John Adams

His 'stache is not real: it's a system.

It was all video recorded and can be seen starting tonight.

Interesting. My time is too valuable for commercials. I don't watch them. I don't listen to them. It's a TiVo world.

Sat radio is about the only radio that has NO commercials, at least on the music stations. I'd guess most Internet stations have no commercials but maybe I'm wrong. Anything on the FM dial has commercials. Even the NPR-type stations have commercials. They just call them sponsorships.

Great for the show. They are dancing around why and on what conditions he was allowed to return. Said he had a lot of meetings with Sirius upper management. That said, he's in therapy now.

If the government is going to steal my money, I'd prefer it was spent on space over pre-K.

That's not quite what was happening. It's a long story, but there were 2 implications. First, that by serving as lapdogs, the "experts" got favorable treatment in their government contracts. No doubt true, although I'm sure it was never an exact quid pro quo--the parties would be too smart for that. Second, that the experts were deliberately fed one side of the story, given talking points etc., and were expected to not present opposing POVs....and if they did, they would be cut off from their government access. The third part of the story (the one Tom enjoys the most) is that the networks failed to vet any of these experts to find their business ties or that the admin was feeding them talking points.

Maybe, but I haven't seen all the details laid out in one place like this. What a great bit of journalism. My concern is less that the Pentagon has its hands up the ass of former military, playing them as puppets, and more the ties those people have to military contracts. No doubt that I'm not surprised the Pentagon erewards military contracts to its lapdogs but the extent of the puppeteering and the contracts is nicely outlined here, and some people should and will get a beatdown over this. I also find it very disturbing that the AG met with this group of "analysts." To those who flog the Times for being liberal, the piece is equally an attack on the networks for not vetting the Pentagon mouthpieces who were getting the gov't contracts as it is an attack on the administration. The article is long but here are a few excerpts.

Hoaxy McHoaxenstein http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_...gVULr89G8IEtbAF

Sketch isn't exactly the brightest...scratch that. Sketch isn't even a lit bulb on the tree.

She's really hurt by criticism. She's going to cry for 3 days when she's eliminated. OK dog.

Congrats on being the first man to use the "wub" emoticon. Kristy was the least talented of the lot, in a close race with Syesha.

Round trip occur to you?

Kristy Lee Cooke gone. About time!

Lest there be any confusion, I don't care about the federal gas tax being repealed or not. McCain is just giving America a Summer reach-around.

If the demand is inelastic, why would lowering the price create a demand surge? In any event, the gas tax was never meant as a sin tax to curb global warming or pollution, was it? It's just a revenue producer. The economics of driving make sense no matter whether the .30 tax is in effect or not. It's not a matter of elastic demand until the price goes a lot higher. I'm taking a trip to Buffalo this summer from Philadelphia. I'm looking at a 14 hour car ride that will cost about $120 in gas. Compare that to 24 hours (total) in a train ride that costs about $600 (arriving sans car unless I rent for more $$). Compare that with a 9 hour (door to door) about $400 plane ride (same car issue). Tell me which one I'm doing? The tax and price doesn't even begin to figure into my decision.

