NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 10:11 AM) and i think that was the problem with the stimilus program all together and quite frankly some other iniatives that the administration rolls out. they dont do a good enough job of telling people the reasonable expectations of the program. so people either assume that this program (or any program) will be the be-all end-all solution to any/all problems, or the other side sets the bar so damn high that success can never be reached in their eyes. imagine where we'd be if there was no tarp, no stimulus and no lifeline extended to the car companies. What would unemployment, banking and the economy look like then? No doubt those things had a positive effect. But I disagree that the marketing aspect was the main problem with the stimulus. The biggest problem with it is that it was weighted far too heavily on a combination of short-term, non-sustainable jobs, and tax cuts that didn't target business growth. They went about it the wrong way, and were less effective than it could have been as a result.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 09:20 AM) Freddie has done a good a job as any starter we have so IMO it's time to quit being nervous By what measure? The guy has a 5.08 ERA, and of his 23 starts, only 15 are "quality". He's also had 6 starts where he couldn't finish more than 5 innings. He's fine as a #5 starter, but the other 4 guys we have right now have all clearly been better.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 09:17 AM) The issue is to clear the problems that underpin the private economy. Basically this contraction in growth is showing that despite the stimulus, the private sector still hasn't recovered. Definitely true. The stimulus money clearly created or saved jobs, but so far, the positive effect that has had on private industry has been small or non-existent.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 09:02 AM) You seem to know much more about this than me. Do you think slow, gradual growth is better in the long term than an immediate short term jump? I honestly don't know. See, here are some possible scenarios. Scenario one (which many Obama supporters think may be true) says that the GDP curve in this case hit bottom and rebounded faster, but ascended slower, and that's good because you avoided the area underneath that curve that a steeper recession would have created. This logic is that the recession was stopped earlier, but came out slower, ending up in the same place some few years down the road, but with less aggregate area below the zero line. This theory assumes that government and/or business actions staved off a worse recession. Scenario two (this is one that Kap was getting at) says that in the short run, this recovery does indeed beat out a steeper recession, but that the curves pass each other a second time as the steeper recession bounces back faster, and reaches the zero line faster. In this case, the amount of area between the curves favors the slow recovery in one area, and the fast recovery in another. Potentially, the total area difference in negative territory could be less for the steeper recession, if the slow recovery model takes too long to work. This model assumes that government and/or business action was simply avoidance more than solution, thus giving you a loss even on 50/50 area differential due to the time aspect. Then there are all sorts of other scenarios. Really, it could be lots of things. I was just trying to point out that this recession and its rebound are somewhat unique - and I am honestly not sure, in the long run, if that ends up better or worse.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 08:51 AM) Because those guys are ALWAYS right. See: Greenspan, Alan. More bad news: Economy coming to a screeching halt. LOL @ coming to a screeching halt. The problem is actually something new and unique - that we are still looking at moderate growth over time. Enough to not be diving into a worse recession, enough to avoid deflation certainly... but not enough to make any real ground on employment numbers. Its frustrating as hell. In most previous recessions, there was a big jump back, typically on a similar scale to the depth of the fall. A steep rebound. In this case, the rebound started sooner, but has been much less steep, than previous ones.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 08:24 AM) So the latest on Manny is that we will find out by the end of the day who put in a claim if any. There is some press out there saying that Dodgers who won couple of games recently might not be willing to give up Manny anymore because they are 5GB in the NL wild card race now. And another source claims Manny and Boras will try to use the NTC to guarantee a 1 year extension for 2011. Stuff got a little complicated, however I have a feeling we will know much more by the end of the day. 5 GB with 4 teams ahead of them. That's a tough place to be. Some Sox fans are ready to give up being 3.5 back behind just 1 team.

A little info related to this... Looking at the past few years, Manny has almost identical numbers against LHP and RHP. Further, in 2010 so far, he's actually hit righties significantly better than lefties.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 27, 2010 -> 07:00 AM) Hey, yeah, they could have avoid the whole controversy if they would have caved in right away! Alternatively, Americans could realize 9/11 =! all muslims and that there's nothing wrong with building a community center with a mosque a few blocks away. But no, they had to go all crazy and let their irrational fears of all things muslim become national storylines. One of the really amazing things about this story, to me, is that before it became national news, the local people in the area (who are the ones that really matter here anyway) were generally in favor of it. Early meetings with boards and what not were positive. Now you have the rest of the country weighing in.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 03:44 PM) Really, no it isn't. Konerko certainly doesn't do that. Beckham doesn't do that. Ramirez doesn't do that. Vizquel doesn't do that. The guys who do are AJ and Quentin, I'd say. And AJ does it less recently, he's been hitting gaps and liners (and his numbers are improving as a result).

