bmags

The Bobcats are an atrocious organization. You'll be hard pressed to win anyone over by saying they don't have a chance.

I think Theo is a great hire. But recently his drafts haven't been that great and he's handed out some of the worst contracts in the league. But that's not asked. It's all gushing over Carmine. His 05 draft was one of the best drafts of the decade, for sure, and he can run an organization, but I think he's not top 5 anymore, especially after doing so much with roiders.

It sounded more like from Billy Hunter's interview, that the owners still haven't figured their s*** out yet on revenue sharing, so I doubt they'll be able to get the players to agree to anything.

Actually, I think KC just happened to see Ryno at a starbucks, unless i misunderstood what I heard on the score. But my god is the score painful to listen to. The things they are gushing over, like a pamphlet given t o players and smoothing over jargon, sounds like it's causing them to climax on air.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 05:38 PM) You cut short a pretty important line that sinks his whole argument, imo: Monetary success and high-quality are not linked in any way, shape or form in the music industry. To paraphrase the article: "But we don't live in a vacuum. We live on Earth. And that means we have to accept the real-life consequences of a culture in which recorded music is primarily about profits for record companies, and one of those consequences is [Hanson/Britney Spears/Beiber etc.]. Dramatically improves their creative process

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 08:51 PM) At least this season, I don't think Carimi is going to do any better than what Louis gave us the last 2 games. The question is does Louis go back to rg or maybe switch him to lt and gets Webb off the line. Yeah, that's a good call. Honestly, i was so pleased with louis. Just being fast enough to push off the speed rusher off balance adds so much to our pass offense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 07:04 PM) The biggest problem is that this City/County/State were so poorly run that they were increase taxes when things were good. Now that things are bad, there is no room left to increase revenues. If they had been responsible, things wouldn't be nearly this bad. Totally agree.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 06:50 PM) I'm done with this conversation. You're all right. There is little to no corruption in Chicago politics. We are hemorrhaging almost no real money on said corruption, too. You're all right, and I'm very wrong, because all I have is "anecdotal" evidence, the overused word play on Soxtalk. I'll say it again, you're right...there's almost no corruption in Chicago politics. I take back everything I said and admit how wrong I am for thinking the words Corruption and Chicago fit together. Honestly, you're all making me laugh...but in a sad way, because you actually believe it. nobody is saying that there is none. But if you are talking about solving the deficit and all you are coming up with is slashing politicians pay and that friend of yours who doesn'ts how up to work some days, then it's not a serious discussion about solving the deficit.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 06:32 PM) Why does the 625 million represent only the most important stuff? How come it doesn't represent the millions of dollars Daley's sons stole? Or some other connected politicians aid, or friends, who are making 90k a year to never show up at work? Do we think that this sort of thing is no longer going on? LOL. Again, how prevalent do you actually think that is, compared to a 625 million dollar deficit. If that 625 million could be corrected by that stuff, it would be an easy fix. This is a pretty fair budget consisting of a LOT of cuts EVERYWHERE. I suggest you look at it.

That 625 million represents teachers policeman fireman maintenance and trash services onto the unemployment ranks. Thus, balance.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 06:20 PM) We don't have the money, so yes, it is. Again, spending money you don't have doesn't work. Our local government outgrew itself...thus needs to unoutgrow itself from the top down now. We have a 3.1 billion dollar budget, we are spending 625 more than that. Saying "it's not the best use of money" is perfectly fine. We have 3.1 billion in tax receipts, and using some of that on a local neighborhood representative is an alright use of money.You won't tackle the debt without tackling the structural issues.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 06:15 PM) Like I said, it's a start. Thanks for verifying it. I know, we should just not tackle that .3% of the deficit -- and increase taxes instead -- that way we can tackle .1% of it on the backs of people we are already at the breaking point of being nickle and dimed out of their homes and apartments. You just ended this conversation by proving you have no interest in one. My alderman has a huge amount of area and population to cover. I'm not sure doubling that amt. of area and losing even more responsiveness is the best use of money. edit: i'm trying to give you an idea of just how little shaving off 10-15% of these salaries really does. If we want to make a case for how to solve the cities finances, fine, but you are making an emotional argument about how you hate politicians and therefore they should make no money. Rahm does pay property taxes and sales taxes and income taxes. He does see this. If we are going to make the case that rich people don't feel tax increases, I'll gladly take that and run with it. Hello buffet rule.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 06:03 PM) This isn't a very valid question to ask someone that 1) doesn't have access to their books, and 2) didn't ask for the job. I can start with this -- how come Chicago needs 50 aldermen, which is a part time job that pays a full time salary and pension benefits -- yet LA, which is what 50x as big as Chicago, only has 25? Let's start there. you've tackled .3% of the deficit.

