Johnny Coli

I think it's great that you have an interest in your children's education, and have the where-with-all to teach them how to use deductive reasoning to solve problems and form their own opinions. That's not the case with every parent, though. Education, IMO, should not consist of rote memorization. I have no problem with this teacher making his students think for themselves.

I'm about half way through the lecture audio now. I honestly do not have a problem with this, and I wouldn't have a problem if he was coming from the right, either. This is a 10th grade class. So he's putting out an extreme view (interspersed with some qualifiers). If it makes these kids look up a country like Peru or Bolivia, if it makes these kids examine what these issues are and how they are related to geography, I just don't see the harm. Geography is politics. Borders are politics. I wish I had a teacher like this that attempted to engage the class more when I was in high school. I didn't see this style until college. IMHO, I truly believe the kids at that age can handle this kind of a discussion. He had a ton of support from his students when he was suspended. He got through to them. That's good teaching.

Here's another link with more text of what the teacher said:Drudge link, for the liberal-media-phobic The nerve! Actually asking these high school students to look at a point of view and make up their own opinions. How are they ever going to pass a standardized test if they're asked to think for themselves and not just memorize and regurgitate?

Here's to 4% at the mid-term elections! At 4%, we're almost at Cheney's job approval numbers.

If Joe Lieberman is a liberal, than I'm Karl Rove. I don't know about the "good liberal" lable, Mick. I think they just tolerate me more because I post a lot less than you do. I'm often too angry to type.

Haven't you heard, RtDB? "Media" is the new "liberal" is the new "commie."

I think the Sinatra kid (aka The Wedding Singer, as my wife calls him) goes. He looked pretty pi$$ed that they dared to criticize him, and my sources told me he took it out on a black jew with a glass eye back-stage. That "sway" kid is a goner as well. He should have stuck with the "pimp" hat, because although it was his song selection that ultimately buried him, it's his fat head that turns me off. Also, I'm pretty sure no one who is a Hawaiian-Latino mix has ever made it past three weeks. Adio-loha, Sway. (Feel free to use it, but know that I have it copywritten) Chicken Little stays for a few more weeks (probably a lot more than people would expect) because he's the Rudy of this competition, now. He's got a lisp. He's got no talent. There is no rational reason for him to even be on any stage what-so-ever. And yet, if I voted in these things (which I don't because that would be indirect support for the bloated corpse that is corporate rock), I'd vote to keep him around every damn week because I want to see what song he's going to butcher. I want to see this anti-hero, this anti-idol stick it to the man. This unremarkable, untalented, un-photogenic mess is the closest damn thing to punk rock you will ever see on that show. Yes, you read that correctly. He's so non-threatening he's down-right dangerous. "Sid" Covais will be a thorn in corporate rock n roll's side for at least another month. (He's got to ditch the bland parents, though. They make me uncomfortable.) If that Bucky kid doesn't go this week, beware of the wrath of the Country Music fans. He's all they've got. There's no NASCAR race this weekend, so if they sober up and get wind that one of their kin is on that thar tell-vishun shee-oh, they will vote en masse for him. Don't underestimate The Red State Factor, but don't overestimate how many own TVs or telephones.

Archaic rituals. Pointless dietary restrictions. I don't know how that cult has lasted for two thousand years.

Sorry, Ken. I was inadvertantly lumping you in with the "deflect the blame" crowd.

I think we all agree that Nagin and Blanco were at fault here, too, but how does their incompetence absolve Bush of his incompetence?

Looks like it's time to raise the terror alert level to orange to call off the dogs. Or, maybe they could tell us that they couldn't concentrate on NOLA and Katrina because they were foiling a terrorist attack at a mall in Southern California that they uncovered with the illegal wiretaps.

I'm not a big proponent of rote memorization and regurgitation in education. We should be teaching students how to research an answer to a question, and how to solve a problem through deductive reasoning. You don't learn anything through memorization. So most people can't recite verbatim The Bill of Rights or the Amendments. Big deal. It doesn't mean that they haven't heard of them, or know they are in the US Constitution.

The estimate is 3.2 billion in lost productivity. March Madness I'd be interested to hear from the IT people on this board as to whether their companies have instructed them to block the feeds. Our corporate IT people are in another country, and it might take them a few days to get hip to what's going on. I know I'll have the games on my desktop. Down with the man!

You mean a "leatherman"? Those things are awesome. Totally kicks the Swiss Army knife's ass. And it's got a cool name, unless your hanging out at the Ramrod scamming drinks from suburban closet homosexuals. Then "leatherman" and "all-purpose tool" mean something completely different.

Here's my "ribbon on a turd" response. I think he handled himself ok for a couple weeks after 9-11.

