NorthSideSox72

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 09:12 PM) That's basically what I'm suggesting. Hillary Clinton needs to do a Mel Gibson impression to lose it from here on out. Simply having people say Obama won a narrow victory in a debate, or one or two random things turned nasty amongst staffers isn't going to do it. The demographic reality appears to be that women make up a much larger portion of the Democratic electorate than men, and that group is carrying the day. Well, let's see how a few more weeks of this argumentative style effects that. It hasn't been like this yet, until recently. It might work against her. Or for her. Hard to tell.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 08:44 PM) I got a rock... (Well, that and I got a much more useful poll of the prize, California:) So Hillary's lead in CA is down a bit, but not much. But that 20% undecided is interesting. I wonder how SC and the press with it will effect that 20%. Or the debates in CA coming up later this month.

And, I got a note from JFKerry - going after Clinton's tactics...

I got a letter from Bill Richardson about his endorsement... Now, as time goes by, his endorsement means less and less. So the one thing I think can be said with fairly high confidence is that none of the remaining three have offered him a guaranteed spot that he wants. Other than that, it could mean a lot of things - could be he is soliciting offers, could be he is setting up for Domenici's Senate seat and wants to endorse only the winner, could be he has multiple offers on the table... hard to tell.

Lots of great posts in here. I'll echo the points about knowing your current life (how stable is your job? How much extra cash do you have in case something goes wrong?), and that rates and prices will probably bottom sometime this year (give or take, who knows), and that the Chicago market has pretty much always (in recent times anyway) been less liable to experience the big ups and downs of some other markets. And I'll add these... --Almost everyone stretches a bit to get in their first place. You have to balance between stretching a little, and a lot. Having your mortgage payment, assessment (if any), increased utility costs and property tax bill be a bit more than your current rent is stretching a little. Going 10% in as opposed to 20% is stretching a little. No one can answer this balance for you without knowing your financial and career details, so, I'd advise finding someone in the real estate industry WHO YOU TRUST, if you can, and get some help. Don't go with what an agent or mortage company tells you in terms of how much mortgage you can afford. --Because of the housing market's weakness, if you do buy, don't leap at the first thing you come across. Find a list of places you like, make low offers, and try to find someone motivated to sell. That will help you later in equity. --I personally would never put down less than 10%. Closer to 20% is better, but, sometimes its not possible. --Overall, in the Chicago area market, I think its a good time to buy.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 05:39 PM) Without knowing everything about the case, it is probably worth pointing out that even the worst person in the world deserves fair and qualified legal representation in our system. Although, since the non white guy has been planning to run for President since he was in Kindergarten, you'd think he'd have been more careful about his client list and only accepted business from the cleanest of the clean, because the non-guy would obviously go after him for that. QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 05:42 PM) Why don't you tell us who we should vote for then because the Pope isn't listed on the ballot. I could be wrong, but, I assumed Mr. G was just sort of joking around about the current dirty tactics being used by the out-of-touch white woman in the race, to get a rise out of you.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 05:30 PM) I wish he'd drop out now because he'd give the out of touch not white guy a chance at beating the out of touch white woman. LOL. Awesomeness.

"Surrounded by pills" doesn't necessarily sound like a drug problem - sounds like a suicide. He may or may not have been abusing. Very sad. I really liked his acting a lot. So terrible at such a young age to lose such a great talent.

Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton should win for supporting - they made that movie, far more than Clooney did. Wilkinson was just amazing. But as they were in the same movie, I doubt they both win. And Day-Lewis was amazing in There Will Be Blood - he should win there. Gotta go with Ellen Page in Juno, though there are a couple films in that category I haven't seen. I'm torn on best pic. As usual the category that the Oscars regularly get so wrong it hurts, score... how is Enchanted not in there? Same with There Will Be Blood? And as much as I loved 3:10 to Yuma, that Beltrami score was very simplistic and wasn't a prime motivator in the movie's success. 3:10 to Yuma SHOULD win for sound editing, but it wasn't even nominated. I have a buddy who did a lot of the sound work on Transformers, including creating some of the SFX and voices. So I hope that wins.

Did someone say post count? Oh yeah, and, Happy Birthday to my favorite source for geological information!

