Balta1701

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 05:01 PM) Or he could realize that his duty as a Senator is to advise and consent for nominations to the judiciary. Unless something super horrible comes out, there's really never a reason to vote against a nominee. At this point that flows just as equally both ways. I believe the current President supported the Alito Filibuster, did he not?

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 04:55 PM) What I find fascinating is that Truman never regretted it: "I knew what I was doing when I stopped the war... I have no regrets and, under the same circumstances, I would do it again." I believe that's an edited quote though...or at least he has another version of it. The version of it I've heard is that under the same circustances I would do it again, but if I knew then what I know now, I would not have.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 04:27 PM) But that kind of argument just defies logic really. Giving Black Plumber a contract over White Plumber, for no other reason than because he's black, is the definition of discrimination. And it does nothing to curb the "systematic disadvantage" of minorities. 99% of minorities aren't plumbers, or roofers, or builders, or whatever service that's being bid for. It serves no purpose other than to say "hey, white people get a lot of work, lets share the love." That's not a good enough reason to discriminate, just like saying gays molest children isn't a good reason to keep them from getting married. It's absolutely reverse discrimination, as is every AA policy. Two wrongs don't eventually make a right. And your point about mothers and kids makes sense, assuming you ignore the fact that there are also poor males out there with s***head/deadbeat wives. Sure they're not nearly as many, but it's still a blanket "right" we're giving one group but not another. The key flaw in your argument is that I can make the reverse equal protection case right now. If there were no affirmative action/diversity programs, I can go before a court with the numbers...white males will win a majority of contracts, get a majority of the jobs in most industries, and generally tend to overrepresent themselves based on the local population. Perhaps the best example of this effect is the gender discrimination effect, whereby on average, women get paid something like $.75 on the dollar for the same work that a male does. I can therefore argue that the discriminated minority, not getting the same job or same pay for the same work...is being put at an inherent disadvantage. If you fire back that it is all environmental factors or education factors...fine, but then you've just accepted that there is an equal protection case in terms of the education or environmental factors. That's why those sorts of programs get tolerated despite the equal protection clause; because the data show strongly that there is a built in bias against them already. Is it something that an ideal society would get rid of? Yes. But we're no where close to that point yet.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 04:12 PM) Kennedy already said he will wait for an R to get elected before he retires. Ginsgurg is next, so no shift there. The big battle comes if/when Obama is re-elected. There could easily be not enough Democrats to overcome a filibuster on a replacement for Ginsburg. And Scalia and Kennedy are 74 years old.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 04:04 PM) And where the heck is Teahen? Isn't he ready yet? He's hitting something like .530 at Charlotte, but they've had an offday and a rainout this week so he hasn't gotten a ton of chances. Honestly, I wonder if they're not holding him out a little extra so that they don't have to make a roster move just yet.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 03:48 PM) Too bad it wasn't Miami, him and LeBron could do some idea swapping on the degradation of women. Why would they hire Isiah to replace Wade?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 03:49 PM) HI! No one except racist cops and racist professors wants to have a beer with him.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 03:44 PM) Sometimes it'll only hit 119mph and you'll get to the tip top then fall backwards. I was so hoping to get a rollback, but didn't see any while I was there. Sigh.

You count that as a good thing?

An interesting note...Kagan, although centrist enough that a number of dems/libs were quite annoyed at her nomination, only managed 63 votes. And that's for replacing a liberal justice with a less liberal justice. If the Republicans take 4 more seats this November, it's entirely possible that there would be no way for President Obama to nominate anyone who would survive the confirmation process as the next justice, and the long-dreamed-of Supreme Court filibuster process will begin. Especially if Kennedy or one of the Scalia/Thomas pair were to be the next to go.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 03:02 PM) But if he was a good GM with a good eye for Major League talent, he probably picks him up... So...you'd apply that description to the D-Backs front office?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 02:56 PM) I would love to have it in Chicago, but like I said, Im biased. Indy is a decent city, but it also doesnt have the same appeal as Chicago. And I could be wrong, but I feel that Chicago would be much easier for teams to travel to, considering distance and availability of transportation. I'm sure it would be. First year though, you don't want your championship game in a snowstorm. 10 more years of CO2 emissions and you can put it at Soldier every year.

