Balta1701

Keith Ellison approaches Rep. Goode on the House floor this morning, and appears to introduce himself with a cordial handshake (video at link)

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 4, 2007 -> 10:05 AM) Shh... hopefully it will take 11 years to come out, and I will safely be the POTUS. Is your daddy friends with Jim Baker too?

It never ends. In late December, before departing forever, the Republican Congress passed a "postal reform bill" which, among other things, adjusts some of the ways postal workers are taken care of and streamlines the process for postal service price increases. Here's a negative piece on it from the Postal workers union, in case you want to read more about what is actually in the bill. Mr. Bush signed the bill on December 20th. Of course, while he was busily affixing his signature, the White House also issued a signing statement to go along with it. In that signing statement, the White House asserted that, once again seemingly in contravention of the law, in emergency circumstances the White House has the ability to seize and read the mail of anyone it wants without a warrant. The White House also casually failed to define what it means by emergency circumstances, so we could be talking about a letter bomb, or just being at yellow alert.

After 216 years...America finally has a woman serving as speaker of the House.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 4, 2007 -> 06:25 AM) Also to be fair, I think most Senate races look at the canditates a little closer than the "examination" Obama got during his run. Because of the carpetbagging nutcase he ran against, he pretty much got a free pass into the Senate. Trust me, something like that would have been used against him, even in a school board race. So, you're saying you covered up some, how shall we put it, "youthful indescretions" in your campaign?

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 05:59 PM) How long will Russell last in the draft? Top 15? He's quite studly... He actually may have a shot to even go before Quinn, given how the 2 have played this season. It may well depend on who the Raiders like better at the Combine.

Neal Cotts signed a 1 year, $850,000 deal with the Cubs today.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 04:39 PM) i haven't ugraded from DVD yet. i haven't ugraded from VHS yet. We have any BETA users who can top me here?

Link with another one, also Yahoo.

So, it's pretty hard to read this and not immediately have the thought 2016 pop into your head. (Oh, and he's a Colbert guy too)

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 04:18 PM) not All of the final numbers from 2006 are not yet available, but I can give you some numbers from the first part of 2006. Also, when comparing the "18 month" point (i.e. the year and a half right after a national election, not including the final few months), for each of the past 4 election cycles, the amount given to the DCCC, DSCC, and DNC by small donors has increased for each organization in each successive cycle. From the data I'm looking at, this is not the case with the Republican organizations, which saw significant declines in small donor activity between 2004 and 2006. It's also worth noting that comparison in all of these cases can and will be difficult due to the changing of the laws after the McCain Feingold act, which banned soft money donations after 2002, and the rise of outside 527 or 501c organizations like Moveon, Actblue, the Swift Boat liars, the NRA, and so on, which can contribute significantly to elections and may receive much larger chunks of their funding from small donors, the data for which I simply don't have and am probably too lazy to look up right now.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 04:18 PM) I just hate that expression so much. If I spend $10 on the Mega millions, I could win $100 million!!!! Actually, interestingly enough, in most of those lotteries it only would take about $70 million or less to buy out the entire lottery, so if there's a $100+ million jackpot (and no one else wins) you could be in good shape. Or if you're looking to launder about $80 million and make the income look legal...there ya go.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 03:50 PM) I wish I could interest some of these crazy GM's in the swamp land I have for sale in Arizona. I'm ready to deal. Actually, last I heard, they were thinking of tearing down Biosphere 2 to build a housing development, so you're probably in good shape if you're the guy owning that land.

You freaking people and your money....

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 03:54 PM) The memoir has been around 11 years, that kind of answers that question... To be fair, running for the most powerful position in the world probably requires a slightly more in-depth look into a person's background than running for the governorship of Texas, the House, or the Senate.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 09:42 AM) When Bobby's elbow explodes, we will come after you... Just because I'm the one with the dynamite, every time something explodes, people blame me! I don't get it.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 09:26 AM) Thanks for the jinx Balt. After the junk some people have pulled when our pitchers have no hitters/perfect games going...

QUOTE(beautox @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 05:50 AM) so bad its good. I feel dumber just from having watched that.

