2nd Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Today marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As I’ve mentioned before, the blogosphere needs to put a spotlight on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Those folks just aren’t in the blogosphere and do not know how to make their voices heard online or offline.
Not surprisingly, the MSM hasn’t done a good enough job with this. I’m trying really hard not to pile on the Bush Administration (and the rest of the inept and/or corrupt Congress) but the complete disregard with which they are treating the Katrina aftermath can be chalked up to yet another and completely separate disaster on the watch of the Bush Administration and Congressional leaders.
As Time.com’s Michael Grunwald notes:
The most important thing to remember about the drowning of New Orleans is that it wasn’t a natural disaster. It was a man-made disaster, created by lousy engineering, misplaced priorities and pork-barrel politics.
So not only is the damage itself largely the fault of the Federal Government, but the ongoing lack of attention and slow death of one of America’s great cities and regions is completely the fault of the Government, with Federal, state and local officials all to blame.
Please take just a few minutes and check out this trailer from Robert Greenwald, who does fantastic documentaries. Please consider signing the petition or making some other kind of noise. Ask yourselves what you would do if this were your hometown.
As I’ve said before:
“If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention”
Congrats, Jeremiah
According to the trusty blogosphere, Jeremiah Owyang has just taken the post of Senior Analyst focused on Social Computing and Interactive Marketing at Forrester.
I’ve been reading Jeremiah’s great blog for some time now and I happened to meet Jeremiah just the other night at the Social Media Club event at Yahoo. Sure enough, I go over to read about Jeremiah’s new gig and find a picture of me looking goofy at the event.
So congrats on your new gig, Jeremiah, but you didn’t get my good side.
NFL Quarterbacks: The Toughest Position To Play As Well As To Evaluate
As I’ve noted previously, I’m intrigued by the strategy side of football. There are a few key positions in each franchise, notably a supportive owner, an experienced General Manager to run the business and football operation and a good Head Coach. However, the most important position in any franchise is the quarterback. A franchise caliber quarterback can mask a lot of liabilities in both the front office and elsewhere on a roster. Conversely, a franchise without a quality quarterback can have a great front office and great personnel elsewhere yet still struggle to win games. And winning is a major driver for a franchise’s finances.
Playing quarterback in the NFL is by far that hardest position in professional sports. Thus, franchises are willing to make enormous investments and commitments to secure a franchise-level quarterback. Take Peyton Manning’s 7 year, $98 million contract for example. When the Colts agreed to pay $98 million to Manning in 2004, the franchise was worth $609 million. As of August 2006, the Colts were valued at $839 million and the Super Bowl trophy Manning won in February has no doubt dramatically increased the franchise’s value since then.
Michael Vick signed a 10 year, $130 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons and that decision has come back to haunt the franchise. They’ll spend years in court trying to recoup that money and now are faced with the unenviable prospect of starting from scratch at that most important position.
But the Falcons should not be singled out for making that kind of mistake. Certainly, it was a mistake that was amplified by the size of Vick’s contract, but NFL franchises generally have horrible track records evaluating prospects at the single most important position. And that’s what makes the evaluation of the position such an interesting art.
Take Manning as an example. Coming out of college, there was a extensive debate as to whether Manning or Ryan Leaf of Washington State was the best quarterback available in the draft. Of course, Peyton Manning has gone on to win a Super Bowl, appears likely to break most all-time passing records and will go down as one of the best to ever play the game while Ryan Leaf proved to be one of the worst to ever play the game and one of the biggest draft busts ever. At the time, there were numerous NFL organizations that preferred Leaf to Manning.
Another consummate example is Tom Brady. Brady was a mere 6th round draft pick, meaning that every team in the NFL had at least 5 chances to draft his rights yet passed on the opportunity. In fact, Brady was the 7th quarterback drafted in his own draft class behind the likes of Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger and Spurgon Wynn.
The Cleveland Browns drafted Tim Couch 1st overall in 1999, passing on the opportunity to take Donovan McNabb among others. The list is mistakes is long and glaring.
But the list of mistakes does not end with the draft. Even after quarterbacks have been in the league, in some cases for years, teams still think they can “polish that turd” or turn around guys who fail repeatedly yet continually pass over guys who never seem to get a legitimate chance.
