Sketch Soland

The only problem with your claim is that it is a tradition for an incoming president to fire or not renew old attorney generals and appoint new ones. The Answer to the last question on this page states that turnover is common following a change in the presidential administration: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070306/ap_on_...prosecutors_q_a As the last Q & A on the page also states, the Congressional Research Service also found that there have been only 5 cases in the last 25 years of a US Attorney being fired following "reports of questionable conduct". The most recent wave of 8 firings, then, would seem, at the very least, to be "highly unusual", and as such, would bear a closer look to determine the reason for such an action. A thread dedicated to smearing Mrs. Clinton, who I have no personal love for whatsoever, seems counter productive to discussing the facts and issues that are pertinent .

Great Minds

That was actually my deeper point.... This whole "draft" thing is a ruse to lure Chicago into trading us Lance Briggs for all our 07 draft picks ala Ditka did for Ricky Williams!!!! WHO'S WITH ME???!!!?!

It's the classic "High Motor Swindle"!

LOL, I usually catch those kinds of errors

He may want to come back, and a lot of fans could want him back.... But does Marv Levy? I think the answer to that is a resounding "no".

I think this person is our next FA signing to play 1-tech DT. Talk about stuffing the middle and taking up two blockers!

No worries

McCargo has to step up and play like a 1st rounder. That is without question. The whole DT situation is completely reliant on him doing that. I certainly agree with you there. Do not mistake "faith" for just kneeling and praying that the Bills will be good. The way I use the term "Faith" is firmly based in a rationale that emphasizes patience and realistic expectations for players, especially young, developing players. For example, I am not ready to give up on Kyle Williams because he wasn't a pro bowler his 1st year. This would be foolish. This doesn't mean i'm anointing him the starter until he retires; it just means that the jury is still out, that's all. I don't have a problem with skepticism. I, in general, have a problem with skepticism that is not based in a rational and reasoned perspective, is not well thought out, and doesn't take into accoun the myriad factors and permutations that are involved in building a successful NFL football team. Of course, it is impossible to take every such factor into account, but it is possible to address the complexity of the situation in a more appropriate light. It's not a matter of being on one side or the other; it's a matter of articulating a perspective in an intelligent and thoughtful manner. BTW, this is a general comment and is not singling you out in any way, so please don't misconstrue this as a "personal attack". A professional football team doesn't drop 25 million on a player if they don't see potential gold there. How much do you know about Walker? Have you studied more film than the Bills staff? Did you talk to people who coach him? Have you met him and judged his intelligence and potential for playing the game? His character? I haven't. So I don't know these things. But I certainly don't also suscribe to the opposite reaction that says he's crap before having seen how he plays in our system, with out coaches, and with new teammates. That is just common sense rationale, imo. And A-Train? He proved last year that he is a good spot starter and backup, someone who can share some carries and be productive in that non-fulltime starter roll. He will probably get more carries this year, but he will not be the starter. So yes, i do see gold in him to play the limited roll that he will play, albeit a slightly larger roll than last year. This doesn't take a lot of faith and hope. We saw him do it last year. I didn't say that Levy and Juaron will bring us a championship, did I? All I've said is that they must be allowed to implement their vision and plan for this team in order to give us the best shot of reaching a championship. This plan includes drafting young and developing players, including two DT's that we drafted last year. This is a necessity in today's salary capped world. You confuse my attempts to pragmatically address the complexities of the situation with a complete "RAH RAH CAN'T DO NO WRONG" mantra. I am skeptical as well about the DT situation, but I see the necessity of developing young players and giving them a chance to develop. It is impossible to sign proven pro bowl players at every position. You have to draft players and give them time to develop, which means taking the risk that they don't develop into pro bowlers. That is the name of the game, however, and that's part of what makes the game so exciting, imo. Yes, everything always is a matter of perspective. I could not agree more. Go Bills!

If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch, my friend I "attack" ill-conceived logic and formulations, not people. If I get a little excited about it, it is only because some people go to extremes with it and that annoys me. Perhaps that is my conceit but I acknowledge this. You are way too sensitive. How could I personally attack someone on an internet forum? I know NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF YOU LOL! Please respond to this post http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=941328 if you would like to engage in further discussion.... Please tell me what is so unreasonable about that response, and by unreasonable, of course, i only mean does not show a reasoned perspective.

