Balta1701

Hmmm, according to a Random blurb in the LA Times about police activity during the Rose Bowl...there's a strong suggestion that Pasadena is starting to plan for the death of the BCS and the birth of a 1 game post bowl playoff.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 10:10 PM) Missed FG's does not mean defensive battle all the time. In fact, in that game it meant horrible kickers. I agree it always seems much more entertaining to have offenses and defenses fighting to determine the end of the game than inaccurate field goal kickers. 1 miss, maybe even 2 misses are tolerable, but eventually you just start hanging your head. Especially in college OT, when they practically start you off in FG range, and you can literally go 3 and out and still kick.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 05:11 PM) Its weird because I have the same feeling. I thought all this talk of Tejada playing for the Sox was mostly BS, then KW says what he says and I think there's a chance he does. Manny said on espn.com that he's staying in Boston, so if he's telling the truth, that rules out one Tejada destination. I wouldnt' say Manny staying totally rules it out, the Red Sox still need a short stop, would like to dump Clement, and have both cash and prospects that could help make things happen. It's not likely, but it's still possible.

Have there actually been any Count to Philly rumors?

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 08:43 PM) Really goes against what Manny said in an ESPN article today. ESPNdeportes

QUOTE(Felix @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 09:10 PM) Well, the team got very lucky last year, and its unlikely that they will be as lucky next year. When you win 99 out of 162 games during that long of a season, eventually it's more than luck. We got lucky when catchers interference wasn't called on AJ in Game 3 against the Angels. We got unlucky when that ball was bounced off the wall in game 3 against the Astros and was ruled a home run when it should have been a double. We got lucky when Mark Buehrle's foot popped and it turned out to not be seriuos. We got unlucky when we got a monster DH back, and he wound up back on the DL. We got lucky when this 17th round draft pick suddenly discovered that no one could hit him. We got unlucky when he stopped throwing his changeup. Etc. That team was a very well built team. Yes, it had some luck. But it had both good and bad luck. And most of the good luck was either made by the team or implied by the plan the team was built around (i.e. we were lucky people stayed healthy, but on the other hand we had 3 starting pitchers well under 30 and a total of 6 starters ready to go, we had 2 backup closers, we had a young team overall which helped them stay healthy longer, etc.)

Seems Robertson is also considering building a Christian facility on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

College football games I've seen and remember? I dunno, probably top 10. But how many games does that include? Surprisingly few.

QUOTE(sec159row2 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 07:28 PM) http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/1/...1649.shtml?s=et this link kind of applies to both threads I posted it in... sorry if it isn't.. upon further review..... I googled some names out of this article and these guys were arrested, BUT... all their targets were in Europe... so the wiretapping is correct, the plot /targets media agenga is suspect... but consider the sourse right... newsmax... Of course, even if their targets were in the U.S., the NSA would have been fully within their legal rights to spy on those folks however much they wanted, because, once again...they're not US Citizens. But of course, there's always the question of whether or not these guys actually knew waht they were doing, or whether they were planning to say, go after the brooklyn bridge with blowtorches or something idiotic like that.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 03:59 PM) On paper, they addressed their needs and at the time like Edgar Renteria > Orlando Cabrera. They still got 95 wins, but injuries and a bunch of crap happened in that locker room. I think we win 95, make it to the ALCS and lose in 6. But that's why they play the games. Oh, I get it now. But at the same time, they still had only 3 reliable people in their bullpen coming into the season (Foulke, Timlin, and Embree), and their starting pitching was significantly down from the year before through the losses of Pedro and Lowe. They added Clement, who basically last year did exactly what he did every other year (with ERA adjustments for moving between leagues), and Wells, who is certainly getting up there in years, and they made no effort to plan for Schilling having any difficulty at all recovering from his injury.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 03:55 PM) I'm going with 95 simply because I thought Boston improved themselves over the prior year and s*** just happens.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 03:53 PM) Where did Brady go to college again? Wherever Charlie Weis was teaching.

Steve Smith and Tedy Bruschi have shared the NFL's Comeback player of the Year award.

Shaun Alexander has won the NFL's MVP award., ending Peyton Manning's 2 year streak.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 02:57 PM) I read them, great info. I read everything except the game-by-game pitcher summaries, which would be useful if I needed to do the same analysis, but which I'm just going to trust were done correctly and pay attention to the conclusions...a useful technique when evaluating large datasets in a limited amount of time.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 02:49 PM) The pitching rotation is terrible though. The Yankees had the #9 pitching staff in the AL last year by ERA, the Red Sox #11. The only teams worse than the Red Sox were the Rangers, Royals, and D Rays. Last year the NY Mets were the 3rd best pitching staff in the NL based on ERA. Only St. Louis and Houston were better. They put up a lower ERA than the Nats, the Braves, the Marlins, the Cubs, etc. They had the 4th best WHIP in the NL. They had the 2nd best OPS against them.

