Johnny Coli

I agree with his political views on a majority of issues, Bill. He's pro-choice, he's for universal health care, for affirmative action, against the death penalty, for net neutrality, in favor of ethics reforms, says he would have voted no to go to war with Iraq. I don't like his stance on gay marriage, but he's for legislation to protect sexual orientation from descrimination and we are in complete agreement on there being no gay marriage ban amendment. I don't like his boarder fence support, but I agree with him in that we should extend health care and Medicare to undocumented workers and make it easier for them to become citizens. We both agree that the Patriot Act goes too far. The list of what we agree on is pretty extensive. There are things I wish he'd agree with me on as well, particularly gay marriage, but he's at least for civil unions and against a ban, so it's a start. That I don't live in Illinois doesn't deter me from voting for him, and the fact that he doesn't have a long legislative rap-sheet is in his favor. And quite frankly, It doesn't bother me in the least that he's never served in the military. I wasn't aware that that was a pre-requisite. If it was, Gore and/or Kerry would be president, and not Commander Codpiece.

It's sure is tough sledding over here on the PPP. Go against Bush et al, and you're a left-wing lemming commie. Seemingly agree with some of their stance on an issue and you're a phony left-wing liberal commie. How is your stance open-minded when you're the one calling them criminals and invaders, and (I'm assuming here, but correct me if I'm wrong) that you'd advocate gunning them down by armed guards for trying to come here to work? I don't mind them here. I have worked with many of them here over the years. I have hired many of them over the years. They are hard-working, pleasant, amicable co-workers, who, quite frankly have a far better work ethic than many of the shiftless, lazy americans I have had the displeasure of working with over the years. Which one of us is the more open-minded of the two? Nothing about my posts could be construed by anyone that has read them to be wishy-washy on any level. People may not agree with me, but they will always know what my position is. You support who you want and I'll support who I want. I think Pelosi has done an excellent job so far. I never liked Hillary as she is far too Conservative on many issues I am passionate about. Obama will make an excellent president, and Gore would have been infinately better than the fool we have in there now. Intelligence means absolutely nothing on the PPP, but I am pretty freaking smart, yes.

Yup, genius pretty much nails it. Give the media nothing. A guerrilla marketing campaign that ended up becoming a social commentary on a fear-driven, paranoid society. It's performance art on so many levels it's practically sublime.

Overtime pay.

Fixed for Bill in NYC... Surely you're not suggesting that the Mexican doctor operating on your wife, the Mexican lawyer filing that amicus brief, and the Mexican border patrol agent working with Bill in NYC to track down all the illegal immigrants by day is then donning his bullet-proof vest, loading his semiautomatic weapons and running drug money back into Mexico in the dead of night, only to hop the fence before dawn and exchange his paramilitary gear for surgical scrubs and/or a Constitutional law text to go back to work to support his anchor babies, steal our free health care and infringe on Bill in NYC's right to B word and moan about drafting offensive linemen.

The article, right towards the top, says that they were heavily armed (and armored) and already in the US, and were heading to Mexico. Surely you're not suggesting that the guy bagging your groceries, cutting your lawn, and cleaning your office by day is then donning his bullet-proof vest, loading his semiautomatic weapons and running drug money back into Mexico in the dead of night, only to hop the fence before dawn and exchange his paramilitary gear for a pair of overalls and a mop to go back to work for less than minimum wage to support his anchor babies and steal our free health care.

Menino ought to get ATHF residuals after this. I drive over the BU bridge twice a day and I never saw the damn things. None of this would have hit the airwaves without his over-the-top response (and the complicity of the Boston media). If we still had air raid sirens I have no doubt he would have set them off.

The vast majority of the people in Boston are more pissed at the over-the-top response by city officials than at the ad campaign itself. Please don't lump us all in with the "live in fear" crowd. Boston.com messageboard Example:

I see we're moving the discussion away from apples towards oranges, eh?

I would think that the evidentiary bar for the next war should be raised a bit higher than the last one, don't you?

Ah, yes, now your evidence is unnamed sources saying the Pentagon is "seriously" looking at Iran, and Al-Maliki saying he is "sure Iran is behind some attacks" (tacked on to the same article as before, but with a new headline...the evidence is truly mounting). Theories by unnamed sources and assurances from al-Maliki. Let's go to war. The issue is that we're not interested in the truth...we're more interested in finding a way, any shred of evidence will do, to go to war. That is the issue I have with the drum-beaters, and that is the issue I have with your initial post.

That you were already musing about leveling another country based on an erroneous Drudge Inflamma-line (that linked to nothing, then dissappeared) speaks for itself.

