NorthSideSox72

Jon Heyman (SI) on Twitter: #chisox like prince fielder but have discussed dunn, laroche and berkman, in that order, as possible 2nd choices

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 09:06 AM) I'm pretty sure we signed the bill to do that yesterday. Well that's specific to fraud, which is one component, but its good they at least do that.

Heh. This discussion is a perfect illustration of a point I've made here before. I'm in favor of looking for and cutting waste in federal government spending. But the two major parties are off in space about how to do it. You've got the popular Republican idea - just cut XX% across the board - which anyone who has managed in business knows is ineffective. And you've got the popular Democratic idea, that we should spend more in good times because we have the money, and more in bad times because we need the money, which is recipe for eventual financial wreck. A real attempt to cut waste means you have people whose job it is (ideally these would be outside consultants) to look at every line item, and find ways to be more efficient. Changing providers, cutting some things, finding private business to do others, in some cases even increasing spending in isolated places. That's a real and effective program, but no one seems interested in doing that. In a few cases, some agencies and departments are so bloated (see: BIA) that, yeah, they probably need to just go away, or be dismantled and reborn with new staff under new leadership. But I'm guessing those will be the rarity.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 23, 2010 -> 08:37 AM) I'd be surprised if they can pass that without some serious industry subsidies or something like that. This is one of those areas where the GOP is just being flat-out two-faced. They complain of government intervention in business, overspending, etc., and say they want energy reform... but they seem just fine with subsidizing big oil. Its laughable.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 04:49 PM) AJ's got a few more good years left; by then, Miguel Gonzalez might be ready. Gonzalez hasn't adjusted to A ball well with the bat. He's still young and one to watch, but even if he pans out, I'd say he's 3 years away at least - another A ball year in 2011, then AA and AAA.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 10:12 PM) How's this for a different perspective? http://www.cnbc.com/id/38294088/What_Does_...ok_Like?slide=9 Wow, that's actually more than I thought it was. That's a huge amount of oil in that space. You could probably combine all the fish in the gulf and it would take up a similar amount of space. That's f***ed up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 04:54 PM) NSS, I'm too lazy to find where you said that you thought that there would be a comprehensive energy bill pushed through Congress this year. It's officially dead. And it's dead for probably the next decade. Maybe more. Seriously...Natural Gas vehicles? Natural gas vehicles is 1 of the 4 key planks? Year's not over yet. You know enough about politics to know the terrain changes rapidly. We'll see. Aside from my prediction though, if all they can pass is that joke described in your post, I will obviously be disappointed.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 03:30 PM) Baseball is not a one-man game. The offense got two hits off a good pitcher. Then the Sox scored a run and a Seattle player executed a helluva bunt hit. After that Jenks got beat. I still say it's not a one-man game. The Sox bats sucked, Bobby sucked. We still won two of three which ain't bad. Instead of a pick to click are we going to start after every game picking "Goat of the Loss?" We should. You need to stop. We already had to close one thread.

Top 25 prospects, slide show, some analysis. Work compiled from multiple FS and SoxTalk contributors. We'll see how many of these guys are still around after the deadline.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 12:53 PM) Brent posted it himself on his Facebook. No inside info needed. That's what I didn't know - where it came from. Thanks.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 11:35 PM) Just got an update. Brent said he is going to play through it. I didn't realize you could play with a torn labrum, but he is going to give it a shot. MRI to be done next week, and likely surgery in off-season. I would think this still would caution teams away from trading for him (good news for me), but I just hope it doesn't effect him too much. It's his left shoulder (non throwing shoulder) that he hurt at Cal Poly in the past. Don't take this the wrong way, but... is your source actually Brent himself? Where did you get the info?