Does starting BMac in AAA actually slow the arbitration clock on him?

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 02:41 PM) In either case, what prevented the NSA or FBI or administration from attempting to obtain a FISA warrant within 72 hours after the surveillance started? As far as the information in the Newsweek article...in the first case, they actually did obtain the FISA warrant, unless the Newsweek article is wrong. See the block I excerpted above. In the second case, the FISA warrant was unnecessary, because the subject of the surveillance was not a U.S. citizen. FISA gives the government the power to legally conduct surveillance on non-U.S. citizens without seeking a warrant, so there was no need. Neither of these cases appears based on the Newsweek piece above to involve the specific program which we've been discussing, they both appear to involve normal usage of the FISA.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) I also would like to know if the number of active mines increased, decreased, or stayed the same while the budget was reduced 10%. Perhaps if the number of mines decreased 20% during that period we actually may have greater expenses per mine. 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 r/ 2004 r/ 2005 e/ Number of Mines (EIA) 1,726 1,591 1,453 1,478 1,427 1,316 1,379 1,400 Underground Mines (includes refuse) 827 749 707 719 682 602 586 625 Surface Mines (includes refuse) 899 842 746 759 745 714 771 775 According to the EIA - Energy information administration, the number of mines has increased in the past year. There were significant decreases in the number of active coal mines in the late 1990s, a trend which seems to have reversed in 2003-2005. Based on these numbers, there has been either virtually no change or a slight decrease in the man hours worked at the MSHA every year since 2001. However, it is worth noting that there does appear to have been a decrease in the total number of injuries in mines since 2004, although the number of fatal accidents has remained relatively constant between 25-42. Number of Mine Injuries 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 r/ 2004 r/ 2005 e/ Fatal 26 34 38 42 27 30 28 N/A All Injuries 7,934 6,621 6,429 6,299 6,039 5,168 5,129 N/A Main source here.

QUOTE(SpringfieldFan @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 02:23 PM) There is no need to worry about this. It is Baltimore saddled with a Nomar scenario right now, and KW is in the catbird seat. As disgruntled as Tejada with their management, if nothing happens before spring they might be forced into accepting Contreras for Tejada straight up. Well, I can wish anyway... SFF If I had to choose between that, and being saddled with the massive contracts of Ramirez and Clement, I'd do it simply for the money. But if the price for Tejada got so low that we could pull that deal off straight...it'd be insanity for other teams to not try to get into the game.

QUOTE(FlaSoxxJim @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 02:15 PM) Mine is in there somewhere. Mine too. Interesting piece on Dean's work @ the state level here if anyone is interested.

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 01:59 PM) Per USAToday, James Dungy hung himself from a ceiling fan with a belt. I would have been happier had I not known that.

Ever want to see what a stack of 160,000 FOIA requests looks like?

Wait a second, as far as I can tell, neither of these cases actually deal at all with the facts of the case. The key element of this whole mess has been the Bush Administration's decision to seek wire taps of conversations between U.S. citizens without either a declaration of war or a FISA warrant. FISA allows the government to engage in surveillance of any non U.S. citizen without a warrant. Warrants are only required in the event that the people on both ends of the conversation are U.S. citizens. The 2nd case that Newsweek offers up is entirely a different story...because the guy in question most certainly was not a U.S. citizen, and secondly, he was clearly in contact with someone overseas. Consequently, he fits neither of the requirements which would have mandated the government seek a FISA warrant to monitor his communications - that surveillance was 100% legal without a warrant. Secondly, the Brooklyn Bridge Blowtorch guy part includes this nugget, which at least suggests that proper procedures were followed in his case. If the DOJ did obtain a FISA warrant to monitor his communications, that again means that this case is totally irrelevant to the issue at hand. FISA set up those courts specifically to make sure the government was behaving when undertaking surveillance against U.S. citizens. If the government went to FISA and got a warrant, then they met the requirements of FISA, were acting legally, and were not making use of any of the programs that we have been discussing for the last 3 weeks. If the government did not go to FISA and get a warrant, btw, then if any of those wiretaps were used as evidence in that case, the lawyer for the suspect could very well use that fact to get the conviction overturned, as the evidence would have been collected illegally. At least based on what Newsweek presented in that article, neither of the cases they describe actually involved Bush's order to allow the NSA to undertake surveillance of U.S. citizens without a warrant in defiance of the requirements of FISA.

QUOTE(Kid Gleason @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 12:59 PM) Hey, I'm not anti-Who. I think they did some pretty good stuff. I just am not a slobbering fan of theirs, and I think Pete should have been locked up for his crime and find it ridiculous that people look past the fact that he was busted for kiddie porn. I'm surprised Gary Glitter isn't also using the "research" excuse seeing as how it worked so well for Pete. Well, the UK did drop the charges against Townshend, so it seems at least some people found his story credible.