Gates, Crowley, Obama have beers together

Why is this headline worthy? Why did Obama even feel the need to weigh in and put in his two cents in the first place? Aren't there more important things to report about?

Mitt Romney poll numbers improve again

Congressional disapproval sinks to another low... Mitt Romney once again bests other potential Republican candidates for the 2012 nomination. A lot could change in two and a half years, but things keep looking better for Mitt.

FOX News Poll: 60 Percent Disapprove of Congress - Polls | AP Polls | Gallup Poll | Opinion Polls - FOXNews.com

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UVU selects an outside company for institutional reporting

Utah Valley University Selects Information Builders for Institutional Reporting
— Information Builders, an independent leader in
business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced that Utah Valley University (UVU), a state-funded university that is home to 25,000 students, deployed
Information Builders WebFOCUS BI platform for institutional reporting. UVU is using WebFOCUS to create an institution-wide reporting system that accommodates the needs of a variety of different departments and thousands of users.
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I don't presume to have all of the facts, but why did UVU use an outside company instead of having its own Information Systems students develop a similar tool? The school professes to be all about "Community Engagement" and a project like this would have provided a great opportunity for UVU students to become engaged in their field of study and work with other departments within the university. Not to mention, it could have potentially saved thousands of budget dollars. I'd like to know more about why they chose this company instead of using its own students.

This reminds me of when the school spent tens of thousands of dollars on new logo and branding when there are several talented graphic design students already at UVU. Perhaps some of the students did actually work with the marketing company on the project, but I'm not sure. Still, UVU needs to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to "Community Engagemnt."

UVU vs. BYU part II

This is in response to the comments made and I feel that I need to elaborate on my experience at UVU. First of all, thank you for your comments . btw - The study I read didn't focus on any specific majors.

My feelings about UVU are ambivalent. On one hand, I'm grateful for the opportunity I have had to attend there this past year as I wouldn't have been able to enroll in a selective enrollment university. I made the most of that year and earned a 4.0 GPA both semesters. On the other hand, I was in classes with so many students who accepted mediocrity, and it seemed that many professors were okay with that. Perhaps if I stayed another year, I would have seen such students weeded out, but my observations have shown that many of the programs will accept anyone and no system of selection is used. Where does UVU's business school rank in the major annual rankings? It doesn't rank at all. Its Accounting program isn't even accredited by the AACSB. The Information Systems program isn't part of the business school as it is at most other schools in the nation.

True, UVU does have a few great programs: Education, Aviation, Nursing, and Digital Media (I'm sure I'm not aware of others). But as an Information Systems student who is looking to have the best competitive edge possible (not just the highest salary) and who is looking to work outside of the state of Utah, BYU seems like the best choice so I will be transferring there in January 2010. As a sidenote, if it wasn't for my Information Systems major, my school of choice within the state of Utah would be University of Utah (as I like the urban atmospherere).

Another consideration to be made is that I went to UVU during the day. I know that there are many hard working students who work jobs during the day and attend classes at night. I'm sure those students work much harder at their classwork and are more motivated than many of the "kids" that attend during the day. Don't get me wrong, there are many day students who take their studies seriously; but I observed far too many slackers and do not want to be lumped in with them. If I knew they would eventually be weeded out, I wouldn't be concerned about it.

I will always be grateful for the springboard that UVU provided me in my academic career and I am grateful that I completed most of my general education requirements there rather than at BYU or some other school. UVU should continue to give students like me opportunities to pursue higher education, but I think at some point the Bachelor programs should hold a higher standard. I'm convinced that better opportunities will exist for me (especially outside the state of Utah) by graduating from BYU's Marriott School of Management than if I were to stay at UVU.

Mitt Romney ties with Obama in Rasmussen Poll

Mitt Romney ties with Obama and beats Sarah Palin in a Rasmussen poll:
click here.

I don't get too excited over polls, but Mitt Romney's poll numbers keep improving so that is a good sign.

Sarah Palin: Quitter

I do not understand Sarah Palin's decision to resign in the middle of her first term as governor of Alaska. She claims that she resigned to pursue a higher calling, but she could have finished her first term and have two entire years to do just that (if she were seeking to run for President in 2012). To me, it seems like merely an excuse as she would have only had less than two years to complete her term.

Palin also claims to be the victim of the media's double standard asserting, "And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make." Countless others finish their terms prior to pursuing a higher calling. She hasn't even officially announced any intention she has of running for Presidency and she makes it seem as though she is taking the moral high ground for making her decision.

What perplexes me even more are the thousands of supportive comments on Palin's Facebook page. It seems to me as though they are blindly following her as if she is some sort of political Messiah for the conservative movement. This underscores a concern I have that if she runs for President, many evangelical Christians will vote for her based on her religion and name-recognition alone without considering her record (or her propensity for quitting when the going gets tough). She could very well be a potential spoiler for Mitt Romney in 2012. The only consolation to this is that Palin would at least make Huckabee much less of a contender or split the evangelical vote, giving Mitt Romney a boost (assuming they all run in 2012.)

Democrats and unemployment

I just reviewed historical unemployment data, courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and noticed a few things:
* Unemployment has doubled since Democrats took over congress in 2007, with more than 6,000,000 jobs being lost in that same period.
* The highest unemployment rate under the Republican congress from 1994 to 2006 was 6.6 percent; with Democrats in congress, it currently stands at 9.5% and is expected to continue to increase throughout the rest of the year.
* Unemployment has increased by 25 percent since Democrats increased their congressional majority in January 2009.

Is there a direct correlation? The numbers speak for themselves.