NCAA postseason

Two stories here. First the NCAA will add apair of bowl games.

The NCAA announced Wednesday that its Postseason Football Licensing Subcommittee had given the OK to 34 bowls this season – two more than last season.

The new games are the Congressional Bowl in Washington, D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in St. Petersburg, Fla. The subcommittee did nix one bowl, the proposed Rocky Mountain Bowl in Salt Lake City.

The St. Petersburg Bowl. What an imaginative name. Couldn’t they get Tropicana to sponsor that, too?

Then BCS officials reject a playoff proposal.

Even a four-game playoff scenario was too much for the BCS.

Bowl Championship Series officials rejected a plan Wednesday to turn the much-criticized system for deciding a national champ into a four-team playoff, starting in the 2010 season.

The BCS format will remain the same until at least the 2014 season.

Great. We won’t know who is truly the college champion for six years.

And I do hope we have disputed games every year for the next six.

Filed under: College, Football, Sports , BCS, college football playoffs, Congressional Bowl, NCAA football, St. Petersburg Bowl

Government numbers – can they be trusted?

Dad29 last week posted a chart from the San Diego Union-Tribune showing inflation rates using different measures.

[Well, I was going to put the chart here, too, to save y'all some clicks, but WordPress is acting up a little with the media loads, so I guess you'll have to go to Dad29 or the Union-Tribune charts.]

While the article connected with the chart tells part of the story, this one from the St. Pete Times tells more. I summarize below:

1961, implemented a few years later, was that out-of-work Americans who had stopped looking for jobs — even if this was because none could be found — were labeled “discouraged workers” and excluded from the ranks of the unemployed, where many, if not most, of them had been previously classified.

1969, Lyndon Johnson orchestrated a “unified budget” that combined Social Security with the rest of the federal outlays.

Richard Nixon, asked his second Federal Reserve chairman, Arthur Burns, to develop what became an ultimately famous division between “core” inflation and headline inflation.

1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) decided that housing, too, was overstating the Consumer Price Index.

1990, “reoriented” U.S. economic statistics principally to reduce the measured rate of inflation. His stated grand ambition was to move the calculus away from old industrial-era methodologies toward the emerging services economy and the expanding retail and financial sectors.

1994, the Bureau of Labor Statistics redefined the work force to include only that small percentage of “discouraged workers” who had been seeking work for less than a year. The longer-term discouraged — some 4-million U.S. adults — fell out of the main monthly tally.

For its last four years, the Clinton administration also thinned the monthly household economic sampling by one sixth, from 60,000 to 50,000, and a disproportionate number of the dropped households were in the inner cities.

2002, the administration did introduce an “experimental” new CPI calculation (the C-CPI-U), which shaved another 0.3 percent off the official CPI.

2006 it stopped publishing the M-3 money supply numbers, which captured rising inflationary impetus from bank credit activity.

Filed under: Economics , Economics, inflation, M-3 money supply, unemployment

McCready-Clemens?

Hey, how about some sleeze?

From The Tennesean,

Beleaguered country singer Mindy McCready finds herself in the center of a media storm once again, but this one promises to be unlike anything she’s weathered.

On the line is the national reputation of baseball player Roger Clemens, as well as his defamation lawsuit against a former trainer who has said Clemens used steroids.

In a Monday front-page story, The New York Daily News reported that McCready and Clemens had a decade-long romantic affair that began in 1990, after he met the 15-year-old at a Florida karaoke bar when he was a 28-year-old married Boston Red Sox pitcher.

Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, confirmed a long-term relationship, but told the News it was not sexual. However, McCready later released a statement saying she could not refute anything in the story.

The allegations could be damaging to Clemens because his honesty remains central to his testimony about alleged steroid use to Congress. The implications of dishonesty about the affair could bleed over to his denials of steroid use, as well. “If you lie once, will you lie again?” asked Mel Antonen, USA Today baseball writer.

Slime all around for Clemens.

Filed under: Baseball, Sports , Mindy McCready, Roger Clemens

Would a gas-tax holiday help, or hurt?

From The Week magazine’s website

The gas tax holiday is a “stupid idea,” no matter who’s pushing it, said the San Jose Mercury News in an editorial (free registration). McCain and Clinton know that; they’re just “fishing for votes” by pitching a “bad policy” that sounds good to voters who are sick of watching pump prices rise. “The typical motorist might save $25 in gas tax during a summer, but have worse roads to drive on as a consequence.” Only in an election year would anybody think that’s a good idea.

Hey, I’d like to pay as few taxes as the next guy, but isn’t this largely cosmetic? Of course, one could argue that about many political proposals.

