Balta1701

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 14, 2009 -> 06:23 PM) Noah might be smoking the ganja in one of those pictures. Stupid question, but is Weed legal in Europe? Depends on the country.

For a look at how the economy is affecting even the teams that are supposedly the exciting ones that people are interested in, the Heat are laying off 20 employees.

Hey, Tex, WTF is up with this?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 14, 2009 -> 05:14 PM) And that would be a big mistake, since the Sox only have one prospect in the minors that projects to play in the outfield, Jordan Danks. Shelby is another guy but you don't not sign someone because of John Shelby. Allen is a 1B/DH. Beckham is a middle infielder. Quentin is an outfielder, so bottom line the Sox will most likely need to add an outfielder if they want to compete. If they don't, sure they can stick and hope every prospect pans out, but it wouldn't be the smart way to quickly rebuild. I still have difficulty believing the Sox would do a full "The Kids can play" segment next year no matter how good the AA team currently is either. The Sox probably have need of 1 OF, but there's several ways to go about that. If you count the AA team, we're several people deep by the end of 2010 at every point other than the OF...it's also possible someone could be moved (Viciedo currently has 7 errors at 3b) or KW could pull off another of his surprise trades to fill that slot.

QUOTE (daa84 @ May 14, 2009 -> 03:21 PM) you just gotta push Lisa P. already had her baby.

SOB, have another unexpected person going on record on what Cheney wanted to do to make his Iraq-AQ connection hold. (For the record on the source...the Daily Beast is another of those news-aggregator sites that have popped up lately like the Politico or the Huffington Post, which does some of its own original reporting as well. They don't have a long history of credibility to me yet for them to be judged by, but they do have some good names. The guy writing this story was hired away from NBC, for example).

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 14, 2009 -> 03:02 PM) He's just not worthy of a big time contract until he puts up big time numbers outside of Coors. That's my point. Until he's putting up an OPS a lot higher than .800 somewhere other than Coors, he should be paid like an .800 OPS player.

The numbers for his career: At home: .351 / .418 / .634 /1.052 Away: .279 /.345 / .452 /.796 Sometimes I might not make a huge deal about that...but when home for all but 1 month is Coors Field...you just gotta note it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 14, 2009 -> 02:48 PM) With either Viciedo or Fields making the shift to LF in the near future and TCQ going to right, we are not going to pay 8 figures for an OF. It just isn't going to happen. The only reason this is being discussed is that no one believes any OF's are making 8 figures this offseason.

.697 OPS so far in Oakland, Boras client.

Judicial Watch got some fairly remarkable documents out of the Treasury Department regarding the TARP program...some of the best feature the Chief of Staff to Secretary Paulson. Take a look for yourself. A couple fun ones are him asking "Who the big 9 are" regarding the 9 biggest financial companies in the U.S. that Paulson was calling to the Treasury Department regarding the bailout, on the morning the meeting happened, and another noting that the Dow futures were up 300 on some of the work they were doing (their priorities were clearly correct).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 14, 2009 -> 01:19 PM) Seriously now, would you trust Feingold to be objective about whether or not it met Cheney's claims? You'll note I added the FWIW for exactly that purpose.

Trading Brent Lillibridge is silly. Send him down to AAA and tell him to cut the length of his swing in half or he'll never sniff the big leagues again. If you want to talk about trading a SS, give some time, we may have to consider it. We're holding Alexei, Nix, Getz, and Beckham, and by the beginning of next year, Beckham is going to be in the big leagues at the rate he's going. Some of those guys are going to have to move, and you can't send them all to the OF. Esp. if Anderson keeps hitting. Hopefully Nix and Getz keep hitting, Alexei finds his stroke, and this becomes a wonderful problem to have; being way too strong up the middle.

QUOTE (lostfan @ May 14, 2009 -> 01:14 PM) lol, Cheney pwned. He's trying to cherry-pick anyway. Worth noting...the reason why they rejected his request is that those documents are part of another FOIA case already being argued. Whether there is political motivation behind the rejection/other case, I'll leave to others do determine...but it's still entirely possible we'll see the documents at some point. Also FWIW, at least one Senator (Feingold) said during the testimony yesterday that he's seen the documents and they don't make the case Cheney claims they do.

