2009: Almost as awesome as 1999!
Only no Dreamcast.

Hot on the heels of hurricane Katrina comes Tokyo Magnitude 8.0! I guess Japan got a little jealous of all the attention China and Myanmar have been getting recently. So, if god won't give you a natural disaster, call up Studio Bones!

Being a survivor of natural disasters I can appreciate the situation. However, these kids are totally fucking stupid. (Nothing but professionalism here!) They wonder off and nearly get Tokyo Tower dropped on their heads every damn episode. Definitely not as good as it could have been, but it's nice to see a non-moe Anime with a pretty harsh ending.


Ever wake up in front of the White House, naked, with a gun in your hand, with amnesia? Oh and you look like someone out of Honey and Clover? Well, if the answer is no. Then you were not the main character of Eden of the East.

This Production I.G. cartoon begins in America with a Japanese co-ed tossing money at the White House, because I guess that's how the kids make wishes these days? Anyway, as Engrish speaking cops come to stop her, a naked Japanese guy appears out of nowhere with a gun and wackiness ensues. Explaining any further kinda ruins the story. Warning: Series ends on a cliffhanger, but it will be wrapped up with two movies at the end of this year/early next year.

Finally, the most badass Japanese cartoon of 2009! Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen!

If you're like me, you might have grown up in a magical time period known as the 1980's. Then you might remember a lil' cartoon show called Tranzor Z. Years later I learned that good ol' Tranzor was really good ol' Mazinger, and some crazy dude named Go Nagai created it. Golly.

Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen (True Mazinger IMPACT! Z Chapter) is a re-imagining of the original series and a homage to Go Nagai done much in the same way as Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still (a homage to Mitsuteru Yokoyama). Both series pulled in characters from their creator's other works and added in more back story and depth than the originals ever had. It should be no surprise that both of these cartoons were headed by the same man, Yasuhiro Imagawa.

Watch this show, it kicks ass, better yet it rocket punches asses! Wait, that doesn't sound right. If that didn't sell you then check out Subatomic Brainfreeze's Shin Mazinger HYPE.

Next time on Superdeformed Hates the Internet: Guy is going to ramble about maybe one show at a time. He's tired of lists. Will there be more talking in the 3rd peron? Will there be better proofreading? Will we found out who show J.R.?! Stay tuned.

2009 Anime Year in Review
Part1: None of these shows aired in 2009!

The 9th year of the 2000's was a pretty fun time for me as an Anime fan. I didn't go to any conventions I just watched shows, read blogs and listened to podcasts. So here's a review of the Japanese cartoons I watched and actually liked this past year in the chronological order they were released. Kinda.

From the ass of the 90's:

This year I rewatched One Piece up to the current episodes (well, minus the fillers) with my new roommates. Always a fun show, though the animation is getting so badthat I might have to read the Manga instead as one of my roommates opted to do half way through.

It was interesting to see how much of the older episodes was retcon versus actual foreshadowing. It's still a show I'd highly recommend Anime fans to at least check out. Better than shows that's named after household cleaners and ninjas dressed in bright orange.

2007: A fine year, had I actually remembered it.

Another show that did not air in Japan this year but I thoroughly enjoyed was 2007's Baccano. Based off a series of light novels (raito nobaru, haha), Baccano follows the rambunctious exploits of thieves, mobsters, serial killers, bootleggers, and journalists in 1930's America (fuck yeah).

Directed by Takahiro Omori (key animator to classics such as Madox-01 and Akari's BAOH, he's directed quite a few shows including the adaptation of Power Stone of all things) the Anime covered the first 3 novels. I would highly suggest watching the show first and not read any kind of summaries or wiki's on it. It's best to go in completely blind. Hell forget everything I've written about it.

2008: The Year the Economy Died

While some of us lost our jobs, 401ks, and homes, Japan decided to slip a few shows under the radar. This past year I caught up with a few of these series; the Adult Swim-ready Astro Fighter Sun Red, Manglobe's Michiko E Hatchin, and the bastard child of Akagi, Eyeshield 21, and a League of their Own, One Outs!

