House Staffers Choked By the RIAA's Velvet Rope

There is no polite way to put this: The parties at political conventions kind of suck. I mean, seriously, these are political operatives and reporters we're talking about. There is a ceiling on how much fun there is to be had. The redeeming factor of these orgies of excess is, well, the excess. Free booze, free food, even, quite literally, free money (a bank is handing out swipe cards with $10 on them). Naturally, there are rules about this sort of thing: in order to skate by congressional ethics rules limiting gifts to political representatives, events have to be "widely attended." And there are actual committees that determine just what "widely attended" means. As this e-mail shows, apparently the Black Eyed Peas have peaked....