Hancock is cute to a point

Nothing great here, but at least it's unique. Will Smith is Hancock the drunk bum of steel. Smith puts in a solid performance as usual, and Jason Bateman as his manager Ray Embery the man as always.

Rays wife is played by Charlize Theron, who even though age is begining to show, frankly looks better than every. Like a fine wine, and a true beauty she just gets better with age.

I instantly liked Hancock, as we meet him for the first time passed out drunk on a city bench... facing the wrong way!

But the roudy drunk is stripped away to early and before you can really enjoy the attitude and antics it starts to turn to mush.

The effects are certainly not top notch in this film and by the time we find out Ray's wife is actually Hancocks wife I had given up caring about the movie, still it was fun.

I don't think I could go much over 6.5 out of ten, and that's almost a full point for originality.

Israel and Palestine on the verge of peace

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday according to Reuters that Isreal and the Palestinians have never been so close to peace.

This, I have actually heard before, usually once a decade give or take.

But this is a new day. Pressure for a settlement with Palestine is greater than ever on both sides. There is much respect for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the controversial French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the architect.

For Olmert it's a make or break deal, facing multiple corruption and bribery charges this would go a long way to restoring his image.

Abbas has only upsides, and For Sarkozy, this would launch him into global rockstar status. Between a peace deal here and his "Mediterranean Union" he may be the hero of the week.

Budweiser Beer Bye Bye

$52 billion dollar buyout from InBev, to high to resist, Anheuser-Busch sold.

The King is dead, long live the King.

The death of an American tradition.

No longer a great American Beer, it's just another division of a multi-national company.

Just another chunk of a America sold off to foreign interests.

Bye bye baby. Hello Anheuser-Busch-InBev.

Nation of Whiners

What most people who live in America know is gas is expensive. The price of orange juice and meat and bread has gone up. If you live on a fixed budget you have had to adjust it. It's simple math and the equals less spending money in your pocket.

When economist Phil Gramm and psychologist Kit Yarrow, who make six figures and up, do interviews they are in general payed handsomely for make comments about consumers are negatively effecting the economy because they are "whiners" or being "emotional" it shows how removed they are from the country they live in.

The vast majority of this countries population still needs to buy the essentials and has less money left over, that's not emotion thats cold hard reality.

While affluent Americans tend to have there money spread out in different sectors of the economy, for the majority a savings account still represents the bulk of there savings.

For the young times like these will pass. People 40 and up there is less time to recover from this, for many this will be devastating. As you age you have less opportunity, re-education in a dwindling job market is more of a challenge. Retirement in this country is expensive. Many do not have pensions and social security is probably not going to be there.

That is extremely emotional. But the emotion is a symptom not a cause.

If the nations economics will fall because the average person can't spend, destroying the average persons ability to spend was a pretty bad idea.

The economic boom this country is clearly no longer enjoying was a boom for a minority of the population, for the majority the last decade has been stagnation in wages, fewer opportunities and sky rocketing tuitions.

If Americans can afford to spend they will. When they have less the spend less, emotional or not.

Americans should be offended.

Bush aid Stephen Payne selling presidential support

Think Progress » Bush Homeland Security Aide Caught On Tape Offering High-Level Access For Donations To Bush Library

Steven Payne busted on camera offering to 'trade' high level access to senior White House Officials including VP Cheney and Dr. Rice to an exhiled politician from Kyrgyzstan.

Though the politicians name is never mentioned in an audible portion of this video it's most likely Askar Akayevich Akayev. Ones the peoples hero for democracy he was accused of corruption and deposed in the 'Tulip Revolution' in 2005 for massive corruption and suppression of free media. He's not a nice man by all accounts.

You can meet with them for only a few hundred thousand dollars, of course this money is a donation not a bride, it will go to the Bush Library.

But if you watch to the end of the video, what's being offered is support for a discredited politician who wants to be vindicated so he can run for the office President of a foreign power.

Of course, Payne isn't just a savvy power, he asks for a large cut for his company too.

People who focus on the library have simply missed what is happening here.

For a price our presidents endorsement can be arranged.

And out of the $600,000 to $750,000 being discussed only a Third is going to the Library.

One has to walk away wondering how many times our president has been bought.

You can work the words any way you want this is a bribe and it's been caught on tape.

9 US soldiers Dead in Afghanistan, But Pakistan has everything handled so chill

ABC News: Officials: 9 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan

In what's described as a "multi-pronged assault", implying someone in the region actually has a plan, 9 brave American soldiers lose there lives.

I'm pretty sure I have a copy of...

President Musharraf talking about how he has it handled.

Oh yes there it is, "Our government's
policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces
are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action
there. And any foreign intrusion would be counter-productive." Musharraf just finished telling us we can't cross the border these murderers came across, then retreated across.

For almost seven years the Taliban and al Qaeda have waltz across this border while we've danced the tango with Pakistan.

For the same amount of time, our government has neglected it's commitment to protect it's people and it's interests by allowing this to continue.

We walk around making threats, clearly we can't back up. How can we expect our enemies to take us seriously when we are incapable of defeating the people who struck us on our own soil.

This amounts to 9 US military personal being left to die. Our disposable heroes.

Terhran mayor says get over it

"The United States and the West make the mistake that they can still go back to before the revolution,They should completely forget this." Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.

It's been 30 years, the US has never since never recognized the Iranian government.

But we have completely encircled the nation with military forces. Every single country bordering Iran has US military on it's soil.

I can't say I am a fan of anyone that starts a political speak with prayer, but that's there bag baby.

"If the Westerners accept this, deal with this fact, Iran should accept to act in the international framework and act based on international regulations," he declared.