Tentai Senshi Sunred, Astro Fighter Sunred, Sunred, Sun Red, whatever the hell you call this show, follows the exploits of the "friend of justice" Sunred as he battles the evil General Vamp and his army of ghastly grotesque monsters. Not for the faint of heart, this show gets things rolling with an epically sweet battle in front of a local beef bowl shop. If that fight didn't totally roundhouse kick your grandmother in the face while wailing out the solo to Freebird then, bear witness to the bone chilling ambush Vamp and his minions unleash upon Sunred as he waits in line to get Melonpan!

Ok, on a serious note, remember when Adult Swim was good? Remember Mighty Morphin Power Rangers? Take out the Zords, Master Shake, and Tigerbeat centerfolds and you pretty much have Sunred. A show way better than the sum of it's parts. Trust me.

Yo dog, I heard you like gambling and sports, so Japan put sports in a gambling cartoon and gave you Pete Rose, I mean One Outs. Lame memes aside, One Outs is a straight up gambling show set inside of a baseball Anime. If you enjoy shows like Touch, H2, and Major you won't necessarily enjoy One Outs as much as fans of gambling series like Akagi and Kaiji.

As for the plot, it's pretty much the Shaquille O'Neill cinematic masterpeice Blue Chips except replace Nick Nolte with a professional baseball player, replace college basketball with Japanese professional baseball, and add in Al Davis (yeah I'm forcing this). Anyway, a gambler/pitching genius goes to the pros, the team owner is a dick, lots of eternal monologues, and some people play baseball. I just eat this crap up. What I don't eat up is that fujoshi-pandering opening.

The final 2008 Anime I enjoyed in 2009 was Michiko E Hatchin. This fine show was produced by Manglobe, who made awesome non-moe shows such as Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy. Though it's easily comparable to Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, the director of the two, Shinichiro Watanabe only the music producer. It's a damn shame it was not as popular as Bebop or Champloo since crap like Lucky Star and Kanon are flooding the market.

The plot revolves around Michiko, hardened fugitive and an orphan with a Cinderella complex, Hana. They are on the run from the cops and in search of Hana's father/Michiko's Ex. The setting is South American though never specifically stated where and everyone has a Japanese first name and a Hispanic last name (ex. Michiko Malandro, Shinsuke Rodriguez, ect..). The music is a key character to the show much as it was in Clampoo and Watanabe's Bebop, which was very south of the border and lively.

Coming up next: Shows I liked that were made in 2009 (not in the year 3000)!

Coming soon, due to a very uninteresting fall season:

Superdeformed's 2009 Anime Year in Review!

Be prepared for bad-ass giant robots, cartoons that didn't actually air in 2009, and magical cellphones that will grant your every wish!

A few people (namely my girlfriend) expressed disbelief when I mentioned in a previous post that I do not see Barack Obama as a Liberal.

My personal definition of a Liberal, is a leftist (socialist) who is pro-choice, supports gay rights, and sympathetic to minority issues (ie immigration and civil rights). Obama does lean "left" as it's framed between the two parties we have in power right now; however, they are not too left or right themselves. Although, that's another issue completely.

Right-wing talking heads would have you believe that the bank bailouts and Obama's health-care reform is a high-step march to socialism. Socialists seem to disagree.

(Billy Wharton, Washington Post)

The first clear indication that Obama is not, in fact, a socialist, is the way his administration is avoiding structural changes to the financial system. Nationalization is simply not in the playbook of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his team. They favor costly, temporary measures that can easily be dismantled should the economy stabilize. Socialists support nationalization and see it as a means of creating a banking system that acts like a highly regulated public utility. The banks would then cease to be sinkholes for public funds or financial versions of casinos and would become essential to reenergizing productive sectors of the economy.

Wharton then goes on to criticize Obama's proposed health care reform.

A national health insurance system as embodied in the single-payer health plan reintroduced in legislation this year by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), makes perfect sense to us. That bill would provide comprehensive coverage, offer a full range of choice of doctors and services and eliminate the primary cause of personal bankruptcy -- health-care bills. Obama's plan would do the opposite. By mandating that every person be insured, ObamaCare would give private health insurance companies license to systematically underinsure policyholders while cashing in on the moral currency of universal coverage. If Obama is a socialist, then on health care, he's doing a fairly good job of concealing it.

As for the GM/Chrysler bailout liberals suggest that the government should take possession of these companies and use them to build a national mass transit system and alternative-powered cars (Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com). On the other hand, Obama claims he only wants to restructure the companies and have them pay off their "loans" all the while with minimal government management (David E. Sanger,NY Times).

