Obama's Financial Overhaul: It's Big Alright

It seems the Federal Reserve may get some sweeping new powers out of the financial mess.

The plan calls for the creation of an eight-member financial services oversight council, which will be chaired by the Treasury Department and include the heads of bank and securities regulators. The council, which would maintain a permanent staff at the Treasury, will seek to fill gaps in supervision, coordinate data collection and coordination among bank regulators so that the Fed is aware of any emerging risks. It will replace the President's Working Group on Financial Markets.

I guess another layer of oversight won't be too bad for markets. At least all the heads of the regulatory groups will be on the same page when it comes to systemic risk coming from various sectors of the economy. These people better not be surprised by another bubble in the future.

The Obama administration will also seek to have managers of hedge-funds, venture capital funds and private equity funds, which have significant assets, to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so agency officials can examine their books.

One of these things is not like the others. What do venture capital firms have to do with hedge-funds and private-equity firms? They take pools of money and invest in high tech start-ups and have a 100th of the amount of money that hedge funds and private equity funds do.

Why does the SEC have to regulate small pools on start-up capital like this? All I can think of is so the Obama people can get in on the ground floor of any innovation by looking at the Venture Funds' books and then hopefully helping them reach their goals. In other words catch the next Google at the acorn stage instead of at the Giant Oak stage.

The Obama administration also endorsed the creation of a controversial process to unwind large, interconnected insolvent financial institutions whose collapse would cause a systemic impact to the markets. Conservative leaders on Capitol Hill oppose such an entity, preferring instead to revise the bankruptcy code to expedite restructuring through the Chapter 11 process.

There had to be some changes here or these mega-companies will always end up unwinding using taxpayer money and bailouts instead of some mechanism already in place. Hopefully it will just be financial companies because the idea of the Fed winding down any large company that "creates a systemic risk" will be scary.

The OTS will become part of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency to create a new new "National Bank Supervisor," that Obama argues will curtail the problem of financial institutions shopping for the regulator of their choice.

I think this should have been done decades ago. The idea that there were so many regulators doing essentially the same thing but under different names was asinine.

The CFPA (Consumer Products Safety Commission,) an independent agency, will write rules for banks and other institutions that limits what kind of mortgage products they can make available for consumers.

The proposal seeks to expand disclosure responsibilities by requiring lenders to define standard mortgage products and promote these along with all other legal products they choose to offer.

This should prevent another mortgage meltdown. Hopefully this group will make mortgages as easy to understand as any other consumer product. In other words give the home buyer as much information that they need as clearly as possible so they won't sign some document that they don't understand.

The senior administration official said Obama will call for issuers of complex mortgage-backed securities and other similar financial products to be required to have a 5% unhedged stake in the securities they market.

I guess this is the eat what your cooking provision. I think they should also put some mechanism in place that tracks the slices of mortgage and what security contains that slice. I mean Bloomberg would have the technological chops to do something like that.

Obama's proposal is expected to seek additional requirements for credit-rating agencies, considered a key contributor to the financial crisis because of their high ratings for a wide-range of securitized subprime mortgages.

Specifically, the proposal is expected to require agencies to differentiate between structured products, such as securitized mortgages, and unstructured debt products, such as corporate bonds. Details about risks associated with ratings, methodologies and non-public rating data will need to be disclosed in an easy-to-understand manner.

Credit rating agencies will also need to disclose their performance measures for structured products so buyers of ratings can better compare agencies. Finally, the proposal seeks to have regulators reduce their own reliance on credit ratings.

Now this is the reform that if enacted even 5 years ago would have stopped the mortgage market meltdown in its tracks. These agencies saying that a bundle of subprime mortgages were actually AAA just because they were mixed in with good mortgages was criminal. The idea that they made more money from grading these things was even worse. I would support the idea that these agencies are either folded into the FED or must work as nonprofit entities to avoid these kinds of conflicts of interest.

The official said there would be comprehensive regulation for credit default swaps, considered a key contributor to the financial crisis. He said that tailored CDS products sold on the opaque over-the-counter market will have higher capital standards and they will not be marketed to unsophisticated investors.

This is another thing that should have been enacted 5 years ago and I still marvel that a multi-trillion dollar market had no regulation at all.

The administration proposed the creation of an Office of National Insurance within the Treasury Department, which will seek to provide the department with information abut the insurance sector. The white paper also seeks the establishment of additional oversight for insurance holding companies and activities likely to pose systemic risks.

Hopefully this will supercede the 50 different insurance agencies and their stupid-assed requirements. Also having one regulator instead of 50 improves information gathering as far as insurance companies are concerned.

The Face of of Iranian Change? I Sure Hope So

Now this is one good looking Iranian woman! She looks just like Mila Kunis but hotter. From Getty Images.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri Blasts Election Results

Wow, now this is some seriously strong words from one of their highest ranking clerics.

"No one in their right mind can believe" the official results from Friday's contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi's charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers "in the worst way possible."

"A government not respecting people's vote has no religious or political legitimacy," he declared in comments on his official Web site. "I ask the police and army personals (personnel) not to 'sell their religion,' and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God."

Too bad they can't they get this guy in charge instead of Ayatollah Khamenei. He seems like a fairly reasonable person at least from these remarks. Maybe his faction will dominate the Guardian Council in the near future and the pragmatists rather then the hardliners will rule in Iran. Now that would be a development that would be great for the Iranian people and the world as a whole.

Come to think of it this Ayatollah Montazeri has the possibility to make himself into a great man of history like Cyrus the Great or Darius if he can change Iran from an anti-Israel, atomic pariah, that blows their cash on terrorist adventures, into the Mighty Persian Lion.

Imagine the power of a country with 1/3rd of the worlds oil and 75% of their populace under 30. They have a potential to be the so-called Lion of the Middle East if they use that capital wisely. Their oil wealth can easily fund the best universities in the world with the best faculty and make it free for all Iranians. The idea of Tehran University and MIT or Harvard mentioned in the same sentence might actually be possible if these pragmatists gain the upper hand.

More Democrats Blame Jews for The Financial Meltdown?

Now this should make Jewish Americans kind of wary of wholeheartedly supporting Democrats in the future.

But what the Stanford and Columbia academics find “somewhat surprising” is the partisan breakdown among the American public: “Democrats were especially prone to blaming Jews: while 32 percent of Democrats accorded at least moderate blame, only 18.4 percent of Republicans did so (a statistically significant difference).” Why is this surprising? Because of “the presumed higher degree of racial tolerance among liberals and the fact that Jews are a central part of the Democratic Party’s electoral coalition.”

I wonder why so many Dems are blaming Jews like this? It might be from the poisoned well of victimhood that many on the left drink from. You can't blame the poor homebuyer who signed these interest only, jumbo, balloon payment loans for a McMansion they couldn't afford. Instead it is far easier to blame some shady Jewish Banking Cartel for duping these poor innocents to the tune of big profits.

