John Smith

Bad mouthing the country? I guess that is one distinction republicans have a hard time making. George Bush and his administration are not America. That is pretty clear. The constitution is America. Our adherence to the constitution is what makes America work. When one administration comes in and changes and reinterprets the constitution for their own reasons, annd many other actions, and people are dissatisfied with the actions of that administration, that in no way shape or form means they are dissatisfied with America. But besides that you note that there are things that are dress

Exactly the law was not changed, all the telecoms knew what the law was. I'll bet all they got was the word of the adminsitration that it was OK. The reality is that when they were first approached it was probably sold to them with the notion that it would never be made public. Sort of a "if you break a law and nobody knows you broke a law did you really break it" situation. Now despite assurances from the administration for years that no laws were broken, they intend to give retroactive immunity??? IIf no laws were broken, why do they need immunity? On a side note there has been an in

Thanks I thought it was Lincoln.

Radiohead has one hit and a few other songs that got airplay here and there on the radio. Nothing beyond Creep could even remotely be considered a hit. Though I am speaking from my US perspective, I have no clue as to how much airplay they get in England or elsewhere. Best of might be a better title. They are an album oriented band, but it might be possible for the set to be put together in a coherent manner. Even though they are both album oriented and the compilations are pretty much chronological I think Mothership for Zeppelin and The Essential Bruce Springsteen were done well, in sp

I can't remember where I read it, it may have been here. But the main character in the story was either Lincoln or Mark Twain. And he is discussing a dog. He asks if we call a dogs tail a leg how many legs does a dog have. His audience of course answers five. Wrong he say's, calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg, it is still a tail. This makes me think of so many things the current administration has done and proclaimed legal, be it torture, ending Habeus Corpus, or circumventing the FISA laws. Saying it is legal or saying it is this or that does not make it so. But, when you

Yep and the rest of us are "taxed" to pay for those bills. Taxed through increased premiums and increased hospital and doctor costs. So what's the difference if we pay for it via a tax for insurance vs a tax of sorts that increases our medical costs all around.

Exactly except death penalty or not Murder will always exist. If you take the bible litterally Murder existed even before law and punishment existed.

Some might view a healthy population as necessary to national defense.

Ideally I like the presidennt and congress to be opposite parties with congress having veot override potential but not a lock...it leads to moderation in my opinion. Moderation has been missing over the last eight years where most every action has been a take no prisoners and compromise is defeat. That just does not work. Is health care a form of national security?

I don't believe in it either, but it is the law of the land right now. I know as well as you and as well as the rest of the country that the death penalty has nothing to do with deterrance, it is all about revenge and biblical justice.

I see nothing wrong with seeking whatever punishment the law allows. The problem with any case is now will we let our legal process actually function as it was meant to function? Or will we have secret trials with secret evidence? The other issue I have, and this is the cynic in me, is why now after five six years in captivity? Is the administration going to try and time the trials so that convictions are arrived at in late October? Everything this administration does is done with politics in mind. I wonder if Bush the christian has forgiven the 911 plotters? It would be an interesting

I believed n sound fiscal policy when I was a REPUBLICAN, you yourself have more than once admitted that there is a big difference between republican and conservative. I believed and still believe in a strong national defense. Star wars is not in the picture. Invading foreign nations is not in the picture, 800 military bases around the world and military spending greater than the rest of the world combined is not in the picture. Being the worlds policeman is not in the picture (long ago that was the conservatives battle cry with the military, now it is confrontation, confrontation, confron

I disagree. I don't think conservatives favor security I think they USE security as one more way to segment the market in the same manner that they use abortion every election cycle but then do nothing about it. It all goes back to NSC 68, a Truman era document that ultimately led to what Eisenhower called the military industrial complex. If anything conservatives like the notion of tossing huge amounts of money from one end of the private sector via income taxes, to another end of the private sector, the defense industry using government as a conduit. Then using the publicly funded milit

I hust consider him an extremist. Extremist in that he has no wiggle room or negotiaiton room in his repetoir. He wants what he wants period. Damn other positions. From where most of the 30% of the far right view the world, anyone with a D next to their name is as liberal as you can get, even when they are 100% in the middle. Heck sometimes if they don't like the R, Like MCCain, they label him liberal. Of course the one constant is that the far right has effectively sold liberal as a dirty word. If we take the most liberal country in the world, say Sweeden and compare it to a countr

I was referring to your statement about comparing Neils live albums to what others put out. FOr me I listen to them compared to what he puts out. Or in other words...nevermind.

Was Clemens testimony public? Do we have anything other than his word as to what his testimony was? If it was all confidential perhaps he testified and said yep, I did it. But then in public went back to his usual defenses. Time will tell. Maybe he was having a blue dress moment.

I know, and I know the Sun Times is not the best of newspapers, but I thought maybe there was some sort of announcement between the posting of the artist list and the article.

The listing says Lez Zeppelin, The Poster says Lez Zeppelin, but the Sun Times is reporting that Led Zeppelin will be playing Bonnaroo. Lez Zeppelin is an all-female coverband, way different from Led Zeppelin. Anyone else hear or read anythig about Led? You would htink they would be at the top of the billing. http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/music/index.html

That is a problem for great artists, they don't get compared to the reast of the field they get compared to themselves. How many times do we see a dylan review where they bring up BOTT or some of his 60's out put? They don't compare the latest dylan to say Cold play. So Guys like Neil Young and Dylan always have to battle their past, which is why some great stuff by them gets ho hummed by us or the critics.

You're right I got them backwards. Live Rust was recorded first, released second. No longer confused here.

Re: TFA I am thinking in general terms for this album. Intense Fans find it much more listenable than non-fans and casual listeners. Though I consider myself a pretty intense fan (except I don't have the mental d-base of songs, concerts etc... that true fanatics have) I still have a hard time listening to TFA. But go figure Reactor and Hawks and Doves are two of my long time favorites. Perhaps with unplugged I have listened to it with a prejudice. Neil Young unplugged? Come on that is every other tour. It just does not grab me. Though Dylans unplugged doesn't either, so perhaps I am b

OK I like Neil young as much as anyone but not all of the live albums are amazing. None is a total loss but several are not good enough to earn the "amazing" title. Time Fades Away - This is not a bad album, but for me it has always seemed like it is an acquired taste. Some like it immediately some it has to grow on them, others never develop the taste. A live album made during Neil's amazing ascendancy to the elite level and it does not match the rest of his out put at the time. Though I will say it captures the unpredictable nature of Neil. He could easily has released a live versi

Mathew Dowd is who talked about the 2004 strategy of promoting Kerry as the candidate the republicans feared, when in fact that is who they wanted to face all along. The article I am referring to was in either the NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today or the Tribune. I'll see if I can find it, it was last year though.

It was in an interview with unattributed quotes from unnamed Rove aides (Go figure nothign these people do is ever on the record). Speculation was that it was Rove himself. But remember back when he resigned he began talking up Hillary as the ideal dem candidate and the interview I read was right around that time period. But if you attend secret republican ploot meetings, then you don't get interviews that appear in the real press.