methinks, though, with all the fanfare and media coverage, that those dems better get to workin’ like, stat. Someone needs to get a platform, someone needs to do something, make something happen. Because, I’m of the opinion that, If the party of the ass decides to rest on their laurels for two years expecting their “Bush is dumb, Iraq is a mess” message to carry them in ’08 – they ain’t gonna win no elections. So, let’s see what ya got, guys and gals – get out there and raise taxes, take guns, invite the terrorists to dinner, and turn our children into godless homos. Yay!

What’s up with the Colbert Report lately? This Tek Jansen crap is boring and unfunny. Get with it Stephen.

Goodnight y’allz.

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rampant breeding and sheer luck


Tuesday night, and it was a good one. Packed with things like building a new computer for Sharaun, voting, playing with Keaton in the backyard, and doing dishes. It was a good kinda busy though, the kind of busy where, after you’re done being busy, it’s earlier than you think it should be. Like, you got a buttload done and it’s only 9pm… still plenty of time to do things like blog and work on ripping MP3s and whatnot.

My favorite time of year is underway, the time I refer to as the “holiday trifecta.” I love this time of year, but it’s also a big “hump” for me in terms of day-to-day concentration. I tend to start focusing on things like vacation time, turkey dinners, Christmas trees, and family. Lately, in fact, I’ve been taken by the vision of Keaton dressed in warm, Christmasey clothes – maybe crawling around in front of a twinkling tree. I keep thinking about how we’re leaving in mid-December and not returning until the new year, and how excited I am to get that respite from the daily grind.

And, speaking of Keaton crawling (I swear I was, read back a sentence or two), she’s just about there. In fact, I’d actually qualify her as “there” were she able to crawl continuously – but as it is now she gets up on her hands and knees, takes a few “steps,” and flops back down onto her belly. She’s got the mechanics, I just don’t think she’s put together that she can generate constant forward motion through repetition. My guess is that she’s just days away from completing that neural pathway though, and when she drives that golden spike she’ll be motoring all over the place. We’ve taken minimal precautions in expectation of this eventuality, likely fewer than we should have by now: We have no cabinet locky things, only a few randomly-placed outlet covers, and we’ve covered nothing in foam.

Furthermore, if I were to make a prediction, I doubt we’ll do much of this “babyproofing.” I was telling Sharaun just the other night that I bet cavemen didn’t “babyproof” the cave, or the tree, or whatever they lived in while following game across the lands. Nope, caveman-times babies were exposed to the unprotected terrain. But, I’m confident they learned to avoid the magma, velociraptors, bottomless chasms, and razor-sharp crags just like the rest of us would – by watching other, stupider and less fortunate, caveman-times babies perish at the hands of these various obstacles and deciding they’d rather keep on living instead. Admittedly, I may be giving caveman babies too much credit here. I mean, caveman-adults had much less developed brains that moderntimes-adults, right? How much less cognizant, then, would a caveman-baby be? Perhaps cavemem were only able to advance the species via rampant breeding and sheer luck.

Goodnight.

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i am not voting for that dickface


Didn’t write yesterday, wasn’t in the mood. Also wasn’t in the mood last Thursday night, which explains Friday’s non-entry. So, after my long weekend, I thought I’d better get some words on paper. Had a great weekend, though, nice winesoaked dinners and rewarding fits of yardwork, some daddy-daughter time on Saturday and some manfire-stoaking metalworking with a freakin’ plasma cutter and mig welder. It was good, for sure. Let us, though, friends, get our heads out of the past and move forward into the here and the now. Three, two, one…

Today is vote-day. I know where I stand on the major state ballot issues, and the house, but I decided today that, rather than abstain from voting for the many ham-and-egger offices (school board, water rights, sanitation, etc.), I’m instead going to vote for whichever of the candidates I saw the least amount of roadside campaign vomit for. I’m serious, one of these dickfaces had supporters put literally hundreds of campaign posters along the road from the highway to our house. I am not voting for that dickface, just for that.

Remember all my hesitation about the new Shins album? Yeah, that turned out to be quite unfounded. All it took for me to hit the fainting couch with every falsetto croon was a deep-listening session afforded me while mowing the lawn Sunday afternoon. Since the album is a scant 40min, I was able to cycle through it twice and then some (found myself pulling weeds and trimming hedges just to get some more ear-time). The Shins’ music always sounds to me like it would be at home in the mid-sixties, and I like that. I love the way the Shins-singer-guy “turns” his melodies, always trilling up and down where you least expect it, sliding up the scale unexpectedly, it makes for interesting listening.

