Balta1701

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 09:05 AM) I am sittng here wondering how much time and money should have been spent on the possibility that NO would take a direct hit, and the levees would break, and this and that. While we have an unlimted budget to destroy and rebuild Iraq, we don't have an unlimited budget to mobilize thousands of people and tons of equipment on a worse case scenario. All that has to be balanced in the response. Can you imagine the headlines $67,000,000 spent on diaster that never came. What a waste of our tax dollars. First of all...I don't think I've seen any estimate which says that making the NO Levees structurally sound enough to take the surge from a Cat 5 would have cost $67 billion. A couple billion yes, but not that number. Secondly, this is the real cost/benefit analysis question. It's almost guaranteed that every city on the Gulf Coast will suffer at least a glancing blow from a major hurricane once every 100 years or so...maybe less as the planet warms up and we wind up with more major storms. When you have something that is a virtual guarantee to happen at some point, it's just not wise to ignore it. California is actually a fairly good comparison. This state knows that both the L.A. and San Fran areas at some point in the next 100 years are going to have to cope with a magnitude 7-8 earthquake at least once, along with several smaller events. And in San Fran's case, it will be a direct hit on the city. When you know for a fact it is going to happen...you can't just gamble that it won't happen soon. This state is actually going to be in real trouble if one hits in the next 20 years, since most of the retrofit projects started after '89 and '94 are projected to take another 10-20 years. The Golden Gate Bridge may very well go down, for example, if one hits tomorrow. And there would probably be massive levee breaches out here too, up in a river delta in the north. When you simply know that something is going to happen...you just have to spend the money. There's no way around it.

Nuke, this one's for you.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2006 -> 07:08 AM) So wait a minute. You are trying to tell us that in 2001 the Republicians knew that Abramoff would somehow become a politicial liablity so while keeping in business contact with him themselves, and exposing themselves to further political liability, they set up Reid? Put away the tin foil hat dude. No, that means that they tried to get his support on the Marianas bill in the method they were using to get the support of the Republicans...$$$. Reid...refused. HE never supported their position despite the $$$ which worked so well on the Republicans. And the AP is kind enough to hide that fact, because otherwise they wouldn't have had anything to print here.

DHS Director Michael Chertoff told us after Katrina he didn't know the Levees broke until Tuesday afternoon. This is false. He was also informed of Levee breaks Early Monday.

He's a .280 career hitter against current Cubs pitchers. At least now...it's impossible for Ozzie to give him playing time. Utterly impossible.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 10:40 PM) Two words. Lisa Dergan. In other words...Pods could spend every offday wandering around wearing a dress...and his manhood is already confirmed. He wins.

Ho-Hum...the White House was told by email at 9:27 p.m. on Monday, the evening after Katrina blasted through New Orleans, that the Levees were rupturing, people were stranded, and the city was in terrible condition. I'd like to be able to say something more than ho-hum, but well...I'm just not surprised one iota. I'd go dig up the pictures of Bush happily strumming the guitar while NOLA flooded or holding up a birthday cake for McCain, but well, it's late.

As well as the Pistons are playing this year, I think only having 3 of their guys would almost be an insult to the rest of that team. Each one of them is playing great, and the fact that each of them is playing so well keeps the numbers of the others down a little bit compared to where they would be on, let's say the Lakers.

I'm almost certain Bobby at least has both a changeup and a slider in his arsenal. Until last year he was a starter. The Sox have been trying to make him into a fastball/curveball pitcher IIRC, which if he's only pitching 1 inning and he has that fastball hitting 99-100 is not a bad idea IMO.

QUOTE(TLAK @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 05:44 PM) were? Dude...if a world series doesn't end those grudges...then the ones holding them are Cub fans.

So, it's looking more and more like the idea that the President and the White House had almost no relation with disgraced Republican Lobbyist Jack Abramoff is simply another lie. Think Progress has been covering these emails and the attempts to cover up the photos of Bush and Abramoff for several days now. Mr. Eisler Made an appearance on CNN earlier tonight, and he left little room for doubt here. We've known for a while that the company which owned some pictures of Bush and Abramoff suddenly had those pictures disappear as soon as Abramoff plead guilty, and we've known that the White House's promise to provide full details of all meetings between Mr. Bush and Mr. Abramoff (given in early January) has gone totally unfulfilled, to the point of Mr. McClellan denying he ever made that promise. Now we are seeing more evidence of a direct relationship between Mr. Bush and Mr. Abramoff leaking out over time, despite the best efforts of the White House. The big remaining questions of course, are these; how much did the White House know, and why are they going to such great lengths to keep that information from coming out?