Twenty-five bucks is only $25, but it is $25. I might save more because I’m going to be driving extensively this summer (Yes, the loan is already approved).

And I haven’t seen a cost of how much this would cost and it’s probably not going to happen anyway, at least, not this summer.

How much of a dent would it really put into the Highway Trust Fund?

It’s still, most likely, a dumb idea.

But just like the Stimulus Rebate checks, I’d still take it.

Filed under: Economics , Economics, federal gas tax, gas prices, gas tax holiday

Another potential McCain VP?

From The Week magazine’s website

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has been touring poorer parts of the country with Republican presidential candidate John McCain, acting as an economic adviser and campaign surrogate. Fiorina, named the GOP’s ceremonial “Victory” chairwoman for 2008, is reportedly on McCain’s short list of vice presidential choices. (The Wall Street Journal) “We could do a lot worse than Carly,” said Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli. (NBC11.com)

What the commentators said
Carly Fiorina? Come on, said Shawn Wasson in the blog The News Junkie. She was a “failed executive” at HP, and “if she can’t run a computer company, she certainly can’t run this country.” If this isn’t a ploy on Fiorina’s part to garner “a little positive publicity for herself,” it’s clearly a “calculated move” to “confuse” the Democrats.

Of course, we saw comments like this at Sean Hackbarth’s also interview at The American Mind when she was in the area with McCain earlier this month.

But maybe since good business people haven’t done that well with the economy, we should let some poor business people try.

Filed under: 2008, Elections, Republican, presidential , 2008 presidential election, John McCain, Republican Party, vice-presidential candidates

Will they split the difference?

From My Way News – Top Michigan Democrats suggest splitting delegates

Michigan Democrats working to get the state’s delegates seated at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday suggested splitting them 69-59 between presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Clinton has argued that she should get 73 delegates based on the results of the Jan. 15 primary, which she won – 18 more than Obama.

Obama, who removed his name from the ballot, wants the 128 pledged delegates split evenly, 64-64.

The compromise, suggested Tuesday in a letter to Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer, fell halfway between the two proposals.

Obama would be well served to take this deal, as would Clinton. Clinton gets the win she can brag on, Obama doesn’t lose that much ground and delegates get seated, thus avoiding a charge of disenfranchisement.

Filed under: 2008, Democrats, Elections, presidential , 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Michigan

Quote of the Day 4/30/08

Jimmy Carter on CNN’s The Situation Room,

The basic problem [with] our economy, which is now very bad,…

The dude should know bad economies. I certainly remember his.

The video is here (You’ll probably have to watch a short ad first). The quote is about 3:30 in.

Filed under: Quote of the day , Quote of the day

“Blog n Grog”

That’s where you’ll find me tonight.

As Sancho says,

If you can find Waukesha on the map, YOU ARE INVITED!!!

I’ll be wearing my Tampa Bay Devil Ray cap.

UPDATE: Sancho posts the list of attendees at Hobo Springs, but I’ll put them here in honor of a blogger’s eternal quest for links.

Asian Badger, Silent E and his wife, Jeff, who made the suggestion of a very nice place, Mr. Ol’ Broad, Darryl E and his wife, Huck, Steveegg, and Clufter. Great time and I’m looking forward to the next one.and his wife.[Sorry, Lance ] another Blog ‘n’ Grog soon.

Filed under: Waukesha, Waukesha blogs, Wisconsin , Blog 'n' Grog, Neighbor Social Club, Vagrant meeting

Not another bowl game!

Trop could host newest bowl game

[The St. Petersburg] bowl would pit the Big East against Conference USA, and Wednesday brought new details, such as $30 tickets. (The Outback Bowl, with higher-level teams, charges $65). Tropicana would be configured with the field running from home plate to rightfield with seating for as many as 44,000.

Wonder what will happen if a punt hits the catwalks?

But wait, there’s more.

The St. Petersburg Bowl isn’t the only potential addition as proposals will be heard Wednesday in South Florida from the Congressional Bowl, which would pit Navy against an ACC team in Nationals Park in Washington, and the Rocky Mountain Bowl, featuring teams from the Mountain West and Western Athletic in Salt Lake City. Only St. Petersburg’s would be produced by ESPN.

Three more bowls. Great.

Filed under: College, Football, Sports , bowl games, Congressional Bowl, NCAA football, Rocky Mountain Bowl, St. Petersburg Bowl, Tropicana Field

More humor

Courtesy of Dane101

Good afternoon from Dane101’s Department of Better Living! We’ve put together some quirky, funny, and/or just plain bizarre links to brighten up your lazy Sunday. Click on each description for a laugh (or WTF?! moment)

I saw the picture and read one item and knew I had to link.

Filed under: Humorous, Politics , political humor