Wonky post. Stuck in my head thanks to Sterling Newberry, the three dynamics to measure the potential of your project by:

1. Accessability: is your project equitably available? Will it only work for a select "elite" few, or is it something that is open to any and all qualified participants?
2. Sustainability: how dependent is your project on external sources of support? Can it operate under its own power?
3. Scalability: can you scale? Can your idea go national or global and still be a great project?

This isn't a "check all that apply" type metric. More like axes to think along when evaluating what you're up to. Some things need to be closed and private. Some things only work when they're small. Some things are ephemeral.

That's all cool. When thinking about a project, these are just useful lines of evaluation to help entrepreneurs and instigators brainstorm effectively. However, Institutions, particularly public ones -- including State institutions, the Academy, the Press, and the Non-Profit Sector -- should almost always seek to maximize along all three vectors.

The Market -- as an Institution in its own right -- should also be judged on these criteria. How easy is it for new players to break in? How sustainable is the system? Can the it continue to scale (globalize) as is, or are different tactics necessary? These are hard questions which social scientists (economists, economic sociologists) are truly trying to engage. The finance, public policy and political communities are lagging pretty badly.

I know the Pimp is in the cultural zeitgeist, and what with Hustle and Flow's song winning an oscar, and being set in Memphis and all, it seems like ground zero for political pimpdom. But I have to say, neither of these sites is very pimpin'.

The site attacking Harold Ford Jr. went up first, and the Frist site is a mocking response, but I think Democrats are displaying their cultural tone-deafness when they say FancyFord.com portreys Congressman/Candidate Ford as a pimp.

It's attacking Ford for allegedly living well, and (semi covertly) for also being black at the same time. There's implicit racism in that charge, but it says something about the partisans on our side that the put two and two (upper class + black) together and get Pimp. Politics is about making waves, I know. But come on. Those sites just ain't pimpin'. This is pimpin'.

And anyway, Frist is more of a whore. Corporate, but still a whore.

Creepy paralells with how the war in Iraq was sold.

In other news the Army will close down Abu Ghraib, though actually what they mean by "Close Down" is "Relinquish Control." The prison will remain in operation, but with Iraqis in charge. I'm sure this means no one will ever be torture there again.

And finally, Rummy proclaims that "if civil war breaks out," the US will pretty much let the iraqis handle it, this is in line with reports last year that the strategic focus for the US to step up air operations. Basically if the shit hits the fan, will do the bombing, and Iraqis mostly the street-level fighting.

They think that will work. Others disagree. I think it's unlikely to work out. If we start blowing shit up, we could face a popular uprising, and our supply lines are vulnerable to that sort of thing. Could get ugly.

Something got me inspired to do a little clean up over at Vagabender, and I re-read a bunch of it. It's a great record to have, that website.

"Yeah, man. Instead of buying that dime-bag, I decided to just send the money directly to Osama. I just write out a check to Al-Qaeda, drop it in the mail, and because I hate America it gets me just as high."

Oh man. Those were some good times.

I realize big chunks of the story at the end are missing: Iowa, Burning Man, etc. I have photos and memories. Maybe something will happen there.

There are 102 new billionares worldwide this year. No word as to how the rest of the income spectrum is doing, though this is pretty neat.

Got 30 minutes to burn? Watch the video here (link on the right hand side launches player) from about three and a half years ago. Warning: it might make you throw up a little bit in your mouth.

I watched this live on TV back then, and that's when it became clear to me that Bush was set on invading Iraq, and when I started actively thinking about what I could do to stop that. In retrospect, the propaganda is so blindingly obvious. Drones! Oi.

It's a little lo-fi, but it's def. listenable. Jigsaw Gentlement Podcast from the Pordland Mercury. That's the band my friend John Henry sings/fronts. Hopefully their new CD will be buyable online.

Good pondering.

The following submission was made by the Girth to his soon-to-be alma matter in reponse to solicitations of interest for speechafying at graduation:

Naturally he has been invited to speak to the class of 2006. Commencement is May 21st.

UPDATE: The video is here!

FRONTLINE: the insurgency: watch the full program.

The Austrailian guy with the copyrights all over everything (Michael Ware) seems like a bit of a boaster, but given the situation for journalists over there it wasn't as though Frontline had a plethora of sources to pick from.

The report tries to be positive, and it would be great if Col. McMaster's point of view had been shared up and down the chain of command from day 1, but given recent events, I don't think we're going to get a happy ending. Even if we dodge the rumbling civil war for another year, the occupation can go on and on for a lot longer and still not work out. The British occupied/created Iraq over a period of 35 years, and they were left with nothing.

I honestly don't see how we can hope to do any better, especially given our occupation's lack of sustainablility. In large part because the war was concieved with a level of due dilligance and objectivity that rivals the planners behind pets.com, and in large part because it's simply a terrifically bad idea to go and invade countries that didn't invade you first, the strategic position we're in is a big-time loser. We're $250B in the hole so far, and the total human toll -- the effects of death, attrition, and future medical care for the wounded --- is going to push that much higher, two to four times higher, even if we could magically pull out right this second.

We simply cannot affort to keep this show running for much longer, and stubbornly pursuing the Tinkerbell Strategy (Clap louder! It'll work out!) is fucking ignorant, not to mention cruel. It's not as morally monsterous as when palace-dwelling generals in Europe fed millions into the trench-war meat grinder in WWI, but it's just about as stupid.

We should be looking at how to bring our occupation of Iraq -- and I would argue the majority of our military presence in the entire region -- to an end. It's going to happen. Empire isn't sustainable over time, and it's not really even the right idea to pursue. The question is whether we redeploy on our own terms or whether we continue burning our future prospects in pursuit of some spectre of Pax Americana.