NorthSideSox72

Just watched the address, and some of the garbage after the fact. A few thoughts... --Main theme not a surprise: Bush wants to take the small military gains in Iraq and leverage them with some limited troop withdrawals to make it seem like things are good. --Bush said the word "Patreus" so many times you'd think the general and the President had switched jobs. If things don't go a lot better, I think the general is out of a job, since Bush has basically made this his war now. --MSNBC's post-coverage was some of the most biased stuff I have seen from a major news network. What the f*** happened to objective journalism? I mean, I expect the interviewed folks to take a side - Huckabee and Biden, for example. But to have the hosts (Olbermann and Matthews) just make such an obvious liberal forum out of it was insulting. Last time I watch MSNBC for political coverage. They should be embarrassed. --Bush did add a couple spooky things in the speech. One, the way he described it, he basically said we'd have no less than 130k troops there from now until the next Prez takes office. And further, he basically said he expects the next Prez to take his Iraq potato and run with it. Is he on crack? --Edwards had that weird 2 minute ad/speech. It was mostly imploring Congress and the people to push Congress to cut off funding for the war if a timeline isn't given. I don't think that's going anywhere. So basically, Bush is Bush - the boy who cried wolf, telling us yet again things are getting better when they clearly are not. Patreus is on the hook for the current strategy. Edwards is trying the populist route to try to get enough support in Congress to cut off funding. MSNBC wouldn't know objective coverage if it hit it upside the head. And we are apparently going to be deep into this civil war police thing in Iraq until at least January of '09. The next President will be left with a mess and some tough decisions to make. Oh, and we will see some very small troop withdrawals (5700) this year.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 06:12 PM) how sweet it would be to have him as our head of scouting, if not GM. Now that's a nice thought, and maybe even an outside possibility, if Ryan isn't sticking within the Twins organization. Unfortunately, I think its a waaaaaaaay outside possibility.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 04:14 PM) I have really mixed feeling on this. I oppose random searches, without some cause, in the workplace. Then I wonder if a MLB Ballpark is a usual workplace. If the cops can not open up your closet without a probable cause, why should we allow someone to open up your vein? But I don't see anyway other than drug checks to assure compliance. Eh, I think its akin to physical requirements for certain jobs. Firefighters have to be in a certain level of physical shape for their job, so they require fit test results. They have to be sober and clean, so they drug test. Same here - the physical nature of the job requires certain physical skills, so I think they have the right to make sure the players are clean.

QUOTE(BigSqwert @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 03:57 PM) How much counterpoint can you get in 2 minutes? From CNN.com: Edwards only needs about 2 seconds to cover his range of material... 1. Look at my hair. LOOK AT MY HAIR! 2. Smile pretty for the camera. 3. "We can no longer have 2 Americas" while gesticulating with one hand. Am I missing anything?

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 03:23 PM) Blago is just not that great. Even down in springfield the opinions on him arent very positive. Well heck, he is constantly fighting with the state Congress, and they are held by the same party. He can't even figure things out with other Democrats.

Heh. Blago, realizing his mistake, tacked on a few million for Pace and Metra today.

Mentioned in the Diamond club. Probably better to have its own thread though, this is a big topic.

So as Sqwert pointed out, the RTA board has to actually approve G-Rod's funding. Until then, things are still up in the air. And here is a nice stick in the eye of those outside the City of Chicago, courtesy of Rod - the emergency funding is only for the CTA. Pace, which supplies bus services in the suburbs, will still have to go into the first phase of their doomsday plan on Monday, and then start cutting routes a few weeks later. Then more massive cuts in November. And even Metra will start having problems come 2008. So, any chance of getting more support from the collar counties is going down the drain with Blago's lack of foresight.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 02:32 PM) That is why these polls should receive no serious consideration. We can start picking apart this and make everything look good, or bad. Couple of points: The Iraqi public better start caring about what we think, I could care less what they think. Last I looked we're footing the bill and I see a lot more made in America weapons and s*** there. So basically, I don't really care about a poll where Iraqis self report their "feelings". Here's a feeling for you, how about you sell us really cheap oil? I might be in favor of sticking around and keeping Syria, Iran, and Saudia Arabia, countries you think are try to harm you, off your asses, if I was filling up with $1 petrol. I think polls are useful, when you have all the information. One thing I agree with, in terms of the point SS2K5 was making, is that you can pull numbers out of polls to try to shift the appearance of the results. Here is a novel idea - when a poll comes out, just state the facts. Give people the actual, statistical results. Instead, we get a few hard numbers from the poll, surrounded by "expert analysis" that is usually nothing more than fluff and dumbing down of the results.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 01:40 PM) Hmm, I wonder why this wasn't reported in the Iraqi people poll that was much sites during the recent congressional testimony... http://newsbusters.org/blogs/robin-boyd/20...c-bbc-iraq-poll Maybe because that clip there uses really bad analysis? Look at the first item they question. The MSNBC article stated a specific answer percentage - this person prefers to lump all the better or the same stuff together. What does that prove, if its already bad? This really looks like a lame attempt to find positives that don't exist.

