Balta1701

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 12:02 PM) Tens of thousands of signs posted for a span of several miles? Did you check out the video? If it's on a well enough traveled street in a particularly key area, overwhelming numbers like that could actually be quite a bit more effective than spending the money on a couple of TV ads. I'm not sure the road in question seems to meet those standards though. Probably paid some guys to put up x number of signs.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 09:45 AM) That isn't so much what I'm talking about, either. That many times isn't done out of necessity, at that point you're just getting off on it. Not that I particularly give a s*** about KSM (if I ever saw him I'd probably slit his throat) but you just have to use common sense... who the hell thought that was a good idea? There's a key point you're missing here. It's well illustrated by this specific case. There is simply no difference at all between the first time you waterboard someone (or give them the "wall treatment, or stick them in a box with whatever their greatest fear is) and the 183rd time. Neither one of them is done out of necessity. In either case, the motivation is exactly the same as it has been throughout time whenever torture has been used. It does 1 of 2 things...either it is going to "extract" a "confession" to something you know with 100% certainty that a person did (in other words, they're going to confess to whatever the hell you want them to confess to), of its going to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a bigger man than the person you're torturing. Even in the classic "Ticking time bomb" scenario that pro-torture people love to cite, repeated testimony by the people who do interrogations for a living says that torture isn't helpful. It extracts whatever confession you expect to extract. These cases in the GWOT are great proof of it. When we wanted information from Saddam, we didn't beat him, we talked to him and he told us virtually everything. When we wanted information from Zubaydah, and KSM, we talked to them. When we wanted to prove we were big men, or when we wanted to "extract" more "Information" out of them, we slammed their heads against walls and tried to drown them 183 times in a month. When we wanted to invade Iraq, we made sure the Egyptians got the answers from the guy they captured that we wanted to hear. When police in Illinois wanted to make sure a criminal wound up on death row, they shut the cameras off, and that happened often enough that even George Ryan didn't have the stomach to allow that state to keep its death penalty going. I really don't care if those guys are put to death any more than you do. But I do care about the system. I can ask the same question you ask about the 183rd time about the first time, and I am equally correct in asking it.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 09:58 AM) The Sox will probably keep Betemit and Thornton for sure. Guys like Thome, Dye, Colon, Contreras, Dotel, and MMac will all probably be determined by performance this year, and the price they can re-sign at. Dye seems like the most likely to be retained. Also worth considering is the draft pick implications of people walking...and how it affects the signing schedule. Thome, Dye, Dotel, and Contreras are very unlikely to be offered arbitration this year, because their contracts wouldn't go down. No one wants to pay them what they're making this year again next year, not in a down market where teams will be cutting salary again. This means 2 things...first, other teams can sign them without losing draft picks, so none of them will be stuck in the Hudson/Cabrera neitherworld from this year, and second, the Sox won't be able to resign them after early December, so the Sox would have to come to an agreement with them early. Without knowing where the market is going to be set, it seems unlikely to me that any of them will resign before the Arbitration deadline unless they really, really want to stay. On the other hand, it's plausible Colonn could pitch well enough that you'd be willing to offer him the same amount they made this year on a 1 year contract. Colon's easy. He gives you 15 starts, you're happy to have him back for $2 million. But he's also potentially liable to pitch himself up on to the type A free Agent list, or at least the type B list if he gives us 25 starts. MMac still has 1 year of arbitration eligibility remaining. The Sox likely do not want him back. But they may also not want to lose him for nothing.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 09:39 AM) Meh. I really hate how the public reacts to intelligence issues. Things like this are in the same category of all that indignation against Missouri over the Ron Paul stickers (the fake paranoia was not EVEN what Missouri was trying to do) or the make-believe furor over the "dissing" of vets in that DHS report. Waterboarding a man 183 times in a month is not an intelligence issue. Except maybe an issue of the intelligence of the people ordering it.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 09:33 AM) If he's not going to prosecute, then why put the spotlight on it? Because he was ordered to release the specific documents in question by a court. The ACLU filed a legal FOIA request for those documents, several courts had ruled against both of the last 2 administrations requiring their release, and last week, the day they were released, was the deadline set by the court. He'd have had to violate a court order to avoid releasing them. There was no legal option left.

