Pinkel and Nutt

Gary Pinkel is trying to join Houston Nutt as one of the greatest wasters of talent in the history of college football. Houston Nutt really didn't accomplish much with Matt Jones, a 6-6 240lb quarterback who runs a 4.3 40 yard dash. Pinkel has Brad Smith, one of the most athletically gifted collegiate quarterbacks of all time. Missouri is currently losing by 21 to South Carolina in the first quarter. Smith will probably star as a wide receiver for somebody in the NFL. That's the plight of the athletic quarterback. You usually have to change positions. Mike Vick somehow has managed to avoid that fate.

Explain it to me

I just watched a guy attempt to win a million dollars by somehow hitting a target with a football from 30 yards away. I wasn't paying that close attention, but I assume he was throwing the ball since Randall Cunningham was his coach. He could have been punting since Randall holds the record for longest punt in NFL history. Anyway, the guy missed. He was short. They gave him $1,000 just for trying and then the announcer said that the guy is a winner in every sense of the word. How? I just watched him lose at the very even this announcer is narrating. Did he not see the guy lose the challenge? Didn't he win the consolation prize? Maybe he's a winner in some sense of the word, but he definitely is a loser in the 30 yard ball throwing contest.

Has anyone noticed...

That John Edwards' oldest daughter is hot?

How much?

From what I've heard, the special session in April is going to focus on a proposal that is essentially identical to HB3 and another proposal to increase the business tax. My assumption, and I could be wrong, is that they'll look at switching to combined reporting so that partnerships would be liable if they have a nexus with Texas. That would provide something like $400 million in additional revenue to the state. That's something like $100 per student in state aid if none of that money reduces other tax levies. Increasing the sales tax will essentially result in no increased revenue because all of the bills include requirements that property taxes are lowered with the revenue. If that wasn't there, the state is looking at something less than $2 billion in extra revenue to play with. Reasonable estimates are that Texas needs to spend about $4 billion more on education in order to guarantee all students the opportunity for an adequate education. Not looking at revenue, the business tax seems like better policy because tax bills will more accurately represent recipients of state services. That's a good thing. An increased sales tax is probably not a good thing for most Texans. I will say though, Texas has a fairly good sales tax. The only real problem is that there is no mechanism through which to offset the regressive nature of the sales tax. That's why a state income tax would be a good thing. The problem with a state income tax is that it would be spent primarily as property tax relief. Why wouldn't the state use it to lower the sales tax instead? The property tax is deductible on federal income taxes. The sales tax is only deductible if the state doesn't have an income tax. The federal government will subsidize property tax payments, but not sales tax payments, so it stands to reason that people will be better off paying property taxes as opposed to sales taxes. Beyond that, the property tax is a very stable tax. The property wealth will be in the district regardless of the business cycle. There are certainly some problems with a the property tax and some people are adversely effected by it, but those people tend to cluster. Rather than providing general relief, the state could provide additional aid to poorer communities. The state could develop a circuit braker like the Homestead Tax Credit in Wisconsin. There are good forms or tax relief and they all start with a state income tax.

Damn it

How the fuck did I get a an AB in Cost-Benefit Analysis? I got a high AB on the midterm and a really high A on the big semester long project. Did my group disown me on our evaluations. I thought doing the actual analysis of the numbers was a pretty important contribution to the project. Was my final bad, or at least not particularly good? I guess I don't really care what my grades are as long as I maintain the image of a smart man. But, I do care.

UPDATE: I didn't get an AB. That was an error in submission by my professor. It actually was an A.

A real issue

Hey Democrats, if you want to actually accomplish something as opposed to posturing, there is a great issue in the world of welfare reform that you could take on. In the welfare reform of the 1990's, changes were made in the amount of child support that welfare recipients could receive. The states were now able to claim that support as repayment for AFDC support. Wisconsin decided to allow custodial parents to keep 100% of their child support payments. This is the full pass-through. What is happening in states that take the child support is that non-custodial parents are paying less frequently than before the policy change. The theory is that the, let's be honest, fathers don't see their payments directly going to their children so there is no incentive to comply. What Wisconsin has seen is that the fathers now pay at a much higher rate than before. The result is that needy families have more resources at very little cost to the state. Remember, the state is not forgoing any revenue due to the pass-through because the revenue wasn't coming in without it anyway. Now Congress is slow to codify a provision that would allow full pass-through and the feds are acting like they won't renew the waiver that allowed Wisconsin to experiment with the pass-through in the first place. Surely Democrats can get beyond a low-cost policy that has very real tangible benefits.

