NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 09:20 AM) Different topic...Emphasis mine. Well, at least the people on the Federal Reserve Board think things are spectacular right now. Yeah, 'cause that's exactly what he is saying.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 09:14 AM) And none of those things are happening because of intense lobbying efforts. Why I'm sure that the Congress knows exactly what its doing in slowing down things it knows nothing about, and is not just listening to the guy with the checkbook. All the more reason for Obama to step up to the plate and start acting like an executive. He has every ability to set deadlines and expectations for finalization of rules, etc. He can cut off discussion with the other parties. He has a golden opportunity that he is Bill Buckner-ing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 09:06 AM) But there's another leap you're missing...if business investment by these sorts of companies is happening at or above the levels that we've seen in previous recessions, then the Evil Demycrat regulation boogeyman simply isn't the problem. Yes, new health care and finance regulations have been passed. The Finance regulations have of course been completely gutted and kept completely up in the air by the finance industry lobby, which makes any argument that somehow the fact that the regulations are "up in the air" is the cause of a lack of investment by that industry just seem nonsensical....because they could make things clear by stopping the lobbying efforts against them. And Health Care has continued adding jobs at the same pace its been doing since 2003. Health care is later, when more of the big bill kicks in. But at least they KNOW what will kick in. And the business investment argument doesn't say anything either way about regulations. In fact, firms are likely to buy software instead of people, especially software specializing in regulatory work, because then they can not worry about the changes that will take place (as much). And the rules are not just up in the air because of lobbyists - the federal agencies are fighting internally and with each other, Congress is bullying the agencies on things they know nothing about, the industry is hemming and hawing on various individual pieces of the legislation and pending rules... it is all the above, not just one part of it. And this is where Obama can absolutely decide to be an actual executive, and make things happen.

Wow was that awful. You don't even mention under "team strengths" the Sox pitching staff, which still now is better than what the Tiggers have overall, and is the biggest strength of the Sox. Really? I'm guessing you wrote this while still drunk from celebrating your team's division win. Or I'm hoping so anyway.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 30, 2011 -> 01:43 AM) The Ozzie hatred wears me out. The thing is on HIS website. He could have dictated the message to somebody who wrote it. I love Ozzie Guillen. Class act. What the... Greg, seriously, look at what you are doing here. Just yesterday you were talking about how Ozzie SAID, his words live, that he was leaving for money... and your response was, Ozzie being Ozzie, you don't believe him, just talking to talk, etc. Then you look at an article on his website that obviously wasn't written by him personally, and suddenly you believe every word of that??!?!?!?! Even if he did write every word, how is that believable but his other words are not? I mean, unless he isn't an honest person. If you can't see how hilarious your inconsistency is here, then you have no grip on reality, and no one is going to want to have a discussion with you on this topic.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 05:02 PM) Enjoyable EPI piece summing up all of the evidence (Not just polling) for why "regulatory uncertainty" has almost nothing to do with the current employment market. First I want to point out that, as I said before, the regulatory uncertainty issue isn't broad-based... it is narrow to a few specific industries. But those industries (finance and health care for example) are big ones. But this article makes some pretty ridiculous leaps. For example, one of the claims they make as to why regulatory uncertainty isn't an issue, is to point to how environmental regulations haven't had a negative effect on employment. This completely misses the point. They are using a study of overall employment effect of REGULATIONS - which is to say, ones actually written and solidified - and comparing to to a situation where the regulations are still very much up in the air. That is an important disconnect. I do agree with some of it though. I agree that the primary reason for lack of hiring is demand-side weakness, plain and simple. Not enough new customers. But customers won't buy if they aren't employed. One of the ways to get out of that cycle is getting new customers overseas, which hits and the argument I've been making all along: we need to get out in front on things.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:58 PM) New Fox News national poll (no national primary noted again) with a big shakeup from the last poll (previous poll, 8/29-8/31, in brackets). Anyone know what Gingrich did that would have caused a significant surge? Looked sane compared to most of that bunch?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:18 PM) Again, with Peavy, this really isn't true. He hasn't had anything "Major" before of the sort that would require surgery, but he has had elbow problems in the past, including in 2008, the year before the Sox traded for him. He didn't actually pop anything, but he was a power pitcher with mechanical and elbow issues before he ever came to the Sox. There was a reasonable chance he was going to get hurt. ESPN version added. A short term stint for a sore elbow? Most pitchers have that sort of thing come up. Not what I'd consider a warning flag. Really the only significant indicator of risk I saw with him was mechanical, and that is a roll of the dice. I just don't see blaming Kenny on this one. Plenty of other moves to blame him for.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:02 PM) I think the government hiring the people who are out of work and putting them towards rebuilding America is a great idea. I feel however that the unions might not be on board. Well let me rephrase that, they will be on board as long as this temporary force pays union dues. I think this, plus adding tax incidentives to companies that hire unemployed people, including a sliding scale of tax incentives for hiring the 99ers. Like the old CCC. Not sure if the unions were involved with that or not.

Misconceptions? For the love of g*d, how do people still think money wasn't Ozzie's motivation, at least in large part? The SAME guy the defenders are defending for being "too honest", has said IN HIS OWN WORDS in no uncertain terms that it was about money. Seriously, even if you liked Ozzie and think he should stay, how can you not see such a glaringly obvious contradiction? He. Said. It.

