Johnny Coli

Bob Ney (R-OH) launched the first gay-baiting campaign email yesterday, attacking Zack Space, the Dem opponent for the OH-18th district seat. I'm not surprised Ney is having to stoop so low, considering he's in deep shite since his former aide, Neil Volz pled guilty to corruption charges that Volz and Abramoff conspired to influence Ney, and two more of his aides were subpoenaed in the Abramoff bribery case yesterday. But hey, other than gay-bashing, what else does Ney have to run with? Besides, it worked in the OH-Gov GOP primary.

If you're looking for something with a bit more "rock" to it (although I hate the term) than the Dixie Chix and Ol' Neil Young, but still does the trick in taking a shot at Dubya and the Fundamentalist Gang in the GOP, then you should check out the new (last month) NOFX record, Wolves in wolves' clothing (Amazon link). We've had it on heavy rotation in the Coli palace. Fat Mike's lyrics are incendiary on tunes like "Leaving Jesusland", "You will lose faith" and "USA-holes", and if you're a fan of the Mel Yell, he's all over this record. Anybody looking for similarities to Punk in Drublic or So long and thanks for all the Shoes might be a bit disappointed, as this disk sort of jumps back in to where 2003's War on Errorism left off. Still, the record kicks ass, and I give it two middle fingers up. Here's a Google video of Seeing Double at the Triple rock off the new record (and the Never Trust a Hippy EP), complete with crowd-surfing Jesus. Here's a link to Franco Un-American, from War on Errorism.

The author of that article is the chairman of the thinktank that produced that study, the National Center for Policy Analysis. Nice try, though.

Big Oil and those beholden to them (BushCo™) would be ecstatic to see a thread like this get bogged down in politics and the global warming issue to be perceived as a “Gore” political platform. They also like to trot out the ludicrous notion picked up by many here that global warming is a controversial topic with much debate going on in the scientific community. In fact, the scientific community is essentially unanimous with regards to the human impact contributing to global warming. From Science Magazine: Big Oil is so intent on muddying up the waters, that they have begun a smear campaign in the media to discredit Gore's movie: They trot out lackeys who make absurd assertions. They use front groups to call global warming "alarmist." They release videos of their own (videos that really are propaganda). From video #1: From video #2: Dubya doubts he'll see the film, then tosses another rock into the swamp with the tangential remark that we shouldn't worry about putting out the house that's currently on fire, we should be thinking about a newer, really bitchin' house that we haven't built yet with materials we don't even have. Right on, Dear Leader! Why get bogged down debating "stuff" with those lefty eggheads that make you feel inferior? They've politicized, demonized and flat-out lied about something that, if acted upon, will hurt them in their wallets. Despite what they would have you believe, there is no debate in the scientific community and it's not a "crazy Al Gore" thing. Resorting to smear tactics, obscuring the truth, and ignoring science that doesn't support your point of view should tell you all you need to know about those who refer to global warming as the product of junk science.

Jesus. Rove has really lost his fastball, huh? This kind of stuff usually get's "leaked" to Drudge or Fox. You're gonna need a bigger bucket of grease for the rails to Iran than you did for Iraq, Karl.

I find you end up with better songs if you write while swilling PBR rather than a "stuffy" beer, like Bass, etc. Then again, I'm not playing jazz. You need to drink an "edgy" beer to get an "edgy" song. Pabst Blue Ribbon...There's a song in every six-pack, there's an album in every keg.

You're doing a little drinking, playing a bit of guitar and surfin' the net. You swivel your chair to grab a record that you just thought of and haven't played in a while, and the head of your guitar knocks your half-full beer off the computer desk and onto the floor. You grab for the beer and your guitar falls out of your lap and is now on the floor with your beer. You pick up the guitar, mourne the loss of your beer (but you are always smart enough to open two at a time so you have backup, and you're lazy) and start to play again. "Holy cow is this thing out of tune now," you say to yourself. You need to tune it, but your tuner is all the way over on the other side of the room in your gig bag, and that would mean you'd have to get out of the chair. Well, you don't have to my friend, because you have a virtual tuning fork link on the computer next to your backup can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. A most excellent development, indeed!

