Balta1701

Ok, this seems a bit underhanded. We all know that Obama's heading overseas this weekend, but it seems like they've been trying to keep the exact details under wraps for security reasons, especially the timing of visits to specific countries. Reuters is running an article now saying that this morning, Senator McCain may have divulged some of the details they were trying to keep quiet, including potentially the day of his Iraq visit. If Obama's schedule did originally call for arriving in Iraq today or tomorrow...then that's probably a pretty obnoxious security breach by the McCain camp there. Or he could have just been talking off the cuff...but still, if the Service is that worried about security that they're telling him he can't visit certain locales, shouldn't you be a bit careful with those sorts of details?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 01:19 PM) 59 posts and I can't believe I haven't seen it yet. Far and away the winner, IMO... Michael Vick. Why? Right now, he's the best player in his league.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 10:38 AM) Stepping down while they run. I'd actually have more respect for someone if they acknowledged that, hey, if I can't do my current job and run for President, then maybe I should choose one or the other. That would be a decision with a little courage behind it. Let me fire back another analogy at you. Let's say you decided to start looking for a new job. Going to interviews, etc. Should you quit your old job before you find out if you're getting a new one? Let's say you're even spending some of your work time on the job search (be smart, don't get yourself fired because you emailed out a resume or something like that). Is that a rule you'd personally follow?

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 09:16 AM) I agree 100%. 10 years was WAY too drastic. My apologies for not remembering this quote right, but my Jr High volleyball coach once said something along the lines of "if you shoot for the sun, you'll get to the moon. if you shoot for the moon, you'll get to the street light". I think it was said more artful than that, but you get my point. I say shoot for the sun and be happy with the moon. Here's the remarkable thing about Mr. Gore's speech though...let's say we set his goal. Let's say we shoot for a carbon free electricity generation system by 2020 capable of meeting the growing energy demands of this country. We've all been casually following the growing developments in wind, solar, and other sorts of electricity generation, and there's still an awful lot of low-hanging fruit left in terms of energy efficiency and energy recovery that hasn't even been touched in this country. Let's say we push hard. Let's say we clear some of the regulatory hurdles to wind farms in places (ahem, Senator Kennedy...), let's say we spend the hundred billion dollars we're going to need to spend to upgrade our transmission system in ways that focus on prepping for a carbon free generation system, let's say we put out the tax incentives, the government puts out major amounts of startup funding...etc. If everything were to go right starting on January 20th of 2009, do you think Mr. Gore's goal is achievable? Honestly, I think I do. It will take a major, major investment, it will take everything being done right by a lot of very smart people, it will take locking a lot of oil executives and the Senators they've bought at Gitmo for 10 years, but I'm starting to think it could be done. But let's say we fail. Let's say we get to 40, or 50, or 75, or 90% renewable by that day. Instead of the measly 5 we're at now. Let's say we put ourselves on a path that gets us there by 2025, or 2030. What happens then? Well, we dramatically improve our security by securing our energy grid and cutting down the amount of money we're dumping on foreign countries. We stimulate local growth by funding all the new energy infrastructure construction. We generate an enormous amount of technology jobs. We dramatically improve our environment. And, I'll let Mr. Gore's words speak on this one... The more renewables you develop...the more money you spend on developing them, the more energy you want from them, the cheaper they are. That is the key point here. The higher we aim on wind and solar, the easier it will be to get there, because the cheaper the transition will be.

Hi folks. This always bugs me insanely, not sure why but it does...but I just always get annoyed with finding 3 different threads appearing about the same trade. Wondering which forum to stick your trade related news in? Here's your formula. If it's a rumor involving any team or player, any deal that isn't yet completed...stick it in Trade Winds. If it is a completed trade involving the White Sox, it will be moved to Pale Hose Talk, so stick it there. If it is a completed trade involving a team not named the Chicago White Sox...place it in the Diamond Club. Simple enough I hope?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 09:46 AM) A couple of extra forms? HA! Now that is funny. We are talking about the federal government here. The same groups who brings you things like passports, social security, welfare, medicade, and all of those "couple of extra forms" offices that are so effecient and clean. I'd be willing to bet that a government run agency for this stuff would double the average time required to close on a house. You know, I really do consider this argument fascinating. Take a look where we are now. We're in a gigantic mess triggered by lax regulation of the mortgage industry. We're about to have to pump probably hundreds of billions of public dollars in to these organizations to bail them out because of the fact that we didn't regulate this process well enough. And we're really still in the first part of the bursting of this bubble...it's probably going to take years to fully recover if it ever actually does. And yet...you're more scared of government bureaucracy, this scary thing that gets unpacked off in the distance as something that's worse than what we already have in every single case...than you are of the mess that's already been created. That's just a point of view I can't subscribe to...I just can't point at the implosion of a huge swath of the economy leading to gigantic government bailouts and think...."Well, at least it doesn't take twice as long to close on a house because the government isn't involved". If it would have prevented the mortgage bubble from growing and bursting...I don't see how doubling the average closing time is that much worse than the economic chaos we're seeing now.

So, one of our good friends over in the other thread noted that it'd actually be possible to expand drilling off the California coast more rapidly than most places in the country. This of course...gives me a wonderful opportunity to point out why exactly these drilling moratoria exist in the first place. They actually began after an oil spill from a drilling platform in the very same Santa Barbara channel that we're now so desperate to drill in 1969. 200,000 gallons of oil contaminated long stretches of the expensive coastline along the channel north of L.A. when the drilling caused ruptures along the ocean floor. And, just for some more fun, I'd also like to note that 200,000 gallons of oil isn't all that much for a spill. It is less than 1/3 of what was spilled by Katrina and Rita in 2005 in the Gulf.