(Barack Obama, Reuters)

If GM and Chrysler were willing to do what was necessary to make themselves competitive and if taxpayers were repaid every dime they put on the line, it was a process worth supporting. We saved hundreds of thousands of jobs as a result and expect to get our money back.

In recent gay rights news, Obama deviates from social liberals. The White House and Republicans pressured a Florida congressman into removing an amendment to a defense appropriation bill that would remove funding to investigate "don't ask, don't tell" violations (George Bennett, Palm Beach Post). Obama is even opposed to gay marriage, though he is cool with civil unions (James Kirchick, Washington Post).

President Barack "Barry" Obama is by no means a Republican or a bible thumping-Regan Worshiping-Neoconservative. He is definitely a Democrat, but not a pinko liberal spawn of Devine and Lenin.

IF YA SMEEELLLLLLLLL.....

.... WHAT THE BARACK. IS. COOKIN'

Here's a Tweet I made that became a Facebook discussion. Enjoy.

Me

1,000,000,000/4500 = 222,222.23ish.. Therefore over 222,222 cars were bought and over the same amount are to be crushed?

Friend #1

this is the worst idea i've ever heard.

Me

What idea? it was already done. They're about to pump 2 billion more into it. Overall fuel economy goes up and a dead automotive industry gets business.

Friend #2

oh yeah and the wonderful thing is...My bf's car which is a REAL clunker probably wouldn't even qualify! The damn thing is falling apart (literally) but it probably gets over 18 to the gal. so yeah. BRIGHT IDEAS FROM THE GOVERNMENT.

Friend #1

here's my problem with it... when they made the stimulus package to pay house notes for people who had fallen behind on their mortgage it ended up that something like 85% of those people were foreclosed on anyway because even though the government picked up the tab on a few months they still didn't have the income to support the monthly bill in the... Read More long runl. why will this be any different? if i'm making $300 a week and barely able to feed myself and pay rent every month then what makes the government think that paying my down payment for a new car will make me able to afford the monthly payment? i promise you 6 months to a year from now we'll be seeing the fallout from this when all these new cars are being repossessed by the thousands. i'd rather have a "clunker" that's mine than drive a nice car for a while then have it taken away and be left with nothing.

Me

Bitching about one government program to put down another is baseless, and whining about how you're not covered by it therefore it sucks is just as retarded.

Friend #1

it's not baseless, it's establishing a pattern. socialism has never worked. what's baseless is thinking that it will now just because it has a more eloquent spokesperson.

Friend #2

i'm not bitching. I'm just saying that it's a pointless to call it cash for clunkers (on top of the program being dumb all in itself). That's misleading. Because there are going to be the people who have shitty cars (like my boyfriends) who would be able to afford a car with the extra money from the program only to get turned out because it's not... Read More really a "clunker" on their terms. It's like a retail store doing a sale but printing out a misleading ad for it... Only the government is controlling it.

and i think your an ass. :P

Me

"socialism has never worked." Scandinavia would like to have a word with you. Also, America would never be able to become a full on socialist state. Nor would it ever be completely capitalistic. The whole point of forming a government is so we do not have to rely on private enterprise for everything and to give the people an outlet to change the course of things. Obama was elected, deal with it. Take some solace that he's center left and not full liberal.

"Cash for Clunkers" is a term coined by the media not the government the program is called the Car Allowance Rebate System. It's to stimulate spending while increasing fuel efficiency of the overall US fleet. Sucks that your BF's POS car does not qualify, but it's geared to get SUV's off the road not a broke down Camry or Sentra, ect.

Over 200,000 cars sold in one WEEK will do more for the economy than any of the other programs of the recovery bill. I'm glad at least one part of the stimulus is obviously working.

Friend #1

time will be the tell, guy. if the people can pay for these cars and keep them, then the program was a success. if more of them end up being repossessed than not, then it was a failure. other than that i have nothing else to say.

Me

Actually, that's more a problem of the credit industry, but they are being very tight-assed on credit right now. Of course high unemployment complicates this all. But I don't think inaction is a solution. "No questions asked" blank checks to banks is not action BTW.

Friend #1

how 'bout we close the fed?

