What the Hell is Google Mobile?

On looking at some Google earnings I came across some analysts talking about something called a Google Mobile service. So I delved a little further and came across this.

There is a new Google mobile service that Google doesn’t want you to know about. We’re not sure why they would keep it from you; it’s actually pretty cool. Google mobile "LCB" was uncovered by picking apart a publicly available file containing a list of all pages that crawlers shouldn’t be able to see. Essentially, LCB is an interesting move away from Google’s typical offerings. A "searchless search" in a sense, it allows the user to input a location and then browse through seven predefined categories such as Food / Restaurant and Entertainment to find a business listing. Once a desired result is listed, users can quickly and easily map the address and surrounding area.

This sounds a lot like a "Where should I eat" app that is tied to the GPS in your phone. I can see this as a great way for Google to collect local advertising money as restaurants and such sign up to push themselves higher up in the search results.

I would download this service in a heartbeat because sometimes I am in an area and I want to eat a plate lunch or something. I could just run this thing and it can tell me the closest plate lunch place and maybe pull up some reviews as well. Hell, you could have the thing pop up with the closest McDonalds and have it automatically text you a coupon as well if you check an opt-in box.

I think the idea is to get Google in front of as many eyes as possible and this Google Mobile is a very interesting new way to do it. I can see this service making money right out of the box and tie Googles growth right into the growth of smart-phones.

Googles Numbers Dissapoint; Although They Might Make Money from YouTube

It seems that ad spending is still sluggish even though they had a record quarter but this part seems pretty promising though.

Google also defended its YouTube video service. Critics have pointed out that the company spends an estimated $500 million a year on YouTube, without getting much in return. But company executives said advertising, such as pre-roll ads, were gaining traction and could soon pull the video business out of the red ink and into profits, Google executives said.

I can see those pre-roll ads as quite a lucrative commodity especially when some web videos have millions of hits. It would especially be cool if they can be targeted so that a funny cat running around is preceded by a Friskies ad or something.

I mean Hulu does it and it is not very intrusive at all. The only problem with Hulu is that the ads are exactly the same over and over. Maybe Google can change up the ads so you see a Friskies ad then a PetCo ad then a Purina ad right after it. As long as there is only one ad people won't be too put off by them.

Rafsanjani Comes Out With Pro-Protest Sermon

It seems that Rafsanjani has now picked his side and has come out forcefully behind the protesters by taking their grievances to the Friday sermon airwaves.

The cleric got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam's Prophet Muhammad "respected the rights" of his people. He said the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, "would always say that if the system is not backed by the people, nothing would stand."

For Iranians listening across the country, the weekly Friday sermon in Tehran is the voice of the leadership and a symbol of its backing by God.

This part is especially telling and should be pushed forward by anyone who is opposed to Iranian nukes.

Inside the prayers, worshippers traded competing chants with some hard-liners in the congregation. When the hard-liners chanted "death to America," Mousavi supporters countered with "death to Russia" and "death to China," a reference to Ahmadinejad's alliance with both countries.

A truly democratic Iran allied with the West will prevent a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. It is just that simple. I think it might be time for Obama to throw his weight behind a reformer like Rafsanjani rather then Khomeini and Almadinijoke.

Holy Crap! ObamaCare Bill Will Make It So You Can't Change Your Individual Health Insurance Carrier?

Yup it sure seems that way according to this. This comes from page 16 of the bill that probably no one has read yet.

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

So if you own your own business and buy individual coverage I hope you like it because you are stuck with it. So what happens if Humana changes some of the rules on you or raises your co-pay or something. You can't take your business to Blue Cross/Blue Shield because you are stuck with Humana by law.

Or you can simply enter the public plan and be at the whim of the same people that gave your the DMV and the Post Office. It is such a sneaky little way to get people into the public plan that it is ingenious. Freeze people in their insurance carrier and then force them to either sign up for the government plan or pay a 3.5% penalty for not having insurance. This one paragraph is a dagger aimed right at the heart of the private contractor industry.

Americans Don't Want to Pay To Fight Global Warming

I could have told you this.

