Desipio Message Board

This team wouldn't get any runs after a steady diet of E-coli-tainted White Castle, ExLax and Mexican tap water.

Quote from: Apexx on May 20, 2009, 01:27:22 PM

Quote from: Fork on May 20, 2009, 01:18:34 PM

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on May 20, 2009, 01:14:39 PM

Quote from: Fork on May 20, 2009, 11:57:53 AM
Burris probably won't get out of the primary here - Schakowsky (among others) will have too much money and organization.

Burris may not get IN the primary.

Jan would not be my first choice on the Dem side.  But she'd be above Alexi.

Alexi is looking toward the Governor's mansion - that's where the big bucks are.

What? How can that skinny Cuban douche-missile have a shot at the Guv's Mansion? This state is more corrupt than even I could have dreamed.

(My insincere apologies if that joke was used somewhere in the previous 84 pages of this Clusterfuck)

He IS the best player in Chicago, however.

Quote from: RV on May 18, 2009, 08:33:32 AM

Quote from: Eli on May 18, 2009, 08:09:01 AM

Quote from: air2300 on May 16, 2009, 03:29:20 PM

Quote from: LoneStarCubFan on May 16, 2009, 03:21:26 PM
I was really hoping that rocket off of Gregg's wrist would have ended his season. Fucking cumstain.

Why is it the shitty guys never get hurt?

Heilman is a fucking pussy.

Really?  Hoping people get hurt?  That's not very nice. 

I frequently hope that LoneStar gets severe, uncurable carpal tunnel, rendering him unable to use a computer for the rest of his life.  I'm not very nice.

Intrepid Reader: Lone Star

Dat bum Sotoa made de last out of de game I hope some scaffolding falls on dat guy or sometin. And I hope dat fella Ascanio gets hit by a PT Cruiser even though he's only 24 years old and he flashed some great stuff after that clusterfuck to start the 7th.


Christ almighty, I shudder to think what kind of internet suicide some people would commit if the Cubs actually fielded a losing team instead of one on pace to win 90+ games again with Milton Bradley, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Carlos Zambrano all losing significant time to injury..

Quote from: Slakee on May 15, 2009, 01:09:03 PM

Quote from: MAD on May 15, 2009, 12:11:13 PM
Paul is a lone wolf.  He congregates with nobody.

This place is so much better with Paul.

Is he sort of like Tim Tebow, in that just knowing him makes you a better man?

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on May 15, 2009, 10:55:43 AM

Quote from: Brownie on May 15, 2009, 10:30:39 AM

Quote from: RV on May 15, 2009, 10:25:48 AM

Quote from: Fork on May 15, 2009, 10:21:30 AM

My beef with moveon is they started with good intentions, but have now decided getting Liberals elected isn't enough, they need to be Liberal to their liking, and must adhere to every box on the checklist.

Even though I think Lieberman is pretty douchey, the fact is, he's a Liberal Democrat through-and-through, with the one exception being his support of the War. That was enough.

As Chuck said, they're like BCB, they want groupthink to prevail. Even when you agree with most of it, it's a bad idea.

I'm guessing that whole 'campaigning against Obama' thing may have been a factor.

He didn't campaign against Obama until after Moveon helped give Lamont the nomination in 2006.

But Obama campaigned for Lieberman in person during the primary.

And Lieberman has carried some water for Obama this legislative session.

Bush campaigned for Specter during the 2004 primary and for what?

Quote from: RV on May 15, 2009, 10:25:48 AM

Quote from: Fork on May 15, 2009, 10:21:30 AM

My beef with moveon is they started with good intentions, but have now decided getting Liberals elected isn't enough, they need to be Liberal to their liking, and must adhere to every box on the checklist.

Even though I think Lieberman is pretty douchey, the fact is, he's a Liberal Democrat through-and-through, with the one exception being his support of the War. That was enough.

As Chuck said, they're like BCB, they want groupthink to prevail. Even when you agree with most of it, it's a bad idea.

I'm guessing that whole 'campaigning against Obama' thing may have been a factor.

He didn't campaign against Obama until after Moveon helped give Lamont the nomination in 2006.

