Balta1701

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 03:42 PM) I will agree that Clinton's actions *and* the resulting investigation, limited any response he may have had. If he did launch the same attack, the GOP attack dogs would have been chanting tail wag the dog. This, by the way, is the single most important reason why I still think to this day that Clinton should have resigned in 98.

By the way, this is what the U.S. Military had to say the first time these stories surfaced. Directly contradicted by their own field manuals.

Read through this and this today...was interested to see any reactions people had.

From the US Army field manual in an article on Fallujah... The question is no longer whether or not it was used. The question is whether or not it is considered a chemical weapon. The U.S. army's own field manual admits it was used. Via Kos.

By the way, Congrats to Bobby Cox also. If anyone in baseball has deserved that award for years, its him.

I think Major League Baseball and its union right now should be sitting around saying "oh s***". Their time is quite literally up. McCain softened the penalties in his steroid testing bill to a 1/2 season ban for the 1st offense, full season 2nd offense, lifetime for 3rd, but it looks like the Congress may very well have the bill passed by the end of this month. Link

ESPN the Magazine is featuring a giant piece on steroids in baseball this week. I'm just starting to read through it myself...here's the link. It appears to be fully available online. Who Knew.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 05:56 AM) Quick questin: When was the last time a high profiled player took less money to stay w/ his previous team? I know it doesn't happen often, but Pauly seems like the kind of guy to take less money to stay w/ us. Just a hunch. I know money talks unfortanately, but being a defending champion talks much louder IMO. And if Pauly walks and heads to a new team- he can't be considered a 'defending champion'. I don't know about staying with his previous team, but it's been said repeatedly that Sheffield took less money to become a Yankee.

QUOTE(Fingish @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 12:31 PM) Come on, he isn't accused of murder, he's accused of attempted murder. And of course we would have to know more about the situation than it is possible for us to know right now. So you're saying not only did he try to kill people, but he failed at closing the deal? Isn't that like 2 strikes against him?

QUOTE(bmags @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 12:21 PM) i've read a couple of interviews with scientists who said they are fine with the teaching of ID as long as they also teach the real science. So i'm like f*** it...whatever they do, as long as the actual science using things that are measurable is taught...its cool. The only question that matters, of course, is how many of those scientists are named Steve?

QUOTE(Soxy @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 11:51 AM) Well, between this and the Kansas science debacle, I'm at a loss for words. Way to go America (too sad for green). Don't miss 1 thing...the Dover PA voters tossed out all of the Republicans who were insisting that Intelligent Design belongs in science classes.

