called in sick yesterday

busy day in the office playing catchup from my sick day.
Should have either not called in sick yesterday, or called in again today.
Enjoy the news,
Bryan

Campbell's Soups stock rose today

I've been sick over the weekend and didn't even go into work today with a 103 temperature.
I don't which made me sicker, my 103 temperature or the 777 point drop in the Dow Jones.


On a positive note, Campbell's Soups stock rose today, as the prospect of soup kitchens opening across America comes closer to a morbid reality because of the failure of the house of representatives to pass a bill.


Since I was home with the flue anyway, I got to sit right in front of my TV and watch it all live.


By far, the best exchanges came from the House Representatives.


Soon after the failed vote, Republican Representatives held a press conference and Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) holding up a copy of what he said was Pelosi's floor remarks - said they had 12 Republicans who would have voted for the bill but changed their minds because of what Pelosi said.


later Rep Barney Frank (D, Ma.) responded, "Give me those 12 people's names and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them and tell them what wonderful people they are and maybe they'll now think about the country."


Wow. That's awesome. Who needs SNL or Letterman, when we have such outstanding comedians in government.
Enjoy the news,
bryan

economy bailout

House democrats and republicans reached an agreement on economy bailout early this morning.
Goes to Senate for vote TODAY, most likely before Asian markets open early this evening U.S. time.


The last two times Congress passed major legislation this quickly we got the Patriot Act and gave the President authority to go war in Iraq.


Ever heard the saying
"Good, Fast, Cheap ... choose any two?"


Which two do you think are we getting for 700 Billion?


Isn't this exciting!
Enjoy the news,
Bryan

Is a loan really a "bailout?"

Sorry, this isn't funny. I have an upset stomach and the ideas of bread lines for my 3 year old don't leave me in a funny mood.


Is a loan really a "bailout?"
The companies in question have made profits for years. Most have assets (land, houses, business, stocks, bonds, other investments) in the hundreds of millions. Unfortunately, these companies along with others are short on cash. Not bankrupt.


That is important. They can, given time, sell off their assets (how quickly could you sell your home or car and get what its worth?) and get some cash in their checking account to pay the day to day bills. But, a sudden drop in income (from an absolutely unexpected number of foreclosures and bankruptcies) has left companies like AIG short on cash, and there are few other companies have any cash to loan either.


My advise, if its worth anything, listen carefully to the political speak. If what a politician says gets your blood boiling then they are probably lying, or at best telling a half truth.


The issue of a CEO of a multibillion dollar company with assets in the trillions not getting his salary because his company was forced take a loan, when the entire U.S. economy is short on cash, is such a minor issue to me. Give the man his paycheck. Give his company a loan. Let the shareholders tar and feather him.


Congress has no business dictating salaries (BTW - I think minimum wage is a horrible idea in case you wonder where I come from.) ESPECIALLY when what is at stake is SO MUCH BIGGER than a man's million something salary. It just makes great headlines, sound-bites and late night jokes.


This has become a political BS job. Make no mistake, without the loans to these companies, the American economy will freeze. We think the photos from the great depression look bad? How would we feel living it? In my opinion it is that serious.


Write your congressmen and tell them to stop the political BS (most of them are millionaires anyway). Get the bill passed.


My three cents.
Bryan

middle of the night

Ever gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and just cringe to look at the alarm clock coming back into the bedroom?
It's like waiting for lotto or Bingo numbers... will it be 2am and I get several more hours of sleep, or 5 minutes until the alarm goes off?

If you're like me, seeing a 1 or 2 am number is like finding $10 in a jacket pocket you haven't worn since last fall.
But if there anything less than an hour before the alarm, I feel like I've had my wallet stolen.
It just ruins the rest of my day. I feel cheated. I can never get back to sleep and I just lie in bed cursing that last glass of tea/milk/water.

So lately as I've been reading and watching the news about the stock market, I couldn't help but feel like I had gotten up to go to the bathroom only to discover there is only a few minutes before the alarm goes off. No matter how much I would love to go back to bed, what's the point. The alarm is going to go off in a few minutes and I'll have to get up anyway.

These are the kind of days you just want to call in sick.
have a great day and enjoy the news,
bryan

Financial Markets and stock strategies for success

Hello all,
It appears to have been a wild weekend, financially speaking.

from what I gather, there are some very significant things happening in the financial sectors this weekend.
"Experts" say we could never have another depression like the one in 1929. Of course, experts in 1929 said the same thing.