Me

No, not enough of a case against them, yet. Credit rating agencies are the ones to blame for this recession. Collusion among industry leaders is another huge problem.

I'm for re-regulation (make new regulations while getting rid of the old regulation), not deregulation or more regulation. However none of the major parties (including Libertarians) are not voicing this opinion to my knowledge.

I wish the problems with our government could be summed up to "those damn liberals" or "those stupid fucking republicans" or even "it's the two party system, man!" The problems lie with the voters, the system in place, popular option, the media, big business, and of course the special interest groups. All side are against the people (especially the people themselves).

This is pretty much raw, so don't expect much in the way of proofreading. If anyone has anything to add, then feel free to comment.

N.O. Place for Good I.T.

Other bloggers have done a better job of covering this new cycle than I ever could. So give them some love.

http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/2009/03/as-ernie-banks-would-say-lets-play-twos.html
http://wecouldbefamous.blogspot.com/2009/03/simple-politics-nuanced-reality.html
http://peoplegetready.jockamofeenanay.com/?p=2739

All I can offer is some commentary from my experience in Information Technology.

First off any major city like New Orleans should have a good enough server to house a decent email system like Microsoft Exchange at the very least. I've worked for a government institution which was yearly audited by the FBI and other agencies and we had to maintain emails for over 300 end users and keep all the emails on the server which was incrementally backed up daily and fully backed up every month. The server could be completely empty, but the tape library would have all emails (mind you it would take a while to extract them all) public records requests can be carried out.

Nagin claiming there was no way to keep more than a week's worth of emails on the server could be technically true, but if there was no proper backup system in place then the head of the city's IT department should have been fired or even fined, fuck it, both. Oh yeah the Camera system thing is even more icing on the cake. Oh and giving out email logs to the wrong department, also another fireable offense. Jesus.

Locally and nationally things are getting pretty interesting.

Not to say I agree with any of those childish Republicans for their 100% NO vote, they want the stimulus to be all tax cuts.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Tax Cuts ($275 billion)
Education Investments ($141.6 billion)
Health-care Investments ($112.1 billion)
Welfare/Unemployment ($102 billion)

Infrastructure Investments ($90 billion)

Energy Investments ($58 billion)
Federal Motor Fleet ($600 million)

Meanwhile China tosses up to $585 Billion at their infrastructure. Most likely less, but still way over our measly $90 billion.

I could care less about a tax break. Leave everything else the same, take all those tax cuts and put them into infrastructure investments, and I'll be 100% behind it.

Once again, both sides are wrong.

Superdeformed's Best Anime Crap of 2008 (Part 2)


Best 10+ Year Old Series Released in America in 2008:

Yawara A Fashionable Yudo Girl - Yawara Inokuma is your normal teenager in 1980's/90's Japan but she hold a deep dark secret, Judo. Jigorou Inokuma, 5-time All-Japan Judo Champion wishes to mold his dim-witted granddaughter Yawara into the next Olympic Gold Metalist and National Merit Award-holder.

If you like Maison Ikkoku chances are this would be the show for you. Even though GoLion was a fun release this show is an overall better show, also Animeigo released this set with a big thick book of extras I have yet to read. Extras you'll never use are always fun.

I was going to do more, but I think that will do it for this year.

So right now I'm gonna rip-off Anime New Network.

Superdeformed's Best Anime Crap of 2008 (Part 1)

*Most of this will be stuff that was release in Japan this year, if it has to do with what was released in America I'll say so.*

Best Almost Good Series:
Allison to Lillia - Definitly inspired by Nadia and much like Nadia has it's blah parts. However this series doesn't quite overcome it's shortcomings.

This 26 episode TV series is based on two light novel (LN) series by
Keiichi Sigsawa is a series of very short and rushed adventures of two kids (and later their kid) in very early 1900's-like world just getting past their version of WW1 (only it went on much longer).

Given a larger episode count maybe this could have worked. The setting, characters (except one), and plot were almost there, they were all likable, but needed more development. Since there was little to no set up there was never a feeling of urgency during any of the climaxes, it never felt like the bad guys could win.

The first half (based off the Allison LN series) was by far the best part of this show. Wilhelm and Allison pretty decent characters and the transition to the Lillia to Treize half honestly surprised me. Treize was a decent character as well, but Lillia was a worthless bitch.

