The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 23, 2009 18:18:47 GMT -5
One Republican to keep an eye on: Jon Huntsman. Moderate, very popular governor of Utah, now Ambassador to China. Obama may have been using the age old tactic of getting promising opponents out of the country, bit it could backfire because Huntsman will come back with some very nice foreign policy cred.
Huntsman's the kind of guy who could win an election against Obama, but since he's moderate and Mormon, I'm not sure he could win the GOP primary. On the flip side, Palin could probably win the GOP primary, but she'd get blown away in the general election. She's a superstar for sure, but with a very select group of people who would vote Republican anyways. I think Bando's correct - she's the Hillary Clinton of the right.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 23, 2009 18:09:53 GMT -5
Now admit that he believes the cost is immaterial and you've got honesty. What on earth are you talking about? Obama has made it VERY clear that cost does matter. The cap is $900 billion, and no increase to the deficit. It'd a d*mn high cap, but it's a cap nonetheless. Remember, Democrats aren't the ones who give us big deficits. The debt didn't spiral out of control until Reagan came along. The Democrats brought it back under control under Clinton. When Clinton left the White House, we had a surplus. What did Bush do? Exactly what Reagan did - throw us into massive deficits. Democrats spend a lot of money, but don't pretend like the Republicans are any different. Both parties are huge spenders. The only difference is that the Democrats pay for what they spend - the Republicans don't. Tax and Spend may suck, but it's a helluva lot better than Don't Tax, Still Spend.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 22, 2009 21:58:05 GMT -5
Evidence that Sarah Palin is a superstar? 5 pages in 3-4 days. Does this also make KSM/Eric Holder a superstar?
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 22, 2009 20:55:28 GMT -5
Guess the terrorists have gotten their way. All will now plead not guilty and plan to make it a stage for verbally attacking the U.S. Way to go, President Obama. Good, they'll be able to make themselves look like fools.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 22, 2009 8:47:06 GMT -5
And now there's rumors that Mercedes want to sign Michael Schumacher....
Schumacher and Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn are very close, and Schumacher got his start in high-level racing with Mercedes' sportscar team in 1990. He was supposed to race for Mercedes in F1, but they lost him to a loophole in his contract.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 22, 2009 8:44:16 GMT -5
It wasn't a replay that doomed Zidane in 2006. One of the side officials saw the headbutt as it happened and called the ref over to tell him what happened.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 21, 2009 18:45:37 GMT -5
Lincoln and Landrieu have now said they're onboard tonight. For this vote at least, things are looking good for Reid.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 21, 2009 12:59:21 GMT -5
Tonight's the (first) big night. Lieberman and Nelson have both said they'll vote aye tonight. Landrieu looks to be leaning that way. No word from Lincoln yet.
I'm optimistic they'll get 60 tonight. After that, all hell will break loose with the amendments.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 21, 2009 12:21:36 GMT -5
But Jeff put up 19 and 14 as the Thunder beat the Wiz handily at home. Amazing how unless Jeff is the leading scorer, he gets almost no mention in AP recaps, behind Durant, Westbrook, and now Harden. And I doubt Jeff cares one bit about that, as long as the team wins. The good news for Jeff is that people inside the NBA recognize how great he is, so he'll probably get some very nice offers when his contract is up.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 21, 2009 0:18:20 GMT -5
There seem to be 2 main concerns about using civilian courts over military tribunals:
1. Classified information will be leaked during the trial.
2. Dangerous terrorists will be found not guilty.
On the first one, military tribunals really don't offer much help. In order for the evidence to stay secret, the trial would have to be 100% closed. If we give KSM a closed trial, all he has to do is claim that he didn't get a fair trial, and nobody will be able to disprove him. With an open trial, the entire world will see that we give him a fair trial.
On the second issue, we've only gotten 3 terrorism convictions through military tribunals since 9/11. We've gotten 523 through civilian courts. The SDNY has a 100% conviction rate on terrorism cases. I don't think we have to worry about dangerous terrorists getting away with this.
Of course, KSM and his buddies and their lawyers will try to pull some legal stunts, but I'm sure the SDNY folks are more than used to that. They'd do the same in a military tribunal - constantly claiming that the tribunal is illegal and unconstitutional. It would almost certainly end up before the Supreme Court, and would probably be a bigger circus than what we'll see in NYC.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 20, 2009 7:21:08 GMT -5
Military tribunals are better than nothing, but as strummer said the attempts to form Gitmo tribunals haven't exactly gone swimmingly.
My other problem with tribunals is that military tribunals are used for soldiers and spies fighting for a recognized country. Treating Al Qaeda members like that grants them a semblance of legitimacy. After all, they consider themselves an army that's at war with the United States on behalf of Islam. The same goes for the term "War on Terror" - it feeds straight into the radical Islamist mentality that there's a war going on and they have to defend Islam against the aggressor United States.
