thank you for granting my wish great one, but when are you going to start? you are still replying. i would rather have the scattershot opinions of pleasant fellow riders than snarkey, condescending long winded replies pointing out the disapproval of the vivid descriptiveness of pictures and text. you sound like you have A LOT of friends, you should probably take your awesome wisdom and help them.
as for my deraileur once again, i wondered about the height of it, which sat at close to 6.5mm from cage to tooth. while higher than normal, it still manages to shift (although sloppy). i recently purchased my first brand new road bike, a bianchi via nirone with a tiagra group set. a near identical shifter to the deraileur in question. i then measured it and my findings were that it sits at a near identical height as my sloppy shifting deraileur (6.5mm) pictured below.
this new bianchi shifts beautifully, and has been a joy to ride. it in fact just had its "break in tune up". ive put about 250 miles on it, and it shifts and runs great. i think these particular lower end deraileurs are designed to sit at this height. anyway, i think i will end up taking the bike in question on saturday to my lbs and see what they come up with. thanks again to everyone for helping with this problem. i will report back my findings. im betting it is the rings being worn out. thanks again.