lostfan

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 25, 2013 -> 02:14 PM) Doesn't Iowa have a pretty good re-destricting plan that is outsourced to a place that tries to do it based off of numbers and geography? I'm not sure how this can be mandated on the federal level but everything should be done like this. Or the idea of the computer-drawn districts

Instead of reflexively saying "THEY DO IT TOO" and pretending like all things are equal even when they're not, the answer is to get party politics as far removed from this process as possible.

So this accomplished nothing at all. Good job everyone.

QUOTE (bmags @ Dec 8, 2012 -> 02:04 PM) What? We all know the healthy way to argue is to ignore the issue at hand and bring in every other grievance associated to gain leverage. My bad.

When people reflexively shout "both sides do it!" to everything it muddies the water, and actually excuses this kind of behavior from one side since we can't have an actual discussion about who really is the problem. While they both may be "to blame" this just by default says they are both 50-50 when it's more like 80-20 or even higher than that.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 7, 2012 -> 10:25 AM) Riiiighhht...because a Democrat would NEVER attempt to stuff hidden agendas, special laws, earmarks or pork into bills they introduce that nobody can decipher or anything...that's just an evil Republican thing! I sincerely hope the lot of you are kidding with these statements...I really do. No, I'm not kidding. Republicans don't even attempt to hide what they're doing so I don't even know what you're getting at about "hidden agendas" and when they do try to hide it nobody even believes them (with the exception of the DeLay/Hastert years I guess where they'd do most of their shady business late at night shutting out the Dems instead of debating it on the open floor). I don't even know why people waste their time acting like it's something other than what it is. I mean, seriously, that is the Republican agenda... almost the entire Republican agenda. Tax cutting is a religion for which you can commit actual heresy and be excommunicated for. The other half of it is passing bills to let industries do things that are illegal due to regulations and whatnot (Clear Skies Act, etc.). You can of course equivocate this and say "Dems do it too!" which is only partially true, because while some of them do sometimes, it's like the organized doctrine of the GOP. Tell me, how long have they been trying to get rid of the EPA entirely?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 10:31 PM) There's a big difference between doing what the law allows vs. not. But of course, you can't see that. Republicans don't get into government to commit crimes like that, they get in government to make those would-be crimes legal

De Aza is pretty damn decent all-around. I mean, no, he's probably never going to be an All-Star but what more could you ask of him? He's a solid player.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Dec 5, 2012 -> 11:08 AM) Oh stop, that's not the law. Frankly... when you combine the law along with your nonchalant hand-waving of every concern, which is a pretty neat microcosm of everyone else's reaction too (just pick any 3 posts you've made in this thread as an example) then that is the logical outcome

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 12:01 PM) Go read some jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, almost any liberal talk show host, Jason Whitlock, the BCC, NAACP, Rainbow PUSH and so on to see the quick jumps to racism on the part of the white man. The louder voices are the ones that get the airplay, what people hear. Sharpton gets lumped into this group all the time and doesn't really belong there.

QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 1, 2012 -> 08:51 AM) I think your military perspective adds extra validity to your points. Nah it adds jack diddly s***, I saw all the same things you guys saw when you saw them. The only differences: 1) I watched Powell give his speech in Kuwait. I watched Bush give his speech in the same building, in a different office 2) You guys found out about the 26 Tomahawk missile strikes that started the war when they hit Baghdad. I found out about them when they were launched hours earlier. That happened in prime time for you at something like 8 pm whereas for me it was almost the crack of dawn.

Hester's been ruled out this week - hopefully the passing game has something like a resurgence without him and this will mark the official, permanent end to the Hester Experiment. He's always been so close to breaking out though. Except for seeing the ball, catching the ball, running the correct route, knowing where to be, being aware of the down marker, and running in a generally forward direction, he’s got this WR thing down pat.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 27, 2012 -> 02:32 PM) If the realities of the job at the state department involve lying to the American Public to start a war...then it's not a job worth keeping, because any concept that he was somehow making things better by providing a different voice was untrue. Colin Powell destroyed his reputation that day and should have known better. But we never condemn people for advocating for war in this country, we never condemn people who fail to stop war, who enable it, whatever. Oh...and in terms of Powell actually making things better by staying in his position...a large portion of the post-war reconstruction failures ought to be laid at his feet as well. The State Department had a full year to plan for what to do when the rest of them got their war...and it took an extra 3 years, until Rice took over and Powell was gone, for the State Department to figure out a strategy in Iraq and actually have anyone listen to them. This had more to do with the priorities of the administration than it did with Powell. Billions and billions for the DoD but the State Department was an afterthought, and they'd even have the military doing stuff State should've been doing. That didn't change until some time well into Bush's second term (by which time Rice was SoS). Remember the surge and Rumsfeld leaving, Gates coming on, and the military doing a complete change in strategy after the administration admitted (through actions, not verbally) it didn't know what the f*** it was doing? Something like that. It all kinda happened at the same time. That wasn't Powell's fault, it was Bush's security team of neocons and loons who had no business in positions of power.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Nov 29, 2012 -> 01:25 PM) Would this be a bad time to bring up a lack of protection for Cutler's backside? It would help defensive linemen with penetration. Probably help Conte and Wright lay the wood, too

