Austin

Went to Austin this weekend,
Caught Tommy's Band Quiet Company play a set at Emo's as part of a Battle of the Bands Competition.
They sounded alot better than the last time I saw them.
Unfortunately they got shafted, Losing by a half a point was tough.
But if anyone is out there reading and living in Texas check out

Then we went to Brad & Lena's for the Game.
Disappointing But I thought Texas played well for the first half. They'll need a stronger secondary, as well as a bigger contribution from Colt in the future, especially as they get into Big 12 competition.

Then we went out to Don's Depot, I'd talk about that but i was d-r-u-n-k, drunk.
Oh well I now have a camera full of blurry pictures from that night.



Awesome.

Labor Day

up late, working on a spreadsheet, instead i'll write a bit.
I'm very much looking forward to this weekend, this whole taking the LSAT class plus working is really draining. I need a stiff drink or four.
Carl and Lindsay are coming too, should be very good to see them. I wonder how their planning is going, g-d am I glad I'm not going through that again.
We'll see if we go to the Drive By Truckers, CCR show tomorrow. I could go either way.
It'll also be nice to see Mr Trent.
Ok, It's off to bed, get up tomorrow and finish off the spreadsheet, make some charts, fight off the sleepiness then get lit, I mean go out. No. I mean what I say.
Thus ends the stream of conciousness blogging.
Have a safe and happy Labor day and thank the unions, you ungrateful fucks.

Cinema

Paradise Now
An heartwrenching take on Suicide Bombers, powerful yet left me wanting just a little bit more. I appreciated its attempt to elucidate the reasons that one comes to be a suicide bomber, but I had trouble identifying with the characters.
I would recommend Paradise Now to anyone interested in Palestine and Israel's strained relationship.

American Splendor
I liked this movie. Expecting it to be funnier I was surprised at the sadness that Harvey Pekar was able to sustain. The movie had great style, and the meta nature of the film was a little mindblowing at times.
definitely one of the most interesting movies I've seen in a while.

-Matt

Back to the Future

So I am going to try this blogging thing again.
Why not.
Well a better question would be, why?.

Well as I troll around the tubes looking at all the cool things everyone posts I think, 'that could be me.'
but it's not.

So then I say to myself, well you should just go ahead and do it, right?. wrong.

But enough of that nonsense and back to blogging (at least until I get bored of it and quit, again.)

The Ever Present Terrorist

I was reading over at the Washington Note by Steve Clemons (by the way I really like Steve's work) regarding an article by Nir Rosen , which seems to be a well informed picture of Iraq right now (minus Candy Cane Mountain and Children with Flowers).
But there was a comment in Mr. Clemon's reaction to the piece that struck me,
I'm paraphrasing now(by the way I love the Wash Note, but it doesn't let me highlight and copy which is a bummer) but Clemons asked a Saudi foreign minister what kind of trouble he evnisioned for the future and the Saudi official remarked that the dilemma was going to be what do we (the Saudis) do with the foreign fighters now in Iraq if Iraq is ever pacified.
I think this is a discussion that we need to discuss.
This seems to set up a situation awfully similar to 9/11 where even if we pacify Iraq the overflow of jihadi influenced youth will remain (we can't kill them all) and where will they go. If this sounds too familiar to the rise of al Qaeda after the Soviets left Afghanistan than you're on the same page with me.
The questions as I see them are where do these foreign fighters (very often Saudi) go after Iraq?
Do they target Saudi?
If not Saudi, where? America?
What would an attack on Iran do to these Sunni partisans, would they be wiling to fight for the Shiite Iran, or would they take advantage of regional instability to expand their terror campaign.
Would a pullout of American troops from Iraq play a role in spreading these terrorists throughout the mid-east?
Or does our presence help keep these fighters from terrorizing the Shi'ite population of Iraq?

In the end I agree with Mr. Clemons in that we need strategic thinking about the aftermath of theIraq war in regards to the jihadi element we have drawn to Iraq and thus benefited with advanced training against the u.s. army.
Answers, I don't really have any for now.

Happy Dog

Hey What're ya Doin? Wanna Play? I've gotta Bone.

LOST

Hopping around Technorati looking for other souls who were probably as confused as I was from last night's LOST, I found, not much.
Ok so after last night,
1. God I hope the whole thing isn't in Hurley's Brain or in the girl's brain either (what the hell both of them at Santa Rosa?, that's good Twilight Zone shit). (but it does give them an easy out if they ever have to pull the series.)
2. Who is the man that Henry Gale is scared of? And what the hell. I'm interested to see where this plot line goes, and whether we get more information on the others, or if it more information on whoever is in charge of the hatch, etc.
3. Damn I wish I would have started watching this show earlier. While last night's episode did have a little too much cheese, the timing and music are enough to keep me hooked.
4. Can't wait til next wednesday.

