Johnny Coli

She's no Jane Birkin.

I'm sure it was for Coach Hastert.

Well, you knew someone was going to start digging up some actual slime at some point, but I don't think it's what the GOP had in mind. From The Hill... At least he used the smaller plane.

You are correct , sir. As per the ABC piece: She doesn't care what the plane is. For once, I agree with the White House. "This is a silly story and I think it's been unfair to the speaker," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Here's an actual, fact-based story (from the AP, no less) on this crucial story: GOP bristles at Pelosi desire for Air Force plane; Republicans scoff at House speaker’s request, despite precedent for jets There you go...an egregious abuse of power if there ever was one. How ever will the country survive?

So, I'll pencil you in for an "affirmative" for Issue 4, then.

Bill, Bill, Bill... I thought you were capable of having a rational discussion on whether the Speaker of the House should have the use of an Air Force jet for travel, but it was you who reduced it to "But-but-but, Pelosi did this and Pelosi Pelosi Pelosi spptnzxtfptpt-GASP-spppnxztztxtxt!!!!" Clearly you fall into the Issue 4 catagory, where this has nothing to do with what perks the Speaker gets...it's actually about who currently holds the position that sets you off.

How is that even relevent to the discussion? Should we include Hastert's pimping of congressional pages in this debate on whether Pelosi should have the use of an AF jet to go to and from California? I didn't think so. Remove the actual names of the past two Speakers from the discussion, Bill. It boils down to whether that particular public official deserves that particular perk, a perk that was given by the White House. Keep your hysterics over Pelosi out of it.

Happy birthday!

The simplified arguments are: 1. No Speaker of the House should have this method of travel, and we should change it starting now. 2. The former Speaker had this method of travel, it was an abuse of power, but no one said anything until now. 3. The former Speaker had this method of travel, but it was OK because he lived in Illinois. 4. This is only an issue because the Speaker is Nancy Pelosi. Issue 1 seems like a fair enough argument, but let's not accuse Pelosi of demanding anything she really didn't. Issue 2 seems like it's par for the course, as the GOP had no inclination to examine any form of abuse of power in the six-plus years they were in a position to do so. Issue 3 is the assinine reasoning some are using to push this story. If Hastert had lived in California to begin with, this wouldn't even be an issue at all. Issue 4 seems to be the real underlying problem that those who are shouting loudest have.

It doesn’t surprise me that the GOP and their minions would consider this a Page One story, as they certainly haven’t had any experience practicing legitimate oversight in well over seven years, and clearly wouldn’t recognize an actual controversy now. Let them continue to hop up and down and manufacture fact-less drivel to be eaten up and disseminated by their lapdogs in the media, while the Dems practice real oversight, uncover real corruption, uncover real incompetence, and uncover real abuse of power. We'll let the American people decide in two years whether knocking Pelosi for requesting the same service her predecessor had, or uncovering why $12 billion cash was shipped into a war zone have the same controversial weight.

People still do buy vinyl, which the major record companies ran away from years ago because, surprize!, they realized they could pump out huge quantities on compact disks for zero to no money and pass those savings on to the customer by charging you twice as much. Bands (and I mean real bands, not the ones assembled in the Giant Corporate Rock Factories to cash in on a trend) still put out vinyl that they pay to record, and they pay to press, and they pay to print. The beauty of the mp3, is that small, independent record companies, and now even the bands themselves, can put up a cut off a record for people to download, spread around, and generate hype for. Then people buy merch, buy 7" 45s, LPs, CDs, etc. For bands that tour every once in a while, because, you know they actually like to play songs in front of people, it's a great way to get their stuff out there, get their stuff played on college radio, get their stuff into podcasts and blogs. I still buy vinyl all the time. I'm with you, vinyl sounds way better. But the days of getting a free 7" with the latest issue of Flipside or Maximum Rock and Roll are pretty far behind us. There are still a few of us out there willing to spend a Saturday afternoon flipping through the stacks in a record store and throwing some scratch down for a 45 or LP on a whim because the band name sounds cool, or the cover is interesting, or the label it's out on has a good track record of putting out solid material. But we're a dying breed. Now, I spend my free time (what little I have) surfing the intertubes for great music. It's not as cool as an afternoon at the record store, but I get to drink a beer while doing it.