Take a look here This seems to be the best working idea...

This seems to indicate that there is a minimum rookie salary for a draft position but not a maximum that a team can pay a draft pick or their group of draft picks. Did I miss something? So, in effect, if i'm reading this right, there would be a rookie salary base, for lack of a better word, not a cap....?

There is no rookie "cap" per say, as in, team X can't spend more than y dollars to pay their rookies, as far as I know. It all falls under the overall cap. If the cap is 109 million and a team is at 108 million, they wouldn't have enough to sign a full slate of draft picks, but teams avoid this happening by figuring out (roughly) how much space they need for draft picks at the beginning of free agency and holding back a certain percentage of their cap space for the draft picks. Conversely, if a team is over the cap, they would have to slash some salary to get back under the cap enough to sign their draft picks. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the case.

Yes, more evidence that we have no attention of drafting a CB in the 1st round this year.

rookies are part of the salary cap. every team sets aside a certain amount of money to sign their rookie picks, based upon how many they have and where they are picking. they usually do this in their calculations of how much money under/over the cap they are.

My name is swahili for "Pretty Pink Hair Ribbon"

You heard that too?

I want to conquer the world, Give all the idiots a brand new religion, Put an end to poverty, uncleanliness and toil, Promote equality in all my decisions With a quick wink of the eye And a god you must be joking!

Yes, but I think this season sacrifices plotting and character development a little bit in a concerted effort to top the over-the-topness that the show has generally employed as a natural part of the show. In the past, the over-the-topness was subordinate to the pacing, plotting, and character development, imo, and i think that his year they are much more conscious of having to "one up" past seasons and to me it shows. I still enjoy the shite out of this show so really this is not a criticism as much as it is an observation. There is difference, imo, between it being season six and the show has to go SOMEWHERE and just going over-the-top as a i kind of cop-out for it having to go SOMEWHERE. SOMEWHERE does not mean BRING IN THE BORG! I mean: how EASY was it for them to plant a bomb in the NUCLEAR FALLOUT BUNKER of the WHITE HOUSE? *Oh, don't mind me, i'm just standing at the podium, gonna place this here tape recorder underneath the podium, making sure no one's looking of course, it's not that there's eighteen secret service agents in the room and not like they have cameras trained all over the place, and oh yeah, don't mind this 'consultant' i'm bringing in, let's just look at his brief case with a good once over lol, and i guess no one ever goes in to the huge inner boiler room in the middle of the bunker where the assasins hide to construct a bomb and interrogate the chief of staff* There is a point where an event such as this becomes so absurd that if interferes with the quality of the show, imo, as in: i think this season is not as good as last season because of these reasons. I'm sorry if this shatters anyone's little 24 fantasy bubble because that's not my intent. This is all just my opinion, of course. I guess I am such a fan of the show that I think it needs a little tough love every now and then to get back on track. And actually, the last couple episodes have been great imo and now i think we're headed into a great home stretch....

Natalie Portman

You are unfamiliar with dissenting opinion? It is what happens when one human being has a point of view on a subject that is divergent in some way from another human being's point of view. This is usually due to environmental, genetic, social, and cultural influences that over a human being's growth cycle cause certain preferences and judgments to be formed that are specific to the human being in question. In this case, however, there is the special objective situation of "Natalie Portman's superior uber beauty vs. any other female in the universe", which, as all objective males know, is a completely a priori axiomatic fact in a way that not even the two laws of thermodynamics can hope to ever attain.

