Oh wait, there’s an election…

“Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are,” she said.

She being Governor Sarah Palin. The statement coming after her campaign released financial records showing $150,000 worth of clothing and accessory purchases in a month. This is no joke, so if you don’t believe me click on the link above, but Palin’s hair stylist was paid more than John McCain’s foreign policy adviser.

Earrings: $20k, Suit: $50k, Hair Dude: $25k, well... you get the point. But she looks frugal, and she's living every hockeymom's dream!

I don’t trust polls one way or the other. Everyone polled said Obama won the third debate (and the first two, but who is counting), the polls showed his lead increasing to as much as 10 points. Then the AP, who I am more likely to trust regardless, release their poll, showing a statistical dead heat.

Did Obama forget to kiss a few babies along the way? Did he accidentally drop one on its head? It sounds ridiculous, but I haven’t seen or heard either candidate do anything to warrant a 10 point swing. Or to utilize widely accepted numbers, a 7 point swing!

It’s going to come down to the wire, and I have this sinking feeling in my stomach that Barack Obama is going to lose. It’s the little things that make me feel this way. Like a coworker of mine sending me a long Neal Boortz rant, where my coworker explains that:

“You should read this if you are interested in what is going on in our country’s upcoming election.  This guy is pretty intelligent and for the most part unbiased.  It is kind of long.”

Well, for anyone who doesn’t know, Neal Boortz is a registered libertarian, and he was a republican before that. That’s all fine and good, and Neal even admits it in the beginning of his rant that he’s voted Republican/Libertarian 10 times in 10 elections.  He then proceeds to usual Democrat bashing. He touches upon racism (in some weird, if you elect Barack Obama you’ll be called a racist within a year), unions, taxes, supreme court appointments, and “Obama’s friends.”

He also utilizes the right wing tactic of admitting, “hey, we really really screwed up for eight years, but there is no way you can give the legislature and the executive to a DEMOCRAT!” It’s actually a brilliant tactic, which is why you’ll hear it from every right-wing commentator. Republicans cannot regain control of the House or the Senate in this election, and they know it. But for some reason (2000-2006), people are scared of giving one party control of government. There is talk of filibuster proof majorities (which wouldn’t happen), and the most liberal agenda in the history of the United States. Is any of it true? My gut tells me that, as with most scare tactics, there is little truth here.

On to another, potentially scarier note: McCarthyism. I might be behind the times here, with Michele Bachmann’s comments last Friday on Hardball with Chris Matthews. And according to our incredibly well-dressed potential second in command, there are pro-America parts of the country, and then… well there are liberals. Even before Bachmann decided to rant and rave (and in all probability lose her reelection bid because of it), a friend of mine turned me onto this trend. Here is a quote from his e-mail, dated October 15th:

He  wasn’t even attributing any of these qualities to Barack Obama, he was just saying that he has “overtly” associated with these types of people [Reszko, Ayers, Wright]. I’m sure there are tons of influential people that Obama has overtly associated with. This all sounds like political bullshit to me–McCarthyism much?

But what do I know!

"You're all communists, just like Barack Obama"

"You're all anti-American, just like Barack Obama"

Unfortunately my friend, you seem to know more than any of us are happy to admit. It’s really frustrating and terribly unfair to be a “liberal” and be labeled as anti-American. It’s also ridiculous.

To Michele Bachmann: You deserve to lose your campaign. And you will. For a moment, it seems as though you forget who you were, and what you were doing serving and running for reelection in the United States House of Representatives. GO ELWYN TINKLENBERG!

You know what the funny part is? I agree with Neal Boortz about something. Republicans do deserve to lose this election. In as many ways as possible. They have aided in the destruction of our economy, brought our soldiers into harms way, killed the federal budget and deficit, ignored climate change, and paid billions of dollars to companies like Blackwater in blatant acts of cronyism while the wealth disparity continues to grow. But I’ll take it a step farther.

Don’t give McCain the White House because you’re afraid of Democrats controlling both branches. Give it to Obama in the hopes that a Republican loss  will force them to return to their fiscally conservative roots. We need two active, intelligent parties in this country. If Republicans get dismantled in this election, they will have to do some soul searching. And the Obama Presidency is going to be an expensive one, that’s almost guaranteed. In eight years, come back to the table in true Reagan form, not just invoking his name.