Continuing on the music tip, I’ve recently re-started (once again) my efforts to digitize my entire CD collection. Re-started is really the wrong term, since it’s been an ongoing thing… it just languishes when the wind’s not in my sails. Last week I did a big “rectify,” comparing everything I’ve ripped thus far to what I have – just to get a better assessment of what’s left to do. Oh, yeah, I have a spreadsheet for that which I was supposed to use and keep updated… but I also stopped updating that regularly enough during my last ripping bout. So, I cleaned everything up and took a fresh look at my progress. Seems I only have about ~100 discs left to rip, not too bad.

Well the, that’s enough too call it a proper entry, I do believe. Before I go though, I also got caught up on Keaton’s gallery, posting her latest pictures – you can check them out here.

Goodnight beasties.

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now it’s now


Tuesday night, almost-finished-but-didn’t the final Halloween prop, I ended up missing a few minute but crucial bits and couldn’t leave the house as I was alone with Keaton. Tomorrow it is, then, for the finished product – time is ticking though, and I’m ready to have it done. Maybe I’ll come home tomorrow at lunch and finish it off. After working on, and quitting working on, the prop, I came inside and worked a bit on December’s “Best of 2006” post a little… then stopped to take a dump… and now it’s now. Sharaun’s busy fabricating our costumes for Friday’s soirée, and I should be working on making a replacement tombstone for the one that got jacked – but I’m not… I’m just not motivated. So instead I’m listening to music.

I absolutely loved this article (and the comments are particularly good too), the seafaring metaphors make for an entertaining read, and the meat is nice and meaty. Lamenting the many IED-pockmarks in Great Britain’s road to from March 19, 2003 to now in the Iraq war, the writer makes some interesting statements – including this one:

It is no small thing to find oneself on the wrong side of an argument when the debate is about the biggest disaster in British foreign policy since Suez; … no small … to have shackled our own good name to a doomed US presidency and crazed foreign-policy adventure that the next political generation in America will remember only with an embarrassed shudder.

Anyway… remember when we hastily invaded Iraq without international backing, the administration’s reasoning firmly based on the “overwhelming probability” of WMD (despite what revisionist history may say)? Fast-forward to now: North Korea most certainly has WMD, not one nation on Earth would question that. Remember the fear that the administration whipped up on the “likelihood” that Iraq might be producing and plotting to use WMD? Where is that fear for North Korea? Why is the nation not being whipped into a frenzy this time? (More stunningly, but slightly off-topic, why aren’t people taking note autonomously… must we wait to be told what to fear and who wears black?) We’re not seeing the same fear mongering because we can’t afford it. We’re completely committed to a theater of war that is now, without a doubt, a solid loss. We fucked up, fucked up big. Invaded a country on false pretense, blowing the horns of WMD and Democracy when we were really after a toehold in the Middle East and a more secure supply of oil. Oh sure, way back in 2003 this foreign policy may have seemed logical.

But oh, my friends, where we are now. Now – it’s crystal clear that Iraq, while it was no poster-child for human rights or fair government, was no imminent threat. But, while we were busy spreading ourselves thin and spilling blood for pure lies – the world was not idle. North Korea got the bomb, shadowy extremist networks like Al Qaeda mobilized and struck in far more sophisticated plots than we imagined them capable of. And all the while, we tore down a country that was, at its most threatening, a sticky situation for international diplomacy.

Anyway, the whole thing made me wonder, when I help Keaton memorize names and dates on flashcards for her 10th grade American history class, how this war will be memorialized in the books…

Anyway, we need to get off this war crap. The big ol’ Halloween party is in a mere two days, and things are pretty much ready. My mom and dad are coming down to spend a few days with us and Keaton, and are going to help out by babysitting the night of the fête (apparently English didn’t have enough synonyms for “party,” so we jacked a bunch from the French). I’m going to try to not get too ridiculously loose as the shindig, so Saturday won’t be a complete waste. Anyway, I have high hopes for what will be our fourth annual bash – and I’ll try and get some pictures of the costumed action up sometime early next week.

Goodnight lovers.