With the climate change bill narrowly passing in the House, a new poll released by Rasmussen Reports shows that a majority of Americans - 56 percent - are unwilling to pay more to support the fight against global warming. Only 14 percent of Americans are willing to pay more than $100 a year to fund the cap and trade measure.

It seems that only politicians care about cap-and-tax. While Americans don't want to pay higher taxes on everything they buy just to maybe reduce temperature by a minuscule amount 20 years from now.

"Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Mainstream Americans say they are not willing to pay higher taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming, compared to only 17% of the Political Class," reported Rasmussen Reports.

National Black Chamber of Congress CEO Goes After Senator Boxer For Playing the Race Card

I sure wish more people testifying before Congress would tell it like it is like Harry C. Alford did. This is regarding Cap-and-Tax as well.

CBO Director Pours Cold Water on ObamaCare

I think this Elmendorf guy may the last line of defense when it comes to us not having to default on our debt due to insane costs. His words should make the Dems slow down and think these costs through and figure out how to pay for these things without raising taxes.

Explained Elmendorf: "In the legislation that has been reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs."

Even if the congressional legislation doesn't add to the federal deficit over the next years, Elmendorf said costs over the long run would keep rising at an unsustainable pace.

Americans Split on Health Care Reform

It seems that the idea that Americans are behind the Congress and the President on Health Care reform according to these polls. The problem with the government option is that it will eventually be the only option left. If your insurance company is crappy you can always switch them out for another one. Not so with the government plan.

On one key question, the poll found Americans split over the benefits of being able to buy insurance from a new government program. While 40 percent said they thought it would lower the quality of their care, 21 percent said it would improve the quality and 36 percent said it wouldn't make any difference. The rest had no opinion.

Health Insurance Doesn't Promote Healthy Living

Now this has to be the most wrong-headed thing I have read in a while.

But there's no reason to suppose that taking a tiny sliver of the incomes of the top 1 percent will reduce all that much of their ardor to invest, innovate, and hire in the future. Yet if this tiny sliver means affordable health care for a far larger number of Americans, who will be able to get regular checkups and thereby stay healthy and productive, the positive effect on the American economy is likely to be far greater.

What will reduce their ardor to invest and innovate is the the 8% charge that they will be hit with if they expand their business to more then 26 employees.

Also having health insurance will not automatically make people go to the doctor more often. I mean there are 150 million people with health insurance provided by their companies and they are still fat, still smoke, and still live unhealthy lives.

Even if there was a magic multi-trillion dollar single payer system; that insured every American so that everything was 100% free; we would still have huge numbers of fat people, people that don't exercise, and smokers like President Obama.

Our lifestyles are just so much different then Europeans and our diet is just 10x worse then the Japanese. It doesn't matter who is paying for the insurance we are still going to keep on living how we are living.

University of Oregon Journalism Department Wears its Partisanship on Its Sleeve

Is there any wonder why the Liberal Media perpetuates itself then this should be case in point.

The University of Oregon (UO), where I study journalism, invested millions annually in a diversity program that explicitly included "political affiliation" as a component. Yet, out of the 111 registered Oregon voters in the departments of journalism, law, political science, economics, and sociology, there were only two registered Republicans.

Now that is some real "diversity of opinion." I would be willing to bet even money that those 2 Republicans are in the economics department as well. Now this outburst might have come from a fired up Leftist student but nope it was from a professor:

He was eager to chat, and after five minutes our dialogue bloomed into a lively discussion. As we hammered away at the issue, one of his colleagues with whom he shared an office grew visibly agitated. Then, while I was in mid-sentence, she exploded.

"You think you're so [expletive] cute with your little column," she told me. "I read your piece and all you want is attention. You're just like Bill O'Reilly. You just want to get up on your [expletive] soapbox and have people look at you."

From the disgust with which she attacked me, you would have thought I had advocated Nazism. She quickly grew so emotional that she had to leave the room. But before she departed, she stood over me and screamed.

"You understand that my column was basically a prophesy," I shot back. I had suggested right-leaning ideas weren't welcome on campus and in response the faculty had tied my viewpoints to racism and addressed me with profanity-laced insults.

