Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:43 PM) As opposed to a billion dollar Presidential campaign being "involved"? In the last 10 posts of this thread you've complained about how undemocratic votes by 5 justices are and how undemocratic spending large sums of money on Presidential Campaigns are. I think I can officially go and roll around on my floor and laugh.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:40 PM) They didn't even need that. Just 5 justices. Oh, so when 5 justices do something it's a problem now? Congratulations President Gore! This will be a spectacular thing for the environment.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:33 PM) Simple majorities that can simultaneously mandate all sorts of programs and funding while also cutting off sources of revenue for said mandates are a bad thing. I don't really see how you could argue against that given Cali's current state. It's not just that...it's also how the initiatives are produced. They are lobbyist-written, whatever lobby you want to bash today (this can include Unions and Environmental groups btw), and the California Legislature cannot amend them. Imagine what would happen on say, the environment, if we could get a 51% majority of the countries voters to turn out in favor of an article that massively strengthened the clean air act, and then had it impossible for Congress to ever weaken it?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:34 PM) It's also really, really terrible to fake giving vaccines to people. I'm a little unclear here...were the vaccines actually fake? I didn't get that from the article. You could give out legit vaccines and still use it as a chance to get a DNA sample...the program itself would be "Fake" in the sense that its goal was not vaccination.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:27 PM) Yeah, you gotta love people who want to get involved and enact change... I'm going to assume you're going with the Kaperbole here.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:10 PM) #1 being their elected officials. Disagree, again. It's the initiatives and the structure of the government (the 2/3 majority requirement for passing a budget, the insane property tax system) that really kill them. The combination of mandating funding for programs then blocking any and all means to provide that funding is what does it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:06 PM) They have been trying to carve California up since the 1840's. This isn't anything new. With the shape California is in, I can't hardly blame people for wanting "out". Again...the only reason California is in this shape is the decisions made by the Voters to hamstring the state legislature. From both sides, too. It might well be a good example of what happens when you need a supermajority to keep a government functioning. Thankfully we have no other institutions following that path in the near future.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 12:51 PM) Didn't Girardi win that award and still get fired? Can we all just agree that "Things Florida Does" shouldn't count as precedent?

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 10:29 AM) will never happen due to politics. Someone will figure out that the 51st state would be a republican or a democratic dominated state and wont want to give them the extra 2 seats in the Senate to that party. The best chance someone has is adding 2 at a time. One democratic and one republican. You didn't notice that this "State" was drawn in such a way as to include only the Republican portions of California? It's not a matter of figuring it out...that's the only reason this "plan" exists.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 10:16 AM) California might be in the worst shape right now out of all 50 states This is, of course, entirely by choice.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 12:44 PM) I think Israel has launched missiles where there are people trying to kill them, that occasionally may have children because the Pali cowards hide behind them. Palistinians launch missiles where there are children and no soldiers present at all for the shock value of it. I think Israel has carried out a campaign of total war against the People of Gaza, attempting to destroy every element of that society with a bombing campaign as intense as any the U.S. deployed in Iraq/Afghanistan, enforcing a blockade which has prevented even foodstuffs from getting to the people, and moving the population including children to the brink of starvation.

Especially after the bubble bursting, that group of counties would have a legit shot at having the highest poverty rate in the country. The only thing that would give it a shot at not being there would be the fact that the rich Orange County Republicans got included.

QUOTE (FlySox87 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 09:29 AM) There was a First Lieutenant who came out as openly gay a few years ago and, in order to support his cause, he went and chained himself to the White House fence in uniform. Any Soldier knows that you don't attend political rallies in uniform. I wouldn't even go to an NRA conference in uniform. That's against UCMJ. Well, anyways, this guy got the boot. He wants to rejoin now that DADT is gone, but that's not why they booted him. They booted him because he was a goon who couldn't separate his personal political beliefs from his duties as an officer. While you are correct about the prohibition about in-uniform military appearing at political events, unless you're talking about a case other than Lt. Dan Choi, you're incorrect about why he was discharged. The official memos in his case are publicly available and are 100% clear that he was being discharged honorably for being in violation of the Military's policy regarding open homosexuality.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 09:18 AM) He's not adding anything unless he subtracts first. Attendance has been dismal and we have a record payroll. There is no money. I bet you that if they snapped off an 8 game winning streak out of the break he'd immediately shift into buyer mode.

Xanadu slot machines.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 12:00 AM) Things tend to go down after the All-Star game, in fact the Mets and Brewers just made a trade. If anything goes down we'll know tonight or tomorrow. The fact that KW is replying "Not yet" on calls for his players should tell us all we need to know. He's not in an adding-players position unless the team makes a serious run, he's not likely to shake up the staff just yet, but if the team can't pull it together right now, then he's going to have to sell.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 03:44 AM) Yeah, that's the problem with trading Quentin. We were able to discard Magglio, C-Lee AND Valentin (and basically get by without Frank Thomas) because we 1) signed Dye, 2) had a number of players with "good" pop like Crede, Rowand, AJ, Everett, Uribe, etc. That would leave the majority of power numbers coming from Dayan, Konerko (who's certainly going to cool off at some point) and THEORETICALLY Adam Dunn. They're at least one hitter short, if not 2. You're down a hitter? Allow myself to introduce myself.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 08:20 AM) Well if you are concerned that Dunn can't handle the mental aspects of DHing, maybe moving Dunn to LF has some logic to it. If that's the case, Alonzo can slide into the DH spot next year. Having said that, I'm not buying that his struggles are relating to DHing though. Regardless, if you move Quentin and Jackson, you take the best offers available and worry about fitting guys in later. Our system is seriously lacking in talent and we can always package some of the prospects/players in these deals to fill other needs. Even if we wanted to move Adam Dunn somewhere in the field...we legitimately have no where to put him. We're still searching for a leadoff replacement for Pierre who will have to be put somewhere, we've got Viciedo ready to break in, and Lillibridge has flat out earned more playing time than he's gotten.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 08:24 AM) If JR would let KW fire a coach, I wonder if he would fire Cora thinking it might prompt Ozzie to quit. That would just be the dumbest way to run a franchise I could possibly conceive of.

Great, another Kuhn I have to remember?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 12, 2011 -> 10:54 PM) coming to the same conclusions, where else are you looking? hulu is good for a few shows but not much else. While netflix is dominant...it's difficult for other companies to organize things. If Netflix is starting to wither on the vine, then other companies will become stronger. Other streaming video options didn't really show up while the Youtubes had everything, but once Viacom and others started suing youtube and moving their content off, all the other TV-streaming sites started popping up.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jul 13, 2011 -> 01:16 AM) The Palestinians from the never existing state of Palestine sure don't deserve it. Their arab neighbors just use them as pawns in a power struggle and treat them like lepers and cannon fodder against Israel. Yeah. Thank Goodness we don't believe in any inalienable right given to people because of the fact that they are people. They have to earn those rights.

Hunter Pence can throw.

Had to start the thread after Adrian Gonzalez totally just pulled an "I don't think that taste is there" on Tim McCarver

Here's the question. Do you put that on the bulletin board for motivation, or do you hide it from the team out of worry that theyll get more scared?