NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 10:08 AM) That's a fair criticism, but I think there's a difference between expanding intelligence powers and increased military funding right after being attacked, and spending trillions bailing out companies/people and subjecting the country to Obamacare and the like. Wait, so military spending doesn't count? QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 10:09 AM) If it's funded by powerful, wealthy people, it's not grass-roots by definition. That's all. Well to be fair, I think it STARTED grass roots, then was co-opted later.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 09:53 AM) Good. Until she said "much like building a mosque at ground zero", which is both inacurrate and a laughable comparison. But at least she did say something about it being wrong, I'm glad to see that part.

QUOTE (pittshoganerkoff @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 07:33 AM) Yeah, things are not looking good. But, I still expect this race to come down to the last week of the season. Minnesota will lose a few games, and hopefully 2 or 3 are against the Sox. To be honest, I think it will be very tough to catch up to the Twins, but I won't stop cheering for them. Yeah, all the Sox can do is win as many as possible, and hope the Twins come back down to earth. As good a team as they may be, going on a 35-12 run is just absurd for ANY team. That's a .745 winning percentage over about 2 months' worth of games. Unreal.

QUOTE (scenario @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 08:47 PM) Dash wins 3-2!!! Looks like Doyle was less than sharp, but managed to find a way to keep things under control.

Well, if the Sox win today, they are 5 out - exactly where they were with 40 games left to play. Now it would be with 22 left to play. Ugh.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 01:28 AM) It's another example where Kenny exhibits defense is the least of priorities when it comes to players. I never understood this acquisition at all. I guess he was one of those guys who use to hurt the Sox. Well he's still doing it. Note to Kenny: No more players from losing organizations especially the Royals. You keep saying this, and you keep being shown that it is patently untrue. This team's defense is above average, and Teahen and Q are the only real defensive liabilities. QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 9, 2010 -> 05:08 AM) It's the second coming of Josh Fields. Fields was a whole different issue. His defense was actually far better than what Teahen has shown, and had improved to the point of being passable. His issue was his inability to catch up to fastballs.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 12:11 PM) They're very, very close on the Senate. The polls suggest something like 51-49 right now. I took a look at the dashboard on Silver's site, and my take is that number you quote is a best case for Republicans. We'll see though, lots of time left to November.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 12:05 PM) You really think there won't be a dramatic enough shift? I'm expecting it to be dramatic enough that we have a government shutdown mid next year. The Republicans have been talking about it casually for at least 6 months. I meant in election results. I don't see the GOP taking the senate - the math just doesn't work for them. They will probably take the House, by a slim margin, but even that is far from a given.

QUOTE (shrek @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 11:11 AM) I know the Thome thing has been talked to to death, but you can't overlook the close ball games he won for the Twins and his great production. Having his production on our team, minus his production on the twins, the division race would be closer. And if Konerko needed rest every now and then, you put Teahen at 1st base. If this division comes down to a game or two, blame needs to be put on Ozzie. He single handedly handcuffed this team for a good portion of the season and allowed the Twins to get a very productive player for a cheap amount. Welcome to the board!

QUOTE (Willy52 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 10:20 AM) Why don't you people admit that they're the better team? They're in first without Morneau. Pretty damn impressive. They beat up on the division unlike us. We're not catching them. End of story. LOL, yes, 4.5 games back with 24 left and 3 against is "end of story". They may be a better team, and chances are good we won't catch them, no one is saying otherwise. But these posts saying "its over" are hilarious.

QUOTE (SnB @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 10:09 AM) we don't gain a game tonight, that could be it. If we can win these last couple in DET and go home, the team has 16 of 22 games left at home, including 3 against MIN, and generally bad teams otherwise (except BOS). That puts the Sox in a pretty good position to win a bunch of games. We just need MIN, or maybe TB, to lose some.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 10:11 AM) They toyed around with the idea of payroll tax exemptions, but felt those cut into too much SS and Medicare funding. It'd be a political hand grenade at this point, but why not cut payroll taxes and raise the SS/Medicare caps to offset? I've always been in favor of two tax increases - the SS cap (its regressive as it stands now), and treating carried interest and trading PnL as income if primary source for non-retirees and above a certain amount. Those two things alone could solve a good chunk of the deficit, though I do not know how much.