Between now and Christmas, I predict some very bad things to happen to the stock market. i hope I'm wrong, and maybe the elections in NOV will change things, but with the baby-boom generation trying to retire in the next few years, social security out of money, health care costs, oil prices, etc., ... well you know.

But never fret, I have came up with investment picks for the near future to help us all out through the doom!
Just as my energy plan to harness methane gas from cattle (It's actually in this week's issue of Discovery Magazine, and NO I am not kidding!) was obviously right on target, well here are my stock strategies for the coming depression.

Bryan's Stock Picks for Success in the Coming Economic Depression
1. Campbell's soup Company - These stocks will boom once the soup kitchens start up again. Invest now, invest early, make money and stay out of the lines. Campbell's has been around since the late 1800s and has seen its way through numerous depression and recessions. Besides, their tomato and chicken noodle soups are American Icons. Mmmm, mmmm good.
2. Smith and Wesson - Not only buy the stock but buy a few handguns too! You may need them to protect you and yours when the soup kitchens run out of Campbell's. There will be riots I tell you.
3. First Solar, Inc - Already trading in the $200 range, this company is prone to just explode if Obama takes office and does what he said in the DNC at Denver and convert the entire U.S. economy to a renewable energy leader. Besides, any stock with the word "solar" in it is cool and words like "first solar," well now we're talking HOT!
4. Lonmin Plc - It's a platinum mining company in South Africa and trades for around $2,000 a share. It can go up or down 3 or 4 hundred dollars in the matter of minutes, so I don't recommend this for the financial roller-coaster weary. Of course, if you can afford to by this stock, you may not be too worried about a depression. But no matter what happens to money, platinum will always be in demand. It is one of the most rare metals on Earth. And its shiny too.
5. Johnson & Johnson - yes, the makers of "No more Tears" and those small white sticks with small balls of cotton on the end which we all stick in our ears, even though they are smaller than our elbows. The very one and same. I pick this stock because as I look through my medicine cabinet I discovered nearly 50% of it was full of their products or companies they own. they were trading around $60 a share just a few months ago, and are now around $70 and still climbing despite the rest of the markets falling. Besides, once the soup kitchens run out of Campbell's and people start using all those Smith and Wesson's, I expect the demand for Johnson and Johnson gauze and band aids to go WAY UP!

That's my finical three cents.
Enjoy the news,
bryan

the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Wow! What a morning.
The biggest news of the day has got to be that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) didn't cause the end of the world.

I had shared the story about the LHC with my son several weeks ago and jokingly told him it could cause the end of the world by ripping open a giant black hole and sucking the entire earth into it. We also saw a short film about it at the Maryland Science Center just last weekend.

So, this morning when we got up, he asked if he had to go to school today.
When my wife asked why, He said, "because the world is going to end today when they collide those atoms and rip a whole in space and time. Dad said so."

I got a very stern look from my wife, which I quickly passed on to my son.

"Now, son. That's not what I said."

"Yes it was." my son quickly argued. "Remember? You had just finished your sixth can of beer and said you wished you had more because 'come Sept 10, the world was going to end."

Que stern look from the wife.

"Um," I started.

"You said they were idiots to try and smash atoms..." he began again. "And that by smashing atoms at near the speed of light those scientists would piss off God and bring about the end of the world."

Luckily my wife saved me, along with the help of Google, which (those wacky search engine engineers) had placed an Icon atop their page today with tons of quick links about the LHC. Check it out today.

As it turns out, the test was conducted at 9:30 am local Geneva time. (At my writing, it is now 6 pm there and around Noon here on the east coast.)

So my wife read on that the test was really just a preliminary, and the real atom smashing won't begin for a few more months.

Then my son asked, "So on whatever day the world ends, do I have to go to school that day?"

So after a long pause, I finally fell back on the old parent stand-by answer.

"I don't know," I said. "We'll see."

Little story about Freddi Mac and Fannie Mae

Ever have one of those rough mornings? Didn't sleep well, weather is changing a bit. Cloudy this morning. Slight pressure headache. Slight sore throat. Wake up still feeling tired and drained (and no I didn't drink last night.) Just the start of the fall season I guess.

I find it hard to stay very focused on anything.
Well at least we can all enjoy the news.

Speaking of the news, I do have one questions/thought about Freddi Mac and Fannie Mae. If they bought mortgages from banks and packaged them as securities which were bought by foreign governments and foreign investors, and it is individual home "owners" who defaulted on their loans, where did the company make a mistake?

