NorthSideSox72

So, Hillary Clinton has a new ad campaign out, hitting Obama directly on two subjects. What I find hilarious is, Clinton's approach to the two subjects is laughably useless. Clinton wants a 90 day moratorium on foreclosures, and she wants a brief "tax holiday" on gas taxes. Both of these measures are of course exactly the kind of useless, temporary fixes that will make matters worse later. They are pure political B.S. Anyway, the ad hits Obama because he doesn't support either one. For reference, Obama prefers a "windfall tax" on oil companies instead, with the monies going towards alternative fuel research (I'd rather see them just stop giving the companies welfare, but this is as close to that as is politically palatable), and on mortgages, favors an array of other alternatives. McCain also favors the tax holiday, along with Clinton. Here is the article.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 03:55 PM) Survey USA hits N.C. Obama 49, Clinton 44. Ouch. So here again, S-USA seems to be out of line with other polls. Not that its wrong - I don't know which is wrong or right. But Rasmussen, who is also considered pretty solid, did a poll on 4/28 (S-USA was 4/26-28), and got this result: Obama 51, Clinton 37 So... one poll shows +5, the other +14, for basically the same period, and a very similar number of respondants. Weird.

Pinned. A win today, to split a road series against Minny, and finish April 15-11 in first place... would be awesome. That would cap off a very nice month. So let me just... excuse me... ahem... GO YOU WHITE SOX!!!

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 09:32 PM) Republicans have always been about low taxes which in and of itself isn't a bad thing and I would normally support, but they act like big defense spending isn't costing that much and the deficit isn't really that big of a deal, then while pushing budgets that would give most big government Democrats wet dreams, cut taxes as well. All the while pushing the idea of the magical tax fairy that's somehow going to revive the economy, all we have to do is cut taxes. I mean, let's just be honest - war is expensive, we don't have the revenues to cover it, we need tax. There's no way to hide it. I wish more people would stop taking all these tax promises at face value. That includes Obama and Hillary, they're just downplaying how much exactly we'd have to raise taxes by. Guns and butter.

It should be noted that since PA, Obama has mostly been in Indiana. I think that partially explains both his surprisingly decent numbers there, and also his waning lead in NC, where Clinton has been campaigning more heavily (and where she just got the gov's endorsement). Watch what happens to the NC numbers when Obama shows up there.

Over/under on number of posts in this thread before it ends up in the Buster?

QUOTE (scenario @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 02:23 PM) The one run that Broadway gave up today was a homerun to Alex Cintron. He was just doin' a friend a solid.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 03:22 PM) Nice speech. You managed to very well sum up brain dead conservatives attitudes towards voters. I'd say that voter apathy, or apathy generally, is an American problem - not a liberal or conservative problem.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 01:42 PM) more record profits form oil companies. so can we all agree we shouldn't be handing out corporate welfare to these guys? I think you'll get 100% agreement on that. You could poll the nation and get 90%+. And yet, Congress and this President will hear nothing of it.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 02:10 PM) Polls here are open at like 6am and go until 7 at night or later. PLus with the early voting here, people have weeks to vote. Your long lines excuse is simply not a reality. And like I said earlier, if someone sees a wait time of 10 or 15 minutes and feels 'inconvenienced' enough to not vote because of it, f*** 'em. Don't vote then. You obviously don't care enough about the freedoms won for you by countless others before you to wait for 15 minutes and excercise your right, a right that many people die to get and die to protect. Go ahead, go home and watch that Seinfeld rerun, if that is what is really important. And before you go all off crying about the single mom who had 4 kids with her and stuff, I know that there are always exceptions. Oh, my peeps get an hour (PAID) if they need it, but they usually just come in late and do it before work. I'm going to have to agree with Alpha here. With early voting and long hours, there is no reason not to vote for the 99% of the population that is not bedridden.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 12:46 PM) I tend to agree but why doesn't the MSM lock onto that fact? Because its a train wreck. People like to gawk, and the MSM is happy to oblige. It makes them money.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 01:41 PM) I'll give him and his campaign the benefit of the doubt. After all, he is leading right now and he's beating the big, bad, Clinton machine a.k.a. the 'inevitable' nominee. Has beaten. Its over. She's a dead candidate walking.

B-Ham is off today. Winston-Salem (9-10) @ Potomac (14-7), 5:05pm CDT, Dubee (2-0, 3.91) starting for W-S Kanny (11-12) @ Lakewood (11-13), 5:35pm CDT, J-Lo (1-3, 6.75) going for Kannapolis

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 12:14 PM) We would be getting Reverend Wright 24/7 if he Obama didn't do this today. The GOP has attack ads all over the place with Obama and Wright the centerpiece of the argument. This needed to be done. I disagree. I think the issue keeps coming up because Clinton, McCain, and the media keep bringing it up. And guess what? They will keep doing so regardless of this speech. It will eventually fade somewhat to the background, regardless of the speech. All the speech does, to me, is make it look like he's appeasing the masses. That may work a little bit, as I said, but ultimately I think its a waste.

Have you ever tried a new or wacky pitch in a game, just to see if you could throw it? Like a knuckler, or an ephus, or the like? if so, what was the result? Where were the best and worst stadium experiences you've had, in places you have pitched?