It is much like the Truthers blame the Bush administration for pulling off the most complicated and difficult conspiracies of all time on 9/11 instead of simply blaming 19 terrorists and their Al-Quida masters. They just can't fathom how some basic Muslim nutjobs from the Middle East can pull off such a terrible attack on our nation.

The financial crisis has all sorts of moving parts and may have been 30-some years in the making just like the buildup to 9/11 had been festering since the 1980s. Instead of the complicated analysis that is really needed to tell the culprits from the scapegoats the Left falls back to the quickie culprits of Bush and the Jewish Bankers.

How do you Help the Iranian Protestors on Twitter?

Well it seems pretty easy for the most part. I have no idea why the Mullahs would even try to block this is a big waste of time. It must be like trying the catch water with a net. I did #4 already everyone should stand for these Iranian protesters:

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP's over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don't retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become 'Iranians' it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don't blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don't publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don't signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind...

Obamacare Draws Boos from Doctors

It seems that doctors might not be as onboard with Obamacare as he might think.

The boos erupted when Obama told the doctors in Chicago he wouldn't try to help them win their top legislative priority — limits on jury damages in medical malpractice cases.

But what could they expect? If Obama announced support for malpractice limits, that would set trial lawyers and unions — major supporters of Democratic candidates — on the attack. Not to mention consumer groups.

Every other group in the health care debate has a wish list and a top priority. Insurers don't want competition from the government. Employers don't want to be told they have to offer medical coverage to their workers. Hospitals want to stave off Medicare cuts. Drug companies want to charge what the market will bear.

Yup one thing about healthcare is that you have to throw one powerful group or another under the bus in order for Obamacare to succeed. We either cut doctors pay, add millions in new costs to small businesses, reduce some hospitals financial viability, or cut off the innovation coming from our drug sector.

Plus we might still have to pay $1.5 trillion extra over the next 10 years in order to get these 46 million people insured. Actually if we didn't blow $700 billion on that worthless stimulus bill we would be most of the way to the goal. Well, the battle will be epic but I would be willing to bet the result will be luke-warm and half-assed like the stimulus bill.

Also what the hell is the big rush to get this thing done by August? With Iran and North Korea getting huge on the world stage we should put this off until next year. I think the idea of a democratic Iran and a North Korea free of nukes is much more important then messing around with something that can easily wait until the economy is getting better.

Supreme Leader of Iran Calls for Unity after Staging Rally

Well, don't rig the elections and people might actually unify behind you Mullahs.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to unite behind the cleric-led ruling system despite the rival demonstrations and street clashes, state television reported, and he said representatives of all four candidates should be present for any limited recount of disputed ballots.

What they need to do is just rule from behind the throne a little more effectively. In other words if you rig an election make it look like you didn't rig the election. So fake counting and having the reform candidate losing his home town just doesn't wash in the Internet age. People aren't idiots anymore and they are armed with Twitter and cellphone cameras now.

So in other words you have to actually go through the motions to buffalo people. That means fake counting the votes will take even more time then it did in the past. That means the reform candidate needs to win the cities and lose the rest of the country.

Hell, you can even have a disputed election that has a bunch of recounts with the Guardian Council finally finding for Ahmadinejoke in order to "preserve the stability of the Islamic Republic." It is a little like when Bush ran against Gore but with fewer hanging chads. Although the idea of a Mullah with his black turban peering over his glasses through a ballot would be deja vu all over again.

Obama States the Obvious on North Korea

Some strong words issued by Obama regarding North Korea.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that a nuclear-armed North Korea poses a "grave threat" to the world, and he vowed to end a cycle of allowing Pyongyang to create crises and then be rewarded with incentives to back down.

"This is a pattern they've come to expect," Obama said. "We are going to break that pattern."

What is the plan anyway? Just jawbone until North Korea nukes Tokyo then condemn it in the strongest possible terms? I think Obama needs to say an attack by North Korea on any ally in the area will be met with the destruction of the North Korean regime. I other words bang the table and rattle the saber a little to show your allies you mean business.

HuffPo Liveblogs the Iranian Uprising

I rarely agree with very much on HuffPo but this stolen Iranian Election is a true bipartisan issue and they should be lauded for their coverage. Instipudit has also made their banner green. This might be the last, best hope for a peaceful Iran without the bomb. I understand Obama moving slowly so the protesters won't be massacred and painted as "tools of the Hated Americans" but the American people at large should be 100% behind these protesters. (Man that alot of people)

Obama's Silence on Irans Stolen Election: Smart Geopolitics?

I have to think that Obama keeping silent on Iran's stolen election has to serve some purpose other then a "distraction" from the "bigger issue" of health care reform.

The administration hasn't quite caught up to this reality, offering weak statements about "irregularities" in the voting but no real sign that it will stand up and support the Iranian kids who are pleading for help as they're beaten in the streets. I suspect it will soon.

I think he is trying to triangulate this so that the Mullahs can't relegate the protesters to "puppets of the Decadent West" status. So they are keeping their mouths shut on who won the election and the glaring issue that the election was almost unequivocally stolen.

What the Obama people really need to do is condemn in the strongest possible terms the crackdown and violence on behalf of the Iranian government toward the protesters. Then say that any massacres of the people will be treated as genocide and brought to the World Court.

Letterman Really Apologizes This Time

Now we have a true mea culpa and not that half-assed one we had before.

It was "a coarse joke," "a bad joke," Letterman told viewers. "But I never thought it was (about) anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure, in fact, that she is of legal age, 18."

"The joke, really, in and of itself, can't be defended," he declared.

Actually before the show he should have checked to make sure what daughter was at the game instead of checking if she was a minor or not. The messed up part is that all he had to do is put Bristol's first name in the joke and there would not be so much outcry. It would have been mean spirited, crass, and tasteless but it wouldn't have been directed at a 14 year old girl. Letterman then, to his credit, goes on to say what he should have said in the first place:

"I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologize for having told that joke," he said. "It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault that it was misunderstood."

He apologized to both daughters, "and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke," he said as the studio audience applauded. "I'm sorry about it, and I'll try to do better in the future."

That last line should be something that all comedians should think about. It is okay to go after Governor Palin and Barack Obama or any other public figure but minor children should be the true no-go area. In other words no jokes about Willow Palin and thus no jokes about Malia and Sasha as well. If there is doubt then use just use a different joke. It is just that simple.

GOP Level Attack Against Obamacare: It's Rationing by Another Name

That seems like the major charge leveled against it and it will be hard for the Obama people to deny.

Kyl and McConnell introduced a bill today that would bar the federal government from using "comparative effectiveness research" — which, Kyl charged in a news conference timed to coincide with Obama’s AMA speech in Chicago, would lead to rationing of care.

Kyl said that the research would result in the delaying of health care treatment to a patient based on cost, which he believes would weaken the quality of care.

“I don’t want America to begin rationing care to their citizens in the way these other countries do,” Kyl said.

If every American has to wait 6 months to a year to get certain expensive forms of care or be put on a waiting list to take a certain medicine then Obamacare won't fly.

