Balta1701

Brian Anderson will be a pleasant surprise. Maybe not for the White Sox.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 02:15 PM) Well, it certainly wasn't a deal that was "on the up and up" by both parties, but her part in this, is to me, a lot smaller than the dealership's. She said she honestly believed she thought she would be returning to her previous income level of $6k/mo very shortly. I'm sure quite a few people fudge a bit about their income when buying a car, but that notwithstanding, this was her mistake and her fault. But it is still his role to say "Ma'am, I understand that, and I have full faith that you will be returning to that income level shortly, but until then, I simply cannot obtain the necessary financing for this vehicle with the current state of your financial situation. Perhaps we could interest you in some more affordable models, or you could come back and get financing for this vehicle once you return to your previous income level." And that fact that he didn't is a far larger transgression in my opinion than what she did. Actually, I don't believe that's the dealer's role at all. He's made his money here, the dealer's job is to sell a car on a contract that is either cash or that his finance person will approve. It's the job of whomever the finance person is to determine whether or not the person is actually qualified for the contract that the dealer wrote. Or at least, that's what his job was supposed to be...but the problem I keep pointing to is that in the last few years his job changed from making sure people could pay the loan to writing as many loans as possible so that he could sell those loans off to some other bank or hedge fund. Pay attention to where the incentive is in each of these cases. The remarkable thing here is that each person is acting rationally in how the new system was built. If she can find some financing way to maneuver herself into a car she rightly shouldn't be able to afford, then that's a logical thing for her to do. If she wanted a car she couldn't afford, then it's in the car dealer's interest to try to sell her one. If it's in the loan officer's interest to write as many loans as possible, then he doesn't care about the quality of them. When you build a system where each person acting in their interest produces a disasterous result, then you might consider that the problem is with the system, not the people involved.

QUOTE(Mplssoxfan @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 02:48 PM) There's no doubt that Clinton is running a solid campaign. I was in her corner until about six months ago, when I apparently started drinking lots of Kool-Aid. You're in Minnesota, so you don't count anyways.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 02:17 PM) Why exactly do we need Roberts now? Because you can only win with veterans at every position. Danny Richar isn't a veteran, and therefore he's a loser.

Obama may score the full SEIU endorsement.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 02:11 PM) I don't know anymore than you guys do. I am hearing that one of the victims is a teacher. I think that comment is meant more out of concern than out of curiosity. at least that's how i took it.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 01:28 PM) 1) Uribe has no value in a deal for Roberts. He'd go to Baltimore simply in a salary dump. 2) The Sox would have to give up 3-4 minor leagues to get Roberts, further destroying any depth the Sox may have at the minor league system. 3. The White Sox have no, and I mean no tradeable minor leaguers who the Orioles should be genuinely interested in compared to what 28 other teams in the league could offer. There's no way we could outbid even a moderate deal from the Cubs.

Jermaine Dye also has a full NTC for this season.

QUOTE(lvjeremylv @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 12:52 PM) OJ beat the state of California. Roger is going up against the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Huge, huge difference. For me, the sworn statement from Andy Pettitte is going to be enough to ruin Roger's chances at escaping prison time. I think a surprising amount will depend on the quality of the evidence McNamee kept. If he actually has a needle with HGH residue and Clemens's blood on it, then it's over. If he turns those things over to the Feds and they find B-12 and only B-12 in it, or can't find a trace of Clemens's blood/find someone else's, then that kills 2 of the 4 biggest problems for Clemens that we know about so far (The other 2 being Pettitte and the housekeeper).

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 12:55 PM) I think she should sue AUTONATION for selling the car and BMW for making the car. Maybe John Edwards can represent her. He is pretty good at making up arguments to win cases for clients and he has some time on his hands. "My 6 year old had her intestines sucked out by your faulty pool filter! And this was the 12th time it happened with your same design to a person, and yet you haven't fixed it!" "Ha! What ever happened to personal responsibility? This is just another case of a lawyer making up arguments to win cases for his clients. You don't really need your intestines anyway".

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 12:42 PM) It is making the electoral college look better. But honestly, I'm hoping for a floor fight, a 10 rounded. Lots of speeches and ballots. I think based on current rules you really need 3 viable candidates for that to happen. If there's only 2, then 1 of them is bound to get 50%+1 on the first ballot. Unless some people don't vote.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 11:20 AM) If the Clinton's were all that this would not be a race. Isn't it possible that hte Clintons are running a solid campaign but Obama is just running a better one? I'll submit this as evidence of that claim:

