Balta1701

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 06:24 PM) Before it's over, the far right is going to toss his cookies over the bus. Watch. In this Senate? All he has to do is not vote for anything and he's set with the far right.

Unemployment claims took a large jump this week, and the 4 week moving average is starting to turn back to increasing job losses.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 06:14 PM) I've heard a lot of people say that. It's not a hell of a lot different then Barackus the Great, really - altough the "community outreach" on the south side is what made Barackus so Great. Har. It's also worth considering that he'd be presumably going into the 2012 election in a likely Dem takeover seat no matter what, given that it'd be a Presidential election year and that's going to motivate people to GOTV anyway, and it's freakin' Massachusetts. If he doesn't want to lose that election, one way to avoid it is to jump up a level. And it's not like Obama can attack him on experience.

So, to the Republicans, what do you think about Scott Brown as your 2012 nominee?

BTW, the next time we hear anything about an activist supreme court judge, I'm going to vomit. This is probably the most activist judicial decision of my lifetime.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 05:57 PM) And the mother can say, F' off Doc I'm having this baby with or without Tebow's ad. Do you really think that a mother does not understand that is an option? Do you really think that a Doctor would not discuss all options in this case? They can tell the Doctor to F' off, I'm not taking those drugs. Frankly, a huge amount of effort politically has, over the past few years, gone into designing and enacting laws that are either designed because it's believed that's 100% true, or because there's a need for a direct intervention to intimidate people from getting that procedure. The 48 hour waiting periods enacted, the requirements that doctors take certain steps to try to talk the patient out of having an abortion or at least provide often inaccurate information about the other negative health outcomes of having an abortion. If "not understanding that is an option" is not an issue, then it's straight out intimidation.

Assuming you're talking about the Volcker rule proposed this morning, if it somehow passed, it'd be amazingly good. Of course..it has to go through Congress. So by the time President Palin signs it, I imagine instead of banning banks and bank holding companies from running hedge funds, it will require mandatory contributions by all banks to hedge funds or something like that. And it'll be named the Lloyd Blankfein rule. Passed out of the House Financial Services committee, brought to you by Goldman Sachs. Meeting at the Citigroup meeting chamber in the JP Morgan wing of the Aetna House chambers. Politically, for the Dems, this would also be ridiculously good. It's the easiest campaign message you could ask for; put the Republicans on the side of openly defending the banks. They want to anyway, so make them do it, and you might turn the tide.

Print edition of one of the Philadelphia papers today.

A twitter-based comment on the Supreme Court decision today.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 03:46 PM) The session is open until January 2011. There's still 11 months to get this passed. This kind of makes sense and its really just a way to make sure that reconciliation happens. What you aren't seeing reported right now is back channel negotiation. Essentially, the Senate is going to agree to make some concessions to the house bill in reconciliation after the fact and the House will vote for the Senate bill as is. That's the plan, as far as I can tell. Setting aside what's become a super toxic debate for a few months to work on something like a jobs package which is what should be his front and center public voice right now is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not happy about where this is either, but this is not "shutting it down." What you're not realizing is...the longer this hangs out there, the sicker people are getting of hearing about it. We've had a legitimate 11 month policy debate right now, and the longer it's lasted, the worse the policy has gotten.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 12:41 PM) Evidently Vincent Jackson was pulled over before the game....and there are reports out here that 8 Chargers were at the strip clubs till the wee hours of the morning before the game. Not a good sign if true. Not in regards to throwing the game..but rather in being prepared. Does Miguel Cabrera have a place in S.D.?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 12:39 PM) I never get to see the Bulls win. more accurate

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 01:18 PM) Or there's basically 0 outreach. We kinda like the Public Option.

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 09:20 AM) bulls off to 0-2 on west coast, figures... after doing so well, they go west and can't put it together... And the worst part is...that 0-2 start was against the teams they might have had a chance to beat. Next 3 games are back to back at Phoenix and Houston, 1 off day, then San Antonio. Really, there's no reason why they should win any of those 3 games.

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 11:49 AM) The only thing I'd mind about signing Thome would be if they still had him bat either 3rd or 4th. If he's back, they need to have him later in the lineup, 7th or 8th maybe. When you look at the lineup, Thome or someone like him would probably fit in best right around the 5th spot, even though it slows things down, just because your 2-3-4 hitters are all RH hitters almost no matter how you stack it, and you have 2 guys in AJ and Teahen who fit best in that 7-9 range right next to your other lefty in the leadoff spot. You've got to break that up, and unless Teahen rediscovers his .900 OPS form, that's where your DH fits. If you don't hit lefty 5th, you've got a giant string of RH bats in the middle of your lineup, and if you use one of the guys you have now, I'll just walk your cleanup hitter. Pierre Alexei or Rios or Beckham Quentin or Beckham Konerko or Quentin 5th spot, ideal for a lefty Rios or Alexei Teahen Rios or Alexei AJ

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 11:19 AM) I don't understand the "I'm With CoCo" thing. I prefer Conan to Leno, but I don't think I need to stand in solidarity with someone that just got a $45 million golden parachute. Because we want him to stay on the tonight show? And anyway, $45 million is chump change these days. Now, if he could qualify for bailout funds...

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 11:18 AM) See, for some reason, the idea of being left with just Vizquel and Kotsay as reserve infielders frightens me. I'm not sure if it frightens me more or less than having Jones/Kotsay as out DH though.... Let's just hope that Ozzie and Kenny are really j/k with this Jones/Kotsay thing... There's one other possible solution to this issue...find a LH batter who can DH and also play the infield some. I don't know how his health is, but this is why my head keeps coming back to Blalock.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 11:13 AM) You cut Nix. No question about it. Let him find a job somewhere else, and if he doesn't you outright him to AAA. Nix is really redundant on this team after signing Vizquel. Viz is better defensively and bats from the same side of the plate. Nix brings more power against LHP but based on last year is a defensive downgrade.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 10:39 AM) It's official. Corporations will now run this country...even though they pretty much already have been. Thankfully we got the health care reform bill passed before...oh...right. Joe Lieberman's 2012 campaign, brought to you by Aetna.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 21, 2010 -> 01:15 AM) If I'm your GM, I trade Deng, Tyrus, and the first rounder for Garnett back in the 2007 offseason. So, in hindsight, you'd think that a lineup of Garnett, Nocioni, Wallace, Hinrich, and Gordon would have won anything, with how Wallace, Hinrich, and Nocioni self-destructed that year?

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 09:14 PM) Yeah, Rafeal Palmerio won one one year I believe and rarely played the infield. And didn't some DH win one or something of that ilk? I dunno, but the GG award voting is terrible. The DH you mention was Palmeiro.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 09:39 PM) Take a pay cut, for the good of the government. s***head. Unless you want to declare yourself a bank holding company too.

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ Jan 20, 2010 -> 08:49 PM) I think the Republicans will make huge gains in the...House and two to three more gains in the Senate, but not enough to control either. In 2010, Republicans will have three tough House seats to defend (ex/ Kirk's, ex/ Castle's and Cao's) and they control a handful of the competitive seats in the Senate (MO, NH, OH, NC). I think that was the gist of what else I had written out. If the Dems can lose in Massachusetts, they can lose ANYWHERE. At some point, they might want to think about giving people a reason to vote for them. We might be better off letting the Republicans shut down the government and driving unemployment to 15% than we would putting up with this charade.

Hypothetically speaking, how would you react if a group ran an ad encouraging women to end a pregnancy if their doctor advises it? Say, they brought out a famous woman who had received that diagnosis and made that decision.