Here's that List of sexually active Popes that you asked for, and a blurb on the ones who died during sex.

They've been replaced by a weeklong recurring theme with a punchline every day, instead of the three-panel-plodding-nowhere-for-eternity style of the "Brenda Starr" and "Prince Valiant" comics of days gone by. Surprised no one mentioned Robotman/Monty, yet. That strip is high comedy.

My workload has me limited to drive-bys and occasional lurking. The rest of my time is spent on music and getting stupid.

From your list, Calvin & Hobbes is tops. Far Side is a rip off of B. Kliban (link of examples), but without the "cute" animals and anthropomorphism. Kliban just goes straight for the "weird" jugular without dressing it up as a cow. Others a bit outside of the mainstream that I think are freaking genius, are David Rees' Get Your War On (link has five years' worth of panels), and the equally brilliant This Modern World, by Tom Tomorrow (link is to his blog...no complete freebies, but links to some panels in the archive). Both lean a little to the left, but do a great job of merging crude, clip-art-like artwork with white-hot political irony. There used to be a comic of cartoon vegetable dilinquents that spent their time drinking or vandalizing suburban homes, but I can't remember the name of it. That was a good one.

"Thank you all for coming..."

No contest. It's 24. My wife and I wanted to see what the big deal was with 24, and bought the Season One set right before Season two started. We burned through it in two days. I can't see myself doing that with Lost, especially having watched Lost. (No offense to the Lost people, but to tell you the truth, we only watch Lost now because we wasted all this time on it already, and need to see how it turns out...but that show is on pretty freaking thin ice at the Taj Ma-Coli .)

Yes it does, but you would have to get vaccinated literally all the time. There are several hundred viruses that cause the "common cold", and they are evolving themselves. So, instead of attempting to vaccinate for everything (which would be impossible), they just vaccinate for the particularly nasty viruses, which themselves evolve all the time, requiring a new vaccine every year based on what the experts think will emerge. It's more efficient to help alleviate the symptoms, and let the body cure itself of the "cold". Anyway, if you hate your job, it's practically a built in sick day every year. And if you hate your co-workers you get to inoculate them. It's kind of like playing God, but with wee little monsters that can make people you don't like ill. And if you make them sick enough, they'll be too ill to come into work and bother you. Why ruin a good day off by being sick, when you can go to work and make everyone else miserable?

I accept your apology.

Are you mental? It's all over the freaking news, especially because he's a Kennedy. You want to talk about significant scandals that aren't getting play, let's talk about the prostitution alleged in the "Duke" Cunningham case, and the possible involvement of the CIA's Executive Director Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo, and the Feds widening the investigation and requesting records from the Watergate Hotel. All I see on MSNBC, FOX, CNN, and Drudge is news about a Kennedy wrecking his car while allegedly driving under the influence of Ambien. So, pardon me if I find your suggestion that the "liberal-driven" media is ignoring the salacious "Kennedy's on pills" story to be ingenuous.

The Vatican's Star Gazer, Brother Guy Consolmagno, says "creationism" is "a kind of paganism." Can I get an "Amen" for Brother Guy! Looks like it's the scientists who are really giving mad props to the Lord. Every time we come up with a significant, "natural world" explanation for some up-to-that-point mysterious phenomenon, we're really just proving how freaking awesome the Big Guy (or Gal) really is. I'm down with that. So stop blaming the Dude for your hurricanes, rain of frogs, and locust plagues. He's not behind any of it, and shame on you damn pagans for saying so.