The problem is that this writer wasn't some Pat Buchanan clone but is actually not a Republican or right of center at all. He was merely advocating the liberal idea of diversity of opinion. He was a college kid promoting the idea of the free expression of thought. There was no call for such extreme behavior by people that are supposed to be educating him and his ilk.

I think the problem with the left is that they are just not open to any discussion or backtalk when it comes to their plans. All they want to hear is people agreeing with them even if they are wrong. If they are approached with facts they stick their fingers in their ears and storm out of the room like this hapless professor did.

It is single payer even if it costs trillions, pull out of Iraq even if we leave a civil war in our wake, or impose knee-cap-and trade even tough the Chinese and Indians will never sign on. If they got together and actually talked out some of these ideas they would understand that taxing small businesses during a recession will just backfire when the economy is tryng to recover. Oh well, I guess they will have to find out the hard way in 2010.

Rangel Version of ObamaCare is a Jobs Killer

It seems that the Dems in Congress are actively trying to kill off any recovery before it even starts.

Democrats claim these tax increases on the rich won't do any economic harm. They should read the work of Christina Romer before she became chief White House economist. Ms. Romer and her husband, David Romer, a Berkeley economist, have published multiple studies on the impact of tax policy changes over the past 100 years. One of their findings is that "tax increases appear to have a very large, sustained and highly significant negative impact on output." In other words, tax hikes are an antistimulus.

The jobs killing nature of tax hikes on small business is being touted by the White Houses own economist in her prior work. I mean she should know what she is talking about since Obama is her boss and vetted her.

It just seems like Congress sits awake at night trying to think of ways of keeping jobs from being created. I think if Obama is a 1 termer he has only people like Rangel and Pelosi to blame.

Intel Smashes Numbers; Raises Margins As well

Wow Intel had a great quarter judging from these numbers they just posted.

The Santa Clara, Calif. chipmaker posted an adjusted profit of $1 billion, or 18 cents a share. That is down from the 28 cents in the year-ago period but more than twice the 8-cent pro forma profit target analysts had for the stock, according to Yahoo! Finance.

I think that this knowledge will be the most important thing to seeing the stock go up tomorrow

Gross margins swelled 5 percentage points to 50.8% in the quarter as Intel managed to balance its high costs with lower sales levels. Looking ahead, Intel says it expects further margin expansion to 53% in the third quarter. The chip shop also expects sales to be in the range of $8.5 billion, that's well above the $7.8 billion Wall Street was expecting.

You would think that margin expansion would be kind of difficult in this environment but Intel was able to pull it off. I was also interested to know how selling tons of low margin Atom chips would do to Intels margin as well. It seems to not had much effect since they raised the margin by 5%. I think we might even see a decent rally in the NASDAQ tomorrow based on these numbers.

New ObamaCare Plan Will Fine You If You Don't Buy Health Insurance

Now we have the government in the position to penalize both employers and employees if they don't have health insurance.

Employers who do not offer coverage would be required to pay 8 percent of each uninsured worker's salary, with exemptions for smaller firms built into the legislation.

Individuals who refused to buy affordable coverage would be assessed as much as 2.5 percent of their adjusted gross income, up to the cost of an average health insurance plan, according to the legislation.

Yup, they want you to pay 2.5% of your gross income if you don't take some sort of health insurance. I have no idea how they will assess this fine though. Would you put it on your taxes or if you don't pay taxes then do you get a bill from the government?

Also if a person loses their job do they suddenly get hit with a 2.5% penalty on their unemployment insurance once their COBRA runs out? Or if the person is young and generally healthy and they want to use the money allocated for health insurance for something else they will be hit with a fine for non-compliance? Also what if you don't pay the fine? Do you go to jail for not having health insurance?

That 8% hit to employers sounds like a jobs killer right there. I can see some companies reducing their staff or making everyone a private contractor in order to not be fined and not have to pay thousands in insurance costs. Or they can simply dock peoples pay by 8% in order to pay the fine. Any way you look at it it is going to hurt small businesses.

Stimulus Bill Created Jobs! Each One cost $8.32 Million?

You have to be kidding me. The Stimulus bill that was supposed to rescue us from 8.5% unemployment has created all of 50 new jobs for New Hampshire only 37 of which are full time.

