Brock Beauchamp

I wasn't referencing the article, only the segment where the state did not find evidence of voter fraud. You can find that information all over the place, that just happened to be the first relevant Google result I found. I don't even read that website. So you're going to source a site called "Rotten Acorn" against the State of Pennsylvania not finding evidence of voter fraud in a court case about voter fraud. Gee, maybe the first black candidate for President had something to do with increased voter turnout. Effect does not equal causality. Most voters don't identify as Republican. Except for a brief surge in our post-9/11 world, that hasn't been the case for 20 years. http://www.gallup.com/poll/151943/record-high-americans-identify-independents.aspx

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/voter_id_texas_ruling.php?ref=fpblg Reading more into it and found this nugget: Bolded for emphasis. The court ruled that underlying documents should also be free. Interesting. That means you need to provide free IDs. You also need to provide free birth certificates. The costs continue to mount for this nonsense to pass...

In the case of Maholm, I agree if the deal is right. But I see Vargas imploding outside of Seattle. Maybe I'm wrong but that flyball rate and his consistent struggles outside of SafeCo worry me.

I've never been a Revere supporter. I never thought he'd cut it as more than a fourth outfielder. But I have to admit that his progress this season has been outstanding. He's even been taking a couple of walks over the past week.

I can't tell you his intent, only the way his words come off... That the PA Voter ID law will win the state for Romney and that it has a positive impact for the GOP and a negative impact on Democrats. Also, you keep talking about this 100%+ district. I can't find news stories about it anywhere. On the other hand, I can find the ruling of the Federal Judge on the legality of the PA Voter ID law passed: http://www.thenation.com/blog/169408/wake-voter-id-ruling-pennsylvania-rep-pushes-myth-voter-fraud The state itself could not find provable examples of voter fraud. The bill was held up anyway (overturning legislators based on the "usefulness" of a law is certainly not at the court's discretion) but the fact that in front of sworn testimony, the state could not find examples of voter fraud is pretty damning.

Fascinating. We'll have to figure out a way to incorporate this into the site on a permanent basis. I'll think about it and talk it over with the rest of the crew.

Twins: Ben Revere CF Alexi Casilla 2B Joe Mauer C Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Ryan Doumit DH Chris Parmelee RF Trevor Plouffe 3B Pedro Florimon SS (Brian Duensing P) Mariners: Dustin Ackley 2B Franklin Gutierrez CF Kyle Seager 3B Jesus Montero C Justin Smoak 1B Miguel Olivo DH Trayvon Robinson LF Eric Thames RF Brendan Ryan SS (Blake Beavan P)

Perhaps you should raise your standards. In this case, I think not.

Outside of plans to heavily shop Morneau in the offseason (which JR has stated he's not necessarily going to do), I don't know why he didn't get more reps in the OF. It makes sense to keep him at first in Rochester if you're going to trade Justin in the offseason. If you're not, I don't understand why Chris didn't get more OF time in AAA.

Watching the game now... Mauer must have been saying "What the hell do I have to do to hit a ball out of this stadium?" He absolutely crushed that pitch.

Paul Maholm shares few characteristics with Vargas. Maholm induces half his balls hit into the ground. Maholm's HR rate is far lower than Vargas. He also strikes out a few more guys (he's an NL pitcher, after all). Maholm has a better chance of succeeding in Target Field than Vargas, in my opinion. I'm not crazy about the guy but he could be a serviceable pitcher. He doesn't fall apart if he's pitching in a ballpark smaller than the Grand Canyon, that's for sure.

People need to relax about corner OF defense in general. While it's certainly better to have good defensive outfielders everywhere, the cost of a poor corner OF is small enough not to worry much about. Boston won two world series with Manny Ramirez in LF. The Twins won 90+ games with Delmon Young in LF. Teams have stashed poor outfielders in left or right for 150 years. It ain't that big a deal. A poor SS costs you. Often. A poor corner OFer doesn't get to a couple balls a month, tops. Big friggin deal. Parmelee in right probably isn't ideal (though most of us have seen him there much), but it's not worth fretting about unless/until 1b is open. Especially in the short term. By all accounts, Parmelee won't be in RF for more than a few months, one season tops in a season where the Twins probably won't be very good anyway. After that, he moves to first base as one of Hicks/Arcia is called up. On the other hand, the Twins need to find out whether Parmelee is a major league hitter before Justin Morneau leaves.

Jesus Christ, you cannot accuse another person of ad hominem and fallacy over and over again and then split up their post into twenty different pieces, picking and choosing the parts you want to argue and ignoring the rest. I'm not even going to bother responding to that except with one question... If Voter ID is so vital to the "integrity" of our elections, why is only one party supporting it? Pro Voter ID: Republican Party Con Voter ID: Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, Democratic Farmer Labor, Green Party, Constitution Party, Independence Party, etc etc etc. Don't you find that just a little odd? After all, you keep throwing out how 70% of America is behind this bill. Why isn't that being represented at all in party support? How do you not see that this is a voter suppression bill? Here is a well-articulated, informative, and most importantly, sourced article on the breakdown of Republican talking points: http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/debunking_misinformation_on_photo_id/

Yep. It's harder to rebuild a team than people around here make it out to be. You can't just dump all your good players and then expect a return to relevancy on the backs of prospects that get injured, fade away, or just don't develop. The Royals have been trying that for 10 years, the Pirates 15, the Astros are in the middle of what looks to be a decade-plus stretch of incompetency, as are the Cubs. It's easy to blow up a team. Putting something back together is hard.

