southsider2k5

My opinion on this, for whatever its worth, is that this is a terrible deal. It will literally stall the mortgage market for the next 5 years, and really make it difficult for anyone with middling credit or lower to get a home loan. Part of the appeal of the American economy, and its ability to bounce back quickly from slowdowns is the ability to take a loss against bad debt and move on. As a bank you are only allowed to have a certian percentage of your deposits out in the form of loans. The longer these bad and unprofitable loans sit on the books, the fewer and fewer people will be able to borrow, because they are going to be crowded out of the lending marketplace by these loans that are sitting in pergatory. If you own bank stocks, sell them now. If you want historical references, look into the Japanese real estate crashes of the 1990's and the state owned Chinese businesses. Bad debt hinders economic recovery everytime. This bill is a terrible deal. It will be interesting to see how the next President gets blamed for falling homeownership rates.

Last I heard KC had an offer to Rowand (I have no idea what it was) and Texas was looking for a CF before. Other than that maybe Philly is interested in Rowand still, but it sounded like the price was too high for them. I guess that could always change.

And the funny thing is that if Williams gets some of his big pieces and then still didn't have a SS, RP, and let Garland walkaway becaues he couldn't afford to keep him with the new big contracts he just aquired, people would b**** about that too. Its an imperfect process that is affected by the actions of 29 other organizations. I know Kenny Williams like to drink the blood of infants and all, but I can only imagine if your bosses held you all up to the same perfect standards...

No one has so far, so I am going to advocate for all of us small schoolers out there. For me it was the smartest move I could have ever made. All of my class sizes were small, the biggest class I had was about 40 people, most were in the 12-20 range. I never got taught by TAs, in fact I knew all of my professors by their first names, and had all of their homephone numbers. By the end of my four years, I knew their families as well as I knew them. I also got the opportunity to things like college radio and run on the track and cross country teams, without being a supergreat athlete. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 5, 2007 -> 02:11 PM) I wasn't so much talking about hindsight with regard to Sudan. I can't say I was out there yelling about Darfur in 2001 or anything. I was pointing out more the fact that the poor decision-making that led to the Iraq War cost us a lot more than just the war itself - it handcuffed us from being able to do other things that could have been really good for us, and for the rest of the world. We were more handcuffed by memories of Somalia than Iran when it came to dealing with Darfur unfortunately. Its really too bad because of the lessons we could have learned from Rwanda would have been the most useful place to learn from.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 5, 2007 -> 02:04 PM) The irony with Sudan is... if we had put the money and effort of the Iraq war into doing something about Darfur, in yet another Islamic state... we could have actually been dramatically improving our standing with not only a billion Muslims but most of the rest of the world. Instead, we spent way more money, are less secure, more hated, and out 5,000 US soldiers and a few hundred thousand civilians. Well to be fair, the US tried really hard to push the UN to do something much earlier... Countries like France thought it more prudent to argue over the definition of "genocide" instead of actually doing something about the problem.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Dec 5, 2007 -> 10:58 AM) I renamed my Cat "Jesus" last night... no word from the angry mobs of Christians, yet. Bill Cosby did that joke 25 years ago, get with the program!

Wayne Dumond, Willie Horton Willie Horton, Wayne Dumond

8 years and 363 days I have been a commuter on the South Shore train, but I will have to say that today will probably go down as one of the most memorable. Today after the Ogden Dunes stop at the Lake/Porter County line road, a car either slid through the traintracks or went around the crossing guard and slid onto the tracks, but the train struck the car and instantly killed the driver. No one on the train was hurt, but the poor engineer and conductor were really shook up. The process was surreal that we had to go through. It took about 15 minutes to get emergency vehicles out there, both because of the location in the middle of the National Lakeshore, plus the horrible road conditions from the 6 inches of snow. There were a couple of doctors (or at least nurses) who were on the train and went to check on the driver, but the poor guy never had a chance. The train personel had to go through and get each person's statements (what they saw, heard-which at 5:30 am was nothing because it was dark and most people were asleep), and then the emergency workers had to go through and check on each passenger individually to make sure they were OK (pretty sure no one on board had any problems). They also had to walk up and down the tracks with flashlights inspecting the train, and looking in the snow for any damaged items that had fallen off between the impact spot, and where the train settled about a half a mile down the tracks (we were at top speed right before impact or 80 MPH). So that was my start to the day. Just be sure to say a prayer for the family of the man in the car, and the train/safety personel who had to witness the incident and secure the scene.