I say we treat Al Qaeda members like the criminals they are.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 20, 2009 7:03:44 GMT -5
The CBO (who are non-partisan and bristle at any suggestion of political interference) disagree. They say Reid's bill will cut the deficit substantially. As far as bought votes, it's a routine practice. Sometimes they buy votes with stuff in the bill, sometimes they buy it with outside bills, sometimes they buy it with outright threats. I've heard that during the extended House vote on Medicare Part D the GOP actually threatened to expel some wavering Republicans from the party if they voted against the bill. We'll see what happens on Saturday's vote.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 19, 2009 19:21:43 GMT -5
Matt Damon's accent may not be any good, but the guy's a quality actor. My concern would be with the schmaltz level. Miracle teetered successfully on the edge of spine-tingling without ever going over the top for me, but with the race relations angle involved, the chances of them not over-saccharining it seem lower to me. I agree, although the real life 1995 RWC went over the top in a pretty big way. Even the All Black players who lost that day now say they're glad in a way that they lost, because of what that game did for South Africa. The only problem I've seen so far is that Matt Damon looks NOTHING like Francois Peinaar. But I doubt many American audiences will notice that. On the bright side, the guy they have playing Jonah Lomu appears to be a dead ringer, based on the brief bit of him I saw in the preview.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 19, 2009 19:17:50 GMT -5
Legally, we can make a case for not giving them Constitutional rights. But just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean it's right to do.
I think this is a great way to prove that our country is better than those we're fighting against. Sure, we could throw them in the electric chair and execute them without a trial, just like people we're fighting against kill people without trials. But we're the freaking USA, we're better than that, we're going to give those people rights and protections, even though they don't deserve it, because we're better than they are. And you know what? Our justice system is good enough to handle that. We'll get the convictions we need, and we'll give them the justice they deserve. And we'll fell damn good about doing it, because we know that unlike our enemies, we can give those who we capture a fair trial and still bring them to justice.
[/rant]
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 19, 2009 7:23:20 GMT -5
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 18, 2009 22:05:53 GMT -5
I just saw the preview for this movie, about Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup. If they get this right, this should be amazing.
The 1995 RWC defies cliches and descriptions. It was a Hollywood story that actually happened. The Miracle on Ice pales in comparison, and that's coming from a hockey fan.
A short clip about the true story:
Hollywood could screw this up badly, which would be a shame considering how amazing the story was in real life. But I'm hoping it turns out like Miracle - a great sports movie that does justice to an incredible true story. Matt Damon is playing Pienaar, with Morgan Freeman as Mandela. Clint Eastwood is directing it.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 18, 2009 21:33:43 GMT -5
Saw a replay myself, simply galling. Plus France had two men offsides on the play. This must spark outrage over the lack of replay in soccer. My thoughts exactly. Odds that we have some form of video replay (at least for goals) by South Africa? I know it's not traditional, but soccer's basically the last major sport out there that doesn't use some form of official video replay. Baseball, basketball, football, rugby, tennis, racing, hockey, and even cricket use replay.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 18, 2009 19:16:25 GMT -5
So now that the season is over, the drama should stop, right?
NOPE!
A few days after the season ends, Ferrari finally puts an end to one of the worst-kept secrets in F1 and announces that they've signed Fernando Alonso to drive for them in 2010. He replaced Raikkonen, and everybody assumed that Raikkonen would go back to McLaren to replace the under-performing Heikki Kovalainen.
But the Raikkonen to McLaren deal wasn't announced right away, and rumors started to creep in that Raikkonen wasn't happy with the amount of money McLaren were offering him. Then rumors emerged that new World Champion Jenson Button wasn't happy with the amount of money that Brawn were offering him. Button took a big pay cut earlier this year to help the Brawn team survive.
Then Toyota suddenly quit F1, effective immediately, joining Honda and BMW as manufacturers that have quit the sport in the last 12 months. Suddenly Renault held a board meeting on their F1 future, and it looked like we might get a 4th withdrawal, but that danger looks like it's passed.
Then Mercedes grabbed the headlines, but for completely different reasons. Mercedes has been McLaren's engine partner for almost 15 years now. They owned 40% of the team, and the Mercedes engine boss was one of the most visible people in the McLaren garage. They won championships with McLaren, they stood with McLaren through the 2007 scandals, and McLaren designed and built Mercedes' top-end road car. In the spirit of F1 unity, McLaren also let Mercedes give Brawn engines this year to help keep Brawn in F1. In other words, all was happy.
So everybody was a bit shocked when Mercedes announced they were selling their stake in McLaren and buying all of the Brawn team to form Mercedes Grand Prix. It's not every day that the defending F1 World Champions get sold.
It's also not every day that the defending World Champion driver switches teams, but that also happened, as Button went in the reverse direction and jumped from ex-Brawn to McLaren. Raikkonen (still probably the fastest driver in F1, when he can be bothered) promptly announced he was quitting F1 altogether and going rally racing. Mercedes are expected to announce soon that the German duo young hotshoe Nico Rosberg and underrated journeyman (and lumberjack lookalike) Nick Heidfeld will be their drivers.
Just your typical F1 off-season!
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 18, 2009 19:01:46 GMT -5
GREAT game last night between the Caps and Rangers. Matt Bradley gets badly bloodied in a first period fight, goes off to get a clean jersey and some stitches, then comes back to score the game winner in the 3rd period. Ovie also scores in his first game back.
|
|
The Stig
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 2,844
|
Post by The Stig on Nov 18, 2009 6:40:38 GMT -5
Roy gets a shout out on Sports Center for his game against the Nets.
|
|