Balta1701

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 24, 2007 -> 09:24 AM) And you're naive enough to think that they are going to "turn back over" that power? Please. No, I wasn't that naive, and that's the point. It should never have been allowed to get to this point at all, but with that classic combination of the Republicans controlling every house of Congress for 4 years and the constant calling of anyone who spoke out against their actions some version of the word "Traitor", this is where we wound up. You think that those warrantless wiretaps and that surveillance apparatus that winds up with people who speak out against the war unable to get onto airplanes isn't going to wind up hurting pro-GOP folks someday? We're going to be stuck in the mess GWBush created for a long, long time, and I'm not just talking about Iraq.

So, on this topic...while that Newsweek article is correct that it isn't at all the Bush Administration blocking the release of the Clinton era documents, the background about their stonewalling is that it's only possible thanks to legal battles being fought by the Bush Administration. That was from 2001. Just 2 weeks ago, portions of that order were overturned, but because there is no other procedure yet set in place, after the Bush Admin. threw out the old rules, right now everything appears to be in limbo. Some of us out there have been saying for a long time that everyone, not just the Democrats, would regret allowing the Bush administration to so dramatically expand Presidential powers in the past 7 years, because eventually, there was going to be another Democratic president. Here, you simply have one of the soon to be many cases of that.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Oct 22, 2007 -> 02:03 PM) Does anyone else find it absolutely historic that Tom Brady already has 27 touchdowns through 7 weeks? He's one away from breaking his own personal mark of 28, and is currently on pace for 61 touchdowns and barely 5 INTs. That's just freaking nuts. I think 50 touchdowns is definitely achievable, and almost likely. Their insane amount of talent mixed with a relatively weak schedule is going to lead the the best offensive season ever for QB... and Moss might score 20+ touchdowns! TMQ

talkbulls.com

Right now, I don't see much difference between this trade and the Neal Cotts/David Aardsma trade. Both sides thought they'd be getting something better out of it than what they got so far.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Oct 23, 2007 -> 04:13 PM) See ya JP. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Speaking kindly now, he'll be a nice project for some team in the future; it just won't be the Bills. Hard to disagree with that. I kinda liked Losman, but in the same way I kinda liked Grossman; he just should have been better than he was. Hopefully Edwards turns out a bit better. Can we start the Losman to the Bears talk now or do we have to wait until the end of the season?

NYT Full article

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Oct 23, 2007 -> 12:10 PM) So the analysis of Al Gore's movie gets deeper and deeper into "errors" made in the movie. A British court already counted 9 errors... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...amp;in_a_source I'm glad you're willing to accept the thinking of that British judge's decision. I really am. Because the results of that court decision are, to anyone who reads anything except for the major media version, i.e. actually goes to the raw documents, the decision looks like a disaster for anyone who doesn't believe in anthropogenic climate change.

AP

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Oct 23, 2007 -> 10:17 AM) Neville Chamberlain was an appeaser and a coward, to be sure, but he wasn't just an active coward: he was a moral coward. His goal in appeasing Hitler was greater than the appeasement of Hitler: Chamberlain wanted to appease Hitler so that Hitler would turn his attention to Stalin and destroy the USSR. He was a twisted little sissy. Just out of curiosity, what makes you so confident in that interpretation? Because honestly, it's one that I've only rarely, if ever, heard. By far the more common interpretation that I've come across in my studies is that Chamberlain was so willing to back down in no small part because Britain in 1938 was simply in no condition for war with Germany, and allowed the hope that he could in fact negotiate with Hitler to blend with that problem to wind up with the results we saw.

Obama seems like he's going to wind up pissing off a potentially important constituency here. Awful lot of negative press in the left leaning blogosphere and in the homosexual communities already.

It's like Hazing at this point. I feel like yelling "Thank you sir may I have another!"

