Is there a way to start a specific application with a keyboard short cut?
As of Snow Leopard, this actually is built into the OS.

Launch Automator and create a service that receives no input from any application. From the Actions Library, add the 'Launch Application' action to the workflow. Select the 'Terminal' application in the drop-down list of Applications. Save your new service and then assign a keyboard shortcut to it in:
System Preferences -&gt; Keyboard -&gt; Keyboard Shortcuts -&gt; Services