NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 08:01 AM) Not to sound crass or callous, but there probably will be a new face in the Senate delegation before too long, given Kennedy's brain cancer. Personally, I would prefer to see Hillary become the Majority Leader of the Senate. As much as I dislike her, I think she'd be a large improvement over Reid.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 07:30 AM) I think Wing may actually be a minor league free agent In that case, if he's willing, I say go get him to compete with Logan for a lefty pen spot.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Nov 14, 2008 -> 05:54 AM) "If Dye doesn't get traded I hope someone on the Sox approaches Dye about playing some LF and DH for the good of the team. Trading Swisher would open up those possibilities even more. Even with no experience in LF Dye is no longer suited to RF full time." That's what I said Nov. 7th in the " Phillies interested in Dye" thread. I also said somewhere that trading Vazquez would not be the 1st move KW makes because there was no way in hell KW would open up a hole in the starting pitching staff without more viable options than he had. He now has those options. This was the obvious 1st move of the off season. Does it make Vazquez the next to go ? Maybe but I still don't think its enough to fill a vacancy created by moving Javy. I think it lessens the chances of a Dye trade though there could always be an offer that KW can't refuse. I'm excited because the KW plan has started unfolding. Look for much more to happen in the next 6-8 weeks. KW also has more prospects to trade now. If you're looking for a big name, think Brian Roberts or Carlos Beltran or more prospects from the Mets. I will always disagree with flipping Dye and TCQ between left and right. LF gets more balls hit that way, RF needs a stronger arm. To me, that means CQ, who is in better shape that Dye, is better suited to LF, whereas Dye still has a very strong arm and should stay in RF. Of course ideally, Dye eventually becomes a DH. But Dye was really not as horrible in RF last year as some people seem to believe. He's headed downhill, but he wasn't the worst around.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 04:24 PM) So what do you get when a credit crunch + bad economy meets a poorly run business? Said marginal business tanks spectacularly. And when its a large (70-100 million dollar revenue company) services company? Four million dollars of payments to travel providers disappear, tens of thousands of passengers in the lurch and Rex Kickass on the street with no place to sell cruises. 4 million never made it to the travel providers? Yikes. And Rex... sorry again about your job.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 01:43 PM) Especially with what happened to Logan this season. A good lefty reliever should be one of KW's main targets this off-season. Someone like Dennys Reyes would fit the bill quite nicely, and take something away from a major rival of ours. Maybe we can trade back for Wing. We seem to like dealing with OAK. Though if I recall, Wing might have actually asked for a change of scenery. He may have felt he had a quicker shot at the bigs with someone else.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 03:53 PM) Nah, but i can see Betemit being a good deal better than Crede has been since his back troubles set in. Betemit will be more than tolerable, he won't be 2006 Crede certainly, but he'll be more than adequate assuming his bat kicks in. I can agree with that. Crede in 2007 and 2008 was just not the same guy on defense. Which made me sad, as I really loved watching him play over there before his back issues just got too much.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 03:39 PM) The good news is that Betemit on a very similar offensive career path to Crede. In fact, his defense might be a bit better. The kid can handle every position on the field barring C, P, and CF. Wait... you aren't saying that Betemit would be better at 3B than Crede was in his 2nd year (equivalent to Betemit), are you?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 03:21 PM) Yeah, I guess I wasn't reading too closely. Their description was inaccurate, but the CDS market did get heavily leveraged. I think it was an NPR story where I heard there were about $9T worth of actual mortgages for about $45T worth of CDS hedges/ bets. Yes, the CDS market was and still is a huge problem.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 03:04 PM) lol Cknolls have any of your predictions been wrong yet? Let's hope his SP 650 one is wrong.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 03:09 PM) Marquez will never pitch for the White Sox, but that doesnt mattter. This deal is about freeing up money for something bigger and we picked up a pretty decent bench player in the process who might do really well at US Cellular. If we sign Viciedo or acquire Beltran with this money were saving this Swisher deal looks pretty damn good. Good point on the money aspect. Does point to other stuff on the horizon.

OK, so I'm looking at Nunez, Betemit and Marquez... doesn't seem like enough for Swish and Kanekoa to me. First instinct - not so great. But KW always has plans laid out, so, we'll see how things fall.

OK so, what is the deal? Marquez, Betemit and Melky for Swish and Teixera? I was kind of high on Teixera.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 02:45 PM) Just because there's seldom an occasion to post this.... I LOL every time I see that image, and I don't know why.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 31, 2008 -> 02:04 PM) The New Madrid Fault system is an odd one. It exists right in the middle of a plate, where it's difficult to get big earthquakes. But it's certainly there, and troublesome. I've never really liked the studies I've seen on that one because most of them seem like they rate the recurrence interval too low, they tend to be a little too alarmist for the match I do in my head. I think about a 500 year recurrence interval for magnitude 8 events seems reasonable, and there are some numbers out there that say that. It's been 200 years since the last big one, but the last big one was a swarm of about 4 magnitude 7-8 events. It's fairly likely that there will be a magnitude 6, slight damage, annoying type event on that system within the next 50-100 years. I think the next big one there is probably a couple hundred years off, but with faults, it's really hard to say that for sure. It could have a recurrence interval of 500 years, move 3 times in 200 years and then decide not to move again for 1500 years. You've got probably a 5% chance in the next 50-75 years of having another magnitude 8 event on that fault. On the other hand, the Southern San Andreas has probably a 95% chance of going within the next 50 years. I realize I'm about to try to argue with a geologist about geology, but, I feel I should point this out. A magnitude 6 event on the New Madrid, depending on depth, is likely to be a lot more than an annoyance. Its likely to be a killer. Unlike in Cali, the earth around the New Madrid is not a lot of broken rock - its a sandy-soil plain, basically. That means that the waves coming off the quake through the earth will dissipate much more slowly, and in fact in some areas will be amplified. Some of these "liquification zones" exist in Cali too of course, as I am sure you know. But the enture basin along the Mississippi in that area is one big flat liquification zone. Energy transference is much more efficient there, than in the angular and broken mountains in California. The zones of effect are pushed much further away from the epicenter. According to the info disseminated by U of Memphis' school of geology when I lived down there, a mag 6 event, if near the southern end of the zone, could be deadly. It would cause fairly extensive damage in Memphis and much of the surrounding area. Obviously not on the scale of a 7 or 8 event, which would be truly catastrophic. But still lots and lots of damage, and human casualties would result, even from a 6.

