I always keep making the same promise to myself that I am going to keep up with this blog and then it just never happens. So with two weeks off for vacation and some good events I hope to stick to my promise this time. Here are the events that have been capturing my eye in the the past few weeks in no particular order:
Crooked NBA Ref:
This past week 13 year veteran NBA ref Tim Donaghy was named as having possibly shaved points in the NBA due to overheard wiretap conversations among Gambino crime family members. While it comes to no surprise to me that this happened, what does come to a surprise to me is that NBA officials had knowledge that Donaghy was betting big money on football games and gave him a stern warning. No pun intended on "Stern"! Why in the name of God would the NBA put themselves in this position? Anyone with any knowledge of gamblers knows that it is only a matter of time before this man gets in a big enough hole that the sharks are going to eat him up and make him use his job to help pay back his debt. Shame on Mr. Donaghy, however I think the NBA is getting off too easy here. Let me share everybody the trouble and tell you how the story will end. Donaghy turns rat to save his own ass, cries publicly and apologizes, bad men got to jail, Donaghy takes up residence in small town outside Madison, Wi. On a personal note I would like to find Mr. Donaghy, for I am sure he owes me at least a couple of hundred bucks.
Hillary, Obama and Fundraising:
While I do not claim to be a political genius at all, in fact in recent years I have been finding my self less interested in politics than ever before as we are fed the same crap by these clones that all sound the same. I do have feel we need to change the way are politicians run their campaigns and how and more how much money they spend to reach these powerful positions. I recently read in the paper that during the second quarter Obama and Clinton have raised 34 and 33 million dollars respectfully for each of their campaigns. Now what is troubling to me is over the course of the next 17 months or so we are going to be bombarded with bad commercials urging us to vote for the candidate who will do the most for the public, while the whole time they are wasting hundreds of millions telling us why they are better. I just can't see how this country can sit back and let this happen. Not while we still are no closer to rebuilding the gulf coast, poor people are dying over simple curable diseases, children are hungry and soldiers are coming back missing limbs and broke.
Call me an idealist, but what I think we should do is cap the limit a candidate can spend on a campaign much the same way several sports organizations have the salary cap. I fell we can kill two birds with one stone with this solution. First it will cut down the amount of candidates who get elected using money given to them by big corporations and then spend the next four years pushing through bad legislation that will keep those same companies happy and help the politicians pay off their debts. Remember there is no money in politics only greed and power. Second maybe we can allow donations to still come in, however you just donate to the government and not a specific candidate, this way the money can be used to help feed children and other good causes such as better health care for vets and rebuilding the gulf coast. How nice would it be to have one candidate with balls stand up and say this is my plan this is my goal we will have three debates and no bad commercials.
Team Continuum:
Once again I would like to let everyone know I am going to be running this years ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 4 as part of Team Continuum. For those of you who don't know Team Continuum is an organization that donates money to cancer patients and their families to help pay some bills. I would like to thank those of you who have already donated and remind those who didn't you can make your donation here by typing in "Maver" in the upper right hand corner. I am trying to raise $2,500 and would appreciate any support. Also if you have already donated don't forget to tell anybody else who you think me be interested in the cause. I am glad to report my training is going great and I am sure I will be reading to go come November. It is a bit of a sacrafice and tough on the body, but I really do believe this is a great cause.
See everybody again later this week and thanks to all the family and friends who shared Nathaniel's christening with us this past Sunday. We hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did!
1 comment:
I remember talking to you about your thoughts on campaign reform. I must say that its probably the right think to do but in order for it to become law, it would have to be passed by the same incumbent, wealthy legislators who are used to spending $2m + on their congressional races.
Basically they would have to vote to voluntarily take away their huge fundraising advantage over challengers -- something that isn't likely to happen.
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