What else is there to say? The guy brought Chicago a trophy with a bunch of little flags. It shouldn't have even been a contest.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 10:30 AM) Fishy? What is fishy about high Chinese demand, terror fears, followed by supply shock? There is nothing fishy, its economics 101. Energies have a minmal elasticity. For a given price increase, there is a very small dropoff in usage. With a big demand only a couple of things can stop a big price increase from happening, and that is a big price increase to quell demand, or an increase in supply. And since we all know that there hasn't be a refinery build in the US since the 80's, supply isn't going to be the answer to the problems. But see, the point that there hasn't been a refinery built in the U.S. in 20 years actually doesn't matter, because the oil companies don't want to build any more refineries. In fact, I can cite one example here in California where Shell tried to shut down a profitable refinery which produced 2% of this state's unleaded and 5% of its diesel fuel. The state chose not to let them shut it down and forced them to sell it instead. Flying J seems happy with their purchase - it is quite profitable for them. There are several reasons why supply hasn't increased. First and foremost...oil companies know about the inelastic curve as much as you do, and they know that they turn higher profits at higher prices, so its to their benefits to not build any more refineries, because it starts to restrict supply. Beyond that, there's the simple matter of there not being any more oil in the ground, but that's a post for another discussion, and I have a class in 30 seconds.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 10:54 AM) To amplify SS, here is a nice little CBO table showing the growth in the deficit. http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1821&sequence=0 Notice the last surpluses came at the end of Clinton's second term. The largest deficits have been during Republican administrations, the lowest deficits, and the only surpluses in a long time, came during Democratic administrations. I always felt that fiscal responsibility was the cornerstone of the GOP platform and the #1 reason I would vote GOP. Link.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 07:26 AM) From the same UN who has head many of its personel become involved in the oil for food scandals, involving Iraq as well. There were many in the U.S. government who's donors (or even relatives, such as our President) stood in position to profit from a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Does that mean that we should not have trusted anything they said on the topic either? The reality is this; in the late 90's, the UNSCOM team accounted for well over 95% of the WMD's that Iraq produced before GW1. Their reports clearly say this. There were, however, some gaps in their reports. That is why Clinton launched Operation Rommel in 98, and that is why it was important to get the inspectors back in after Operation Rommel finished (a clear failure of the Clinton Admin, btw.) Let's make 1 thing clear about Operation Rommel; it was launched for 1 specific reason; because Saddam was placing locations off limits to the UNSCOM team. This was a clear violation of the surrender agreements of the first gulf war and the subsequent UN Resolutions. Clinton's response was fully justified in that regard. Clinton's bombing campaign was not sold based on intel from defectors, or phony satellite photos, etc. Clinton's bombing campaign was sold because Saddam would not let the UNSCOM team into his palaces, among other places, and that could have given him the ability to hide illegal weapons. When the UNMOVIC team went in, they went in during late 2002. When they entered the country, they were allowed access to the places that UNSCOM wasn't allowed into. They were allowed full access to look at the equipment. They were given U.S. intelligence about where the weapons supposedly were. They went to these sites and found...guess what: The intelligence the U.S. was getting from defectors was garbage The equipment that Saddam had which was placed under seal by the UNSCOM teams had 4 years of dust built up on it and had not been touched. The old stockpiles of decaying weapons that UNSCOM had buried/sealed had not been disturbed The new activity at sites was totally unrelated to WMD production. No matter what you think of the Oil for Food program, UNSCOM did an excellent job of documenting what Saddam had produced, how much had been used, and where the rest had gone. There were small gaps in those numbers, which would happen even if you put the UNSCOM team in the U.S. and told them to account for every single shell. You just can't do it. But overall, UNSCOM did one Hell of a job dismantling everything, and Desert Fox seems to have nailed the rest. When UNMOVIC went in, it started putting out data which confirmed this fact, and disagreed with the U.S. intelligence, which was based almost entirely on reports from Iraqi defectors, a notoriously unreliable source (defectors in general are unreliable because they've basically been bribed to tell people things). Let's make this last point as clear as I can: had Bush waited on the invasion in 2003, there would have been no invasion, because the UNMOVIC teams were rapidly confirming that Iraq was disarmed. The UNMOVIC teams were showing conclusively that Iraq was in compliance with UN Resolutions about WMD's. They were not producing any additional ones, and they possessed none. Had Bush not pulled them out and launched his war, there would have been no war, because the UNMOVIC team would have completely removed his chosen Causus Belli.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 10:37 AM) And I disagree with that. There's just as much intelligence that was floated out there pre-Bush that said exactly the same thing. I see what you're saying, but there's just as much '*' going on pre-2001 as there was in 2003. Which is why Clinton didn't invade.

Here's the odd little part...the Democrats wanted to have those Execs testify under oath. The Republicans refused. It's almost as if the Republicans want them to be able to get away with not telling the whole truth. But that couldn't be it, could it?

That looks amazingly similar to my ballot. It's fun when the way you vote turns out to be the exact way things finish up.

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Nov 9, 2005 -> 09:34 AM) Yah I second that, what backlash? It is a backlash. We can't have anything happen in this country that the Republicans consider "Icky".

Well...thanks to this the good folks of Texas are now well protected from...well...whatever it is, they're protected from it. And thank God. Btw, on the other side of the coin, Maine became the last New England state to ban discrimination on account of sexual orientation.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Nov 8, 2005 -> 09:17 PM) Beer googles: Making men wake up terrified and screaming for 3900 years and still going strong. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view.php/3053 Beer Googles.

So wait...you're telling me that terrorists have gained a training ground in Iraq?

Well, you win some, you lose some. In Dover, PA, the district that has given us this wonderful ID trial that has let so many little fun nuggets come out ("Of Pandas and People", the first ID text, literally changed the word "Creation" to "Intelligent Design" immediately after the 1987 court ruling on Creation Science, ID and Astrology both belong in schools according to Behe, the peer review on Behe's book was basically 2 phone calls).... Guess what happened tonight in that district. Every single Democrat up for a School Board seat in Dover won. Every single race where an ID candidate was up against a pro-science candidate, the pro-science candidate won. Results.

Grossman right now averages 1 injury in what, every 2 games? If you put Grossman out there now, you have to expect that he will not finish the season. Which means Orton will likely be in there again at some point. If the upgrade to Grossman is not massive, then is it a good idea to disrupt whatever sense of rhythm the offense has developed by practicing and playing with Orton for 8 weeks?

Kos.