I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ, and my own moral compass is built upon Christian values. I’m not perfect, and I’ll never claim to be. But in this country, there is nothing more upsetting than the hypocritical, overbearing, and downright scary evangelical movement within the Republican party. I mean that in all seriousness. Government policy is about effectively running the country, not controlling the lives of its people. A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT OUTLAWING GAY MARRIAGE. Such an old topic, but such a great example of the insanity of *some* of these people.

Just imagine. The bill of rights, written by our forefathers to protect our right to free speech, to bear arms, and to free assembly. It protects us from search and seizure and cruel and unusual punishment. We’ve added other amendments to the Constitution, and for the most part, rightfully so. The last time we tried to control the morals of our people through the constitution, it didn’t work so well (Prohibition). But there are people who believe that we need to add another amendment. Right up there with all of the rights and protections offered by our Constitution, we need to add a discriminatory amendment that bans gay marriage. WHAT?! Who cares! We’re supposed to be a religion of understanding and forgiveness.

Ugh, it’s incredibly frustrating, and I feel like it’s getting worse. Did God really pick someone to run for office? I don’t know, maybe. Is he going to decide the election? I sure hope not, because then I wasted an hour voting. Does he hate my Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and atheist friends? Probably not (although you atheists are on thin ice!). And does he want to run this country for us? Well he has not yet.

I believe, in all honesty, that religion should be an important part of peoples lives, if that is their choice. I believe it’s perfectly acceptable for your own personal morals and beliefs to be shaped by your religion. But that’s it. You still have to do what’s best for your country and your people when you’re elected into office. And you should still vote for candidates based on their ability to run a secular institution. I don’t know when Republicans assumed the monopoly on God, but that’s not really fair either. And this rant reminded me of why Obama is running for President in the first place (not why he wants to run, but how he was given the chance). Below is a quote, and I’ll end on that, hope no offense taken!

“The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states.”

-Barack Obama

Maybe I'm naive, but I want to believe that this guy can play well with others.

Real Microeconomics…

I just deleted an entire post I had waiting in draft format. It compared the emperor with new clothes to Wall Street. It then compared the economy to the terrible plumbing system of my company headquarters, as I promised to do  days ago.

I just couldn’t make it work. I didn’t like the negativity, and I wasn’t bringing any relevant new information to the table. I was also dealing with the mild shock of watching the Dow fall another 500+ points. For score keeping purposes, the Dow has fallen to a five year low, as have the S&P and the Nasdaq.

A friend of mine called me last night, bluntly stating that he wanted to invest in the stock market and didn’t know anything about stocks. He is an economics graduate of a top twenty university in the country. He was taught, or able to synthesize, that it’s good to buy low and sell high. But that was as far as he’d gotten. He also wasn’t sure if we’d reached the bottom. I told him that we hadn’t, but it seemed like we were getting close. And then I started thinking.

It has been said that this economic crisis is the worst since the great depression. The Dow Jones has already lost 40% of it’s value from the all-time high (reached about a year ago). So here is the bad news: If this crisis is the worst since the great depression, then throw the all-time highs of the past 10 years out the window. Yes, the Dow was able to reach 14,000 in strong economic conditions. Well, they aren’t strong anymore. I’ve stated that the Dow could hit 7500 in 10 days. I thought that would be the bottom. Now I’m not so sure.

Theoretically, if this is the worst the economy has been in 60 years, then the markets could wide out most of the gains made during those times. Well ladies and gentlemen, the Dow closed at $177 in December of 1948. The bottom of this cycle is not in any way related to the all-time high. It really doesn’t matter. If people need money (which they do) and can’t get loans (which they can’t), then they will sell off assets.

You’ve already seen this economic effect in your neighborhoods. Garage sales, boats/cars for sale, increased activity on craigslist and ebay. People will continue to sell off non-essential assets (or liabilities) for better short term cash flow positions. It’s a natural reaction. Investments might be the last thing to go, but go they will. People always joke about hoarding cash under mattresses (which wasn’t much of a joke during the Great Depression), well right now, the sad part is people don’t have the cash to hoard. They sell off as much of their stuff as possible, and they make their mortgage payment for one month.

