Baracketology

How many stories are going to be written about who President Obama has in his March Madness brackets?  That's what I was asking yesterday, because the stories were out of hand.

Apparently I'm going to have to endure more, because not only is there reporting on who he picked, but we now are getting updates on how he's doing.  Eleven out of 16 on day one.  Who cares?  (And that's not so great by the way).

I know he likes basketball, but let's face it, he picked UNC to win the whole thing, even though their best player has missed three games, may not play at all, and if he does play, will not be 100%.  As Coach Williams (UNC) said, Obama picked Carolina because he attended a practice last fall, when he was on the campaign trail.  He drove to the basket, and the players let him score.  Or as Williams put it, "Tyler [Hansbrough] didn't take his head off."

Also surfacing is a report that Coach Krzyzewski (Duke) said he wasn't concerned about Duke not being in Obama's Final Four, because the president should be focusing on the economy.  It was a big enough story that Coach K's wife felt compelled to text the White House an explanation.

It's just plain silly.  First of all, Coach K is 100% right.  Second, Coach Williams said the same thing when he was asked about Obama picking his team as the eventual champion.  And third, who cares?  Obama isn't supporting Duke.  Coach K (a republican) almost certainly did not support Obama. They're even.

Is this going to become a regular thing?  Does President Obama have a fantasy baseball draft coming up next week, and will we learn who he picked?  Round by round?  And will the fantasy baseball standings be published throughout the season, so we can see how his team "Hail2the Chiefs" are faring?  Maybe Joe Torre will text him with a scouting report on how Russell Martin's (catcher) knees are holding up.

I realize that Obama used some "hip" methods to get elected.  The Internet is cool, so he used it.  March Madness is cool, so he's using that.  I'm not convinced, however, that our president needs to be (or appear) cool...at least not this way. 

I also don't believe for a second that he's spending significant time poring over his bracket.  I think he filled one out (who doesn't?), while sitting up in bed, and it took him about 10 minutes.  I'm almost sure (geez, let's hope) that the media is paying more attention to his bracket than he is. 

Political Points

• What mindset must Congressional members have to approve billions in spending on pork projects (a/k/a earmarks, to be known on this blog as "pork rinds")?  It's like they all say "no pork" until it comes to their own pork rinds, and then it's a different story. Nearly 8,000 pork rinds in the spending bill, totaling about $5.5 billion.  I heard a commentator say at least it is only 1-2% of the spending package, and it only covers the period ending September 30, 2009.  Uh-huh, but it's still $5.5 billion of our money.  Even if we wipe out the pork rinds beginning October 1, 2010, that's still $5.5 billion that could have been used for other things.  Or maybe that's just "extra" -- there's nothing broken in the country that requires funding.
• Al Franken has basically won Minnesota by 200 or so votes, subject to all the litigation Coleman is engaging in to settle it once and for all.  Sort of.  Coleman won't win this round, but he's got a few appeals left in his quiver.  It's been 4 months.  At some point, shouldn't he just lay down the sword?  Minnesota is half-represented in Congress right now.  I can't wait until Franken is seated, if only because the former comedian is bound to say something funny about the delay.
  

School Funding

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I know about statewide budget cuts in Florida, and everywhere else.  Explain to me why those budget cuts are hitting schools as hard as they are hitting other areas.  Shouldn't schools be insulated, at least somewhat, from the economy?

Perhaps that's why Americans do not have confidence in our place in the world.  We know -- because we hear it on the news all the time -- that our schools are slipping.  With each passing year, kids are getting less in the way of education, arts and physical activity. 

By the time they get to undergrad, it's too late to fix the problem.  Many undergraduate programs are reduced to video presentations in huge classes, or conducted online, with minimal little direct contact or feedback.  And that was before the undergrad institutions faced budget cuts! 

Why then are public schools suffering in the budget crunch?  Can't something else suffer disproportionately?  

In Jacksonville, school money has taken a back seat for a long time -- all the way in the back of the bus -- to the Sheriff's office.  We have a terribly high murder rate, so the solution is more officers, and groups of citizens writing reports about why this is happening to us. 

When I say "solution" I mean short term solution.  More officers make us feel safer.  Maybe, just maybe, it slows down the murder rate while we finish our reports.  It's just a band aid, though.  The real culprit is the Duval County school system, with a high school dropout rate around 50%.  That's not a new statistic.  Things have been bad in this county (and Dade) for a long long time.  Think maybe them chickens are comin' home to roost and showing up in the crime stats?

Maybe cleaning up education (see, e.g., obliterating the FCAT, the prep for which bores students to tears) would produce more long term benefits in the crime statistics.  But the current slate of politicians won't be around for that.  Won't get credit for it.  Band aids, on the other hand, sound really good on t.v.  Plus, we're all scared of crime.  If we're scared, we want it fixed.  Now!  Bad education?  That's kiiinnddda scary, but it's a slow kind of scary.  We can deal with it later. 

We'll delay production of bright, creative and motivated citizens, because we're skeeered of black people with guns.  Who's fault is that?

Maybe we ought to put ourselves in position to allow the U.S. to maintain (or re-achieve, depending on your viewpoint) its place in the world.  Hell, right now we can't even make a decent car.

Meanwhile the feds are giving money to banks for taking unnecessary risks, to bail out people who took unnecessary risks with their homes.  And a slice of the pie goes to the car manufacturers -- anyone who was born in the 70s or later could see this comin'. How is any of that money going to work its way back into the educational system? 

Soon we'll be too dumb to care.  And that, of course, is when we'll get the money.  Because the money goes to the dumb and the greedy.

Imagine how pissed I would be if I actually had kids!

Can't A Guy Catch a Break?

We finally have an African-American man with a genuine shot at the presidency, and what happens? He's getting shot down by his own pastor, who is also black. Is this just another example of black-on-black crime? I don't think so. I don't think it is his pastor who has the gun. It is the media, again. SO WHAT if his former pastor is an ardent racist, supports Farrakhan and considers America a terrorist government? Has anyone ever had a friend or associate who does not think exactly like they do? Of course. But on the public stage, Obama is spending all his speaking time distancing himself from the Reverend Wright, even though he is his former pastor and is not formally part of the Obama campaign. Perhaps I'm missing something in the pastor-parishioner relationship. Are all parishioners associated with the private thoughts of their pastors? Is the same true in academia? Are all students who get an "A" in a particular class associated with the private beliefs of their professors? Not that I know of. If all parishioners are associated with the private thoughts of their pastors, there are a large number of people from Catholic congregations who are associated with some pretty naughty priestly habits. Obama has sophisticated campaign strategists, and they finally told him to get pissed off, and cut all ties with Wright. I wish he would add "I cannot be any more emphatic. And I will not waste more precious time during this campaign, or the presidential campaign addressing the thoughts of a man who does not represent my views. Period." And then, actually follow through, by NOT answering any more questions. Ignore them. The problem, of course, is that America has to be told something five times before it starts to sink in. If then. There were people in Indiana interviewed last week who were still concerned about Obama being a Muslim. A year from now, they will probably think Obama believes the U.S. government will use AIDs to wipe out the U.S. minority population.