We'll be interviewing Sergio Miranda soon, if all works out. So if you have any questions you'd like to have asked, please feel free to post them here.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 01:04 PM) Obama finally rejects Reverend Wright. So, here is the weird thing. For me, I was happy with the Philly speech - I think this is a more purely political move, and it bothers me. On the other hand, its probably what will get him more votes, so he's doing it.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 12:04 PM) I don't think he was insinuating that at all. IMO he's saying the Pres race shouldn't be discussed with such trivialities as demographics. Be it race, age or sex. Hitting the landmark of having a black POTUS isn't reason enough to vote for him. He thinks he is the wrong choice and he gives some of his reasons. He doesn't go in depth on the other candidates, but what I took from it was he feels the same about McCain getting elected or not, because of his age and Hillary because she is a woman. Anyway...here are some of his other articles if you're interested. If that's the main point, then I agree in general. I just took a slightly different tone from it. Thanks for the link, I may have to read a little more of his stuff.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 10:36 AM) 5 years ago, the idea of $4 gas was more absurd than the idea of $10 gas today. At that time I remember reading things like $60 crude would push people into alternatives and that at $25-30 bbp it was too cheap to make it viable. Now at $115, and the alternative methods are still too expensive? Trust me, I remember studying this stuff and thinking of it in terms of a logical commodity. As time has played out, energy has proven only to be completely irrational to the normal economic behaviors that everything else works according to. The bar has just kept moving up, and yet nothing has changed. I guess I will believe it when I see it. I think it already is changing. Hybrid cars are selling faster than companies can make them. I drive around Chicago and I see solar cells on top of houses and buildings, where there were none before. Heck, go to sunnier climes, and you see solar cells on half the houses in some newer suburbs. But the changes are happening underneath, and aren't seeing much market yet. Electric cars? First real production ones will hit this year, with others to follow. Wind turbine fields appearing all over the place. So it is happening - it just takes a number of years for it to reach the markets. What is needed is some comprehensive policy, including tax inducements, grants and loans, and a stronger push towards competition for energy provision (utilities).

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Apr 28, 2008 -> 11:26 PM) haha that's totally different than my experiences at the Metrodome, but you'll have that. I must admit, I have never gone into a MLB ballpark where they were playing the Sox. So I haven't had the perspective of being a Sox fan on the road. I've been to other stadiums, 4 or 5 of them, but it was to games where it was two teams I didn't care about one way or the other.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 10:24 AM) The first one is by Thomas Sowell. He has one of the most brilliant minds, I have ever come across. He may indeed be brilliant, I can't say I know. And I do actually agree with one of his two main themes - that we should not elect a black president for that cause's sake. I just think he's then going and painting Obama as a somehow invalid candidate who is there because he is black. That part is fairly absurd to me. I've been around for quite a few election cycles now, and I can confidently say that an Obama-McCain race will pit two of the best candidates I've seen run in my lifetime. One may like one or the other more or less, or feel that one is just a bad idea, of course. But to insinuate he's some sort of affirmative action candidate is ridiculous.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 10:20 AM) Prices are up by a factor of almost 4 in the last few years, and that hasn't stopped demand at all. In fact demand has still been increaseing until recessionary pressures set in. Demand is one aspect, and you are right it has gone up, in great part due to overseas pressures. Also, demand WILL fall in the US if prices stay this high for long, because people will change their behavior. But that doesn't happen instantly. It takes time. I was more referring to other problems that absurdly high prices (i.e. $10/gallon) will cause. You think there is pressure for a windfall profit tax now? At $6, the government will basically walk into the oil companies and just take half those profits straight off. I guarantee it. At $8 a gallon, the whol regulatory structure for oil production in the US will change. The government simply won't allow those prices to stay as they are without acting, even if their actions are stupid. And you can bet that for every dime that price goes up, more and more money will pour into alternatives, and some of those will hit the market.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 10:14 AM) So now I'm curious...if an officer knows a person is say, 20 years old, and has had 4-5 beers or so - feeling good, but not sloshed - and they are acting civilized and what have you...would he potentially say something like "Don't open another beer and you're fine"? Obviously, 0 underage drinking at the game is ideal, but I imagine it would be inefficient and costly to attempt to arrest every underage drinker. I understand the liability issue of it all, but it just seems to me that in some cases it's a judgment call. There is certainly judgement involved, and being reasonable. They can't police everyone and everything anyway. But if I'm 18 and have a drink (which I did plenty of times at that age), while I might be pissed off if I get caught, I know full well that I took that chance. I broke the law. I don't get pissed at the cops for doing their job.

If it so bothers people that the drinking age is 21, then why don't you make use of a real, actual RIGHT - and get involved in the political process to elect officials who agree with you?

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Apr 29, 2008 -> 10:12 AM) What's a better investment? Building more refineries to sell more gas or keeping supply limited and making more money on the gas that is sold? My guess is that the ROI on a new refinery does not offset the increased profitability of a limited supply. I don't work for the oil/gas industry...but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night! That depends on the perspective. For the government and the nation, clearly, better to invest in infrastructure than not. For the oil companies, it does make some sense to not build out, sort of. There is a limit to that. If they let the prices get too high, they will start to create too many pressures and that profit will dwindle.