Balta1701

Wow, a non-crappy employment number.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 07:30 PM) Wireless only. Xenogenesis possible via that method?

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 11:58 PM) And why is it that with every thing that someone brings up on here to cut or fix to save money, the argument is always "Well, it's only XXX% of the problem, so that wont matter" It ALL matters. Drops add up. There is no magic bullet that will fix everything in one swoop. Take the changes where you can. Just doon't stop with only a few 'drops'. 1% here, 3% there, .5% in several other places, you start making dents that matter. The "Oh, it's only..." argument really is weak. In reality, there are 2, maybe 3 magic bullets that will fix everything in one fell swoop. 1. Medical costs grow at the rate of inflation rather than at 10% annually. 2. Getting the economy back to normal rates of employment and growth 3. (The maybe) letting the Tax cuts expire. If you care about the long-term deficit, you kind of have to care about #3. The Affordable care act took a slice out of #1, although there's still more to go. #2 doesn't seem to interest anyone making policy. #3...well, if you let them expire, by 2013-2014, the budget is balanced.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 09:37 PM) He's also historically inconsistent and one year removed from a 111 game, 8 HR, .683 OPS season. Good upside, but IMHO I don't think he's worth the risk. Well, a lot of those missed games would have been avoided if he'd been wearing a cup. Anyway...the Angels and Red Sox are both highly likely to be putting in bids on him. We may be somewhat weak at 3b, but we're deep there and we have at least 1 young guy who seems ready for a tryout at that position. Our financial resources can be better used elsewhere.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 5, 2010 -> 08:38 AM) That's not the way KW works, IMO. Kenny is an options guy. He doesn't sign him with the intent of trading him - he signs him because its win-win either way, and it gives him two good options if he can do it. And if he can't... The point there is that if he did extend him...he wouldn't be dealing him before the deadline this year. That's just not kosher.

Stop giving me reasons to remember VDN!

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 06:09 PM) I know Cooper is a NY native, but why on Earth would the Sox ever consider this? If Cooper asked for it, they'd probably consider letting him, for goodwill reasons.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 05:58 PM) I did a 2 minute google search on this last night and found GAO cost estimates of Clinton travel in the last parts of his presidency, and it was more like 2-5 million in airforce costs per trip. http://www.gao.gov/archive/2000/ns00209.pdf Further if these business people are flying on their own and are flying on private jets, its very likely that the government isn't picking up the tab for their travel either. Which I guess tells me how much I should trust data that comes out of partisan hearings on travel expenses when they happen next year.

Anyway...signing a guy to an extension and immediately trading him...that'd seem like a major d-bag move if it actually happened.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 02:10 PM) Looks like Jim Hendry is after Nick Johnson to play 1B for the Cubs. Thats about the caliber of GM I would expect to sign this guy to start. I think it would be great if an NL team signed Johnson to play 1b. It would take some a potential 1b landing spot off of the map and leave us competing with fewer teams for the remaining 1b/Dh types on the market.

Until about 4 hours have passed I don't need to consult my physician.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 05:02 PM) Might actually make him more tradeable, if the money is affordable in relation to likely arb numbers and includes 1 or more free agent years. Or that could mean that the team likes having the extra lefty and that Gavin Floyd (or Edwin Jackson) is the likely one to go. Or that could mean that Chris Sale is your new closer.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 05:06 PM) And when other people actually state that the outlandish number was an acceptable cost? Than what? Hmmmmm? Then maybe we should judge these sorts of trips as a bargain, because like I said, I wouldn't have a problem with it if it was a billion dollar trip, given the security, economic, and cultural ties and issues here. $10 billion, you might have a point and I might start complaining.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 03:11 PM) He's about the worst defensive catcher you can find out there. Worth noting on this issue. the Red Sox had by far the most bases stolen against them of any team in baseball. 169 bases stolen against them, 2nd worst team was the Angels at 133. They threw out 20% of base stealers, good for 29th out of 30 teams (only the Yankees were worse).

