NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 10:22 AM) Tex, politicians should have the CLEANEST tax returns you can imagine, since you know it always comes back to bite them in the ass when they don't. Do you seriously give Rangel a pass for his failure to pay taxes? And this isnt the first tax problem for Daschel. I posed a serious question. if Biden claims that it is patriotic to pay our fair share of taxes, is he then calling Daschel, Rangel and the others unpatriotic? Or do they get a pass because of the D after their names? Asking about the tax malfesance of high level officials is definitely a serious and good question. Making spurious claims that it makes them unpatriotic, or that they get a pass because they are Dems, seem silly to me.

Sorry about that, I think I overreacted a bit. Its hard to tell sometimes, in here, what is just someone being funny, and what is someone finding an excuse to b****. Carry on.

Does this really need a thread? Did the tax/patriot parallel need one? Threads are for discussion. These aren't discussion-starters, these are just venting bitterness.

This topic has been discussed quite a bit in here. Did we really need a seperate thread for you to vent your obvious anger and create another sweeping indictment of anyone in a given party?

QUOTE (Nixon @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 09:07 AM) The fire was in the what? Cuckold, or cockloft (even better). Its up in the roof of a cathedral. I won't even try to Google it at work, but its a real word.

Bear nekkid?

QUOTE (ptatc @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 07:58 AM) the thing is the guy is probably right. I have little doubt the talks took place. The M's probably called and KW should always listen. They probably bantered back and forth and then said, no it won't work. Meanwhile this guy's "source" overheard the names and said there were discussions. All of which was acurrate. However, if he's a responsible journalist and not just trying to scoop eveyone, he would haver sat back and thought, "this may have been discussed but it can't actually happen in this form." You don't, as a "journalist", get caught up in negative comments and hurl insults at your readers. This guy is a hack.

Obama announced some details of his plan, that he wants Congress to pass, regarding executive compensation. The main part of the plan is a cap on cash compensation for anyone at any bank that receives special federal funds (TARP or follow-ons), and that any compensation beyond that must be in the form of company stock (not options), which can only be sold after the bank repays all that federal debt. That part I agree with, as long as it is specifically, only, banks that receive this bailout money. If it goes to other normally functioning companies, then that is very, very wrong. But there appears to be a second part, which worries me. But it depends on how the final wording is done. Basically, companies that draw normally-available federal funds, would also be subject (along with TARP banks) to certain restrictions on spending for various non-core activities (offsites and parties, etc.), but that the rules could be waived for these non-TARP entities based on stockholder approval. See how that is written? its affirmative operational control over banks that are operating normally, and that bothers the hell out of me. If a bank is operating normally, not receiving special federal support, then the US government has no right to tell it how to spend its money (as long as its legal). So, good idea, with a dangerous, unacceptable tack-on. I sure as heck hope that part dies on the vine. CNN link.

So, Obama has said that as Iraq draws down, he wants more emphasis put on Afghanistan, where he feels we cut out early. So let's have a thread about the Afghani situation. Here is an opening issue that will already make things difficult. Kyrgyzstan is moving a bill through their Parliament to kick the US off the airbase there, which seems to be a key facility for refueling, staging and transporation into and out of Afghanistan. Obama already has a delicate foreign policy challenge here, and it puts him right up against he Russians as well.

Report I saw from the Trib this AM said that the fire was in the cuckold, in the roof, and was contained. There was some water coming into the altar area though, which could cause damage there. ETA: Also, that there were some renovations going on in that area of the church. Linky, with pics.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 07:36 AM) Complete waste of time for the revenue it would bring in. Have to disagree with you here. Its not just revenue. More importantly, its the removal of costs. You go from MJ being a big money drain, to it being on the revenue side. Overall contribution to the government coffers is a huge net positive.

Anyone else read the comments after the linked article? Hilarious. People point out how ridiculous the trade, is, and the "reporter" who wrote the article gets defensive and calls people names. Its awesome. This is a published blog? People actually read this guy? He acts like a 12 year old.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Feb 4, 2009 -> 07:25 AM) http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/04/oba...chle/index.html Nice to see the president acknowledge his own f***ups quickly for a change. Yes it is. Obama is stumbling on some things, but overall, he's does seem to be a large improvement. Time will tell more of course.