QUOTE (bmags @ May 14, 2009 -> 12:24 PM) everything is = The administration enacting torture as a commonplace technique and the investigation to how this came about is absolutely = to documents with a letter saying they're not sure if they are reliable saying that a congressperson was briefed on the issue. How do you not see that? Frankly, if Pelosi was briefed and didn't take steps that she could have taken to stop the program, then she's just as guilty of conspiracy as many of the others, so I have no problem tossing her in prison for that, so feel free to think it's equal. Conspiracy is conspiracy.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 14, 2009 -> 12:05 PM) Ok, induldge me on this. If the law is so "unclear", why don't they clear it up and pass a very black and white law outlawing some of these EIM's? Why is it so "unclear" in the first place? Why is it that "liberals" (and I'm not trying to paint you... I'm being serious with this line of questioning) are so quick on the trigger to say "WAR CRIMESSS"... and "they broke the law", when in fact there are several respected constitutional lawyers (who you may disagree with, yet they are well respected, so let's not go down that path) that say no laws were broken? Which then leads me back to my original question, why don't they clear the law up right here and now? (I have an answer, I just want to see what yours is). What you clearly are trying to get me to say is that they've left the law vague enough that people can find ways around it so that everyone can B.S. their way through everything. What'd I'll actually say is that the law is simply not unclear...because the terms in the law you contend are vague have been defined in the past. Cruel, degrading, inhuman treatment, torture, whatever, those have been defined in the past. Waterboarding has been defined by U.S. courts and tribunals to be torture in the past. Slamming people's heads up against the wall has been defined to be torture in the past. You don't need specifics when the law already has defined those things. The vagueness can actually help, because it can also allow a court to make things more or less strict with time...but it is a court that must do that. Writing a memo after you've waterboarded a guy 187 times saying "oh, it's ok to do that" doesn't cut it when established precedent says exactly the opposite. It's the same argument I've made for FISA; if the President orders a man shot and he dies, you don't need to pass a law saying that it's illegal to shoot someone; the law covering murder already covers it, and shooting someone falls under the category of murder just as waterboarding someone or beating their head against the wall has been defined by the courts as torture.

QUOTE (hogan873 @ May 14, 2009 -> 12:07 PM) I can definitely see a few trades if things don't turn around, but would the Sox trade Colon? They're not paying him much, and I can't imagine he would bring a ton in a trade considering his health and girth (which doesn't help his health). If we're far enough back I'm sure they'd consider it, but that requires 2 things to happen: 1. Colon has to keep pitching well and stay healthy enough for a contender who needs a pitcher to be tempted, and 2. someone has to offer up something valuable enough that we'd come out ahead even if Colon winds up being a type B or better FA next year (aka we need something more valuable than a sandwich pick, so it has to actually be some quality).

ON another note, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell put this article out last night, arguing that coming up with a case to invade Iraq was a key motivation for the torture in the first place.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:56 AM) I don't have a problem with that, although I think it's a waste of time. What has currently been admitted to publicly is enough to charge the former vice president and likely several of the OLC memo authors with conspiring to break the law, and the vice President in particular is proud of that.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:54 AM) To get anything decent we would have to eat some of the remaining contract. And that is something that we don't do. Saving $5-$6 million by moving a contract or two might be worth it if we're really out of things.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:51 AM) That really bothers me. I've said it time and time again, there's the left view, the right view, and the truth somewhere in the middle. Then give me the independent prosecutor and let's get to the bottom of where the truth is. (A key point here is that the CIA briefing document summaries we have seen so far are damn vague in saying exactly what Pelosi was told, BTW. Just as a small defense of myself...she has room to say the CIA is lying and without having been there or actually seeing some documentation of what she was presented, all we know is the schedule of briefings right now).

QUOTE (greg775 @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:48 AM) I like Anderson too, but I don't know if I'd call him a difference maker. The only difference he's ever made was that great catch to end the Twins game last year. He looks like an average major league hitter to me, and a great fielder. It seems like we have some famous, proven big league players, all older guys, and a lot of bad ones. Weird roster makeup, but I guess typical in this day and age of some players hoarding all the money. Here's the question...it's not "How much of a difference is there between Brian Anderson and an average major leaguer", it's "How much of a difference is there between Brian Anderson and Brent Lillibridge"? It's like going from Ross Gload to Albert Pujols in your lineup.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:48 AM) Wrong. You know now. But back then, you didn't, and I'm sure you "knew". Huh?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:37 AM) Why so quick to "not be sure" what Pelosi knew, but yet, anyone from tbe Bush administration has to be wrong? With that said, I agree with your premise that they should get to the bottom of Pelosi, but they won't, it will just die off in the waning days. Because I've read the memos that say what they knew and what they did already. Hell, the former VP is damn proud of it.

QUOTE (Texsox @ May 14, 2009 -> 11:45 AM) So it seems as we grow the government we grow the GNP! Following the same logic that the Republicans use to say that Tax Cuts pay for themselves, I conclude that increasing the size of government to infinity would result in infinite economic growth. Why don't the Republicans get it?!