There are very, very few people putting out music (and I mean the actual music itself) that are doing it for the money. Many will never see a dime, but continue to play clubs and put stuff out because it's art, and more importantly it's a total blast. Shed no tears for any of those people who package someone else's art and whine that they're not reaping bigger rewards for doing nothing and whose only skill is to schmooze. They who B word the loudest are the ones who are in the biggest danger of being rendered obsolete when more and more bands decide to just do it themselves.

Personally, as someone that drives in the city every day, if a pedestrian decides to enter the intersection when I have a green light and they have the electronic red "stop" hand, I should be able to run the !@#$ers down no matter what the hell they are doing.

Except Al Gore isn't running for POTUS, has repeatedly said he has no interest in running for any public office, and hasn't been in public office for seven years. It couldn't be that he's just passionate about something? It couldn't be that maybe, just maybe, his only agenda is to bring to attention something he cares deeply about, whether you agree with him or not?

Hype Machine is a blog mp3 aggregator. Type in a search, and it will pull up all the blogs that have entries for that particular artist. It's pretty fabulous. I hit a lot of punk rock/hardcore blogs, but there are blogs out there for every conceivable style of music. Some of my faves are: Something I Learned Today Killed by Death Good Music for Bad, Bad Times 7 Inch Punk Strange Reaction Post Punk Junk Post Punk Junk's server is booting him at the end of the week. His PPJ "mixtapes" are pretty solid. They're not always my cup of brew, but they're a great eclectic mix of punk, new wave, post-punk and weird-o stuff. I prefer the "podcasts" on the Strange Reaction site, and Something I Learned Today has recently started those as well. Anyway, those interested in the PPJ stuff should head over there and check it out before it dissappears. I also hit a lot of the small label sites, because they are most-generous with the freebie-mp3s, and it's cool to check out stuff that'll never go over the commercial airwaves that you might miss out on. For example Dischord Records, home of Minor Threat, Fugazi, etc have just updated their site and have some great stuff on there for those of you who don't already have it. There's tons of small labels out there that WANT you to hear their bands. There's tons of music out there on the 'tubes. Find stuff you like, then buy some of the stuff from the independent labels. Avoid music manufactured by the Corporate Rock Whores that don't give a crap about you, the musicians or the music.

The same could be said of this administration, who seem hell-bent on manufacturing a war with Iran. Even if the intel is dead-nuts accurate saying Iran isn't the immediate threat they say it is (and the declassified portion of the NIE says as much wrt Iraq), they'll still use what bits of it that does support their claim in their rush to war. Basically under NO circumstances are they willing to admit Iran might not be a threat. Self-fulfilling prophecy indeed.

Like linking to an article about a muslim cleric in Australia suggesting that rape victims deserve it, in a thread about cooking the intelligence that will be used to go to war with Iran?

"You are The Man, sir. You're only sticking it to yourself."

Nice job of inserting a lefty-bashing straw man argument into the discussion that has nothing to do with the subject of the thread, not to mention it has zero basis in reality. Pretty pathetic how garbage like this is just taken at face value on this board.

Blaming the victim in a sexual assault case and/or insinuating that she was "asking for it" is sadly not an opinion exclusively held by a lone Muslim cleric in Australia.

So your argument against limiting carbon emissions is 1) base US energy policy on what the Chinese do, and 2) fabricate a scenario involving americans losing their jobs because being more energy efficient would put us further behind the Chinese. By that logic, we may as well increase carbon emissions in order to get all our jobs back from the Indians.

Yes, Joe, why do anything unless it only makes sense if the Chinese do it too. It's not like any other countries follow our lead on anything, so what's the point, eh? That's an excellent example for the most powerfull nation on the planet to set.

If you take the word "our" to mean "human", then yes. Maybe, just maybe, some look at this from a global, human perspective, rather than a US interest perspective. But that wouldn't square with the right-wing driven hate machine intent on demonizing Al Gore.

Up until a few weeks ago the Dems were in the minority and weren't able to get anything through. You can go to the congressional record yourself to see the legislation he authored. Ability to sway the masses? If you're alluding to "reaching across the aisle", I'd say after the past six years that wouldn't be too high on your party's list of requirements. Why should it be high on mine? As for politically correct views, I'm probably not taking that as big a negative as you are (or the insult you may be using it as), because they seem to line up pretty well with Johnny Coli's views.