After reading some of the audits that were done on the U.N’s Oil-for-Food program by the former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker I do not understand why were are still a part of the organization. Oh, that’s right, we were one of the founding countries. It still boggles my mind that an organization that scolds the U.S. for invading Iraq, claiming we were in it for the oil, while they sit there and put money in their own pockets instead of helping the Iraqi people long before a war was necessary.

So who is responsible? Well, the obvious answer is Kofi Annan but I think that it goes deeper than that to the point where everyone who had an idea of what was going on with the program and how money was being moved from one pocket to the next is responsible. How the U.S. handles this and what they decide to do with their place in the U.N. is a huge issue at this point and I am interested to see what steps President Bush takes. I am guessing that he will welcome whoever is appointed the new Secretary General but be firm in his handshake to where people get the message.

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.