NorthSideSox72

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 08:40 PM) they'd better be offensive... That's a very misleading stat. MacDougal has 5 of those in 2 innings. Take him out and its 10 runs in 16.1 innings, which is 5.51 ERA. Take out Logan's 5 runs in 3.2 IP, and now its 5 runs in 12.2 IP, for an ERA of 3.55. So let's put it in perspective here. Jenks, Thornton, Masset, Haeger, Wassermann, Dotel, Linebrink and Broadway combine for 8 ER in in 24.2 IP, which is an ERA of 2.92, which is quite good. Also, who are the 8, according to whomever wrote the quote you included? Because I see 10 candidates covering about 30 innings. The total of all 10 above is 18 ER in 30.1 IP, which is 5.34. Thats not great, but for Arizona, its not horrific either. Seems like the author was trying to find the worst possible numbers.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 07:45 PM) And now to spring the fun part on you...you've basically outlined the general structure of both Hillary and Obama's Health care plans! Well, really, its closer to Obama's. Clinton's plan is a mandate further than Obama's.

QUOTE(knightni @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 05:03 PM) Awesome.

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 07:12 PM) Government controlling health care isn't going to lower costs. Health care is going to cost just as much, if not more, once big government corruption gets involved. The only difference is it will be a socialized pooling of money. I'd suggesting that you can't look at privatizing, or public-izing, health care en masse. You need to break it down and look at the goals of those units. Here is what I mean. Look at these categories in the field... --Hospitals and other care providers --Insurance companies --Drug companies --Consumers Now as consumers are not changeable, let's look at each unit from a perspective of goal alignment. How do you get each party to be motivated to act in a way that helps people, efficiently? --Hospitals and care providers, I'd suggest, can never be more than partially private. Hospitals and major facilities should be public facilities. The reason is simple - business is in the business of making money. Usually, consumers are the check against that by choosing on quality, right? Except in this case, because of the insurance company intermediary and the dictated cost levels, that check doesn't exist. So you simply cannot expect the highest quality healthcare from private providers and institutions, as long as insurance exists. And there is no getting rid of health insurance. --Insurance companies act to keep costs down. That is good, and they should stay private, as much as possible. Plus, if you change the rules around them a bit to allow people to CHOOSE a health care company, all the better. So insurance providers being private is good. --Drug companies are regulated in pretty heavily, plus they sell what works, so again, private works well there. You just have to make sure that you balance carefully between patent protections (to encourage innovation) and encouraging competition (to keep drug costs down). So basically, I'd suggest that major providing institutions should be public, smaller providers of non-emergent care can be either/or, insurance companies and drug companies should remain private. One more thing though. Its key to keep a close eye on the relationship between the three groups, to ensure that collusion isn't going on. That could be very harmful for consumers.

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Mar 5, 2008 -> 06:54 PM) Alright there bud. It's called optimism. I guess you hadn't picked up on the whole theme of the Obama campaign yet huh? I don't know if I'm cocky, stupid, arrogant, optimistic, funny, smart, realistic or desperate in saying this (take your pick Yasny). But I've heard that the next two primaries favor Obama in Wyoming and Mississippi. Anyone have any polls, or reasons for this? Anyways, I think the reports about Obama's Texas caucus results will help dampen the big Clinton victories, and if he can manage wins in Wyoming and Mississippi, he'll get back in the groove. Of course he's got to avoid controversy and hope Clinton courts it. I wouldn't expend much energy responding to that post. Yas is smarter than that. I think maybe he's just a little tired of the overzealous Obama supporters that seem to be common all over the country right now. Obama is still in the lead, literally and figuratively. Its still his race to lose. But, PA will be huge. Really huge. WY and MS are even pretty important. I am very curious to watch what happens after PA. If one or the other candidate leaves PA with a big enough lead, it won't matter. But, if after PA they are still very close (like they are now), then its all up to the supers. And the supers depend on electability - watch the theo polls for the national. That's the key. And its why PA is far more important than just the delegates - it indicates the ability to win a major swing state. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can stop paying attention - I love this. I think its fantastic that so many people are so involved in this election cycle.