QUOTE(daa84 @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 03:12 PM) Edit: i am unsure about the speed numbers. I know he really didnt steal at all last year at AAA, but i know kenny has said he could steal 15. anyone get to see him with any regularity that can comment on his speed potential Supposedly he's faster than Rowand, who was 16/21 last year. If nothing else...it's hard to find 2 guys better to learn the art of stealing bases from than our first base coach and left fielder.

Today's gaggle: Good point...don't you usually blow up a plane with a bomb, not hijack it with one?

QUOTE(MarkBuehrle_TheAce @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) am I the only sox fan in this forum who happens to beleive that jerry owens should be our starter in center? Yes.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 02:26 PM) Thanks for quoting Juan Cole, he is obviously an objective guy. Maybe I can quote Daniel Pipes. I am sure he is just as objective from the other point of view. Fine. Go repeat the searches he did and prove him wrong.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 02:25 PM) I guess my impression was that his impeachment was more about the banking scandals (Balta refers to it) than that firing, and that the firing was more like the tax evasion that got Capone in jail. I guess its stupidity and lack of forethought (Buchanan) versus mild paranoid insanity and hatred (Johnson). I still think Johnson takes the cake. Plus, Johnson's legacy still lives today in a lot of the policy still effecting Indians (the Dawes Act, while outside his presidency, has its roots in Johnsons policies). Is there anything of Buchanan still roaming about? You're confusing the 2 Andrew's of the 1800's. Andrew Jackson was 1828-1836. Johnson was Right after Lincoln. Jackson was the one who went after the National Bank and sent the country into a large recession, Jackson was the one who used force to evict and march a large number of native americans across the country, killing many, etc. Johnson was the one who was impeached.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 02:13 PM) And its nice to see Mr Oil for Food pipe up and scold the media instead of scolding the fools who are running around killing people over f***ing cartoons. Maybe he should scold Hezbolla, Iran, and Syria over this. Syria has had surprisingly little to do with this in terms of the government thus far. Egypt (which btw gets a couple billion from us a year) has been VASTLY more important, along with our good friends in Saudi Arabia who we can't criticize because we like 4 wheel drive.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 02:05 PM) I'd agree. I think that Buchanan was indeed the worst president in US history. Andrew Jackson has his bad parts too...the destruction of the National Bank which led to a "Panic" as he was leaving office, the "Trail of Tears", etc.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 02:02 PM) Just caught it. It's on at 4 here. Buehrle sounded like the nervous one, voice shaking a bit. Pods sounded like he was reading a cue card. "Oh damn, I wonder what'll happen when the wife sees this" (scott's thoughts)

Link So this doesn't show up at all in the AP piece. They spend a long time talking about how Abramoff's partners had arranged for repeated contacts between Reid's folks and Abramoff's clients, in particular on the Marianas minimum wage/slave labor issue, in an attempt to make Reid look bad. The kicker? Reid never actually supported Abramoff's position that the minimum wage bill was bad. He supported the bill, while Abramoff's clients, the people supposedly doing nasty things by Lobbying Reid...wanted the minimum wage opposed (so they coud keep paying workers $2 an hour or so on U.S. territory). The AP casually leaves that detail out. Oops. Damn liberal media.

Hmph, the current Mayor of L.A., and former city councilman, seems to have first heard about the "terror plot" during Bush's speech this morning. That's troublesome.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 01:46 PM) Best President -- William Henry Harrison. He didn't do a damn thing to hurt the United States at all. /case.closed. Yes he did. There was a funeral to pay for!

Linky

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 01:05 PM) Wow, Draft express really seems to be gushing over Aldridge. I don't think they said one negative thing. I don't know how you could say that he is that polished offensively watching him at Texas. I've watched them a couple of times, and I think he took maybe two hook shots and two jumpers. They make him sound like a cross between Kareem and Olajuwon on offense. He's got more talent than most big men that enter the draft, but he isn't THAT good yet. Even if he isn't "That" good...I think the best team in the NBA right now has managed to assemble itself out of parts that are all very good, but none of them amazingly spectacular.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Feb 9, 2006 -> 01:04 PM) This commission was a f***ing joke. I love how the commission finds that there are flaws up and down the system, including both Democratic and Republican administrations, and since they don't judge the Republicans to be perfect, the commission is judged to be a joke. It's probably the most bi-partisan investigation of anything we've had in the last 10 years.