Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 01:15 PM) Well the deficit is about 6 to 7 times what is was when the Dems were campaigning against it. $3 trillion a year?

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 12:45 PM) and lets compare that to the Democrats at the time. With the exception of Lieberman, who is a weird cookie in his own regards, you dont hear people shouting for the expulsion of moderate dems at the moment. Yes there is butting of heads, but I dont think you hear the cry to oust Evan Bayh. If nothing else, it's interesting to see what issues each party uses to draw the line. For the Democrats rank and file, it was the Iraq war. For the Republicans, it seems to have been the stimulus package. It's also interesting to note, tactically speaking, that one reason there hasn't been any talk of a primary challenge to Bayh, or Nelson, etc., is that the Dems currently aren't in the business of putting up primary challenges that turn safe seats in to unsafe seats. The GOP has been doing exactly that.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 12:02 PM) Who gets a sweet package to switch over now? Olympia Snowe. Will the last moderate Republican to leave the party turn out the lights behind you? Link

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 12:08 PM) The belief is that the US strain has already mutated, down to a less lethal form. The real danger would be someone bringing in the more dangerous Mexican strain, which we aren't even caring about preventing. I can't imagine it would be too difficult to check people coming back from Mexico to see if they are having a fever, like they are doing in Asia, and then going from there. Currently the WHO is not yet recommending any sort of travel restrictions (as was done with SARS as that outbreak developed.) Here's their reasoning:

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 12:24 PM) It has been removed now, but it still works in the cached page I posted. Didnt' do anything for me (Firefox?)

Major TV related reformatting of the MLB player draft.

-Senator Lieberman (Lieberman, CT)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 12:10 PM) That kinda goes the other way too... The Dems who just a year ago were screaming about the debt and the deficit are now supporting trillion dollar deficits are far as the eye can see. One could certainly argue that the economic conditions have changed from the period about 1.5 years ago.

Gordon sounds iffy for tonight - update from KC

QUOTE (Chet Lemon @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 11:59 AM) I guess he could have tried to pull a Lieberman if that scenario played out. Actually he couldn't. PA has what is known as a "Sore Loser" law IIRC...basically it says that if you lose in one party's primary, you can't run in under another ticket in the General. CT did not have that law. He had to either switch now or risk losing the primary.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 11:28 AM) What's a "True Republican"? Does anyone know anymore? Dick Cheney.

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 10:05 AM) Does this bring it to 60-40 in the Senate??? If so, this is HUGE. 59-40 currently. The Senate is a 99 person body right now.

Immediate reactions: 1. It's going to be a long, long, long time before Minnesota ever seats its 2nd Senator now. The MN Supreme Court doesn't hear the challenge until June 1, and after that fails, Coleman will undoubtedly launch a challenge in Federal Court, while the governor of MN will now continue to deny his certification signature until he is compelled to do so by a court. It could be 2010 before he's seated. 2. Specter was going to lose if he didn't do this. He is a much stronger candidate in the general election than in the Republican Primary. Either way the Dems were going to wind up taking that seat in 2010 barring a complete Republican surge. This is probably the most "Centrist" method. 3. I wonder what the Dems offered him to get him to switch, chairmanship wise. 4. While he says he'll still be a no vote on things like the EFCA and Cloture, which will make him frustrating, the difference now is that the Dems can officially whip him and whip him hard on things. Labor, for example, can decide how much support they are going to give him based on his votes, and that can make the difference between him winning or losing in the general.

Here's his official statement. Splitting a new thread out of the dem thread.

Immediate reaction: It's going to be a long, long, long time before Minnesota seats its 2nd Senator.

Jaw. Open.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 09:39 AM) We get rid of Uribe NOW?????? But we added Bartolo.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 08:20 PM) The interesting thing is that the CDC admitted today they are doing nothing to stop it from entering the US anymore than it already has. They aren't testing anyone as they come into the country, they aren't even asking people about it. They also are not stopping anyone who could potentially have it from coming into the country. Should they be?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Snoutbreak '09 - The Last 100 Days thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c The Last 100 Days thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Mistakes on a Plane thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 08:03 AM) Is playing loud music and using bright lights torture? Serious answer; depends on how loud the music is and how long you've kept them awake. Less than serious answer; absolutely, if they're playing Creed.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 04:33 PM) Fox has been running some of the older Simpsons lately, and man it was a such a different and way better show. I don't hate the newer episodes, but they're nowhere near as good. Anyone have any season where it started to go? I'll have to take some time and look at episode guides, but when it started getting Lisa heavy it nose dived Season 9-season 10 was the beginning of the slow decline, IMO.

I actually kinda like this move. The government gets a significant share in the company that can be sold off once the government-funded reorganization is complete, the shareholders and the bondholders get a huge hit, and GM starts to do the shrinking that it needs to do. It's better than dumping money down the GM hole like we're doing with all the banks. And they're giving the bondholders an ultimatum and trying to face them with legit bankruptcy. The bond market IIRC is trading at something like 10% of the value on GM, so they'd be getting a fair value for them. The issue for the last couple months has been that the bondholders have been demanding a better deal from the feds than they could have gotten had anything other than a federal bailout happened, which would be a terrible thing for the taxpayers to do.

QUOTE (zenryan @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) So will LeBron to the Bulls threads repleace the Crawford to the Sox threads now? If the Bulls could get someone to take on Deng's contract this summer while meanwhile giving the Bulls at least $5 million in cap space, I pledge to start more Lebron to the Bulls threads than you can count.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 08:50 AM) Now all we need if for coastal cities across the globe to become submerged for the trifecta. I'm not sure we don't already have the trifecta... Remember the campaign against "Pig odor research?" from a few months back? Yeah....