Balta1701

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 06:38 PM) Medical costs need to be reigned in as well. Yes, 1% medicare growth maximum. Find a way to cut medical care costs. I can be on that commission too. Problem will be solved (of course). They definitely need to be reigned in...but declaring "We'll cap the growth at this rate" is just silliness. Edit: I propose a panel that will decide based on how expensive people's care will be whether or not they'll get their treatment paid for. We'll call it a "life panel". I'm sure no one will come up with any alternate phrases.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 06:38 PM) Grants memoir was truly great. Who wrote it?

Do they even do weight training, or does Lovie think that might hurt them?

QUOTE (pktmotion @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 04:14 PM) It seems that Jenks' struggles have been wildly exaggerated. Yes its frustrating to see a closer who used to be so dominant go out and blow a save after save. But Bobby has only had 4 blown saves this year, less than he had last year (6). He notched 27 saves which was still enough to land him in the top 10 AL saves leader, he ranked 8th (above Jose Valverde).AIEEEE! Stop using blown saves as a reason to defend Bobby Jenks! Allow me to give you an example. The White Sox's worst loss of the season, or at least one of their worst losses, was on a game in Minnesota, right after the AS break, where Jenks came out for the 9th inning. Jenks loaded the bases, gave up a couple runs, and retired zero Twins. After 5 batters, Bobby was pulled and Sergio Santos came in. Sergio was nervous as hell, his first time ever in the closer's role, almost bit Alexei's head off when Alexei came to the mound to talk to him. Sergio gave up the hit to CF, Rios overthrew the cutoff man, and the game was over. Bobby Jenks Blew the Save in one of the real momentum turning points for the Sox this season. That was one of the 2 games where the Twins really established we couldn't beat them. Bobby Jenks took the loss in that game. However...I can't stress this enough...SANTOS WAS CREDITED WITH THE BS. Bobby Jenks totally blew that game, everyone knew Bobby Jenks blew that game, Bobby Jenks faced 5 batters and got 0 outs, and Bobby Jenks did not get the BS. He got fewer BS's than he had the year before...because he was either hurt, or because he was so bad he got pulled. The BS is a BS stat.

Transformer explosion, lights out @ the Meadowlands. Nice.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 04:18 PM) That play was crazy. The defender literally swatted it down with two hands... straight to the Jags receiver waiting for the ball. Think they'll go back to teaching "Intercept the ball if you can" now, rather than praising the people who knock the ball down?

Bring on the weight training discussion!

QUOTE (farmteam @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 05:01 PM) Ding ding ding! I'm never really interested in these things, be it from someone on the right or the left. There's a couple things that might be remotely interesting from this. First, if the former president actively plagiarized someone else's book (which is what provoked the review that started this thread off, as far as I can tell), that's an interesting thing. Secondly, he does sorta confess to a war crime. I doubt it will happen any time soon, but in a decade or so, it's plausible that someone from one of these Middle Eastern nations could organize a movement to do something about that, with the ICC as a medium. This book could legitimately be evidence. Oh, and now that I think of it, there's 1 more interesting thing...the fact that he's seemingly reached a detente with Kanye West.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 04:16 PM) His wifes income really spiked with the Congressional run. They were millionaires before the book. (He actually ran for the Senate first, and it was probably the rockstar speech in 2004 at the DNC that really did it, not just the campaign).

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 02:21 PM) someone obviously had the 'authority' to implement this stuff, someone can have the 'authority' to make cuts. You'll recall how controversial it was to create a very limited panel to make Medicare expenditure recommendations earlier this year. That one was tasked with deciding which treatments were best solely based on effectiveness; that should take a chunk out of costs as well, but that's somewhat incedental. Forcibly denying people care to impose a 1% Medicare cost growth when Medical costs grow by 10% a year? Such that 5-10 years in, Medicare is only paying for 1/2 of the costs of treatment?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 02:16 PM) http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11...graphic.html?hp pretty good interactive application in the NY Times. I managed to balance the 2015 and 2030 projected budgets with the numbers reconciliation coming from 25% in tax increases and 75% from spending cuts. The fun part of those is still none of them say "How" it would happen. Capping Medicare at GDP + 1%...how do you decide what to cut? Who gets the authority? That's part of the reason why this "Panel" isn't at all a serious solution.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 01:45 PM) I would have just found a bunch of people with names similar to Murkowski, got them on the ballot, and then disputed anything and everything. Obviously these votes were intended for Mekwonsky, or Morkisky, Merkorsky, or even McCominsky. They did that, I believe.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 01:51 PM) That is a typo right Balta? Jenks at 5M a year would work for me. I'd have zero urge to give Bobby Jenks that kind of money. Not even close.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 12:30 PM) I have such mixed emotions about Bobby Jenks though I'd offer Bobby a 1/$1.5 contract. I'd be willing to negotiate a little. If he doesn't want to accept that, I move on without him.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 12:35 PM) I like it. When healthy, he's dominant. It was when the injuries flared up last year that he faltered. Putz hasn't had a full healthy season since 2007. What makes you think 2011 will be any different?

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 01:15 PM) I would increase permanent flight home from Iran/Iraq benefits by 5000% and frame it that way. Barely anyone supports these stupid wars anymore. The same people who think the deficit commission report is a wonderful idea think that the wars are a wonderful idea.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 09:45 AM) So what is best for society? Banks with homes and people without? People with "free homes" and banks shuttered? We're trying to find something in the middle, maybe we will. There will be mistakes on both sides, we have to live with that. I can offer up a couple practical options here. One of them is cram-down; letting a bankruptcy judge rewrite mortgage loans, just like a bankruptcy judge can do with every other type of loan. That way, people get their credit histories destroyed, but they get to keep their homes, the bank loses some off the top of the loan but doesn't lose the entire loan, and neighborhoods are kept somewhat in tact, rather than evacuated by foreclosures. Another option would be allowing a judge the option of, instead of foreclosure, taking people who would be in foreclosure and putting them in a rental situation; turn the bank into a landlord. The people stay in the house, the house stays in use and avoids deterioration, the people aren't thrown out, and the bank continues taking in payments.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 10:16 AM) The Gates ones are way more likely now - I'd say 75%+ odds that those happen, especially now. The deficit commission ones were the ones I was thinking about when I said 45% odds they would happen. I think the deficit commission leadership report is a complete joke. Who do you think in Congress is going to want to be the person who "voted to cut benefits and pay for our troops" in the middle of a war? I'd like to pretend that was Kaperbole, but it flat out isn't. I want to campaign against that Representative.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 10:19 AM) I'm going with the opposite, anyone who wants to be a candidate writes a book for the free publicitiy. And money.

We ought to open a diet or exercise forum to discuss these things.

The Dodgers are about done retaining Hiroki Kuroda.

As far as I can tell, Eric Cantor of 2007 thinks that Eric Cantor from 2010 just committed a felony.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 13, 2010 -> 07:41 PM) Well... let's just say I'm kind of on the inside of this one. If I had to put odds on it, I would say 45% we get the cuts, 55% we don't. Which honestly, is more then the usual odds. Which Cuts, the Gates cuts or the "Deficit commission" ones?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 13, 2010 -> 07:43 PM) Obama even having a memoir prior to being president is a joke, if you think about it. Doesn't every candidate have that, at this point?