I think Freddie and Fannie are like a young Simba in the Lion King. Simba didn't know his uncle was an evil, murderous jerk. He trusted him and listened to him. What did it get him? Blamed for his father's death and self-exile for years.

As for Fred and Fan, doesn't the problem go back to:

1) the individuals who took out loans should take a little responsibility for themselves and their own decision to take out a loan for more than they could afford (yes, yes, I know some lost jobs etc al. But you don't get 1 trillion in housing debt from a 6% unemployment rate. You may have too many real estate speculators, but not honest home owners, in my opinion.) Something else is going on.

Back to the Lion King... Scar's decision to allow the hyenas to hunt in the same lands as the pride's devastated the savanna. Scar's partnership with the hyenas was a bad fiscal policy inreguards to food resources. When the USG let the hyenas hunt in the real estate market ... we end up with a savanna real estate wasteland.

2) and doesn't responsibility fall on the banks which made the loans in the first place? Many of which who couldn't or didn't sell their loans fast enough to the very same Fred and Fan? (Scar blames all his problems on Simba. But, when Simba finally stands up and slayes his evil uncle, he restores balance to the force and the balance sheet, by first kicking out all the hyenas and second taking responsibility himself.)

Just who is getting bailed out? Real estate hyenas and Bankers (Scar) or average home owners who fell on bad times (all the other animals in the Lion King world)? Or are we supporting foreign markets and encouraging them to buy more American debt?

Isn't it Ironic that Fannie Mae was created during the great depression (1938) to help the nation recover? Got privatized in 1968. 40 years after that, it is now on the verge of creating another one. Just makes me think that the Lion King is the greatest movie of all time. That whole circle of life thing. Who knew we could learn so much about world finance from a cartoon lion?
Have a great day.
Bryan

The GOP convention

Okay, its Friday and time to unleash my thoughts on the past week's White House Race, which has only been mildly more entertaining than beating my son in "Destroy All Humans!".

As one who is decidedly undecided… I’m trying not to be diverted.

Monday: Cindy McCain (looks like an older version of Paris Hilton) and Laura bush spoke. The convention was mostly overshadowed by Gustov, a large heavy sat man in front of the spotlight in the back of the auditorium.

Tuesday: A bit more interesting. Prez Bush speaks by video teleconference. I found it interesting he compared the “angry left” to the tortuous communist McCain faced in Hanoi. As if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are going to jab bamboo sticks under McCain’s fingernails if he wins. Ouch!

Former Senator and even more former television star Fred Thompson (I LOVED HIM IN LAW AND ORDER!) had something stuck in his throat (possibly bamboo) and could have used a glass a water or one less gin and tonic before taking the stage.

Being in the military myself, some of the things he said about McCain got something stuck in my throat and I nearly choked up when he talked about all the torture and pain McCain endured as a POW. But what really stuck out to me was Thompson's description of McCain as the leader of trouble makers. Made me think, “so are we electing a class clown?”

But by far the best line in Thompson's speech had to be, "Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit." (Who’s jabbing bamboo now monkey boy!)

Thompson was like a bulldog, tearing at the pants legs of Obama, as if he were a thief trying to break into the White House instead of getting elected to it.

Yet for all the talk of "taken on the political establishment" given by President Bush by Video, the wives, Thompson, and later Democrat Joe Lieberman (is it just me or does he look like the clown in the Simposon's?) it is sort of hard for me to argue against Obama’s point that McCain has been in public service for nearly 30 years, and one might argue IS the political establishment. In this light, is McCain going to take on himself? Shadow box in the oval office?

