And the winner of the table decorating contest is ------

The votes are counted and the winner is ---going to be announced at an Award Ceremony at 8pm this Friday, Aug. 3rd and Princesse Stephaney will be the Mistress of Ceremony. We'll have snacks available at no cost.

Gossip

I think there are more trinkets to come from the Vitter float in the Scandal Parade. I hear that Mike Foster had Vitter investigated when Foster was promoting Bobby Jindal for Governor and Vitter was running against him. There were stories floating around that Vitter was into kinky sex with prostitutes and, supposedly, Foster got the goods on him and forced him out of the race.

If that's true it would prove that these people have no shame - and no integrity.

Saturday at the Perks

Here are current events at the shop:

this Saturday, the 28th, meet at the shop and we'll all go together to see Hairspray at Canal Place. We'll leave the shop at 7:00pm.

next Saturday, Aug. 4th, the awards ceremony for the table decorating contest is at 8pm. The fabulous Princesse Stephaney will be the Mistress of Ceremony for the event. Don't miss it!

Crock Pot Gumbo & Hairspray

There's an interesting recipe on Coffee Talk. Just click on the link and it'll take you right to it. What do you think? How does it sound to you? Just go to http://www.marignyperks.com/ to get to the Coffee Talk page.

We're going to see Hairspray at Canal Place this Saturday night (July 28th). Meet at the shop (go to web site for address and map) at 7pm and we can car pool over to the movie.

A moral failure

What shall we do about Iraq? It is widely thought that a bloodbath will follow our departure if we leave now and that it will take 5 to 10 years to stabilize the country if we stay. It will be a moral failure if we leave, yet that is what we must do. Bush points to "progress" in Iraq but its must more of his political trickery. Of course, our military prevails when it can engage directly. But everybody agrees that we cannot succeed without a political solution. Certainly, it would help to reach a political solution there if our military could provide stability and put a lid on the violence. However, I don't think the political system in Iraq could function even in a stable, violence-free environment. The surge is necessary but not sufficient. The country has no history of democracy, it lacks the institutions and traditions, and it lacks the desire. None of the parties there want to compromise - they want to win.

We invade their country, wreck a lot of it (there is less electricity now than when Saddam was in charge), and leave. Bush is gradually forcing us into a moral failure.

Failure at the top

The people in charge of our country have failed. They don't seem to have a firm grasp of reality - or truth. How striking it is that the bright spot is the sight of our Secretary of Defense in tears.

Did you see the clip of Defense Secretary Gates chocking up as he spoke movingly of the loss of life and limb in Iraq? It was a relief to see a top official acknowledge the awful cost of this war. The arrogant Rummy was dismissive. The obtuse W. seems incapable of understanding how inappropriate his sunny spirits are. And the callous Cheney’s robo-aggression continues unabated. At least Gates gets it.

Gates and Secretary of State Rice have teamed up to try to bring reality into our policies. (One White House official was quoted as saying, "We create our own reality". That is a diagnosable mental illness.)

We don't hear much about "victory" in Iraq anymore and we never hear the phrase, "cut and run". Now we hear about competing exit strategies. Bush clings to his Iraq fantasy as the sons and daughters of the nation loose life and limb. Almost everyone else realizes we have lost. The Iraq Parliament is about to go on a month long vacation (which was originally a 2 month vacation, until the Bush administration talked them out of it). The only reason for the surge in troops is to buy time for a political solution. Even if our military is completely, 100% successful; the political solution it would provide breathing space for is nowhere in sight.

Bush's political advisor, Karl Rove, is expert at spin and manipulation. He knows how to tell part of the truth to mislead the listener. He is clever at conflating unlike or even contradictory elements into a false statement that sound good. He is a master of the reasonable sounding non sequitur.

It is a disgrace that all Rove's cleverness is being used by Bush to trick and mislead America.

