Balta1701

QUOTE(Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 09:48 AM) "His style rubs people the wrong way. He envisions the UN as a functional organization and manages towards that end. He should know the UN is designed only to pass meaningless resolutions with no balls to enforce them." But when you go in with that belief as your primary outlook, then that prevents you from being able to squeeze any good out of what there actually is in that organization, and it makes it easier for everyone else to demonize you. You don't get people to enforce resolutions by walking into a room, yelling out "You all have no balls to enforce resolutions", and then asking people to join you in doing things. Some people may not like it, and to the "with us or against us at all costs" crowd such nuance is sickening, but that doesn't mean that no good can come from it, and that doesn't mean that doing the opposite won't make things worse.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 09:46 AM) Garcia+Anderson for Rowand and Rollins Terrible move for the White Sox. Would they throw in Hamels?

QUOTE(Sox It To Em @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 09:38 AM) These next four days are going to be fun. Not if people keep bringing up Rowand rumors. It sours my mood every time.

The Cubune also threw this one in this morning, probably what sparked the 1000 people: Of course, Rowand wouldn't necessarily be either of those, but hey, that same company just paid $140 million for Soriano.

QUOTE(ChiSox9 @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 09:28 AM) Just a thought but, I dont think Garcia/Crede would work straight up for A-Rod and Melky. Yanks are also looking for a 1st basemen... I think: Garcia/Crede/Gload would be able to pry both A-Rod and Melky away. Ross Gload doesn't make enough money for the Yankees to be interested in him.

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 09:08 AM) I'm sorry, you want to trade Buehrle for a young starting pitcher? Isn't Buehrle a young starting pitcher? He going to be 28 at the beginning of the 2007 season. We better get a HUGE package for Buehrle if we trade him...A-Rod and maybe Proctor or that other young pitcher...is it Hensley? Yes, we better get a huge package if we trade Buehrle...but if Buehrle can't be signed, we better consider trading him. Because the package we could get for him is much, much more valuable than the pair of draft picks we could get for him.

QUOTE(bschmaranz @ Dec 4, 2006 -> 09:17 AM) Take it for what it's worth but a buddy of mine that lives in LA just emailed me and said that one of the sports radio shows mentioned a possible swap between the Sox and Yankees with us getting ARod and Melky while the Evil Empire receives Joe Crede and either Garcia, Garland or McCarthy. Again, take that with a grain of salt. There's a huge difference in the value of those 3 pitchers. They want BMac, they send back Hughes as well.

I like the Thumbs up. He would fit well as a new Taiwanese Friend.

The Economist

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 06:58 PM) And yet they lost. How did "best game managing qb in the NFL" Brad Johnson do on that field today? Take a quick look at some of the recent teams to win a superbowl, and who was the QB. How about the Champs who had GREAT defenses like the bears do? Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, Big Ben. They have a chance to not only make the superbowl, but win it as well. Apparently you havent taken a look at the NFC teams in the playoffs and how mediocre all of their QB's are. But the other side of the token is...what is the one thing that always, always seems to kill teams in the playoffs? Turnovers. I still think the Bears can win in the playoffs with Grossman at QB, but they can't if he keeps playing like this. You can't turn the ball over 2+ times every game and expect to win in the playoffs. You just can't.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 06:22 PM) Do you or anyone else know exactly what the status is down there? There have been a wide variety of reports put out monitoring the status of the levee repairs down there throughout the year, many of which I'll bet played a key role in this company's decision. CBS WaPo AP PBS Interview, levee repairs may be inadequate. Fox Etc.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 06:19 PM) Can you blame them? Not in the least. Which, given the fact that the people reconstructing the levees were given a full free year with no hurricane threats by El Nino, is absolutely pathetic.

QUOTE(Brian @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 05:52 PM) I think an easy thing to do for the first step, is you take 4 teams. Say they play in the Rose and Orange Bowl on Jan 1st, than the winners play on Jan 8th in the title game. I've been thinking that's the best stopgap solution for years. Hell, the Rose Bowl has already received permission from the City of Pasadena to run a 2nd game in that stadium a week after new years. The people running the bloody stadium saw the writing on the wall a year ago.

So, if the multitude of reports coming out about the inexcusably poor state of the repair of the Levees around New Orleans didn't get enough people's attention, maybe this will. Citing the state of the levee repairs, the largest insurer in Louisiana will, starting next year, stop offering property insurance of any sort to the city of New Orleans. To those who saw Katrina and said that it's time to abandon New Orleans, this may be the first sign of that actually happening. The government simply has not been remotely up to the task of rebuilding that levee system in terms of money, leadership, or resources. We caught a monster break in terms of having this be an El Nino year, which dramatically reduced the risk to New Orleans by preventing most of the hurricane-forming conditions from existing over the Atlantic. The odds though are that next year, the weather patterns will go right back to the 04-05 state, and that city will be right back in the crosshairs, and it will have virtually wasted a free year of preparation time. This is merely a symptom.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 05:45 PM) Proof please, now. According to ESPN over the past 3 seasons, Riske has pitched well in close and late situations. In 230 at-bats batters had a line of .230/.312/.396 against him. I'd take that from our fifth guy in the pen. Riske somehow went the entore 2005 season without recording a single successful "Hold".