However this will be the perfect way for health insurance companies to compete with the federal government. Give a 1 month guarantee where a patient will not have to wait for more then 1 month for any procedure at all. You will have to pay a higher premium for this service but it can be put onto your insurance ala carte.

That way if you have the money you get the procedure in 1 month or less but if you have to rely on the government you have to wait until they approve it. These sort of value added services is what these insurers will have to use in order to compete. The government will always beat them on price so they will have to beat them on quality of service. Knowing how the government works the private option will always be better if you can afford it.

First Person to Die from the Iranian Freedom Protests

It seems that the "Green Revolution" in Iran may have just got its first martyr.

An Associated Press photographer saw one person fatally shot and at least two others who appeared to be seriously wounded.

The United States was "deeply troubled" by reports of violence and arrests in Iran, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said, but he added that the U.S. knows too little about the conduct of the election to say for sure whether there was fraud.

The worst part about this vote rigging is that Ahmadinejoke won by some asinine landslide. If you want to rig the vote and make it look decent you would just allow Ahmadinejoke to win by a comfortable margin or even just squeak by. That way he can say that the people have spoken and he can pay lip-service to reforms and take the same hard-line stance.

Now these events at Tehran University has to be some weird Deja Vu for the people involved in the original Islamic takeover of Iran exactly 30 years ago. This is one of the places where the Shah shot some demonstrators and helped trigger some of the revolution.

Overnight, police and hard-line militia stormed Tehran University, ransacking dormitories and arresting dozens of students. The university was the site of serious clashes against student-led protests in 1999 and is one of the nerve centers of the pro-reform movement.

The gathering at the university started with students chanting "Death to the dictator." But it quickly erupted into clashes as students threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, who fired tear gas and plastic bullets, a 25-year-old student who witnessed the fighting told the AP. He would only give one name, Akbar, out of fear for his safety.

Fire Letterman Protests Pick Up Speed

There is no way in hell CBS will fire him because he is so important to their Late Night wars but I think this movement may have some legs. Here is a link to their site.

Sponsored by New York State Assemblyman Brian Kolb, along with an attorney and radio host John Ziegler, the site also provides contacts - including major advertisers and CBS bigwigs - to whom people can complain about what many felt was a tasteless and potentially harmful quip by the late night talk leader.

The idea is to get people like Letterman to understand that hiding behind "it's just jokes" whenever they say something reprehensible is no defense.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals Releases Data on Fibromyalgia Drug

Here is a link to the data on drug and it looks like a winner.

At three months, 54.2% (p<0.001)>

That seems pretty significant and here are the other highlights of what sodium oxybate also does for the fibromyalgia patient.

-- Patients treated with sodium oxybate 4.5 g/night and 6g/night showed significant reductions in fatigue as early as Week 1 after dosing compared with placebo as measured by the Fatigue VAS (p<0.001). These differences were maintained throughout the 14 weeks of the study (p less than or equal to 0.009).

-- Patients taking sodium oxybate 4.5 g/night and 6g/night showed significant improvement in sleep patterns compared to placebo as measured by the Jenkins Sleep Scale (p<0.001).

-- Statistically significant improvements in mean scores on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, a measure of daily function, and on Patient Global Impression of Change were seen in patients receiving sodium oxybate compared to placebo.

-- Sodium oxybate was generally well tolerated, with the majority of adverse events reported being mild to moderate in nature. Adverse events were similar to those seen in previous sodium oxybate experience.

-- In this study, the most common adverse events, with incidence greater than or equal to 5% and at least twice the rate of placebo, were headache, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, anxiety, and sinusitis.

Even the Press is Going After Letterman

Now this is one of those controversys that is actually crossing party lines when the liberal media takes Letterman to task.

I don't agree with many things that Sarah Palin says, but she has solid grounds to be furious at David Letterman. After Palin's recent trip to Yankee Stadium with 14-year-old daughter Willow, he joked about the girl having sex with Alex Rodriguez. Letterman now says he was talking about 18-year-old Bristol, who had a baby out of wedlock last year.

But Bristol wasn't on the trip. Confusing Bristol with Willow is about as understandable as confusing Bristol with one of her brothers--or confusing Letterman with Leno.

I wouldn't confuse Letterman with Leno because I actually think Leno is decently funny. Letterman is a mean-spirited far-left curmudgeon that was edgy once and funny long ago. Now maybe this controversy can force him to retire once and for all and have Craig Ferguson (who is actually insanely funny) take his place.

NOW Finally Speaks out Against Letterman

I think this may be the first time in a long time I have seen NOW speak out against one of their liberal brethren.

Comedians in search of a laugh should really know better than to snicker about men having sex with teenage girls (or young women) less than half their age.

The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days — it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin’s “slutty flight attendant look” — yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician’s appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman’s stature, who appears on what used to be known as “the Tiffany Network” (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.

I have to applaud NOW for actually taking a stand against this kind of behavior and hiding behind the "I was only joking" line. Rape is just not funny and Palin reacted as any mother should be protecting her daughters from a dirty old man.

The Recession is Great According to Forbes

Ah the "purifying fire" effect of the Recession.

Prices will tumble until goods find buyers, making it a very good time to go shopping. The recession's benefits also go beyond the purely tangible. Last week I met an artist, Kendrick Mar, who compared the downturn to a "purifying fire." We were talking about the end of high prices for bad work. But there's something else going on too: a burning away of dross in our personal and working lives.

The thing I am hoping for is this purifying fire destroys the notion of irrational excess that the media pushes on us. The idea that some 16 year old girl can spend $100K+ on a Sweet 16 party that is glamorized on MTV should be seen as aberrant. I hope Americans get to think about how much good that money can do for needy people instead of how it can be wasted on some bratty kid.

Iranian Election Breaking All Records

Well, hopefully all these people are coming out to vote for Mir Hossein Mousavi instead of Almadinajoke.

The fiery, monthlong campaign unleashed passions and tensions. The mass rallies, polished campaign slogans, savvy Internet outreach and televised debates more closely resembled Western elections than the scripted campaigns in most other Middle Eastern countries.

President Barack Obama said Iran's "robust debate" leading up to elections shows change is possible there, and it could boost U.S. efforts to engage Tehran's leadership.

I can see Obama sitting down with Mousavi and trying to do some kind of engagement type thing. Almadinajoke will just spout the same old anti-Israel rhetoric and deny the Holocaust. Plus getting the Iranian youth into the election for the first time might make for a historic change in Iran. That is if their guy wins of course.

Gen. McChrystal Might Be the Right Man for Afghanistan

He seems to understand what it means to build a counter-insurgency force from his time in Iraq.

When Gen. Stanley McChrystal told the Senate last week that troops in Afghanistan will have to make cultural sensitivities central to military operations, he didn't sound like a man who spent most of his career in the special-operations world training soldiers to kill enemies quickly and stealthily.

But in his first interview since being named commander in Afghanistan, Gen. McChrystal said his front-row seat to the Iraq and Afghan wars has shifted his views.