Had this series simply been Allison then I'd be singing it's praises and eagerly awaiting 2009's follow up series. Instead I see a butt-ton of wasted potential and what could have been.

Best Almost Bad Series:
Macross Frontier - The love triangle. Mistakenly, the main focus of the Superdemension Macross universe. I feel it's a needed key element, but it should not be the main focus as it has been since the final arc of the original TV series. This series just managed to squeek by and be good unlike the other recent series Macross Zero.

The Bad:
Ranka Lee, in the grand tradition of Linn Minmei she is the dumb/selfish/annoying idol singer of this series.

Referencing Macross Zero as cannon. Sure they could ignore Macross II but not Zero. Damn you Shoji Kawamori!

Pandering to all fan demographics. Sure the mecha porn (not robots having sex) I accept since this is a mecha show, but there is way too much moe' (not just limited to little girls) and high school hijinks.

Shoji Kawamori. Stick to designing jets, ok?

The in the middle:
Fold Technology + Singing. This was almost an Episode 1 Metachlorians situation all over again, but luckily it didn't turn out to be the case.

The character designs, definitely not Mikimoto but not horrible either.

The good:
Sticking to the basics. Epic space war with unknown alien? Check. Love Triangles? A little too much check. This is a Macross series. No space whales, no flying rocks, no singing at the enemy instead of shooting them.

Bobby. Normally he's flaming gay and making passes at the male cast, but when he's at the helm of the Macross Quarter he's a manly man of BURNING PASSION.

Homage to the original series. I'm not going to point them all out, but they also pull some fake-out homages like the pine salad homage in episode 17.

The music. Sure it's J-pop, but at least it's good j-pop. Not my favorite style music, but I can hear that it's well put together.

The animation. For a TV series it's fucking outstanding, it can hold it's own with Movies and OAVs as well. The mecha combat is some fun stuff. Animation recycling is done subtly so it's barely noticed.

------------------

To be continued....

Here's some passing opinions floating around in my head.

Charity/VA Hospital:
Sure a swank, progressive, modern, and economically attractive Biomedical district would be nice. But it's not funded, the city needs health care 3 years ago, and it would demolish an otherwise ok neighborhood (though the area along Tulane Ave can still be leveled). I can see the arguments both sides are making though.

Big 3 Bailout:
Impose fuel economy restrictions sooner, give them their little loan, move on. Too bad congress dropped the ball now President notsolameducker is taking care of it. Though these idiots deserve to go under, they have a few million people and other industries hostage. We need to invent new things to produce.

Economic Stimulus:
Conservatives complaining about a balanced budget during a major recession is stupid. Driving up a huge deficit while the economy is prosperous is just as stupid. One Trillion on infrastructure (not just roads) is way more appealing than bailing out some huge companies. Of course huge contractors would benefit a lot, ah well.

Obama's Cabinet:
I'm a centralist, he's a centralist, let's make out! If you wanted change change then you should have voted 3rd party. Obama and the Clintons are democrats so, why so suprised? Obama is idealistic, but not stupid. Sorry far left.

Seems like the local bloggers are having some Christmas Video Wars. Those posts have links to others.

I counter with some youtube poop.

Goodnight sweet prince.

Don't forget to vote this Saturday!

The main, well only, item on my ballot is the 2nd Congressional District election.

Here's the choices:

Anh "Joseph" Cao:
Definitely my favored candidate. Sure he's republican, but he's progressive on immigration reform. His background is interesting, well educated, and backed by a major party (which is usually a bad thing to me). For a better article click here.

William J. Jefferson

Gregory W. Kahn:
Libertarians are fun and I agree on a few of their stances, but the overall concept still falls flat. Wacky Centralists like me can't get too into them since they are pretty much anarchists with the capitalism. Hell the guy doesn't even have a website, how unhip can a candidate of a hip 3rd party be?

Malik Rahim
Definitely has the nicest website, however to the chagrin of all the silly liberals out there, he's a fringe candidate. Even uttering BLACK PANTHER is political suicide in closet racist Louisiana. No chance of winning. I know elections are not a horse race, but there should be a degree of cost benefit analysis. If he magically wins I won't mind.

I'm voting for the little Vietnamese guy. But if you want an endorsement.

