According to USA Today, the Department of Education paid a commentator to promote “No Child Left Behind”. This is definitely not good for the Department of Education or Bush. If Bush knew about the payments taking place and supported them then technically this is an impeachable offense.

However, I do not like to jump to conclusions on these things. For one, it is not exactly known what part of the Department of Education the money came from and there are no specifics on who exactly made the payment.

Trent Duffy, the Whitehouse spokesman, had no comment on the issue stating that they (the White House) are not involved in the Education Department’s contracts.

It will definitely be interesting to see where this goes and what the investigation turns up.

There are 5 days until classes for the spring semester at Texas Tech University start back up. Am I excited? No, not really but I am ready to get back in the groove of having a clear schedule and having people back in Lubbock.

I was looking through my books (if you can really call them that) for Ethics and they are more philosophical entries on why people lie more than anything. If I have to write a paper on any of this stuff there may be some, if not a lot, made up. I think that is a pet peeve of mine, having people write papers over opinions and not facts. Then people get their grade back and some made C’s and others made A’s. Why? Was one person’s BS better than someone else? It’s an opinion paper, there is no right or wrong answer! Just give us the ‘A’ and move on.

I truly hate halftime shows and last night’s performance by Ashlee Simpson really sealed the deal. First of all, she cannot sing, everyone knows this, well, except her. Second, the song she sang was crude and poorly written.

Who chooses these people to sing?! Kelly Clarkson is bearable because at least she has a voice and her music is “rockish” but Simpson is not a rocker, no matter how hard she tries. I guess my biggest problem is that this is not what football is about. It is not about the teenie bopper kids who want to listen to the new “sounds”.

My prediction of the USC-Oklahoma game was way, way off. I thought that Oklahoma would come out looking to play and at first they did. Then the momentum shifted to USC and it was pretty much over by the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Oklahoma, in my opinion, looked much worse this year than they did last year against Kansas State and LSU.

USC saw an opportunity to show that they were the number one team in the nation and they took it. Does Auburn deserve to be up there with them? Yes. The BCS needs to be rethought and I would really like to see some kind of playoff, even if it’s a +1 type where two number ones square off and the third number one takes on the winner of that game. I really cannot see an 8 or 16 team playoff because of the length of time that would be added to the end of a season. Teams would playing into middle of the spring semesters and take away some of the crowds that attend/watch the college basketball action.

I had a ton of time to sit and watch college bowl games over the break and most of them I caught (though I missed Pittsburgh vs. Utah). The most surpising games of all were Texas Tech vs. Cal and Tennessee vs. Texas A&M.

I, as a Texas Tech student thought that Cal would come out with a win. Not a huge win, but maybe 7-14pts. But, Tech prevailed with huge plays and some horrible penalties on Cal’s part. Cal’s offensive show left a lot to be desired and proves that they probably would have been ripped apart had they played Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Their defense faired a little better but altogether they racked up 5 penalties for a total of 59yds. One of the penalties sealed the game for Tech as Cal’s special teams knocked down the punter on 4th down and short. The personal fouls are what killed Cal and though Tech’s defense was looking sloppy at the end they pulled out the win.

The A&M game was another huge surprise. Everyone expected them to come out with all of their “traditions” and put a beating on Tennessee. It wasn’t to be. Tennessee just flat out played harder and wanted the win a whole lot more than the Aggies. Tennessee shut down the run game that the Aggies were trying to pull from the very beginning and the overall performance by A&M looked horrible. I really do not have any respect for the A&M program as they seem to be full of talk but when it comes to playing they lack the punch to back it up. Yes, they beat Tech but it was not by a lot and was mostly due to bad defensive play by our team. We’ll see how A&M fairs next year and make a final judgement about Franchione.

The national championship between Oklahoma and USC is tonight and I plan to watch it. I think Oklahoma will come out strong and put a stop to the USC offense from the very beginning. As long as Oklahoma can keep Leinart from eating away at them they are going to win. My prediction is Oklahoma by 14.

After getting into Lubbock last night around 6:30pm I thought a post about the new year would be a good idea, but, of course my internet was down. It is back up now which of course, makes me happy.

I did not end up doing much for New Years Eve. I went to a friend’s house and played 90’s Trivial Pursuit. If you were born in the late 70’s or early 80’s this game is probably for you. Some of the questions I knew immediately and a few of them left me scratching my head (although it seems the girls knew them). We then watched the horrible TV coverage of the festivities. I have never been able to understand certain networks choices for who they have host a show (cough, Ashlee Simpson).

So, what are my New Years resolutions? I am going to take something that I read in American Soldier. Everyday, General Franks would take a note card and on one side write out the challenges that he might face that day. On the other side of the note card he would list the things that he wanted to accomplish by the end of the day. I am going to apply this to a year timeframe.

Challenges I Will Face This Year

• An overload between work and school.
• Dealing with “hard” people.
• Illness
• Choices pertaining to my future.
• Stress

Things I Will Accomplish This Year

• Make Straight A’s
• Apply for the 150 hour MBA Program
• Work on my organization skills
• Redesign this site
• Rekindle old friendships

That is all I have for right now. I am going to be posting about the bowl games (don’t forget the BCS National Championship tomorrow night) and other holiday things. I have a lot of catching up to do.