Balta1701

I wanted pitching prospects and up-the-middle prospects for Jose anyway, and this doesn't change that. Give me an A-Ball pitcher or 2 and a very solid up-the-middle guy and I'll be happy. This still doesn't change the fact that I don't want to lose Jose for nothing at the end of 06.

Now This is exceptionally disturbing. Every single person here...if you have a cell phone, anyone anywhere, for any reason, can buy your cell phone records for $110, according to the Sun-Times. You Republicans here...you better be worried, because my fiance has a job now, and some of you have been very naughty! Lots more detail @ the link above, including the specific concerns. Want to know who's been calling your congressman? It only takes $110! Want to know how many calls Delay made to Abramoff last month? have fun!

Why is it I think the only team that really has a shot to beat NE before the Super Bowl is the Colts? Hey Jax, you want to talk about no respect for you? Yeah...don't fall down 28-3 to the Pats in the 1st round of the playoffs. You have to earn respect befroe you talk about it. If the Colts can't get past these guys this year...then the Colts may need to just spend 4-5 years rebuilding and try to win during the twilight of Peyton's career, like the Broncos with Elway.

Steff, I'm sure no words can do anything justice, and since I'm not a religious person, I would like to just express my full and heartful sorrow at your loss.

I'd love to see the Who, but sadly there's only so much money, and they're just not high enough on the list. God I hope U2 Does another tour leg in the spring, now that the Fiance is employed and i have a small amount of disposable income.

Sadly here I think I agree with the Republicans, George W. Bush is only 1 man, and not a smart man at that. If you expect him to remember every person he's met over the last 6 years, you're pushing it. This is not like Ahmad Chalabi, where the guy not only met with Bush, he sat behind Laura at the SOTU speech right before the Admin denied ever meeting him. In this case, you're talking about 1 contributer among hundreds. I need more than proof that Bush met with the guy 1-2 times to care that Bush met with him 1-2 times. Thus far, I've basically come to believe that the Abramoff mess is fundamentally a Congressional one, because Abramoff really used his influence on Congresspeople. When you get multiple free skyboxes, free golf functions, and free flights to Saigon, along with $100,000+ all bundled because of 1 guy, you will know who he is if you're a congressman winning election based on a few million dollars. However, if he's just donating to the President, that's not proving the President was involved. Show me proof of multiple sessions between the Pres and the guy, or travel for the President arranged for the guy, or other meetings arranged by the guy, and I'll change my opinion, but thus far I haven't seen full evidence that the Bush Admin knew what Abramoff was doing like, say, Delay did.

So, what I would say is this...an American city is completely destroyed. There were people with and without money which lost their homes. People with and without insurance which lost their homes. Now, the key in my eyes is this; there were people without insurance who lost everything. In any American city which is destroyed, that same thing will happen...it is simply insanity to expect that every single person inside a destroyed american city will have insurance against the force which destroyed the city. So, as I see it, in general there are 3 options. 1...you can do nothing, tell the people without insurance they're totally out of luck, and let people starve to death. I find this intolerable, especially considering it's not those folks' fault that the Corps destroyed the barrier islands and built levees only for a Mag 2. Hurricane. Secondly, you can hand out aid, but use some sort of means testing to decide who gets aid...i.e. you find out which people are truly needy and you specifically direct aid to those people. Third, you could just hand out aid to everyone. The government has chosen the latter plan in this case. While this is fair, it's not necessarily the most cost-effective method of helping people. Everyone, whether they had insurance against that specific disaster or not, has been eligible for the government assitance. So is it surprising that government assistance is turning up in high-end stores? Not in the least. That was how the Bush Admin. chose to deal with this tragedy. How would I have done it? Find some way of classifying the people who lost homes based on their means. There's no reason for the family with flood insurance and tons of savings who moves next to 1 of our posters within 2 months to receive tons of aid from the government, but there's plenty of reason for the family renting a house which loses all of their property because of crappy levees to receive that aid. Will some of these people be stupid enough to blow that aid at strip clubs? Unfortunately yes. There is simply no way to prevent people from being stupid. If you give them money that can only be used on certain goods, they'll take the money they do have and blow that on a strip club. Some people simply cannot be helped. But does the fact that 1 small group of Americans decides to be stupid justify completely ending the recovery aid programs? No. If 95% of the people use the aid properly, then even if 5% use it improperly, it is doing an extraordinary amount of good in helping people out of a tragedy caused in a significant part by government ineptitude. In any government bailout situation, you will have people who blow the money in pigheaded ways, but you will also have people who survive entirely because of the government aid. The goal should be to direct the aid as best as possible to the people who use it correctly. You won't be able to pull 100%, and either the people opposed to the current administration or the people who are totally anti-taxation will find the examples of the stupid people and highlight them, but that doesn't mean by any stretch that the aid isn't working, if it is directed properly. I would advocate a "directed-aid" sort of program, where given the massive size of the government failure in this case, the government would try to bail out the people who didn't plan for the failure. We didn't do that, so some of the cash will be wasted. But if you even estimate that 50% of the people receiving the aid will use it to help themselves out of this mess, while 50% don't, then those who use it to help themselves will justify the expenditure. There should be ways for the government to raise that number if their goal is not to enrich campaign contributors, but you just can't ever expect 100% of the people to behave rationally, because they're people.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jan 7, 2006 -> 01:32 PM) There are TONS of Native American team names in Illinois. When I lived in Southern Illinois, it seemed like if your mascot wasnt a dog or a cat, it was the Indians or Redskins etc. If the Native Americans succeed in one case, I have feeling that there is going to be alot of re-named mascots. Man do we dislike those Valpo "Vikings". I'm afraid this is one of those I can't offer a solution to. Is the word "Indian" offensive? Some people say it is, but I don't know if I can offer a justification as to why, or why the word "Viking" isn't offensive to the Norse peoples of modern day. Redskins? Ok, maybe that would be pushing it, but Indians? I just don't see how that is offensive, but if people claim it is, I don't know whether tradition or offense should win out.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060107/ap_on_go_co/delay