QUOTE(Vance Law @ Dec 4, 2007 -> 03:00 PM) I read (can't remember where, now) yesterday Rowand was looking for 5 years and $60 million. So offer him 4 @ $50mil, he gets more money up front, the Sox get less years, everyone is a winner!

So I had filed this one away under crazy conspiracy theories, but now the way things have turned out, I wonder if there was something going on behind closed doors. A couple of months ago I read somewhere that the US was offering to work a deal with Iran on their nuclear program if they would leave Iraq alone. So at the exact time the surge starts, violence drops 80-90% according to most accounts. Then today a report comes out that the US now recognizes that Iran quit work on a nuclear weapons program in 2003. So Bush gets his victory in Iraq, Ahmendinijad gets his victory over the great Satan, and neither one of them has to fight a war against each other. Was the theory so crazy after all? I am beginning to wonder.

What do the Sox have that Toronto would even be interested in?

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Dec 4, 2007 -> 10:49 AM) Arn Tellem, Fernando Cuza are his agents. he fired boras in 05. >i meant that when cabrera is a FA we have no chance in a bidding war. i think we have a shot at aquiring him and if we did, at resigning him. but if he hits the open market, forget it. guillen with 12mil, hunter got 18. hes gunna get at the least, 20mil Tellum is/was also Frank Thomas's agent, with whom the Sox have an excellent relationship.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 4, 2007 -> 01:53 PM) Just because he isn't there yet doesn't mean he won't be later. My memory comes back to the Ordonez signing, where it seemed like no one had an interest in him other than the Cubs on a 2 year deal for most of the winter, then sometime in January they find that the Tigers have some interest, and suddenly he's got 5/$75 out of no where. It might not work that way, but just because he's asking for Hunter money now and there isn't anyone giving it to him certainly doesn't mean it won't be there by Feb 1. Potential fits for Jones are filling up quickly. Others aren't interested because of the money his agent is asking for. There is not a chance that Andruw Jones gets a contract like Torii Hunter this winter.

http://www.insidesocal.com/dodgers/archive...e_of_thing.html

Jones is falling like a brick if he is asking for Hunter type money.

Willie would be a nice fit for this team as a back up middle IF and CF. Given the choice between Loretta and Ozuna, as long as Pablo is healthy, I would take him for way under $1,000,000 annually with no commitment past this year versus Loretta looking for something in the neighborhood of $3 million and wanting to start.

Romney is about to make a major speech on religion. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/04/rom...eech/index.html

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Dec 4, 2007 -> 11:30 AM) Maybe I have not seen enough of the other candidates, but he looks like the one who really is for a smaller federal government. I'll be honest when I say Paul is the ONLY candidate I believe who actually has a chance of reducing the size of our runaway bureaucracy.

2 girls, 1 cup in HD

Count me in on the crowd that really wants to see "I am Legend."

I am shocked he didn't rig this.

QUOTE(NUKE @ Dec 4, 2007 -> 10:32 AM) That is one thing that really is bothering me is that none of the GOP candidates have a plan to even balance the budget let alone reduce the debt. How much debt do we have to be in before we get a sense of urgency on this issue? I think if the Feds position on the interest rates is a long term one, you will see a less willingness to buy american dollar backed debt, because it won't be paying off enough to make the fall in the dollar worth it. The debt problem could hit its own law of unitended consequences.

At least Obama has been honest about his experience... Hillary keeps saying she did all of this stuff, yet refuses to release the proof to anyone.

Anyone else get the impression that Guillen is trying to undermine the rest of the teams trying to aquire Cabrera by dropping a hint that he might not resign with them because of his relationship with Guillen?