Daily Archives: 09/27/2008

(Community Matters) In Fox’s focus group, Obama wins there too

(Community Matters) Thanks to the Senate for slowing this one down. If I’m not mistaken, we’ve recently spent $85 billion for AIG, $200 billion for the GSEs, set aside a $40 billion fund for money market mutual funds, the House has approved $25 billion for auto manufacturers (Michigan lawmakers vowing to push for $25 billion more next year), we’re spending $6 billion-ish per month on the war, and we’re about to spend at least $700 billion on trash securities. This is why undergrads shouldn’t take mom & dad’s credit card with them to 6th Street.

(Community Matters) Barack needs to correct our campaign’s tack and avoid the slippery slope we’ve been indicting McCain for taking. Disappointed to read about our campaign’s misleading ads here. We don’t need to distort the truth about the last eight years.

(Community Matters) Faux conservatives exhortations aside, Christopher Cox, Chairman of the SEC, has conceeded their failure to regulate had resulted in the global financial crisis. “The failure of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to give regulatory authority over investment bank holding companies to any agency of government was, based on the experience of the last several months, a costly mistake,” Mr. Cox said in his testimony [to the Senate banking committee].They are shutting down the voluntary supervision program, surprised that voluntary regulation doesn’t work. The SEC’s inspector general just released a report strongly criticizing their handling of Bear Stearns.

(Community Matters) I haven’t understood others’ comments favoring Bush’s speech. John’s helped me understand.

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(Community Matters) A friend who was with us during the debate watch tonight is a special needs education expert. At one point while McCain was speaking, she observed that he was using that special voice adults employ when lying to children.

Obama talks about the future; McCain talks about the past. Unfortunately, I can understand this from McCain’s perspective. His best days are obviously behind him. Wish he had won the nomination in 2000 but Rove and company demolished him in the Carolina primary by lying about his family and personal life. I also like that Obama touched on his humble beginnings, his Horatio Alger’s story, and reaffirmed his commitment to America’s middle class.

(Community Matters) Black Sand Technologies the newest member company of the Entrepreneurs Foundation. Met with CEO, John Diehl today to sign documents establishing their corporate foundation at the EF.

They’re a fabless semiconductor company providing wireless solutions combining analog and digital circuits on silicon. Backed by Austin Ventures and Northbridge Venture Partners.

(Community Matters) Center for International Business Education and Research Advisory board meeting today. Regrettably, I was only able to run in and out, participating in the most important part of the meeting, however, addressing McCombs School Dean Gilligan’s challenge to create an audacious goal for the school re: international. Super conversation and ideas from several really smart men and women. I had to leave before the conversation wrapped up but eager to find where it went and if my audacious idea gained traction.

(Community Matters) Good meeting this morning at Greenlights, hosted and organized by Matt Kouri, to discuss ideas around advancing social enterprise in Austin. EF launched this conversation several months ago, inspired by a challenge Austin Venture’s Joe Aragona made to me last year.

Sara Brenner and Amy Celep from Common Wealth in town for the meeting. They are the consulting arm of Bill Shore’s, Share Our Strength. Bill the author of The Cathedral Within, the very popular and enlightening book about society transformation and how we allocate our resources to effect community change.

Reps from the Glimmer of Hope Foundation, Austin Community Foundation, the KDK-Harman Foundation and RGK Foundation also attended.

(Community Matters) Wow, the Austin Business Journal is running a poll on whether or not the government should approve funding for the bailout. 56% No; 24% Yes & 20% not sure. No way to see sample size, we know it is highly skewed to businessmen. Results probably, appropriately, represent anger at any notion that we’d use taxpayers’ monies to bailout the culprits who caused this problem.

(Community Matters) Well maybe George W. Bush will enjoy the tropics if convicted of war crimes. here

(Community Matters)

check it out here

Hat Tip: Mark Salmanson

by the way, some of Barack’s positions:

• Barack understands that Israel still has bitter enemies. We see this every time a suicide bomber strikes. We saw as Hezbollah rockets rained down on Israel from Lebanon in 2006. And, we see it every day as Hamas fires into Israel from Gaza.

• Barack will not negotiate with terrorist groups intent on Israel’s destruction.
• The gravest threat to Israel today comes from Iran. Bush’s reckless foreign and military policies have only strengthened Iran and rendered us incapable of credibly responding to their threats. Ending the war in Iraq will be an important step toward achieving our goal of ending the Iranian threat. Four more years of Bush/Cheney failed policies offered by McCain/Sarah Palin only further threatens Israel.