I'm staring at the Yahoo News page right now and their top Iraq story is about how the US botched the training of the Iraqis...whoops, now it's about another car bomb going off. They have a video of ABC titled "Enemy in Iraq really Iran" up (whoops, it's now been re-titled "Iran and Iraq, What's Next?"), and you can bet that's just loaded with facts. [/sarcasm] CNN is, well, CNN. It's not even on the front page of FoxNews. You started the thread. You titled the thread. You were the first poster in the thread to suggest this warranted military action. What conclusion am I supposed to infer from that? 1. Link a lie to a emotional event 2. Disseminate "intelligence" based on conjecture and speculation to two media sources 3. Rely on public to virally spread inflammatory, factless headline 4. Retract story when it's already percieved as fact by the vast majority 5. Use that lie to reinforce another lie. 6. Invade Iran

I did read the OP. You say you're not going to jump to conclusions, then you start jumping to conclusions. You've already accomplished what they intended anyway...you took a Drudge headline (that erroneously claimed there was an NBC story) that disseminated factless speculations and passed it along. The Drudge headline is now gone, but the Iran-Iran-Iran echo is still wafting through the intertubes. You claim that IF TRUE, this warrants military action. The title of your thread is "Looks like Iran might need those missles..." How knee-jerk is that?

What "fact"? There's not a single substantiated fact at all in that CNN story. So, now we're invading countries on unverifiable leaked intelligence, speculation and "leading theories"? Oh, wait.... Let's see... 1. Leaked "secret US military report"...check 2. Iran-Iran-Iran-Iran-Iran...check 3. Providing intelligence to muslim extremists...check 4. "sophisticated weaponry"...check Yup. They've got all the buzz words and foggy "facts" lined up. They've got their manufactured "they struck us first" reasoning set. They've leaked it to Drudge and CNN, so that's their two sources (that all other lazy journalists will site...next up, spread a rumour to the Associated Press about "iranian documents"). They've been spending weeks dictating to anyone and everyone why they have the legal authority to go to war without Congess' approval. Very convenient. I would think that after having been through this once before in the not-so-distant past that people would take a step back and start to ask for actual proof rather than knee-jerk themselves headlong into another black hole that will swallow up thousands of US lives and billions of more dollars simply so a fool can try and save his legacy.

Hey Olivier, I've been really getting into the fabulously trashy "Glue-wave" bands coming out of France, like The Normals, The Cheeraks and Crash Normal. Spectacular lo-fi garage-punk, straight out of the gutter. Kudos to your countymen. Great stuff. EDIT: For the luddites that won't download any of the freebie mp3s, here's a live clip of The Normals tearing it up in a dingy club.

You should finish law school. You will regret not finishing school years down the road, and while you think you're not interested in a career practicing law, you clearly went into law school with the idea that you would finish. You may change your mind after another year-and-a-half and the internship. You're freaking half way through, and the toughest year is already in the rear-view mirror.

Totally forgot about the Buttholes Surfers' stellar Locust Abortion Technician. It's heads and tails (literally and figuratively) my favorite release by them. Not sure how many of you are Butthole Surfer fans, but they've got their double live LP from the Hairway to Steven tour up on their website for a freebie download. It's the band at their best, although the visual experience was often more captivating than the aural one. Double Live

I believe Dino Jr. released the brilliant You're living all over me LP in '87. There's a ton of other stuff that came out around that time, but any decent list'll have to wait until I can get home and dig through the stacks.

Yup. Get ready for Dice-k talk, 24-7 from here on in. The Globe wasted no time trotting out the pitchers and catchers countdown this morning. The JD Drew watch is on! On another positive note, no win means no Pats fans rioting in the streets. Pats loss devastates fans but keeps peace

I missed his "expert and unbiased" pre-game analysis and tuned in right after he made his pick and was yucking it up in his Belicheck gear with Marino. Hey, isn't that two playoff games in a row where Brady chokes at a critical point in the game? He had one dropped by Sanders on the previous drive I believe...hit him right in the hands and then blamed Troy Brown for running the wrong route. Mid-week, Brady was saying that if he wasn't playing against Peyton and not still in the playoffs, he'd be rooting for Peyton to get a ring. Asked last night if he'll be watching the SB, he said probably not.

Will you be wearing your Belicheck hoodie on the Superbowl broadcast, Boomer?

The Krafts/Pats are always quick to point out their state-of-the-art security system they have installed at The Tampon...they can supposedly zero in on any seat in the stadium. One could assume that they have film of the incident, and combined with the credit-card info, etc, could easily determine who the fat scumbag is. Why they're not doing it is anybody's guess.

Anybody else got a hop in their step today? Biggest conference championship choke-job in history. That has a pleasant ring to it, doesn't it? Be sure to mention it if you see Bill Simmons or Boomer Esiason moping around.

Some of us are actually full-on Commies and prefer cheap beer. Just trying to set the record straight and in no way am I trying to sidetrack your bigotry and paranoid hyper-nationalism.