JUGGERNAUT

QUOTE "His attitude is not helping us when we're trying to create a clear divide between the two parties," said Don Kusler, communications director for Americans for Democratic Action. They are dissing the guy because he thinks for himself, and is willing to work with people on the other side. That is just messed up. I agree. The more the leaders of the Dem party speak the more they sound angry & disrespectful towards any one who doesn't share their views. Calling Greenspan a "poltical hack" knowing full well that he was a highly respected person under the Clinton & Bush administrations sounds extreme. Is the goal of he Dem leadership to weed out or marginalize all moderates in the party? It sure sounds that way. On the issue of SS itself the Dems are putting all their eggs in one basket & I feel it's going to backfire on them big time. Right now the polls support them mainly because there are two many questions surrounding private accounts & how the acounting would work wrt to the SS reserve. When people don't understand something they tend not to favor it. But on the flip side of the coin Liberman is right in that the Dems are not offering any good ideas. So that's going to arm the GOP in 2006 with the mantra : The Democratic plan to save SS is to raise payroll taxes & retirement ages. Thus taking more of your sons & daughters money now & start paying you the money you've earned when you reach 70. Is that fair? I hoping there is a 3rd option out there & influential people can build support. Americans overwhelming support the idea of diverting some of the reserve into higher yield investments to offset the cost of living raises due in SS over the next decades. Every poll indicates that on the general issue. The problem is how to do that w/out upseting the free-market system of investment. You can't. Congress would have to pass a law that created an exception for investing the SS reserve without fear or reprecussion of lawsuits on the basis of unfair or anti-competitive practices. I don't know how many Americans would support that idea but if it were possible then the government could open a bidding process on reserve chunks valued in the 10's of billions to get the highest guaranteed yield possible from banks & other investment houses. Companies submitting bids would have to agree to the most intense SEC regulatory & auditing requirements possible. The government would have to take every measure to insure the lowest risk on this $ since it would not be FDIC insurable. The government can't insure against itself. Those reserve chunks would be placed into CD accounts with guaranteed ylds & fixed terms. It's a tailor made solution for SS' growth. It sounds easy enough but you have to consider just how much money is being invested here. Though the govt would be investing the money in high yld CD"s with fixed terms the banks would be offering bids based on what they feel they could make on the money in the hands of their money managers. Those 10's of billions per contract would find it's way into the market. Adam Smith's invisible hand just became a whole easier to see. Which is way this option would be phased in gradually so that we could measure it's impact & try to reduce the impact of that influence. But make no mistake the age is going to have to increase. It's possible to save the system without payroll tax increases by contnually raising the SS cap (curr 92K) & seeking higher ylds for the reserve. But the pop demog are against the system. The ratio of those paying in to those taking out is shrinking & is expected to fall to 2 to 1 before the baby boomers die off. There is no other option left than to raise the non-penalty age. The government likewise has to deal with the expected impact of nanotechnology on life expectancy. The wealthiest are going to have the option of living as long as they want in cyborg bodies. The government probably has 20 yrs before that begins to creep into our society beyond 1% of retirees. But in general it brings to light the argument that not all people are the same in terms of the non-penalty retirement age. Some need that age to be earlier, others can do without SS altogether, & others can endure it being higher. The best thing to do would be to immediately associate the age requirement with a financial need assessment. Much like you apply for financial aid at a school a similar process should be setup for SS.

250 would be an improvement over 04. Considering he's at 077 in ST where do you see this 250 coming from?

If he can trust him, Kenny should solicit Boras' help in boosting Crede's trade value. Boras seems adept at selling GM's on potential. This would be the best thing for himself & his client.

No way. I am not giving up Borchard & prospects to get a guy who is a worse hitter than Harris. The dump Borchard gang on this board is getting psychiotic.

I have always coveted Wood to be a member of the WhiteSox. I covet Zambrano as well. As a Sox fan I want them to continue to show signs of brilliance in their pitching but I want them to be shelved most of the time. Anything to reduce their value on the open market so that the Sox can sign them. I would have preferred the Sox to have signed Lieber over El Duque because I think big Jon is due for a comeback.