This poll really should have had Hamster Dance on it.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 03:31 PM) Bear mkt started last July and was confirmed when we closed below the weekly, monthly and yearly closes on the SPX. Also, what tricks does BIG BEN have up his sleeve when these cuts do nothing. The Fed is trying to stimulate credit growth while banks are trying to protect themselves by actively reducing it. Example, Fifth Third CC this morning, "The impact of the Fed's rate cut is muted because e bank hedges its income for changes in rates, and so the effectiveness of the rate cut largely depends on whether the cut spurs economic activity in our base." How do you get that they are "actively reducing it" from that quote? That quotes says, to me, that 5/3 will only see benefit if more borrowers come to them because of decreased rates. Which is of course the whole point. And your definition of a bear market is not the same as the one I've been taught - a 20% drop from a high. We aren't there yet.

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 02:54 PM) I coudn't really tell if they were booing her or him. and I wasnt sure if a couple of those were boos or "ooooo"s. I THOUGHT they were booing here, but i thought maybe that was wishful thinking. Caveat: I have only seen one long clip and a few soundbytes - I plan to watch the rest later from the web. But what I saw, they were booing Hillary pretty clearly.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Jan 22, 2008 -> 02:24 PM) Any thoughts on this boondoggle they are calling a stimulus package? What does everyone think? Shouldn't the gov't just lower tax rates across the board and let us keep more of our money instead of giving us a rebate? The interest saved amounts to a nice chunk of change. The rebate isn't a horrible idea, but its not going to fix much. And the idea being floated to disallow forcelosures for some period of time would be disastrous. The temp hold on mortgage rate increases is not a bad idea. Lowering taxes for certain brackets a bit isn't a bad one either, but I'd try to couple it with lifting/removing the SS cap - takes the sting out of both ends a bit, and helps long run. Some better regulation of mortgage brokers is needed, and the public schools in this country need to make financial education a bigger part of the curriculum.

Well, selfishly, since we are looking at maybe moving into a house in 2008, these low rates and the lousy home market in the burbs may work pretty well for us.

Edwards will have "secret" meetings with both candidates before this is over. He knows, as has been noted, that there is a good chance he goes to Denver and gets to choose the nominee. I'm betting he is shopping is options. And having watched a few bits and pieces, I agree that Edwards was the clear winner of that debate the other night. Clinton looked the worst, and the audience reactions made that clear. Clinton is probably going to get hammered in SC, which means Obama will have a lead in earned delegates, and big mo going into Super Tuesday. Edwards will probably take some votes away from both as well, and make it clear he is still part of the race - all the better for Obama's hopes to stay in it.

Latest poll shows that Giuliani is trailing by 12 points... IN NEW YORK. Toast.

So you want to pay a bunch more money for Jerry Owens with slightly less speed and worse defense but slightly more power and a stronger arm? Why would you do that?

QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 19, 2008 -> 10:52 PM) A) want to see Hillary spin this. B ) I'd LOVE to see the major media outlets report this. Dont ignore it. On B, the early articles were ignoring it, but they aren't now - MSNBC mentions it within the first graf of its story.

An MSNBC article has buried in it a major reason for Romney's huge NV showing - half his votes came from Mormons. I had forgotten, but Nevada has a large Mormon population. So I'm not sure that Nevada victory is all that indicative of his future national performances (same with Wyoming, Utah's neighbor as well).

So this is interesting. 95% of the results are in for SC, here are the vote percentages... McCain: 33% Huckabee: 30% Thompson: 16% Romney: 15% Paul: 4% Giuliani: 2% Which looks like a close race, right? Except, according to CNN, here are the delegates... McCain: 19 Huckabee: 5 All others: 0 Someone explain THAT one.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Jan 19, 2008 -> 08:53 PM) Thompson is entirely the reason that McCain won in SC. Thompson sucking out about 20% in a lot of districts that Huckabee is what saved McCain narrowly in SC. Had Thompson dropped out after Michigan, McCain would be drifting to obscurity once again in the Presidential fight. Speaking of which, Thompson gave a "wistful" speech after the SC results, and campaign sources are hinting he is "weighing his options". Prediction: he drops out and endorses McCain.

54% reporting from SC... McCain: 34% Huckabee: 29% Thompson: 16% Romney: 15% Paul: 4% Giuliani: 2%

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2008 -> 07:17 PM) It's entirely possible that Thompson could drop out and decide to endorse him. Thompson and McCain do have a relationship, as I recall - so maybe. But they aren't that aligned politically. And I think Huckabee is more likely to endorse Romney.

CNN now shows Obama with 13 delegates, and Clinton with 12.