Jake

Mitt will be great in foreign policy...especially with developing states. He'll be happy to relocate all of our domestic manufacturing to foreign countries

I would say that Biden is maybe more entertaining, but only because he's a terrible speaker and seems unable to decide whether he wants to be on the prompter or not.

I thought the President's speech was good. Not great or revolutionary, nothing like that, but good. He was at times humble, he was direct, he was specific on some policy goals (obviously interested in how we get to these goals, but that stump wasn't the right avenue for a full explanation), went after his opponent but not in an absolutely bloodthirsty way, and generally laid out what the aims of his next term in office will be. He made some statements that sounded decidedly non-socialist, for people worried about that. "The government can't solve every problem, but every problem can be solved" or something like that.

Greg, I feel like your political sentiments are shifting

I think a "good" Christian would hope that everyone believed in God and more specifically in the Christian way of life. As an American, they ought to hope that but not enforce it in any way. I think no one should abort a child, but I realize that I have no way of proving in a legal way that it is wrong. Therefore, laws banning abortion disgust me because I know it is an inappropriate restriction. Nonetheless, in my own private situations I'd avoid abortion if at all possible. Same thing. Your private hopes and desires don't have to become policy. You can be a Christian that loves heterosexual marriage and dislikes the idea of gay marriage...but IMO you have no grounds for legislating against gay marriage. You can simply not like it.

Motownsports didn't accept me.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 09:24 PM) Obama takes the stage and Balta just fainted in his living room fap fap fap

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 11:03 AM) Just want the same metrics used in measuring. Net jobs created since BO in office is 300,000. Why do you say 4 million? because it starts from the summer of 2010 low point? GMAFB. The narrative is lovely, really. But who is lying? GM fixed? Where did the gov't sell the rest of their stock and how much did we lose on it? How is ALLY doing? How is GM Europe doing? How much did GM steal from the taxpayers by writing off futures profits against past losses? Yeah all fixed. I think both metrics are useful. QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 01:38 PM) Oops. Looks like Obama has not wanted to cooperate with the Repubs as well. Sounds like the impasse is his fault as well. Guess there usually are two sides to every story. Read this. http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-clinton-c...--election.html And Woodward gives huge evidence the Obama White House has no leader and is a joke. Let's face facts. The bottom line: Obama is a better choice than Romney but Obama is a joke of a President. http://news.yahoo.com/bob-woodward-book-de...-151043612.html We already discussed this... QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 01:52 PM) wut. Their example of Obama not cooperating with Republicans is a deal in which he compromised so much that it pissed Democrats off and yet Republicans still refused to agree...and that's both sides being at fault? ^^^ QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 08:00 PM) If your not watching the CNN feed, Mark Kelly the husband of Gabrielle Giffords is talking about a new pac where they will only give money to Democrats who are willing to work with Republicans. Whether or not its true, can people at least agree that these are the type of statements we want to see? That we prefer people who want to help and work through problems, to Gorver Norquist? That seems like a reasonable place to start, that both sides pledge they are going to try to be productive, instead of try to f*** things up purposefully? Tim Johnson, the Rep for my former district, founded a Center Aisle Caucus. It advocated only cooperation and civility, not necessarily "centrist" policies. Now that he is retiring he believes the caucus will fold due to low membership. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 08:30 PM) im pretty sure hes saying that obama gave all of those things for free and that its just handouts to people who arent deserving. It wasnt my comment though. I like Biden, I know thats not popular. He may not be the smartest, but thats not what its all about. I think Biden spent that whole speech off prompter...and getting back on was even harder than being off.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 01:43 PM) I'm not as Wolfish today after reading that Bill lied. I'm sick of getting misled. Obama isn't exactly bending over backwards to work with the other side, it appears. I feel mighty dumb the day after. Bill made me feel good about the country and the possibilities of the future for a night and fooled me for an hour. I got duped. My bad. http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-clinton-c...--election.html That article is terrible. While Clinton's speech certainly was biased, those weren't lies. He says the Republican Party is inflexible. Great, that seems to suggest the PLAN for Dems is to cooperate. And seriously, I'm sure Obama has refused to compromise on some issues but as someone who is liberal in most cases I've found the President to be far too compromising when it never gets him closer to bipartisan legislation anyway. Then he says costs are going up at a slow pace, which is TRUE. So is the fact that this happened after the ACA. Maybe it isn't because of those two things, but you can't act as if spending is shooting up because of the ACA when it isn't. That's the point. Basically, the article has a difference of OPINION on the matter not the facts. The article points out that major cost cutting measures have not even come into effect...doesn't this make the law look better? The growth of costs is slowing and there's still more help to come? And then he says to remember when he grew the economy. This is true. It happened, and it happened in the time that he says it did. Why would he say that it changed later? It wasn't relevant. "it's bad now but it will get better" is the message. When it gets better, we can correct him and say that it will soon get worse just like it did when he was President. Contrast this to things like "this plant closed because of Obama*" *plant closed while GWB was president* Oh, yeah...Bill got a BJ and lied about it DEFINITELY got owned by a nation of fact-checkers during that scandal

Studying American politics has been a very interesting experience for me (ever so close to a degree in this field ) On one hand...there is so much to be sad about. On the other, there is a good deal that is inexplicable if you insist that politicians are only self-serving. I think that the biggest misconception about government is that there is major corruption. Not anymore, though there are some instances in which shady business happens. This kind of thing is all on record though, like Congresspeople buying land that they know will become valuable after they legislate to develop that land -- this is probably the most prevalent type of dishonesty.

