I dare you to watch and not shake your head.

Bookmark to:

Somewhere in Iran, there are terabytes of data – unseen photos, unwatched videos and unread words that have captured events that have yet to be seen by those of us in the “West.”

The Ahmadinejad regime has struggled to tamp out communication among the Iranian people, now keeping it to a very slow drip. Hardly anything comes out from Iran these days, unlike the deluge that we have seen in the past. Keep in mind, Iran is the biggest blogging nation in the world outside of the United States. The culture there, with a majority of the population being young, is a wired culture. Hell, we are a wired planet, so why should Iran be any different?

Inside Iran blogs are down, tweets are non-existent, cell phone service is a joke and the web is a firewalled ghost town. But here comes the problem – the Ahmadinejad regime knows the people of Iran are pissed beyond belief and the people know what the government did to the people – those images of Neda are NOT going to go away anytime soon. The regime also knows that they are sitting on a powder keg of frustration and their only move is to keep the internet out of the hands of the people. It isn’t a question of blocking the West, the incriminating data is inside the country – on cell phones, cameras and camcorders and all sorts of digital recording devices. The data is stored in Iran and the regime cannot afford to allow it to leak to the West or even to the west side of Tehran. An Azure Curtain, an analogy to the Soviet’s Iron Curtain, has to fall across Iran and the regime has to hope that will be enough, but it won’t.

The Ahmadinejad regime is screwed long term (maybe even short term). They cannot hope to keep a smart, empowered population like Iran in the dark for long. Data will start flowing with the use of USB drives, CDs and home produced DVDs that will contain unseen images – all of which will spread like a virus. But knowing Iranians, this is probably already underway. Then someone will sneak a thumbdrive out of the country and more stuff will be dumped to the web.

Iran cannot hope to remain a modern country without the web. Hospitals, educators, manufacturers, banks, shopkeepers, everyone in that country benefits from the web and the only way the Ahmadinejad regime can keep control is to shut off the web and drive their population to the level of North Korea – a complete sequestration of Iranians from the world and each other – that is the regime’s only viable step.

The regime cannot stay in power when a huge swath of their population are bloggers and citizen journalists. Benjamin Franklin would be proud, Khamenei is probably horrified.

Bookmark to:

Lyrics –

My name is Sarah Palin, y’all know me,
vice-prezzy nominee of the GOP,
gonna need your vote in the next election.
Can I get a what-what from the senior section?

McCain got experience.
McCain got style.

But don’t let him freak you out,
when he tries to smile,
cuz that smile be creepy,
but when i’m V.P.,
all the leaders in the world gonna finally meet me.

How’s it go Eskimos?
Eskimos!
Tell me, tell me what you know Eskimos!
Eskimos!
How ya feel Eskimos?
Ice cold!
Tell me, tell me what you feel Eskimos!
Super cold!

I’m Jeremiah Wright cuz tonight I’m the preacher.
I got a bookish look and y’all hot for teacher.

Todd looking fine on his snow machine,
so hot for each other, need a go-between.
In Wasilla, we just chill baby chilla’
but when I see oil, it’s…

Drill baby drilla!

My country tis of thee,
from my porch i can see,
Russia and such.

All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up.
All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up.
All the plumbers in the house, pull your pants up.
All the plumbers in the house, pull your pants up.

When I say Obama, you say Ayers,
“Obama!”
“Ayers!”
“Obama!”
“Ayers!”
I built me a bridge, it aint going nowhere!

Ooooohhhhhhhh.

McCain/Palin
gonna put the nail in
the coffin of the media elite.
She likes red meat!
Shoot a mutha humpin moose eight days of the week!

Now youre dead!
Now youre dead!
Cuz I’m an animal, and I’m bigger than you!

Holdin’ a shotgun, workin’ the pump,
everybody party, we going to hunt!

La la la la la la la la

Yo I’m Palin, I’m out!

Bookmark to:

Well, I was shocked but the Chronicle called and sent me a freelance contract to run one of my strips. It was as simple as that. Well, actually it wasn’t so simple. It took three years of cartooning and getting good at it. But let me tell ya, having “freelance editorial cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle” on ye olde resume is way past cool.

Yeah, it was ONLY one strip and it ran on a Saturday, but it was in the Chronicle and they put on the editorial page. THE Editorial page. Maybe I should frame the contract?

But, you never know. The idea is to see how it was received and go from there. I sent them another half dozen strips today for them to review.

This is how Gary Larson of The Far Side fame started out. He sent a few strips to the Chronicle, they ran them, then the Chronicle syndicated his strip and the rest is history.

I am hoping history will repeat itself.

Bookmark to:

I am planning a Second Life presence for TCD during Yearly Kos, the convention for Daily Kos users and fans. This year at Yearly Kos, they will be streaming video of the panels and speeches into a special area set up in Second Life for those of us who can’t get to the in-person meeting in Chicago.

Inside the TCD booth will be all sorts of TCD branded Second Life goodies like avatars, clothing and other crazy nonsense like your very own inflatable sheep!

Bookmark to: