Balta1701

Government unsealed a lot of the Bonds evidence today. One interesting thing I noticed was the results for the 2000 and 2001 tests he took which tested positive for various steroids, tests which are key to the government case. The interesting thing was...I don't recall anyone ever describing Bonds taking the drugs he tested positive for. According to the books that are out there, Bonds's steroid use started after the 1998 home run challenge between McSteroid and Steroidosa. The stuff he supposedly started taking was Winstrol, the drug Palmeiro tested positive for, which led to his tearing of his bicep in '99. And then after that, he switched to the THG program from BALCO. I don't believe anyone has outlined a part of the story yet where those drugs fit in. Thus, once again adding to my contention that you have to question the man's whole bloody career, because you just don't have a clue what he started taking when.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 01:03 PM) wasn't someone busy finding a key to lock this thread? It's getting a bit crazy at this point. If we don't give the "It's about my penis" thread some competition, next year's ST awards won't be exciting at all.

Link

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 12:49 PM) Come on. We all know the reason it keeps getting added to is that each Sen/Rep is adding their pet projects to it because they know it "has" to pass. Even if I grant you that point, the reality is...the people doing the math saying how big this package needed to be watched that number rapidly grow as time ran on. And the longer we hang this up in the Senate, the less effective it will be and the bigger it will need to be to be effective. Even if Bush had been able to push another $100 billion or so out the door late last year in the form of a stimulus package, even if it were the less effective tax cut variety, it would have significantly cut how big this package would have needed to be by getting it out sooner.

Breath of fresh air.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:35 AM) I agree with this point, for sure. I just think that the "calamity" and the "disaster" and the "catastrophe" (Obama's choice word of the day) are being overused to ramrod their legislation through without anyone seriously questioning it. But there's one point you're missing in saying that the vocabulary choice is inappropriate here. We may not yet bet at March of 33 panic levels, but the longer time passes, the larger the gap that the stimulus package needs to fill is. That's one big reason why the size of the stimulus people have been proposing has rapidly increased over the last 6 months or so. Prior to Lehman bros.'s failure, people were talking a few hundred billion more. After the stock calamities through October and TARP, people were already up to talking about $600 billion. After the November job losses and the XMas season, people were talking $800 billion or more. After the continued job losses through January, its entirely reasonable to think that well over a Trillion might be required for the government to fill the output gap and turn this around. This is a case where a snowball rolling down a hill is an accurate metaphor. The more job losses the country suffers, the more a pounding the consumer spending market takes, the more effort it's going to take from the government to stop that snowball. And you don't want to let the snowball hit the cabin below.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 10:32 AM) Sheesh. They even titled a book about this hoax. LOL, man, i really shouldn't post stuff.

QUOTE (scenario @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 10:15 AM) Looks like Oakland is trying to thin the herd in their outfield. Murton traded to the Rockies That's an excellent guy for the Rockies to pick up given their ballpark.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:51 AM) without thinking, Quentin's a Mariner 200 IP, 3.45 ERA at age 22? Yeah, those numbers are pretty much impossible to ignore.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:43 AM) Nice quote. Seriously, they can find first base, but do they want to find first base? That's really the question here. It's hard to make a person find first base if their salary depends on them striking out every time.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:36 AM) How do you rack up $120k in taxes on a driver and car in 3 years, anyway? Pretty simple. You spend like $500k on a car. In other words...you drive a lot and take a limo everywhere, and you don't realize it's a problem because someone else is footing the bill. Which is of course...a big part of the problem.

-Harry Markopolos (The Madoff whistleblower) in testimony today.

Here is the key question/problem for this country's Afghan policy:

QUOTE (Texsox @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:13 AM) 4. The people nominated did not know of their personal issues. 5. The people nominated did not disclose all of their personal issues. Let's not let off these people scott free. It's the job of the vetting people to assume that people being considered for positions may not disclose all of their personal issues if there are in fact any. Or at least it's supposed to be.

Hippo eats dwarf. Hosted on the blog of Carrie Fisher. I really just don't know how I can possibly top that. Goodbye.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:01 AM) Apparently I wasn't the only one who reacted badly to that second part, because the article is now not the same on CNN. It doesn't contain the words it did. Before, it made mention of a second part, where banks that were NOT given extraordinary help (TARP), but who accessed normally available federal funds (which is nearly all banks), would be subject to certain restrictions on compensation and spending. That part is gone now. Well, in that case it's difficult for me to comment, but I could certainly see it making sense for the federal government to give an advantage in its general contracting process to firms that have more reasonable compensation levels.

So wait exactly, could someone reword the 2nd part for me? Nothing in the CNN article gives a good explanation for the 2nd part that people are saying is the slippery slope and how it operates, just a suggestion that more work will be done in the future.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 08:43 AM) I've been audited and lost over deductions for income I earned while working in Mexico. I assume then that Biden might consider me unpatriotic, but I would not agree. I filed what my tax preparer thought was a proper return. The reason I thought that Tom Daschle's mistake was something particularly insidious was that I find it far more difficult to believe that he believed he had properly accounted for everything when he filed his returns than I do with say, Geithner, whose mistake I can understand.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 06:43 PM) I'd glady take him if we could get a guy like Bailey and another solid prospect for Dye. With the way the market has fallen off for corner OF's, if we could get Bailey for Dye + $3 million, I'd probably do that deal.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 05:14 PM) It's a good question - because honestly that's the million dollar question now. I have some high level ideas, but if I figure it out in detail, I will not need to find a job again for the rest of my life. I'll throw my high level ideas out later - I need to go help carry in groceries. LOL Couple suggestions I've read recently are to figure out not what they're worth but what it would take to make the books of the banks solvent, and offer them that plus like $.01 so that they just don't go bankrupt while the government eats the rest, or to set the bad bank up with a clawback provision; offer the banks one value now but attach a clawback provision so that the banks get enough $ to survive for now, but once we have some idea of how many of these assets have gone bad the government can claw back some funds years down the road once the banks have recovered.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) There's a huge debate going on in accounting circles about how to "fair value" these assets (in a bank's case, these are assets). IASB and FASB are studying it and have some proposals on the table. This pronouncement could be one of the biggest in years. Remember, there will be one set of accounting standards in the next 5 years (supposedly) and international views on how this gets booked is currently significantly different then how US companies do it. That's part of why this all started here and have now flushed out in the rest of the world. Love to hear other opinions on this. If you were a government buying htese things up, how would you value them?

QUOTE (SnB @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 04:52 PM) those poor poor denny's employees I'll bet tips today were decent

Bonds's 2003 sample tests positive.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 02:33 PM) I guess well see if Im right or wrong, but my guess is that Clemens never faces trial. /shrugs You could certainly be right, but it's not from a lack of effort on the government's part, it's from the fact that perjury is a difficult charge to make.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 11:29 AM) Torn Labrum for Nelson, he can either rehab it, or have surgery and miss the season. Tough, tough decision, but you got to remember how a dislocated shoulder affected Dwayne Wade. I'd assume he'll try the rehab. Some measure of draft picks, Battie and Bogans/Cook for Hinrich. The Bulls clear a lot of salary, both this year and in the future, suddenly have room to offer Gordon extra money, and potentially still have room to offer Bosh a max contract in 2010 depending on Gordon's final number and the final cap #.