Just for the fun of it...I'm going to point out that the Gristmill article you used is a wonderful example of what we call "quote-mining"...taking a quote out of context in order to prove a point. Here's an example: Now...the problem is...he wasn't talking about 100% renewable. He was talking about specifically 100% wind power...saying nothing about solar. He used natural gas fired furnaces to fill in the rest in his analysis, but he specifically notes in his article that he was writing only about wind energy, not about solar, not about nuclear, etc. But hey, never let reality get in the way of a good thesis.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 09:28 AM) That is just depressing. Can you imagine having to go through government red tape to buy a house? The process already sucks enough, this would be horrible. Hmmmm.... Extra couple forms to fill out complete meltdown of our banking and financial system leading to global recession.

Mark...3rd quarter, same as the 2nd. Tear em apart!

QUOTE (maki @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 09:16 AM) what do we think the blanton news does for dusch? Honestly...I don't think it does anything. If Beane gets a fair, high-value offer for him, similar to what he got back for Haren, he'll move him. If he doesn't, he'll hold.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 05:25 AM) I think he's a good GM and it would be interesting to see what he could do with a $100+ million payroll. Of course, sometimes guys are a lot better on the cheap. I think there's a good chance that Beane would be worse off if he had money to play with. The fact that he's forced to let people go or trade them early makes it so that he doesn't get caught holding the bag for very many bad contracts. Couple of example cases; look at the contract he gave to Esteban Loaiza. Look at him holding on to Zito as the veteran anchor of his pitching staff. If he had a $100 mil bill to play with, he might well have been crazy enough to get in on the bidding for Zito or something like that.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 18, 2008 -> 04:14 AM) Is it the same statue that is being displayed in the first base coach's box during the home half of every inning at USCF? I still beat you to the joke by like 18 hours.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 07:58 PM) What? Tired of ramen noodles with a cracked egg mixed in? The price of eggs has jumped nearly 50% in the last year. They're one of the fastest increasing priced foods.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 06:20 PM) I think we all might be looking at this the wrong way. What if Ichiro wants out of Seattle, and he is (silently) banging the drums of upper management so he can get out? Im sure ichiro wants a shot at winning a World Series sometime, and he isnt getting any younger, his window is closing. With the implosion of the Mariners this year, they have to be at least 2-3 years away from contending again. Im not going to say that the M's owe Ichiro per se, but he has certainly done a lot for the franchise, and im sure they recognize that. who knows, crazier things have happened. And I also agree that Ichiro is pretty much the icing on the cake for the White Sox. Ichiro could demand a trade from Seattle to their management and that still wouldn't mean that we wouldn't have to put together a package that can beat the offer coming from all those other teams that have money and would love to get a player of his caliber. Think the Yankees or Red Sox wouldn't want a piece of that action? And both of them have much higher value'd guys to try to sell. And beyond that then you can look at the upstart teams with all the talent who are cheap for so long (the D-Backs come to mind), I'd throw the Angels in only because it seems that the more CF's they have the happier they are...etc. Unless Ichiro says "Trade me to the Chicago White Sox or I go public with these pictures" you do not get him without a package centered around Danks or Quentin, because those are the only bullets we have that could beat packages centered around guys like Hughes, Kennedy, Cabrera/Ellsbury, Lester, etc.

"Louisville Bats designated hitter Rob Mackowiak ejected by HP umpire Damien Beal"

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 05:50 PM) Did I mention that I caught the last showing of the musical in Vegas last weekend?

On the heels of Gore's "Carbon free energy" speech today, here's an analysis from an admittedly biased person from within the wind energy community saying that if you focus on wind power and you put the money in to the system that we're going to have to spend on new plants anyway, it's actually possible to get to somewhere between 50 and 90% of our electric demand from wind within 15 years...but the most important requirement in doing so is fixing the regulatory schedule at the national level which has served to absolutely kill wind energy development thanks to the fact that the Congress keeps allowing the wind energy tax incentives to expire every other year. Even if he's wrong, it's still an interesting analysis, take a look.

QUOTE (Flash Tizzle @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 04:31 PM) UH OH. You know, there is a separate AL Central catch-all thread...

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 03:53 PM) and when those players reach the MLB and start playing well, he'll dump them off all beane cares about is saving money, while making money. not fielding a successful MLB product If that's the case...it's not a mandate that comes from Beane.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 03:14 PM) Orton can't get the ball downfield far enough for Devin. Eventually, if he's going to be a big time receiver, he has to get used to getting past people on short throws as well as long ones. But I still think Grossman winds up the opening day starter barring injury.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 03:56 PM) Not a huge Blanton fan, but a move to the NL could be nice for him. With all the good things happening with the young guys in Oakland already this year, I'm actually surprised how bad Blanton has been. Went from an ERA just below 4 last year to an ERA just below 5 so far this year.

Considering the price for Blanton last offseason was Hughes + Chamberlain...something tells me the price came down a bit.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 17, 2008 -> 02:30 PM) Floyd, Egbert, Shelby, Richard, Anderson, Fields. Doable? If I'm the Mariners...no, I don't do that deal (unless my scouts just adore Floyd...I wouldn't be sure what I'd get if I moved him again though if I were in their front office.) If I'm talking to the White Sox, I want one of Danks or Quentin as the centerpiece and I don't need to accept anything less.