Balta1701

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:52 AM) Sox are likely to end up with a protected first round pick anyways Without a firm understanding of where this team is going salary-wise, I wouldn't be thrilled about giving up a 2nd rounder either.

Let me help.

Be thrilled that Brent Morel finally snapped off a good month, because that renders the chances of that happening nil.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:48 AM) Jesus, 1.094???? How does he rank among all players in OPS for the month? For a minimum of 50 PA's this month, he's 10th.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:32 AM) Pure class-warfare. And if we want to devolve into name-calling, so is every attack on "Safety net programs".

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:29 AM) They denied it. I haven't been following this story too closely, but seems to me that this guy had a LOT of chances for appeal throughout the last decade and each and every one of them failed. I get that it sounds terrible that witnesses recanted their testimony, but I have faith that if one of the 25, 30, 35+ judges/administrators that reviewed the case over the years would have found something questionable, something would have changed. This case was just great fodder for anti-capital punishment foes. I'm sure the devils in the details, which are never, ever reported accurately by the media. From my understanding...Georgia's laws are actually quite stringent on what it takes to overturn a case like this. Having the entire case fall apart doesn't actually undo the conviction in the first place, and there is very little room for discretion on the part of the courts or even the Governor.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:28 AM) What is being talked about in the case of the US isn't really even true dollar cuts. For the most part we are talking about cuts in projected growth, and that is still plenty to draw the left-wing fear mongers. Again, if the economy is that dependent on government, it is way too dependent. Or rises in projected taxes, and that is plenty to draw the right-wing fear mongers.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:22 AM) I could swear I read an article just yesterday, that I now cannot find, I think on CNNFN, saying the total debt for Italy was about 1.3T Euro, and their economy was worth about 18% of that amount. And now, Google and CNN can't find it. I'm not going insane, I swear. It has to have been something different. Could it be government revenues/spending as a fraction of total debt? Because unless they've been hiding an enormous amount of debt, a 600% debt to GDP ratio just doesn't make sense. That country would be paying 700% interest rates.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 10:08 AM) "safety net" spending had shot up long before the economic collapse. What all are we including in "Safety net" spending? Medicaid + Unemployment insurance + food stamps + housing programs + all of that is broken out by the CBO. Here's what they look like. Are we talking about Social Security? Because by law, that stays flat, except for the projected rise over the next 30 years due to the Baby Boom. It's actually decreased as a fraction of GDP since 1980. The only thing which can reasonably be labeled as safety net spending which shot up before the collapse was Medicare. That of course is due to health care spending growing at 10% a year, and the 2002 Medicare insurance company bailout and prescription drug bill. But...we just passed a set of $500 billion in Medicare cuts over the next decade, and if you believe the CBO...the cuts were large enough to bring Medicare very close to long-term balance.

I'll also add that in 2006-2007, Italy had a large budget surplus, which only collapsed when their economy collapsed. Their debt to GDP ratio was going down in the 2000's while the U.S's was going up. Their biggest problem is that the economy supporting their debt has completely collapsed.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 09:52 AM) Now this is just cherry picking at its finest. Italy, for example, has a debt load roughly 600% of its GDP. Here in the US we are freaking out about approaching 100%. Those countries in Europe were indeed spending like idiots for a great period of time, and now they have even less room - far, far less room - to maneuver than the US does. This stat is simply off by a factor of 5.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 09:47 AM) The fact that austerity is prolonging and worsening a recession going on 4 years now and that every person crying about "bond vigilantes!" has been dead wrong is the best possible lesson we can learn. The second best lesson is to not spend like idiots on unnecessary tax cuts and wars. Although you can certainly say Greece did this...a lot of the countries in the worst trouble did no such thing. They just had big time housing bubbles that imploded.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 21, 2011 -> 10:44 PM) And if you're a middle of the road sports school, why would you want to join a conference you literally will never win?

I'd like to point out for the record that many places in Europe that are now trouble spots, including Spain, Italy, and Ireland, had budgets that were close to in balance or even budget surpluses at their national levels before 2008. So..."Spending money like idiots" simply can't be the problem...because people who came into this being supposedly good stewards are in just as much trouble as people who werent'. They just had large bank-supported housing bubbles. When those collapsed, growth potential collapsed.

Just because I happen to be one doesn't mean you need to insult the rest of them by grouping me in with them.

Congrats!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 06:53 AM) The state of georgia murdered troy davis. Well, I feel safer.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Sep 21, 2011 -> 10:34 PM) well which is it? build more 'shovel ready' roads with stimulus money or not? you guys are all over the place. See, this is why I hate this game. Cutting spending on any of this stuff right now is stupid. But because the majority in the House insists government needs to be cut in half somehow, and the President and Senate have agreed that too much govermment spending is the problem...we're stuck having to cut something. So, we're arguing over which cuts will do the least amount of damage, when we should be asking "Which things should we invest more in to get more growth".

I think I've been saying this for a while, but I might not have said it here. A double-dip doesn't matter one iota. At this point, it's a technical issue whether we're at -0.5%, 0.5%, or 1.5%. Even if we never hit the technical definition of a recession, we're still stuck with all the problems of 2008. We are still far below potential economic output, both as a nation and as a globe, and 1.5% growth, 2.5% growth, or 0.5% growth are all too little to get back to trend. What would matter is if something major happened, like the Eurobust or Chinabust, that really sent things off on a much faster downward slope than -0.5% annualized growth for 2 straight quarters.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 08:50 AM) So I guess KW is overqualified to have a movie about him, having actually won league and WS championships. Plural?

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 22, 2011 -> 07:30 AM) I agree they both need to be gone, but to be fair only one of KW's sons plays in the White Sox organization, and while he was drafted way too high, when he was Ozney's age when the Sox drafted Ozney, KW's kid was selected by the Sox in the 36th round and didn't sign. If Ozney was a top 3 round prospect like the Guillens believe, its hard to imagine why all the other organizations passed him over 100 times. Even the Marlins didn't feel Ozney was worth drafting. And KW's kid was selected by the Sox in round 5. A legit pick was spent on KW's kid.

Phil her up one more time!

And if nothing else...the game will be over quick.

If Morel keeps this up...absolutely.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 21, 2011 -> 09:27 PM) Jason Frasor is just a terrible pitcher now. Good riddance to the Cubs fan. As for Morel, I couldn't be more excited about his performance the last few weeks. But you told me he doesn't have the power to be a big league hitter. He's a failure.