tom webster

Wow, take the morning to actually do some work and things have really escalated, or is it deescalated?

I'm not backed into any corner and as I have stated I have no problem with you regurgitating info but when it is incorrect you may want to distance yourself from it

I stand by the adjectives I used as they pertain to the specific instance I'm referring to. Some other words of advice, you may want to retract that "cars loaded with Sky Bar food" quote.

I agree that there is value although I'd argue not enough to justify the heat he is taking now for those comments.

I'm not arguing any of this. Others tried to imply that this catering gig or even the cancelled party was vital to him and that's just ridiculous. Do you realize how much this guy has going on? I have a tenth of that going on and have found out only afterwards when certain "celebrities" did business with one of my companies. That being said, I acknowledge that he might have known but that the notion that the party was a reason to come to his defense is laughable.

I'm no big fan of Croce but to say that his catering a party equates to him having "skin" in the game is ridiculous. I would be surprised if he even knew that one of his places was doing the catering unless he was invited to the party. He surely doesn't wake up in the morning thinking his financial well being hinges on his profit from one catering gig.

I was wondering about the timeline. If in fact she went to the hospital, had the rape kit done and gave a sworn statement accusing him, is it normal that no charges have been filed yet? I know its never as fast as on tv, but ....

Our job was not to determine guilt or innocence but rather if there was sufficient evidence to go to trial. To answer your question, though, there were two cases that I felt strongly should have been sent to trial that weren't.

I am not interested into getting into the whole discussion on semantics and censoring the masses but I do want to relate a purely anecdotal story for what it is worth. I was on grand jury duty awhile back for about a month. We heard evidence in about 100 cases, about 65 of them drug cases (Wednesday was drug case day), several of them cases of the mundane variety and about 10 sexual abuse cases. Six of those cases were disgusting cases involving children but 4 were sexual abuse case involving adults. As luck would have it, I was chosen the foreman, so part of my responsibility was to go before the judge when we decided to indict. I will tell you that in all 4 of those cases it was the female jurors that were the hardest to convince that a rape had occurred. While waiting to go before the Judge, I had a conversation with Judge Penny Wolfgang, who happened to be the in the courtroom and we talked about this. She wasn't surprised at all and told me that she found that to be true as well. Now I never researched this, have no other data to back it up, just presenting it as my experience.

On Kane, no big surprise. His Dad was the biggest ass I ever dealt with in business. Maybe second biggest. On Hoss, exactly. Its no different then me talking about the Sabre exec that screamed that Babcock was a liar and ordering the channel changed during his press conference. There were probably four employees in there and no customers within earshot. If I gave details I jeopardize those employees. You can choose to believe me or not, I am ok with that. If we don't want uncorroborated rumors on this board, I am ok with that as well.

He's really not doing anything that the Buffalo News and local stations are already doing, reporting that something is being investigated but nothing released yet. It's no big secret who Hoss works for and who he gets his info from so it would be career suicide for him to release what he heard.

No, I think there is a difference between mental focus and edge although I think most would agree he could play with more edge. In the end he has pretty much established what he is and you are correct, Winnipeg could do better on their top line.

And I will say it again for the three hundredth time, those close to the situation say Stafford's troubles are two fold, he is actually super hard on himself and he lacks basic hockey sense. The tools are there but knowing where be when to be there is lacking and he tends to go into long funks in a crisis of confidence. He is not too unlike Vanek without the hockey sense.

Come on, you are better then that. He has already shown that he knows how to move up and will do just that if there is someone he thinks is worthy but as has already been discussed, its not like they are the only team looking...

I'm pretty sure Sawyer is Caucasian and please be careful, I wouldn't want to lose your input over a Colin Cowherd type comment like that although you did capitalize it so there is a certain amount of respect shown. There are several Black people in Hockey management doing splendid jobs.

I wonder how many on this board get the reference. One of my favorite episodes.

I get your point but I think your use of the word excuses implies that there is blame to place for not getting it done. You are right, if there is one available, you figure out a way to make it happen. Like Blue said, however, there isn't one available.

Only reason I am a little more versed on timeline is because I have had this discussion before. It does seem a lot longer and as someone has said, it all blends together.

Again, job descriptions. Marrone was 4 months before Whaley is GM. He probably had a role in picking Marrone, may even have talked total money but that out clause has to be on the money men. And haven't heard "devil may care" in awhile, thanks. I will admit that the Watkins' trade is questionable but I don't agree that its as egregious as some believe.

You get all the blame when things go wrong and only some of the credit when things go right. A lot of it is timing and luck. That is why in the real world, in the business world, we only recognize the actual titles and job description, not supposition of how much influence someone had or didn't have before he/she got the actual position. If Manuel was a star, most would tell us how it was Buddy's pick. The record shows that he was promoted in May 2013 and in my world that is all he gets credit and blame for. Worst for you, in Terry Pegula's world this was his first off season.

And to say Whaley had three off seasons is also incorrect. He was promoted to GM mid May 2013 after free agency and draft where over.

Whaley was named GM two months after Alex Smith was traded. The fact that Cutler is still a Bear given the climate of NFL quarterbacking should be your answer. The only quarterback drafted during Whaley's tenure that they had a shot at that may be a true NFL QB is Bridgewater.

You obviously haven't been paying attention to the state of quarterbacking around the league, they may not be extinct but they are definitely on the endangered species list.

The difference is there is a finite number of quality quarterbacks available. It is not like they can go and create one. So they are doing the next logical thing, they are trying to create a team that minimizes the need for one. The only other option would be to keep tanking until the next Andrew Luck becomes available.

That has been my constant refrain. Of course the QB situation is horrible but what exactly could Whaley have done differently?