Damon Huard was just named the starting quarterback of the KC Chiefs but was out of football in 2001 and had not gotten a legitimate chance to start in the first 10 years of his career. Rich Gannon had been in the NFL for 10 years before he became a regular starter and eventually became the NFL MVP. Kurt Warner was out of the NFL and bagging groceries before he came back to the NFL and became the Super Bowl MVP. So the mistakes are not only numerous and glaring, but they are consistent and on both ends of players’ careers. I’ll blog about some specific players that I think are both overrated and underrated in subsequent posts.
More Football-Related Posts
With August being vacation month, I’m going to focus the blog a little more on football for now. I’ve gotten more than a couple of unsolicited positive off-line comments about my previous NFL-related post (I didn’t know I had that many readers) so I’m going to roll with it.
Given that I am doing some research about NFL information online (hint, hint) as well as preparing for my all-important fantasy football draft, I’ve got a lot of football on the brain right now anyway. As always, enjoy…
Why I Am Hooked On The NFL
Like a large number of men (and women), I am hooked on NFL football. Men are frequently drawn to the camaraderie and associative aspect of team sports. But football, in particular, requires an amazing synergy amongst all 11 teammates to successfully execute each play and when done right, the result can be not only entertaining but as elegant as a symphony. Add in the fact that this precision is being carried out by the biggest, strongest, fastest athletes in the world, add a large dose of brutality and you have a recipe for the ultimate attention suck for males. These factors are a large part of why the NFL has clearly become America’s pastime.
But there’s more than just the athletic on-field accomplishments that fascinates me. As someone who spent many years evaluating the relative health and prospects of businesses, I find the business side of the NFL as interesting, if not more interesting, than the 60 minute games themselves.
And the NFL is not just a game, it is one of the best run businesses in America and should be studied by business school students everywhere. The league has been savvy in signing exclusive media distribution deals that total in excess of $4 billion per year while manipulating supply and launching their own broadcast network as a competitive threat. But it is the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, which includes provisions for revenue sharing and a salary cap, that have created a dynamic where all of the leagues franchises are financially healthy and, in effect, competing in the Board rooms as intensely as they compete on the field.
Each of the 32 independently owned franchises, which range in value from $720 million (the Minnesota Vikings) to $1.4B (the Washington Redskins), generated an average of $30 million in operating income last year, but it’s how they manage their expenses and adhere to both tactical and strategic operating plans that directly impacts performance on the field. Because there is a set floor and ceiling amount that franchises can spend on player salaries, deciding which football players to employ becomes not just a decision based on athletic ability, but a strategic financial decision as well.
For example, Indianapoiis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning signed his last contract in 2004, a 7 year deal that averaged $14 million per year. At the time, the NFL salary cap was around $80 million per year, meaning the Indianapolis Colts had allocated 17.5% of their budget to one player. In this case, Manning was worth it as the Colts were able to fit pieces around him to win a Super Bowl. And even then, Manning has restructured his contract twice since then, using creative finance to lessen the salary cap burden on the Colts.
But if a team incorrectly values a given player’s value relative to the market, that team will be hamstrung by not only the lack of performance on the field, but a lack of flexibility or options in replacing the player or being able to address the problem. If a team severs ties with a player, they are still stuck with the financial burden of whatever money they’ve guaranteed in the contract on their salary cap. While everyone can appreciate that athletes are paid the big bucks, a contract also represents a given franchise’s commitment of a set portion of their alloted expenses to that given player.
Numerous strategies for personnel acquisition have emerged. While the Washington Redskins are known for paying high end prices for marquee players, those financial commitments have prevented them from being able to fill their roster with quality depth. A franchise like the New England Patriots has made a habit of not paying high prices in the market for marquee players, preferring lesser athletes who better fit their football system (although they’ve curiously deviated from that philosophy this offseason when they signed a premier free agent linebacker). Teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers adhere to a policy of developing young talent in house and locking the developing players into long-term contracts at what they believe will be below the market value by the time the player is fully mature.