Having watched the U.S. trying and failing to put down insurgencies in both countries through force, the former Green Beret said he believes that to win in Afghanistan, "you're going to have to convince people, not kill them."

I wonder if he will let his officers grow those big bushy Afghan beards which are supposed to be a sign of manhood in their culture. "Going native" in order to help the Afghans is a small price to pay to get that country under some kind of control. I am reading this book The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq and it tells exactly how a counter-insurgency is supposed to be done. I hope the lessons can carry over to Afghanistan.

The AP Calls Letterman Willow Palin Rape Jokes "Wisecracks"

Now this is even more dismissive then Yahoo calling the rape of a 14 year old girl "off-color." The AP actually referred to Letterman's despicable attack as "wisecracks."

David Letterman deftly played it both ways on Wednesday's "Late Show" as he apologized for wisecracks aimed earlier in the week at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one of her teenage daughters -- even as he milked the situation for more laughs.

Yup the funny jokes about the rape of a minor child by A-Rod by a liberal TV personality are simply "wisecracks" to some morally bankrupt person at the AP. Even Lettermans so-called "apology" is a big joke.

Before he was done, he tried to boil down the situation into two key points, which he stated with playful precision:

"Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes.

"Did I suggest that it was OK for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No."

He also invited Palin to be a guest on his show, saying, "I think we could put these differences behind us." But the offer, extended to both Palin and her husband ("or leave Todd at home," Letterman suggested), was turned down on Thursday.

Yup some of that playful precision trying to run away from a "joke" about a 14 year old child being raped by a 33 year old member of the Yankees during the 7th inning stretch. I mean it is just "wisecracks" about rape from funnyman Letterman. The AP considers it no harm done. I really hope Todd Palin does come on Letterman walks out to the stage and gives him a right cross. I'm sure any father of a teen daughter in the US would do the same.

How to Contact Letterman's Sponsors

Here is a great post on how to get in touch with the sponsors of the Late Show with David Letterman. Plus it looks like the agitation is working because Embassy Suites Hotels has already pulled their sponsorship.

Embassy Suites pulled their ads! Score one for the good guys!

From: Dawn Ray [Dawn.Ray@hilton.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 2:00 PM
To: Chris Wysocki
Subject: Embassy Suites Sponsorship of the David Letterman Show

Thank you for your email. Embassy Suites is not a sponsor or advertiser of the David Letterman show. Several online ads appeared on a series of web sites, including cbs.com, among many others. These ads have since been taken down. The appearance of the ads on the CBS network web site does not suggest we condone or agree with Mr. Letterman's views or comments.

We sincerely appreciate your email.

Ms. Ray, we sincerely appreciate you and your company's response to this issue as well. Thank you.

A List of Lettermans Advertisers

If you want to hit this creep where it hurts here are a list of Letterman's advertisers. This site advocates a letter writing campaign against Mars, Best Western, and Embassy Suites. If I was Mars I would pull my sponsorship right now. Don't they sell a lot of candy to 14 year old kids? I would hate to be tied to a guy that jokes about raping their best customers.

Main Advertisers:

Mars Candy

Best Western

Lexus

Capitol One

eBay

Other advertisers:

TV.Com

On the Border Restaurants

Intel

CBSsports.com

JohnFreida.com

DiTech

Earn My Degree

True Credit by Trans Union

Lifelock

Bowflex

ancestry.com

Yahoo Tries to Excuse Letterman's Willow Palin Rape "Jokes"

I love how the liberal media all tries to ban together when one of them "jokes" about A-Rod raping a 14 year old girl.

It all started on Monday when David Letterman told some off-color jokes about Alaskan governor Sarah Palin and her daughter. Dave made some cracks about one of the Palin girls having to fend off Eliot Spitzer and getting knocked up by Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during a recent trip to the Big Apple.

Off-color? Yahoo thinks it is merely off-color to "joke" about a Yankee ball-player raping a teen girl? That has to be the worst cover for Letterman's atrocious actions you could possibly have thought up. Calling teen rape "off-color" or just "cracks" is inexcusable by Yahoo or anyone else.

Hell, come to think of it, even A-Rod got slandered by that "joke" as well. I wonder why Letterman hasn't apologized to him also?

Sarah Palin Hits Back at David Letterman Saying A-Rod Should Rape Willow Palin

Now David Letterman joins the liberal hate and rape train just like Playboy before him by trying to make a "joke" about raping a 14 year old girl. I'm glad Sarah hit back with both barrels:

In an e-mailed statement, the Republican governor said: “Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is not only disgusting, but it reminds us some Hollywood/N.Y. entertainers have a long way to go in understanding what the rest of America understands — that acceptance of inappropriate sexual comments about an underage girl, who could be anyone's daughter, contributes to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.”

Well that will do it for David Letterman for me. I think Conan is far funnier anyway so it is no big loss. I so think people need to boycott his sponsors though. Hate speech and advocating the rape of a 14 year old girl and pretending it is a "joke" needs to carry some ramifications.

Does Jazz Pharmaceuticals Have a Fibromyalgia Blockbuster on their Hands?

It sure might if their Phase 3 Trials pan out. The company is presenting at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) 2009 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.

At APSS on June 11, 2009 at 9:00 am in Ballroom 6E, Dr. Swick will also deliver an oral presentation entitled "Sodium Oxybate Improves Pain, Fatigue, and Sleep in Fibromyalgia: Results from a 14-week Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study."

You would think that Fibromyalgia would be quite a market because it is a chronic illness and hits from 0.5% - 5% of adults worldwide. That means that as many as 326 million people could have their symptoms lessened by this drug. If they can pull in even a 10th of that number then that will equate to several billion in revenue per year.

On looking over their financials this is the main thing that jumped out at me:

Jazz Pharmaceuticals' cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2009 were $17.0 million. On March 31, 2009, Jazz Pharmaceuticals did not pay $5.1 million in interest due to the holders of the $119.5 million principal amount of its senior secured notes due June 2011, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals remains in default on the notes. The total overdue interest due on the notes through March 31, 2009 is $9.6 million.

This precarious cash position sounds like something that could be a big problem in the next few quarters. So if these Phase 3 Trials don't pan out (or if there is any kind of delay with the FDA) then they probably won't be able to roll this debt over. If that happens then they might not be a going concern unless they seriously cut costs.

Dendreon always had a decent cash position when they were going through all their troubles. This company does not have that luxury. So it really is a gamblers stock any way you look at it.

Qualcomm's New Mirasol Display Screen Could Mean Big Profits

Now this is an interesting twist on a trying to get away from an LCD cell phone display that sucks up so much power that you have to recharge it twice a day.

Qualcomm's power-saving trick is straightforward: Instead of using the LCD method of shining a backlight through a color filter, a strategy that wastes as much as 95% of the screen's energy on light that never reaches the user's eye, Mirasol will merely reflect ambient light. The result is a screen that's not as bright in most situations--particularly indoors. But Mirasol screens use somewhere between 1% and 10% of an LCD's power, depending on the device, and are far easier to read in bright sunlight.

Now this display isn't such a big deal in the US right now. However here is the part where you see the stock price shoot up if they seriously start pushing these things out the door.