I don’t know how low the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P are going to go. But I hope it’s a quick ride down.

To be honest, the only investments I have to speak of are found in my 401k, which I don’t really care about. Call me crazy, but I’m young enough to make bad financial decisions regarding retirement. I hit my match on a monthly basis, and glance at my quarterly report. That’s all. I’m assuming I still have a 401k, and I’m assuming that all of the discount buying theories will hold up, and suddenly I’ll be rich. I like that assumption, but I’m not banking on it.

I minored in economics in college, and yet I never took “micro,” so if my title does not pass the smell test, well that’s because I have no idea what I’m talking about. My limited economic background is focused in education and development. My business specialization is in entrepreneurship and finance. My political science major (for some reason labeled politics at my institution) is focused on the power of the executive, and international relations/development.

And for a moment of product placement, I introduce you to MINT. Free personal finance software that ties in all of your accounts (checking, savings, loans, investments, credit cards, 401k, etc.), helps you budget, and looks for ways to save you money. It reminded me that I eat out too much for dinner and lunch. It also tracks the highest yield savings accounts and other ways to save you cash. I like it a lot.  It won the TechCrunch40 last year, and TechCrunch is one of my everyday must reads.

On a semi-fun, semi-sad note, I e-mailed Mark Cuban (yes, that Mark Cuban) to pitch him on my company. He responded within two hours. The e-mail response is reproduced below:

no thank you

all the best

m

So the fun part comes from a tech/sports billionaire, who has said in numerous interviews to do exactly what I did, following through on his promise and reading my e-mail and responding. He’s that accessible, and he’ll have an ally for life because of it. The sad part is, he said no. Three other venture capital firms have said no, and I appreciate that as well. Every other firm we’ve opened communication with has ignored us.

I’ll take a no. I’d be even more happy with a no that provides useful feedback. But being ignored by people whose job it is to find opportunities like mine, it’s really frustrating. If they all came back and said, “this is the most ridiculous idea ever,” it’d make my decision making a lot easier.

The worst part about this whole process is that we went out and did close to $100,000 of market research on our idea. The results came back so overwhelmingly positive that we had to give it a shot. People really like the concept of TheSportsRooster. I still believe it can be successful. But money is tight everywhere.

I don’t want to miss a chance to build a great company that helps people because we can’t get anyone to listen. We know it can work.

A bit more product placement: Digsby. It’s a desktop client (a program that runs on your desktop versus in a browser) that connects social networks, instant messaging, and e-mail into one “buddy list.” So I can use gchat, AIM, facebook (including chat), gmail, twitter, and more from the same program. It really makes my life easy. My girlfriend is on Gchat during the day, coworkers on AIM, a lot of business acquaintances seem to find time for facebook chat, and obviously i need constant access to my e-mail.

In conclusion, the market is scary, running a company in this economy is scary, Mark Cuban is an awesome person, Mint and Digsby are great programs, and TheSportsRooster needs money. You also know every class I’ve taken in college. Happy?

You can’t make this stuff up…

I don’t quite know what to say here. Iceland might go bankrupt?

You know, Iceland, the country. The happiest place on Earth, or something along those lines. This place:

The happiest place on Earth

It is pretty, I’ll give them that much.

I would love to visit, but they locked the doors and closed up shop

I’d also like to introduce Miss Iceland 2007. Her resume can be found at… actually I don’t know where, but she might be out of a job.

From Miss Universe Pageant

If 10 years ago someone said, “hey be careful investing in banks, you might bankrupt the country,” they might’ve been considered the stupidest, or funniest person on Earth. If that headline ran in any newspaper, it would’ve happened on April 1st. And now, I’m really not even surprised. I’m just curious. And I’m also tempted to take bets on whose next to go. You’d probably have a better chance of making money that way than putting it into the markets. Someone should look into the Swiss economy, they love banks. Super-secretive banks that get to be in all the cool action movies. And no, The Da Vinci Code doesn’t count as a cool action movie (although they do sneak a Swiss bank in there).

Dow Check: 3:25 P.M., -188 points.