I expected it would suck hearing a week of Mariah Carey songs. I was right. David Archuletta. This little !@#$er has a good voice but I can't get over the fact that I want to give him a wedgie and stuff him in a locker. I hate his glazed Jon Benet look. His song choices are completely uninspiring. Watch the video. I count 18 forced eye squints. (Only person left shorter than Seacrest, who may be just taller than a Lego-person.) Carly Smithson. Thank Jesus and baby Jesus she finally covered her tattoo for a week. That freakazoid husband probably didn't like it but I did. She still wore a bunch of huge baubly jewelry (no big Wonder Twins ring though) but it was an improvement. As to the song, I liked it. She has a fantastic voice and covered the biggest Mariah hit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu8ETI8eiN4 Syesha Mercado. The song was so boring that I'll skip to the most interesting part. Her "kiss" with Mariah at :41 of the below video. What the !@#$ is that air kiss all about? And an air kiss on both sides of the head? Syesha is so dull though that even if there had been lip-to-lip contact, she'd put me to sleep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTlk3tZrX4c Brooke White. Her weepy lack of confidence has gone from touching to annoying but I liked her tonight. "Hero" is probably my favorite Mariah Carey song. (Relax: I have a favorite proctologist too.) She's charming playing piano and singing. Simon made a remark about a burgerless hamburger (3:55). We know what you're talking about there brotha'. You want to get rid of Paula so you can jump on Randy's sesame seed buns, you rascal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVLGIBwCOUA Kristy Lee Cook. Carey: "I got goosebumps." Cooke: "I can't believe I gave Mariah Carey goosebumps." (0:21) Me: "I can't believe you're dumb enough to think that your crap voice gave Mariah Carey goosebumps." Worst performance of the night. Sometimes country lilt, but without country music accompaniment. Sometimes not country but something else in the manner of just crap. She's been around far too long. Time to go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boxOOhEud5A David Cooke. The show increasingly looks like a battle of the Davids. This one is the better one. Best performance of the night. He's got a tremendous rock voice. Looking forward to a better theme next week though so he doesn't have to cover a Mariah song. (Next week is "Andrew Lloyd Weber" night.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM4Ct-64PGk Jason Castro. He sang I don't wanna cry. I was focused on his bowling shoes. He was no better than fine...his usual self. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGdblKLaPaI Best: David Cook Worst: Kristy Cooke Additional comment. Why was Mariah Carey so full of advice? Do this. Do that. STFU.

http://www.bigmooseinn.com Middle of the Adirondacks. Great hiking. Nice hotel. Good food. No bugs this time of year. I can't think of a better place. Wish I lived closer.

And a Hummingbird for me. Hell, get me a Les Paul too.

Barry Sanders played like the game was two hand touch and he didn't want to get tagged. He made more people miss than any RB in history. Too bad he was on such a sh------- team.

I don't think there's a soul here who supports the corn subsidies that drive the corn ethanol.

I'm only continuing this sub-topic within Bill's bragging to show him (and others) that not all lawyers/firms are crap employers. Having worked at 3 firms (one wasa one of the big guys), I know many are. But I don't want to distract from the overall great news about his daughter. Our firm should be a lesson to lawyers (or anyone): care about your employees and they'll care back. We have 45 attorneys. In the last 5 years, 1 (!) left us and she wanted to try an in-house position. She has already been in touch with us to get her position back. We've let some people go who just weren't cutting it (bad hires by us) but we have no turnover. Some of that is the benefits, but it also stems from the culture that those benefits reflect. We do a lot to make our firm feel like a big family. Maybe the best thing we do is cull the bad people, ie, we get the right people on the bus to start with. And that includes the people we don't invite to be shareholders. We value them and continue to give them good pay and benefits. At most places, those people hit the road or are fired. At our firm, they tend to stay. And that's just the professionals. We treat everyone like that. Sure, secretaries don't make as much as attorneys but they get paid a lot (my sec'y makes 65+) with the same 401K match, Personal Choice paid for her and children-- big break for family plan, and transit pass (public transportation). So our staff really doesn't leave us much either. And we have an unwritten rule--similar to Ben and Jerry's--that our lowest paid employee (tend to be our file room team)--can't make less than a certain percentage of our highest people. So the single mom in our file room is a homeowner even though we could hire someone for no benefits at probably 2/3 of her pay on the open market. And guess what, our file room people are awesome! The final piece of the puzzle is the one that strikes most lawyers as flat out bizarre. All of our shareholders split the profits equally. At the end of each year, the profit gets split evenly among us all. So after 5 years as a shareholders, I get as much profit as the guy who started the firm, and also as much say in voting. He gets a higher salary because his billing rate is higher. That sort of equality encourages us to make the firm better and discourages backstabbing over money issues, which tend to tear firms asunder. Enough. Too much even. Go start your own firm like this and hire Bill's daughter in 4 years (in NYc preferably so she is close to home!).

Whatchu talkin' 'bout Willis? The Alabama in the middle thing is a comparison. It's not REALLY Alabama in between.

Oh no. Bullpen might ignore you too! Careful.

I've lived in the only city in PA for 14 years. We're trying to save the rest of PA by making it a suburb. Give us 50 more years Lori and you can be part of the Greater Greater Delaware Valley.