Last February, Chinese handset manufacturer Hisense launched an ultra-simple low-power phone using a two-color Mirasol display. That phone, Qualcomm says, will be one of several power-sipping handsets subsidized by the Chinese government in a program it is calling "Going Country," designed to give rural farmers access to cellphones.

You might see this Mirasol display on a few billion more cell phones in rural China. These are some of people that make up the half of humanity that still doesn't have a cell phone. I would be willing to bet that you will see these displays on cheaper phones in India and South America as well.

I'm sure Nokia can't wait to build a raft of those cheap phones that they seem to churn out that have these Mirasol displays on them. Any way you slice it this display could be a big seller. Qualcomm will be opening a new plant in Taiwan in the next couple of days to start rolling these things out in big numbers. I have QCOM on my watch list right now.

Ahmadinejad Accuses Rival of using Nazi tactics

I though Ahmadinejoke figured the Nazis were all about sweetness and light with his Holocaust denials. Here is incoherent statement:

"They applied the methods of (Josef) Goebbels, propaganda minister of Hitler," Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranian-flag waving supporters. "They used this method of psychological war against our nation."

Um, Ahamadinejoke was the one to pull a Goebbels with his "Israel wiped off the map" talk. Also Iran wanting to build a "wonder-weapon" in the form of a nuke is also pretty Goebbels-like as well. I really want to see Mir Hossein Mousavi to win the Iranian election and send Ahmadinejoke and his Members Only jacket back to where it is he came from.

Red Chinese to Obama: Reign in the Spending Right Now!

At least they are saying it in private.

Senior Chinese leaders have privately voiced fear over the soaring US budget deficit and are increasingly looking to diversify from the dollar, a Republican congressman said.

"We heard across the board -- in private -- substantial, continuing and rising concern," Representative Mark Kirk said after a trip to China that included talks with government officials and central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan.

"It's clear that China would like to diversify from its dollar investments," the lawmaker said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.

Maybe we will see this runaway debt train pull into the station now that the Red Chinese are cutting off the debt fuel supply. It sure seems strange that the Chinese Communists are actually trying to reign in the spending of the so-called capitalist United States. Hey, they would be devastated as badly as we will if that $700 billion in debt gets defaulted on by Obamanomics.

10 Banks Get to Pay Back the TARP

All told $68 billion is going back into the Treasury.

All eight banks that took TARP money and last month passed government "stress tests" confirmed they received permission to repay the bailout funds. They are: JPMorgan Chase & Co., American Express Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., U.S. Bancorp, Capital One Financial Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp. and BB&T Corp.

Morgan Stanley did not pass the government test, but on Tuesday said it had raised enough capital quickly and was approved to repay its TARP money.

Northern Trust Corp. was not among the 19 banks subjected to stress tests, but the company said it also had received permission to repay the bailout funds.

Now they won't have the US Government dictating terms or telling them how much they can pay their employees. Now the regulation fight begins so that these "good banks" get punished yet again for the crimes of the dead banks.

Supreme Court Rules Against Secured Debt Holders: Chrysler Deal Goes Through

I guess they didn't want to wade into the bankruptcy process to settle the question once and for all.

The court issued a brief, unsigned opinion explaining its action. To obtain a delay, or stay, someone must show that at least four of the nine justices find that the issue raised is serious enough to warrant hearing a full appeal and that a majority of the court will conclude the lower court decision was wrong.

I think the idea of unsecured union members getting more of a share of the new company then secured debt holders is going to come back to haunt the Court in years to come. They might have another chance with GM but I doubt they will do anything.

Boston Globe Circles the Drain

Well it looks like we might see the end of a 137 year old newspaper because their union will not budge on pay cuts. I think this statement is indicative of their problems:

The union in question, the Boston Globe Newspaper Guild, represents mostly reporters, editors and business-side administrators and ad salespeople. The Globe's other six unions -- for pressmen, delivery truck drivers and mailers, among other groups -- had already agreed to concessions.

Yes, this company has 7 different unions representing their employees. Welcome to a "progressive" America if card check is passed.

Evidence that Lamar Alexander is the Best Senator in Congress: He Wants to Give Shares of GM Stock to Taxpayers!

Now this is why Lamar Alexander needs to run for President in 2012.

After GM comes out of bankruptcy, the — the government will own about 60 percent of it, and about 8 percent of Chrysler. And taxpayers have paid $50 billion for that GM stock. So, I'm introducing legislation, along with some other senators, that say, within a year, give the stock to any American who paid taxes on April 15. So, you would end up with a few shares of GM stock, and the government would stop meddling.

I am damning GM as Government Motors but Alexanders plan will make it into Taxpayer Motors. Suddenly, we would *all* have a stake in seeing GM succeed since we will all be actual shareholders in the new company. Senator Alexander's plan is to think of that $50 billion of bailout money as an investment made by the US Government on behalf of the US Taxpayer.

Lets say they issue these New GM shares to tax payers at $.10 par value (so that we don't have trillions of shares out there.) That would mean that every American will receive 1,380 shares of GM stock. Round that down to 1,250 shares and use the excess to pay to setup and administer these investment accounts (I can see Blackrock doing it.)

We should also receive shares of the relaunched versions of AIG, Citigroup, Fannie and Freddie that would be proportionate to the amount of bailout cashola that was paid out to the company. Suddenly all 380 million Americans will enter the investment class.

If you attach a decent dividend to the shares it will act as an immediate stimulus to the tune of a few hundred dollars a quarter. Also if GM again reaches its 52 week high of $38.27 a share (which it hit in summer of 2007) Americans will suddenly be $47,837 richer if they sell the stock. That is enough for a brand new Cadillac SRX. Lamar Alexander in 2012 is "Change I can believe in (and get paid dividends for as well.")

GOP Catch Dems on Economy For First Time in 2 Years

Now this is an interesting development and should put the Obama people on alert. Also Hotair doesn't understand why there was a big move on government ethics and corruption:

What I don’t get is the spread on ethics. Why the huge swing? Murtha’s been in trouble lately for his lobbyist sleaze but that’s hardly a major national story. Pelosi’s hedging about waterboarding probably hurt but that would seem to speak more to national security than to a classic ethical issue. Smells like Rasmussen simply might have gotten a bum sample here. Am I wrong?

I think the Pelosi saying the CIA lied to her about water boarding was what flipped these numbers. I think many Americans understand that the CIA is one of the main groups out there that is literally fighting day and night to keep us safe and we will never know what they did until decades later.

And to have Pelosi drag their name through the mud for the sake of political ass covering just went too far beyond the ethical pale. I think she might be damaged goods and could be ousted if she makes another mistake.

Hugh Hewitt Calls for Boycott of General Motors: I Tend to Agree

Hey I seem to be out in front of trend again. In this case it is a brewing boycott of General Motors and the unfair bailout where secured bondholders were robbed so that the US Government, Canada, and the UAW could control a private company.