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 03:36 PM) ANYTHING to do with it? OR a CORE of the reason? No, i don't think that. I think it might have moved a single digit percent of the base, max. You're alleging it's basically a core belief of the party, which is just ridiculous. It might be one issue that's important to a small percent of people, but it's not a CORE issue. California just passed a ban on gay marriage. California is heavily liberal. Stop saying it's all republicans when it's clearly not all republicans. It's independents and even some liberals too. While I don't agree with Rex about it being issue number 1, I also disagree that its only important to a small % of people. I'd bet a solid 50% of those who label themselves Republicans would say its important.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 03:28 PM) And I haven't seen a single thing to convince me that it was anything other than a well funded, well planned means of getting the Bush 20% out on the streets and active despite having lost an election. It was - after things had already gotten started. The GOP saw that nice car on the street and attempting to carjack it. Except the tea partier is still driving, the GOP is just along for the ride, which is not really the way they planned it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 02:33 PM) I think this loss is more significant than most because it shows we don't have "it." Minnesota gets beat again and we can't beat Baltimore at home. Just shows we don't have what it takes against AL teams not named Seattle to put anything together. It was right there for us to pick up the games that we lost head to head vs. Minnie. No better scenario: They vs. Texas. Us vs. pathetic Baltimore. And we have no chance in the game at home. Very very bad loss. No chance? Sox had the tying run up more than once, you make it sound like a blow-out. You can't live and die with single games. If we win tonight, we take the series, and will have gained 1.5 or 2.5 games on the lead over that series.

By the way, its entirely possible that guys like Linebrink and Kotsay already HAVE cleared waivers. But LAD won't want them anyway, they are looking for salary relief, not trading one expensive contract for another or the like.

I've said before, and will again... there is a difference between what the tea party movement started with (mostly libertarianism) and what is has become (co-opted by the neo-cons).

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 02:21 PM) Maybe it's just the way I read it then. A different history as in some bizarro world where we never gained independence from England and the South actually won the civil war. I guess the only way history could be different is when people explain why something happened or tell it from a different POV. Not sure if its still the case, but very recently, kids in parts of the South were still taught that it was the War of Northern Aggression. You even see it called that in museums down there. Their perspective, right or wrong, colors the history taught about that conflict very differently than the rest of the country sees it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 02:00 PM) Jones was a ridiculous acquisition. We found out the same thing Texas did. He's no good anymore. If you want defense, there are plenty of .200 hitters who can play defense. Andruw Jones was a pretty good pick up. A .774 OPS with plus defense and plus power, for basically the league minimum, to play part time? Sign me up every year for that from a bench guy.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 02:15 PM) Who would you say are five most influential people in the Tea Party? I don't know that anyone is really "in" the tea party - as stated earlier, its more a loose affiliation of people around a set of general ideas surrounding principles like smaller government, term limits, personal freedoms, etc. Of course, its also been partially co-opted by the general anti-Obama crowd, as well as the hate-filled, intrusive government neo-con crowd, led by the likes of Palin and Limbaugh, but that was not (IMO) how it was originally intended to be. And its not been taken over by them either, as much as they'd like to have done so.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 01:49 PM) The worst part about Ken Mehlman is that he was one of the architects of the 2004 campaign which centered on fear of terror, and in some states, fear of gay marriage. Honestly, a gay person who is a Republican doesn't make sense to me. Independent? Sure. Democrat? Sure. But I fail to see any reason why a member of the GLBTI community would support a party which has fundamentally opposed equal rights for their community consistently over the last ten years. And continues to do so. It, frankly, blows me away that people could be so blind to their own interests. To be clear, I am not defending this particular guy, or saying I'd do this. Just saying that no decision to be part of any political party requires that you agree with every single tenet they have. What % of Catholics do you think agree with, and follow to the letter, every element of the dogma?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 01:53 PM) Come on. Kids are still taught that Columbus discovered America. Yeah, I was going to say, history text books for those levels are just awful - at least the ones I've seen as recently as the 90's. Maybe they are getting better, I don't know.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 01:41 PM) He'd only start against lefties, right? We wouldn't want to rock the boat on this rotating DH thing. Don't even joke.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 01:29 PM) It does seem like Kotsay has played very little lately, which makes me think that perhaps Ozzie's love affair with him isn't as strong anymore as some people are saying. Makes me feel a little better about the chance of Kotsay being DFA'd. Kotsay has only batted in only 2 of the last 7 Sox games. Interesting.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 01:14 PM) The writing is on the wall. Manram is coming. It does seem like Kotsay has played very little lately, which makes me think that perhaps Ozzie's love affair with him isn't as strong anymore as some people are saying. Makes me feel a little better about the chance of Kotsay being DFA'd.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 12:57 PM) So when is Joe Biden stepping down? Eh? When have you ever seen me defend Joe Biden? And there is in fact a difference between an elected official and a hired official. Can't really just fire an elected official.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 12:51 PM) I'm not quite sure why he is apologizing for it honestly. It is crazy that we have gotten to the point with social security that you can't talk about the program, at all, in a negative light without people going ballistic. Its like trying to have an intelligent conversation about race in this country. Oh come on, you really think its appropriate for a government official to be writing letters to constituents with that tone and that language?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2010 -> 12:45 PM) Just stop with reality. It's so much easier to discount a "movement" by creating stereotypes and running with it. Who cares about facts? They have wackos in the group, so therefore they're all wackos! God save us all from their crazy ideas! Agree, but let's try to make sure we apply to the bolded to other groups too. Like the billion people on earth who practice Islam. Not targetting that at you BTW, just making a general statement - some people say this when defending their own allegiances, but ignore it when applying judgment to others.