Today has been a busy day for the world economy. Six of the largest banks in the world reduced interest rates in conjunction with one another. It is an impressive display of solidarity in the face of adversity. The Fed reduced rates by 50 basis points. It is a truly stressful time. If I were an executive of a failing (or failed) company, especially one being rescued by the government, I think that I would have to take a week off and relax before I could really dig into the problems. I wonder if AIG is hiring, because that’s exactly what they did.

AIG Guy: We need $85 billion to stand a chance

Government: You’re going to have to change your ways, reduce waste, yada yada yada.

AIG Guy: Of course we will… C’mon! Who do you think we are? Now give us the money.

Government: Okay.

$440,000 on a week-long retreat. That is awesome. You can’t be mad at that kind of audacity. The government now owns 79% of that company. Whoever authorized that trip KNEW that it would be days before we found out. And they did it anyway. That takes some kind of… something.

The Presidential debate went off as expected. 45 Minutes spent on the economy. Obama won in almost every regard, at least according to preliminary CNN Polls. He also got higher marks for answering questions directly. McCain wasn’t spectacular, and I don’t believe there is anything he can do to win the election. Unless McCain has a super-secret weapon to drop into the race,  it’s officially Obama’s to lose. If Barack stays cool, continues raising and spending money like a failed Wall Street firm, and doesn’t say anything ridiculous he’ll win. Unless of course, the country remembers that he is black.

I hate to say it like that, but it’s true and it scares me. A distant member of my family, a lifelong and staunch democrat admitted that she, “is going to have to vote for McCain because we picked a black guy.” Another quote, from an acquaintance, “I’m going to vote for the old guy over the darkie.” These are real. I wish I could say that they are isolated incidents, but I don’t believe that to be true. I’m not the only one saying this.

We really have to get over this racism thing. Everyone, through and through. Sexism and other forms of discrimination should be thrown out the window as well.

To the United States of America: GET OVER IT!

One of my favorite lines to parody, “If you don’t love America, you can get out.” It’s a South Park quote I believe. Well I’ll take it a step further/farther (feel free to enlighten me as to the proper use, I haven’t seen Finding Forester in a long time): “If you don’t love the people who make America what it is, then…” and feel free to add a colorful ending if you so choose.

If only my little old blog could permanently end this garbage, and in under 1000 total words. I would be happy.

I’ve really enjoyed the full coverage offered by CNN throughout this election. They have done a fair job of keeping things balanced. Their election website is thorough, and they’re television coverage is the most informative around. They must be paying a fortune for all of it. I have one bone to pick, and it’s an old one but I just remembered. Ever forget? Happened to me.

Leslie Sanchez is a republican strategist, political commentator, and advocate for women’s and Hispanic rights. I think that’s awesome. She has done and will probably continue to do an incredible amount of quality work in a multitude of fields. She has been working with CNN on this election. During the Democratic National Convention, the CNN pundits gave grades to speeches. Leslie Sanchez, if you will notice, gave Michelle Obama a B grade. It was the lowest of the commentators, but completely fine. What I found ridiculous was that each pundit was given about two sentences to describe what they thought. Sanchez said:

Is it the dress or what’s in it? Michelle Obama covered the key milestones but the image of her in a      cocktail dress left us wondering.

Thanks for the Insight, Political Pundit.. I mean Women's Advocate... I mean, wait, why are you on National Television?

A women’s advocate, given two sentences to describe or comment on the first truly national speech given by another women, and she goes after the dress. I thought it was wrong. I e-mailed Leslie and told her. I’m still waiting on a response. Maybe they should give her job to Miss Iceland. Or Miss Teen South Carolina.

That’s all I’ve got for the day, but I promise, tomorrow we’ll compare the economy to both the emperor with no clothes and bad plumbing.

Mr. President… Meet your economy.

Thank you Bernanke. Not that the market was doing all that well, but your speech hasn’t inspired much in the way of investor confidence. I’m happy that you’ve picked up on the worsening economy. Welcome to the party.

At the time of this writing (2:45 P.M. est.), the Dow is 211 points down on the day. It was up as much as 145, down as low as 340. The fed is going to buy commercial paper. Bernanke is being honest, which I appreciate. But I feel as though his mother never taught him the art of sugar-coating.