“John is an independent man who thinks for himself. He’s not afraid to tell you when he disagrees. Believe me, I know.” – Bush by tele.
Aughhh, but wait there is more….
Wednesday: VP pick Palin spoke. I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to be electing her or her family. The more I see of her, the more I wonder why we even need John or Barrack. If we need an air of fresh breath in Washington, SHE IS IT! Not a 72 year-old war hero or a young poplar kid with a gift for public gabbing.
Palin is a real wild-west frontier women with a drunken husband, knocked-up kids, and a child with special needs. (I can TOTALLY relate that.) I say scratch off McCain’s name! PALIN FOR PREZ ! Yeah, baby, yeah!
She had some of the greatest quotes too!
“I came to office promising major ethics reform… While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.” (I heard Cindy McCain bought it. But that may just be a rumor.)
“I thought we could muddle through without the governor's personal chef.” (So if elected, White House dinners with foreign guests will include a menu of bologna sandwiches, rice crispy treats and a pitcher of Cool-Aid. “Mr. Putin, would you pass the macaroni and cheese, please?”)
“I've noticed a pattern with our opponent... We've all heard his dramatic speeches … But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate.” (I think that’s called a bitch slap.)
“Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate, not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee. He said, quote, ‘I can't stand John McCain.’ … Clearly what the Majority Leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain.” (Slap, slap.)
“It's a long way from the fear and pain and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office.” (Now, that’s Shakespearean.)
Thursday: McCain…. Hmmm… his name is Irish, so I like him already.
Maybe you already know, but the “Mc” simply means “son of.” Sometime pronounced “Mic” (as in “you dirty mic,”) and is a negative slang term used to describe people of Irish decent, also as in “son-of-a-(female dog).”
I share this with because it hasn’t any relevance to the election, but merely to impress you with my vast amount of worthless knowledge, and well… perhaps illustrate just how irrelevant some parts of McCain’s speech were. At least that is how he seemed to me. McCain is no public speaker. His words may have been meaningful, but his delivery is a cure for insomnia. And how many times has someone mentioned Pennsylvania in a Republican speech?
But I would be remise if I did not talk about the protestors. How the heck let them in? One source I read said disenfranchised republicans. No less than three times in the first few minutes of his speech did someone come out and attempt to interrupt McCain. NOW, that pissed me off. I’m sorry, but your rights end where someone else’s begins. In this case, millions of AMERICANs (myself included) wanted to hear what the man had to say.
How DARE those first amendment hypocrites claim they have the right to free speech as if the Republicans don’t have a greater right to peacefully assemble? Go read the damn Constitution and Bill of Rights. Too many of my friends have bleed and died defending it for those individuals to flout it like that.
Now about McCain’s comments in energy…
McCain said, “We will develop clean coal technology.” (Clean burning coal? Both sides have talked about that. How the heck do you “cleanly” burn anything?)
He goes on…
“We will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.” (Encourage, as in “come on boy. Come on. Come here GM. Come make us some hybrids. Come on now. That’a boy.)
Energy is obviously a big issue. So, I have developed an answer to our energy problems. Cows.
Yes, you read correctly. Cows.
First, let’s hook up hoses to cows’ bottoms and capture all that methane gas they unleash. Secondly, we’ll burn all their manure in our energy plants. Then we’ll eat the cows cooked at Burger King on methane gas stoves. Oh, and then we can burn our own waste! We could even covert all our vehicles to run on methane. Just get one cow, put it in the back of your vehicle with a bale of green hay, attach the hose to your tank and your off! No more foreign oil or gas! Problem solved.
And I don’t care which candidate it is, Nuclear Energy (as we now have it) is not the answer to energy. Anything that produces waste that has to be stored for 1 million years 5 miles underground is the WRONG ANSWER! (In the United States alone, the Department of Energy states that there are "millions of gallons of radioactive waste" as well as "thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel and material" and also "huge quantities of contaminated soil and water".)
Going on…
McCain had some powerful words at times…
“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's.”
“My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.”
“If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier.”
Overall, he did pretty good.
Have I decided?
I am decidedly not. But then again, I may just be caught up in the ground noise and static.

Google Chrome Anyone?

THURSDAY...!!!! YEAH!

Has anyone tried Google's Chrome explorer yet? I'm hearing great reviews, but like so many things, it could just be media blithering on and on about something they either know nothing about or get bribed to say.

How long before Google becomes the big, bad Microsoft. Microsoft was once thought of as the greatest invention since the digital wrist watch. Now they are part of the evil corporation world out to dominate the world. Last time I checked Google was a publicly traded company as well. Mark my words, their time is coming....
Bryan

Perspective

In a small mid-western conservative town, a new bar started construction of a new building across the street from a church.

The church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers.

Work progressed, however, right up till the week before opening, when a lightning strike hit the bar and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his
building, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the buildings demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made it's way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork and at the hearing and said, "I don't know how I'm going to decide this. It appears we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that doesn't!