Come on. A ceo doesn't do it all by themselves either. They have a whole staff helping them out. But they are still considered to be running the company. But, for example, Daley is making a pretty, pretty, pretty penny now as a consultant. Way more than that salary could pay him in 5 years.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 05:12 PM) Well, you obviously can find something cheaper...it just depends on what you're willing to settle for. I assume you have checked out craigslist to get an idea of what you're looking at? Like I said earlier...I talked to some nurses last year when I was out there. They told me that for a 2 bedroom in the hip areas of the city, you're looking at $2800. But if you lived in more of an "up and coming" area, and took a 600 sf studio or something, you could probably find something for $1,000. Cool. Thanks, I figured. We're not that fancy. I'm more trying to put my finger on what an equal offer would look like in the 2 diff. cities, and your feedback def. helped with that.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 04:57 PM) I think they are heavily weighted towards home buyers. If you guys are looking to get a place in SF, I would plan on spending at least $1500-2000. Seattle is probably more like $1250-1600. Gulp.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 04:51 PM) I looked at positions in both places. I would estimate 20% more in SF than Seattle. Thanks. As a general question on these cost of living calculations, how much are the housing costs weighed of renter v buyer?

how much do you think market rate would be for running a city of of dozens of thousands of workers and 6 million people. Probably more than a mid level software engineer.

I understand. But it is a balancing act. These are tough decisions and I think Rahm is doing a fair job of taking it on. He's been in office about 8 months. The true fights haven't even begun.

You act like they are raising taxes and pocketing the cash. check this out, government jobs are falling. Things are being cut. Services still need to be provided for millions of citizens with less and less money.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 25, 2011 -> 02:41 PM) This is in response to both of the above... First, tax increases ALWAYS are "productive", in whatever loose sense of the word "production" you're choosing to use here. Bottom line of any fee/tax, more money is going to the government...but when do we stop? I don't know about you guys, but my property taxes just went up, sticker fees went up, and who knows what other taxes went up -- oh, and let's not forget water bills are about to go up, too...and now this, on top of all of that? I can't speak for you, but I can speak for me, and it's to the point where it's impossible for people to save because all of our extra money is getting taken away by misc. fees and taxes at the local/state level. It's absurd that they need more in light of all the increases that JUST f***ING HAPPENED. I mean that if I was going to choose stuff to tax in order to make the city work better, those are good options. We can all talk about the budget failure, but I don't think many governments take into account 4 years of sluggish growth in a row destroying their revenues. Chicago has some good things going for it in the future, it's done a good job of becoming the sales hub of many tech companies and has had success in tech itself. It doesn't have absurd housing laws that restrict building up too much, helping with housing costs, and our crime has stayed pretty reasonable. So it will come down to forcing the politicians to cut taxes when things turn around, and for that it just depends where we focus our efforts: sales and property.

Those are all fairly productive tax increases.

I used some COL calculators and found them to exaggerate a bit. But how much % would you expect to make in San Fran compared to Seattle to account just for cost of living?

From early season impressions, i was thinking our schedule got no easier coming up. But when I looked again this morning I felt a lot better about. Granted, I have no idea what will happen in the nfl. but I consider us to have 5 winnable and 2 toss up games left. Toss ups i consider detroit at home and san diego. Maybe I'm putting too much on one game, but the raiders game looks a lot better now.

in general, the documentary form I feel is really taking off.