Getting back to the voting on this ... GOP : +$1.10 in 2 steps over 18 mo +4.2 billion in tax relief/breaks directed primarily towards the restaurant business. Avg increase for min wage worker 1.5K to 2K a yr. Votes: 38 Y, 61 N. All Y votes GOP. DEM : +$2.10 in 3 steps over 18 mo. Avg increase for min wage worker 3K to 4K a yr. Votes: 46 Y, 49 N. Nearly all Y votes DEM. Think about the two proposals. The GOP was willing to raise the min wage & offer tax breaks to shoulder the burden on those businesses that would be most affected. The DEM simply wanted to raise the min wage by near 50%. I can hear the 2006 stump speeches now: GOP: We wanted to put more cash in the pockets of minimum wage workers while protecting their jobs by easing the tax burden on the businesses that employ them. The Democrats wanted an irresponsible & inconceivable plan to just raise the wage nearly 50%. Voters want responsibility & accountability from their government & that's what the GOP is giving them. DEM: Maybe someone else can take a crack at this because I can't think of one. Had they voted for the GOP measure they could have played the tradition card. We worked hard at battling the GOP to get some relief for minimum wage workers. That's no easy task when considering the history of the GOP. The Democratic party of the US continues to represent the working class against big business. Remember that when you cast your vote.

http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=223 http://www.baseball1.com/carney/index.php?storyid=232 http://www.thediamondangle.com/marasco/hist/cicotte.html These 3 links & particular the interview with Jackson seems to suggest otherwise.

Mackowiak, hit just .165 in his last 48 games and only .164 against lefthanded pitchers. That drops his stock considerably in my opinion. Borchard still figures to be an everyday OF somewhere in MLB someday. This guy figures to always be a bench player. He is not the 2nd coming of Graf. We never should have let Graf go. He was always healthy with the Sox. I'm not willing to give up Borchard for that. His #'s are heavily inflated by an unusual May: 295/977. I suspect that was the weakest part of the Bucs schedule. The other 5 months are Credesque like. Seeing that it's so late in the season if Crede can't figure it out in ST then KW should look to pkg Crede, Harris, & an arm for a real 3B. Ozuna/Valdez can then spell Uribe from time to time. Uribe has a strong health history so he's not much of an injury risk. If I were KW I'd be looking at teams with vets at 3B who might be willing to take a shot on Crede's potential since they are not expected to contend.

Ignorance tends to lead someone to think the world is full of BS. There is nothing in Harris' past performance or in his fldg #'s that suggests he can not play SS. It's a given there would be some decline over Uribe but Harris is considered the best all around athlete on the team. However; I am not encouraged by what I'm hearing about Crede (077). If he can't get it together in ST then the Sox have to do something to shore up 3B on a full-time basis. Harris is not the answer. Polanco has some time logged at SS(02), & 3B(03) but nothing extensive. It's a good analysis but not mentioning Igs is foolish. He won two SB crowns in the past 4 yrs in Japan. He's had two off yrs (<25) & two good yrs (>40) in that respect. He's healthier than in 04 so he's due to have a good year. His SB% is higher than all on that list but Pods. If he stays at #2 in the lineup he could boost the Sox SB totals to the 150 range which would be good enough for #1 in the MLs.

I feel we would be better off re-signing AJ for 2006. Assuming we can afford it.

GOOD SIGN: Thomas talked to his agent Arn Tellem on Tuesday night, and mentioned that because of the tenuous state of his ankle, there's a possibility that Congress could fly people west and depose Thomas in Tucson. If you are a member of Congress & you are looking at Thomas to bolster your case after Bonds pretty much sympathized with roid users last week then the last thing you want to do is put him in a position where you jeapordize his season. On the contrary, deposing Thomas in Tucson would send a message that there is no excuse for the others not to show up. As for the anti-trust exemption, if Congress were to ever pull it we would definitey see a 3rd or 4th team in the NY-NJ area. That met has the most to lose.

Vizcaino 04: VS. LEFT: .163 / .586 VS. RIGHT: .290 / .855 02-04: vs. Left .207/.668, vs. Right .238/.734 I'd agree there is more reason to hope But if you're hoping in that then by all means hope in this as well. Marte 04 : vs. Left 143/473 vs Right 263/784 02-04: vs. Left 154/470, vs Right 238/668 If Marte & Vizcaino pitch close to their 3 yr avg's the Sox will rival the Twins for the best pen in the ALC.