I have to agree with Chisoxfn... Dunn was neither Kenny nor Ozzie's fault, no one saw this coming for him. Peavy had one injury, and ankle injury unrelated to pitching, so I don't fault him for that either. Swisher was questionable defensively, that's on Kenny but not a big deal. Kenny's biggest misses were Rios and the Hudson trade, he outright blundered those.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 01:29 PM) CST_soxvan Daryl Van Schouwen Trade official for Guillen. Sox get RHP Jhan Marinez and IF Ozzie Martinez from Marlins, who get RHP Ricardo Andres. CST_soxvan Daryl Van Schouwen To make room on 40-man, Sox outright catcher Donny Lucy and RHP Jhonny Nunez to AAA Charlotte. MDGonzales Mark Gonzales RHP Ricardo Andres also goes to FLA in the deal. 1-0 with a 6.32 ERA at Advanced-Rookie Bristol. I know nothing about Ricardo Andres, does anyone have anything?

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 09:47 PM) In the ever fun rumor world, BYU supposedly decided tonight to join the Big 12 and will announce on Friday. That would be what keeps them together. They replace A&M, probably an improvement really, keeping them at 10 teams. Then they go find two more schools, I'd guess.

QUOTE (Papa Tru @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 09:14 PM) Of course you can, I wasn't making a pro Ozzie argument.. I was just saying that comparing the two is pointless as they both have failed and yet people try to act like KW playing the nice guy he deserves to stick around making decisions for this club.. Which he most certainly shouldn't be.. um... I think you missed the point of the post.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 04:49 PM) I'd like the world to know I LOVED that article. See that's where we agree to disagree. I love Ozzie Guillen. Greg- I want you to consider something. You seem like a very loyal guy. Loyal to players, coaches and managers that had a lot of meaning to the organization. Even well after their prime, you defend them. There is something good about that. But let me ask you this. Let's say you are in Jerry Reinsdorff's shoes. He too is a very loyal guy (which alone should tell you something here). The organization has had multiple disappointing years in a row, despite your spending of a lot of money. You've got two people under him, that over the past month, have done this: Person #1 offered to step down to a lower role due to the failures of the team. Person #2 asked repeatedly for a raise and a long term contract, despite those same failures. So, if loyalty is your game... which of those two do you keep? Because it seems to me that you are backing the wrong horse here, based on your own admitted tendencies.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 05:01 PM) Can somebody please tell me what the reason is that MY BROWSER KEEPS MARKING THREADS I'VE READ AS UNREAD?! I'll go through a forum and read the new stuff in about five threads and when I got back to the forum, all or most of the stuff it had already marked as read will be unread again. When that happens to me, refreshing the page usually works fine.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 03:20 PM) CSNChi_Beatnik Brett Ballantini Also nice that Cowley and Ozzie talked beforehand and both decided to wear pink. Nice touch, bros. How embarrasing for Cowley. I mean, he's even got the other writers making fun of him for his complete lack of professionalism. It takes a lot for that to happen among journalists. I'm amazed the Sun Times keeps him around, and with Ozzie gone, I somehow suspect he's gone from that job soon.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) Forget it. Hawk is here until he dies. ...in the booth. Ugh. I've really grown to dislike Hawk, he's just so irritating and he has no rhythm with Stone.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 03:11 PM) No I mean they should keep Danks if they can finally sign him to an extension. If not, then trade Danks and (ugh) keep Buehrle. They way I figure it, Danks costs more money than Buehrle in a multi-year deal, but I feel confident that the overall results they post over the next few years will be pretty damn close. But I also think that Danks has injury risk written all over him, so I have a bias that way. I'd rather trade Danks now and re-sign Buehrle, unless Danks is willing to sign some shockingly cheap extension.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 02:11 PM) He about covers everything I say on here...only I'm called an idiot while he's celebrated. Says it all about some of you guys... See, like Northside so awesomely points out...it's MY fault they get away with this stuff, because I'm a critical thinker that votes for candidates, not parties, and it's my fault that stupid voters continuously go with stupid candidates... Whatever. If you are giving up on it, then you are among the enablers. You can choose that route if you wish. And centrist has zero to do with it, since I'm about as close to net center as anyone who posts here.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 01:44 PM) If it is "Somewhat effective", then why do they care? Because you aren't getting the best candidates. Some companies really don't care about that too much. I personally think that choosing the right people from the outset is something that most companies don't invest enough in.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) I mentioned this earlier in the thread. Can't wait for more "Kenny "The Genius" Williams" comments. Oops, sorry fathom, must have missed that.

Totally random by White Sox related... I was watching The Social Network last night because it popped on on Starz, and during the end credits they were showing a commercial for one of their own shows, called "Boss". It's Kelsey Grammer as the mayor of Chicago, and a pretty brutal one at that. Anyway, first scene of the commercial, the guy introducing the mayor at a press conference... Kenny Williams (not an actor, but the actual KW). Thought that was odd.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 01:38 PM) Wait, WTF did the Swear Filter do? I think it was the word "H*llywood" I was wondering that the KW reference was about.

I see what you guys are saying, I just think it isn't the smart way to widdle down your pool.