Linked

I'm not normally one to just randomly link to other news articles but i ran across a few today that i thought are worth sharing.

First, from MSNBC.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13924780/

When are taxpayers gonna wake up? I have 0 tolerance for whinny politicians complaining about the deficit when this kind of crap is going on. $435Million on credit cards....Wow. Thats nearly half a billion dollars. If this sort of thing happened at a company in the private sector the lawsuits would be flying faster than a 1969 COPO Camaro with the all aluminum ZL1. Too detailed? Well, Fast. Elliot Spitzer, the jackass Attorney General from NY would be dragging them into court within weeks. Gee, suppose he wants to be governor.

And then this..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13929959/

I thought this was a defensive action. I'm no expert, but when you enter another country with your troops i don't think you can claim a defensive position anymore. This Lebanon situation really puts the US in a bind. It wasn't more than 4 months ago that the Lebanese leader was at the White House shaking hands with the President. GW pledged support to the new lebanese government as an example of Mid East democratic success. On one side we have Israel who the US wouldn't dare not blindly support. Then we have Lebanon, Israels current target but also the US's self proclaimed “example of mideast democracy”. Don't forget, the US supported the inclusion of Hizbullah in the Lebanese government because we knew then, as did they, that it would be the only way the government would be legitimate.

Mark my words, 50 years from now Israel and it's “conflicts” will be the biggest story as one looks back on today. Not Iraq, not North Korea, not Iran. Our parents had Vietnam, our grandparents had WW Deuce, we've got Israel.

Now some business news..

Ben Bernanke has an uphill battle. Never mind that the previous fed chairman was given far too much credit for the US economy, Bennie boy came in during a pretty tough time. The US economy is moving forward at a healthy pace but we are also approaching an election year which means up becomes down, black becomes white and reality is completely neglected. Low unemployment becomes a jobless recovery..that's one of my favorites. Economist agree that full employment is somewhere around 94-96%. We're there today (app. 4.6% unemployment). But somehow that is still labeled as a jobless recovery.

Then you have jackass's like this guy...

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aDHF_YUEljiw&refer=columnist_sperling

Gene can't even call come clean on the simple fact that yes, supply side economics work. Tax cuts do increase economic activity (hence government revenue). This is a basic economic principle like supply and demand. Hmm..maybe the fact that Gene was Bill “Bubba” Clinton's TOP economic adviser has something to do with it. I still maintain that the '90's economy had far more to do with Bill Gates actions than Bill Clinton's actions.

Caroline Baum is a great columnist over at Bloomberg and she captured the Bernanke conundrum (to use a favorite Greenspan word) much more eloquently than I can.

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ah0Na9vIqqL0&refer=columnist_baum

For any investors out there check out Neomedia. It's very speculative but has some very interesting technology patents. Long term i think its a takeover target. This is a higher risk stock than i would normally be interested in, i typically take a value approach, but at 0.15 per share its cheap to pick up a few thousand shares and just forget about it.

Lastly..a little humor to lighten the mood. Ciao!

What's your IQ?

A man enters a bar and orders a drink. The bar has a robot bartender.The robot serves him a perfectly prepared cocktail, and then asks him, "What's your IQ?" The man replies "150" and the robot proceeds to make conversation aboutglobal warming factors, quantum physics and spirituality, biomimicry, environmental interconnectedness, string theory, nano-technology, and sexual proclivities.The customer is very impressed and thinks, "This is really cool."

He decides to test the robot. He walks out of the bar, turns around, and comes back in for another drink. Again, the robot serves him the perfectly prepared drink and asks him, "What's your IQ?"The man responds, "about a 100."Immediately the robot starts talking, but this time, about football, NASCAR, baseball, super models, favorite fast foods, guns, and women's body parts.

Really impressed, the man leaves the bar and decides to give the robot one more test.He heads out and returns, the robot serves him and asks, "What's your IQ ?"The man replies, "Er, 50, I think."And the robot says... real slowly,"So... is... your... party... gonna... nominate... Hillary... for...president ? ? ?