THIS BLOG HERBY ENDORSES ANYONE BUT BILL JEFFERSON FOR CONGRESS.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/va_lsu_announce_the_location_o.html
http://www.wwl.com/VA-announces-hospital-site/3384296

No surprise, we could have had Charity hospital online by now for way less money, oh no not the Deutschen Haus! blah blah blah

Just get it over with. Build and develop prove the critics wrong. 2013? Jesus Christ we needed hospitals 3 years ago. What is with all the lead-ass in this city?

Historical preservation is nice, but there is a segment of these so-called "preserved" homes are just blighted and nothing is being done with them. Let me win the lottery and I'll buy that house on the corner of Bourbon and Esplanade and fix it up right nice I tells ya.

Balance needs to be met in this city. We need to move forward and not become strip mall hell.

All this historical preservation vs. moving forward debate makes me think of Meridian, Mississippi. In one direction strip malls, Chili's and other bland wasp nests claiming to be restaurants, and a Super Walmart. In the other direction and unique and quaint downtown area of vacant retail locales and brick buildings. Such a shame, but what can you do? People like driving fast and parking.

I don't know. My opinion is all over the place on these kinds of things. Just get something done good or bad. I keep thinking the City is Mr. Slave, the Federal government is Mr. Garrison, and the "billions" of Federal Dollars is Lemmingwinks.

Growing up in the sticks of St. Tammany and going to one 6th Ward Jr. High school (after attending majority black Chata-ema elementary in Lacombe) I knew the Klan was alive in well in Hickville, USA.

I'm annoyed by the fake gasps and pseudo-shock people are showing since this story broke.

Be aware of your surroundings people. Racism is not dead, it's just taking a back seat to economic class.

Anyway, nothing of value was lost.

Thank you NPR for telling me such a documentary exists.



Oh look, it's airing on WYES (Channel 12) on November 11 @ 8:00pm. (For those in other areas.)

Seems like it should be pretty interesting. Seeing a young, presumably drunk, W campaigning for his dad was pretty lol-worthy. It'll be nice to see where Karl Rove learned to slither around on his belly.

Ok enough politics.

You kids need to go watch Detroit Metal City.



What is Detroit Metal City?

Well it's a Manga series chronicling the Gods of Japan's underground Death/Black Metal scene. I'm mainly reviewing the Anime which is comprised of 13 15-minute episodes, very much simmilar to Adult Swim's Metalocalypse.



The manga has been running since 2005 which predates Metalocalypse. Though both shows are about the wacky hijinx of Death Metal bands. DMC mainly follows Negishi/Krauser where as Metalocalypse follows Dethklok as a whole. Another difference between the two is that while Metalocalypse primarily focuses on violence while DMC focuses on more sexual-agressive tones. I find this to be a telling trait between American and Japanese sensibilities. Both shows represent the culture's dark underbelly in slapstick comedic fashion.

Anyway, back to DMC. Our Hero is one Negishi Soichi, he's a mild-mannered guy just out of college who can play the guitar. He loves Swedish pop music, his family, and farming. However, through some sick twist of fate he fell into the role of Johannes Krauser II the rape-crazed front man of Japan's most notorious Death Metal band Detroit Metal City (DMC).



Most of the show is Negishi trying to break away and start his own bubblegum pop music career but either through fate or his own subconscious he always comes back to Krauser. Situations always fall into place for Krauser to seem way more badass than he really is, or is it? A simple trip can lead to him taking out a cop or someone pissing him off can lead to him mouthing off the wrong thing at the wrong time.



Anyway, this review is making the show seem much deeper than it really is, just go watch it. I could go on more about the awesome cast and other crap like that, but I will save those kinds of reviews for better shows. This is just a fucked up dark comedy that's very short, so just go check it out.

DMC not licensed for a North America release yet so you'll have to find a fansub some where.



Also, shortly after the Anime was released in Japan a Live-action Movie was released. No fansub of it yet, so I guess I'll have to wait.

After hearing the incessant baawwwing in the comments on Oyster's posts about Joesph Cao (Link 1)(Link 2). I just have to rant.

Cao's new website is only couple days old. All they have done thus far is replaced the graphics of the old one and revised his biography page. You don't slap together an issue statement in a day proper polling and drafting must be done first. But the little "action agenda" box is a nice start.