Roughly speaking, those 50 jobs cost the American taxpayer $8.32 million per position. If we calculate part-time positions as one-half of a full-time job, the cost per full-time job would be $9.9 million. At that rate, the $787 billion Porkulus package should generate about 79,495 jobs across America — or about what we lose today by 1:37 pm in new unemployment claims. And of course, all of those would last only as long as the stimulus money kept coming to fund them.

The sad part is that Obama is saying the stimulus is working as intended. I think it is just Hope and $1.50 in Change. That is all we will be left with after they blow billions on worthless "jobs" that will run out when the stimulus runs out.

Get Some Sleep Obama People, then Fix the Damn Economy

It seems that the Obama people are burning the candle at both ends and are not doing so well.

Obama is now testing the limits of his staffers' endurance. So far, there is a palpable sense of pride in the West Wing that treaties are negotiated, complex legislation is crafted and banks are bailed out -- all on very little sleep.

No wonder we have that weak-kneed response on Iran, the failed stimulus, and the cut-and-paste nature of the world apology tour. These people are running on no sleep and are probably making errors right and left. How can you be working on fixing the economy when you are doing micro sleeps, have poor judgment, and have mood swings from the lack of proper rest.

What is funny though is Putin can now say "I looked into Obama's eyes and saw red lids and deep bags. I can now run him!" I'm pretty sure Putin sleeps 12 hours a night knowing that his enemies are working their asses off just simply to "reset" things with him. Look for other bad actors and dictators to keep on wheedling these people. They will break eventually as all sleep deprived people end up doing.

Green Energy Initiative Fails in Austin

It seems that renewable energy is still not able to compete with other forms of energy without massive subsidies.

Austin Energy officials say that times have changed and that the nation's most successful (by volume of sales) green-energy program, which offers the renewable energy only to those who select it, might no longer be the best way to carry out the city's goals. It now costs almost three times more than the standard electricity rate.

The problem with Cap-and-Tax is that this three times cost disparity will be put right on the back of the consumer that cannot afford it. The rich won't feel a jump in electricity but the poor will be decimated by it. Imagine if your electricity bill tripled and how it would effect your business or your household. I still think the only interim solution is a close-fuel nuclear system. Any other solution will cost too much and cannot compete with coal and oil.

Netflix Could be Aquired by Amazon?

Hmm it made the stock shoot up but it would make sense for both companies to join forces.

But combined, the two would offer a very formidable combination. The reason is that while Netflix mostly offers older titles through its streaming service, Amazon offers all the new movies. Netflix of course sends out new movies via DVD by mail, but that service will one day go away in favor of streaming or downloading.

Another thing that could be a result of the pairing is that they can create synergies in their distribution networks if they consolidate with one another. That means you might be able to buy stuff on Amazon from an Xbox360 (maybe even using Microsoft points) or maybe from kiosks if Netflix decides to directly compete with Redbox. Also consolidating their fulfillment centers might make for millions in savings on shipping as well.

Holy Crap! We are Now $1 Trillion in the Hole?

Now that is one heavy debt load.

The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to nearly $1.1 trillion.

The deficit has been propelled by the huge sum the government has spent to combat the recession and financial crisis, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. Paying for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.

The funny part is that Obama wants to take this deficit and blow it out even more. Also the bad part is that $787 billion of that money is already part of a wasted "stimulus." I wish we could back out the money not yet spent and just split it up and give it to Americans in a cash payment. Maybe $2000 for each tax payer in monthly installments. I think most Americans wouldn't mind an extra $200 in each paycheck to spend.

Cats Actually Control Humans?

That sure seems the case when it comes to a hungry cat.

This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore.

"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex. "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom."

I Just Hope There Are Some Jobs in that Ass

President Obama shows he sometimes gets distracted at those boring G8 meetings. It seems his mind was on a different kind of "stimulus package."

The 10% Unemployment Ribicon

It looks like we are going to cross it soon enough but this article points out the damage it can do to Obama's plans.