Swapping songs over the internet isn't legal, according to those Corporate Rock and Roll scumbags and their weasel lawyers. But swapping' em by mail still is. Music CD swappers turn to snail mail The filthy corporate pigs telling you what you can and can't do with music you already purchased haven't weighed in on this yet. The idea is to send out the original CD to the person that wants it, which is perfectly legal. Then it is up to you to wipe the tunes off your drive ( ). We all know where this is heading....freaking burning whole songlists and swapping 'em around without the beady eyes of the faceless Corporate a-holes hunting you down like you're some kind of criminal. They'll catch on eventually, and you can be damn sure that because the CDs are going through the mail it will be considered that much more egregious. But until then, !@#$ them. LaLa.com is invite only right now, but if you let them know you're interested they are giving out more invites in the near future. Not sure when the general public launch will be. Until then, start stocking up on blank CDs.

And Ollie North can run that program, too. Sell arms to Iran Pakistan to buy drugs from Manuel Noriega Vincente Fox to secretly fund contra death squads a border patrol.

Let's get rid of the one that has all the power right now and give the other one a chance.

Here's the a-holes that voted for that sham bill. It was 217-213 (3 no vote). Only 8 of the Dems (out of 200 total) voted for it. You'll notice that it passed by less than those 8 votes . Here are the eight Dems (too many Reps voted for it for me to list them all : Barrow (GA) Boren (OK) Boswell (IO) Cuellar (TX) Marshall (GA) Matheson (UT) Melancon (LA) Taylor (Miss.) They're all up for re-election. Get the dirt on them here, here, and here. And if you live in a district where these eight Dems have a primary coming up, vote for the Dem running against them .

Saw this news item on MSNBC's website, and thought I'd toss some red meat out to the Righties on the PPP. I haven't heard much about this case. I did a quick search, and it turns out he was the scumbag that used the National Guard to check on his house during the Katrina aftermath. Here's a WaPo story from back in february detailing some of his "legal woes." My take? While he's in the minor leagues when compared to Delay, Ney, or Cunningham, it's still corruption, and by-god it comes at a pretty crappy time because the Dems have the Reps on the ropes. A big F-U to you, Jefferson. Have at it, fellas.

Well-what-a-ya-know? Looks like the whole "mission accomplished" thingy really meant "mission accomplished" for the USS Abraham Linclon, and didn't really mean that the whole Iraq "mission" was accomplished. From an interview with Laura Bush yesterday: (CNN transcript via Lexis/Nexis. Note: the interview was initially mentioned by JR Hand on dkos but there wasn't a link. It took me some time digging around for an actual transcript, you know, for real hard evidence of the surealism of it all )

He already has veto power if he doesn't like what Congress sends him. Why even sign the legislation if you're not going to obey it? This isn't about Congress shoving any interpretation down his throat. They send it up to him, he can veto it and send it back, etc. Their only power would be to override his veto...which they can't because he never has. He justs adds on a signatory statement "re-interpreting" the legislation. Yeah, OK.

Back on March 24, I made this post linking to a Boston Globe article reporting on Bush's signing statement that he tacked onto the end of the Patriot Act, essentially saying he could do whatever the hell he wants because he's the king. The same reporter, Charlie Savage, had another article in this past week's Boston Sunday Globe, that shows just how many laws Bush has decided he can disobey. Here's a few examples: This one's kind of relevent to me, from a professional standpoint: Just for comparison, the globe included this graphic showing the number of times this was done by Bush 1 (232 times in 4 years) and Bill (140 times in 8 years). For those a bit slow, Bush 2 has done this over 750 times in 5 years. To date Bush is yet to pull the VETO stamp out of the drawer. And why should he? He can just "re-interpret" anything he doesn't like. Why go through the hassel, right? No point in getting everyone worked up, right? Wrong. Congress is finally on to him. I'll believe it when I see it, of course. Because with the Repubs holding all the cards and committee chairs, an "oversight hearing" is just as big a sham as Dubya's signing of the laws he's going to ignore in the first place. That is unless the Dems can get back at least one of the houses this fall.