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Oct 23, 2007 -> 07:26 AM) The costs of "cleaning up our environment" such that the Goracle proposes would pretty much shut down capitalism as we know it. But that's ok, socialism is really what most of them are after anyway. The last one - it really isn't that far off from what's happening. It's not about who's convincing who. It's about the reality of the world in which we live. Here's the other side of the issue though...when you refer to only the costs of mitigating the problem and compare it to a baseline, as was done in that "Kyoto costs" link, it assumes that the world's economy will be able to continue to churn forwards with no negative effects due to lack of mitigation efforts. In other words, it actually assumes a stable climate! The cost issue can not be dealt with by comparing the costs of mitigation to the costs of doing nothing in the case of a stable climate, because this situation can't exist. You can't argue that we shouldn't fight a fire by saying "if we don't fight the fire we won't have to pay the firemen overtime" because the cost of destroying San Diego has to be taken into account as well. We are literally talking about massive shifts here. Just a smattering of examples can be found in this section of the IPCC report. Things like significant changes in the glacial melt patterns that feed the rivers of southeast and central Asia on which 2 billion + people live, continued drying of the Southwestern U.S., northward shifting of growing seasons (imagine a U.S. that is too hot and dry to grow corn). It's also probably worth noting that the IPCC contains a cost estimate as well. I'll cite an executive summary since the language and diagrams are a bit hard to follow:

"No way. No. No Way." Aaron Rowand.

So, I was on a field excursion last weekend out to the Mojave, and got hammered by these winds. Perhaps the more interesting part is that had I not been on that trip, we had another trip planned that we killed at the last minute due to lack of attendance that was going to do some work in the areas around Santa Barbara, Oxnard, and Malibu. Had we had enough people we'd have been right in the area where that Malibu fire broke out. And also interestingly, the governor is sending in 1500 national guardsmen to assist in the areas. He's having to pull men off of the US/Mexico border to find them. I'm upwind of most of them right now but I'm still feeling pretty sh*tty from this air. Think it's time for me to head home.

Zakaria.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Oct 22, 2007 -> 12:18 PM) I've waited to comment on the HGH issue till I gave it some thought. Byrd ordered $25K worth of the stuff. Something stinks about this. Even with good insurance that's what prescriptions cost in this country!

So, I was out in the Mojave all weekend, and MERCY did we get slammed by those winds.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Oct 22, 2007 -> 12:01 PM) There is a mechanical, inevitableness to our government and I believe that is one of our strengths. We can elect the worst person possible or the greatest and the net effect is not all that much. Another way of explaining, taking the middle of the road, you ain't going to push the country to the left or right shoulder. At best, you may nudge it one way or another. So those that expect great changes from either party are being silly. Small directional changes, rarely large ones. Would any other Presidential Candidate from the last 8 years or so have invaded Iraq and done so in such a foolish way?

QUOTE(Alpha Dog @ Oct 18, 2007 -> 12:32 PM) Read it a little closer. Are you aware HE (Savage) hates Bush? You lumped him with republicans/conservatives, and he does NOT identify himself with them. He just hates them less than Democrats. So you can come down off your high horse now before you get hurt, no assumptions were made here about you, at least not by me. Aside from Michael Savage and the people who make him money....who does Michael Savage not hate?

QUOTE(29andPoplar @ Oct 18, 2007 -> 11:55 AM) Ok folks Lew Ford was granted free agency by the Twins. What are the odds Williams brings him in on a minor league deal or goes ahead and signs him for a year, and yes I know Ford's been bad the last two years. I'd rather have him than Erstad. At least he can hit from the right side of the plate.

Stephen's people actually did consult the local parties before going ahead with this action.

Doddmania.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 18, 2007 -> 09:59 AM) The Democratic Senate appears ready to completely cave on Mr. Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, legalizing everything he's done and could ever want to do and simultaneously giving amnesty to all of the telecom companies who violated the law in the past 6 years (starting, according to the CEO of Quest, in Feb. 2001). There is at least a faint hope that one of the Dem. Senators (the Blogosphere is hoping for Sen. Dodd) will step up and put a hold on this bill, stopping it at least temporarily in its tracks. And so, clearly the point of the 2006 election was that the President should be given every single thing he wants. And people wonder why the Congress has had its approval ratings tank since they started caving on the Iraq war. And Chris Dodd comes through by putting a hold on said bill. If Stephen's not on the ballot, Dodd now officially has a decent shot at my vote out here.

QUOTE(Chombi and the Fungi @ Oct 18, 2007 -> 11:15 AM) Real quick...What happened to Milwaukees other young arms? I know they dealt Inman to SD in that linebrink deal, but what happend to the high school kid they took in 2004. I don't remember much about him, just remember reading about star athletes from around the country in my class. I thought the Brewers had him, maybe I am wrong. Their first rounder that year was a high schooler named Mark Rogers, big time fastball but lotta delivery issues. Still hanging around in their minor leagues at age 20, somewhat struggling. Their 2nd rounder that year was Yovanni Gallardo, who's already with the big league club.