NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:31 AM) Then basically, you're arguing in favor of the current system except with the DISCLOSE act passed. No, not at all. I agree with some ASPECTS of the current system, but if read my posts instead of just pulling out certain parts, you will see I think there are other things that should be different.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:23 AM) Well, first of all, the bill in question here, the DISCLOSE act, does the first part (at least it's supposed to, until we figure out where the loopholes are). The 2nd part is the complicated part, because as you've noted, BP can't give $10 million to Joe Barton, but BP's CEO can sit down in a room with his 500 rich friends, all of whom happen to be big investors in BP, and tell them that if Joe Barton becomes chair of the House Energy committee it'll be worth millions to the value of their stock, so each of them should max out and give $3000 to Joe Barton's campaign this year, and another $3000 to any other Republican they can find to try to help them win the majority. That's the same argument we get for why Obama's been so lenient on BP, because of all of the individual donations coming from employees and friends of that firm. Really, the only way you're going to stop that is to outright ban political contributions, because there's no way you can ban me from trying to convince my friend to support a cause that I support. I have no issue with that at all (bolded). Each person has a choice - they can listen to BP's request, and then do what they want with their $3000.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 09:12 AM) A simple solution like say, making it so that a company or a union can't give large sums of money to a PAC to fund an ad campaign without acknowledging in the ad that they were the donor? I'm saying change the rules for PAC's, and require disclosure. No mixing of funds, ever, for any purpose, between parties/candidates and corporations.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 08:44 AM) And that's exactly what they can do right now...they just don't have to acknowledge that it was done by BP at any step. (one other note, your "They can't donate money to the candidate, PAC, or GOP line would be tossed out by the court, so yeah, it's a lot more complex than you want it to be) Tossed out by a court under current law. I believe the law can be made such that it wouldn't run afoul of that ruling. Also, no, they can do a lot more than that now, including donate directly to parties, candidates and PAC's. This is why its so important to re-write the laws on this. Its a complex issue, but some simple solutions CAN give us a lot of progress.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 08:32 AM) So, if BP noticed that Representative Joe Barton thought it was a horrible thing that BP had to pay for the oil spill cleanup and the government did not, and they decided to spend $50 million dollars to elect Joe Barton behind the scenes, and did so with absolutely no coordination with Joe Barton, you'd have no problem with that? That's not a gift, that's them supporting a candidate who's belief that BP shouldn't have to pay for the cleanup happens to line up with their belief that BP shouldn't have to pay for the cleanup. That isn't what I said at all. Where are you even getting that? If BP wanted to pay for an advertisement saying, GOVERNMENT BAD!!!, they can do that. If they wanted to meet with every senator and house rep they could, talk with them, try to tell them what actions they'd take to avoid this in the future, etc., they could do that. They could NOT donate money to the candidate, or to a PAC, or to the GOP. I thought I was pretty clear.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 02:19 AM) So first we had Dipotity or whatever his name is pimping Joe Saunders because of his win total in 2008-2009. Now we've got Melvin using quality starts to somehow put Dave f***ing Bush in the same class as Cliff Lee (who missed the first month of the season) and Dan Haren? What does it really require to be a GM these days? f***ing morons. Maybe I should appreciate KW more. Neither of them are "morons", they are simply selling their guys. Do you really expect a "Volvo - boxy, but good" type campaign from GM's about their players and deals? You guys take these statements way too literally, and too far. Of course he doesn't think that Bush = Lee.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 01:24 PM) You know what I meant. None of the prospects they got were Major-League ready impact prospects, like Jesus Montero, Mike Trout, Desmond Jennings, etc. I know, I just really hate that term, because some people really do think that certain prospects are 100% chances to be stars. That just isn't the case. Same goes for saying lower level prospects are never ever going to make it.

QUOTE (Jackie @ Jul 28, 2010 -> 07:25 AM) haha thanks Bren! hopefully I can be a good source of some insider info! will update when i can Welcome to the board! If you go to the "Adopt A Prospect" sub-forum, you will find a thread for Buch, which you are welcome to update with anything and everything Ryan Buch if you'd like.

Companies don't vote, people vote. One person, one vote, one ENTITY in the election world. Corporations should not, in my view, be part of it. They don't have a vote in and of themselves, and they shouldn't be able to donate to campaigns or parties. I do however think that corporations should be able to lobby - and yes that difference is important. Businesses should be able to protect their interests, and if they want to spend money on people's time to try to convince officials of things, I have no issue with that. Just make the lobbying laws such that those elected officials can't take gifts of any kind from lobbyists, period. This stuff COULD be made much simpler than it is, if the people elected to office wanted it to be. They generally do not.

