[Obama's Pastor]

Mmkay really, in all honesty, Wright is nothing at all like David Duke or any other white supremacist leader. For someone to think that is cognitive dissonance in action.

[What the hell do I do?]

What I do right now, which is a pretty decent career, is nothing like what I planned on doing 10 years ago.

[Obama calling for raising the Cap Gains tax]

That has nothing to do with respectable businesses that rehab houses.

And I'm not talking about those businesses. Rehabbing a house actually takes work, and work that actually increases the value of the house. I'm talking about people who buy a house, let the equity skyrocket for a little while because of the market without really doing anything to the house, pocket $100k, and do it again 2 years later. Get enough people doing that at once and it starts to raise the average price of a house to silly levels.

 

The housing market here in MD/DC/VA is insane. It makes you wonder how many people really can actually afford $450k houses. The number of jobs that pay that much is pretty limited.

[Obama calling for raising the Cap Gains tax]

Doesn't capital gains hit those who invest in real estate. Nothing like helping out the crippled real estate market.

If there are people who are hurting right now because they flip houses for a living I can't say I have any sympathy for them right now. Sucks to be them. They weren't complaining when it was going great for them the last few years, when they actually were part of the inevitable problem they were causing.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

I think it's a bit more than that. After Texas/Ohio, there's really starting to be a realization that Hillary really can't win unless she absolutely destroys Obama. The math makes it virtually impossible, she needs to win something ridiculous like 58% of the remaining delegates to pull off a pledged delegate lead, she needs to win big chunks to overtake the popular vote lead, and her campaign is still in the red in terms of fundraising. The only option she really has is the Tonya Harding option where she destroys him enough that the Superdelegates have no choice but to vote for her, and within the same party people don't want to see that. So there really is movement by some of the people who stayed out of the race, some of the online organizing groups, guys like Richardson, etc., towards Obama now just based on the math.

Yeah for a while there it was a lose/lose situation there for Obama. He didn't want to go negative like Hillary but she was just getting ruthless on him, he just kind of let it slide off. But he couldn't go TOO negative or he'd undermine his whole campaign message, that whole "I want to be different" thing and they'd call him a hypocrite (that word is a relative term when we're talking about politicians).

 

I think he ended up settling somewhere in between. He fights back harder than he did before but he's not carpet-bombing her or anything.

[Obama calling for raising the Cap Gains tax]

I don't know why you're surprised that a Democrat would want to raise taxes for the rich (people with significant capital gains usually = rich people) after a 2-term Republican administration. That is pretty much a concrete thing and will never change. Plus Obama said like a year ago he'd raise taxes.

 

As for the timing in the crappy economy, that's another thing. But I'm convinced none of the candidates really know much of anything about how to manage the economy anyway.

[swisher to lead off to start the season and play center]

That's because the plays that Sizemore and Granderson made while diving Anderson got to while standing up.

 

The only thing missing from his repertoire out there was the climbing the wall home run robbing catch.

which takes us back to the original point - his ridiculous range

[swisher to lead off to start the season and play center]

Grady Sizemore is handsome and an excellent hitter, but he's no Brian Anderson on defense (though he's not bad).

Well, yeah, that's sort of my point. But both him and Granderson (and Hunter, who used to be in our division) are flashier and you'll see them in highlight reels a lot more. Anderson, the only time I remember seeing him in highlights is when he made his first MLB error like 3/4 of the way thru the season.

[swisher to lead off to start the season and play center]

Best range in baseball? Thats a bit of a stretch, does he even have the best range in his own division?

Well coincidentally we have 2 top 5 CFs in baseball on other teams in the division, and they are some of the more well-rounded offensive players to boot. But it's not that much of a stretch to talk about his range in such superlatives because it's all true. It's only a shame that his offense sucked SO damn bad the first half of the year.

[3/25 roster rumbles]

25 doubles? I'd want that to be 35 doubles with 10 triples at the very least before I'd consider him a decent player or even potentially a starter.

 

Jerry Owens screams 4th outfielder; that's fine and dandy, but when he's starting, it's a pain in the ass because then he's getting in the way of more talented players.

In the very first sentence I said I wasn't saying he should be a starter.

 

25 doubles really isn't terrible especially if you're getting on base a lot. 10 triples in the Cell is some pretty high expectations IMO. Any better than that and you're talking about a fringe All-Star.

[For GOP only]

I will say that I don't ever remember the Ron Paul supports doing as much negative stuff about other people in their own party. It was almost all pro-Paul stuff.

I think you're kind of lumping the anti-Hillary crowd who are only Obama supporters by default (like me) in with the new crowd of supporters Obama's attracting on his own. They are separate entities in and of themselves. They don't hate Hillary because they love Obama, they just hate Hillary.

[For GOP only]

There's some wackjob Obama supporters out there too. Fwiw.

absolutely and without a doubt, not denying that

[For GOP only]

I don't know, some of the Obama stuff is getting there anymore.

They even have Obama supporters beat.

[For GOP only]

Its because he IS a whack-job. Its one thing to want to take the government from point A to point Z. Its pretty stupid to understand that you cannot skip steps B through Y without blowing up the American way of life. That was my biggest problem with Ron Paul from day one. He would put America into the Great Depression to get something done.

yeah what turned me off of him is the fact that for anything he doesn't like or thinks isn't running at full efficiency, his answer to it is "get rid of it, the Constitution doesn't say we can have it anyway!" He was right in principle on a lot of things, his ways of executing those ideas were borderline insane though. This is 2008. It's romantic to think our government can return to the simpler version of itself overnight but that's not reality.

