Balta1701

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 07:20 AM) As I mentioned, *they* may have done it poorly, but certainly they have already talked about the mortgage crisis, I can't believe NAFTA is still an issue; Iraq, economy, etc, again covered many times over. I guess then in your opinion, debaters should keep hammering away at the economy, Iraq, etc. and BARELY touch on anything else? Ican understand that, but one debate for an hour or so, out of the tens of thousands of hours they will speak, seem trivial enough to allow for minor subjects and characters. In fact, if anything, I think there has been aterrible job done of expanding beyond the top four or five positions. We certainly have the time and resources. There are probably a few dozen issues out there though that haven't been covered more than in a cursory way. I can come up with about 5 right off the top of my head that either deal with recent events or could at least provoke thoughtful responses. 1. Global warming (thanks to the coal industry's sponsorship of about 1/2 of the debates this term, I think that there's been basically 1 question asked of any candidate by a professional reporter, and 1 other asked by a snowman. In probably 30 some debates between the 2 sides) 2. China. How do you respond to the crackdown on Tibetan monks, and how can the U.S. put pressure on China to improve its human rights while at the same time needing China to support its currency and support its negotiating position on North Korea? 3. Torture. Not the "Are you in favor of it" question, but "I=What can be done with the American government to prevent another administration from authorizing the use of torture as a national policy in the future"? 4. Hamas. Mr. Obama recently said that while he was willing to negotiate with other leaders, he was unwilling to do the same with Hamas. If that is the case, how do you expect the middle east peace process to be moved forwards? 5. What are your reactions to the current mess in the aviation industry, and what steps will your administration take to prevent them in the future? Conversely, how will these steps be paid for and who will foot the bill? Yes, a lot of questions have been covered in a lot of detail, like Iraq, etc. But if we're going to have this many debates, let's actually hit some creative policy minutia questions. It's not like in a 3 trillion dollar government running 2 poorly executed wars there's not more than a few of them.

QUOTE (NUKE @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 07:54 AM) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1 Even the Washington Post, that bastion of conservative thought thinks Carter is wrong. Just how are we supposed to get anything sone in the middle east when we have this guy running around lending legitimacy to a known terrorist leader? Seems Mr Carter is getting a little senile in his old age and now he's every bit as bad of an EX-president as he was an actual one. Doesn't the fact that they won the Gaza elections grant them legitimacy? How exactly has our policy of totally turning our backs on the people of Gaza and allowing seemingly everyone to wall off that area and block its contact to the outside world strengthened the position of either us or Israel or anyone in the Middle East that we like?

Go-Go Gavin right arm!

QUOTE (daa84 @ Apr 17, 2008 -> 07:08 AM) i wouldnt be shocked, at least if the sox are in contention if they make a run at harden or blanton, of course harden would have to be healthy, which is very unlikely The going rate for Blanton last offseason was reportedly "Hughes and Chamberlain". Billy Beane tends to like to keep at least one piece of his rotation around so that there's some stability and something of a more veteran presence when he works in kids. See: Zito being kept despite his trade value when Mulder and Hudson were dealt and Blanton, Harden, and Haren moved in.

Editor & Publisher's top guy Greg Mitchell is already on record calling out ABC and the candidates for going along with it.

The crowd at the debate seems to have booed and heckled Gibson at the last commercial break. Video here. It was enough that he said "The crowd is turning on me".

QUOTE (Cali @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 07:50 PM) Is Richar even off the DL yet and rehabbing in Charlotte? Either way, I would assume the Sox brass will keep Uribe out there at least through Mid-May and if he's still barely hitting .200 and Richar is hitting well for the Knights then they make the switch. Either making a trade with some team whose GM has a severe lack of judgement or just cutting him and eating the 4.5 million. Richar probably won't begin a rehab stint for a couple weeks still. He might be able to be ready to go mid-May by the way things have sounded lately, assuming no setbacks and a solid performance when his rehab stint starts. If Uribe's still hitting in the .200 area mid-May, and Richar comes back and resumes raking at AAA and feels good, I don't see how the team could keep Uribe there full time.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 06:44 PM) Check out the blogs and Digg. ABC is getting torn a new one. Are the right wing sites having the same reaction or are they eating it up?

QUOTE (max power @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 07:29 PM) I have a feeling that as soon as we lose a couple games due to slumping hitting you people will all be on uribe's case. Why wait until that happens? Its going to happen. Well, right now the only alternative is to give playing time at 2nd base to either Pablo or Alexei. I think playing Lexi there wouldn't be a bad idea for some of these games, personally. But if Uribe can't get the bat out of his behind, then when Richar gets off the DL, at the least it'll be time for a platoon at 2nd base.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 06:16 PM) A big article in the Sun-times about a new Obama endorsement http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obam...a041608.article this is important news, obviously. I'd be more than happy to never hear again about a celebrity endorsement of a candidate if I also didn't have to hear about all the other garbage that's clogged up the airwaves for the last few months.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 06:10 PM) MSNBC has stated it this way: The first half was the "tabloid" segment. And rightly so. Let's talk about Lindsey Lohan's drug and alcohol problem while we are at it. I keep thinking..."Maybe this will be the bottoming out that finally winds up making the media take steps to reform". Then they manage to throw themselves a shovel.

