YASNY

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 04:09 AM) Excellent write up there Alex. It's a real boom or bust situation with our pen, and last season showed how important having a good one is. Unfortunately, other teams are starting to take notice of that, hence us missing out on the likes of Myers over the off-season. Agreed. Alex is a very fine writer. Regarding Myers, let's hope that the one that got away doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.

QUOTE(Mplssoxfan @ Mar 24, 2006 -> 04:05 AM) As usual, I'm not contributing anything of substance, but let me thank all you guys for making this one of my favorite threads of the year so far. I concur. This has been a great thread with great discussion. I think we are beginning to see a less contentious filibuster evolve. Let's hope it continues.

Nice. This is one that you can jump into at any time since it's not a total points compilation, but it's longest streak. A total point compilation could done as well.

Those would be the non-agenda nation's news outlets, I presume.

Hey Rex! Sorry, but in the course of this discussion I never responded to your question about Bennett. I can't help you much as I have no idea who this guy is. As I said, I had never heard of him before. I also couldn't tell you the name of the radio program. He may very well be a whack job. It was what York was saying that grabbed my attention.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 01:57 PM) I agree that still seems to be the heart of the matter. COR seems only to have made a specific ruling about a request FISA denied that it apparently shouldn't have after Patriot Act. But to extrapolate from that a legality for all the surveilance that has occured outside of FISA is premature, I think. Regardless of whether all of the wiretaps external to FISA woulda/shoulda been approved under a post-Patriot FISA is not relevant since the adminsitration and NSA decided not to go through that established channel. In light of the discussion here, I think Byron York NR piece alludes to the notion that with the loosened standards of Patriot/FISA the NSA surveilances would have been approved. In cases where there really is a suspected El Quaida connection on one end of the calls I don't think that truly ever was in debate. What was (and I think still is) in debate is whether the president had the authority to go outside of FISA in those instances. If I'm following evertything, York implies that he did, while Balta's interpretation is that the COR ruling doesn't speak to the survailance carried out outside of FISA. That says a mouthful. I can follow York's piece without a problem. I can follow the quotes from COR. What I can't seem to follow is Balta's reasoning. This is not a critcism of Balta. It's just where I get lost. In my opinion, this York piece does show solid legal footing for the president, as I haven't been convinced otherwise yet, even though I've tried to consider and comprehend arguments presented by those of differing opinions.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 03:19 PM) Sidney Ponson appears to have the Cardinals 5th starter spot wrapped up. Jorge Posada took a ball to the face yesterday. Broken nose. Torre said he'll be out for a week or so. Pedro Martinez won't be pitching for the Mets on Opening day. His toe keeps bothering him, and they may very well come knocking and meet KW's price for Jose. I saw that Posada incident on SportsCenter. It looked like he flat out missed catching the baseball. How bizarre.

I think we're going to like this guy.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 06:58 PM) :rolly The last time I checked, "post-season success" wasn't limited to WS victories. Since 1990... Braves 6 Division Series wins 4 NL Pennants 1 WS title Sox 1 Division Series win 1 AL Pennant 1 WS title Actually, post season success is limited to WS victories. Anything short of that for a team in the playoffs is a post season failure.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:49 PM) Ok, Bush has done plenty of wiretaps within FISA. For these, he has followed the standard FISA approval procedure. It's not like the FISA court has just never met over the last few years, it's approved thousands of wiretaps if I recall the numbers correctly. The FISA court has also rejected something like 10 applications for wiretaps over the last few years (more than in it's history beforehand, but still less than 1%). The Bush Administration responded to 1 of these rejections by challenging it to the FISA court of Review, which is what we've been talking about here. Every single one of those wiretaps is 100% legal, as far as I know, unless some court steps in and overturns FISA or the Congress amends the constitution. We learned from the NYT in December that even while Mr. Bush was following the normal procedures for the FISA wiretaps, they were also conducting some sort of surveillance outside of FISA, with absolutely no FISA approval. These wiretaps were never even brought to the FISA court. These are the ones that are in question as to their legality. We don't know why they didn't bring them to FISA, but they chose not to do so. So, they are doing plenty of legal wiretaps, but they are also doing wiretaps outside of FISA through the program the President authorized. It is these 2nd wiretaps that are the focus of this whole mess. Ok ... for the time being I'm gonna have to bail as I need to get some sleep. I'll reread your post tonight and give it some thought. Until then, have a good day and thanks for the discussion.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:45 PM) Come on YAS, we went over this ground earlier. Yes it has judges on it. Yes it also has various other officials from the executive branch, and the legislative branch. It is therefore a joint body. You cannot have the FBI and NSA in on a "court" where their own warrants are being decided. Its the wolf in the hen house. But the judges were the ones that actually ruled. Where is it stated that FBI and NSA had any say so in the decision?