I'd like to add a few points... --Harvard is a PRIVATE university. They are therefore a business. If they want to make an accomodation which is very small in impact, frankly, I could care less, even if I went to school there. --I see people hinting at the idea that because this 6 hours is set aside, then suddenly everyone will want their own gym time and there will be pandemonium. This argument is used a lot, and its always silly. Every law, ordinance, regulation and accomodation made by any business or government is in its essence a balancing act. You can't just throw up your hands and say "well, we are just too dumb to compromise, so we must keep all things all-or-none!" That is just a ridiculous mindset. --I do agree with people who have suggested that there may be better alternatives to this way of doing things. It was not the smartest way to handle it. Better something like this... the school makes a small contribution to a womens' community organization or facility in the area (I almost guarantee there are some) to set up a small gym for those who feel they want privacy. Put up a plaque saying "Harvard proudly supports the female community, blah blah blah". The university looks good for accomodating a key student group, people on campus get their gym full time, and the people who want that privacy can have it. How about that idea?

Obama with a decent lead in the TX caucus, about 40% reporting. Texas looking like it will end up a near-tie or actual tie, delegate-wise. And on the supers, again... they'll break for who they think will win in November. Right now, that's Obama, and has been for a while. The only way Clinton can get the majority of them to break for her is if she wins PA and also manages to convince the electorate (and the supers) that she will do better against McCain than Obama would. That is still a long shot. Not impossible, but, a long shot.

Well on the one hand, if Clinton wins OH and TX, she gets momentum and stays alive, and maybe even has a shot at the nomination still. On the other hand... if Obama wins TX, gains further in delegates, AND gets this supposed 50-superdelegate pile up in the days after... I think its really over for Clinton. Big week for the Dems.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 10:06 PM) The talk was the "Hillary push" today. FWIW. Hopefully Obama caucuses well and had enough early votes to hang on. I think that's why he jumped out to such a big early lead - that was the early vote count. Hey BTW... I hope you voted today!

Next two largest: Denton: 1% reporting, heavy Obama lead Tarrant: 15% reporting, heavy Obama lead Basically, Obama's strong areas are still pending.

Dallas County - only 4% reporting (heavy for Obama). Harris County - barely 1% reporting (heavy for Obama). Travis County - barely 1% reporting (heavy for Obama). Bexar County - 3% reporting (slight edge for Clinton). Those are the 4 biggest counties in TX by population. And they are not what is making up the current vote total. Those are mostly big counties for Obama. And yet, even with these smaller counties reporting, Obama still leads.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 09:55 PM) I hope you're right, but from what little I've heard, turnout was big and it was big for Hillary. Now, I have no idea on the caucus side of things... that might help Obama. Well, here is something to think about. Even of Clinton has an edge in primary voters today, there are two other major factors that go to Obama - the caucus (look at the noise from Clintoncamp, they are fearful), and the 100k early voting edge Obama got. She'd have to win today's primary vote pretty big to overcome those.

McCain just made a pretty strident promise about alternative energy efforts. He's talking about global leadership in the effort. We'll see, but, I am glad both parties are talking about it.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 09:52 PM) Clinton's going to take Texas AND Ohio. It's the SNL effect. I'm not kidding either, and neither is the MSM. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_tv/obama_media Notice this has hit the AP now. Hillary is making a big comeback, folks, just like New Hampshire, just like when she was the "underdog" before. She's not out of this yet. I don't think so. Obama will win TX, I think. Clinton will probably win OH, though.

Whoa - Clinton just made a big jump in TX. Looks like maybe some of the border counties are reporting. She's now only down about 45k votes. On a seperate note... John McCain isn't so great at speeches. He's got the teleprompter stare going on.

So, the OH numbers are roughly 58-40 for Clinton. But, it seems that the big metros, which are likely strongholds for Obama - Cleveland, Cincinnatti, Columbus, Youngstown.

Most of these CNN commentators are doing OK with staying fairly objective, but... who is this shmo who is so painfully obviously a Clinton fan?

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 09:08 PM) Yes Gotcha.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 08:59 PM) Barely anything other than early voting has been counted yet. Actually, my understanding is that absentee isn't in those numbers yet. Did you hear differently?

CNN now projecting that John McCain will clinch/win the GOP nomination tonight.

Also, none of the major metros (San Antonio, Houston, Austin, DFW) have reported anything yet (per CNN). Those are Obama-favored areas.

Sure enough, as Rex mentioned, the vote totals from OH are very, very small (less than 12k total released). So those numbers are pretty much useless at this point. Almost a million in for Texas, Obama still a decent lead, though dropping a bit to 90,000.

Update on that - judge rules 15 polling station in that county will stay open late - until 9pm.

CNN reporting problems in Cuyahoga county (Cleveland). Problems with ballots, closing sites early, etc. Yuck.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Mar 4, 2008 -> 08:39 PM) OH Sec of State results are being embargoed from release until 9PM when the Cuyahoga County polls close. How are SecState results different than the rest? What are these results coming in now?