And this is the reason why the NFL has become a year-round sport. The actual 16 game schedule is merely the execution of each franchise’s operating strategy employed the other 8 months of the year and it’s interesting to see which management strategies pay off and which don’t.
On Democrats, the Press and Dennis Kucinich
I’ve chosen not to pile on the Democrats sickening display at the end of last week. It goes without saying that they know that the Emperor wears no clothes, yet they bowed down to him as soon as he threw a childish tantrum.
Part and parcel to this display of leadership is this gutless “run out the clock”/”play not to lose” strategy employed by the Democratic leaders. So while “The Decider” continues his assault on the Constitution and civil rights, Democratic Presidential hopefuls are playing “he said, she said” and engaging in parliamentary election games of a similar nature. The press continues to follow Obama, Clinton and Edwards; Romney, Giuliani and McCain and hang on their every hollow word.
How about following Dennis Kucinich? Yeah he’s a little squirley and doesn’t fit the profile of a “real candidate” but he has bold ideas, wants to be a leader and is trying to get accountability where others are not. If the media were doing their job and giving voters all the information they need to make an informed decision, they’d have reported that Dennis Kucinich grilled former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the Pat Tillman cover-up. Isn’t that the kind of leadership we are looking for?
Only through the blogosphere does Kucinich get the credit he deserves (Hat tip: Media Bloodhound and Crooks and Liars). Is Kucinich going to become the President, likely not, but no thanks to the press who don’t give him nearly the coverage he deserves for having the right ideas and the balls and conviction to pursue them.
Bush Comments On Minnesota…Katrina Part Deux?
How appropriate that while I was putting together my blog post on Bush turning his back on Katrina victims did another disaster occur in Minnesota. First off, let’s compare Bush’s comments post Katrina and post Minnesota.
we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.
Minnesota Bridge:
We talked about the fact that the bridge collapsed, and that we in the federal government must respond and respond robustly to help the people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity, that bridge, gets rebuilt as quickly as possible.
Bush then went on to try to chastise Congress for not getting any spending bills passed. This stuff is beyond belief. Bush continues:
If Congress doesn’t pass the spending bills by the end of the fiscal year, Cabinet Secretaries report that their departments may be unable to move forward with urgent priorities for our country.
Didn’t Bush make rebuilding the Gulf Coast a priority? Should anyone in Minnesota believe that the Federal Government will provide assistance?
Bush’s mind-blowing comments continue:
Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in Congress want to spend far more. Their budget calls for nearly $22 billion more in discretionary spending next year alone. These leaders have tried to downplay that figure. Yesterday one called this increase — and I quote — “a very small difference” from what I proposed. Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a very small difference. And that difference will keep getting bigger. Over the next five years it will total nearly $205 billion in additional discretionary spending. That $205 billion averages out to about $112 million per day, $4.7 million per hour, $78,000 per minute.
I’m not sure where to begin. Could that $22 billion number be the $21+ billion that Bush threatened to veto for the Gulf Coast? But even more incredulously, is Bush not responsible for spending like a drunken sailor taking the budget deficit to record heights? Hasn’t the Bush Administration taken us into a war that will cost over $1 Trillion (Trillion with a capital “T”)?
I feel badly for the tragedy in Minnesota and for all the families affected, but the Federal Government shouldn’t divert one dime or resource to fixing the problem in Minnesota while the Gulf Coast remains in ruins.
Bubble 2.0? I Don’t Think So
It was inevitable. John Dvorak at PC Magazine says that Bubble 2.0 is coming soon. Nevermind the irony that this comes from a magazine focused on PCs. PCs are about as relevant as Web Browsers.
Acttually, on second thought, PCs are remarkably less exciting than Web Browsers.
The good news is that if people are talking about a bubble, it’s because the market is, at a minimum, very hot. And it is.
Dvorak’s article doesn’t give one solid reason as to why this is a bubble, other than the fact that there have been many bubbles in the past. In fact, a major comparison Dvorak gives is the CD-ROM bubble.
The CD-ROM bubble? If Dvorak thinks that Web/Bubble 2.0 is in any way analogous to what happened with CD-ROMs….more power to him, and anyone else that wants to believe that.