QUOTE(toasty @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 09:12 AM) there really wasnt anything wrong with macdougal, he was just injured.... Which can have a lot to do with mechanics as well. One thing you should note...between Cooper and Hermy...how does our record of keeping people healthy compare with the rest of the league? Out of the starters, the only 2 who have hit the DL in the past 2 years have been the Cubans, and God only knows how old they are. They've kept Jenks healthy despite the screw in his arm, the only real bullpen injury issues seemed to be Marte and Hermanson...that's very not bad for a pitching staff.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 07:08 AM) You don't take a job as a judge because of the salary. If you want to make money in the legal profession, there are plenty of other ways to do so. Now I do believe they deserve adequate compensation, but anytime you take a job working in a public service type sector (teacher, police, fire, public office etc), money should not be a motivation. I do believe a COLA is in-line with what the rest of government employees should get, and in many cases, do get. So I'll admit I'm a little torn by this. Yes, you are correct, you don't enter the legal profession as a judge to make money (even though the couple hundred thousand a year would make most people drool), you do it because you're willing to sacrifice a little in salary for other things. On the other hand though, Roberts' argument does have some persuasiveness. These judges can go from making 6 figures working as a judge to making 7 figures working as a lawyer. In other words, there's very little economic reason for them to stay as a judge. So, if the salary for judges doesn't at least have some ability to rival the salaries people would make in the private sector, wouldn't it stand to reason that there would be a lot of problems in keeping judges on the bench, problems that long-term could lead to real personnel shortages?

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 2, 2007 -> 09:32 PM) Right now I'd call it a 2 man race b/w Nash and Arenas with Boozer close behind. But you're right on Nash, people think his stats would get worse as he gets older and more susceptible to injury, but that just hasn't been the case. Who are Steve Nash, Larry Bird, and Bill Russell? A: (potentially) The only 3 men to ever win back to back to back NBA MVP awards.

QUOTE(T R U @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 08:21 AM) What a jerk.. I hope that program sucks the entire time hes there As a Bills fan, I'm happy to think that the crushing defeat that Miami suffered at Buffalo's hands late in the season, knocking Miami finally out of the playoffs, had a hand in this. Anyway, given his QB mess in Miami, he might very well have struggled for another year or two and been fired anyway, so for his career it's probably the best move.

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Jan 2, 2007 -> 08:05 PM) I would use Sisco out of the bullpen to start with. Yet I wouldn't rule out Sisco starting the season in Charlotte. If Logan can somehow come out and have another impressive spring, yeah, I start Sisco at Charlotte. If Logan falls apart in the regular season again, he has a very short leash with Sisco down there, but I think it would do good to start him at Charlotte given his history.

QUOTE(IowaSoxFan @ Jan 2, 2007 -> 04:46 PM) I would rather see MB dealt to the Yanks if they trade Randy Johnson. I think a package of Clippard, Cabrera, and Tabata would really solidy the Sox for a while and keep us contending now. Cabrera could be the everyday left fielder right now and has played all three OF positions. Tabata is couple years away but will be an impact player. Clippard should be a good middle of the rotation starter that is 1-2 years away. I seriously doubt that the Yankees will be acquiring a pitcher via a trade if they move Johnson. They have 4 other starters in Pettitte, Igawa, Mussina, and Wang, 2 very very talented rookies including potentially the best pitching prospect in the game, Pavano is still under contract, and perhaps most importantly, they're keeping a rotation slot open in case a 7 time Cy Young award winner decides he wants to pitch alongside Andy Pettitte for another half season.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 2, 2007 -> 11:17 AM) I remember watching a special about the stealth bomber that said a bird has a larger radar signature than the bomber, so I guess it makes sense that you could pick up a paddle.... Any material that is solid will reflect radar energy. That actually winds up being one of the problems with radar...once you get down near the altitude where people and animals actually live at, everything winds up having a radar signature, things with lots of right angles even more so. Usually the problem is so bad that radar operators just ignore the area below a few hundred feet, give or take the system. This of course provides a useful opening, if, for example, you happen to be an Israeli pilot in 1967 trying to bomb the Hell out of Egypt's air force. More modern techniques of radar are attempting to employ computers to isolate planes in all the noise, probably works pretty well by now, but it's not easy.