 

He also has by far the most die-hard, fanatical supporters of any political candidate I've ever seen. Not that that's a bad thing in and of itself, far from it actually because that kind of dedication in politics is good. But they've all convinced themselves everything Paul says is gospel and infallible, even the ridiculous ideas.

[The joke that is KW and the White Sox]

I guess, once they get to the major league level, I am more results-oriented than method-oriented. MacDougal can have all the flithy stuff in the world, but its been since 2006 that he's been good at getting guys out. And throughout his career, he does works in pressure scenarios (runners on, runners inherited, scoring position, close and late) than otherwise. That's just not the guy I'd choose for the pen.

I'm just saying it seems like it's been all mental, and I don't know when or why it started. He used to be a really good pitcher.

[The joke that is KW and the White Sox]

He definitely seems to have stabilized a bit. But as MacD has a history of doing worse the more pressure he's under, I'll be surprised (pleasantly) if he actually does well during the regular season. Hey, if he does well, great - the team will be getting its money's worth. I just think that Wassermann's chances at success are better than MacDougal's.

MacDougal is a filthy pitcher by any standards, and when it's going for him it's great. But it seems he starts feeling the need to overcompensate and starts trying to knock AJ into the backstop when he doesn't need to.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

You know I'm no Hillary fan, but that's just politics. Pure and simple.

Agreed. It comes with the territory, nobody is above it. Not even Obama.

[The joke that is KW and the White Sox]

If Fields had been "anointed" the starter then it would've made absolutely zero sense to offer Crede arbitration. It would've been like getting Swisher and then picking up Erstad's option. A dumb move even by this board's crazy standards.

 

In other words, no, Fields was never anointed the starter.

[3/25 roster rumbles]

Well Owens has to steal bases, because he can barely hit anything but singles. Check the amount of XBH he has had for a "speed guy". I am waiting to see Owens hit the ball out of the infield a bit more and not have the bad groin for more than a day before I am willing to give him a chance.

You know something, I'm not suggesting Owens start in this packed OF the Sox have, but y'all DO know he was still an overmatched rookie last year right? He's basically played one half of MLB baseball. So to say things like "well, if you remove September" isn't even fair because that is only leaving 2 1/2 other months, and those are his first real months at the MLB level.

 

I do realize that he only had 9 doubles last year and many times got on base only because of his legs but in all honesty it's not because he's so physically weak that he literally can't hit the ball out of the infield. There is no healthy adult male that's actually that weak, it's got as much to do with the fact that he had to adjust to superior MLB pitching than it does with his actual physical frame. If he ever gets to a point where he is not overmatched by MLB pitching and has to overcompensate on his swing to make contact it's actually not that unreasonable to believe that he could hit 20-25 doubles if he had a full season of ABs. He's never going to be known for hitting frozen ropes into the gaps but it's not like he's going to be completely worthless either.

 

Just asking for a little objectivity here, the anti-Jerry Owens opinions are getting beyond extreme.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakista

 

But, i thought McCain and Bush said that Obama showed a lack of foreign policy knowledge for his proposal of fighting al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas. Well, seems like we are fighting al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas and it is working!

He really did step on his crank pretty bad when he said that. There were other ways he could've said that without sounding soft or scared. He isn't a terrible debater but debating isn't his strong suit.

 

That being said, you-know-who is the LAST person that needs to be criticizing someone on having overly aggressive foreign policy. It'd be one thing if he's distanced himself from his own mistakes and he's saying "this guy will make the same mistakes" but that's not what's happening.

[DEM Primaries/Candidates thread]

So I went to the Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z concert earlier tonight, pretty much out of nowhere Jay-Z is doing his show and he shows a picture of Bush and says something (I forget what) then asks "are y'all ready for change?" and puts up a picture of Barack Obama behind him. Obviously the crowd cheered, pretty loud, louder than they did for Jay-Z even.

 

I just found that pretty funny.

[Failed Dynasties: The 1993 White Sox]

Bonds is the only player I've ever seen who was similar...of course, given what we know is true with the late 90s sluggers, Frank should be seen as that much more dominant. Just pure talent. Man, the number of times I'd cheer to myself for Frank to come through with a big fly and sure enough, he would...including his first game back at US Cellular with the A's.

Bonds was a legit first-ballot HOFer and 5-tool beast even before he started juicing.

[Obama's Pastor]

Actually today a radio DJ was playing big chunks of that same sermon and it really doesn't sound like it's what it's made out to be AT ALL. It doesn't excuse the particular language he used but really now the overall message was totally different. Hell, at the end of the sermon he starts talking about tolerance and loving each other for crying out loud.

[Failed Dynasties: The 1993 White Sox]

I didn't really follow baseball (since I was only 6) but I definitely followed Thomas. I always wore his number and wanted to be just like him.

In that year I was 12, Frank was my favorite player by default because he was a Sox. I remember a season when Frank was chasing .400 for a little while, it was ridiculous. But in Little League I tried to teach myself to bat left-handed so I could have a stance and swing like Griffey. It's a lot harder than it looks.

 

I was also into the Cubs a little bit around that time, I don't think I completely chose sides until '93 or '94. So I liked Sandberg, Grace, and Dawson a lot too at the beginning of the '90s.

[For GOP only]

If Paul had the speaking skills and charisma of, say, Obama, he would've gotten a lot farther. He's a terrible public speaker

 

When I first found out about him I figured he was right in principle on a lot of things but some of his methods were just crazy and over-the-top. It's not functioning efficiently? Get rid of it!