But there isn't any alternative, every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise. Every car or truck purchased from Government Motors is one not purchased from a private car company that competes fairly against all other car companies. Many are rightly afraid that the government will do to automobile production what it has done for Amtrack and the Postal Service, but the risk is much greater than a federally mandated lemon.

I agree that anyone that wants to buy an American car while GM is majority owned by the Feds should buy a Ford. It is just that simple. If you object to the idea of a Government Motors then it is time to "Drive the Ford Difference." That also means when you rent a car you ask for a Ford as well. Buying or even driving a government-made GM is dooming Ford and making the auto choice in the US only between foreign cars (which will still be well made) and government cars (which will be like Amtrack.)

The Soviets didn't have a choice of what government owned car company to buy a car from. We still have Ford. They are one car company that isn't controlled by Unions, Canada, some 31 year old kid with his first government job named Brian Deese, or some other Beltway insider that doesn't know a balance sheet from a bed sheet.

You wouldn't really be hurting the workers at GM because they are now employees of the US government and are thus basically exempt from firing. About the only thing you will have to worry about is the inflation caused by the government shoveling more money into GM to keep churning out the Chevy Amtrack or new Dodge SPA (Socialist People's Automobile.)

Plus owning a GM car might doom you to going to the Department of Motor Vehicles for parts and service. Now that is a dystopian future that will keep me in a Ford or a Import car for the rest of my life.

Kennedy Healthcare Bill Will Be a Disaster

Good thing this thing is only a draft because it sounds like the worst bill ever put forth by Congress. It probably takes all of the worst parts of health care and lumps it all into a package that no country can afford.

This would have severe effects on the more than 100 million Americans who have private health insurance today:

• The government would mandate not only that you must buy health insurance, but what health insurance counts as “qualifying.”
• Health insurance premiums would rise as a result of the law, meaning lower wages.
• A government-appointed board would determine what items and services are “essential benefits” that your qualifying plan must cover.
• You would find a tremendous new disincentive to switch jobs, because your new health insurance may be subject to the new rules and would therefore be significantly more expensive.
• Those who keep themselves healthy would be subsidizing premiums for those with risky or unhealthy behaviors.
• Far more than half of all Americans would be eligible for subsidies, but we have not yet been told who would pay the bill.
• The Secretaries of Treasury and HHS would have unlimited discretion to impose new taxes on individuals and employers who do not comply with the new mandates.
• The Secretary of HHS could mandate that you provide him or her with “any such other information as [he/she] may prescribe.”

The highlights (or lowlights) are: you either buy health insurance or you are taxed some unspecified amount. You might get your care rationed by some board of health care bureaucrats. Healthy people will have to pay for risky and unhealthy people. It subsidizes health care costs for half of Americans but doesn't tell you where that money comes from.

It also lets the Treasury and the HHS impose unspecified taxes for noncompliance and force you to provide “any such other information as [he/she] may prescribe.” In other words government bureaucrats will have the ability to look at your colonoscopy results if they choose to.

I will be willing to bet you $100 that Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives will have their medical histories leaked on the Internet a week after this bill is passed. Especially if that information is embarrassing or damaging.

This health care reform bill has the potential to strait-up wreck the US health care system in one fell swoop and needs to be opposed by every right thinking American.

Obama Pounds the Table on Stimulus: Just So Much Hot Air

That is what happens when you have Pelosi and Reid write the "stimulus" bill instead of doing it yourself.

"I know that they are some who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still don't believe in the necessity and promise of this recovery," Obama said. "And I would suggest to them that they talk to the companies who, because of this plan, scrapped the idea of laying off employees and in fact decided to hire employees. Tell that to the Americans who received that unexpected call saying, `Come back to work.'"

The only company that I can think of that is doing that is Wal-Mart there might be others but not enough to really make a difference. This is the reality of what the "stimulus" did.

Obama has claimed as many as 150,000 jobs saved or created by his stimulus plan so far, even as government reports have shown the economy has lost more than 1.6 million jobs since Congress approved funding for the program in February.

Even if by some magic accounting trick 150,000 jobs were actually saved it still means we are down another 1.45 million jobs since the "stimulus" was passed. We are also well above the 8% unemployment that the "stimulus" was supposed to prevent. I can say that something that cost 700 billion dollars should be doing more then simply losing another 1.45 million jobs.

Now he is trying to outsource Healthcare reform to the same failures that gave us the "stimulus." Good luck Obama since you can't trust Pelosi and Reid to do anything right.

"Green" Transport Might Not Be So Green

It seems that taking the bus or train instead of driving may not as eco-friendly as you might think.

The pair give an example of how the use of oil, gas or coal to generate electricity to power trains can skew the picture.

Boston has a metro system with high energy efficiency. The trouble is, 82 percent of the energy to drive it comes from dirty fossil fuels.

By comparison, San Francisco's local railway is less energy-efficient than Boston's. But it turns out to be rather greener, as only 49 percent of the electricity is derived from fossils.

The secret is to shut down every coal fired power plant in the nation and replace it with a nuclear plant. Solar and wind are not at the technological level where they will make up for all of the coal plants that we would be losing. Nuclear plants, however, will be an actual bridge technology that will last us the 25-50 years it will take to build out enough solar and wind to take its place. If you are serious about climate change but are anti-nuclear then you are a fool.

Senator Richard Lugar Likes Obama's Middle East Speech

Hey the Senator and I both liked the content of Obama's Middle East speech.

The speech was important and necessary, said Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noting a “lack of sympathy for our country” in many Muslim nations.

“We probably as Americans need to give a lot of speeches in the Arab world,” the Indiana senator said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. Obama’s language on Iran was tough enough and was meant to reassure Arab countries, which also are concerned about Iran’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons, Lugar said.

It isn't just a lack of sympathy but a sheer hatred of our ideals and way of life. Maybe if more Americans respected Muslim nations they will start to come around. It certainly worked for China.

Penske Looking to Snap Up Saturn

This seems like a fairly interesting idea depending on how the Saturn brand is run.

Roger Penske is inventing a new business model on the ruins of General Motors Corp. The auto racing magnate and mega dealership owner is snapping up Saturn and opening his expanded sales network to foreign automakers looking to sell cars to Americans.

If Saturn returns to its roots as the no negotiation car company that is customer-centric then I think they may live for years to come. They have the opportunity to perhaps make Saturn into the Apple of car makers since they had quite a big following in the 80s-90s.

I would just worry about Penske absorbing the manufacturing plants that make Saturn. After all Penske is mostly an auto retailer and not a car builder so hopefully they come over from GM fairly whole. Also I wonder if Penske will be able to outsource the new car designs profitably or not. Maybe some of that racing heritage will come in handy to give some of the new Saturns some cool-power.

This should be good for the companies stock (PAG) depending on what choices they make going forward. It certainly did pop the stock 5.8% after hours. It will certainly be interesting to see how well the Hummer and Saturn are doing in a few years out from under their dinosaur former owners.

Obama's Muslim Doctrine: The 7 Tensions of Islam vs. the West

I think one of the main highlights of the speech in Cairo was Obama's 7 "tensions" that he mentioned in his speech. Here are a paraphrasing and some commentary

1st Tension: The Battle Against violent extremism.