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 10:10 AM) Or what? If Hillary loses the nomination, what power and sway do they have? They'll be pushed aside for the "new guard" brought in by younger, more energetic politicians like Obama and they know it. Which is why they may well do whatever it takes to make sure Hillary keeps the nomination. Neither side will be able to wrap this up without Superdelegates. The numbers just aren't there. If Obama won every state from here on out, but Hillary still pulled in 40-45%, he still wouldn't have enough delegates to get the nomination without the supers.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 10:02 AM) because I'm some how motivating an army of raspy voiced lesbiens to vote for Hillary who wouldn't have otherwise voted? Because you're embarrassing anyone else who votes for someone other than Hillary enough to make them want to vote for Hillary to spite you and all the other people who think like that. It's the same effect you get if someone comes out and says we shouldn't vote for that uppity n*gro. I have no urge to be affiliated with people like that, and I will happily use my vote to shut them up.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 09:55 AM) If she wins, I'm cancelling my membership to NPR....it'll be 4 years of that raspy lesbo voice. Blech. No thanks. Maybe some day, people out there will realize that the best way to keep Hillary Clinton in office and to help her advance is to keep making remarks exactly like this one.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 09:48 AM) So why exactly will Clinton get the bulk of the remaining superdelegates to back her? The simple answer is...a lot of them served in various locations, i.e. Congress, during the Clinton years. Which means they all probably owe the Clintons a lot of favors.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 09:37 AM) that being said...the document by all accounts was forged and the car company should be held accountable. But, they won't be. They've already made their money by selling the car and by selling the loan off to some bank/hedge fund somewhere, so they're no longer the one on the hook. And because the bank that bought the paper from them bought it without bothering to do any check on the quality of the loan, the dealer is probably going to wind up getting off without a problem. The bank will be left holding the bag for the loan, they'll repo the car but still lose a lot of money in the process, and then the federal government will step in with a big bailout to make sure the bank doesn't go under. Therefore, you'll get the buyer in jail and you'll pay taxes to run the jail, and you'll pay taxes to keep the bank afloat, while the people who made the loan and who bought and sold it will be happy with your money. Don't you know how much it costs to rent a penthouse apartment in Manhattan, damnit?!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 09:23 AM) Do you expect them to commit crimes as well? Sad that we would accept that. As long as the government steps in to bail out the banks, everyone's happy!

Goodell tells Specter that the Pats have been illegally taping opponents' defensive signals since Belichik took over the team in 2000.

But hey, don't worry folks. She can go to jail, the car will be repossessed, and some bank will just have to write off the $50,000 in losses/depreciation. The bank's the one in trouble here, but it won't hurt you at all. D'OH.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 08:59 AM) He'll HAVE to do it. Otherwise, we go to a brokered convention, which is becoming a bigger possibility every day. And if that happens, we'll all annoit Queen Hillarity. There's no way a Clinton will lose a brokered convention. One interesting development lately is that there's starting to be a lot of pressure on the superdelegates to actually follow the will of the voters. Phone calls, etc. Something like what, 1/3 or 2/5 of them have already endorsed, but a majority are staying on the sidelines, seemingly for that reason.

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 08:32 AM) I want to knop who her accountant and financial advisors are. How this loser can still have money is beyond me. It HAS to be great investments. From previous reports, I think she has something like $750,000 in income a month from album sales, royalties, etc. The last thing I read on that topic a few months ago suggested that she was also spending something on the order of $750,000 a month. Which is probably directly related to why a judge had her family seize control of her assets.

QUOTE(DrunkBomber @ Feb 14, 2008 -> 08:00 AM) Going to a dealership isnt like going to a doctors office where they have to have your best interests in mind. They make more money the more they sell and I bet anyone in the salesmans shoes would do the same thing. Which is of course, why it's important to have someone who's job it is at some level to raise a flag and say "Hey, can you verify this income". It's fairly cheap, it used to be very common, and it used to be expected by people going for a loan. If the system was still working correctly, then no matter how many lies she told the dealer and how desperate the dealer was to make that sale...there would have still been an independent person in the way. Fraud only works if you don't have a person who's job it is to prevent it.

Here's a fun little story about how a specialist at Johns Hopkins University developed a system that could save tens of thousands of lives and billions of health care dollars each year in this country with a cost of a couple million dollars by instituting better procedures at hospitals, but because there's no profit in it for anyone except the consumer, there's no rush at all to add it to the program anywhere.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Feb 13, 2008 -> 06:12 PM) Ha, ESPN is saying that Devean George is blocking the Jason Kidd trade by evoking his no trade clause. LOL How in the world did he get a no trade clause? Don't you have to be with the same team for a long time, i.e. Kobe? Anyway, I was just thinking, if the Mavs trade did go down as written...the Mavs could actually really use Wallace, because they'd be losing their best interior defender in Diop and would basically be going with Eric Dampier versus Duncan, Shaq, Bynum/Gasol, etc. Of course, it's hard to see how they could pull that deal off without moving Dampier to us contract-wise.