Balta1701

QUOTE(Brian @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 12:56 PM) I don't think it hurts his draft chances much. It is not like it is a knee or leg problem. Shoulder injuries suck, but he can recover easily from it and be fine. Well, the counterpoint is...this is his 2nd injury on that same shoulder, and there's a strong possibility it could cause him to miss a decent chunk of training camp just to let it heal.

The popular Iraqi blogger Riverbend and her family have decided that it's time for them to pack it up, leave Baghdad, and become refugees.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 10:16 AM) I know what will get everyone posting... You will see $3.00 gas nationwide on average within two weeks. Probably more like $3.50 in Chicago. For God's sake i'd love to pay $3 again. Haven't seen that since November.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 12:05 PM) I agree. I also find it amazing how much support he is getting from the grass roots level. All the $100 or less donations have added up to quite a large sum in Q1. He really has a huge buzz and feel-good aura about him that few politicians ever get. He also seems to be quite liked by moderates even though his voting record has been quite left-leaning. I think the most amazing thing about Mr. Obama goes along with this. Normally, at this point in a campaign, candidates can turn out people in the hundreds, even if they're going for bigger rallies and not small meetings with big donors. Obama has been turning out crowds in the tens of thousands and has been doing so regularly for months. It's simply hard for me to fathom how that will impact the race, but it's a phenomenon I don't think we've ever seen. At this point in 03, the Dean campaign was just barely holding its first meetups, and I doubt Dean could have turned out 10k from the entire country.

Never like to see that happen to anyone not named Bonds.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 10:54 AM) And in the continuing kicking of Mark Prior, because he was on the minor league DL when he had his surgery, this season will NOT count towards his major league service time. He will now have to wait until after the 2009 season to be a major league free agent. He still gets what, $4 million for this season? I'm not that concerned. The question remains...what will the Cubs decide to do with him next offseason if he comes at the same price.

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 11:34 AM) I haven't heard too muhc about Richardson, but I like what I have (so far). Anyone have a good website with a comprehensive summary on the different candidates' positions? edit: I found this site. Anyone know if its any good? http://www.ontheissues.org/Bill_Richardson.htm I still like what I see on an overwhelming majority of issues. Part of the problem with this whole discussion about stances on issues is that we're still what, a year and a half from the general, and at least 9 months from even the first primaries? This process has become so bloody drawn-out that things which take time, like developing detailed policy reccomendations that go beyond the simple "Get out of Iraq" or "Universal health care" sentiments just haven't had time to be fully developed and vetted...by almost any of the candidates. And even if they have developed full plans, its entirely possible things will change from the details currently written down before the votes start coming in. So right now, all we really have to evaluate most of these guys is the way they carry themselves, their speaking abilities, and roughly one or two moderate policy differences (i.e. do we withdraw totally from Iraq or do we keep a rapid-action force of some sort nearby, etc.).

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 09:48 AM) Yeah but unlike you, she is too pretty to go to jail. Maybe I should get one of those separator-thingies installed in my teeth. Would that help? On a different subject...

Link.

Adrian Peterson re-injured his shoulder in the Fiesta Bowl. The injury has previously only been disclosed to NFL teams. IMO, this kid keeps looking like a riskier and riskier pick for the health reasons. There are just some people who seem drawn to these sorts of freaky injuries.

Condi Rice to defy a subpoena. You know...if I were to do that...defy a subpoena (hopefully none are issued for me any time soon) I can imagine I'd wind up spending quite some time in jail.

So, question...does this mean that Rogowski was able to clear waivers and no one else had any interest in picking him up?

Tear them apart Jose.

Was Luis on the 40-man?

I dunno, it looked like it might have had some promise, but Fox started off by pissing me off by running the premier over the Simpsons/Family guy time block, and that's never a good way to start a relationship with me. Plus I just didn't really have time for another 1 hour show right now.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 09:04 AM) Does that mean we shift more burden to them? Isn't that exactly what you guys have been trying to do with the tax code?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 26, 2007 -> 05:50 AM) Personal plea: please re-think Edwards. Dig a little deeper - I think there is very little substance there. I'm still leaning in Obama's direction, but honestly, Edwards has run a much better and much smarter campaign the last 2 months. Just look at their 2 statements...Obama comes off whining about Rudy being mean, and Edwards just comes out and calls B.S. on a B.S. statement. The correct response to this sort of impugning of the Dems is exactly what Edwards did; call B.S. on it and actually come out looking strong. Edwards seems to be setting the curve on everything...trying to control carbon emissions as part of his campaign, being the first to pull out of the Fox News hosted debates, getting policy positions out there that make sense. Obama's a hell of a speaker, but in terms of running the campaign, Edwards seems a step ahead of him at every point. And we've seen in the past 2 elections that no matter what you do, if you run a crappy, disorganized campaign, the Republicans are going to win.

I think the biggest problem we're learning about with the latest data is that Europe did things the wrong way. The Europeans set up their system by going to the companies that were already using energy and saying "Here you go, here are all your carbon offsets" for the stuff they were already using. Thus, all of the power over the system was in the hands of the people who were already emmitting. Some of them did things the right way and actually invested in green technology to free up carbon offsets for sale...and it appears quite a few did not. It looks like this is giving us an important lesson in how to set up a better system if the rest of the world (aka the U.S. and China) ever get involved. Specifically, we can't put all of the power over the system in the hands of people who are looking to make a profit at any cost. It appears that it would be much better, rather than issuing carbon credits, to set up a carbon tax system, where an entity charges businesses that don't comply and rewards those that do comply rather than giving away carbon credits that businesses can sell.

According to this morning's Tribune:

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 09:57 PM) Steroids in baseball aren't a big deal to anyone. We all pretend they are -- Bonds is the devil -- but nobody cares. Well, except for the families of those dead kids.

That show has already played 4 times? Man, where have I been?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 09:37 PM) We are channeling Pinella "We're really primed to hit the ground running this year" "Oh just wait, we're built to be a summer team" "We're going to close out this season strong, I can feel it." "Wait til next year"

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Apr 25, 2007 -> 08:52 PM) As far as we know, carbon-based is necessary for life, but we certainly don't know everything. I don't know if science has some how (accurately) ruled out other forms of life existing elsewhere. Life is remarkably adaptable, so it wouldn't surprise me if non-carbon life were out there. They key phrase that will usually be said is "Life as we know it". As far as we know, carbon is key to life because of its abundance and the way it behaves in chemical compounds. If there is some other energetic configuration out there that can give rise to a self-replicating organism on which natural selection acts, we simply have no concept of how it operates.

Well, at least Erstad saw 1 more pitch than Anderson. That counts, right?

This is going to do wonders for Both Boone's confidence and Ozzie's confidence in him.