I'm sorry but after hearing how he was going to emerge as the next Albert Pujols I can't help but smile. Without Mauer I guess Gammons has to rethink the Twins winning the WS Personally I hope the kid is ok & has a future. I would love for the Sox to be able to sign him down the road at a below market price. Maybe he'll piss some one of like AJ did

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Horse...G=Google+Search Basically you pull the skin up & twist it. It's a pinch without nails which is why it shouldn't leave any marks. Much better pain response than a spanking. Try it on yourself Interesting to see it mentioned with martial arts. Never thought about in terms of self defense but I guess it could work.

DON'T RISK IT! I've long since been anal when it comes to babysitters. It didn't take this story to convince me. What that means is that I have a checklist (I even call it a standard operating procedure) for our babysitters. It's right there on the fridge. It basically covers every case I could think of & what to do. Most of the what to do's indicate call this cell phone number. I leave NOTHING to chance to my sitters. I even tell them that failure to follow the SOP will result in loss of pay. Of course I don't tell them that until they show up. They are far less likely to refuse a job then. Don't feel sorry for my sitters now. Ok, so I make them sit down & I read every line of the SOP to them & they probably think I'm treating them like a baby. But when something does happen & they do follow my SOP I always give them a few bucks more. I really appreciate the times that happens & I think they appreciate the extra bucks. Of course my mind is so twisted by the dark side these days that as I wrote this I began to wonder if any of them purposefully created a situation to get some extra bucks. :banghead This reminds me of the www.jessicamarielunsford.com case. Just once I'd like to take the family down to the Great American Race w/out having to hear about a missing girl on the news in FL. This case is a real mystery. No clues, no forced entry, no sign of struggle. The girl goes to Church services on Wed, comes home & is tucked into bed by grandma near 10P E. The father comes home finds the door unlocked & her alarm is ringing at 6A E. He opens the door she's not there. Both the 10 yr old girl & a purple dolphin doll (she got at the carnival that Sun night) are missing. It's now been two weeks since. A massive search turned up nothing. No leads, no clues, no nothing. It's as if she vanished. Ahh .. but there's more. Three days after the abduction the Teamsters offer a 25K reward & the site is put up accepting donations. A day later Mike Hampton offers 25K as well. The reward is now up to 115K & the donations are said to be close to 30K. When Mark was last interviewed on Fox News his first words did not go out to Jessica but rather to thank people for their donations. He made clear mention of the site & how to donate. Now am I just being overtly pessimistic & suspicious or do you smell a con as well? As sick & twisted as it is think about the logistics. Let's say Jessica remains missing long enough to where the donations reach 50K. Then a member of this conspiracy phones in a tip that leads to the recovery of Jessica. That's an easy 165K made off this scam. Though I would be leary of scamming the Teamsters out of 75K. On the one hand this thought comforts me. I've even tried to reconcile that the people who are donating $ are doing it because they care about Jessica. So if it is a scam then Jessica's life is not endangered. If it's not a scam then the donations can only help. Either way Jessica's better off.

He did take some $ but it was strictly out of fear for the live of his wife & his own life. He repeatedly refused to accept it until that was made clear to him. As for his defense I know he made several catches near the wall. I would imagine if he makes an attempt at such plays & fails to connect it's going to wind up a triple. Just something to consider.

Getting "out of control" is not what warrants a physical consequence. Disrespect, defiance, & refusal to respect grounding or timeouts are. There are kids in this world who will respect nothing else than fear of physical consequence. As a parent you try to exhaust all other paths before taking that one but sometimes it's unavoidable. Horse bites are perfect for this action. They are quick, inspire immediate fear of consequence in the child, are in no way associated with anything perverted or sexual in nature, & most importantly short lived. Minutes letter there is no sign of it having ever happened.