Click on Coffee Talk

Tell us something about yourself: home town, school, hobby, relationship, etc. As for me, well today it seems like my life is all about coffee in the morning and ice cream at night. Everything else is just filler.

I saw Bush being confident again. That does not reassure me. Its frightening. He's so divorced from reality he should have therapy, not an army. All his shuckn and jivin and dancing around facts and truth looks like a criminal's behavior when caught in the act.

We are spending about 12 billion dollars a month in Iraq. That's billion, not million. Where is all that money going? Is anybody auditing the books? Are there any books to audit?

The Home for the Criminally Insane is being run by the inmates.

PS........Coffee Talk is a page on http://www.marignyperks.com/

Boys gettin' hitched

Check out the post on the Coffee Talk page and add your opinion. Its interesting. In my usual Unitarian way, I come down firmly on both sides of the question. Unitarian, by the way, is a free and liberal religion with no required creed. Its a very old religion and someday I'll write about it. It requires independent thinking to work well. We are the people who pray To Whom it May Concern. The Coffee Talk page is at www.marignyperks.com .

Bagdad Summer

The New York Times has a "must read" this morning. It is well worth your time. I've posted it at www.marignyperks.com. Click on "Coffee Talk" and its the first post listed. Read it and post your comments about it.

Ya' just can't trust these guys

Frank Rich wrote scathingly about Michael Chertoff, the homeland security chief who was President Bush's fallback choice for secretary of Homeland Security after Bernard Kerik (who turned out to have somewhat of a criminal background). Chertoff is best remembered for his tragicomic performance during Katrina. He gave his underling, the woeful Brownie, a run for the gold.


It was Mr. Chertoff who announced that the Superdome in New Orleans was "secure" even as the other half of the split screen offered graphic evidence otherwise. It was Mr. Chertoff who told NPR that he had "not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who do not have food and water," even after his fellow citizens had been inundated with such reports all day long.


With Brownie as the designated fall guy, Mr. Chertoff kept his job. Since then he has attracted notice only when lavishing pork on terrorist targets like an Alabama petting zoo while reducing grants to New York City. Though Mr. Chertoff may be the man standing between us and Armageddon, he is seen as a leader of stature only when standing next to his cabinet mate Gonzo Gonzales.


But even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Last week, as the Bush administration frantically tried to counter Republican defections from the war in Iraq, Mr. Chertoff alone departed from the administration's script to talk about the enemy that actually did attack America on 9/11, Al Qaeda, rather than Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the jihad-come-lately gang Mr. Bush is fond of talking about instead. In this White House, the occasional official who strays off script is in all likelihood inadvertently coughing up the truth.


Mr. Chertoff was promptly hammered for it. His admission of "a gut feeling" that America might be vulnerable to a terrorist attack this summer was universally ridiculed as a gaffe. He then tried to retreat, but as he did so, his dire prognosis was confirmed by an intelligence leak. The draft of a new classified threat assessment found that Al Qaeda has regrouped and is stronger than at any time since 2001. Its operational base is the same ungoverned Pakistan wilderness where we've repeatedly failed to capture Osama bin Laden dead or alive for six years. That news doesn't fit with Mr. Rove's political agenda, so Bush tried to dilute it by saying that it wasn't as bad as it would have been without his "war on terrorism". What????


Bush continues to conflate 9-11 with whatever his political agenda is at the moment.

Lazy Journalism

Here we go again. No sooner had President Bush commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby than the media launched into its usual, knee-jerk attempt to analyze the response to the decision in terms of right vs left.

Airwaves and news pages were quickly filled with talk of "outrage from the left," "criticism from the left," and how the commutation "will further drive the left crazy."

It's positively Pavlovian. Ring the issue bell, and reporters start to drool about right vs left. Even when the facts show that the Libby commutation -- like the war in Iraq, like the war on drugs, like global warming -- is not an issue that splits along right/left lines.