I won't be comfortable until k0na comments

I really enjoyed a few months ago (pre-VP pick) when Colbet slammed Paul Ryan for correlating his Catholicism with his fiscal policy...going as far as bringing what seemed to be a socialist nun to slam him further for speaking on behalf of the church.

I don't feel great about the chances yet, but I feel a LOT better.

You can't tell the team until its official. You don't want that GM, etc to tell the rest of the league about your positive test when you might be seeking a free agent contract, etc. I'd imagine a successfully appealed positive would still leave a black mark on your record, even if your excuse isn't as lame as Braun's.

Hope this goes away!

Clinton has effectively dealt with a Republican Congress as a Democratic President. Whether you like the policies or perceive them as too left or right, he actually got some things passed despite that split. Take notes, Barack...that's how you do your second term in office. They HAVE to work with you because there is no incentive to defame you anymore. Well, there's less incentive.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 12:24 AM) If this is true I don't think there's any chance they make the playoffs. Focus is gone, big part of the team gone...everything unravels from here. It could have unraveled anyway, but this would put an end to it. This is a likely ending, but it's possible that it gets twisted the opposite direction and motivates the hell out of everyone. Maybe they hated him and will be happy he's gone I also have to wonder if this isn't even a drop in the bucket of absurd things an MLB player may deal with on a daily basis.

Any chance the Republicans had of getting my vote died when I started hearing about the tax pledges, etc and ESPECIALLY the collusion to make the chief goal of their terms in office to make Obama a one term President. I also am ashamed that I think there are many voting blocks where that is in fact an acceptable platform to campaign with, too. Part of me thought "hmm, I wonder what it would be like if we deregulated everything, ended Medicare, cut taxes on everybody, etc" but then I realized that these people are crazy and not looking out for the best interests of America, now. I understand that all politicians will frequently balance their own election chances and other things that are similarly self-serving with the public good...I feel that the Republican party by and large (there are some decent ones out there I suppose) has done away with that and focused way too hard on party politics. They are likewise incredibly unified. I'd imagine the Democrat leaders would like to be similarly combatant, but it is much more difficult to get the entire Democratic party to act as one. I think that's a good thing (for myself, the citizen)

QUOTE (sunofgold @ Sep 6, 2012 -> 12:12 AM) There is another angle to this story. The Hawk Harrelson angle. We do know that AJ and hawk have some connection. And AJ's mom has a last name of Harrelson (learned this on another thread on this website). Some speculated that AJ and Hawk are related. not sure. Hawk did help to get KW to sign AJ in '05 as a free agent. Has the Hawk sounded sad or acting/announcing differently the last few games? lol idk, he LEFT the booth before the end of Tuesday's drubbing If this stuff turns out to be true, I will be very interested in how Hawk addresses it if at all. I assume he will since it would be harder not to do it than to simply acknowledge it, even if he doesn't offer a real opinion.

It hurts me. I hold baseball, my team, and my team's players in very high regard. My propensity as a fan and lover of the game is to romanticize the game and those in it. It sucks when my heroes are publicly humiliated, especially when it is for cheating. For that reason alone I should be allowed to be mad at AJ if I want. I know that we are supposed to just see these guys as flawed human beings, yada yada. I don't care much about their personal lives if they want to be flawed husbands, fathers, friends, etc. This is a form of entertainment, and the nice thing about entertainment is that it often gives us something purer or simpler than reality. I support efforts to keep the on-field game from being corrupted, even if I generally think steroids are not morally offensive at this point it is still a performance advantage that others will not enjoy.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Sep 5, 2012 -> 11:20 PM) Couldn't disagree more. The guys who are using and getting away with it are ok and we can still root for them, but the guys who get caught are evil and should be ostracized? Ok. It's the same way with the law. We know we are among undetected criminals, but we aren't a dick to everyone just in case they're a criminal. No, we just focus on those that are caught. It's the only way to do it that doesn't make the innocent catch s*** they don't deserve.

If nothing is announced tomorrow, do we forget it? Or is it still looming?

I think the guys who get caught certainly deserve some ire, but we all just have to keep in mind that those folks are by no means alone. I actually enjoy Victor Conte's views on the subject, he explained to me via Twitter one day exactly how an MLB player could get around the steroid testing. He also said "The Clear" still wouldn't cause a positive in many organizations (can't recall if MLB was one)

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Aug 29, 2012 -> 03:58 PM) It's hard to draw the line between being mad at your kid for getting it trouble because they hit another student at school and being proud of them for standing up for themselves. I know from my own childhood experiences that telling an adult usually doesn't help the problem and can sometimes make it worse. There are definitely kids out there that don't know what the words "leave me alone" mean and knocking them to the ground is sometimes the only way to get the message through. When I was an 8th grader (not SO long ago, mind you ) I had kids picking on me for basically the sole reason that I wouldn't retaliate. I was the "good kid" so what could I do? They'd do the most tedious, annoying things; poking my shoulder, etc. It really started bothering me, I talked to my parents about it. My dad told me I had to stand up for myself somehow and they had to at least believe that I WOULD retaliate if they wouldn't stop. One day we were outside doing some all-class activity and someone decided to trip me so I fell down. I got up, picked the kid up by the neck (hooray for being a 6 foot tall 13 year old) and punched him in the face repeatedly until I didn't feel so angry. I served an in-school suspension and nobody f***ed with me anymore. The teachers weren't even mad

Congrats Balta, you made the WORST POST EVER!