I’m not a financial analyst by any means. I’m a day to day operations guy who happens to love Excel. Yet three times this morning I was asked by various employees of my sister companies what to do in regard to their 401k plan and the market (Disclaimer: I was wearing glasses, which makes me look smarter than I am). I gave the run of the mill and hopefully correct advice of discount purchasing. I used this example:

If you buy 10 shares of a stock valued at 10 dollars, and the stock drops to 5 dollars, buy ten more shares. Your average purchase price has dropped to $7.5 per share, you now own twenty shares, and you thought highly enough of the company to buy it at $10. If the price of the stock rises about $7.5, you’ve made money on the deal.

Of course, I’m not so sure I’d value any company on the NYSE at $10 a share right now.

I also stumbled across an excellent piece by Jim Cramer. If you don’t know who Jim Cramer is…

He gets crazier by the day.

Cramer has been successful, and although gimmicky, Mad Money isn’t the worst show on CNBC. I really wanted to tie this article in for one specific sentence.

“Obama is a recession. McCain is a depression.”

Tie that statement in with this recent Rolling Stone article, reminders of the Keating 5, and the constant hammering of McCain’s own statements regarding the economy, and it’s no wonder why Obama has taken a commanding lead in the polls.

Whatever 24/7 news station was playing in my boss’s office has a countdown to the debate. I remember when the only countdowns on national television were for New Years. The super bowl picked up on the trend, and now it seems that anything that is scheduled and “newsworthy” is also worthy of a countdown. Anyone watching the debate knows what time it starts (9 P.M. Eastern), and if they don’t, there are recent technological breakthroughs to help find this information (newspapers, television programs guides, the Internet, cell phones, etc.).

Dow Update: 2:56 P.M., down 256 points

The economy is terrible. I asked a financial advisor friend of mine how you make money in this market. His response, “Double-short the Euro.” When pressed, he added, “They haven’t been hit with the worst they’re going to see yet.” He wasn’t confident in anything else.

On second thought, the debate tonight is countdown worthy. Someone needs to provide a glimmer of hope. I don’t really care who it is. The polls throughout the week will reflect who had the stronger showing, but I guarantee this much: It’s the economy stupid. I don’t think anyone cares about strategy vs. tactics. If McCain wants to salvage his campaign, it happens tonight.He has to be prepared to answer tough questions, and answer them well. He has to appeal to the middle class, which he has not done well.

Obama can win this election guaranteed in two easy steps:

1) Tonight, he must answer every question directed toward him. Beyond that, he must never veer from the economy. He should sound relevant and current. What do we do now that the bailout has passed? What does the Fed purchasing commercial paper mean for everyday citizens? How in the world are we going to fix the federal budget?

2) After tonight, ignore the attack ads. Mr. Obama, your dirty laundry has been aired. Ayers has no sway, neither does Wright. I always thought Reszko would hurt more than it did, but that story has come and gone as well. You should stay on the offensive against McCain, but on economics alone. You got enough credit in the last debate to slide on foreign policy. You’re winning. He looks desperate. It’s because he is.

“Obama is a recession. McCain is a depression.”

On an entrepreneurial note, I was saddened to learn that Uber is shutting its doors. To read more about the company failure, I’d checkout the TechCrunch write-up.There are plenty of businesses going under, and it’s incredibly easy to blame the economy. Uber is worth noting to me for a few reasons. They had clout within the industry, due in part to Scott Sassa’s involvement. They raised $7.6 million in Series B funding in May of this year. They had pretty innovative technology and a decent user base.

Uber is one of the 100 or so companies I check up on monthly. I tracked them mostly for their AJAX functionality within profile creation, but they weren’t really competitors so I stopped paying attention. What’s really nerve-wracking to me is that they were able to do all of the things we’re trying to do and they pulled the plug. With our burn-rate, I’m pretty confident we could fail miserably for 10 years and keep the doors open if we had $7.6 million. I’m sure most bootstrapping tech start-ups would agree with me.

What really happened there? And what does this failure mean for the rest of us? Venture Capital is already slowing way down (not enough exits, and rarely enough good ideas). Obviously credit is difficult, if not impossible to acquire. Web advertising dollars are not growing, contrary to the always optimistic projections of eMarketer.