In Ankara, I made clear that America is not - and never will be - at war with Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security. Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.

This should be a given but we seem to keep going to war in Muslim countries ever since the end of the Cold War. It was nice for Obama to actually point out that this isn't a war with Islam but with violent extremists that want to kill Americans. It would have been nice to hear some more anti-Al-Quida rhetoric thrown in.

2nd Tension: Israelis vs. Palestinians and the Arab world

Too many tears have flowed. Too much blood has been shed. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.

This is basically for the Palestinians to give up violence and form a state and for Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank. It is a kind of a simplistic solution on the surface but you have to have some kind of goals in mind. Getting Hamas to not kill Israeli's and having the IDF force settlers out of the West Bank (after forcing settlers out of Gaza only to have it turn into a rocket shooting gallery) will have to be the heavy lifting part.

3rd Tension: Nukes in the Middle East

I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons. That is why I strongly reaffirmed America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons. And any nation - including Iran - should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That commitment is at the core of the Treaty, and it must be kept for all who fully abide by it. And I am hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.

Obama repeats his negotiations without precondition with Iran. So I think we might have an Almadinijoke (assuming he wins the election) vs. Obama debate on the radar in the next few years. It is interesting to have him endorse a Iran's (and anyone else for that matter) "right to access peaceful nuclear power." That just put a major burden on the UN to not have these nations tricking them into okaying nuclear power plants with a side-order of secret bomb work. Israel needs to ramp up their new nuclear power plant ASAP. Let the peaceful (hopefully) nuclear power race in the Middle East begin because America seems to be all for it.

4th Tension: Democracy and Islam

No matter where it takes hold, government of the people and by the people sets a single standard for all who hold power: you must maintain your power through consent, not coercion; you must respect the rights of minorities, and participate with a spirit of tolerance and compromise; you must place the interests of your people and the legitimate workings of the political process above your party. Without these ingredients, elections alone do not make true democracy.

It is good to see him break out elections from democracy. Democratic societies are more about placing the interests of the people in front of the interests of the rulers. There are just too many cleptocracies in the Middle East and it seems that Obama wants that to end.

5th Tension: Religious Freedom

Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld - whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq.

Wow, now that is something to see an American president say the Muslims need to close the Sunni vs. Shia devide. That fight has been going on since after Mohammed died and probably won't end in my lifetime. It is good to see Obama giving a shout out to helping religious minorities in the Muslim world as well.

6th Tension: Women's Rights

Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons, and our common prosperity will be advanced by allowing all humanity - men and women - to reach their full potential. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. But it should be their choice. That is why the United States will partner with any Muslim-majority country to support expanded literacy for girls, and to help young women pursue employment through micro-financing that helps people live their dreams.

Now this is a real break with past tradition of America keeping their mouth shut about the plight of women in the Muslim world. The idea that America is going to teach women to read and *gasp* run businesses should make every Mullah tremble. A woman's revolt in Iran or Saudi Arabia would strait-up change the world and shake the pillars of power. Maybe US feminist groups should be all over this cause instead of smearing Sarah Palin. The World Sisterhood needs to be formed by the left to help Muslim women.

7th Tension: Economic Development

But I also know that human progress cannot be denied. There need not be contradiction between development and tradition. Countries like Japan and South Korea grew their economies while maintaining distinct cultures. The same is true for the astonishing progress within Muslim-majority countries from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.

At one time Muslim nations were some of the richest and most innovative in the world due to trade, education, and the wise movement of capital. Obama lays out a host of new programs to push entrepreneurship in the Middle East (perhaps by starting an America-led micro-credit organization.) He also advocates bringing more Muslim students to the US to go to school. The intriguing part is sending American students to the Muslim world. They better not be thought of as spies and jailed. That would strait-up suck.

Also the idea of starting some kind of online network that connects Muslim and American kids is great idea. This would be a great way to deprogram some of the death cult of anti-American zealots that keep coming out of the Middle East. It will also allow American kids to be a little more aware of the other people living in the world and their cultures. I think more emphasis on cultural exchange that goes beyond our troops in their countries or their crazy zealots in ours is good for America.

The Muslim science and technology fund sounds like something to be proud of if it is executed right. I mean one of the best ways to get Muslim world to really shine is to focus them on the pursuit of science and technological understanding. After all the Golden Age of Islam wasn't marked by backwards education and cleptocracies. Now the part the Muslim world will really be waiting for. We heard Obama's words now they are waiting for Obama's actions.

Obama's Speech to the Muslims: A Homerun!

I think this speech may have been even more important then the so-called speech on race during the campaign. Here is a transcript. These parts I found especially good IMO.

I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

Yup, there are quite a few Muslims living in the Great Satan after all.

I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims." And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers - Thomas Jefferson - kept in his personal library.

The bad part is we actually fought Morocco in our first war as a nation with the Barbary Coast pirates. That Jefferson with the Koran remark however was genius.

I think this part might be the best part of the speech because no American president that I remember has tied together the Muslims, Jews, and Christians so succinctly and for the cause of "peace in our time." I mean all three religions have caused quite a bit of bloodshed in history but they are all founded on a tradition of peace.

The Holy Koran tells us, "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

The people of the world can live together in peace. We know that is God's vision. Now, that must be our work here on Earth. Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.

Wal-Mart Makes You Thinner?

This is one of those head-scratcher type articles that was the bread and butter of Freakonomics.

As we gathered more data on Wal-Mart discount stores, Wal-Mart Supercenters, warehouse clubs like Sam's Club, Costco ( COST - news - people ) and BJ's Wholesale Club, and other outlets, we found that the correlation holds up under a variety of different circumstances, with a clear relationship between warehouse clubs and better eating habits emerging over time. Further, we found that Wal-Mart's effect on weight is largest for women, the poor, African-Americans and people who live in urban areas.

You figure it would be the opposite. You would think that if you can buy an 8 pack of pop-tarts from Costco you would eat the entire contents and fatten right up. Instead the data seems to be the opposite. Here is one of the rationales that the researchers gave:

Our data suggest that we buy healthier food when our purchasing power increases. There is a small increase in consumption of fruit and vegetables in places where Wal-Mart does a lot of business and a decrease--or smaller increase--in fatty food consumption relative to places where Wal-Mart doesn't do business. That is, people might consume more fatty foods, but consumption of those unhealthy goods increases more slowly than it does for the rest of the population.

I have been advocating for years that if you want to help poor people in this country you have to make sure that they are fed healthy foods on a regular basis. Since eating healthy is so damn expensive you can bet that poor people can only afford cheap junk food rather than expensive fruits and vegetables.

It seems that Wal-Mart is evening the healthy eating divide by making eating healthy an everyday thing instead of luxury good. This could be a good thing for health care as well since healthy people need to go to the doctor far less. Now all we need is some way to get a tax credit for gym memberships and we are all set.