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:19 PM) And it really wouldn't be that big of a loss. We were going to dump Borchard anyways. He asked for a trade out of here. Get a guy here who can throw strikes. Just my opinion. The problem is that there isn't much time to fix Thornton. When we claimed Jenks off waivers, he had plenty of time to work on his control as a closer at AA. Cooper and Thornton have less than two weeks to work on his control before opening day. Don't get me wrong, I love the potential of fixing a lefty with a 96 MPH fastball but I'd rather see it done in the minors; not as a work in progress during the regular season where every game counts. I see your point, but I believe that since they have been trying to get this guy for two years, they decided to get him when they can. When Coop asks for film on this guy, which is completely out of character for him according to media sources, he believes he sees something that he can fix. They think a regular season scenario is worth the gamble. They've proven to me that I should give them the opportunity, and time, to see if they can work some magic. If not, they'll cut their losses before too long.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:35 PM) Yes, the searches the COR ruled on are within the law. 100% correct. The COR never was asked to rule on the searches outside of FISA that Bush is doing. The COR was only asked to rule on a search request which came before the FISA Court and was incorrectly denied. It was not asked to do any review on the program outside of FISA, nor would it have any ability to do so given that Mr. Bush is doing the wiretaps outside of FISA. Wait. I thought this whole thing, the problem, was that Bush disregarded and circumvented FISA to do these warrentless taps. Now, when it appears he followed the law regarding FISA, then FISA has nothing to do with it. I'm sorry Balta, but I think you are just talking in circles. Maybe one of the other Bush detractors can explain it to me.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:15 PM) Odd Fox News screen shot. Hey! I see the DOW's up.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:18 PM) The COR ruled that the Administration had the right to search under the new Patriot Act standard, of "Significant" reason rather than "Primary". In other words, in the case where the permission for the Tap was denied, the tap was now allowed. In other words, any time the Bush Administration went to the FISA court with something that had a "Significant" foreign intelligence purpose, FISA should now approve it. Presumably, what they've done that's breaking FISA is collecting data that does not have any "Significant" foreign intelligence purpose. Otherwise, they could go to the FISA court and get a warrant, and if it was denied, they could challenge it to the COR again. Either that, or they're just really really lazy and have a lot of contempt for the law and they just decided to break it anyway. I still don't grasp your point. If the COR was put in place to address such issues and they ruled in favor of the administration, then by definition, they are within the law.

QUOTE(GreatScott82 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:12 PM) Some pitchers just can't be fixed. For example Shingo and Koch, are know those are some extreme examples but its just a fact. Coop has earned a great reputation on the southside to fix pitchers and get the most out of them, but seeing this Thorton guy pitch and looking at his history, this is going to be one heck of a challange. Being the defending champions, is a challange like this safe? There has to be better options out there. As I said, if they think he can be fixed, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:11 PM) Give me a righty who throws 90 MPH and can actually throw strikes any day of the week. It's worth the gamble, but not if he's going to blow games. Try to sneak him through waivers and send him to Charlotte. I don't think that will happen.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 12:04 PM) Agreed, Bottalico is most likely done. But there will be relievers cut soon who are better than Thornton. If Thornton still had options, he would probably be replaced by someone more reliable and headed for Charlotte to work on his control problems. But since he's out of options, he will likely be on our opening day roster. You may be right that there will be better relievers available. But I'll qualify that with 'better today'. Lefties that bring it at 96 mph are hard to come by. If Coop and KW think they can fix Thornton, it's worth the gamble.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 11:58 AM) It won't be hard to find a reliever better than Thornton when the roster cuts commence. The guy has a 1.68 career WHIP. That's just plain awful. Ricky Bottalico was just released by the Orioles. He's older than dirt but he would probably outperform Thornton. I have a little more faith than you, apparently, in Kenny and Coop. They both, along with some of the Sox scouts, think they can straighten this guy out. I think it's worth a shot based solely on that. Bottalico is more than likely done.

QUOTE(Steff @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 10:37 AM) Do I really need to answer this? Not in my opinion.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 10:30 AM) It really bothers me when people try and connect to somebody whose involved in such a tragic event. Does it really matter if you were in her english class, or gym class? The fact of the matter is that we have lost somebody that should not have been lost, somebody that offered a whole lot to this world, someone who meant alot to many people. It's stupid to slice it and dice it and say 'its so horrible because she wasnt even drinking or doing drugs.' It's so horrible because she is gone, stripped away forever, for no reason whatsoever, period. There is no good that will come out of this, and as a catholic whose preached to believe that everything happens for a reason, I just fail to see the reason or the good. I suppose it can remind us all that life is too short, life isn't fair, and that you can't take life for granted and need to live it to the fullest; I am flying out to Massachusetts in a couple hours, maybe this will be the last time you hear from me. You just simply don't know. Nothing is guaranteed in life. Rest In Peace, Ari. 'Only the good die young' R&W, I respectfully say that you are being too judgmental here. That's how people, especially young people, cope with something like this. This is a slap in the face to those young people that go through life thinking that they are indestructible and it is a stunner when they are faced with the fact that they are not. I saw the devastation that my son's friends went through when he died. They've got to do what they've got to do. Allow them to mourn and cope in whatever way they need to.

QUOTE(jasonxctf @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 10:30 AM) :puke oh please, grow a pair will ya. You had a reason for posting this garbage. It portrayed conservatives in a less than favorable light, and that was all the reason you needed. When you can post something that is meaningful and substantial, we will give it the proper respect. When you post crap, you get no respect. So, grow a brain will ya?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 10:11 AM) No, its a joint branch body. I realize I may be the only one here who sees the important distinction between the two, but I stand by it. It's made up of three federal judges, is it not?

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Mar 20, 2006 -> 02:41 PM) You and Krivsky think alike. I figure I like Pena a lot more than you and apparently Krivsky do, and I wouldn't have signed Hatteberg at all. The Reds are going to need dumb-luck to right their ship this year, so I would have gone with young players, traded veterans for prospects, and just started from scratch. All that, and I'm not a huge Arroyo fan either. Rather mediocre stuff. If I had traded Pena, I would have been looking at younger, less developed pitching. You could possibly see Arroyo traded for younger pitching at the break.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 23, 2006 -> 09:03 AM) He has extended his supposed war power authority for surveillance beyond what any judicial body has said is allowed. The COR itself is part of the problem. Bush and the administration are certainly not the only ones to blame here - but they are part of the whole mess. The COR is a judicial body.