WAS is going to wait until near the deadline... offer Dunn a cheap extension... Dunn will likely turn that down... and WAS will trade Dunn to whomever has made the best offer so far.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 01:31 PM) UZR updates came out today. Quentin's now at an awesome -17.6. I'd rather have Brad Hawpe out there. I still contend he's better than Dye in his last year or two here, but that's sort of a stupid argument anyway, as they are both bad outfielders.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 01:21 PM) Teahen is not a good outfielder. But Quentin is a really bad one. If Teahen is even marginally better, then DH Quentin.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 11:48 AM) That just might be him trying to justify why he traded their best pitcher away for a mediocre 4th starter and no can't-miss prospects. You know, to the average baseball folk, wins are important. Just ask what Hawk and Stone think of Saunders. No such animal.

QUOTE (beck72 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 12:16 PM) I could see the sox adding Figgins in the offseason ala Pierre [salary dump, add in cash to the sox] for 3b. One thing this team doesn't really need for 2011-2012 is 3B's. Between Teahen, Viciedo and Morel, there really isn't much reason to go get another one, unless they were really good and clearly better than any of those three could be. If they acquire Figgins, it would be to play elsewhere.

With Remenowsky out for the season, I may need to channel my NDFA obsession temporarily to one Brandon Kloess. He's old for his level (25 in A+), but his peripherals are very nice, as are his core numbers. I don't know anything about him yet though, in terms of "stuff".

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 11:46 AM) DH? That's what I was thinking. DH mostly, play the field occasionally to give guys days off, DFA Kotsay, keep Jones as a righty DH and OF rotator.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 27, 2010 -> 10:34 AM) The most important factor in educational attainment is the economic background that people come from. If that isn't factored for in a survey like this, the numbers are pretty worthless IMO, even if they are logical. I'm not disputing that, and I completely agree with you. Just saying, I don't think the research is earth-shattering, because it is something I just assumed was true to some degree anyway.

Not sure how it could surprise anyone that an increase in the amount of pollution people breath will result in poorer health. Seems pretty logical to me.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 04:45 PM) Worth noting that De Aza is on the DL? He is? He played last night, went 2-5 with a triple.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 06:29 PM) This team, as constructed right now, as managed by Ozzie Guilen can't win this division. Trades, DFA's, Call-Ups....anything LOL, the team in first place "can't win this division". OK. Look, I want to see a better bat for DH, it makes the team better, but its kind of hilarious to say that a first place team in late July "can't win" their division.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 03:22 PM) I don't know why he saw the need to change his approach. His approach was perfectly fine before. He could probably put up Mike Napoli-like numbers minus the huge power. He still has good power, just not .500 SLG type of pop. His year this year has been really erratic, which makes me tend to think the numbers themselves are pretty meaningless (looking at just this year I mean). I'd bet goes on a run before the season is out, maybe plays some fall ball and rakes.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 03:13 PM) Well if he can't make the transition to AAA how is he suppose to hit ML pitching? I wish him well, I'm just saddened by the likes of him and JorDanks, both were suppose to be stars. That is not how it worked. Flowers was promoted to AAA mid-last-season, and put up a .286/.364/.438/.803, which is decent for just being promoted. And his power is actually up this year. But in this past offseason, he apparently went on his own to an old coach for help, changed his approach, and it f***ed him up good. Now he's trying to transition back to what he was doing previously, and its not going well. Basically, his head got f***ed with. I think he's likely to improve before the season is out.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 24, 2010 -> 05:41 PM) The Gold Glove should have died to everyone in 1999 when Palmiero won it by playing 28 games at 1B and 128 games at DH. This. Anyone who voted Palmeiro should have immediately lost the ability to vote for the GG.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 12:50 PM) It's so steep/far away that my dad doesn't like sitting there; it hits the whole "Fear of heights" community. When you have to walk up a ways, yeah, that can get dicey. I love that our seats are front row.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 26, 2010 -> 01:11 PM) One economic issue here worth pointing out now that the bill has died and the EPA will wind up issuing rules...the death of the bill is itself an economic drag, because the utility and energy companies aren't stupid. Most of them know that a CO2 rule is eventually going to come, but they are loathe to invest until they have some idea of what the basic outline of the rules are, so they're sitting on cash that could be invested right now. I can't really blame them for that. They have no idea where things will end up.