Quote from: Tinker to Evers to Chance on May 13, 2009, 01:34:13 PM

Quote from: Tank on May 13, 2009, 11:10:00 AM

Quote from: Brownie on May 13, 2009, 10:12:18 AM

Quote from: IrishYeti on May 13, 2009, 10:05:14 AM

Quote from: Fork on May 13, 2009, 09:13:45 AM

Quote from: morpheus on May 13, 2009, 08:09:00 AM
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22444.html

QuoteIf you make big bucks — or enjoy alcohol, cigarettes and Coke — the government might hit you up to pay for fixing the nation's health care system.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee peeked into vending machines and liquor stores, company payrolls and health savings accounts, looking for a mix of tax increases and spending cuts as a way to pay for a health overhaul — which could cost more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years...

...Still, it's easy to see why the bad-habits tax was so tempting: Taxing tobacco, junk foods and alcohol could raise $600 billion over 10 years.

They can have my bacon when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

What a shock that a guy from Iowa thinks taxing soda is a bad idea. The state probably makes a helluva lot more on HFCS than they ever will on Ethanol.

It is a bad idea. Give me (normal tax rate) soda, or give me death

This. I'm not a big fan of sin taxes.

I haven't really read about the specific proposals, and I avoided yesterday's SBox "soda tax" argument like the plague, but my less-than-totally-informed opinion is that sin taxes are generally bad policy and worse politics.

I don't get why they are trying to tax something that the government subsidizes.  If the idea is to get more revenue while making sugary sodas more expensive, wouldn't eliminating the sugar subsidy be the first step?

If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
If it stops moving, subsidize it.

Quote from: IrishYeti on May 13, 2009, 10:05:14 AM

Quote from: Fork on May 13, 2009, 09:13:45 AM

Quote from: morpheus on May 13, 2009, 08:09:00 AM
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22444.html

QuoteIf you make big bucks — or enjoy alcohol, cigarettes and Coke — the government might hit you up to pay for fixing the nation's health care system.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee peeked into vending machines and liquor stores, company payrolls and health savings accounts, looking for a mix of tax increases and spending cuts as a way to pay for a health overhaul — which could cost more than $1.5 trillion over 10 years...

...Still, it's easy to see why the bad-habits tax was so tempting: Taxing tobacco, junk foods and alcohol could raise $600 billion over 10 years.

They can have my bacon when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

What a shock that a guy from Iowa thinks taxing soda is a bad idea. The state probably makes a helluva lot more on HFCS than they ever will on Ethanol.

It is a bad idea. Give me (normal tax rate) soda, or give me death

This. I'm not a big fan of sin taxes.

You also left out the part how Judy Baar Topinka dicked around for 6 weeks trying to find a replacement candidate. All the candidates on which everyone could agree didn't want to run, and then there were some watered-down unknown candidates. And then there was Oberweis, who had burned too many bridges during the primary. Finally, there was the dalliance with Ditka who enjoyed the week in the spotlight. By the time they named Keyes, no one in their right mind would run.

Quote from: CT III on May 08, 2009, 11:51:33 AM

Quote from: Brownie on May 08, 2009, 10:47:39 AM

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on May 08, 2009, 10:06:38 AM

Quote from: Brownie on May 08, 2009, 09:34:34 AM
Peter Fitzgerald was 10 times the U.S. Senator that Obama was. (He was also at least 10 times the Illinois Senator as well.)  But my party chased him out because he wouldn't pal around with Hastert and Kjellander. And that sucks. But the GOP wouldn't have chased him out if voters here truly cared about "integrity" and "competence."

No he wasn't.  While Obama left his seat after 4 years of nondescript accomplishments, Fitzgerald did only one good thing.  The rest of what he did was either also nondescript or horrible.  His good thing?  Getting Patrick Fitzgerald in the US Attorney slot.  The terrible: Standing in the way of O'Hare expansion.  He was the most anti-business Republican I'd ever seen.  And this guy was a banker!

The problem was that ORD expansion was a state issue and the federal government had no business meddling in it.

Quote from: RV on May 08, 2009, 09:54:12 AM
As far as Fitzgerald goes, I didn't really follow politics until a couple years ago, but from everything I've read he was indeed a solid guy. Instead of focusing on Fitzgerald being "10 times better" than Obama (I'm interested in what kind of nonpartisan laptop science is used to measure such a thing), shouldn't more of your anger be focused on the current state of the GOP in Illinois, and in general, that has marginalized reasonable dudes like Peter Fitzgerald?