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 05:17 PM) If Alex Rodriguez voided the rest of his deal after the 2007 season he'd be passing up $81M over 3 years. I don't care how insane the market is, I just don't see him passing up that sort of cash just to get in on the free agent market. In order to void his deal after '08 or '09 there would have to be someone in baseball with a salary higher than his $27M which there will not be so if he passes up voiding his deal after '07 he will not be able to do so until his deal runs out after '10. The thing to think about may not be the per-year total. A month ago, I figured if ARod opted out of his deal, he might get something in the $14 mil range for 4-5 seasons. But then I saw what teams were shelling out for guys who don't have near the track record of ARod. ARod might be passing up $81 million over 3 years, but he might be passing that up in order to sign a deal worth $100-$120 million over 6-7 years, or even more than that. Especially if the market keeps going up.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 04:36 PM) Even during the 2005 season when everyone was calling him the ignitor of the White Sox offense, the guy that made the White Sox go, he scored 80 runs and drove in 25. He wasn't in the Top 50 in baseball in OBP or BA. If he was such a distraction on the bases, how come he only scored 80 runs? He did spend what, nearly a month on the DL? And for the month before and after that month, his legs weren't there? And the #3 hitter behind him most of the season was this guy named who?

QUOTE(Texsox @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 05:26 AM) It's been a while since I've read anything on the Russian nuclear situation, but it was a very disturbing problem. No money to maintain the buildings, no money to pay security, no money to investigate the people with access. And government scientists, with ties to some unsavory characters from "negotiations", who had been living in the lap of luxury, suddenly without paychecks. I remember coming away from that book, and the title escapes me now, with the nagging feeling we were less safe with the breakup of the Soviet Union than before. The book was written, largely, with information from one of their scientist who had defected, so who knows how accurate a picture he drew. For years, some of the more intelligent people in the Senate/House have been pushing programs where the U.S. basically pays those scientists to remain unemployed. If I recall correctly though, through some combination of lack of diplomacy by the U.S. and lack of desire to keep funding a program like this (i.e. the Bush Administration has under-funded the famed Nunn-Lugar program by something like $50 million), the effectiveness has wained over the past few years.

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden. Yeah, it's a damn shame. More states should have joined the Confederacy. That would have been the perfect move for Delaware! Seriously, imagine the media response if Howard Dean had said those EXACT words?

QUOTE(danman31 @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 05:12 PM) What's stupid about this is that the voters had Michigan ahead of Florida before the SEC title game. There is no way the win over Arkansas made the voters all of a sudden think Florida was better than Michigan, they just didn't want to see a rematch. It's as if they know Michigan is the better team, but don't want to see a rematch. At this point though, what sane solution is there? It's a broken system and the voters are trying to put a band-aid on it by making their best decision. Michigan did not win its conference championship. Florida did. Ohio State did. What happens if there is a rematch, Florida wins its bowl game, and Michigan wins the final game? Now Michigan loses the Big 10, and wins the national championship over another 1 loss team that did win its conference championship? That's freaking moronic.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 02:35 PM) If a registry is created against my beliefs, then I would certainly want to make sure it was warrant-only access. I'd be in favor of such a registry...and I fully agree that you should need a warrant to get access to it. This includes the President, btw.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 04:08 PM) Soxy, you are right in saying that the health care system in the country sucks. But, it will suck a lot worse when the government gets its hands on it. That depends on who constructs the program, who runs it, whether or not there's realistic lobbying reform beforehand, and a few other things. If the same people who designed the Medicare Insurance Company bailout bill of a few years ago design the next fix, then we'll just wind up with one $500 billion Insurance company bailout after another.

QUOTE(iWiN4PreP @ Dec 3, 2006 -> 04:51 PM) arod please please please how long is he under his huge contract? til 2010? thatd be Amazing. hes gonna be really good til then to. His contract does run through 10 I believe, but he also does have an out-clause at the end of next season, and it's entirely possible that with the way the Market has expanded, Boras may decide that he'll make more by opting out and trying to sign a Soriano-sized deal rather than playing out this contract.

I wouldn't do Buehrle alone for Eckstein, Reyes, and Wainright. No matter how much Buehrle might want to be a Cardinal, or how much the media may obsess over it...the Cardinals do not have enough talent to trade for Mark Buehrle right now unless they want to move their first baseman. End of story. Their system is too bare.

So, if Tom Coughlin is not fired at the end of the year, the Giants may as well not field a team next year. Not only does his team spend a whole week bickering at each other, not only does he toss his players under the bus last week, but today, they literally handed the Cowboys a win in the last 1:45 with freaking retarded clock management. When will people learn that if you're at the 15 yard line and there's 1:45 on the clock and you're down by 7, you need to RUN DOWN THE CLOCK before you score? Don't take a timeout with 1:45 left! Then don't hurry-up before the next play, and wind up in the end zone with more than a minute left! Oh, and I must say, all things considered, surprisingly good game by the Bills today. Losman playing with some really big, gigantic balls in the 2nd half to bring that team back. Excellent work by the special teams. And despite the numbers LT put up, holding the Chargers to 24 points is not a bad thing. Incredibly poor coaching decision with about 8 minutes left in the game by Jauron may have cost the Bills that game too. Took a timeout, then challenged the play before the timeout, and lost the challenge...thus costing the Bills their last 2 timeouts with about 8 minutes left.