Well, this is an interesting story. No idea how to know which parts of it are true without a hell of a lot more of an investigation.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 08:22 AM) I keep reading about interrogation techniques, which if not secret are at the very least not supposed to be discussed in public, and it's starting to piss me off. Then they ought to follow the damn law with them.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 06:10 PM) Swisher also said of beleaguered Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who has spent little time with the club because of a hip injury: "Greatest ever. Just an awesome guy. Very misunderstood." Explains Swisher's hot start?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 08:42 PM) Was everybody also tired of Cabrera, Boone Logan? Sure as hell seemed like it.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 05:58 AM) Yeah, it just doesn't seem like CQ is getting the respect he should. Good. Let them keep pitching to him.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 09:01 AM) He's the best pitcher on this staff. He has the best stuff on the staff. I'll give him that. He's still missing a bit of consistency. Right now, I see Danks starting and I figure "Score 2 and we'll probably win." I see Floyd starting and think "if he's on, score 1 and we probably win...if he's not, then we need 5 or 6".

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 08:08 AM) But you know KW...John Shelby III might become the "poor man's Chris Young" and be featured (unfairly) as one of our future stars. Hopefully, he'll get lost in the Beckham, Flowers, Allen and Viciedo spotlight and be able to fly under the radar a bit with Jord. Danks. I know Scenario really really likes Shelby, but I haven't seen enough of his swing in person to give an opinion whether it would hold up against major league pitching or not. The strikeouts and walks are 2 things to look at....for sure. When you look at the fact that this organization now has more people coming up than they have spots for (logjam's at 3rd with Viciedo/Fields, CF/SS/2b with Getz, Alexei, Anderson, Danks, Beckham, Shelby), 1b (Konerko, Allen) and with a bundle of picks coming up early in this year's draft...I'd expect that at some point, we're going to see some classic KW wheeling and dealing this season. Or at least this offseason. Shelby's the kind of guy who might fit the bill as high enough to bait a team in to giving up a really solid player with him as a key part of the deal (Think about the Garcia deal with Jeremy Reed) but he's not so high that Kenny will hesitate to give him up to make the team better (Think Gio).

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 04:51 PM) i was going to post something just like this earlier, I had the exact same thought. Whats the point in suspension if you never actually remove the player from playing the game like you do with position players? In this case, they clearly judged on appeal that the suspension was unwarranted. No other way to look at it.

How the Hell did Philly do that?

QUOTE (letsgoarow @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 03:51 PM) who would win in a fight Quentin Vs. God? Trick question Quentin is God... little snl Quentin versus the Orioles. Now, there's a catch. Quentin is 18 inches tall.

I just saw a commercial on ESPN for "2 crucial game 3 matchups" this Friday. Um, we're on the game 1 round for every series, and you're already calling game 3 crucial?

Oh No He Quentin.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 03:07 PM) I didn't know that baseball could be on the same level sexually as viagra Have you ever seen a picture of Carlos's hands? My word that man has monstrously large hands.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 03:06 PM) I think we need to take a deep breath and let these two do their thing for a while. You're no fun at all. Commie.

This sounds like one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. Their album comes out this week. I believe that it's already being shipped to Guantanamo bay to play loudly to keep prisoners awake.

Long ass home run/fan interference replay in in NYY today. Looks like they left the RF bleachers right up against the wall, a-la Jeffrey Maier.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 11:42 AM) Anyone who says this is "discomfort" is nuts (meaning, hell no it's not fun...) and frankly I am not sure any of these people have said that, but they have certainly gained information. Frankly, I do not believe for a single second the validity of this story. Any "official" can say what they want to make up a story. Furthermore, it's laughable that you all want to make it like they just did this for jollies. Riiiiiiight. But it's a damn good story and continues the hatred. You know what I find remarkable? It's that every claim you make has been repeatedly debunked by multiple sources. But because you have it 100% set in your mind that the 24, beat people senseless technique always works, has no negative consequences, and is somehow far more effective than standard interrogation techniques, you keep repeating those claims no matter what. Abu Zubaydah gave up 3 things. The identities of Bin Al shibi, the identity of KSM, and something else I don't recall. He gave all that up under standard interrogation. The Bush administration was convinced he knew a lot more, so they made sure he confessed to knowing a lot more. At least 1 move to terror alert orange was based on the intel he gave up under torture. He also failed a polygraph when questioned again on that intel; he lied to get the torture to stop. He gave up everything that was true under normal interrogation, and gave up what the torturers wanted under torture. link

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 18, 2009 -> 06:38 PM) What's up with Palehose 9? There hasn't been anything new since March 8. Check Smells like Mascot. Skanberg's got himself some new deals where other people are running his comics so they're getting posted there.

Truehoop Analysis: Derrick Rose breaks out.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Apr 18, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) I have no idea how Wang managed to RAISE his era. Damn. Wang's ERA is 3.83. Per inning.