Quote from: Brownie on May 08, 2009, 09:34:34 AM
But my party chased him out because he wouldn't pal around with Hastert and Kjellander. And that sucks. But the GOP wouldn't have chased him out if voters here truly cared about "integrity" and "competence."

Let's not forget that Fitzgerald's election was an accident of monumental proportions.  The Dem machine refused to dump Carol Moseley-Braun after her disastrous term in the Senate, so the GOP decided they'd run Loleta Didrickson against her.  Fitzgerald was mostly lucky.  The GOP never wanted anything to do with him, and he squeaked by Didrickson in the primary, largely because the Dems decided Fitzgerald was the more beatable of the two candidates for Moseley-Braun and ramped a huge effort (specifically around college campuses) to convince Dem voters to vote in the GOP primary for Fitzgerald.  Of course, the whole thing backfired on the Dem's when it turned out that Moseley-Braun was the rare candidate who was too corrupt to win even with Machine backing.  So it's somewhat erroneous to say that Fitzgerald was chased out of the Illinois GOP, when he was barely ever in.

What's my point?  I guess it's that only by a pure perfect storm of Party incompetence did the State of Illinois manage to elect a guy with integrity to office.

I didn't live/vote in IL in '98, but why would they convince Dems to vote in the GOP primary when there was a competitive Gov. primary? I know that's a reason Salvi beat Kustra in 1996 (with no Dem primary races to speak of), but in 1998?

Quote from: Chuck to Chuck on May 08, 2009, 10:06:38 AM

Quote from: Brownie on May 08, 2009, 09:34:34 AM
Peter Fitzgerald was 10 times the U.S. Senator that Obama was. (He was also at least 10 times the Illinois Senator as well.)  But my party chased him out because he wouldn't pal around with Hastert and Kjellander. And that sucks. But the GOP wouldn't have chased him out if voters here truly cared about "integrity" and "competence."

No he wasn't.  While Obama left his seat after 4 years of nondescript accomplishments, Fitzgerald did only one good thing.  The rest of what he did was either also nondescript or horrible.  His good thing?  Getting Patrick Fitzgerald in the US Attorney slot.  The terrible: Standing in the way of O'Hare expansion.  He was the most anti-business Republican I'd ever seen.  And this guy was a banker!

The problem was that ORD expansion was a state issue and the federal government had no business meddling in it.

Quote from: RV on May 08, 2009, 09:54:12 AM
As far as Fitzgerald goes, I didn't really follow politics until a couple years ago, but from everything I've read he was indeed a solid guy. Instead of focusing on Fitzgerald being "10 times better" than Obama (I'm interested in what kind of nonpartisan laptop science is used to measure such a thing), shouldn't more of your anger be focused on the current state of the GOP in Illinois, and in general, that has marginalized reasonable dudes like Peter Fitzgerald?

Quote from: Brownie on May 08, 2009, 09:34:34 AM
But my party chased him out because he wouldn't pal around with Hastert and Kjellander. And that sucks. But the GOP wouldn't have chased him out if voters here truly cared about "integrity" and "competence."

Oh, there's plenty of anger to go around. Much of it is reserved for the IL Republican Party that resorted to Alan Keyes either because they couldn't twist Steve Rauschenberger's or John Borling's arms to run for Senate in the general election clearing the way for Alan Keyes, and because they didn't prepare for the Jack Ryan divorce file being opened in June 2004, and because they thrust George Ryan on IL in 1998 because "it was his turn," and because they let a 2002 gubernatorial primary tear them apart, and because they have simply waved the white flag in Chicago and Cook instead of seriously working a strategy to chip away at the majorities, and because they let Bush sell his "compassionate conservative" bullshit which only led to a gargantuan increase in discretionary spending, and because Congressional Republicans fell into the same trap Congressional Democrats fell into in the 1980s and early 1990s with their arrogance and disregard for ethics, and because trivial intramural squabbles seem to dominate.