QUOTE (longshot7 @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 12:57 PM) Oh my god, I love this sign! Faith IS crap. *waits for the longshot7 vs BearSox smackdown to begin*

McCain-Feingold started as a set of good ideas, and ended up passing as something very flawed. We need real campaign finance reform, but the problem is, Congress and the President are not motivated to change it.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:27 AM) You can add Wing in there too. We've had an awful lot of bad luck when it comes to the health of our very promising (at the time) young pitchers. It has not been entirely poor drafting/scouting I was actually pretty upset when Wing went to the OAK org last offseason. He showed every indication of coming back nicely, and was even stretching out to starting length outings with B-Ham in 2007 while putting up very nice numbers. And in 2008 with OAK's AAA team as a reliever, he put up a 2.33 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and about an 8 K/9. It would be awfully nice to have a lefty reliever like that in the wings with the Sox right now.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 12:05 PM) Another great segment on how bad we're all screwed: Except that is a fully incorrect understanding of what a CDS is.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:19 AM) I am talking here about the National Civilian Security Force , which has no tax break or incentives, it is required from everybody. Also still in the planning stages, but has been talked about for a while. Click the link and listen to Rahm's interview. They want this program required of everybody, no tax incentives to do it. Ah, I thought you were referring to the 4k for comm svc thingy. Got it. QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:19 AM) As for the OTHER program, the one where a tax incentive has been mentioned, as you are fond of pointing out to me, if isn't final yet, yet you spout that $4000 figure like gospel. When it first came up, there was no incentive included. There is nothign to say that there will be one when he finally gets this program into action. We'll have to see on that one when it happens. Was I think one who kept pointing out it wasn't final? I think you might be confusing me with Sqwert. Like I said, the only way I've seen it stated before was money for college in exchange for community or civil service work. As long as its that, and its optional, then I like it (in a vaccum - budgetary issues aside for the moment). If its compulsary in some way, for adults, then I agree its not OK.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:03 AM) You know what? We are not Germany. or Switzerland. Or Cuba. Or any of those other contries that REQUIRES some sort of military or civil service. And we shouldn't be. Should service be encouraged? yes! Required? no. Then you are in favor of the program, it would appear. QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:03 AM) And FYI, there is no 'aid' tied to this program Did you miss the whole $4000 part? QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 10:03 AM) this one is a 'do it or else'. We just don't know what the 'else' is yet. Do it or else? Where do you see any indication of that? The site originally said it was required to get the 4k, but even that was misconstrued, so they clarified. Its not REQUIRED. You keep making this into something it isn't. Look, if they change this so that it really is actually required for college students, then I'll be standing right beside you in protest. But that is just not the case.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 09:55 AM) Do people who hate gays go to hell? I think he was referring to atheists going to hell. I could be wrong though.

CNN says Begich now up 814 votes, with 40,000 remaining to be counted, mostly from the Anchorage area (which is seen as heavily Begich favored). Looks like Stevens will in fact probably lose. Good.

QUOTE (Soxy @ Nov 12, 2008 -> 10:32 PM) I don't know probably entrees around $15-20 sounds right. She's not a big red meat eater, but she really likes poultry. I was thinking the Italian Village, but I haven't been there in ages (and I think it's a ways off). Anyway, she likes Italian/Greek, Thai, Indian, Mexican. For Italian, I wouldn't do Italian Village. That place is about atmosphere - the food isn't that good, IMO. There are a metric ton of good italian places downtown - call the Hilton concierge (as was noted earlier) to recommend one of those. There is a famous one that is excellent, just north of the NW corner of Millenium Park, right on Michigan Ave, and the name is escaping me.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 07:51 AM) When he says civilian national security force, the first thing I thought, in the context of what I do for a living, is that he was referring to having well-funded police departments and the like. However, you capitalize the letters there to make it sound more official and put it through a few right-wing blogs and it turns into the Hitler Youth. I love the internet. I thought he may have meant some combination of that, and some of the various state volunteer guard units that are prevalent in some parts of the country.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 13, 2008 -> 07:46 AM) I especially liked this part: For example, there was Friday night's announcement by Minneapolis's director of elections that she'd forgotten to count 32 absentee ballots in her car. The Coleman campaign scrambled to get a county judge to halt the counting of these absentees, since it was impossible to prove their integrity 72 hours after the polls closed. The judge refused on grounds that she lacked jurisdiction. Ooh, wait, I have 48 more in the trunk I forgot to count also, if you need them! Regardless of the outcome, that person deserves to never work an election again. Ever. Yeah, I had the same reaction when I saw that. You were carrying around ballots in your car for 72 hours? You should not work in elections ever again. Period. Why were they in there in the first place? Because if the state is having people move ballots around in their private cars, then that rule needs to change too.