Some cool sports action:
1) The Rockets get Artest. Huge move for Houston if Ron-Ron can stay focused. They now have three all-star caliber players in Yao, McGrady and Artest. Add in Scola, Battier, James and Alston. If they had one decent PG, I think they’d be up there. Put them in the playoffs instead of Denver.
2) Great move by the Angels to get Teixeira….with Manny-gate in Boston, gotta think they’re the favorite.
3) Locally, the 49ers are starting camp. There is some definite optimism with the hiring of Mike Martz, which should at the least make the team fun to watch this year (like a car accident). No, but there is some legitimate hope. The team has a crop of young players (Gore, Smith, Davis, Staley, Snyder, Willis, Lawson) who have shown some promise. They also have some solid veterans (B. Johnson, Bruce, J. Smith, Clements, Harris, M. Lewis, Ulbrich, Banta Cain, Heitmann, Jennings) who can contribute. For them to be in contention for the playoffs, they need some of their key young unproven and rookie players to step up. (See J. Hill, Ray McDonald, Kentwan Balmer, Rachal, D. Goldston, Terrell Brown, D. Baas
Some Political Thoughts
Biggest campaign issues–
1) The Economy: Check any news magazine, including the cover story of the Economist, this is an economic election. Housing and financial markets are going downhill, people don’t have health care, technology is expensive and most people are in debt. Keep in mind that the government is tapped out of options–the Fed can’t reduce interest rates and the government is running such a bad deficit that they have little money to spend. There are also a ton of longer term, sub-issues here such as our decaying infrastructure and deteriorating education system (see the following David Brooks article).
2) Foreign Policy–Determining a solid plan for Iraq is important, but it is one amongst many issues. The next president still needs to deal with a non-proliferation movement losing steam, a hostile Iran, a shaky Pakistan and a rising Al Qaeda (there was an interesting Economist survey on their presence last week). Obama, in his Berlin speech last week made a strong and important point that I hope he repeats as President–we need Europe to build a viable military force that can help deal with terrorism and human rights abuses. It is a bit absurd to expect America to cool down every hot spot in the world today.
3) Health Care. The people who have it find it expensive, but too many people don’t have it. This is both an efficiency and equity issue (popularized by Alan Blinder).
4) Tax Reform. Does not get pressed as a major issue, but tax reform is important. Simplifying the tax code could save some major administrative money and could become more progressive.