I'm so noting that for next year.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 02:35 PM) I know that he got traded, got some decent prospects back too. The problem with Moore is that he takes whatever little money he has and wastes it on bad baseball players. Instead of signing Kelly Johnson to a similar deal the Diamondbacks offered him, he signs Rick Ankiel. His evaluation of major league talent sucks. And frankly, his management of minor league talent also sucked up until this year. He's kept Kila the Hawaiian dude trapped down in the minors for the past three years. Who did he play in favor of him? Oh...you know, two DFA candidates in Jose Guillen and Mike Jacobs. And I won't even start to talk about Alex Gordon. He's had ML ready players on this team and in the system, instead of letting them play, he's blocking them with replacement level players. A lot of teams missed out on Kelly Johnson.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 12:03 PM) I think its the best for the fans. As much as I like the outside stadiums and whatnot, it is centrally located and is a great stadium. They will serve booze most likely as well. If everything goes well then perhaps you attempt an open-air Midwestern stadium (Soldier, Cleveland, Cinci) or if you get desperate, the Metrodome, after the first year or two.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 02:11 PM) The justification is that there's a lot of single mothers out there who can't afford health care for them or their children. It's not fair to punish children for their parents' lack of financial success and if that parent becomes too ill to work, they'll be screwed. Hopefully, pretty soon that one is fixed forever.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) Wasn't there a rational argument for this, not based on the "all white people from the South are horrible racists" liberal view? I seem to recall (and this might not be the case here) that when a state recently tried to do this it was because a lot of cities were paying an arm and a leg to ship students to different districts to meet the diversity requirements. It made economic sense, in some cases, to allow that to happen. Took me forever to remember what that damn movement was called. No. It had nothing to do with the economics. It was all about restoring our country to its "original Christian values".

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:52 AM) But his GTHABW (Guy to have a beer with) ratings are off the charts!

QUOTE (ptatc @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:46 AM) Or maybe the short sightedness is for the people that only look at the first 4 months of this season not his career. He has been a decent player his whole career. He is having a bad year so far, but what is to say he won't play closer to his career averages for the rest of the season? I'm not a big Kotsay fan because he is a decent unspectacular player but the unrelentless bashing is getting old. Calling people baseball stupid because their opinion is different is going to the extreme. Mark Kotsay has put up an OPS of .709 since the start of the 2005 season and .695 since the start of the 2006 season. Think about that...for the last 5 years combined, he has a sub -.700 OPS. That is an 83 OPS+, in case you wanted park factors included. He has not been a "Decent" player the last 5 years. He has been a well below average player for more than half a decade.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:33 AM) I agree. If Thornton is unavailable one day and a tough lefty matchup comes up late in the game, I can definitely see Ozzie going for it. They're not going to give him his first outing in a tough matchup if they can help it. With D1 on the mound today and the G tomorrow, we ought to be able to build up a big enough lead in 1 of these games that if he gives up a baserunner or two it doesn't kill us.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:28 AM) Ok, so the argument in favor of overturning Pro 8 was that it violates the constitution. Can anyone explain to me where in the constitution the concept of marriage is addressed, not just homo-sexual marriage, but marriage at all. Is "marriage" constitutional? This is not an attempt to invalidate the ruling, just trying to understand the legal context. It's not. The issue is one of "Equal protection under the law" (14th amendment). In other words, if your state does grant such rights, the ruling says that you can't grant those rights to one group of people and deny them to another group. Your state could certainly choose to not recognize marriage whatsoever and allow it to be an entirely religious or private institution, but then the state would also not be able to collect information on marriages, use a tax code that recognizes marriage in any way, regulate divorce proceedings/property rights (which would be a gigantic mess), etc. In that case, it wouldn't matter if the marriage was homosexual or heterosexual, because there would still be equal protection under the law since no one would have their marriage enshrined and given benefits by the government.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:21 AM) I realize Boras advises guys to do one thing or another, but it happens. Guys drop Boras, guys sign to stay in one place. Does it happen a lot, certainly not, but this guy has moved around a whole hell of a lot and there is something to be said about a guy finding a comfortable spot and staying. And at the end of the day, Jackson gets to do what he wants to do, Boras just advises him. Like I said, the only way he stays in Chicago is if he drops his agent, and even then, that's no guarantee (see: D1)

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:14 AM) Well, that isn't the end of the world. It means the Sox would potentially get draft picks for Jackson. But if Jackson does do ok here and assimilates into the clubhouse nicely, I could see him liking the idea of signing an extension and actually staying in one place for a while. Yeah, but when has that ever mattered for a Boras client?

Mark Prior Steven Strasburg threw a simulated game with no issues and is scheduled for a return on Tuesday.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Aug 6, 2010 -> 11:10 AM) You're right, and I alluded to that saying that every closer will blow saves. I suppose I should have worded it differently. The closer is expected to be one of the sharpest pitchers on your staff because of the nature of their task. One inning (usually) not giving up hits, walks, or runs. Hits and walks happen...no one will get around that, but it's the runs that are the most important. One thing I think about when I'm trying to figure out if a closer is effective is whether the opposing manager is scared of that closer. If you're facing the Twins with Nathan, or the Yankees, you game plan for an 8 inning game. If you're down 1 run in the 7th, you stop playing for the win and you play for the tie. Konerko gets on base, you don't leave him there and hope Q hits the ball out, you take Konerko out for a pinch runner and try to get that game tied up. Against the White Sox, no one's game-planning for the closer, they're game planning to try to beat the setup men.