In the interest of fairness, here are the three proposals that Obama is making today in Ohio... • A $50 billion infrastructure investment to rebuild and repair the nation's roads, railways and runways. • A permanent extension of research and development tax credits for businesses. • Tax breaks to let businesses quickly write off 100 percent of their spending on new plants and equipment through 2011. The first one does provide a temporary bump (which may be better than no bump), but ultimately, IMO, its the wrong way to go. The second and third ones should help more, because they promote actual business growth. Still not ideal, but better. Certainly better than nothing. He plans to pay for this by not extending the Bush tax cuts for the 250k+ crowd.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 09:54 AM) Freezing government spending at 2008 levels and not raising taxes doesn't exactly protect from huge deficits. The GOP has no real ideas. They have no "Contract with America" this time. They only have fear and polemics. Exactly. They have an opportunity here to have a 1994-like take-over, but they ultimately will not have that dramatic a shift, thanks to that complete lack of actual ideas.

Boehner revealed the GOP plan for economic recovery yesterday. It has two parts... 1. Freeze government spending at 2008 levels 2. Freeze all tax levels at current levels (as opposed to Obama wanting to do that same thing, except for the 250k+ set, who would go back to pre-Bush tax cuts) Seriously, dude? What part of that plan does anything, at all, to help the economy recover? If you want to say you are doing this to protect from out of control deficits and the consequences thereof, then have the balls to say that. To call either of those things anything whatsoever about helping the economy recover is assinine and insulting to the intelligence of the people you serve.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 09:28 AM) Large scale, temporary, construction and infrastructure development spending program financed by the only group that can borrow cheaply in the current economy; the government. Get those factories back running on a temporary basis such that the capacity gap is mostly filled for a period, and private hiring will pick up as customers reappear. That works great for about a year, then doesn't do s***. The people in this economy have embraced austerity (at least relatively, compared to before - Americans are still massive consumers). So give them cheap technology that saves them money. That's the businesses and infrastructure needs to address. The people will spend on those things, but also save money on a recurring basis, thus giving them more cash to spend or invest. Fixing a road won't do it.

MIN has got to cool off at some point. They are like a plane that lost a significant amount of its engine power but is somehow still flying. I just hope it happens real damn soon. This on paper should be a big Sox win. Just need KC to avoid getting swept for f***s sake.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 09:08 AM) It makes sense though if you're recovering from a large shock/deleveraging that temporarily killed off demand for goods and services. Due to the bubble popping, balance sheets were suddenly $10 trillion or so worse off, so people cut back on expenditures. The factories making the products that were being sold cut back on making stuff because they were selling less, they cut back on people working, this eroded balance sheets further, and people cut back on spending further. The article was interesting, and I agree with much of it, but... the author also suggests no solution. Anyone in here want to give it a try?

QUOTE (Friend of Nordhagen @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 09:58 PM) That's a big bunch of whopping f***ing bulls*** (as it was when he was here). He's valuable because his OPS is about 1000. Fathom, not picking on you -- just have never believed that crap. Players are human beings, and have emotions. Some players might be non-factors in the clubhouse, but others can be huge factors to a team in that way - positive or negative. I agree with fathom, Thome seems like he might be one of those guys with a significant effect, in his case in the positive sense.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 08:43 AM) Well this was interesting if nothing else.... http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/i...opuz5STgLeVwBLu Seems weird. If something was underway to indict Daley, CPD isn't who would be picking him up anyway. It would probably be the Feds. Unless Daley has done something criminal that was not associated with his office, and was just a plain old criminal act. That seems pretty unlikely. Also, if they were saying "for Daley", remember that there is an alderman, and others, with that name.

Yeah, that Mayor thing was already posted, that was before the game. I was referring to his bizarre late night posts.

Surprised no one has posted this yet. Ozzie must have been drowning his sorrows last night, because around 1am, he sent out a salvo of tweets, all of which contained a link to the ESPN page that shows the Sox with an 11% chance of making the playoffs. Can anyone translate the Spanish better than a web engine can?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Sep 7, 2010 -> 10:31 PM) So he called me again and he doesn't really have a question, he's just completely confused as to why anyone even bothered, no matter how you look at it it sounds kind of pointless. "Were giving you a raise but we are taking that amount out of your benefits" "we are increasing the amount you contribute to your benefits but we'll pay for it" 1. I see nothing illegal about it, though its s***ty. 2. It may actually still result in a raise. Let's say they added $100 to each of his paychecks, but also took $100 more out each month for healthcare. You see, the salary is taxed as income, but the health care costs are taken out pre-tax (usually). So effectively, he'd end up with maybe $20 more in his pocket.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 08:25 AM) Take that up with United States Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the European Research Council. A professional degree is not the same as a PhD. Nor is a PsyD or an MD. But they are all doctoral degrees.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 8, 2010 -> 08:22 AM) Have many of Daley's "lieutenants" gone down previously? I can't recall very many specific cases, and as such, I'm wondering how much things will change once he's personally gone. Well, many have exited his administration under a "cloud", if you will. I don't know if any of his close advisors have actually been indicted - I can't think of any off hand (maybe someone else can).