Balta1701

QUOTE(Cknolls @ May 16, 2006 -> 12:50 PM) No to tax increaes. But yes to the rest. Well, at least we know you're willing to secure the border as long as someone else is willing to pay for it.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ May 16, 2006 -> 12:44 PM) How about cutting 5% from entitlement programs to hire 100,000 border patrol agents? How about a 1% tax increase across the board? Or cutting back of some of those $10's of billions in subsidies to farmers and oil companies? Or allowing Medicare to actually negotiate prescription drug prices downwards?

Go get em kiddo. Some of us have been waiting for you to get a start for a while.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2006 -> 12:34 PM) Well to be fair there is a pretty big racist contingent in there... There is no doubt in my mind we don't want citizens running around with guns patroling anything. That's called anarchy, and it is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. On the other hand, I have zero problem with the National Guard protecting our borders, as well, they are the National Guard. Personally, I think the border patrol is better suited for patrolling the border. Of course, it would have really been nice if we had opportunities in recent years to expand the border patrol so that we wouldn't have had to use the Guard? Man that would have been convenient.

So you're telling me that this is only a crisis in the literary sense? Damn, we ought to send the National Guard in to protect people from the Davinci Code too.

The Tribe has taken Rafael "Juiced" Betancourt off of the disabled list.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ May 16, 2006 -> 11:27 AM) Using your own defenition of a crisis the situation on the border certainly fits. The immigration debate has been brewing for years and years and the Minutemen protests starting last year and that are ongoing have made this issue a center of attention. That and the fact that the country is being overrun by literally millions of people WHO DONT f***ING BELONG HERE!!!!!!! Making something a political issue does not make it a crisis. In the current fiscal year, 42 states are expecting to run budget surpluses, totalling somewhere in the neighborhood of $29 billion dollars. Currently, over 60% of the equipment of the national guard has been deployed to Iraq. According to some reports, for several key items (up to 220), the guard has less than 10% of what it needs. Michael Chertoff had this to say a few months ago about using the Guard on the border: And finally, in terms of California alone, in 1991, the L.A. Riots required the use of some 10,000+ national guard soldiers to quell that mess. Currently, according to the National Guard Association of California, the California Army National Guard only consists of about 15,000 soldiers, and over 5,000 of those are on overseas deployment. In the event of a major earthquake right now, if every single available soldier of the California guard was sent into action, we could barely muster the same strength as it took to quell the L.A. riots, and those soldiers would be going into action with 30% of their equipment. I'd also like to note that my prediction yesterday that this would only make passing a comprehensive bill harder seems to be resonating with at least 1 Congressman. QUOTE(YASNY @ May 16, 2006 -> 11:29 AM) No NUKE. It is really great that a small band people, reviled by the leftists, were able bring the issue into focus. And those large bands of immigrants rallying against the House bill had nothing to do with bringing focus on this issue?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2006 -> 11:20 AM) What would get their attention quicker is to have a requirement of citizenship to wire money to outside of the USA. Now that would actually do it. Of course, presumably you'd be willing to make exceptions for people who were actually on legal visas.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ May 16, 2006 -> 11:19 AM) 500,000 people per year enter the US illegally through this specific border region. I guess can we can play the definition of "is" game here over what a "crisis" is, but the fact remains that there are an estimated 12 million people here illegally, with almost 2000 new people PER DAY arriving still. Don't call it a crisis if you like, but I call it a big f***ing problem. Oh, you're right, it's a big f***ing problem, and there needs to be a legislative fix to it before it becomes even harder to fix the problem, but by my definition, it's no crisis.

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 16, 2006 -> 11:13 AM) Well, the situation on the border is damn sure not acceptable. Also, I was under the impression that illegal immigration has always been criminalized. It's neither a felony nor a misdemenor. Basically you're picked up and sent home, there's no punishment phase at all (which, if we did that right now, would require jailing another 15 million folks, of course).

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ May 16, 2006 -> 10:59 AM) If the federal government had any stones it would take all the monies wasted on services for these people out of their foregin aid money. As with business, the surest way to change bad behavior is to hit them in the wallet. Yup. All $25 million of that aid we give to Mexico. Cut that, and i'm sure they'll stand up and take notice.

