Balta1701

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 12:25 PM) Well Fasb157 was a good response to the Enron crisis. Let's mark to market. Hey, what's the market? Don't know. S&P: You're downgraded two notches, you need to raise 50 billion in capital. I typically can make some meaning out of the things you say in here...but I don't think I've understood any of that. If you'd like I can respond with a rant about volatile driven melting of peridotite.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 11:33 AM) The sad thing is that after seeing what they have done so far, I am rooting for them to all go home. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=was...id=aVPBaUbYV_qQ Isn't it basically a well-worn rule that any time Congress acts rapidly in response to a crisis situation it winds up making enough mistakes to make things worse? Your example would be Sarbanes/Oxley, mine would be the Patriot Act. There clearly needs to be a massive reform of these financial institutions, especially once we own them all. More transparency, lower CEO pay, more long term thinking, some vastly improved regulations on borrowing, requirements for cash reserves, whatever. But if we try to put those in place now, all that's going to happen is they'll make the job of getting out of this mess harder. Sometime early next year there needs to be a massive regulatory reform package clamping down on the financial industry, but the fact is, they're right, the Treasury and the Fed are just so much better at responding quickly in a crisis that they're the ones who should be managing this.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 09:30 AM) Everyone has their own definition of choking. Arguing your definition is better than the next person's might be fun, but probably not. In my definition, there has to be an absence of legitimate reasons for not winning. Those reasons would include, lack of talent, injuries, key blown calls, and maybe a couple more. So I would have a difficult time, for example, labeling it choking if the Sox went .400 for the rest of the season and lost to Minny. The Sox talent, when healthy is probably .500, and they have injuries in key positions. Quite frankly, I disagree. We have a solid closer, a lot of power in the lineup, and at least 4 currently average or better starters, 2 of whom are quite young and have the sky as their limit at this point. And we have a freaking deity patrolling LF when he's healthy. You can argue over a lot of things, but talent-wise, with those key guys...this team is certainly above .500 if everyone is there.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 08:25 AM) No doubt that with what has happened on Wall Street and to Lehman Brothers and AIG, it's given Obama the boost he really needed after what Palin has done for McCain. If he can really nail down his Economic Message in the debates, I think he'll end up winning the thing (which I hope he does BTW). Even without the market implosion, this week was bound to be a bad polling week for McCain/Palin as their convention bounce was going to fade.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 08:31 AM) I just read yesterday that Bill Clinton sent two emails from his official address while in office, and one was a test. No one uses their official email from the sound of it. The question is...was Bill Clinton a big user of a private email account? From what I've read, it was something of a joke how Clinton did not like to use email at all. Have you heard differently?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 06:27 AM) Realistically at this point a multi year deal is out of the question for Joe Crede. At this point is a major league deal even a possibility? I am guessing at best he gets a large bonus based on something like ABs or games played instead of much money up front. I could see him getting like a million dollar deal with backloaded incentives to push it towards 6-8 million dollars. The question is, if that is what is on the table, should the Sox offer this to Crede? Well yes they should, but here's the biggest issue...Crede's side won't accept. The big thing we run in to is the arbitration deadline. With Crede's back as is, the Sox are simply in no position to offer him arbitration. If the Sox choose to not offer him arbitration, then the Sox will only be able to negotiate with Joe until early December. Unless someone offers Joe solid guaranteed major league money, he's not going to sign with anyone until close to spring training where teams can gather as much information about his back and his rehab as possible. The Sox will be forbidden from signing Joe between early December and early April. Clearly they have to offer him a deal like that, but there's no way it works out.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 18, 2008 -> 08:55 AM) Why doesn't Alaska have secured government servers for their government business instead of yahoo or hotmail? Sheesh. Quite simply, because there are laws regarding what you can do with the emails on those secure servers. If there's a few emails you don't want to have preserved, then you set up another account. It's quasi-illegal but if there's never a subpoena issued for those emails or you have the AG in your pocket so that he won't enforce the subpoena, then you've effectively hidden anything you don't want documented.

