end-around

that bush is one crafty devil.

Bush has virtually abandoned his veto power, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Bush has vetoed just one bill since taking office, the fewest of any president since the 19th century.

but!

Bush's use of signing statements...has challenged more than 800 laws enacted since he took office, most of which he said intruded on his constitutional powers as president and commander in chief. By contrast, all previous presidents challenged a combined total of about 600 laws.

a signing statement is something a president can issue after he signs a law, basically saying, "hey, you know that law i just signed? i didn't really mean it."

cool.

(blues) rock me

i'm onsite in seattle (actually bellevue) with a company that my company is working with on a project (i know, it sounds wicked cool). i'm sitting in this one guy's cube for the day. he's currently away at a meeting, but he's playing some music on his computer, and by "music" i mean "blues rock".

is there a more vapid genre? i mean, seriously. no disrespect intended to blues lovers.
while i'm not a big blues fan, i certainly respect the work of pioneers like robert johnson, muddy waters, blind willie so-and-so, etc., and would like to check out more of that stuff.

but blues rock, to these ears, is a whole other animal. i'm 99% sure that there has only been one blues rock song written, ever. every song since then has been a cover of that song. done poorly.

apologies to blues rock fans. i know that when you're not feelin' a particular genre of music, it has a tendency to all sound the same. i'm sure others might feel similarly if they perused my music collection. of course, the key difference here is that they would be wrong, whereas i am right.