That's argumentative. There is not much to go on to say that Wille is a better option than those two or they are better than Wille. At best you could probably say they are no worse than Willie but then again you have to consider Harris' excellent speed. As for Cintron, what's the least price in talent do you think the Sox would have to pay to get him? He's a young player with a 282 career avg making the min. Hall is more realistic but his splits are worse than Harris'. He hit 190 vs LH, 256 vs RH. You're given up more offense for more experience at SS & 3B.

Corporal punishment is really just another form of physical consequence. It should only be used as a last resort. This story seems to suggest that's the point at which the school has reached with this child. Normally you should try to convince with dialogue the meaning behind correct behavior with your child. You should do this with reinforcement by example of your own life & the life of others. The belief is that if you do this often enough the majority of kids will take to it. But not all kids are the same. There are those who will rebel simply because they like to do so. It's a question of selfishness vs discipline. It takes discipline to be quiet in class & selfishness breeds chatter in class. When a child refuses to accept discipline, mocks discipline, or disrespects it then you have no other choice but to create a conseqence for that. The two most common consequences are suspension of allowance & grounding. It is only after these fail on a consistent behavior that physical discipline is the only option (next to therapy of course). Ah, but here's the problem. Most kids lives are so well planned by the parents that there is little room for grounding or suspension of allowance. If you have your kid signed up to do a boat load of activities grounding has little impact. If your kid needs their allowance for those activities that's not an option either. Spanking is considered the least harmful form of physical discipline because by & large for most kids the posterior can withstand the greatest amount of damage & recover in the quickest amount of time. However in this day & age a parent can not ignore the % of kids who are suffer real harm from the act or who develop a sense of sexual gratification from it. In that regards it's outdated & other forms of physical discipline would be preferred: 1 - horse bites : you simply pull the skin up & twist. Very effective, no long term harm, quick recovery, & lasting pain impression. 2 - pot bellies : perfect for the mid-drift dress code of today's youth. You simply spank them on the belly. 3 - hair pulling 4 - food deprivation : loss of kitchen privs 5 - sleep deprivation : loss of late sleep on weekends My personal favorite is #1. It's quick, effective, & usually gets the job done. I wonder if I could get someone to fund a scientific study for me

This is somewhat related & hopefully some of you will wake up smell the crap piling up in your rosebeds. I challenge you to go to favorite retailer & buy only products Made in America. You are not likely to find many. If Made in America means little to Americans then why should we think it will mean anything to the world? Something for the exporters to think about. America is no longer valued by what it makes but rather by what it buys. Along with the infrastructure grade report there is also our factory assessment grade report. American ranks poorly there as well. If you look at the numbers behind factory constructions & factory upgrades China is kicking our arse. America's production capacity is declining rapidly while other nations are growing rapidly. The best measure of this is factory construction, factory enhancements, & factory orders. America's best quality right now is credit. Bush touted new home ownership as a big sign that the economy is doing well. That's funny. Did he bother to look at the growth rate of mortgages defaulting in that time? Probably not. He doesn't like bad news. The fact is that more Americans own mortgages not homes. That was predicated by not just low rates but lower down payments. Apparently banks were more willing to take on higher risks to grab those monthly payments. Anything for a quick stock boost. No nation is any where close to America in terms of credit. Not in terms of growth numbers nor raw numbers. America's credit pot is so big that foreign banks & investors are now jumping in to help fuel it. It's kind of ironic. America has one of the worst savings %'s on the planet & yet the absolute best credit %. All of the emerging economies worldwide are growing very slowly in terms of their credit %. It's not easy to change a culture that way. Europe's credit % is no where near America's either. No marketplace on this planet threaten America's because of her revolving credit economy. That includes Europe. The numbers are simply not there. If 50% of America's consumerism is supported by credit what does say for the other nations? How can they grow their marketplace to an American size without revolving credit? They can't. It means their growth will remain short-term until they do. Why do I mention this? Because it's simple really. If the avg min wage worker increases there annual pay by 2K then their credit will increase by 4K. That's how it works in terms of credit increases. There are flat bases to begin with & then it's roughly 2 to 1 from that base. Multiply that by all min wage hours in the US & you are looking at a cash increase of billions for the marketplace & a credit increase in the 10's of billions.

