NFL Lockout

The NFL owners and players agreed to extend the deadline for negotiations one more week and therefore averted a lockout. President Obama chimed in by saying that he would not get involved in a dispute between millionaires and billionaires when he needs to worry about Americans that are out of work and instability in the Middle East and North Africa. However, he does need to consider the economic engine that the NFL brings to cities across the United States and how it is woven into the fabric of American culture. I do remember President Clinton getting involved the baseball strike negotiations.

Charlie Sheen

Unlike what this guy thinks he is not #winning as he tries to say in his tweets. He is a self centered egomaniac who put the crew of Two and a Half Men out of work with his antics. Unfortunately since the show was about two brothers I don't know if they can continue it without him. I have been enjoying the comparisons of him to Gadafi.

APPA Leg Rally

APPA had our annual Legislative Rally this past week. I didn't go to as much of it as usually do but we had a few good speakers including Paul Begala and Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. Our National Conference is in Washington this year and I am looking forward to welcoming everyone back to DC for that.

Violence in Libya

The Crisis in Egypt is starting to have a domino effect on the Middle East. There have been protests and demonstrations in nations like Bahrain, Iran and Libya. Only problem-these nations are not close to pseudo democracies that Egypt is. In Iran they are calling for the deaths of protesters and Libya is actually doing air raids on the protests. I don't have a good feeling that these are going to go as well but to see this spectacle of change and people having a voice in this nation is impressive, the more they crack the "iron fist" eventually it will break.

February is dead month in sports

This post is just to state the obvious. After the Super Bowl February is the dead month in sports. There are no major championships until you get to March and the NCAA Tournament. There are, however, important college basketball games that start to separate the good teams from the great teams. The top four teams in the nation all last week and they need to watch their records going into the conference tournaments if they plan on getting an number one seed (not to mention they do not want to lose momentum). This will no doubt be a very wide open tournament this year with any Big East team having a chance to make a run as well as no clear top team. Even when there is a top team (see Kansas 2010) that is not even a guarantee. At least this month give us something to look forward to.

Down goes Egypt!

After days of protests and even violence at times, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally resigned ending 30 years of rule with an iron fist. We had a relationship with them as they were a democracy, however they were a "puppet" democracy.

It will be very interesting to see how this change of power plays a role in the future of Egypt and, more importantly, the Middle East as we have many foreign policy interests there and the stability of this part of the world is a huge part of the War on Terror and national security.

Overall, the events here were more fascinating than anything happening in Boehner World or in Richmond for that matter. I also hopes this is a turning point in the role of the Middle East in world peace.

Green Bay wins Super Bowl

As I predicted, Green Bay one the Super Bowl over Pittsburgh 31-25. It did not seem like there was a memorable play like the past few years that defined this one but the game was close and entertaining so I cannot complain about that. Green Bay was the better team throughout forcing three turnovers and capitalizing on a lot of opportunities.

Unfortunately, this Super Bowl will probably be remembered much more for the snafus than anything that happened in the game. Christina Aguliera botched the national anthem, 400 people were denied admission, weather, a not so great halftime show, and controversial commercials. Hopefully there will be one next year with the lockout looming.