QUOTE (CWSGuy406 @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 05:40 PM) I'll be upfront and honest that politics is not my arena, but... Is it just me or is this debate frustrating as hell? I've watched the first half-hour and they still have yet to talk about actual policy issues, instead talking about the Bosnia/Reverend Wright bulls*** that's been beaten to a bloody pulp. I'm finding this very, very frustrating... They have 90 minutes to talk about issues and instead we see this crap. Am I way off on this? Please, if I am, tell me I am... At pretty much every place I'm reading, I'm getting the exact same reaction, that they spent the first hour of the debate going through the Bitter stuff, the Wright stuff, the Flag pin, an on an on with the worthless trivialities. The reaction I'm seeing is that there wasn't a clear winner, but there was a clear loser: the American people, because they're all dumber for having witnessed ABC's handling of this one.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 06:41 PM) It does suck that we only scored in the first inning. But I really like to see the sox win these low scoring games. It means so much to be able to hold a fairly small lead for 8 innings I know it doesn't seem like it, but coming in to tonight, the Sox actually had scored the 4th most runs in MLB.

QUOTE (lord chas @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 06:23 PM) you would think the reds would get some pitching one of these years Between Volquez, Harang, Cueto, Arroyo, and maybe eventually Bailey...they're working on it. Seriously.

The last time through our rotation, our whole pitching staff has an ERA of 0.8, and our Starters have an ERA of .74.

QUOTE (RME JICO @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 05:36 PM) 4 runs allowed in the last 46 innings, all I can say is wow. Only 4 HRs allowed and 0 Blown Saves. The last time through our rotation, our whole pitching staff has an ERA of 0.8, and our Starters have an ERA of .74.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 15, 2008 -> 01:11 PM) Our last time through the rotation, our starters have given up this many runs: 4 0 0 2 0 On top of that, 1 of Jose's runs was given up after he left and Logan came in. None have gone less than 6+ innings. Add a "1" at the end of that. Our starters have given up 3 runs in their last 5 outings. That's 3 runs in 36.1 innings. That's an ERA of 0.74.

Damn this is a quick moving game.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 05:49 PM) I'm sure he'll be out there to start the 7th. 81 pitches through 6. 2 run lead. No reason not to put him out for the 7th.

Nice, come back in and find Jose giving up 1 run through 5. Can't complain.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 02:47 PM) doesn't Markakis kill sox pitching? 14/38 against the Sox in his career with 1 home run. Translates to a 1.008 OPS overall. Buehrle and Danks have been battered by him, although JD has only faced him in 1 outing, MB probably has pitched 3 times against him. He's 3/7 with 1 double and 1 walk off of Jose. Never faced Floyd.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 02:15 PM) That's a valid point, but I don't think there was a radical shift between 2000 (VP nomination) or 2004 (running for nomination) and now. He was all for the Democrats a short while ago. It's different when you look at it over a longer time scale. 9/11 changed everything?

Officially to the 15 day DL for Soriano.

There's still a week to go, but my eyes seem to tell me there's an interesting dynamic developing amongst the pollsters. Today, we got 2 more margin of error polls, the Philadelphia Daily News has it 46/40 Clinton, Public Pollicy Polling has it 45/42 Clinton. In other words, we're setting up a dynamic where basically it's Survey USA and the seemingly garbage ARG poll being the only ones saying Hillary has a 10+ lead, while all of the other polls, including the ones done by local pollsters, have it much closer, margin of error or less, sometimes with more undecideds (which hypothetically you'd expect to break more for Obama than Clinton since he's probably benefited from the "Challenger/Incumbent" effect more than she has, since people have known her for longer). Usually the local polls have done all right this race, but you can say the same about SUSA. Could change before Tuesday, but it's worth noting.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 16, 2008 -> 09:35 AM) Prepared for any instance? What if there were 10 mountain lions? How can you prepare yourself for that? If there's a rattlesnake about to attack you...do you say "Please Mr. Rattlesnake, you'd never attack me, please go away back into the wild" or do you grab the nearest object and try to hit the SOB? I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous that people are upset that a mountain lion, with claws and teeth and probably a bit of hunger too, made it's way into a city where it could harm people, and police killed it. Throwing something at the Rattler is likely only to piss it off more and encourage it to strike.