Perhaps most ominously for the Obama administration, the job cuts are affecting voters across the board. Adult male unemployment has already hit 10 percent and is affecting most core Democrats — voters at lower income and education levels. African-American men are already out of work at a 14.7 percent clip.

I had no idea that it was this bad for Obama's core supporters. If I were the Dems I would would be pushing a real jobs bill as fast as I can. Not a job destruction bill like Cap-and-Tax or something convoluted as Health Care reform.

Especially given the administration’s earlier commitment to keep unemployment below 8 percent, further grim job numbers will make it more difficult for the administration to push for health care reform and cap-and-trade energy policy. If the tripwire is hit, many will question whether the president is spending adequate time on the deteriorating job and economic front versus longer-term problems.

Hell it even has the Daily Show questioning why Obama is fooling around in Russia and fooling with Cap-and-Tax with its new segment. That's Great Now Fix the Economy.

Blue Dogs Push Back on ObamaCare: Some of the Tax Ideas are Downright Scary

It seems the Blue Dogs are getting wary about the insane tax hikes that would go into any version of ObamaCare that is moving through the House.

"We need to slow down and do it right," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said outside a meeting of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 52 moderate to conservative Democrats. "It needs to do a much better job of cost containment" within the health care system, he added.

Other lawmakers said they were concerned about proposed tax increases, the rules on any government-sold insurance, and other issues that are key to implementing President Barack Obama's call for sweeping legislation.

This has to be the craziest tax to have come done the pike in years. I'm not sure how this tax will be applied or even if it is feasible. It just sounds like a lot of work for tax preparers for an extra $100 billion.

As an alternative, Democrats are considering raising taxes on wealthy investors to help pay for health care legislation, along with numerous other options, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The proposal to extend the current 1.45 percent Medicare payroll tax to capital gains earned by high-income taxpayers would bring in an estimated $100 billion over 10 years.

The scramble for new taxes to fund this monster is laughable as well.

In addition to the tax on capital gains, officials said other options include a fee on insurance companies or drug manufacturers, a plan to allow states to issue health care bonds, and possibly a tax on sugary drinks.

An income tax surcharge on the wealthy was also on a list in circulation, as was Obama's proposal from last winter to limit the value of itemized deductions for those with the highest income.

So we have a tax on insurance companies and drug companies I guess for simply being in business in the first place. We can have the states go further into debt (I would hate to own something as scary as a California State health care bond. *shiver*) Or Congress can simply tax Juice Boxes or "No Child's Drink Left Untaxed." There is nothing like paying for health insurance through your kids stomach. Or we can simply soak the rich with a surcharge or just rob the charities to pay for this crap like Obama wanted to do. That is ingenuity when it comes to Congress.

At Last I Can Praise Pelosi: She Strikes Down Michael Jackson Resolution

It is a rare day when I can say that Pelosi has done something good but I have to applaud her for this.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut the door Thursday to a resolution honoring Michael Jackson because debate on the symbolic measure could raise "contrary views" about the pop star's life.

Lawmakers are free to use House speeches "to express their sympathy or their praise any time that they wish," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "I don't think it's necessary for us to have a resolution."

I think Michael Jackson was a great dancer and singer but lets slow down when we are praising him from the Congress. He was a world-class strange-o that admitted to sharing his bed with young boys. I think House Resolutions should be awarded to people deserving of them.

Iranians Take to the Streets Again: Media Turn your Eyes Back to this Story

After waiting for the appropriate amount of time to let the US media get over their Michael Jackson disease (or I like to call it Vitiligo of the brain) they are taking to the streets again.

Thousands of protesters streamed down avenues of the capital Thursday, chanting "death to the dictator" and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said.

Turning garbage bins into burning barricades and darting through choking clouds of tear gas, the opposition made its first foray into the streets in nearly two weeks in an attempt to revive mass demonstrations that were crushed in Iran's postelection turmoil.

French are the World's Worst Tourists

I thought the Americans were supposed to have the top spot but the French are beating us.

French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant, according to a survey of 4,500 hotel owners across the world.

They finish in last place in the survey carried out for internet travel agency Expedia by polling company TNS Infratest, which said French holidaymakers don't speak local languages and are seen as impolite.