QUOTE(longshot7 @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 01:42 PM) I would like to say these are some very good points. I would rather wait less than insist on one language. I hate waiting. You won't wait less - you will wait more, while various forms and rules are translated, or people struggle with it, and there are more forms to sift through, and someone else's language isn't on there, etc. Just like hammerhead said earlier. If you expect people to speak English, then not only do we wait less in line, but we all pay less in taxes. I am waiting now for someone to suggest we have "readers" at all government facilities to tell people what forms say, in case they are illiterate. Because it makes exactly the same sense as what is being suggested here. The majority of people should not have to pay extra money and wait longer in line because the minority refuse to learn English. If they both happen to know Spanish, great, it makes no difference to me. But to put that immense cost on the government is just an incredibly inefficient idea.

QUOTE(Yossarian @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 01:40 PM) Yes of course that's right, but I'd feel more confident in the folks who run things, if they could make the correct evaluations in the first place. I don't think my profile page gets much traffic, but it could be noted that I listed Richar as my favorite prospect. I have no ax to grind against the young man, and truly wish he'd done better with his opportunity. With this, I respectfully bow out of this thread, and will look for others to perhaps get into more trouble. I still find the whole situation a tad humorous. Look at the two scenarios that could have occurred. If he had stayed or if he had left, these things remain constant: The Sox are not a contending team, and they have the option to sign or not sign him in the offseason. The only difference is, which of these two would you rather have had: A. Save $1M, give Richar a chance to show his worth, let Gooch play for a contender and maybe learn a few new things himself. or B. Keep the "band" together an extra few months. The club went with A, and I am fairly certain most of us would agree that it was the right decision. Do you disagree?

I'd imagine that being a GM on any club is a long-hours, high-stress job. Perhaps after all his successes, he was looking towards what appears to be a long rebuilding process with the Twins, and decided to just walk a way for a while before dealing with that mess.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 12:58 PM) There's a team option on him after this season. So hopefully we've seen the last of him. I'd suspect they wait on the option until they are able to get a deal for a shortstop, if they can. They wouldn't want to be completely naked at that position if they can avoid it, since that would put them at a serious trade/negotiation disadvantage. So does anyone know when, exactly, they have to tell Juan or their decision?

I just don't get how a guy like Fossett goes out without a flight plan. If he was injured but still alive, time would be of the essence. If they knew where he was flying, they could have found him a lot faster.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 12:08 PM) Hahn could also be waiting for the Cubs job, too. I mean if the Cubs fail to make the playoffs again, Jim Hendry's job might be in jeopardy and Hahn is from Chicago, so he may be waiting for the Cubbie job. In fact, he graduated from your high school.

QUOTE(kwolf68 @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 11:36 AM) I wouldn't say this is true. It may be what he is saying, but if he really thinks this team can "go for it next year" without major changes the guy has lost his marbles. Which is why he has said multiple times there will be major changes.

As I recall, when Powell flirted with running in 92 or 96 (I forget which), even though he looked like an early favorite, he dropped out because his wife told him she would leave if he ran.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 10:34 AM) Fair enough, and you're willing to pay the price of a less efficient government, more wait times at government offices, to help them assimiliate? I do not believe I am. IT IS NOT LESS EFFICIENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS MORE EFFICIENT!!!!!! Do you have some goofy definition of efficient? How is having to deal with more than one language more efficient than just one? That makes no sense. I think I just need to give up discussing this topic with you.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 10:01 AM) so......the cta huh? Yeah, we kinda wandered off track a bit. Happens in here. Latest CTA: They got temporary funding until November, from G-Rod.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 09:27 AM) Sorry, I didn't see where it takes a bajillion dollars to print two forms. For a Federal form it may take one person a few days to translate the form. Then it is used by millions of people. Why is that going to be less efficient? Wouldn't the English printing costs go down? And looking at the private sector is exactly why I started thinking about bilingual. Which costs more, hiring, forever, more clerks, or translating forms once? Where does it make the government more efficient to take longer to service someone in line? How fast will someone learn enough English to handle these transactions? I'm not suggesting 100% of all forms would be in Spanish, but how about the front line forms? There is a cross over where it is more efficient to communicate with a large group of people in their language than forcing that large group to learn another. Something like this. Average time in English, 7 minutes Average time in Spanish 3 minutes By producing the form in Spanish we can speed up the service line for everyone and delay hiring another clerk. do you know how many "forms" the U.S. government publishes? I'm guessing its in the millions. And what good do the forms do in two languages if the people behind the counter can't answer questions?

HGH test for mass use probably coming soon, likely to be used by MLB in 2008.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 09:20 AM) ok...sure, I'm the only one with gas No no, actually, I was thinking the opposite. Look at the three words I bolded. Do they not prompt an idea?

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 09:06 AM) Carbon is just one of the problems... I was listening to NPR the other day and this scientist in Alaska talking about perma frost receeding which feeds the lake scum which releases TONS of methane. (that's one of the vague "greenhouse gases") so us guys need to listen to our wives and stop farting so much. Unless I buy a hybrid to offset it:) hmmm....

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 13, 2007 -> 08:57 AM) How much time do you give an adult to learn English? All depends on their exposure level, etc. If people come here and want to, many can learn from their families and cohorts - that is what most immigrants have done for decades or centuries. But I am also perfectly OK with spending some education dollars helping that along - its a far better investment than the alternative.