Balta1701

Peyton Manning suddenly has a running game again.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Oct 21, 2006 -> 03:46 PM) Another point. How does the absentee voting system cause double voting and coersion? Seems to me that if you are mailed an absentee ballot your name should be checked off on the roster as having recieved one. Additionally, how does a person who votes absentee find themself subject to intimidation when you are voting from somewhere other than the polling place? Double voting - people vote Absentee and then show up at polling places. According to that report, it's much more common than people voting who aren't citizens, and is much more likely to wind up working because most poll-workers don't have immediate access to enough detail of information and training about how to dela with it. Secondly, absentee voters are much more likely to be subject to intimidation because it's possible for their ballot to no longer be kept secret - someone else can get their hands on it once its outside of the voting booth. . As I believe the report I cited shows, this is simply not true. In theory it sort of makes sense, but even without these sorts of laws, it's already illegal to vote as a non-citizen, and the government has had high rates of success in both catching and prosecuting people who have attempted to vote while not being citizens. This law is simply an overreaction to a hypothetical problem. If there were actually evidence out there that the problem were real, then these laws might have more usefulness, but the reality is that the non-citizen-voting problem simply doesn't exist.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Oct 21, 2006 -> 01:56 PM) This just solidifies it Freddy Garcia must be traded this offseason and Buehrle needs to either be signed to a new long term deal or dealt elsewhere, the White Sox can not afford to let these guys walk and receive nothing in return for them. Jermaine Dye and Tadahito Iguchi are on the same list, FWIW.

Yeah, Bowden sure looks like he ought to lose his job. I said on July 31 that if Soriano couldn't be resigned, Bowden ought to be fired...its absolute insanity for a team in a medium-market to leave itself in a position where it has to spend like $17 million a year on a guy just to make sure they don't lose him for nothing.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Oct 21, 2006 -> 12:43 PM) http://elections.us.reuters.com/top/news/usnN20250933.html This is certainly good news for other states who are trying to get the same thing done and strikes a pretty hard blow against voter fraud. Actually, it really doesn't strike a hard blow against voter fraud at all, and just recently we were given the evidence to be able to say that with something to stand on. As part of the "Help America Vote Act" passed after the 2000 debacle, the government actually undertook a study of where and how voting fraud actually happens. The large majority of vote fraud actually is either related to coercion or is related to problems with the absentee balloting process, while it appears that the type of vote fraud that these sorts of measures would try to stop is almost non-existant. Link. If stopping voter fraud were actually the goal, then the easiest way to do it appears to be the elimination of absentee ballots, because they make bookkeeping errors, double voting, and coerced voting much more likely. Clearly though, that's not a reasonable solution to my eyes, because just like this type of bill, it will wind up denying many more people their right to vote. The reality is that all these measures do is make voting more complicated, harder for people to accomplish, and especially tend to disenfranchise the low-income voters who either aren't as informed about the new laws or who are less likely to have the required ID's. It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater - tossing out potentially thousands of legitimate voters to make sure the handfull of illegitimate ones don't vote.

QUOTE(Whitewashed in @ Oct 21, 2006 -> 11:30 AM) Maybe not to Beltre's extreme, but I see your point. He will get paid like Beltre though. With the amount of money teams seem to have available and the desire for a guy with speed and power, he's going to get paid a lot more than Beltre.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 09:37 PM) Right with you on this one. What makes it worse is that it's just accepted as if it was as much a part of Chicago's culture as our sports teams, museums, neighborhoods, food, nightlife.....etc........etc. Here's something to ponder...what will happen first...a world series trophy on the north side, or a clean city government in Chicago?

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 05:27 PM) Correct me if Im wrong but wasn't the 1st country we attacked Afghanistan? Was that a "waste of lives" to you also? To leftists the fact that we are actively engaged in combat against terrorists abroad is a "waste of lives" and "just pisses them off even more". Hell, following that logic we may as well just forget about fighting terrorism altogether and cower under a blanket in the bedroom and pray they leave us alone. Islamic extremists started this war and I really could care less if the actions we take in response pisses them off. It would have really, really, really, really, really been nice if we had actually been willing to sacrifice more lives in Afghanistan when it would have really mattered. When it could have had an impact against Al Qaeda. If it had cost my life, if the nation had needed my life for that, I would have given it for that cause if asked. Instead, the huge majority of the costs have been spent on another conflict that someone decided was more important than going after the people who actually attacked us. And because of that other conflict, the people who actually attacked us are much, much stronger, and that is the worst part.

I don't know if it's media conditioning, but I still find it hard to comprehend how anyone can possibly top the Willie Mays catch. Ever. Ever since I was like 5, I've seen that catch on replays. I find it hard to believe I'll ever see any play that beats that, in terms of difficulty, importance, timing, and all of the other factors.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 05:57 PM) Right now, I think Ryan has a spot on this team, but I think he could use one more year in AAA. He has always been ahead of the curve, and him getting a full season in AAA would be fine. With Dye probably gone after next year, RF is Ryan's job to lose IMO. The great thing about Sweeney is...with his age, you can't look at him and say "there's nothing else he could gain by another year in the minor leagues". This kid looks so close to 20-30 home run power it's not even funny, he just has to develop it. Beautiful swing, good composure, now some big league experience...the only thing slowing him down is the fact that he's so damn young. Another year will not hurt him in the minor leagues. A year in the big leagues would probably help him more, but it would hurt the Sox in terms of his arbitration clock. Fields, because of his age if nothing else, should almost certainly be in the big leagues somewhere next year. Sweeney should be either in the minor leagues or playing OF for Pittsburgh or the Cubs or some other quasi-Minor League team next year. 2 years from now, Ryan Sweeney is going to be one hell of a batter, but he needs time to get to that point. This should be the season that a decision is made on Crede...if we want him long term, sign him now, if we can't or won't, then trade him now.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 03:59 PM) You have to love how they are the ones setting off nukes and they then want US to make concessions to get them to talk again. Does he take us for complete morons? Didn't we ask for concessions repeatedly before we'd have been willing to talk to them? Hasn't that been our policy for the last 6 years or so, diplomacy is not a means through which we can improve situations, but is instead a reward for good behavior?

