T.I. f/ Rihanna - Live Your Life

FRESH Mos Def - Life in Marvelous Times

First single off the Ecstatic due Nov. 25th

Bullet - Spaz Freestyle

Put your glasses on my ears and I started Seeing Sounds

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Bullet - Earth Girls

T.I. f/ Rihanna - Live Your Life Trailer

B.o.B - Hip Hop Saved My Life Freestyle

NEW Mos Def - Life in Marvelous Times [Snippit]

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Zion I f/ Talib Kweli - Temperature Remix

Obamanomics

Barack "Barry" Obama in 1979
Image courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

With most polls pointing to Obama winning the upcoming presidential election, I'd like to examine some of his main economic policy proposals.

Obama plans to "Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American families." On paper, this plan sounds perfectly reasonable: tax super-rich oil companies and give that money to the average American to help pay for rising energy costs. The problem with this plan is that it does nothing to address the question of rising energy costs in the long-run. With OPEC planning to cut production and Congress debating drilling in Alaska, taxes on oil companies will only exacerbate the problem by limiting their ability to invest in the exploration and development of new oil fields.

Obama also plans to "Provide a Tax Cut for Working Families" while raising both the income tax rate (from approximately 35% to 40%) and capital gains tax (from 15% to 20%) for families earning over $250,000. Interestingly enough, Obama doesn't mention the latter tax rate changes on his website. In simple economic terms, real wage rates are essentially driven by labor productivity. As workers becomes more productive, firms are able to hire more workers, pushing the demand for labor and the wage rate up. Labor productivity depends on a variety of factors, such as investment in human and physical capital. The ability of firms to invest in capital is negatively affected with increases in the capital-gains and corporate tax rate. In the case of the former, individuals are simply less inclined to invest their money at higher tax rates. The same is essentially true for corporate taxes. America has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, encouraging firms to operate overseas. So instead of "Ending Tax Breaks for Companies that Send Jobs Overseas," it would make more sense to encourage companies move to U.S. soil instead of punishing economically-sound firms.

Lastly, Obama plans to "Extend the Production Tax Credit, a credit used successfully by American farmers and investors to increase renewable energy production and create new local jobs." Simply put, U.S. Government subsidies for renewable energy production have been a disaster as of late. Ethanol production is extremely inefficient on U.S. soil and the last package of subsidies on domestic ethanol and tariffs on foreign ethanol have played a key role in the sharp rises in global food prices. This season, many farmers increased corn production for ethanol which in turn sent corn prices through the roof. This in turn sent prices for corn-based feeds (i.e. for livestock) up, pushing the prices of milk and meat up. Ultimately, federal subsidies for "job creation" and new technologies are not very effective. Henry Ford, one of the great technological innovators, was not subsidized by the government.

It seems to me that as inflation rises and the U.S. enters an economic downturn, it is essential that real wages are not depressed by government policy. The only way to keep Americans employed and for wages to rise with inflation is to allow for worker productivity to rise. Taxing firms and investors will have the opposite effect.

LA x Mr. Music - One Nite Girl

September - Cry For You

Alex Rodriguez x Madonna

"Rodriguez has pledged to back the singer's passion to spread the Kabbalah philosophy around the world. He has made promises to her to write a range of sports-themed books to bring the message of Kabbalah to young boys. Madonna has already brought out a similar range of books for girls..."

Who knew?

Matt Garza

Image courtesy of espn.com

As far as I'm concerned, Garza's 7+, 1 run, 9 strikeout, 3 walk outing last night was the best playoff pitching performance, ever. Baseball is a game of momentum and coming into Game 7 the Redsox had all of it. After jumping out to a 3-1 series lead, the Rays proceeded to choke away a 7-0 lead in Game 5, giving up 8 runs in the final 3 innings. Josh Beckett then out-dueled Rays' starter James Shields in Game 6 and all signs pointed to the experienced Sox taking the series. Game 7 started with a solo shot from Pedroia in the first inning and you could hear Redsox Nation breathe a sigh of relief. However, Garza would settle down, allowing only 2 more hits over the next 6 innings leading the Rays to victory.

Considering how young this Ray's roster is (Pena is the oldest everyday starter at 30), it's amazing how they were able to regain momentum in Game 7. Much of that credit goes to starter Matt Garza who at 24 is only one year older than rookie sensation David Price. It's also important to realize that prior to this season the Rays had never had a winning season, never mind making the playoffs or competing for the AL Pennant. The last pitcher to do quite that was Andy Pettitte, another 24 year-old, when he threw 8+ shutout innings out-dueling the Braves' John Smoltz in Game 5 to put the Yankees (who hadn't won a World Series since 1978) up 3 games to 2 in the 1996 WS.

B.o.B. f/ Rich Boy - Haterz Everywhere

Kanye West

Image courtesy of hypebeast.com

808's and Heartbreak. November 25th.

Jacory Harris x Duke Defense

Image courtesy of sun-sentinal.com

18/28, 185 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INT
10 carries for 53 yards, 1 TD

Jully Black f/ NaS - Material Things

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Yankees Prospects

Top 10 Yankees prospects with a chance of making an impact at the major league level in 2009 (in no particular order).

AAA CF Justin Christian

.306 BA/.357 OBP/.801 OPS
Toolsy OF with a little pop (6 HRs) and some speed (22/26 in SB attempts).