“Web 2.0″ is very real. It’s also the most innovative and fastest changing industry around. It’s growing and learning from it’s mistakes. New ideas and technologies are released everyday. Companies want to monetize from the beginning.  Without the capital to get these ideas off the ground, I believe that we all suffer. I honestly believe that the technology sector is going to play a big part in this economic cycle.

Dow Close: -508 points

In closing, the economy is not teetering on the edge of a recession, it’s teetering between recession and depression. I’m not the only one who thinks so. This election is by far and away Obama’s to lose. It’s going to be an incredibly difficult four years for whoever wins. It’s going to be an incredibly difficult two years for the American citizen regardless of what happens. The technology industry is not immune, and this economy could severely stifle innovation on the web.

What had happened was…

Warren Buffett, one of the most (rightfully) honored and respected investors in history, said that the United States has been hit with an “economic Pearl Harbor.”

Going through my daily routine, and actively looking for something to write about, I stumbled upon that gem. It reminded me of this article, where a former fed chairman stated that a crisis was coming. It was written in 2005, but what does he know? I read a similar article in (don’t quote me) Newsweek or U.S. News and World Report circa 2005-6. It focused mostly on the housing bubble, and it’s imminent collapse.

I would bet that at least 100 of these articles were written between 2004-2006. I would bet that they crossed  the spectrum of news and media outlets. I would bet that 100% of Wall Street and 75% of main street had access to them. I was in college, studying politics, and yet somehow all of this news came across my reading list. And it didn’t relate to me in the least. I’d imagine that if I was an i-banker leveraged to the hilt, with the bulk of my assests in SIV’s, I would find this information. Perhaps from there, I would do a little independent research. I’d think of diversifying my portfolio. I’d think of averting a crisis for my company. Build up cash reserves and avoid any liquidity issues for 18 months of operations. I would see a huge potential for risk, and avoid losing my shirt. Buffet did, in 2002. Volcker got it in 2005. I was a little late to the party, but I got it sometime late ‘05, early 2006.

For a refresher course, see: The Long Johns, who can explain this whole situation with “silly i-bankers” better than I ever could.

I don’t think it’s fair to call our current situation anything near Pearl Harbor. Perhaps the USS Indianapolis is a more apt description. I am not trying to make light of one of the worst Naval disasters in U.S. history, but I truly believe it’s a better metaphor. Once the economy was torpedoed (housing bubble), the ship was going to sink quickly. Companies couldn’t scramble to escape the impact fast enough.

The biggest difference between in the two metaphors, in my humble opinion, is that with the Indianapolis, everyone aboard the ship knew that they were on a dangerous mission where things could go wrong at anytime. Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack. Some people at various levels of government had knowledge and intelligence, but it wasn’t widely known.

The economy had been teetering on the brink for some time. A lot of people knew, most ignored. Profits mattered more than anything else. And now, with billions of dollars being floated by U.S. taxpayers, foreign governments, investors, and anyone who has any money left to loan, I think it’s time we found the sharks and rescued the innocents.

The bailout will pass tomorrow. Enough posturing has been done. Noone is happy about supporting corporate greed. Noone knows if it will work (my guess: somewhat). But the House of Reps knows it’s the last group not to jump on board, and in government, it’s much worse to stand by yourself, right or wrong, than it is to make a collective mistake. And trust me (or don’t trust me, I’m not quite sure why you would trust me at this point), we need something to stir the pot sooner rather than later.

The intersection of life and reality…

I don’t mind that everyone in my office, myself included, eagerly awaits and read’s Greg Easterbrrok’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback on ESPN. It’s some of the highest quality sports writing I’ve seen, with a Page 2 twist. Highlights from this week include:

• Reader response to hypothetical question: What would you name the new stadium being built for the Giants and Jets. “Bryan Smouther of Hamilton Township, N.J., wrote, ‘Let’s see, it’s a huge taxpayer-financed project built on a swamp, serving the interests of large corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the average person. The perfect name: Washington, D.C.’”
• “Stop Giving to Harvard! Harvard University just announced it received $651 million in donations in the fiscal year that ended this summer. Harvard’s FY 2008 donations alone exceed the endowments of Brandeis University, Carleton College, Colgate University, College of the Holy Cross and Washington and Lee University, respectively, just to name a few great schools, and of the entire state university system of Louisiana.”