While CD-ROMs presented a new efficiency and form factor for data storage, that pales in comparison to the socialization of the Internet as a platform. The economic impact of the socialization of the Internet, combined with some consolidation of the television, radio, magazine, newspaper and associated media businesses is a long, long, long way from reaching any sort of top or bubble.
And if there is an inevitable correction? Great. But the ride up is going to be loooong and comfortable before that may or may not happen.
Bush To Tell Lousiana To Go Fuck Itself
No sooner did I write that there was nothing to blog about than did I come across this tidbit on Memeorandum . And yes, the profanity is called for.
As a former resident of New Orleans, I fully understand the dynamic of New Orleans as well as the entire region affected by Katrina. It’s well known that the area doesn’t have much of an economy or highly educated population (a major reason why I don’t live there now), but it’s not well known how behind they are on technology adoption. I’d bet that >50% of Louisiana residents have never heard of a “blog”.
That’s why I feel it’s important for me, in my humble place in the blogosphere, to speak out on their behalf. I doubt that many in the blogosphere have any idea just how bad it still is in the region to this day. There are still entire neighborhoods that are literally devastated to this day, and lack of progress has many current, well-off residents ready to bail out. We are seriously in danger of losing one of America’s greatest cities….again….and this time for good.
But it’s not just the lack of progress. It seems that the White House, which hasn’t vetoed very many bills over the first 6 years of the Bush Administration, has threatened a veto for the reauthorization of the $21 billion Water Resources and Development Act.
Among other things, the bill would authorize a 72-mile system of hurricane protection of levees and floodwalls to shield Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes from storms sweeping in from the Gulf of Mexico. It also would streamline project approvals within the Army Corps of Engineers, provide enhanced hurricane protection levees for New Orleans and green-lighted coastal restoration projects.
Why is the White House threatening a veto?
link
But the Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to Capitol Hill on Wednesday saying that the price tag is too high and shifted too much of the cost of new projects from local governments and onto federal taxpayers.
“This is not how most Americans would expect their representatives in Washington to reach agreement, especially when it is their tax dollars that are being spent,” OMB Director Rob Portman and John Paul Woodley, the assistant army secretary over the Corps of Engineers wrote.
Now, just to refresh your memory, here’s what Bush said in his national address from New Orleans right after Katrina.
And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.
Just four months later, Bush reiterated his pledge to improve the levees.
Bush praised the city’s success in getting services like electricity and water mostly on line, said new federal tax incentives will encourage businesses to create jobs and insisted stronger promised levee protection will make the city both safer and more attractive for investment. All those things, he said, will help turn New Orleans back into a “shining part of the South.”
Where is the accountability on this? Rather than spend the $21 billion fulfilling domestic promises and shoring up the levees, we’ll spend between $30 billion and $40 billion just shipping another, yes another, 21,500 troops to Iraq (estimate from John Murtha D-PA)
Republican (LA) Senator David Vitter said he was “stunned” and more importantly noted
I’m afraid the promise the president made to the nation in Jackson Square comes across as hollow today.”
For a Republican like Vitter, perhaps it’s a surprise that Bush is “all hat and no cattle”. I like cliche’s, and in this case it’s appropriate to note:
If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention
Brief Update
I haven’t been able to blog much recently due to the fact that I’ve been with family on a vacation in Calistoga, CA, the heart of Wine Country. It’s both beautiful and relaxing here.
There also hasn’t been too much worth blogging about. I was going to comment on the whole “Facebook Bankruptcy” issue, but that devolved into a childish pissing match among a number of the Interweb’s greatest self promoters about how popular they are and less of a real discussion over the proliferation of social networking tools.
However, I did want to comment on the latest political scandal involving Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. When I was choosing a name for my blog, I went with “Misunderestimated Again” only because it was catchier than something related to “A Series of Tubes”.
It’s really easy to suggest that I am just picking on Republicans, but the truth is….the comedy writes itself. You can’t make this stuff up and this helps to prove the old adage that truth is funnier than fiction. So while I’d like to laugh at Ted Stevens’ latest plight, I can’t because the truth is it’s tragic for both the United States and the American people.