Balta1701

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 04:13 PM) not to mention he doesn't have that many ABs as it is. (the lowest on the team as far as starters) That's because he's been hitting at the bottom of the order so often.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 04:24 PM) Fine with no pressure, melts when he gets in a tough situation. Because in a tough situation, any manager worth his salt is going to send up a RH hitter.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 12:58 PM) The slew of expected boycotts is going to hurt the state. It has already cost Arizona a convention. Phoenix has bids in on both 2012 political conventions.

H. Christ. Anyone want to defend this one for me? States I'm not moving to as of this week: Arizona, Oklahoma. Emphasis mine.

Can't we have any clean catching prospects? Seriously, get well soon Josh.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 03:54 PM) The original and core message of the movement has been subverted. Which was?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 03:28 PM) Any company or person that deals in any financial product what-so-ever. Except for the big boys with the big lobbyists, who are more than happy with the current system, because they wrote the rules to their advantage.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 03:22 PM) Companies would benefit way more simply from lower costs of doing business. SOME companies.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 02:59 PM) All I know is Williams has to go. He is utterly worthless. I don't care which arm he throws with. He could throw with his left foot for all I care. Lefties have a .734 OPS against him this year (and not because they're hitting the ball, mainly because of a couple walks) and had a .549 OPS against him last year. It's not his fault if he's there to get LHP out and he does that but you insist on having him face RHP.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 03:13 PM) Yet Carl Levin voted for healthcare knowing full well that the vast majority of American's were going to lose money on it. I guess when you weight the population by the amount of money they have, that's true.

But there's a point you're missing...there's always someone who loses when you cut back on that. Why do you think the financial regulatory system in this country is so backwards? Because GS and the like benefit hugely from having the system that way and keeping it that way.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 02:37 PM) Bulls mercifully will be put to bed tonight. Supposedly the VDN firing will happen the day after they are eliminated. I plan on cracking a beer in celebration tomorrow. Beer? Hell, that deserves like a bottle of some 1870's vintage champagne.

Another great Californian example is the prison system, which is a gigantic, large, huge drain on the state's resources. Dramatically overcrowded, falling apart, hugely expensive. It'd be a great place to cut back on waste...waste like paying overtime for the guards, waste like hiring private companies to ship prisoners out of state, waste like all the other things that you have to do to manage a large, overcrowded prison system. But...cutting the waste means you're required to do 1 of 2 things. Either you need to build more prisons so that you don't have to pay the guards you currently have huge overtime salaries to deal with the overcrowding at their location, or you need to imprison fewer people. It's really easy to call stuff "Waste" if you want to get elected. It's really hard to deal with the political realities of cutting that waste.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 02:19 PM) That last bit can and should be a real emphasis. The only reasons it comes off as a "canard" are: 1. Many people who say it, don't actually know what it means or how to address it 2. Most people want to make it either "throw more money at it" or "cut everything X%", neither of which are meaningful. If you took a real, business-minded look at things in government, you could absolutely cut waste and save money. In fact, Obama has done a little of this already, though not nearly enough. Am I denying there's waste in governance? No, that'd be silly. But what always happens is people get elected promising to balance the budget by demolishing waste (I believe that governor a**-grabber got elected by smashing an old automobile), then they get into office, go after that evil waste, and they find it's a factor of 100x or 1000x less than what they originally thought. And the waste that is there winds up being in things that they can't cut...like where it saves you large sums of money to provide people with family planning services and end of life services, but then you wind up being accused of setting up "Death panels". Things like Medicare, Social Security, etc., wind up operating with vastly lower operating costs than similar setups outside of the government, because they're helped by economies of scale. The one place where there's probably legitimately large amounts of "Waste" that you could cut...the DOD. But defense cuts = you want all the troops to die. So, the only way to actually eliminate waste is to spend even more money on defense to make it look better, like Obama had to do in order to get rid of the F-22.

NSFW language. But this is fun.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 02:05 PM) One of the biggest problems at many urban school systems is a complete lack of any sort of Pre-K readiness being given to kids by their parents. One in five kids is getting to K in our school system without understanding how a book actually works... I am not talking about reading either. I mean know which way was up, you read from right to left, etc. So, what would you offer up as a solution to that problem? I'd argue that its an endemic problem and it's not going to just fix itself, that's how the parents grew up as well...thus, the only way you're going to fix that is to legitimately educate some percentage of the parents while they're having kids. Which, I might wind up thinking...is a role for government. On that, I'm sure you'd disagree, so I'd like to hear your suggestions.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:59 PM) Is that Patrick Stewart firing a machine gun? What's that from? The Patrick Stewart part is from the Holodeck in "Star Trek: First Contact", firing at 2 borg drones. The kid is edited in. If you'd like I can start typing out the script from memory.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) It doesn't help when you hire a career beaurcrat from the CTA to run the CPS who runs off all of the people who have any classroom experience... All though Michigan City now owes Huberman some thanks for that. Running off all the people with classroom experience can be an effective cost-cutting measure.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:45 PM) Sweet, maybe KW will trade for him in 2015! If the Phillies paid 2/3 of the contract again...

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:45 PM) You do it for historical multiples of what we are told, just like we always have. Honestly, I think it is as great of a reason as any that there should be a whole lot less federal government in this country. If I were in federal government it would be justification number one for cuts of extremely inefficient departments Oh please, start naming the list of things you'd love to cut. I love hearing how cutting back on education spending or medicare or social security or whatever else you want to name is going to balance the budget forever, especially for the ones with dedicated funding streams. It's fun. (I'm just going to assume you're educated enough that you won't fire off the canards of eliminating foreign aid and waste).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:34 PM) I'd be curious the last time that a major governmental program was institued that actually came anywhere near its projecting. The last major expansion of medicare was blowing out projecting in a couple of years. That's because the Bush administration threatened to fire the guys who were putting together more accurate estimates. Can you allege the same thing at the CBO in this round?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:29 PM) Well, we got what, a 5th round pick for him? What linebacker would we trade? Yes, a 2008 5th rounder.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 12:39 PM) but your graph does show nothing has been done to control costs. they keep going up up up. so in that sense you are proving Y2HH correct. But when you cover 30 million extra people at a 1% cost increase...you've decreased the cost per person by 28%.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 01:20 PM) Chris Harris: "Breaking News- I will be traded to Chicago Bears. Carolina u have been great and deeply missed. I have a special place in my heart for you" Brad Biggs: "Trade could involve a veteran linebacker." Makes sense, they're like 6 deep there. Somehow I think they'll probably give up more to get him back than they got when they sold him.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 10:56 AM) of being illegal? how? what's your criteria? any competent defense attorney (and judge) would get that thrown out instantly. I can't imagine there's much on the books about what an illegal alien looks like. He's got to be doing something, probably in concert with other people, in a specific setting, etc. Because if there's one thing illegal immigrants have...it's competent, high-priced defense attorneys.