Balta1701

QUOTE (daa84 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 08:29 AM) johnson has a ridiculous arm, and was very good last year and a few years ago, but i think the marlins overpaid a bit....10 mil per year is alot for a guy who has only made 50 starts in the last 3 seasons ....its very possible he will be worth every penny (and maybe even more) but i think its more likely that at least 1, if not 2 of those years he will miss significant time due to injury, and 10 million is a fortune for a team like the marlins to be spending for a guy sitting in the trainers room Think Josh Beckett or AJ Burnett here. All he needs to do is put up a complete, healthy season and suddenly the big boys will come knocking if they want to deal him.

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 12:08 AM) Jon Heyman says Johnny Damon could be headed to Detroit. That newfound power of his versus that ballpark? I think the ballpark wins.

According to local press reports, it was not an official offer, but UT did ask to see if Lovie Smith would be interested in their job at a $4 million/year contract.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 09:29 AM) The whole liberal attack machine has been in full throat to shout down anything that suggests this should be a big deal. Look no further than here or the Democrats thread for great examples. It is kind of hard to act like this is a big deal when you as a party go out of your way to down play that an airplane was almost blown up full of passengers. Let's start by acknowledging what happened here. This is a joke right? Someone has denied its a big deal? Someone is failing to acknowledge it?

Robert Pattinson (V - Twilight) as the sexy, romantic, brooding new Spiderman?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 09:27 AM) Or act like we weren't this close to 300 dead people... What do you mean "Act like it"? Spell it out, what more should be done publicly?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 09:10 AM) I think the big problem with this is that the only thing that separated this from being a successful attack was blind luck. The system completely failed. That is the important thing that everyone seems to be forgetting here. The issue then is...what do you do in response to that? Race back to D.C., hold public meetings with the victims families (even though there aren't any?), start bombing places randomly? Or do you order a rapid, immediate set of investigations into what went wrong and start looking at new procedures to try to make sure it doesn't fail again? I could see a few firings if there were specific people who failed, but again, this looks like specific systemic issues that still haven't been fixed because of lack of communication, turf wars, combined with lack of security funds overseas.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jan 15, 2010 -> 12:07 AM) I love 24 but the past 2 years have left a sour taste in my mouth. Hopefully this year is good. Last year bogged down at the end but was generally quite good. Year before it struggled a lot.

A couple of things may work if you want a higher "Savings rate". First, look into a 6-12 month CD if you don't need to touch the money for a while. Second, look for a local credit union; they tend to pay higher rates on savings accounts. Third, avoid really big banks; the really big, government-bailed-out banks don't need to pay high interest rates to maintain deposits, and its even worse now that they've got a government guarantee.

There are starting to be reports of a deal on the high-cost-plan tax, which the Unions hated because they had high-cost plans. Basically, the tax stays pretty much in tact with a small tweak, which is nice because it keeps the cost control effect, but to satisfy the unions, the health insurance exchanges, which were going to be much more limited in membership, will be much more open, allowing for more competition between plans and giving many more companies the ability to choose plans competitively. At least until Lieberman realizes this will cost insurers money, this will make the bill significantly better than it was yesterday.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 06:45 PM) Not that he will get it, but Arenas faces a possible 5 years for unlawful gun possession and also charged with carrying a pistol without a license outside home or business, a felony. http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/washington-p...th-felony-27621 This could completely void out 90 million bucks. Whoa Does D.C. have a minimum sentence?

Visa and American Express have so far waived their processing fees on Haiti relief charitable donations. Mastercard has not yet done so. Choose wisely if you're contributing and they don't change that policy.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 10:06 PM) THE best? No. One of the best? They should be. The best guaranteed? No. Could be by far the best? Yes.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 06:22 PM) I'm no Palin fan, and I do find her to be a raging idiot, but would it really be that bad? She's pledging massive change in government just like Obama did. And what has changed? What has he done? Seems to me like he's extended nearly every policy that Bush had in place before he left (and which Obama claimed were the worst ideas ever). Fact is the candidates say one thing, but when elected they can't do any of it. The country is no worse off in her hands than in Obama's, and I truly believe that. Both are controlled by their masters ($$$). Yeah, the last 8 years were so good...let's try someone even less intellectually curious.

Some video of the actual event. Watch the building across the street.

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 03:17 PM) What else would he do if he is refusing to move to the 12:05 slot? What else do they have to run at 10:00? 7 more Datelines?

QUOTE (kev211 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 02:55 PM) Jeff Zucker is supposedly threatening Conan to take the midnight slot or he will keep him off the air for the next 3.5 years. There's also a rumor going around that no where in Conan's contract does it specify a timeslot, such that NBC can move its show wherever and if he quits he loses the other $70 mil.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) Nomination is an outside possibility, but still highly unlikely. Presidency? Zero chance, barring an epic public collapse of some kind from not only Obama, but also a number of Republicans. She's going to be running against an incumbent with probably at best 9 % unemployment.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 11:39 AM) Here's a question... who here has a particularly favored unemployment number they think is most accurate? There are a few (or more) different rates bantered about, which include or exclude different groups. It seems like an ideal number would exclude retirees, students and people under 18, and those on some sort of government disability. Leaving the rest as the true picture. Is there a number that shows that, specifically? The problem with those suggestions you make is...what happens when the numbers of people on disability grows relative to population (has been happening at least the last 15 years), or when people take early retirements because of a bad job market, or when unemployment is rampant amongst students who want to work?

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 01:10 PM) I gave in and started watching them again myself. There are no other sports going on right now for me to watch. I need nba league pass. Unless you're a big fan of some other team, it's probably not worth it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 11:03 AM) And why did they get too big to fail? Because they government offered them incentive and backing if they did. Again, brilliant. You notice their was no such thing as subprime lending until the federal government set up companies to do it, and showed the rest of the sector exactly how profitable it was. LOL, this canard again. Time for me to be the one to call it quits here. I'm out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 10:51 AM) If corporations die, they don't take those chances. Yes they do. Once they're large enough that they know their death would pose a "Systemic risk". This is the whole "To big to fail" discussion in a nutshell. Goldman Sachs right now knows implicitly that they can't be allowed to fall, because they'll take every single other bank in the country with them. Thus, they're gambling even bigger than they were in 2007. Those gambles then feed right back into the bonus/compensation issue we've been off on today? Can you offer a solution to "Too big to fail", a key point in all of this, through the private sector?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 10:40 AM) The difference is, I believe it is the corporations own problem to solve. If they don't solve it, they should suffer the financial consequences. And alternatively, I believe it's a situation where they've insulated themselves from accountability so well that there is no way that any corporation can solve it on its own, and furthermore it's actually a situation that has affected all of us through incentivizing short term gains with no punishment for substantial long-term losses.

Mets unhappy after Beltran has surgery against their wishes.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 14, 2010 -> 10:32 AM) The public isn't obligated to the private sector. They are obligated to the public sector. We literally paid people to make sure that we gave CEO's the tools to get tons more money. Genius. I can't wait until the next problem is solved by the federal government. So I ask then...if you're willing to admit it's something that needs "solved"...who else is there to solve it?