API Thinks they are Humpty Dumpty? No wonder they Dead Men Walking

Now that is quite a poor analogy if you ask me.

So the remedy for putting the pieces back together according to the API: charge for content, stick it to Google, and renegotiate subscription models with Amazon for the Kindle (which it implies is unfairly making more money from content than newspapers). Apparently, nobody at the API has actually read Humpty Dumpty, otherwise they would know that you can never put the pieces back together again.

Yeah TechCrunch is 100% right. All of the Kings Horses and all of the Kings men couldn't put Humpty back together again. Is this an admission that they can never get their revenue model back on track no matter what they do?

IMO charging for newspaper content is asinine and is a recipe for failure in the long term. Information will simply flow from the paid content to the free content since information is fairly fungible.

Why do you need to link to a New York Times article when you can link to free information on Fox News or CNN sites. The opinion writers of record might even gravitate toward the online space (or even self publish) in the future if they are paid decently enough.

It is the distribution costs and how younger consumers prefer to access this information is what is killing the newspaper. Also Craigslist killing their classified section doesn't help.

The newspapers also have some kind of anti-Google mania going on as well:

In order to seek compensation from Google, the API suggests that news organizations should put legal, political, business and technological pressure on Google, and other “powerful players” in the digital space including MSFT, Yahoo, AOL, and Facebook.

That’s right. Part of the plan is for newspapers, which are technologically challenged, to put “technological pressure” on the technology giants. That plan is even less likely to succeed than the Humpty Dumpty one.

Google could easily retaliate by investing some of their $10 billion in cash in a Google News Service if the newspapers play hard-ball on prices. Hell they could buy one or more of the bankrupt papers and sell off all of the printing presses and trucks and just employ the reporters as online correspondents if they wanted to. They would then charge other news sources to access that information or just use this service as yet another platform to offer targeted advertising.

There is no compelling reason that the information that these newspapers generate must be given to the consumer via a bundle of paper delivered to your home by some kid. Digital ink and Kindle can just as easily link to a fictitious Google News Services Worldwide as they can link to the New York Times.

Obama Makes with the Saudi Bling Bling

Now this is one blinged-out gift to get from the Saudi's. It is the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit and I bet no rapper has this bad boy around their necks.

Mr. Obama Goes to Saudi Arabia

It is good that he is visiting the Saudis as long as he doesn't genuflect before King Abdullah again.

"I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek his majesty's counsel," Obama said. The president and the king talked in the splendor of Abdullah's sprawling retreat, a lush patch of searing desert.

The king, who was hosting Obama for an overnight stay, called his guest "a distinguished man who deserves to be in this position."

However, Obama embarrasses America again when he went off teleprompter with this little gem.

Looking up, Obama joked: "This is a much nicer tent than you gave to Prince Charles."

That drew a laugh from Abdullah, who then explained that Saudi royals try to maintain ties to their desert roots even inside buildings.

"Well, it's beautiful," Obama replied.

I think Obama needs to read a little Saudi history before he speaks off the cuff like that. It was an almost Bush-level gaff.

I really think his handlers need to get the guy ready before he meets with world leaders. First the region-coded DVDs to Gordon Brown, then the IPod to the Queen of England, then some crack about the Saudi tent being nicer then the one given to Prince Charles.

I sure hope to crap we didn't give Abdullah a special Blackberry or a signed basketball or something dumb like that.

Speaking of Obama in Cairo: I Wish He Will Give the Speech in Saudia Arabia Instead

Too bad Obama is going to Cairo to speak to the Muslims because going to Saudi Arabia would have been truly historic. The sight of an American President giving a speech to the Muslim people in front of the King and the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia would be truly something to see.

I think the sight of him starting his speech with "As-Salāmu `Alaykum" and having the King and the Ministers repeat "Alaykum As-Salaam" in response would be one for the history books. It surly wouldn't play at home with all the thoughts of Obama being a secret Muslim. But it sure would be the shot hear round the Muslim world.

I guess the substance of the speech should be as important as the place as well. I think a lot of talk of freedom and democracy would be best served in a place like Jordan instead. After all they are basically the model country of the Middle East with their constitutional monarchy.

There will be no Presidents for Life like in Egypt or absolute monarchs like in Saudi Arabia to muddy the message. I think a Middle East that all looked like Jordan would be great for the world and for US Security as well.

Maybe Iran will elect ABA (Anybody but Amadinajoke) and Obama can give the second speech to the Muslims from there. Now that would be truly historic. Obama goes to Tehran would be repeated in history books for decades.

Al-Qaida Scumbag Disses Obama's Cairo Speech

The same old crap from the same old sources.

Al-Zawahri said the Egyptian officials who will welcome Obama are U.S. "slaves" and have turned the country into an "international station of torture in America's war on Islam." He was likely referring to suspected Islamic militants who have been captured by the U.S. and sent to Egypt for interrogation, a process known as rendition.

Al-Zawahri urged Egyptians to reject Obama when he makes his speech, calling him "that criminal who came seeking, with deception, to obtain what he failed to achieve in the field after the mujahideen ruined the project of the crusader America in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia."

Too bad we can't offer him a little Hellfire missile sandwich delivered by a Predator Drone in response.

Playboy Advocates the Rape Conservative Women?

I can see people disagreeing with one each others political leanings but this is just going too damn far.

The hatred of the good for being good at its most base was on display today in a typically vile left wing puke fest over at Playboy magazine. Misogyny at its most obvious. If you don't parade around naked, go commando, if you have moral values, if you don't toke on anything that smokes and maintain reasoned rational, informed opinions -- then you deserve to be raped. You know, to bring you down to size.

Yup this is the left at its most vile and hateful. If you don't agree with their view of the world then you are nothing but a piece of meat to them. Whenever I read something like this I think about this Krauthammer article.

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.

Yup these women are "evil" conservatives! They must be raped by the insane people at Playboy in order to "put them in their place." This sounds like something out of Pol Pot's Cambodia or in Darfur and not out of an American magazine. I guess Playboy just thinks when a woman isn't "progressive" she needs to be raped until she "sees the light." I hope this isn't the "Fierce Moral Urgency of Change" at work.

North Korea Readies some More Missiles

They got an ICBM on the launching pad as well.

North Korea may soon launch three or four mid-range missiles, believed to be modified versions of its Rodong series, from its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. An American military official confirmed an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S. was being readied at a base on the North's west coast.

Plus the Dear Leader named his heir apparent to be Kim Jong Un. I guess he could be called the 7-Up of North Korea. The so-called Uncola to be the No-So Well Liked Unleader.

GM Files For Quicky Bankruptcy

Well we know own a failed car company with $30 billion more of our funds dedicated to propping them back up. Government Motors is now a reality.

The plan is for the federal government to take a 60 percent ownership stake in the new GM. The Canadian government would take 12.5 percent, with the United Auto Workers getting a 17.5 percent share and unsecured bondholders receiving 10 percent. Existing GM shareholders are expected to be wiped out.

I think we should at least get some car vouchers from our 60% ownership in a company that has lost $88 billion since 2005.