Yes, i hope he does too. We are relying heavily on him. I or you have no idea what teams would have drafted him where last year or what teams had him rated at what level. The fact is: our coaching staff and management had him highly rated, specifically to play a certain role in our kind of defense. Not every team plays the same kind of defense and/or looks for the same kind of player to play a certain kind of role. This affects how they grade a player and how highly they covet him. I do see your point and you may be right. All I'm saying is that it's too early to render his sentence. We would have practically Zero players on this team that we drafted if we gave up on them after their rookie year because they weren't pro bowlers their rookie year. They must be tendering him for some reason. Maybe just to have a warm body at camp, but they didn't have to tender him. And it's not like a professional football teams is in the 850,000 charity business.... We can all post here about how he is the shite-ist thing since shite but they still tendered him. So we'll see. I, for one, doubt he makes the team, but that's just a hunch. I think they think Tripplett will be even better this year with a year under his belt in the system and with the improvement of his fellow players on the line and the addition of McCargo back into the rotation. I think they saw improvement in his play over the second half of the season and I think they are not willing to give up on him. It is very easy just to say all our DT's are "pathetically weak". But a blanket generalization such as this does not take into account the salary cap, which obviously I don't have to inform you about, and the general cohesion of the overall scheme, each player fulfilling their specific task in the scheme so that others can be successful in their spot. Our whole defense had to learn a new defense last year. Marv is now beginining to get all the right players he wants to play this defense, so I expect to see a drastic improvement in filling gaps, holding down lanes, etc. this year with a year under the belt and the continued improvement of young players. A superificial judgment, imo. "They are horrible" does not really cut it, imo, as a proper and thorough critique of the situation. Our DT's are not "undersized". Undersized relative to what? The average fan's concept of what a DT should be? Ask the Bears and the Colts what size their DT's are. Somehow they both made it to the super bowl. Now I'm not saying that Larry Tripplett is Tommy Harris, but then again, who is? The point is, the name of the game is team defense, execution, and proper discipline in filling your gaps etc. McCargo needs to emerge as a force. Everything is relying on that. He is supposed to be our Tommy Harris or the next best thing. You may scoff at that, but that's why we drafted him in the 1st round. Any full critique of our DT rotation is immature until we can see him play significantly. No, I certainly will never claim to know more than the coaches. Here's the point though: as a fan, YOU HAVE TO have faith in whatever current Bills coaching staff and management is in place. What else can you do? There is nothing else to do! So yes, I do have faith in them, because I can't go draft a petition and have a bunch of fans sign it, hand it to Ralph and force him to Bring Parcells or Cowher in to coach.... The fact is this is Levy's second offseason; we are now beginning to see how he is remaking this roster in his and jauron's image (i believe they are very similar in football philosophical bent). Rome wasn't built in a day. We saw considerable improvement last year as a team. That is undeniable. What reason is there to suspect that this improvement will not continue? I will continue to believe that there is no reason that we can't improve because I see what one year has done for us and see no reason to believe that his philosophy and paradigm shift in attitude and play will cease to continue this year. Amen! Again, what else is there to do? Unless you have a significant share in the Bills' ownership, Marv is the man making the decisions for the at least near future. And many people do think they are professional football talent evalutors. I don't, that's why I steer cleer from blanket judgments on issues of talent and prefer to try to see the "invisible hand" so to speak behind the way Marv is trying to build this team so as to come to a better understanding of why he and Juaron make the decisions that they do. I prefer a more positive, hopeful attitude that, I think, allows me to take the most enjoyment possible from following the Bills. Polian also has stated repeatedly that he credits Marv Levy more than anyone for teaching him what he knows about football today. I'm not going to bicker about who had what influence back then, but unless you can personally find a way to dethrone Levy and install Polian as our GM, then this whole argument is completely moot and pointless. He is our GM and people should stand behind him with faith. I think Levy, of all people, has earned that in the hearts and minds of Buffalo sports fans. No one will argue that the DT's need to improve for us to take the next step, whatever that is. I think we all need to remember that McCargo being injured really was a big blow to our DT rotation last year and put us behind on the development of all our DT's within the system. Hopefully, his emergence this year will show us where we truly stand on that front and where the others DT's stand, as one standout DT will certainly improve the effectiveness of our other DT's within the rotation by drawing double teams, etc. We will see if Marv addresses the DT position further in the draft. I very much doubt it as a high pick because he spent a 1st rounder on McCargo last year and he hasn't had a chance to really play yet; I see a possibility for a mid round pick.

Bullshite! And you're not even the best kind of eight ball!

someone didn't click the link, now did they?

oooh, oooh, my turn: MAGIC EIGHT BALL....... Is Brooke Burns hotter than Natalie Portman?