Action Agenda:
* Promote economic development and create better jobs
Of course.

* Redevelop the Port of New Orleans
About fucking time a candidate mentions this. The clock is ticking big time on Panama Canal's expansion. Nagin and Jindal both need to be power-bombed into a mountain of dog shit for not scrambling on this issue.

* Reduce wasteful spending in Washington
Uh yeah, which party are you a member of again?

* Ensure our children receive an excellent education
No Brainer, but how you propose to do it is another.

* Preserve our wetlands and expand coastal restoration for hurricane protection
Amen.

Now this is merely the starting point. The hows and the elaboration on the points is greatly needed. If they are not up in a week then I will start to get pissy, but right now it's only been a few days, so there is still a bit of a grace period left. In reality, all campaign promises have to be taken with a grain of salt.

As for being Catholic, The Catholic Church, though dogmatic, ritualistic, and corrupt, is not Fundamentalist. They don't take the bible literally as the word of god, sure they don't favor sex education and contraception, but it's better then idiots who believe the world will end in flames when the anti-Christ descends upon us and that Jesus wanted them to vote for George W Bush.

Either way, fuck party affiliation. I don't care who is in which club. I don't vote based on who lines up perfectly with my personal views either. I vote for who can benefit myself and my community. Jefferson has little to no political clout in Washington, he is a marked man who's about to be taken out. Instead of having him as a negative mark on my state's record and having to spend millions on a new election when he's convicted, I'd rather vote in the the new guy with a PHD and who's lived the American dream.

So what if Cao Catholic and republican? Some of my favorite people are Catholic and/or Republican. That's not the issue we are all human beings with our own unique ideals. I am sick of partisanship. Work together and compromise, stop the fucking bickering.

After 8 years of "uh uh uh [made upword] *cocky smirk*" I was on the verge of tears. He came across as on the level and appeared to be *gasp* thinking. Personally, I hope the next economic stimulus package is mainly infrastructure improvements (like FDR/Huey Long levels), extensions of unemployment benefits are a good idea as well. I agree with Paul Krugman's stance that right now is not the time to be paying off the federal debt and balancing the budget (sauce). Save that for the good times, you know the period of time Bush and company like to start wars and create the debt.

---------------------------------------

In other news, Joseph Cao replaced his shitty circa-1997 Homestead.com web page with something much better.

Oh yeah. Been a while since I voted for the guy who won. Will most of his campaign promises be kept? No. Is the two party system flawed? Yes. Will all our problems be solved? No. But goddamnit I expect change with him and congress having a usable majority. Remember what him and his cronies promised, if they don't carry out, vote them out. Repeat.

So for local stuff.

I'm glad the HRC (N.O. Master Plan) Amendment passed. I guess I'll go to the planning meetings.

"Dollar" Bill Jefferson won, but no surprise since the black candidates fucked themselves, Gustav pushed back the run off, and a former television personality stole the white vote. He was very lucky, or is he? The general election for his seat will take place in December. Low black turnout? Maybe. So let's see who's running against him. Ok, a black panther, two nobodies, and Vietnamese Republican?! :\

Anh "Joseph" Cao (Republican): http://www.voteforanhcao.com What a shitty webpage, I almost want to make one for him. haha. Hmm, He's Catholic with a BS in Physics and has a Law Degree. Lives in New Orleans East. The Vietnamese community in New Orleans East intrigues me.

Hmm... Hopefully he'll gain some steam from annoyed white voters. But I doubt it.

I am so sick of the 2008 presidential campaign I could vomit my spleen, which is impossible, I think.

It feels like the race began back in 2004 when Obama won in a landslide. Watching snippets of his victory speech while at an election night party made me think, "Golly, I'm more excited about this guy then that ketchup asshole." I predicted right then and there he'd be the next President. Four years later I'm not so sure.

This election has shown the internet to be a double edge sword. We can get information correctly or incorrectly in a matter of seconds. False hype can be generated seemingly out of nowhere as was the case with Ron Paul. Worse of all is the empowerment of partisanship and bickering. On the bright side you have several fact-checking sources to hold a lot of the hype in check, so long as individuals take not of it, which most are not sadly.

Expect a rundown of both candidates in the coming month.