Balta1701

Allgood.

Alito mutters "That's just not true" when Obama talks about the supreme court. At least he wasn't as loud as Wilson. You also get to watch the Supremes sit there unmoving as Obama bashes that decision.

Chris Matthews, MSNBC.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 10:06 AM) You are missing my point. I'm not saying nuclear plants are a good idea - I'm saying solar/wind/geo/hydro/other are good ideas, and if a few nuke plants allows us to move forward on the real deal, then its a no-brainer. And as i said, it's sad how it takes a policy that's a total waste of money to get that moving. This can be applied to corn ethanol as well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 10:04 AM) Only if they take California with them... You'd miss having them pay such a large chunk of the government's tax dollars. Not so much with Texas.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 10:01 AM) Well except Joe Johnson... Johnson's a bit different because his scoring average when up when he left, but that's because his utilization also went up when he went to a team with fewer shooters. Look at his FG/3pt percentages the year before and year after he left. 46% to 45%, but 3 points dropped from 48% to 36%. (Not to mention the whole age/development thing on top of there). I will grant that he's an exception, but the leaving-phoenix effect still shows up in his #'s.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 10:00 AM) That's assuming he even survives his primary. A platform of secession might work there.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:51 AM) I wouldn't say idiotic, I'd say less than ideal, and certainly not good long term thinking. But if building a handful of nuclear plants, and allowing some more regions for offshore drilling, allows this country to move forward on alt energy sources that actually make sense... then you do that. There's a simple reality out there. Nuclear power is simply not cost effective. Even a carbon tax doesn't do it. When a utility wants to build a nuclear plant, local rates skyrocket. No intelligent bank will fund the things, with good reason.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:47 AM) Yeah but I think I read an article about a woman waiting 25 years to get a mole removed or something. *rolls eyes* You probably have. The UK does generally have somewhat longer wait times. But that's one of those things they're willing to deal with in exchange for paying 40% of what we pay per person. If they changed that to 50-55% of what we pay, those issues would vanish, and if they went to 60% of what we pay per person then they'd have all their scalpels made out of gold because they have no idea what else to do with the money. But then, Obama's a spend-o-maniac. Not the people who defend our system.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 09:46 AM) --You can tell he's serious about clean energy, since he gave a couple huge carrots to the GOP - drilling and nuke plants Just like to note how sad it is that in order to get policy changes, we need to do things that are absolutely idiotic to appease one side. Sigh.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 08:53 AM) Reminds me a lot of the Shawn Marion situation there a couple of seasons ago actually. And you'll notice one constant for all the guys who leave Phoenix the last few years...once they go somewhere else, their numbers always go down. They go from being great to good, or from great to average.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 09:45 PM) You are kidding on this, right? The UK as an example of medical efficiency? They cover everyone, give health outcomes that are statistically indistinguishable from ours, and they do so with a cost that is less than 1/2 of what we pay per person. We pay more per person for Medicare in this country, not counting private insurance at all, than the UK does for the NHS. The numbers don't lie.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 28, 2010 -> 08:41 AM) i'd rather you all just secede Yeah, a platform of secession is going to go over great in the General.

So basically it's entirely Law ripping us again? How many articles does that guy need?

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 05:09 PM) As for the Twins, i think they were the favorites going into the season even if we kept Thome. I see the Tigers as the sleeper who could make some noise. What exactly did the Tigers do to upgrade for this season?

The DTripC tonight is going to be running a fact-check...devoted entirely to fact checking Fox News's comments on the speech.

One of the president's guests in the box tonight is a Mineralogy Student from Stanford.

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 05:38 PM) Do we know if WSH is going to be able to void Arenas's 80 million dollar contract? I heard that they can only do so if he serves jail time during the season. Unless they're out of their minds, they'll do everything they can to try.

I've pulled off a successful upgrade once, at the Wynn. A couple of things will make it hard; if you have no record of gambling with the players club card of the hotel you're staying at, then they might not want to upgrade you. If you're staying for a long time, then that really hurts your chances at an upgrade, because the only way they'll upgrade you is if they have rooms available for every day you're there and they think there's 0% chance of someone else booking them. If you're staying on a weekend, very unlikely. I didn't include the $20 when I asked if there was an upgrade available, but I left a $20 once I got the upgrade. Your best bet is really just to ask.

Since I'm sure the odds are something will get discussed from this, here's a thread so that it doesn't wind up in the Dem thread. My only commentary pre-speech is a quote from the West Wing: Come on, ban on manimals... And the drinking game for tonight is...every time the President says "on the left" as a straw-man to set up how moderate/bipartisan he is...drink.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 04:52 PM) SI says both Arenas and Crittenon suspended for the rest of the season Sounds about right to me.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 04:57 PM) 8 million? Screw that - offer him 4 plus incentives. Get it done KW!! Damon's people will flat out reject that, from what we can tell.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 04:02 PM) And everyone says I'm Dr. Doom. You are NOT stealing Roubini's nickname.

The one month treasury bill yield went negative again today, first time since the plummeting stopped last March. That means investors think that there's likely to be a sell-off in the near future, if I understand these things at all, and they're willing to lose money on treasuries rather than keep money in stocks.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 27, 2010 -> 01:52 PM) I've said for months, the best thing for the long term health of the housing market is for NEW home sales to stay weak, but existing home sales to be stronger. That's the only way we can reduce, relatively, the supply side, to support prices. The Fed just released its monthly meeting notes today. Here's what the last couple have said about the housing market: They took out the statement that the housing sector was improving and did not discuss it. That has to be deliberate.