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 01:46 PM) Was he painted as the literal Anti-Christ, as a non-American "other" bent on destroying the country by a significant portion of the Republican base? Honestly, I don't know. My first political memories are Clinton's impeachment, really. Yes. I don't know if he was considered a non-American, but we had the spectacle of House committee members firing guns at watermelons to try to prove that Bill Clinton was a murderer.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 01:43 PM) But now they have a mandate and had a historic surge! Presumably, they will be held accountable if they do not accomplish anything on the jobs front and instead focus on "exploratory committees" and repealing legislation that they have no real hope of repealing. Or, if employment doesn't improve, will the blame fall on the President? I'd bet it would.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 01:42 PM) You and Balta still with the short memories. Do you not remember 1994? There was a lot of anger specifically directed at Clinton. And yet, things worked out for the better after the fact. I am not saying that necessarily will happen here, but I think there is a decent chance it might. It really depends on Obama and Boehner, more than anyone else, at this point. McConnell is still a minority guy in the Senate, he's going to scream and yell anyway, that's what he does. 1. After a complete government shutdown and an impeachment of the President. 2. Although he's the minority guy, he may well have more power than the majority leader in the House because he can block anything he wants, including things like treaties and nominees that only go to the Senate.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 01:40 PM) i would argue it's in the GOP's best intrest to stonewall Obama. One could certainly come to that conclusion based on an analysis of the last 2 years.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 12:43 PM) Its ultimately in all their best interests, and ours, if they work together. Frankly, I think I disagree here...and I think that Boehner/McConnell have made it quite clear that they do as well. ""The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 12:59 PM) October monthly number to be announced tomorrow. Expected to see small net increase. September was growth in private sector, but big drop in public sector due (I think) to census or some such thing. At this point most of the census layoffs finished over the summer. However, you're going to continue to see substantial public sector job cuts as stimulus aid to the states dries up. That is going to continue for probably at least the next year.

Links through 2 contrasting opinions on who's more valuable, Noah or Horford, since both just signed similar contracts. Meanwhile, 5 years, $45 million for Mike Conley.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 12:21 PM) I'm still skeptical that it costs more for a single day on this trip than it does to operate an entire aircraft carrier for a year. I'm skeptical that $200 million is the operating costs for an aircraft carrier. (Are you including fuel? Salaries of the people on board? Cost of planes? What is included in that number? That sounds way too low)

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 12:02 PM) Why do we need 3000 members? Why 6 times more than Obama's trip to the UK? I think the answer here is pretty simple...there's lots of reasons to expect larger groups. First, you obviously need a much stronger security plan for India than you do for the UK if you're a U.S. president. Second, the economic/trade delegations are likely to be much larger, because unlike the UK where we have long-established trade ties and agreements, we're in the position of negotiating and establishing trade ties with a rising partner. That seems like a much more complicated scenario to me. Although the U.S. has a strong strategic relationship with the UK, if you're in the national security apparatus and you need to go to the UK, you can do so with ease tomorrow. It's going to be substantially more complicated to do that in India, in terms of security arrangements, so it would make sense to go with a much larger group. Finally, the U.S. has an active combat situation in the neighborhood of India that complicates everything.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Nov 4, 2010 -> 12:00 PM) It's actually something like 47-50,000,000 now. But I was pretty sure not every single American would be getting coverage, but a large majority of those remaining. Would have to double check the stats. It might be 35-40/47,000,000 or something like that. But same thing is true with unemployment, it's 9.6% but actually closer to 15-20% in reality. In the original House bill, the CBO estimate was that it would be well over 40 million who would get coverage. The Senate bill however pared back on that, and the final CBO estimate was that it would expand coverage by about 30-32 million people, with the remainder basically choosing to pay the opt-out fees.

South Park does the LBJ commercial. (after the first commercial break).