In a SurveyUSA poll taken immediately after the commutation was announced, 60 percent of those surveyed said they disagreed with the decision, including 35 percent of conservatives. And, in an earlier Time magazine/SRBI poll, 72 percent said they would disapprove of a pardon. So unless "the left" has recently had an incredible growth spurt, a lot of people on the so-called "right" are feeling outraged too.

Is it really that hard for the media to address this issue without the left/right crutch? Or, if journalists and pundits insist on hobbling along using that musty terminology, can they at least do a little research and see that there are plenty on "the right" who aren't exchanging high-fives over Libby dodging the prison bullet?

Can someone please alert the media: not every issue fits your cherished right/left paradigm. Indeed, that way of looking at the world is becoming less and less relevant -- and more and more absurd.

Its even worse when the media claims balance by presenting two extremists (one liberal and one conservative).

That's like claiming balance when standing with one foot in a bucket of boiling water and the other foot in a bucket of ice.

Vittermania, Part 2

There is more about the Vitter affair. I had been reading about Vitter's diaper fetish and now the AP is reporting it. There are two points to be made beside the obvious hypocrisy.

One is that he called the prostitute from the halls of Congress, on government time.

The other is that he characterized it as a sin and went on to say he had asked for and received forgiveness from his wife and God (wonder how he knows God forgave him) - thereby putting an end to it. I'm less concerned about his sins than his crimes and he also committed a crime.

I think there is more on the diaper fetish. Do you want to know?

Get your mug in Marigny Perks

Check out the stylish new mugs for sale. There are two designs of these Faubourg Marigny commemorative mugs and each is $8.00.

I want to encourage everyone to go to the web site (www.marignyperks.com) and look at the page, "Coffee Talk". Its a forum page and we need participation to get it going. Take a look and jump in.

Vittermania

Stories about David Vitter fly around the Internet - maybe there's some truth in them. I just looked at his website and there is nothing on it about his current troubles. I read that a former Democratic governor is on the prostitute's call list. Well, at least we know it wasn't Edwards. He's safely tucked away.

Vitter's troubles are our troubles. The same is true of Congressman Jefferson. We need strong leadership in Congress to help secure our fair federal aid for Katrina recovery. These two lost their influence and effectiveness in representing our interests. Did you know that New York after 9-11 and Florida after hurricane Andrew were both forgiven the 10% local match requirement to get FEMA funds. Louisiana has been refused forgiveness of the 10% match requirement. A community reeling from a natural disaster is in no position to come up with up front matching funds. We need strong and influential representation in Washington and these guys don't help. If we still had John Breaux and Robert Livingston we would be in a better position.

Tomorrow: How the media weakens our country.

Starbucks looses

A reader points out that Starbucks could re-open one of the two stores they abandoned on Mag. St. after Katrina.

I can think of only one at the moment but that one is interesting. It sits on the corner of Magazine and Nashville, across the street from a locally owned coffee shop. I met with the owner of the local shop and she told me it was a struggle to compete with Starbucks, but she held on. Now Starbucks is gone and the local shop is still open.

Starbucks in the French Quarter

Last Friday there was an article in the paper about Starbucks in the quarter. I'll do a little copy and paste below:


"Starbucks Coffee Co. has withdrawn its lease application for a premiere retail site at the corner of St. Ann and Chartres streets on historic Jackson Square.


La Madeleine French Bakery and Restaurant, which operated at the site for 23 years, did not reopen after Hurricane Katrina because it failed to get a concession on its lease payments. Several other retailers in what is known as the Lower Pontalba building were granted such concessions by the Louisiana State Museum, which owns the building, because they were struggling to cope with the post-storm slowdown in tourism. In May, news that Starbucks was seeking the former La Madeleine location prompted support from local merchants who believed the coffee giant would attract foot traffic. But still other local business owners said the chain would be out of place in the historic atmosphere. This week the museum issued a brief statement saying that Starbucks withdrew its lease application and that the only other applicant, local chef Scott Boswell, was still being considered. Boswell, owner of the Stella! and Stanley restaurants, wants to put a restaurant in the location"



What do you think? Would you want Starbucks in the quarter?

The comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought

Our myths are formed by beliefs we hold that have no basis in fact. Its our myths that allows us to have the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. Thus we accept new information that may be irrational or false as long as it fits our mythology. We reject clear facts and logic if they conflict with our myths. Its how we elect idiots to high public office and how we fall in love. We are irrational beings in an irrational world.


Our myths are also formed by irrational thinking. I hear people extrapolate to the whole from their own narrow experience and the result is an illogical conclusion. When you hear someone reach a conclusion because "everyone I know is.........." or " I don't know anybody who is........." you are hearing illogical thinking. People will accept anecdotal evidence as if it were statistical evidence. An anecdote proves only that instance but when the anecdote is a compelling story it can lead to an unshakable and illogical conclusion. We are irrational beings in an irrational world.

It is possible to think rigorously and critically but if we substitute myth for thought we provide the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Bulls on Bourbon

The Big Easy Rollergirls embraced Spain’s 41-year rule over New Orleans on Saturday morning with a running of the bulls on Bourbon St. They formed up at 7am on Bourbon.; as some hearty party animals were winding up from the night before. The run started at 8am on the same day as the original Spanish event occurs in Pamplona.

Over a dozen of the Big Easy Rollergirls were guest bulls in the first ever San Fermin in Nueva Orleans on Saturday, July 7th. The rollergirls wore horns on their helmets and wielded wiffle ball bats. The matadors (runners) wore all white with read sashes. The girls hit the runners with their bats as they made their way past the deadly rollergirls! The festivities began at The Three Legged Dog Bar (400 Burgundy) on the corner of Burgundy and Conti in the French Quarter. Spanish Wines were available to enhance “valor” before the run with the "bulls" The run ended at the Sidebar (620 Conti) on the corner of Conti Street and Exchange Alley.

Deep into the summer, New Orleans can be a very strange place.

My ideal cell phone

The introduction of the iPhone has led me to think about my ideal phone. It would be a phone on permanent roam that would chose whatever network was providing the best service. Imagine, for example, using your cell phone to talk on Sprint because it had the best voice coverage in Alaska, while at the same time using Verizon's 3G network for Internet access.

The iPhone has Wi-Fi access, which is a giant step forward. Wi-Fi has been kept off American cell phones for years, for reasons that have never passed the smell test ("for security reasons" or "to protect battery life"). The real reason the cell providers have kept Wi-Fi out? To keep consumers eating up minutes on the carriers' networks and to prevent people from grabbing ringtones and other media from their computers, which the industry calls "revenue leakage." Don't you love "revenue leakage"? Only corporate thinking could give us that.

But while the iPhone has Wi-Fi, it doesn't let you do one very obvious thing with its Wi-Fi connection: make phone calls. In an ideal world, you might want to use AT&T when on the road and have your phone switch automatically to Skype or Vonage when at home, since they're much cheaper and can have better voice quality.

I hope the development of the iPhone will spur others to think outside the box.

The accumulation of little lies

I was talking with a conservative friend the other day and he casually mentioned that Saddam had kicked the weapon inspectors out of Iraq. This is a good example of the power of the little lie. Saddam never did kick them out. Bush did. Saddam, toward the end, completely cooperated and that was reported in the news at the time. So why did my friend get it so wrong? Its the power of the little lie.

This lie is one of many that were (and continue to be) repeated over and over again by the conservative echo chamber. The same lie, in the same words, and even in the same tone of voice is drummed into the heads of the American public. It becomes "conventional wisdom". The truth is reported at the time and then not repeated. There was no counter balancing propaganda effort and Fox News and other Bush supporters dominated the propaganda. The little lie is repeated over time while the truth is not.

When I pointed out the error of his statement, my friend just brushed it aside and went on. It didn't fit with his beliefs and attitudes and he didn't stop to examine it. The accumulation of little lies was so great it formed a firm, and irrational, belief for him. So what are we to do?