Net Neutrality

I'm not sure what to say about this new action in Congress regarding Telecommunications, other than that if Joe Barton is involved than it's got to be bad for the little guy.

To Gloat or Not to Gloat

Last night as the wife and I were finishing up the relaxing evening of ncaa championship basketball (go gators (the one time in my life i'll say that) but I would've preferred a closer game) and some BBC show that was an American Idol for opera singers., we flipped to the news and who was there, Old Bugman. Yes, KSAT 12 did the honor of bringing me the news that Tom had decided to hang up his spurs and take the slow boat to Northern Virginia.
But this turn of events left me in a quandry. To Gloat or not to Gloat. As I stood over the sink washing a few dishes I tried to muddle through my mixed emotions. On the one hand abusing the public trust to line your own pockets is perhaps one of the cardinal sins in my book. To abuse public office is oh to easy, but goddamnit you can't stoop to it. Let alone the fact that the Bugman bilked money from Indians, come on, Indians, what's next smallpox infected blankets.
Yet i feel somewhat bad gloating, it's not that Tom DeLay does not deserve it, but am I in amy position to judge. The questions that arise for me are how to act when someone who is obviously deserving of scorn and derision finally gets taken down?
My decision is to keep the actions that brought Bugman first and foremost in my mind. This is not about his redistricting, or his love for oppressive Christianity, this is not about his success. No this is about one thing, taking money that did not belong to him. And what's worse using the cover of political office to get away with it.
So that's it, I still really want to Gloat, but I will do as the Jesus would want and hold my tounge, unless you see me today cause I'm grinning like a monkey eating peppers.

Huxley Ann

Told you there would be pictures, this is Huxley Ann when she was about 5 months old, she's now about 8 months old and yes she is that color.

The Ports Deal

So, being back at this blogging thing I've got to catch myself up on the topics of the day.
Luckily, Fearless leader came out this morning and commented on the the Ports Deal himself.

"I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," the president said. "In order to win the war on terror we have got to strengthen our friendships and relationships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East."

So the President thinks we need to strengthen our friendships with moderate Arab countries.
Let's see,
Iraq-Conquered
Iran-Not Arab, not moderate, next in line for a conquering
Syria- bastards, needs a conquering
Jordan-Hmm, poor Jordan, nobody ever talks about you,
Saudi- Not moderate, but oily enough, friendship (handholding and bluebonnets to follow)
Bahrain, Qatar- You are small and we tell you what to do, friends, ok.
So who does that leave us, Egypt, friends (until there are real elections and the Muslim Brotherhood takes over), Palestine, you're not even a country anyways bitches. Oman and Yemen, hmm, Yemen stop letting Al Qaeda out, Oman, Oh-man, who gives a fuck.
So you see when you've pissed off or conquered most of the other Arab countries you can't give in on a multi-billion $ deal even if the vast majority of your country hates it. (oh and it enriches your buddies, but hey cronyism = capitalism, it's that networking thing everyone talks about).

Oh and as for the political capital of the President, hmm, none
"Senate Republicans initially tried to fend off a vote, and the administration agreed to a 45-day review of the transaction. That strategy collapsed Wednesday with the 62-2 vote in the House Appropriations Committee to thwart the sale."

sorry for the rambling, but here's my take on the port deal.
Cronies, gotta hook 'em up. So what if there are questions, thats how we do. -Bush

Help

If any one out there is listening, I'm looking to change jobs.
Right now I'm working as a legal assistant and I'm looking to get out of this gig into something related to the political game, if that means working for a campaign or policy group cool.
If that means blockwalking, answering phone, licking envelopes, cool also.
So if any out there is reading this and wants to give me a hand drop me a line at
falsematt@gmail.com

Just to get those search engines running, I'm looking at John Courage's Campaign or possibly Cuellar's campaign (don't really want to but he's in town). Oh Ben Grant, Uresti, etc.
South Texas Politics here I come.

Howdy

So it's March, I haven't posted in about 3 months, during that time
-I got married
-It got warm
-The world still is righteously fucked
-Project Runway began... and ended.
and all in all life is pretty much the same.
So my new resolution is to try and post a little something every day as well as bring in more pictures, sound lame, yeah it probably is.
But since I'm writing this for me I don't care, so piss off wankers.