But I can reserve some ANGER for my elected officeholders. Once they're elected, they belong to me as well. And using the Illinois Treasurer's Office to mount a campaign for U.S. Senate sucks.  Bullying a firm from acting in its best interests sucks.

Using the Presidency for bullying the "holdouts" that are simply trying to uphold their fiduciary responsibility sucks.

Quote from: Eli on May 08, 2009, 08:43:13 AM

Quote from: RV on May 07, 2009, 04:31:18 PM

Quote from: Brownie on May 07, 2009, 04:16:25 PM
I will let our resident bankers comment on The One's Fiefdom here in  Illinois.

Last December, the former Governor (for whom our President supported in Gubernatorial Elections at least thrice) threatened to pull all state business from BofA if it pulled the plug on Republic Windows. Unfortunately, Patrick Fitzgerald (the bum that The One's predecessor in the US Senate recommended for the job more or less sealing his fate in IL) had the FBI bring The One's choice for Governor twice and Republic remained open so we'd never know if The One's choice for Gov. would have made good on that threat.

Now, The One's mobbed-up choice for state treasurer takes time away from buying new cars for the poorly performing Bright Start Savings Plan (a failure he blames on Oppenheimer Funds, one of the big losers in The One's Chrysler deal) to stomp his feet in front  of HartMarx, the venerable suit maker (one of The One's favorites). Apparently, big bad Wells Fargo (which, incidentally, is undercapitalized) might approve a sale to one of two groups that could attempt to keep the Des Plaines and Rock Island factories open. It also might have to liquidate if it doesn't come to a deal.

Thoughts?

This would be a lot easier to comprehend without the cute nicknames.

But calling him "The One" is so funny!  Even after all this time!

Why, yes, it is.

I agree that Bush blew a ton of political capital, but when Obama had political capital in Illinois in 2006, he stood with Giannoulias, Blagojevich and Todd Stroger when he could have stayed in Washington. His endorsement of Stroger (and non-endorsement of Forest Claypool in the Spring primary) would actually be fuckup No. 2 (after Chuck's correct assertion that Giannoulias was fuckup No. 1). Fuckup No. 3 would be not supporting someone -- anyone in the 2006 Dem. Gov. primary.

So Obama left us with a mess in Illinois and three months later left his Senate seat virtually vacant during his Presidential campaign.  This isn't Obama's crime as much as a symptom of a broken primary system that requires a nearly 2-year campaign. But, after all the fawning over the guy -- he's eminently likable, and is decent as politicians go, I'm more than happy to admit -- it's a bit frustrating to listen to how this guy has put a premium on competence unlike his predecessor, blah blah blah.

Peter Fitzgerald was 10 times the U.S. Senator that Obama was. (He was also at least 10 times the Illinois Senator as well.)  But my party chased him out because he wouldn't pal around with Hastert and Kjellander. And that sucks. But the GOP wouldn't have chased him out if voters here truly cared about "integrity" and "competence."

Chad Fox is by all accounts a great guy, and it's great he's come back twice from injuries....

It's a great story that would play much better in Pittsburgh or Baltimore.

I'm just wondering if it's going to be Pat Quinn, Lisa Madigan, Alexei Giannoulias or Alexei Ramirez coming after American Chartered next.

I will let our resident bankers comment on The One's Fiefdom here in  Illinois.

Last December, the former Governor (for whom our President supported in Gubernatorial Elections at least thrice) threatened to pull all state business from BofA if it pulled the plug on Republic Windows. Unfortunately, Patrick Fitzgerald (the bum that The One's predecessor in the US Senate recommended for the job more or less sealing his fate in IL) had the FBI bring The One's choice for Governor twice and Republic remained open so we'd never know if The One's choice for Gov. would have made good on that threat.

Now, The One's mobbed-up choice for state treasurer takes time away from buying new cars for the poorly performing Bright Start Savings Plan (a failure he blames on Oppenheimer Funds, one of the big losers in The One's Chrysler deal) to stomp his feet in front  of HartMarx, the venerable suit maker (one of The One's favorites). Apparently, big bad Wells Fargo (which, incidentally, is undercapitalized) might approve a sale to one of two groups that could attempt to keep the Des Plaines and Rock Island factories open. It also might have to liquidate if it doesn't come to a deal.

Thoughts?