QUOTE(Wong & Owens @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 04:53 PM) I've got some news for you, this type of thing is going on in EVERY large city in this country, bar none. Probably occurs in most small cities too, just on a smaller scale. Since this limits the number of places in which you can reside with civic pride, I might suggest a visit to ol' Mr. Rourke and his dimunitive sidekick. I'll agree that it is going on in almost every large city...but my personal impression is that there are very, very few cities that rival Chicago in that regard.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 03:26 PM) Pierre in CF, Fields and in LF. Sweeney gets another year in AAA and is insurance in case Fields cannot handle it. Trade Anderson with Garcia for something? Maybe a young mets pitching prospect or bullpen help. Defensively, that just sounds baaaaaaaaaaad.

QUOTE(Jeckle2000 @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 01:39 PM) What I don't get is all this ad does is show why it's so important to vote for a democrat... What I don't understand is why the republican party wants me to vote for democrats... They're so scared of the terrorists that they'll do anything to protect themselves, and they've realized that the Republicans have only made things worse.

QUOTE(Goober @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 01:14 PM) Rays on a Plane Starring Lou Pinella....

T'Other way round?

It appears this is a "Phantom buy", basically an ad produced and distributed online in the hopes that Fox News and CNN and so on will pick it up and run it for free a few hundred times under the "new controversial ad" headline.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 11:49 AM) The only part of this I'd disagree with slightly is that the Padres were a toss-up at best. They didn't exactly inspire huge confidence in anyone. That said, I am VERY happy that the Redbirds made it to the Series, and I'm hoping for a 1990 Reds-type performance from them! Cardinals!!!! I thought the Cards had a better chance against the Mets than the Padres personally...I was saying back in June that the Mets would be in trouble in the playoffs if they didn't make a move for a starter, and voila, the Mets got outpitched.

Sun-Times.

There's no logical reason for the Tigers to lose this series. Which is of course, why they play the games.

QUOTE(SoxFan562004 @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 05:48 AM) I think that's the key part... if I remember correctly, his missle tests also failed. So he has faulty nukes and nothing to deliver them and his actions that figured that out he pissed off the UN and some of the countries that stood up for him before, so yeah, he probably should do a little back tracking I guess Clinton must have called him and straightned the whole thing out 2 points...1, the long range (i.e. can hit the U.S.) missile failed, but the north still has workable missiles that can cover all of Japan, not to mention enough artillery in place to make Seoul vanish. And 2., yea it looks like they fizzled their first blast, which is pretty embarassing, but even a well placed Fizzle can still kill a few hundred thousand people if it hits Tokyo. QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 07:10 AM) I am very very skeptical of this. My bet, he is trying to dump the sanctions but still work in secret. The sanctions regime only holds if China and Russia are willing to enforce them in their entirety. The north is so closed off and so poor that they don't need a ton of imports or exports...he probably is betting that if they play a little nice with China, China will just stop enforcing them, and he's probably right.

QUOTE(Jeckle2000 @ Oct 19, 2006 -> 10:12 PM) ALL TERRORIST THREATS ARE HOAX'S! IT'S A PROVEN FACT! CASE IN POINT 9-11! WAS THERE A THREAT FIRST? HELL NO! THEY JUST WENT AHEAD AND DID IT! IF YOUR GUILLIBLE ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THE TERRORISTS ARE GOING TO GIVE US WARNING FIRST THEN YOUR IN TROUBLE! FROM YOUR OWN GUILLIABLITY... There were an unbelievable number of warnings intercepted before 9/11.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 20, 2006 -> 05:02 AM) Yea, you all are right. But if you think about it, if BMac has a good year this year, his future value is not as high as it would have been and he won 15 games in 2006. We all do have to remember that I don't think KW thought we would sign JG AND JC, he really thought one of them would bolt. What most players do in their 2nd season in the big league overall tends to have very little effect on what th eir long-term contracts actually look like. If BMac comes out and wins 15 games in 2007 and 20 in 2008, no one on earth will remember that he only pitched out of the bullpen in 2006. The only thing that would have made a difference is if BMac had come out and had a 20 strikeout game.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Oct 16, 2006 -> 04:15 PM) The guy said Ron Washington wouldn't take the job, but that Baker may be a candidate because the A's owner really hates the Giants owner and may want to stick it to him a bit. He said the most likely next manager of the A's would be Bob Gueren, a high school teammate of Beane's. "Walks just clog the basepaths."

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Oct 19, 2006 -> 05:16 PM) I bet he will. I'm also one who usually expects youngsters to struggle early on but I think Brandon is very special(time number 3423432432 I've said that) and I expect him to be very good in 07. Every time I watch him pitch I think the same thing. The kid just has such damn good stuff. My only real concern with Brandon is whether or not his body can hold up for 200+ innings every year.