Figures. I don't watch what is becoming the only watchable Twins game in a week. What the hell is going on here? Plouffe homers, Deduno K's six, walks none, and the Twins post five runs.

Again, I do not care what policies Europe, Canada, or anyone else has regarding identification. They're not a standard I wish to hold my country to in the "freedom" department in most cases. And I don't care how many people are for the passage of this law. Jim Crow laws were passed. Same-sex marriage bans have been passed. The population passes dumb ass laws on a near-daily basis. Might does not make right. I bring up the "papers" point because it's a significant part of this country's history and it's something the Supreme Court has ruled on multiple times. Requiring people to register and identify themselves to vote isn't that far from literacy tests to vote in the old days. It's not something that's being created to curb voter fraud; if it was, it'd actually try to do something to close some of the easier loopholes to get around. It doesn't do that. It leaves them wide freakin' open. Who are the people without ID? Generally, they're black. Or they're poor. Or they're old. Do you know the pain in the ass it will require to get the government to pay for the identification? It's going to require pay stubs, welfare checks, tax receipts, that sort of thing. On top of that, you have to get the ID, which means you need time off work or you need to find transportation to the DMV. Not a big deal for a middle class white dude like me but for a car-less 80 year old woman in the ghetto, it poses a much more significant challenge. And for what? To stop voter fraud that has never been proven to be significant enough to matter? Why are we doing this? What is the end goal? I've never seen a serious study that demonstrated voter fraud was significant enough to alter an election. You bring up felons voting. I bring up how ID laws don't prevent that. You keep deflecting this argument and actually posted a link to Fox-freakin-News, the biggest joke of a news agency in a country of partisan news channels. Come on. I expect better than that. Instead of just supposing that voter fraud exists because someone told you it did, go find actual studies that examine the situation. And when you come up blank, ask yourself one question: Why are Republicans doing this? I guarantee you're not going to like the answer if you're anything more the a hard-line member of the GOP who eats up every line of BS they feed you. You may not like that video but it's there, if you want to hear more "context", go find a longer clip. The problem is that you saw the entirety of his speech's "context" regarding voter ID laws. He flat-out admitted that it's a poll-rigging attempt by the GOP. And the public is eating this **** up. It's sad. Democracy is supposed to be an inclusive process. If you create more obstacles, you alienate those who should be participating in the process the most (ie. those who are under-represented in the first place). And no, I cannot name three adults who do not had identification. And that's my entire point.

Get a grip? Because I don't want the government requiring everyone to carry identification? Because I believe in minimizing the government's role in society? And what on Earth does traveling overseas have to do with this argument? I'm pretty sure the GOP goes out of its way to avoid being anything like Europe. Why the change of heart in this instance? I never said that felons voted illegally, I said that the proposed law you support doesn't stop felons from voting (which it doesn't). You're advocating the passage of a law that won't do a damned thing to stop this supposed voter fraud. So, the law doesn't do anything about absentee voting, it doesn't stop felons from voting, it adds to our tax burden by providing free IDs to those who need them, and it's creating a "solution" to a problem that has never been substantiated outside of right wing spin factories (the people who oversaw the Franken recount have stated multiple times that there was NO indication of voter fraud in that election). Can someone explain to me why this is considered a good idea again? I seem to be missing something. I look at the evidence and I see one reason for this bill's creation: the Republicans want to minimize the poor and elderly vote because they don't traditionally vote for the GOP. And that's disgusting. This is all anyone should have to see about voter ID to see that the motivations behind the law have absolutely nothing to do with "cleaning up" the voting process. It's a cockblock of the vote, nothing more. [video=youtube;EuOT1bRYdK8]

Who is voting legally, how are they doing it, and how does a photo ID prohibit them from continuing to vote legally? It seems to me that the burden of proof should be on the people who wish to create a new law, not the ones who wish to retain the status quo.

Twins: Ben Revere CF Jamey Carroll 2B Joe Mauer DH Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Ryan Doumit C Chris Parmelee RF Trevor Plouffe 3B Pedro Florimon SS (Sam Deduno P) Mariners: Dustin Ackley 2B Trayvon Robinson LF Kyle Seager 3B John Jaso DH Justin Smoak 1B Eric Thames RF Miguel Olivo C Chone Figgins CF Munenori Kawasaki SS (Jason Vargas P)

Generally, there's not much of a point in doing it. But every once in awhile, you get something like the Dodgers/Sox deal that just went through the waiver process. It's hard to pull that off but since there's no risk to dangling a star player, there's little reason not to do it, either.

Well he will be the top FA on the market, and I would be shocked if he gets less than 95 mil. I think that's a pretty fair assessment of where he'll land. Somewhere just north of Lackey money.

I was looking at that thing last night. It's awful. At the very least, they could have made it a solid sheet of black or green instead of that piecemeal thing they currently have in place.

Can they consider him Bargain Bin? Please? One can only hope.

I don't think Ryan has the guts to trade Mauer. I honestly don't. I'm not entirely convinced it's a good idea, either. And if he does go to the Red Sox, when did Billy Smith take over the GM position in Boston? Dealing Gonzalez and then picking up Mauer would be the type of move that'd make him proud.

At this point. Greinke cannot be considered an "elite" pitching free agent. The train has already gone off the rails there.