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 7, 2006 -> 12:04 AM) Who would have thought this? .... I disagree with you in that I think this squarely on Bush's shoulders. That chain of command runs down as well as up. Maybe it's just that I want the WBC to die a quick death anyway to protect our starting pitching, make it easier for us to trade Jose, and make KW more willing to give the ball to BMac 30+ times this year as a starter, and anything that helps that along won't make me too mad.

Anywho, I want Owens to have a full year at AAA before we bring him up unless someone gets hurt, so I won't be too mad at anything which helps that.

Here's a thought...if Garcia and Vazquez, or 1 of those 2, were also to pull out, would we have less need of a backup 6th starter? Would that make pulling off that last trade and going with 5 guys a little easier? Anywho, this thing started coming apart the day it was thought of. ARod's shenanigoats and the idiocy over Cuba is only hastening its demise.

This whole thing is coming apart, and aside from the fact that we may never get to see that Dominican Republic lineup, I can't say I'm disappointed.

QUOTE(ChWRoCk2 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 11:14 PM) Tell me about it, this was around the time last year that I believe they pulled the team together and started to make a run, however with all the changes going on and Tyson not playing to his potential all we can hope for is a good draft pick. But a nice win. Almost everyone said that we were going to take a step backwards this year after the Curry heart mess, and it seems like they were right. But that doesn't stop us from planning. We've still got a major expiring contract, a big amount of cap room, 3 first round picks coming up in the next 2 years (at least 2 of which should be lottery, and maybe high lottery), and we've got some very good young talent in guys like Deng, Hinrich, and maybe Chandler (if he stays healthy), all of which still have plenty of room for improvement and development as the team grows. This is a team which is in really, really good shape for the future. Barring any more Curry-sized surprises, in 2 or 3 years, if Pax holds onto everyone or makes smart deals with the guys he does move, this team could be scary good.

I think the reality of that site that we're all talking about is probably something like this...he's pulling stuff off of every source he can get, and using lower levels of credibility than people who have to say report to a news desk. That means that a lot of the stuff he reports is either going to be plants or it is going to be random rumors which arise somewhere. But, as we all know, every so often, even at a message board, or on the radio, or somewhere along the line, someone may very well leak something which is true. It won't happen very often, but when you fire enough shots, eventually one of them may hit the target. This guy will be right eventually. He'll be wrong a lot too, but so will we. But eventually, he'll get something right, and it's up to all of us whether we want to bother thinking about whether or not we want to care about all the times he isn't right.

QUOTE(whitesox1976 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 08:47 PM) After reading about the proposed trade on chicagosports.com, Patterson would be traded for a minor leaguer. The Cubs obivously aren't losing much in Patterson, sounds to me like Baltimore would be getting the better of the deal. Anything the Cubs can get for Patterson at this point is an improvement.

Wow, so Houston did outspend us.

The big question for the Brewers, IMO, is whether or not they will be able to afford to hold onto CLee after this season. I doubt they're going to be able to...especially if they dump money on anyone else this season. They need CLee to provide some power in that order while they wait on Prince to Develop.