Wow. Injuries so far this season to prospects in the system: Mitchell Thompson Phegley (illness) Morel Shirek Remenowsky When the system is already thin, that's no good.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 22, 2010 -> 12:35 AM) Don't even need to find a starting RF, but at least find someone you can have on the bench and play if Quentin gets injured. In a matter of less than a month, there are now 3 glaring issues with this team (Peavy spot, bullpen, RF) I think issue number 1 isn't any of those, its the DH debacle. Starting pitching slot (Peavy) is second, ONLY if Hudson gets traded. If he stays, then I'm not concerned. Bullpen help, well, I guess that's third. But I personally think its not nearly as big an issue as its being made out to be. Putz and Thornton close for now, Jenks goes to earlier innings and I'm betting eventually gets his head out of his ass and starts throwing again instead of pitching. I'm also getting to like Threets a bit, and Sale may come up sooner than later. RF defense isn't even something that concerns me. Quentin is pretty bad out there, but overall team defense is quite good, and CQ DH's some of the time anyway. If I'm KW, I focus everything on getting a decent bat for DH (someone who can play the field too is a nice bonus, but not a necessity). The other stuff I try to get marginal help where I can find it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 02:35 PM) So, is it then your opinion that holding prejudiced views at any point in your lifetime is a disqualification for government service? If the answer to that is no, then is it your opinion that talking about how you overcame those views is a disqualification for working for the government? Just trying to see what you define the firing offense to be here. Read her quotes in what you posted. Yes, there is reformation there. There is also her characterizing the racism there, even from her current perspective. In other words, there is still racism there, even now. And she said it as a public official. That's the firing offense. Its not criminal, and I'm not saying she is evil. I am also saying that they should have investigated before the firing. Its not as bad as I had originally thought, but the statements that are there are still over the line IMO for a person in her position. She has created a situation where she is now not going to be trusted by anyone who would need her, and that makes her ineffective in the role.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 02:32 PM) You know all the people who have used the phrase "Apollo project/Manhattan Project" for clean energy? China is working on a plan to dump $750 billion in funding into clean energy over the next decade. We go to war in Iraq, spend $1T, kill a few thousand soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis, and loss a ton of political power globally... and get nothing out of it. China spends less, without all the death, destruction and loss of global political capital, and in 10 years will have gone a long way to energy independence. Embarrassing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 02:03 PM) The story above is a recent story, describing events and feelings from 1986. The "I've put them in his hands" part is describing how she felt at that point. OK, I dug around a couple of the news stories, and I now see where I was confused. She made this speech in March of this year, referring back to the 1986 situation. Now I understand the timeline, which wasn't made clear in the stories I read previously. She made the statements as a public official, about her past. Not as bad as if she made them about a current incident in her position of power, but still bad in that she made them while in this position, and bad that she did things that way, even if she corrected herself. I guess a more complete investigation would have been the appropriate path, but I'd still say firing was the right move.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 01:47 PM) Since you said you don't have the video yet NSS, here's the text. The part in bold was the excerpt. The "Video cut" is supposedly a stop to change videotapes. Ms. Sherrod also gave an interview today to CNN saying that part of her original prejudice prior to learning her lesson in this case was likely due to her father being murdered by a white farmer that was never indicted, in an incident she believed to be racially motivated. Thanks. The statements are still bad, and if she had said them while working as a DOA official, I'd stand by my original thought. But as they happened 24 years ago, an further she clearly was learning and growing as a person, I'll say they shouldn't have fired her. Checked into her work maybe - to make sure this wasn't a repeating pattern. But not fired her.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 01:32 PM) No. Private group. She was appointed to the Dept. of Ag in 2009. The events in question were in about 1986, when she worked for the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund. Hm. I read a few articles and didn't see that. That being the case, that does at least lead me to think that they shouldn't have immediately fired her. Probably should have dug in to make sure she hadn't been carrying that kind of behavior into the job first. I'm sure I said some stupid things 24 years ago, which is way different than saying them now in a public role.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 01:04 PM) I'm not sure if you realize this or not and it's right on the border of all your statements so I'm going to ask even though it's at best tangential...you do realize that she was not a public official during the events she was discussing, right? She was working for a group with the explicit mission of helping African Americans in that region, not the DOA. Was she employed by the DOA during that time? I thought yes. If so, then your point is irrelevant.

What's being argued here isn't the point. Its not that anyone disagrees that its better if people know about AIDS and how its transmitted. Its about whether or not these ads do anything whatsoever to help with that. If the ads cost, say, a million dollars... how much on average does the city pay in uncovered health care costs for each new AIDS case? And note I said how much does it cost the CITY, who are the ones paying for the ads. If the number is, say, $1000 (I have no idea what it is, just illustrating), then that means you'd better think that 3 months of a few billboards is going to net you 1,000 fewer cases or more. Otherwise, you are wasting money. Now, if hospitals and insurance companies are paying a ton of money for these cases, which I am sure they are, then THEY should be doing preventative work to protect themselves, on THEIR dime. Not taxpayer money.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 12:29 PM) Anyway, now that Beck's on board with this being an unjust firing, isn't it time for you guys to flip-flop so that you can start attacking the administration and I start defending them somehow? Its an opportunity to bash Obama, of course Beck and the like hate the move. If it was Bush, they'd have loved it. It was racist then, its still racist now. It was stupid behavior for a publci official then, and now. It was fireable then, and still is now.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 20, 2010 -> 06:32 PM) Your skills usually don't increase at age 34 no matter how hard you try. Skills? Well, some skills almost always increase with age. Others inevitably decline. So performance is not always a predictable curve. I do agree that PK is overachieving though. Its unlikely he'll keep it up all year (but possible). Even less likely he does it again next year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 21, 2010 -> 09:35 AM) Link And again, these ads will do next to nothing to address the lack of knowledge.

That doesn't mean that a city strapped for cash and basic services should be paying for ads about it either. Especially when the effectivity of the ads is highly questionable anyway. The schools should be addressing it most definitely, but if I were on the city council looking for money to cut, this would definitely be on my list. I'd rather cut it than, say, money for schools or police/fire/EMS.

Just curious... if FLA is scouting the Sox... who from FLA would the Sox be interested in?