A touch of football

There was an article in the Austin American Statesman the other day with which I strongly agree. Vince Young has been acting like a baby over not winning the Heisman. As a fan, I don't care about his personal awards. I care about the Rose Bowl. When Ricky Williams won, we fans had just experienced a 4-7 season the year before and we knew that there was no national championship possible. In addition to that, he was setting the rushing record. That stupid fat boy from Madison broke the record the next year, but still. I could have run behind the largest offensive line ever assembled. Anyway, my point is that if I have a hard time getting too concerned about the awards that a quarterback wins. He has some of the most talented players in the country around him, who get no credit for anything. On any other team, people would be talking about Jammal Charles, Selvin Young, Ramonce Taylor, and that offensive line, as one of the most dominant running back/offensive line combinations in recent history. They have three of the four best running backs in the Big XII. The defense is amazing. The special teams are amazing. Everybody says that they would be 8-3 without Vince. How do they figure? They probably would have won out on some of those quarterbacks that they've lost out on the past few years. I'm not sure that not getting Vince would have cost them that many top recruits. I don't think they'd be as good without him because of his apparent leadership ability, not to mention freakish skills. But, God put him on the earth to quarterback Texas, so it's really a moot point. In an effort to finish up this rambling post, it's not clear to me whether Vince Young is a once-in-a-lifetime player. He's very good, but I could picture another athletic quarterback coming along at some point in time that has his combination of ability, athleticism, confidence, etc. I don't see another Reggie Bush coming along in my lifetime. Every generation gets one great running back, and he may be ours. He's what Barry Sanders would have been like if Barry didn't lose yards on half his carries. In terms of college running backs in my lifetime, he's up there with Barry Sanders, Ricky Williams, Bo Jackson, and Herschel Walker.

Bishop Allen

If you are on Myspace, there are new Bishop Allen songs available for your listening pleasure. I don't think you have to be a member to listen, but if you are a member, add me.

The War on Christmas hits home

Doesn't that asshole, Bill O'Reilly know that it is my job to bag on Madison. I hate the asshole.

In my whiniest voice

But I don't want another 5 inches of snow tomorrow.

Update: Okay, I don't want another 4-6 inches with the potential for more than 6 inches of snow.

Damn

As interesting as the expiration of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement is, I'm having a hard time working on my policy memo about that very topic. Who wins? Who loses? Those are fairly straight forward questions. Bangladesh and China certainly win. At least their textile manufacturers win. American consumers win. American cotton producers win. American textile manufacturers and their workers lose. Retailers win. Domestic clothing companies that utilize cheap imports win. African textile manufacturers lose. Some smaller East Asian states lose. India does well.

What do we do about that? We should compensate the losers from the resulting surpluses so that nobody is worse off, or at least nobody is in too much worse shape. Provide trade adjustment assistance to the domestic workers and direct foreign aid to the developing nations that are losing out. We should also consider allowing workers over 55 whose jobs are displaced by trade to take social security early. They aren't likely to find new, meaningful work in the remainder of their working lives. It would probably increase the efficiency of the US economy to get those workers out of the labor market.

Not a lick of sense

So Reggie Bush wins the heisman and Vince Young comes in second. That's not a big shock. I am surprised that 1% of voters didn't include Bush in the top 3. What three players are better?

Maybe things aren't so bad

Sometimes I get down when I think about the state of things. Strictly from a policy perspective, it's frustrating to watch sound policy consistently refected by legislators in favor of ideological crap. But now I have hope. if Heath Shuler is running for Congress, then maybe things can work out. If you don't know, Heath Shuler was one of the all-time great quarterbacks at the University of Tennessee. Before Peyton, there was Heath. Shuler was a horrible flop for the Washington Redskins in the NFL, but that's beside the point. College football is inherently better than professional football. Accomplishments in your late teens and early twenties are clearly more important than anything else in life. My only hope is that there are plenty of Tennessee fans in western North Carolina. Asheville is close to Knoxville, so that may provide him the edge that he needs to beat the incumbent.