Balta1701

Yes, there is.

Let me ask a different way to try to illustrate how lazy, silly, and un-serious "across the board" spending freezes like that are. Are you in favor of cutting the budget for enforcement of immigration along the southern border by 50% this year? The budget for that project has been boosted by nearly 100%, from about $10 billion to about $20 billion, since 2006.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 21, 2011 -> 07:20 AM) In the s***ter. In basically the same place. I'm not even sure that Iran-Contra had really blown up yet. According to the Wikipedias, the first weapons weren't even sent out until 1985, first year of Reagan's second term, and it wasn't exposed until 2006. The equivalent time period for Obama would be the 1st and second years of President Palin's first term.

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QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 09:13 PM) lol. was that supposed to convince me the tax hike was the right move? No, it's supposed to convince you to become a vigilante.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 09:11 PM) Blake Griffin: Clipper For Life? Quick, someone get Blake Griffin in a celebrity death pool.

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Great comparison of Illinois's 2 percentage point tax hike and how that compares to what other states are doing. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Main St. Anytown U.S.A. www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 08:41 PM) See above. Even given an understanding of what it refers to...I think "WTF" is totally appropriate.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 06:12 PM) Doubt it gets done, but yay! I'd also be in favor of more defense cuts, but this is a start. http://www.usnews.com/news/washington-whis...n-spending-cuts At least we know you're still not serious enough to care about the deficit. Pretending a "non-binding spending freeze at 2006 levels" is practical? Ha. Not just politically practical. You actually can't do it. You'd have to give up plenty of prized homeland security programs. And then pretending that there's no inflation (and hence having a couple percent cut per year)?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 08:23 PM) I think he went to Camp "Pound his new wife into vaginal submission while his dogs watch", but I could be wrong. WTF?

The flag and the shirt are the hard part.

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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 07:11 PM) You know I respect your opinion at all times. But I see no scenario outside of Rose going '89 MJ that we could beat a healthy Celtics or Heat team. Until I see this team with a healthy Noah and a healthy Boozer...

Any chance Teahen went to camp Cora?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 07:47 PM) Reds sign Cueto to a 4-year, 27 million dollar deal. Covering all of his arbitration years and one FA year. Not a bad move at all for the Reds. Cueto is one of those guys with tantalizing upside. If he ever fully realizes it, this could be a steal for the Reds. As they'll save a lot of change and get a FA year out of him for below market value. Even if he stays the exact same pitcher he is right now it will be a good move. Gotta figure that's something they'd insure.

We're getting some more details about that bomb found in Oregon on MLK day. The quote here is more than a little worrisome.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 01:37 PM) I know I have posted this before, but I believe one of the greatest roles for the President is as cheerleader. Using Reagan and Clinton as examples. Reagan came on the heels of a scandelous Nixon, a clumsy Ford, and an inneffective Carter. Then Reagan comes riding into the scene on a horse, standing tall in the saddle, and America got it's swagger back. After a string of old guys, Clinton blows into office to Fleetwood Mac, amazing new technologies, and America regains its vitality and enthusiasm. Symbolic? Hell Yes. Make it a positive symbol showing that united we can do anything and consumer confidence starts to rise. You don't think that either of those "Getting their swagger back" moments were impacted by the fact that by the time each president went up for re-election the Fed had cut interest rates and the economy was back moving?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 02:31 PM) That is what the first couple days were all about in here. Abortion?

Very sad, they'll probably get beaten because of their lack of a healthy frontcourt.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 12:31 PM) Historically he has always been highly optimistic on prospects first seasons. That is the case of most fans too. They expect guys to be superstars or the best player at there respected position. Basically they look at all the upside instead of focusing in on the reality of the situation. And those projections are incredibly difficult to determine since some guys just project to be better offensive players. Take a guy like Howie Kendrick. He hit at every level and I mean he hit. He gets to the majors and he still hits and part of his blame is injury, but this guy was one of the best pure hitters in the past 10 years down in the minors and he hasn't exactly dominated at the major league level (note, I'd still take a flyer on him). And yes, injuries are a major factor to it and this is just one example. Here's my problem though...how is he calibrating his model? If he knows a bare minimum about statistics, which something tells me he does...he should know that there's going to be an average drop in performance from AAA to the bigs, with populations at the average, and others towards the extremes, probably looking something like a bell curve. If he's historically constantly overestimating the average performance of a rookie, that means that he doesn't know how to calculate an average. If I had 25 years of data and a day or two, this is something I could figure out easily. If his model consistently overestimates people, then why is he even publishing it?

A federal grand jury indicted Jared Loughner today for murder. The government is saying that it will seek the death penalty.

So you guys who are expressing doubts...Bill James is likely basing these numbers on some sort of historic average for how far guys' performance drops from coming up 1 level to the big leagues at his age. If there aren't guys who come up and immediately rake, then where would those numbers come from? There are clearly some guys who would drag it down horribly (Brian Anderson) by coming up and sucking immediately, his prediction has to be somewhere in-between the good and the bad right?

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 20, 2011 -> 11:57 AM) That's a tattoo of Hawk Harrelson on your left ass cheek right? You're saying I got it on the wrong side?