AAA CF Brett Gardner

.296 BA/.414 OBP/.837 OPS
Great eye (76 K/70 BB), blazing speed (37/46 in SB attempts).


AAA SP Ian Kennedy

5-3, 2.35 ERA, 89.0 IP
Only allowed 52 hits, 72 K/17 BB.

AAA SP Chase Wright

2-1, 2.41 ERA, 37.1 IP
Posted a WHIP of 0.96, striking out 19 and allowing 9 BB.

AAA RP Mark Melancon

1-1, 2.70 ERA, 20 IP
Future closer for the Yankees. 11 Hits Allowed, 22 K and only 4 BB.

AAA SP Phil Hughes

1-0, 5.90 ERA, 29 IP
Rough year for the former #1 pitching prospect in baseball.

AAA RP David Robertson

4-0, 2.06 ERA, 35 IP
20 hits allowed, 51 Ks and only 17 BB.

AAA SP Dan Giese

4-2, 1.98 ERA, 59 IP
0.97 WHIP, 51 Ks, 14 BB.

AA CF Austin Jackson

.285 BA/.354 OBP/.773 OPS
5 tool OF, with power (9 HR) and some speed (19 SB).

A C Jesus Montero

.326 BA/.376 OBP/.868 OPS
Future all-star catcher with power (17 HRs) and a decent eye (83 K in 525 AB).

Eminem

Slim Shady is back with a NEW book.

Инфинити (Infinity) f/ D.I.P Project - Где ты (Where are you?)

Usher - Hush

Jay Leno x David Letterman

Jay Leno and David Letterman make fun of Republicans 7x more than Democrats..

Nouriel Roubini

"On Sept. 7, 2006, Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at New York University, stood before an audience of economists at the International Monetary Fund and announced that a crisis was brewing. In the coming months and years, he warned, the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17pessimist-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Beno Udrih x Kobe

OUCH

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing."

-Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Kanye West - Heartless

Eminem - I'm Having A Relapse NEW

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Akon - Beautiful

Parking In Chicago

Will raising taxes on parking help alleviate Chicago's budget deficit?

Taxing goods and services with inelastic demand is the most efficient way for the government to raise tax revenues. Therefore the biggest question regarding this policy is: how elastic is the demand for parking? A study done by Wilson and Shoup (1990) argues that parking demand is relatively inelastic for irregular visits (i.e. tourists) but parking costs have a significant impact on the mode of transportation chosen by regular visitors (commuters). Given the high costs (gas prices) of traveling by car today, it seems to me that the majority of 'consumers' of parking are regular visitors--thus the demand for parking is more elastic than Mayor Daley of Chicago thinks. So not only will this measure fail to raise tax revenue, it has already substantially angered the public.

Naledge - One Lonely Beat

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Browns 35, Giants 14

Image courtesy of espn.com

No Antonio Pierce apparently equals no Giants defense. 454 yards of total offense for the Browns was the story of the night. Derek Anderson and Braylon Edwards were both due and both stepped up. Bad game from Eli, but there aren't too many quarterbacks (maybe only Peyton) who can overcome such a miserable display on defense..

Hiroki Kuroda x Shane Victorino

Image courtesy of latimes.com

Pitching inside is part of baseball. As are bean balls.

But there is absolutely no reason for pitches behind hitters on the major league level. There is a fine line between establishing the inner half of the plate and head-hunting. Brett Myers inadvertently crossed that line when he threw behind Manny. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, it is the responsibility of the pitcher (Chad Billingsley) to make sure it never happens again. If Myer's wants to make Dodgers hitters nervous at the plate, Billingsley has the right to make Phillies hitters just as nervous. Billingsley chose not to.

Unfortunately, Manny wasn't able to man up and call it a dead issue. Instead he chose to call out Billingsley for not man-ing up. It's easy to see why Manny would be upset but there is no reason to be calling out teammates in the NLCS, especially with the Dodgers down 2 games to none. It was a selfish move on Manny's part, but that's nothing new.

In any case, Kuroda took matters into his own hands when he airmailed an 0-2 fastball over Shane Victorino's head. Kuroda could not have handled the situation better. The pitch was completely harmless and everyone knew it except for Victorino. Everyone got the message; especially Victorino--end of story.

David Banner - When You Hear What I Got to Say

ALIFE x NaS

Courtesy of alifenyc.com

Maino - However Do You Want It

Ferrari California 09

Courtesy of Ferrari

Oct. 2 RIP Proof

Live Your Life RMX - Royce Da 5'9"

courtesy of 2dopeboyz

Clutchness

Career batting average with runners in scoring position and 2 outs.



Player BA Plate App.
Albert Pujols .329 582
Derek Jeter .317 1014
Manny Ramirez .314 1236
Vladimir Guerrero .305 844
David Ortiz .302 1654
Paul O'Neill .284 1084
Alex Rodriguez .274 1094
Bernie Williams .274 1162
Barry Bonds .266 1495
David Wright .259 379
Jason Giambi .249 942
Jorge Posada .231 867

I got 5 on my mind.

Guessing Game - Elzhi


Flow Boy - Royce Da 5'9"


Through My Eyes - The Game f/ Mars


Paris Tokyo RMX - Lupe Fiasco, Pharrell, Q-Tip & Sarah Green


Bullshit - Jane Doe f/ Talib Kweli