That's an out I'll take. Don't have to like it but I'll take it. Get Richard a lead if at all possible.

No excuses this time. You can't go 0/6 with a guy on 2nd base and your 2-5 hitters up next.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 03:46 PM) He's only 31, too...wonder if there's any issues with HGH? Is he the same size? I haven't seen him this season. Doesn't just have to be HGH, could be the other stuff they weren't really testing for until 2005 or later. I'd say most people agree it takes a few years for the muscle tissue a heavy user builds up to truly start to slip away. Or he could have just been hurt.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 04:26 PM) I'll feel better if Clayton throws a strike

33 pitches thrown by Hughes in the first. Not a terrible number. 0 runs scored though...ugh.

Come on folks, get the early lead.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 02:00 PM) interesting stat, it's weird that the top 5 consist of the three first place teams and the WC leader You did note that he only included the contending teams right?

Here's your solution; it's entirely possible that the Sox will start off playing a day game. The games against the Red Sox were day games in 05 except IIRC for the clincher, and it's actually shaping up right now that we'd wind up playing the Red Sox or the D-Rays, whichever one has a better record.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 01:12 PM) Of course, this is not something I blame on BushCo. I'd say they have only a very small amount of the blame for the current conditions. But you know what? That gets back to that weird trend that no one has ever been able to really figure out...75% of the years, the stock market does better under Democrats than under Republicans. Prior to this cycle, the only years that broke those trends were election years with Republicans in power...where the stock market does better in those election years and goes back to being stagnant after the Republican wins. No one's ever come up with a solid guess about how that happens, but the reality is it does.

I'll put this here rather than the economy thread. Anywho... If, in January 2000, you'd said to yourself "Finally, a Republican President. We've got an MBa and a CEO in the White House (their slogan). We're finally going to have someone who doesn't screw around with the markets. I'm going to invest a bit" Let's say you'd invested $1000 in a fund that followed the DJIA. Yes, not the biggest number I know, bear with me. If you'd invested $1000 in the DJIA on January 20th, 2000, today that investment would be worth: $1002.08. The DJIA is barely 20 points above where it closed on January 20th, 2001.

QUOTE (shipps @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 01:06 PM) Patriots Samuel Adams

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 11:59 AM) The White House response is less than thrilled. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/white.house.energy/ OF course they are. That $20 billion or so in oil subsidies and another year's delay in building up alternative energy is worth a lot more to the oil companies than those leases are.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 12:04 PM) Buffalo AFC East champs!

Vikings bench Jackson, turn to Frerotte.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 16, 2008 -> 12:03 PM) McCain supporter and former CEO of Hewlett Packard on the radio in St. Louis this morning. http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/090..._to_run_HP.html So, second most powerful job in the world? No problem! HP? Maybe not so much.... So, later yesterday, she clarified and said she didn't think that either McCain or Palin had the experience to run a large company (She won't be going on the tele too much anymore). Here's the question though. Now that the U.S. government has bought itself the nation's largest insurance company...don't we need a president with the skill to be CEO of a large company?

Do not pitch to Robin Ventura with the bases loaded. Seriously. Just don't.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 16, 2008 -> 08:59 PM) I was thinking the other day. Would it make sense to acquire Carson Palmer in the off-season. I haven't seen whats wrong in Cinncy but he always has impressed me but the Bengals have no running game, a horrid defense, and a terrible oline. This could be a perfect opportunity to buy a little low and get a guy who can be your QB for 4-6 years. The problem is...teams typically don't trade their one franchise level QB unless something else happens. Either they have a backup who appears ready to step in, they spend a draft pick on a QB who plays well, or the QB gets hurt and their backup shows ability. Even bad teams tend to stick with their QB's until something else becomes available. I just don't see how the Bengals would do anything like moving their QB unless he gets hurt.

QUOTE (knightni @ Sep 17, 2008 -> 08:37 AM) worm bait