All of that is nice discussion on supply vs demand and price (albeit a wrong one) but it says nothing to refute the cyclical relationship I presented above. Since I did not mention anything about price or supply & demand (because Enzi didn't in his quote) I'll take the time to do that now. Productivity is a function of supply & demand. I did mention productivity above. Demand is assumed for a good or service otherwise there would be no reason to produce it. The decision to increase productivity for any business is predicated on their being greater demand than supply. I noticed that you bothered to say nothing with respect to the trade deficit or any other indicators I mentioned showing how the US citizen is getting screwed by globalization. So I'll just assume we are in agreement there. So let me list your fears so to speak & respond to each: Fear 1 - Raising the minimum wage will result in a higher growth rate of shifting jobs from citizens to non-citizens. To accept this fear you would have to accept to premises associated with the raise: A) The raise will echo throughout the salary structure & thus affects all wages This is simply not true. There is no correlation between mimimum wage earners & salaried employees. Salary wage earners are primarily dictated by what each local market will bear for paying for services. A raise in mim wage from $5.15 to $6.15/hr would have little to no impact on salaried wage earners. Union wages are negotiated via collective bargaining sessions based on how much an employer can be expected to pay for a particular service in a local market. There is little correlation to mim wage standards here as well. B) A larger portion of minimum wage earning jobs can be shifted to non-citizens. This is simply not the case. The majority of min wage jobs are local service oriented in which the service must be performed in person. They can not be shifted overseas but they can be replaced by non-citizens if the politicians allow it. They can close the loopholes in the Visa laws to prevent that from happening. Fear 2 - Companies would rather layoff workers & reduce productivity rather than increase operating costs. They do so at their own risk. We no longer live in the 70's, 80's or 90's. This is the new millenium where technology has leveled the playing field & converged costs of production for most companies. That has more than doubled the total number of companies doing business in the US in the past 15 yrs. A company choosing to reduce their supply is opening the door for a company seeking to fill that demand. Never has that been more apparent than in this decade. What is even more apparent is that a company seeking to do this now risks competition not just from US companies but also foreign companies. We have seen this already in the banking & finance industries. Loans that US bankers are reluctant to process are being processed by foreign banks doing business in the US. I'm assuming you are referring to the late 90's when you mention the last recession. That had little to do with wages & more to do with over-evaluations & mismangement of interest rates by Greenspan. The economy grew under Clinton because low rates for loans allowed more little fish to swim in the pond & operate with a technological reliance on the bigger fish. As long as the rates remained low or grew slowly these fish could continue to swim. This little fish - big fish harmony fostered some of the best growth this nation's ever seen & scared one Alan Greespan. Having little to no understanding of the little fish - big fish relationship felt it was better to raise rates & curb inflation than to allow inflation to grow under free-market principles. In doing so he caused the MAJORITY of the little fish to sink & as a result they stopped feeding the big fish. It was the decline of their ability to feed the big fish that caused the market to tank. The US has yet to recover from Greenspan's conditions. Now let's consider the alternative. He leaves the rates low & allows inflation to grow. Based on most leading indicators at the time inflation may have grown 10% over the next 10 yrs if Greenspan slows the growth of interest rates. That 10 yr period would have given many more of the little fish enough time to substantiate their business in the global economy to where they could remain solvent & profitable as Greespan raised rates. It was all a function of time & Greenspan didn't understand that. There are several books available that discuss these very topics on the last major market sell-off. There are other books that show a correlation of foreign companies filling the void when these little fish went under. I have yet to read one book that suggests minimum wage was a factor at all.

How can you say that when Joe Jackson hit 375 in the Series & made game saving catches? When was the last time a Sox player did that?

Any time you want to debate the facts of what I just wrote I'm game.

Oz has prepared us to accept a late return in June. If you can do better than that we will all be surprised. No reason to risk more for April.

I heard the subpeonas are going to any player named in Juiced. Frank is named as being a passenger in Canseco's high speed thrills. From Congress' point of view that implies Frank & Jose were friends to some degree & that Jose may have confided in Frank on roid usage around the league. Frank will be asked what did Jose talk to you about & when did these talks happen? It would be nice to setup VC for Frank given his livelihood depends on getting healthy again.