The answer is to question.

Time's Up!

I'm tired of spineless Democrats who won't push back when Bush acts like a political bully. I'm tired of members of both parties who let him get away with outright lies. I'm tired of reporters who meekly take whatever Bush hands out and don't dig for facts. I'm really tired of Fox acting like administration propaganda is news.


To be fair, things are getting better. But they are only getting better at the margins. I want to see Congress demanding answers from the Bush administration about the Iraq war and their illegal spying program, and not backing down until they get them. Cheney won't testify? Subpoena him. He won't come? Hold him in contempt of Congress and send over the police. And if that doesn't work, impeach the guy.

Bush and Chaney are risking the future of American and soiling our present.

Its time to stand up to them and not back down.

Don't pity Libby

The Bush pardon of Libby won't go away easily. Bush's reason is so transparently false that one wonders what the real reason might be. (The sentence was the normal one for the crime and others in the same circumstances as Libby served the time. The Supreme Court recently ruled on a case that was almost identical and upheld the sentence.) As an aside, I remember many times thinking that Bush's reason was false and wondering what the real reason might have been. My favorite was the original reason for his tax cut for the super rich: we had too much money in the treasury. Then he gave it away and we went into debt. His next reason for his tax cut was that we didn't have enough money in the treasury! The rich were going to get their tax cut no matter what. The same goofy reasoning was used in whipping up support for the (unnecessary) invasion of Iraq.

Before I get too sidetracked, back to Libby. Being kept out of jail and "taken care of" will assure that Libby will continue to keep his mouth shut. He knows what went on in Chaney's office and some of what went on in the Oval Office. Bush can't afford for Libby to tell what he knows. Libby's supporters are claiming that probation and the fine is punishment enough. I've heard them on TV loudly expressing pity for poor Libby for having to come up with the $250,000 for the fine. Nobody challenges them. The fact is that the fine is meaningless because he will certainly not be paying it himself. His legal defense fund, supported by the friends of the president and vice president, boasts a treasury of $5 million. He has been well taken care of.

I expect he'll quietly be appointed to a paid, do-nothing position a corporate board, be given consulting fees, and generally live a life of comfort in the bosom of the right wing.

Don't let them fool you into pity for Libby.

Bush's gift to trial lawyers

“By saying that the sentence was excessive, I wonder if Mr. Bush understood the ramifications of saying that,” said Ellen S. Podgor, who teaches criminal law at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. “This is opening up a can of worms about federal sentencing.”

By yesterday morning, in fact, Mr. Bush’s arguments for keeping Mr. Libby out of prison had become an unexpected gift to defense lawyers around the country, who scrambled to make use of them in their own cases.

Indeed, Mr. Bush’s decision may have given birth to a new sort of legal document.
“I anticipate that we’re going to get a new motion called ‘the Libby motion,’ ” Professor Podgor said. “It will basically say, ‘My client should have got what Libby got, and here’s why.’ ”

Bush did not run his decision through his own Justice Dept., where there is a special section for just such actions. Not having that legal input; Bush simply blundered ahead.

The U.S. vs. Lewis Libby

In the case, U.S. vs. Lewis Libby; Bush sided with Libby. Bush kept him out of jail. Lucky for Libby that he isn't poor and black.

Once again, Bush is managing to mismanage and in the process, even screwing his fellow Republicans. He commuted the sentence instead of pardoning Libby. Later, he'll decide about a pardon. A pardon would have ended the matter well in advance of the 08 election. As it is, the matter will drag on and on. No Republican candidate wants Libby hung around his neck.

I remember the outcry from conservatives over a couple of Clinton pardons at the end of his second term. Now the same people are advocating for a pardon (of Libby). Its not about principles.

Could it be that Hillary has been silent about Libby until now because she does not want to re-kindle the memory of her husband's controversial pardons?