southsider2k5

Honestly I get more bothered with stuff on the History Channel than I do with just about any movie. Most of the time I can't convince myself it is real enough to care, but watching some of the historical footage of different things like concentration camps in WWII or after Katrina will get me everytime.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 07:38 PM) Right now, Viciedo is not making a strong case for keeping him up. Neither is Lilly all of the sudden.

The best line of the six episodes might have been Jerry telling Bud Selig that it said in the bible "Thou Shalt Not Put Ketchup on Hot Dogs."

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 03:15 PM) No one's been able to give us anything more than anecdotes on cost savings, and we can respond with possible significant extra costs associated with enforcement that could easily offset any cost savings. As BS pointed out...having a mechanism to actually fully research the immigration status of every child born in this country would not be cheap. We're already spending about $15-20 billion this year on the Mexican border and enforcement as it is...which happens to be a similar number to some estimates of the cost of the benefits that all those illegal immigrants would get if they became citizens. Not giving out millions more instances of medicade, social security, and every other social program under the sun isn't a significant cost savings? The minimum amount of social security paid is something like $500 a month. start multiplying that out, and tell me again how that is "anecdotes".

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:26 PM) Well, there is a radical element saying we should indeed close down the borders, or certain borders anyway. Not in this forum though, at least so far. And those are the people who are more likely to be motivated by racism. This whole argument is based in racism... Its not just the people who seem to love to label people as racist either. All of the people who take the arguments and turn them into arguments about "brown" people and the like are just as racist as anyone wearing a Klan robe. Framing this argument into racist overtones is just as bad as anything being done on the "right".

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:25 PM) Agree 100%, and I think that's why the discussion is an important one. No one is saying close the borders completely. Bingo X2

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:25 PM) I'd be OK with changing it to be that children born to people who are in the country illegally do not gain citizenship. Seems pretty fair to me. Bingo.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:22 PM) Are you really arguing that the 14th amendment needs to be altered or ignored to deny citizenship to children born of non-US citizens because they might work under the table one day? Because if that's the case, half of native born Brooklyn needs to turn in their passports. I answered Baltas first question, which had nothing to do with that.

I can't believe people are pining for Mark Teahen.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:17 PM) You guys kinda gave up the right to talk about cost controls in health care without me cracking up last year. You don't agree that more people means more cost?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:18 PM) Do you really think that for each person coming into the country, that there is a perfect slide in the curve of quantity and quality of those other commodities? Or that it is instantaneous in nature? Further, if people are here illegally, they only pay in PART of the tax regime, if any. So again, they don't push up the other side with perfect efficiency. Therefore there is leakage and weakness economically. Not to mention by nature that people who are entering here illegally, are usually in the poorest segments, which means the rest of us have more cost to pick up.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) So...the kid who is born here as a citizen, grown up here, lives here his or her whole life as a citizen...does not pay into those social service programs? Maybe, maybe not. If they are getting paid cash, no. At the end of the day, having a way to control costs is step number one in saving programs like social security, medicare, and forced health care. Having no mechanism at all to control the amount of people going into the programs is going to bankrupt them.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:06 PM) President Ronald Reagan, farewell address, 1989. It is ironic to quote Ronny, since it was his 1986 amnesty that showed us what a complete failure that is historically.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 12:02 PM) No one has justified yet in this thread that there needs to be change or that any change would actually be a net positive. How about saving the future of our social services for people who actually have paid into them here and need them?

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 10:28 AM) I don't even a runs created stat is necessary. The eyeball test works just fine for me. April and May virtually no offense at all...among the bottom in stats in all of baseball. Middle of the pack stats from June through now. Then why do half of the research to find out if you are right or not? Did you only need the half that was convincing to you?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 09:45 AM) That number is useless without context. How does it compare to what other teams have given up? Its also useless without a runs created stat to directly correlate the efficiencies of both styles.

QUOTE (G&T @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 08:57 PM) So you don't just push "Upgrade" and it just happens? Not with the database we have.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 11, 2010 -> 09:11 AM) It's not about interpreting any phrase, it's asking whether we want to grant someone citizenship merely because they were born here. As NSS said, that's a discussion that I think is a good one to have. And he gave concrete examples, citing the "resort" system that exists. Just because we don't know the precise number of people doing this every year doesn't mean we don't know that it happens. I'm not sure what you mean by the bolded. What is a "limited standard?" As a liberal, you're well aware that the Federal government can do (and does) anything it wants, regardless of how many facts or statistics they have to back up its claims. You know, like the executive arbitrarily demanding a private company cough up 2 billion dollars for a disaster it created, despite the fact that the government had/has no idea how much damage has been caused. It was 20, not 2.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2010 -> 02:05 PM) If you took out a collection, you could probably get NBA fans to pay for the car. And a big chunk of your legal fees. And for it to be a Hummer rather than a VW. I'm in as long as there is a promise to back up, and go over again, repeated.

Plus there is always the contract law of once both sides begin acting in acceptance of a contract, you pretty much can't cancel it.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 01:27 PM) What is everyone doing tonight on 08/09/10 @ 11:12 PM? Waiting until 13 seconds later...

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 03:25 PM) You disagree that we are a mediocre to decent team? What are we then? I criticize the team as well. I don't like Kotsay. I don't harp on it day after day after day. He's in the lineup against righties. That's how it is. I'm still not crazy about Pierre. I despise Teahen, etc. I also hated Randy WIlliams and despise Linebrink and still am not crazy about guys like Pena. Yes Kotsay sucks. Yes AJ is having a bad season offensively. Yes Bobby has blown some saves. We get it. I just don't see how anybody would take the energy to write more about Kotsay on here. We know. He sucks. I feel we're a mediocre to slightly above average team that is contending for a division title and I'm enjoying the baseball. For a little perspective, if we went .500 for the rest of the season, we would end up at 89-73. Who would have taken 89 wins going into this season? I don't think many people had expectations above that number.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 12:42 PM) They'll have to find a way to spin off those money-losing operations or citizens will simply have to give up those operations. Selling off all of your profitable assets just doesn't seem like a winning proposition unless you have massive cuts or tax increases. That is the point here... parking wasn't profitable for the City. It is profitable for a private company.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 12:34 PM) Do you really actually believe that will happen? That because they've spun off some things that used to generate small amounts of revenue...their budgets will shrink? Good point. The Daley's of the world will still find ways to keep their buddies employed.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 9, 2010 -> 11:50 AM) But what are we going to do when the city has sold off all of its cash-generating operations to fix short-term budget gaps? Instead of having some profit come in over the next 75 years from parking (and Midway and the skyway and whatever else is privatized), they get some money upfront. Instead, these profits will get funneled to wealthy board members and shareholders instead of supporting local government. I don't see that as a winning solution in the end. That's why the article said: "The present value of the contract was $2.13 billion, more than the $1.15 billion the city received" quick edit: there is something to be said about selling off pieces of your business to restructure and refocus on your core competencies, I'm playing more of a devil's advocate here. They also will need a lot small budgets in the future, because they won't be supporting formerly money losing operations on bloated bureaucratic budgets.