Now please understand that there is some bias here. I went to Brandeis University, after a lifelong goal of attending Harvard. The great institution deferred my early decision application, waitlisted my regular decision application, and then eventually rejected my waitlist application. At the time, I felt like my life was on hold, and it would be destroyed if Harvard didn’t want me. Now, I call it motivation. I have the rejection letter framed.

But he does have a point. I will give Harvard University alot of credit for making it easy for low income students to afford the school. Anytime there is a policy of “pay what you can, we’ll take care of the rest,” it’s hard to find fault. I still wish that tuition prices didn’t go up 3-5% annually at many universities. I still wish that many young people weren’t burdened with thousands of dollars of student loans. We’ve created a system where we rank great schools, those schools charge tons of money, and we explain to high school aged “young adults” that their best chance in life is to assume a large amount of debt to potentially make a lot of money.

I’m rambling a bit, but any discussion on education is worth having.

I love the reader submission on the new stadium for a multitude of reasons. In “current economic conditions,” a phrase we’re all going to hate (if we don’t already), it bothers me that large stadiums are subsidized by taxpayers. Throw in Personal Seat Licenses, tax deductions, and favorable property taxes, and what do you have? Teams that take in money hand over fist, are valued over $1 billion, opt out of collective bargaining agreements because they don’t want to pay players money, and increase ticket prices every year (I’m a dolphins fan, and the biggest complaint I heard from fans week one against the Jets was that season ticket holders had to pay more money to retain their seats, AFTER the team went 1-15….ouch).

I generally try not to reinvent the wheel, but feel free to read up on the new Texas Stadium.

Source: Dallas Observer - Everythings Bigger In... No, you know what, I just can't justify this, even in my own head

I’m really not sure about a few things:

1) Fantasy Football – I get the concept. I get the excitement…sort of. Rooting for the So and So’s Defense/Special Teams so that your Insert Almost Funny Team Name can have a better seed for the playoffs, in week 14 of the regular season, where many NFL teams rest their starters to get ready for the real playoffs, not so much. But betting money with friends and trash talking, these things have been around forever. They are understandable, and they are fun. I’m slowing falling victim, if only in the NBC Sports 100k Fantasy Challenge. It was free, and I get to pick a different kicker every week!

Rams Reyna/US Presswire - He Scored Like 20 points for Fantasy Players One Week!

2) Sarah Palin – I’m not sure I can blame her for this. She was quite content having never met John McCain and being mayor, er governor way up there in that big state that the “lower 48″ don’t really talk about. But now she’s here. McCain put her here. So what do we do? Type “McCain should have picked instead” into Google, and do a little light reading. It’s fun. I don’t like when the people supposed to represent me have “handlers,” which they ALL have. Hers are just much stricter. She has to be home by 9, where the lipstick comes off and her husband is scared (I’m assuming he doesn’t like dogs, mostly because he races snowmobiles and not the Iditarod). She hasn’t done well in interviews, and the “big debate” is tomorrow. I just wrote a little conversion piece between the two Veep candidates, but deleted it and decided to reserve judgement until tomorrow. I honestly hope that she puts on a great show and demonstrates insight into important issues. There is a good chance the republicans win in November, and I really want to believe that they can run the country if they do. I’m not putting any money on it, but I’m holding out hope. I will say that she better be up on the economy. She has an advantage in the energy discussions considering half of her husbands salary is paid by a foreign owned oil company. I guess whenever she argues with him, it counts as standing up to big oil.

Just finished Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Scary stuff. I mean, truthfully, incredibly scary. It should be required reading for any and all American Government Classes. Our own military no longer protects diplomats and high level civilians in Iraq. Well, they haven’t been for years now. The government, after paying to train and maintain a military fighting force of 1.2 million plus people in well over 1000 specialties, believes that a privately owned company can do the job “better and cheaper.” Really? They’ve paid billions of dollars to this company alone. Read the book. Read the book. Read…The…Book…