I have split this silliness into its own thread. Not even sure why it was in the Abreu thread to begin with.

1.75M was the number I heard a lot.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 04:31 PM) I must say, I am humbled by this nomination, and I will give out blumpkins for votes. I don't know what the hell a blumpkin is, but I am pretty sure I can give out something of more value.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 05:21 PM) I know how difficult perjury is to prove, Ive been making that argument for what seems to be years. I just think that the govt is out for spite against Bonds and that really bothers me. And I think you, and others, confuse spite with the reality of law enforcement. You cannot catch and prosecute all criminals, its not possible. So you target some mix of the ones who are easiest to catch and prosecute, and the ones that will have the biggest collateral impact. Bonds made it highly obvious what he was doing (easy to catch), and he's a high profile player in the extreme (biggest collateral impact). Its how that field works.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 04:07 PM) Speed is underrated, not because stolen bases are cool, but because so many people think that stolen bases are the only impact of speed. There are so many other things that speed buys you. Power hitting is still more important, more of the time. But speed can be a serious value-add for any team. QUOTE (MO2005 @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 05:35 PM) Ok I disagree with you 100 billion percent. Let's look at the leadoff hitter for the last 9 or 10 world series winners. Jimmy Rollins, Dustin Pedroia, David Eckstein, Scott Podsednik, Johny Damon, Juan Pierre, David Eckstein, Tony Womack, and Alfonso Soriano. I'm assuming you are a whitesox fan and if you wouldn't mind explaining why those pesky twins beat us up all the time?? Let's see stolen bases because AJ can't throw anyone out, bunt singles, a runner scoring from 2nd on a hard hit to left field. How many times do you see our players stopping at third? Wouldn't you like to see them score more? So lets fix that with some speed OK, you either missed my point entirely, or you are being sarcastic. I can't tell which. My point was, speed is good, and you can't dismiss it by simply saying that attempting to steal bases is bad. And secondarily, that speed isn't everything or even the most important thing, but it is indeed important.

Speed is underrated, not because stolen bases are cool, but because so many people think that stolen bases are the only impact of speed. There are so many other things that speed buys you. Power hitting is still more important, more of the time. But speed can be a serious value-add for any team.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 03:25 PM) If you want evidence that either the Republicans don't know the first thing about economics or they're just fundamentally doing this in bad faith, here's Senator Kit Bond, reported by Congressional Quarterly today, saying that investment in mass transit isn't a stimulus. And the mass transit dollars should be moved to funding highways. So, he is saying that highway projects are stimulative, but mass transit isn't. Which of course is laughable. But what he really is doing is serving his constituency. Mass transit isn't a big thing in most of Missouri. He'd rather have highway money.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 02:28 PM) Has Clemens been charged with perjury for lying under oath? Because Bonds has, and to me thats being treated differently. I thought you meant by the media and/or fans.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 02:37 PM) Not really that sloppy. I bet they knew and thought they could slip it past. Maybe they were banking on that liberal media we hear so much about these days... I think its more likely they are sloppy, than they are stupid, which is the alternative. Not sure how they thought these sorts of things would slip through unnoticed. Its not like a traffic ticket.

Treated differently? They are both despised for it by many, and ridiculed for it. In fact, I think Bonds has been treated better than Clemens, with all the attention he got with the bogus HR titles. There is more discussion about Bonds of course, because he broke some of baseball's sacred records. Its natural.

GOP in Senate manage to block the $25B addition of infrastructure funding. Two GOP'ers actually voted for it, Specter and Bond. But the Dems were missing a Senator (Kennedy), and Gregg ® didn't vote. Thing is, I think that particular $25B was better than some of the other garbage in there. Which I think was part of the point the GOP Senators were making - cut something else first. I agree with them. I am also getting the impression that Obama doesn't have the influence in Congress, with either party, that he was protrayed to have. He apparently hasn't figured out that game yet. I think Biden was supposed to be in this role.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Feb 3, 2009 -> 02:07 PM) Didn't the NY papers make some statement about the Sox trading someone earlier this year and it turned out to be BS? One can never tell of course, but why do a deal like this? We have no need for Abreu, ora t least at this point. Its not that we need Abreu. You have to think about it in terms of what KW has tended to do. If we sign Abreu, its actually to get Homer Bailey, Chone Figgins, or someone else, and to clear salary in order to do so.