Report Says Mexico Drug War May Hit US

MY THOUGHTS:
This has been a back page story for months, but the shit in Mexico is getting real and according to this story may well bleed (literally) into the U.S. itself. According to this article the cartels have authorized killers to cross in the U.S. and murder law enforcement officials and politicians and hte like who are hendering their ability to transport drugs here. WTF! Is this a Hollywood movie or the old wild west?! I'm telling you know for the record, the end of modern civiliation is about to occur. Anachry and chaous will soon ensue! BUY yoy S&W now! And plenty of ammo.
BB

Report Says Mexico Drug War May Hit US
September 01, 2008Knight Ridder/Tribune

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EL PASO, Texas -- Drug traffickers could be more prone to confront U.S. law enforcement as they come under pressure as the cartel war continues to rage in the Juarez region, stated an analysis issued by the National Drug Intelligence Center.
The potential the cartel war could cross the border was raised last week when it was revealed El Paso authorities had received unconfirmed intelligence that Mexican drug cartels had approved sending hit men to kill targets in the United States.
More than 900 people have been slain so far this year in Juarez believed to be due to a war between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels. Juarez has also seen a jump in kidnappings for ransom and bank robberies, which total more than 50 this year.
"Once a dominant cartel is established in the El Paso/Juarez plaza, stability will return to the area and the flow of drugs most likely will increase," stated an annual analysis of the West Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) released in May by the National Drug Intelligence Center.
The potential for spillover of the cartel violence into West Texas was mentioned in the analysis, which included information from earlier this year.
"This violence could spill into the HIDTA region, since DTOs (drug trafficking organizations) may more readily confront law enforcement officers in the United States who seek to disrupt these DTOs' smuggling operations," the report stated. "Violence has extended into the HIDTA region in the past when traffickers felt pressure from U.S. law enforcement."
The West Texas HIDTA covers 12 counties near the border, including the cities of El Paso, Midland and Odessa.
But El Paso-Las Cruces area police and sheriff officials have said that it is unlikely that the violence will cross the border. Officers are prepared should it happen, officials said.
"I don't think the Mexican cartels will confront U.S law enforcement directly. Any confrontation will be the result of them coming after targets in the United States," said Robert Almonte, a retired El Paso police deputy chief who is executive director of the Texas Narcotics Officers Association.
"The last thing they want to do is confront U.S. law enforcement either local or federal," Almonte said. A confrontation with law enforcement in the U.S. would raise the ire of authorities.
Almonte said cartel enforcers prefer to lure targets into Mexico or kidnap victims in El Paso to take them to Juarez.
"They have been doing it over there (in Mexico) because they stand a much better chance of getting away with murder in Juarez," Almonte said.
The National Drug Intelligence Center analysis stated there are six major Mexican drug organizations plus 120 multistate groups and 606 local drug trafficking rings operating in West Texas. Groups range in size from five to dozens of members.
The Mexican cartels also have distribution cells in dozens of cities across the U.S. and have formed alliances with prison gangs, street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs, stated a Congressional Research Service report issued in February titled "Mexico's Drug Cartels."
The Dallas Morning-News reported that the Zetas, the notorious Gulf Cartel enforcers have been behind murders in Laredo and Dallas. The Zetas are also known to operate in Juarez.
The National Drug Intelligence Center report stated that law enforcement is up against a sophisticated opponent with extensive financial resources, including those of "corrupt Mexican businessmen," capable of funding high-tech equipment, including satellite phones.
Cartel gatekeepers are charged with collecting "taxes" on drug shipments moving through their turfs. It was such tolls that was behind a drop in cocaine in the El Paso region last year, revealed the intelligence center's report.
"Law enforcement reporting indicated the temporary suspension of cocaine shipments by a cartel operating in the El Paso/Juarez plaza occurred in 2007," the report stated. "This suspension is believed to have occurred because the organization implementing the suspension wanted to make sure that all cocaine shipments were being 'taxed.'"
In Juarez, authorities unable to control the crime wave are making changes to Joint Operation Chihuahua, the federal anti-crime offensive, which has been renamed Operation Juarez. More federal police officers arrived Friday and the Mexican army is expected to begin anti-crime street patrols this week, city officials said.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon said recently in his equivalent to the state of the union address that crime is the biggest challenge facing Mexico.
"I know Mexico faces a great security problem. This is a cancer that incubated for years and it wasn't given the attention it deserves but it is a cancer we will eradicate," Calderon said.
Calderon said that more than 100 federal police officers, 72 soldiers and five sailors have been killed in Mexico this year as federal forces fight drug traffickers, kidnappers and other criminals.
"It's a difficult battle," Calderon said. "It's a battle that will take time, resources and, sadly, human lives. But you can be sure it is a battle we will win with the support of the people of Mexico."