QUOTE(spiderman @ May 16, 2006 -> 07:53 AM) Just so I'm clear, you don't think the Southern Border is nearing, if not already, a crisis mode ? Would you do anything down there, and keep it as is ? The situation on the southern border is not a good one. But it's certainly not at a turning point or expecting abrupt change or deterioration. If we did absolutely nothing right now, what would happen? The same number of immigrants who snuck across last week would sneak across this week. And so on through the end of the year, with only a little bit of variance. If you expected that in 1 week, 10x that number would try to cross, ok, that would be a turning point, and a crisis. But right now, the situation is at least stable. It's not stable in a good way, but it's not getting dramatically worse. Of course, the situation is not good, and it is time to do something about it in terms of legislation. Guest worker program allowing a path to citizenship, increased enforcment against businesses hiring illegals, a program to register those who are already here, and criminalizing future illegal immigration would be logical steps. But anywho, it's certianly not a crisis. A crisis will be what happens when there's an earthquake in San Francisco or L.A. and the California National Guard is 1/2 in Iraq and 1/3 sitting along the southern border with 95% of it's equipment gone.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ May 16, 2006 -> 08:04 AM) First transformers now this... Voltron Movie planned for 08 This movie will be by the same producer of the Day After Tomorrow. So the special affects should be awsome. Will they still keep it so that the people's lips don't match up with the words they say?

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ May 15, 2006 -> 11:24 PM) You have to figure the Spurs will win game 5. I can't seem them going out that easy. It will all come down to if Dallas can close them out on their homecourt in game 6. If not, Spurs take it in 7. It may be just as likely that the Mavs sapped the Spurs in game 4 and the Spurs just won't have any heart left for game 5 no matter where they play as it is that the Spurs will come out and refuse to let the series end quick. At this point, you've got to just say that the Mavs need to win 1 game out of 3. That's all they have to do. The odds are in their favor. They also can't get lackadasical though.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ May 16, 2006 -> 10:43 AM) Fields and Sizemore have comparable speed? I did not know that. There are 2 ways I've seen to have a successful leadoff hitter. You can either have a leadoff hitter who's fast, and when he gets on base he gets himself into scoring position. This works especially well for teams that don't have enormous amounts of power and don't expect to have the 3 run home run show up very often. I.e. the Sox last year - we had PK, but wound up manufacturing runs a lot. On the other hand, you can find a guy who's just not a clog on the basepaths (i.e. he scores from first on a double a decent amount of the time), but who has a very high OBP. This works particularly well when you have a bunch of mashers behind him who are going to be banging balls off of the wall every few times up. Think about a team like Texas or the Yankees or the Red Sox...you put Damon, or guys like Michael Young (last year for the Rangers) in front of the boppers and let them get on base to score. With Thome, Konerko, and Dye, this may very well work for us quite well.

QUOTE(YASNY @ May 16, 2006 -> 10:39 AM) You wouldn't want to put a non-leadoff type rookie in the leadoff spot on a big league team. Way too much pressure. It worked with Grady Sizemore, so it's at least not an impossibility. You could also ease a guy into the role by making use of the pieces you already have...focus on OBP out of the first 2 spots instead of speed with Thome and Konerko ther. Maybe Iguchi and Crede to start off until Fields finds a groove?

QUOTE(jphat007 @ May 16, 2006 -> 07:10 AM) If that's as soon as next year, who would be our leadoff hitter? Right now, Josh Fields is pushing a .419 OBP. 15 walks in 121 at bats. That's not terrible. In fact it's pretty good. He wouldn't be the fastest guy in that position in the league, but well, think about a Grady Sizemore type. Get a lot of hits, hit with some power, but also get on base a lot.

This team is better than the one that won the trophy last year. Anything other than another trophy will be a disappointment. You think the Red Sox weren't disappointed in 05 when they couldn't pull off the repeat? Or the Marlins before that?

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ May 15, 2006 -> 07:34 PM) Ya, IIRC we have his rights for one more season. No. Joe Crede has gone through 1 of his 3 years of arbitration eligibility. If he is not signed, he will be Arb. eligible after 2006 and 2007. He will be a free agent after 2008. So we have him for 2 years after this year.

I still think Jim will probably wind up between 40 and 50, just because he's not going to play 155 games. Starting next week, when interleague play rolls around, he's going to find himself getting a lot of extra time off. 1 at bat, pinch hitting, per game. He'll probably get some extra offtime in around August, for example, also. He's only really had 1 offday thus far this year.

CNN Blooper reel: cuts to the President's feed while Bush is rehearsing.

There was no God Bless America at the end of the speech. I'm not sure what to do.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ May 15, 2006 -> 05:09 PM) Jordan, Miller, LeBron, Gordon. One of these doesn't fit. Yeah, I know. Gordon scored more points per game and shot a higher percentage from 3 land in his first 2 seasons than Miller did in his first 2.

Justin Duchscherer hit the 15 day DL with a sore elbow. We will not have to face him when Oakland comes to town. Woody Williams hit the 15 day DL with a sore calf.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ May 15, 2006 -> 02:48 PM) Are you serious? You apply for a visa. People do it all the time. Most countries have a very similar process in place. How hard is that? You may not like the levels of visas, and a guest worker program is certainly a nice addition to things. But if you think there isn't a serviceable process already in place, you aren't paying attention. It's not a logical system if it doesn't allow the demand for work to actually be fulfilled.