Fun with the conservative fantasy land, blast from the past http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2...tax-relief-plan Spoiler alert: not a single one of those things happened (granted, I skimmed it) even if you use 9/11 and the wars as an excuse, which would be a terrible excuse because no civilization in history ever cut taxes before going to war.

There's good unions... There's bad unions. Theres unions that are just there. There's not "unions." Even similar unions facing similar labor situations aren't really the same. Example is the NFLPA and NBAPA. The owners pretty much tried to f*** the NFL players hard and fast. The nba owners (who are full of s*** too) were dealing with the players who have NO IDEA how sweet they have it, but they can't fix their broken system and accomplished nothing.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 27, 2012 -> 11:12 PM) It is? Colts? They had the first overall pick in the year that the best quarterback prospect since the other guy entered the league, that was very lucky. Had that been, say, the 2005 draft? Or the 2002 draft? Not as much.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 26, 2012 -> 04:43 PM) The Chiefs aren't that far away, honestly. They just need a QB and a new coaching staff. That's actually pretty far, lol On the bright side, they suck so bad this year they'll have a legit shot at getting a real QB in the draft.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 26, 2012 -> 12:15 PM) Wow, Trent Dilfer said something positive about Cutler? What is this world coming to? At some point last season, Dilfer basically said "f*** it" in the postmortem of a Bears night game and did a 180 and he's been basically pro-Cutler ever since. What he said was along the lines of "I criticize him because it doesn't look like how I think it's supposed to look, but he manages to get it done anyway"

Unions get reflexively blamed for everything any time something goes wrong. Ignoring the fact that there's 2 sides in negotiations. It's always the union. What happened is irrelevant, the union should've taken whatever s***ty deal was offered no matter how bad it was and be grateful anybody wanted to employ them.

In this case he got arrested and there were witnesses and he's probably gonna get charged and convicted too - it's been lost in the outrage machine since then, but that was the issue with the Trayvon case in the beginning, that they weren't even apparently gonna bother trying to see if Zimmerman was in the wrong.

I got myself in trouble on WCG for saying "Kellen Davis couldn't catch HIV from a intravenous drug-using gay prostitute in the early 1980s" I forgot they have rules and you can't say douchey things like that like on my twitter or my other football message board.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Nov 23, 2012 -> 01:28 AM) Maybe Dweezy is a late late bloomer and he'll have a Melky Cabrera type year. I just think his body of work suggests if he gets a ton of at bats, that's not a good thing. I don't mind the guy, but I'd think somebody else could fulfil his role. Maybe not. I'm definitely not incensed Wise is coming back. He just doesn't really excite me even as a 4th outfielder. Steroids FTW

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 24, 2012 -> 11:17 AM) I thought this was a discussion on the next Sec of Def? I want Obama to start reaching across the aisle for some consensus building. Here's a pick, Colin Powell if he would accept. A former GOP cabinet member, and an Obama supporter. regardless, I would llike to see someone with military experience, someone who served with honor. McCain comes to mind. Although the swifitie stigma is on him. McCain is an angry, bitter old fart who is coasting off his reputation and who actually knows very little about foreign policy that doesn't have to do with guns and/or bombs (specifically, using them). No thanks

Looks like T-Mobile is gonna be sending me a new phone here shortly. Battery life suddenly became horrendous. Not in the "smartphone battery life sucks" sense, in the "I woke up at 9:30 am and by 11 am it was down 40%" sense. Had me do a factory reset and said call back in 24 hours if it's still doing it. Given that it was down 10% in just that amount of time I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a new one.