We deal directly and in fact has in many cases treaties and close ties with all kinds of dictators and nasty oppressive governments, but we've hunkered down in this position of not talking to Iran. Just shouting across the ocean at and about them.

To man Muslims Iran, because of the last 30 years is an icon. This begs the question, isn't the biggest single move this country can do to settle this mess, is start accepting that they are not going away.

Clearly American policy is more about image and power than any real concern over human rights. We only get involved if an ally is threatened or there is money to be made or lost.

I would love to save the world but you can't save something with a nuke.

And when you have presidential hopefulls like this complete moron named John 'Warmonger' McCain making absolutely stupid remarks in regards to the smuggling of cigarette into the country as "a way of killing them"...

well

"McCain's crude remark on the indiscriminate killing of the Iranian nation not only testifies to his disturbed state of mind, but also to his warmongering approach to foreign policy."

But of course Americans get more worked up over the fact that Bernie Mac is married to a ho than the republican who wants to rule the free world making jokes about killing Iranians.

Pretty pathetic set of priorities.

McCain, you're a moron. A complete and total moron.

Robert Steel and the Revolving Door

Washington's revolving door to spin faster | U.S. | Reuters

Robert Steel, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for domestic finance, was key in helping manage the U.S. housing crisis before being named late on Wednesday as chief executive of Wachovia Corp, the fourth-biggest U.S. bank.

Well, anyone who isn't getting stinking rich off the blood of others has to flinch just a little when they read this.

The revolving door has been discussed at great length. The problem isn't Steel taking a private sector job in his field of expertise, it's a lot bigger than that. It's way they walk just on the edge of what's legal, getting away with just exactly as much as they can before crossing that last line.

As the article mentions the legal cooling-off period (2yrs) addresses lobbyists but is vague about corporate officials.

Recent high-level moves include the Food and Drug Administration's food safety director becoming chief scientist and regulatory officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and a Federal Aviation Administration administrator becoming chief executive for the Aerospace Industries Association.

All they have to do to make this legal is follow proper recusal process once they get the offer, this includes

That includes notifying the ethics department at Treasury and recusing himself from any matter that impacts Wachovia -- but only Wachovia, according to experts.

But

For example, Steel could still participate in policy decisions related to the industry as a whole, as long as it was not solely affecting Wachovia.

That really is what we used to call skirting the law. It's pretty sad. It's not just sad because they walk the line, knowing full well why the line was drawn.

"The law is a floor, not a ceiling," she said. "If you look at it from a strictly legal point of view, you don't get the entire picture."

The floor. I mean this really is a profound statement, this is the heart of the issue right here. It's not just the law that's important. The reason we need the law is what's important.

"It's an issue that is constantly debated ... balancing the goal of having people cool off versus the equally important goal of having qualified people come and work in the government," Baran said.

Actually Mr. Baran, the issue is, if these guys are willing to pull this kind of stuff standing on the ceiling, then maybe they aren't qualified at all.

It seems to me the single most important quality for high public office is integrity. If that existed, this wouldn't require debate.

I actually liked Steel, I think he was one of the few guys who talked straight about this 'implosion', it's to bad. Well, another one bites the dust.

The guy no one wanted in the room

"We print money for it, the value of the money goes down poor people pay higher prices" he said with a serious face. "that is a transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to wall street. Wall street is doing quite well..."

He was a little guy, and sometimes his voice was a bit unsteady, but he spoke with conviction.

I used to scratch my head and wonder where he came from, but then a friend pointed out he had been there all along.

"There's nothing radical about it, to me the radical idea is over spending, over borrowing and resorting to printing money when you run out and you wonder why you have financial problems," he began to laugh as he continued. "or borrowing money from the Chinese to finance our military operations."

After I saw his face I did kind of remember who he was, he'd been in the news a little from time to time, I had never listened, he said some radical things. But how would I know they were radical, I never listened.

He's still around, but I don't know where he went.

Fanny and Freddy: Obama says wait, McCain wants a bail out

Candidates talk about what to do with the two quasi-private banks, speculation on what the quasi-private Federal Reserve should do, not my words, look these entities up. Here let me help.

Federal Reserve System

FNMA (Fannie Mae)

FHLMC (Freddie Mac)

A lot of people wanted this thing to be government run, I mean this mess that started with the Fed and then the twin Fs.

But you know big money always wins these debates and they got there way and they put bankers in charge and then the bankers made undue use of "bank credit for the speculative carrying of or trading in securities, real estate, or commodities, or for any other purpose inconsistent with the maintenance of sound credit conditions". That's good isn't it, I poached that from US Code, Title 12, Chapter 3, subchapter 7, section 301.

Because really what we are talking about is people knowingly making "false statement or report, or willfully overvalues any land, property or security". I know, I got that one from US Code, Title 18, Part1, Chapter 47, section 1014.

The rest of US Code, Title 18, Part1, Chapter 47, section 1014 reads something like this...

"shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both."

I'm leaning towards both here.

Yahoo tells MS and Ichan to suck a lemon

The man who carved up TWA working a deal with the anti-trust kingpins and they don't have the interests of stock holders in mind, are you serious?

This could almost be one of those moments when an American company stood strong in the face of corporate raiders and mega corps, if this board wasn't a bunch of idiots you just want to smack.

Do people still use Yahoo search? Lets google sour puss.

Speaking of google, #2 is so far behind they can't even see googles dust, I don't even need to capitalize the name if you know what I mean (nods as good as a wink to a blind man).

Are the people who work at google in pain, doubled over, holding there stomachs from laughing there heads off at these little kids.


Yahoo rebuffs Microsoft-Icahn restructuring proposal - MarketWatch

"This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo's stockholders in mind," Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock



He's kidding right?