Well, you're completely wrong. You can dismiss them because you dislike the style, but you would be wrong to ignore what they have done for contemporary music. The Pistols were/are outstanding musicians (not Sid, though, who couldn't play for beans) and in an extremely short period of time composed a collection of songs that not only still sounds fresh today, helped influence a ton of other bands and will ultimately go down in history as every bit as relevant as the Beatles. Were you to actually listen to the songs you would hear classic RnR influences from Chuck Berry to the Beatles and even the Monkees. The lyrics are loaded with smart, biting political and cultural satire, and paint a vivid picture of disaffected, bored, hopeless working-class youth. The fact that they self-destructed rather than play along with the bloated rock establishment fits entirely within that image of giving the powerfull and the elite the finger, then turning your back on them. I'm glad they told the RnR HOF to go to hell. I only wish they had shown up to do it, taken a dump on the stage, and given the award to some homeless guy on the streets of Cleveland.

If they advertised all the golfing and bowling you guys do, they wouldn't have a recruiting problem.

Says the guy whose wing of the military spent $50, 000 on golf towels with the Air Force logo on them. Do you even golf?

UPDATE: Rummy admits the terrorists are better at PR than the high-priced Manhattan crackpot firms he hired. The terrorists of today are the marketing hotshots of tomorrow Maybe he should hire their PR firm. Can we get our money back? So I take it "Operation We Don't Know what the Hell We're Doing" didn't inspire the target audience. Did you focus-test that one? I've got a seven-year-old neice that's gotten pretty good on the computer. That you just paid $1.6 billion dollars for.

Red collar crime.

The recruiting budget makes sense, and I'm sure there always has been one, and I'm pretty sure they need to spend a lot of money nowadays because going into the military right now doesn't look like such a swell idea for high school kids. But why does the Secretary of Defense need to hire a PR firm ($1.3 milion) for "branding development"? Is that how much a catching saying like "Operation Avenging Eagle" costs? They can't find someone to come up with these groovy names for a lot less money? I'd do it, but Rumsfeld just bugs the hell out of me.

Follow the link to the whole report (pdf file). The DoD stuff starts on page 23 (page 28 of the pdf file). The whole report is 160 pages. It's all itemized, and there's some pretty funny stuff. Air Force $16,000 for "Stars and Strikes" bowling promotion $15,000 for embroidered golf towels The Army spent $2.5 million getting out their Global War on Terror message (ie, message development and responding to issues raised by stakeholders and influencers...what's that all about?). The Marines spent $133 million on recruiting advertizing. It itemizes by contract with the specific ad agencies, so you can have multiple contracts for the same thing.

Let's summarize our exchange for the folks following along at home. 1. You make a post ripping Clinton using a link to an article from 5 years ago...an article that doesn't really make your point, anyway. 2. I make a detailed post showing you that you were completely wrong. 3. You get mad and tell me you don't have anything to prove to me. 4. I respond to your little tantrum, and in not-so-many words call you a right wing loon 5. You respond by telling me it was all to provoke me. I've got to bow before your diabolical genius. I sure didn't see that one coming. Your Buddy, Johnny

One popular notion about the Bush administration is that they’re doing a good job in running the country (I disagree, but that’s a topic for another set of threads), but they get failing marks for “getting their message out.” Wall Street Journal Members of the administration recently eluded to as much during Dubya's set of “candid” speeches this past December (Fox News). However, a new GAO report came out Monday showing that not only can’t they get the word out themselves, they’ve paid a lot of money to public relations and advertising firms over the past few years that aren’t getting the job done either. Report: Bush Spent $1.4 Billion on ‘Spin’ Here is a link to the report and a section of the abstract: GAO-06-305 abstract Link to a one page pdf of the report highlights Link to the whole report There was $1.1 billion dollars worth of media contracts spent by the DoD over a two year period. What if the Bush administration had taken out a $1 million dollar ad during the Superbowl? People would be outraged at the absurd use of their tax dollars. But they spent $1.6 billion. One-point-six billion dollars in PR. And they’re having a hard time getting their message out.

Testy. Are you mad because you were wrong, or are you mad that the conservative gang-bang that normally passes for political discussion on this board often lets the facts slide if there's a good shot at President Clinton or Senator Clinton? I’m willing to bet that my quick check of the National Archives took a lot less time than your search for a five-year-old article that you thought made a point. Truth told, I would have put the effort in anyway because I can’t stand you. I live in Mass, happily ensconced in blue. I'm only one vote, and I cast it against him or his father in four elections. That's politics. Win some, lose some. I make the drugs, I don’t sell them. It’s nice to get paid for it, and it’s also nice that what I work on will benefit people long after I’m dead. What is it that you do while you pine away for white picket fences and the 1950s?