I don't know if this is something that can be blamed on Bush, because somehow I doubt this decision was made nearly that far up the chain of command. Dept of Treasury somewhere sure, maybe even the SecTreas. Anywho, great move IBAF. Someone needs to embarass baseball and the U.S. to the point that they'll have to either let Cuba in or cancel the bloody thing. If Cuba can't show what they've got, then it's not worth antyhing.

QUOTE(VAfan @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 03:07 PM) I think a case can be made either way. My point about Dye is that he'll draw more walks hitting 3rd than if he hits 5th or later, thus increasing his hitting value, while I think Thome will be the same hitter in any slot. Plus, hitting Thome behind Paulie will force him to continue being selective, knowing that if he walks, Thome could hit a 3-run dinger behind him. It is also possible to hit Dye 3rd against lefties but drop him against righties, with Thome moving up. I'd leave Konerko hitting cleanup when he's in there, but wouldn't hesitate to move other guys. As Juggernaut points out, however, the key may be Uribe in the #2 hole. I disagree with a couple of points. First, I disagree with the statement that Thome will be the same offensive threat in any spot, for 2 reasons: 1. In the 5 hole, behind Konerko, people just have less of a reason to pitch to him. I could understand it if we had another 30 home run guy to hit behind Thome (i.e. Crede catches fire or something like that), but without that, if you have Tad hitting .280 with 15-20 home runs behind Thome (decent numbers), if you've got an open base and the choice of which one to pitch to, you pitch to Tad. If Konerko's hitting behind Thome and you've got an open base, the walk to Thome may very well give Jim the chance to waltz home. 2. Jermaine Dye even in his best years is not going to take nearly as many walks or have nearly as high of an OBP or knock in as many runs as Thome. Dye's Career OBP is .334, and that's basically what he has put up every year except 1 or 2. Thome's OBP for his career is .408. JD's best year by far in terms of OBP would be one of Thome's worst years. JD has knocked in 100+ runs twice. Thome has done so 8 times. We will score more runs with Thome hitting behind Podsednik and Uribe than we will with Dye hitting there, and we will score more runs with Thome hitting before Konerko and Dye than if he hits after them.

With all of these posts saying "Oh, those people should have bought insurance" or "Those people should have been required to buy insurance", I'm left wondering...what would happen to this country if we forced people or didn't help people who didn't buy insurance against some possible but unpredictable catastrophe? Seriously, if the Federal Government plans without expecting a category 3+ storm to hit New Orleans, why should people in that city plan for the government to fail them? They weren't exactly the ones building the levees, and somehow I doubt that the feds went and handed them a brochure 10 years ago saying "you should buy insurance because we didn't build the levees strong enough." If a tsunami devastates New York city, should we tell the people they're SOL because the federal government didn't plan for an island in the Azores to collapse, and they should just get on with their lives and feel lucky they survived? If a Lahar buries Seattle, should we just say "Sorry, you should have bought insurance against Mt. Rainier." Should we expect every single American to purchase insurance to protect him or herself from situations which should have been considered very unlikely, like the complete failure of the levees around New Orleans? Hell, should people who work in high-rise buildings or in government buildings buy terrorist insurance, and be told they're out of luck if they didn't buy it and a terrorist does hit that building?

Good for him. At least he'll draw a paycheck.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 06:18 PM) Hawk: Paul Konerko steps in, batting .432 with 85 homeruns and 450 RBI DJ: And its only May, Hawk. Imagine what those numbers will look like in September! Hawk: DJ, I fully expect that Paul Konerko will finish the year with well over 300 homeruns. For the undefeated White Sox....

QUOTE(q\/\/3r+y @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 05:39 PM) He is still signed for two or three years and by that time they will likely have playing time to offer him as hammer said. Everyone says he would have been the number one pick in virtually any other year outside of 2003... arguably the best draft ever. Do you know which one it is? He came out in the same draft as Kirk, and Hinrich should be a restricted FA in 07, if I understand things correctly.

QUOTE(q\/\/3r+y @ Jan 6, 2006 -> 06:32 PM) He will be the star ( he isn't now) the bulls build around whether anyone likes it or not I don't just like it, I love it. I was thrilled when we made the deal to get that guy from Phoenix. I just hope we can build a team around him & Capt. Kirk, and that sometime in his life Chandler turns into a decent BBall player. Just out of curiosity, is there a younger team in basketball, at least in terms of their starting 5, than the Bulls? I still sit here, look at this team, and think the best years are ahead of almost everyone on their roster, and if they hold together, and add in a few more draft picks like what we picked up from the Knicks, this team could turn into a real force in a couple of years.