War hogs now unhappy with Bush administration

Conservative Anger Grows Over Bush's Foreign Policy: Yeah, well, who you should be angry with are yourselves, because this is the natural end result of your grubby views and waterheaded policies. W has done just what the neocons have whispered in his ear for five years, and now that the inevitable collapse of a world based on such a politically, ethically, and strategically bankrupt view is upon us, somehow it's the village idiot's fault. I like this, too:

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is considering a bid for president, called the administration's latest moves abroad a form of appeasement. 'We have accepted the lawyer-diplomatic fantasy that talking while North Korea builds bombs and missiles and talking while the Iranians build bombs and missiles is progress,' he said in an interview. 'Is the next stage for Condi to go dancing with Kim Jong Il?' he asked, referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the North Korean leader. 'I am utterly puzzled,' Gingrich added.

1) President! Hahahahahahahahaha oh god (pressing Medic-Alert pendant) 2). "I am utterly puzzled" -- yes, that's a polite way of putting it. Say, that makes a dandy campaign slogan!

Moved

The Suspect Device Blog lives here now.

Last Blogger post: We're moving! The blog, I mean.

The blog has been successfully ported over to my site, in glorious full color Wordpress, thanks to Greg Galcik, who also provides hosting and even paid for my domain registration when I forgot. Dude, I am so gay for you right now. Please update your links & feeds & stuff. THe seven of you getting these entries from FeedBlitz are going to be out of luck for a while. I've got most of your links up, and should have the rest up in a day or two.

New suspect device comic is up

Here.

Gannett: Scum

Gannett brings their protection racket to Acadiana. Got a free publication? You'll have to go through Gannett from now on. Fucking belligerent arrogant illiterate assholes. When will the people of Lafayette stop letting out-of-town businessesmen push them around? First it was BellSouth and Cox calling for special elections and then suing over the results, now it's Gannett trying to strongarm businesses into letting them decide which newspapers get distributed. Stand up for yourselves, for Christ's sake. If I see one of those plastic Gannett bins in a store I frequent, I will take my business elsewhere until the bin is removed. And I will spread the word. I'm sick of being pushed around by a bunch of mudpies. I urge any and all Acadiana businesses to refuse Gannett's offer. I would further encourage you to reconsider handling Gannett's products and maybe even rethink your advertising strategy. In other words, don't carry their crappy free publications and don't avertise in their shitty newspapers. Let them make their money from their protection racket, since they certainly don't show any interest in producing a quality product.

RightBlog by Carl Tritschler

I thought about taking this apart line by line and crushing each sqirming little idiocy with my heel, but I just can't work up a lather. Why would any legitimate newpaper give this retard a column? It's appalling. I thought TOA was dumb -- well, let me rephrase that -- I STILL think TOA is stupid for carrying Michael Reagan, who is just as ignorant but at least has a marquee name and can construct a sentence. There's no excuse for giving Carl column inches that could be taken up with something far more edifying, like the Jumble or maybe a nice bridge column. Are there no grown-up republicans left in the world?

Another day, another step closer to a post-apocalyptic Mad Max world

The transvestites first appeared in March when they raided Magazine Street like a marauding army of kleptomaniacal showgirls, said Davis, using clockwork precision and brute force to satisfy high-end boutique needs.

Sayre on gambling

Louisiana gambling booms, but for how long? I'll try and have some comment on these stories later, but I want to get the links up while I have a chance.

Here we go again

Corps: Strengthening upper Miss. levees not worth the expense:

Beefing up levees along the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers to protect large tracts of agricultural land from especially rare but severe floods would be an unjustifiable expense of billions of dollars, according to a newly released U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study. The existing flood-protection system along nearly 1,100 river miles north of Cairo, Ill., generally holds its own most of the time, the corps has found. Building up levees to protect against a so-called 500-year flood would cost more than $8 billion, according to the study. Even upgrades to survive less-severe 100-year floods would cost roughly $3.7 billion, according to the corps' 109-page report, completed last month. Richard Astrack, project manager at the corps' St. Louis district office, said none of the levee upgrades considered in the report rated very high on the corps' benefit-to-cost ratio. "When you are looking at the system, there are already levees out there," Astrack said. "If we were starting from scratch and there was nothing there, and the United States said we want to protect tens of thousands of agricultural areas, acres, then maybe it would be a good idea to do this. But there are already substantial levees in places out there."

Tax Revenues Are a Windfall for Louisiana

The New York Times:

State officials assumed that Louisiana's tax base had been battered by last year's hurricanes, but the latest figures show that the opposite occurred: more tax dollars than ever are pouring into the state's coffers as the budget year draws to an end. The state predicted that tax collections would plunge by almost $900 million this year, and it slashed spending to match. Instead, a record $9.2 billion is on track to be collected by the time the budget year ends on June 30, and at least some of that tax flow looks as if it is likely to continue. Part of the upswing has come from gamblers dropping more dollars at casinos and video poker machines. Another part has come from higher oil and gas prices, which not only increase the state's taxes and royalties, but also increase profits in the petrochemical industry, which is a vital part of the Louisiana economy. But the biggest surge by far has been in sales taxes, as hurricane victims have used federal aid, insurance proceeds and their savings to replace items as disparate as socks and S.U.V.'s. Officials forecast that the state will end up with almost $500 million more in sales tax revenue than they expected before the storms hit.

It's -- it's a something ... (mumbles) ... anyway. Next?

Think Progress: "QUESTION: I know you’ve said you are not planning to see Al Gore’s new movie, but do you agree with the premise that global warming is a real and significant threat to the planet? BUSH: I think it’s — I have said consistently that global warming something is a serious problem."

Irony

To have our district rank 22nd in a state that ranks about 47th (or worse) is terrifying. This means our district ranks at least 2247 (22 to the 47th power) nationally. Translated, it means 47 states have at least 22 districts better than ours, and many states have many more than the 65 districts we have. We are talking about lagging tens and hundreds of points behind the rest of the nation. It is not only the children who pay but society in general. These kids are leaving high school with reading and math skills at or below the sixth grade.

I wondeded

1st place, Cartooning, Press Club Of New Orleans Awards. That makes a total of four 1st place cartooning wins and one 1st place Critical Review win at the PCNO awards since 2000. Go me! I rock! [pats self on back] [gives self celebratory handjob] [falls asleep] [damned open bars]