New Links

I put up four new links today, just wanted to draw everyone's attention.

American Enterprise Institute is an old favorite, one of the groups providing the great, long-term thinking that drives the best of the conservative movement.

I had almost forgotten about the Concord Coalition. They first hit the radar in 1994 as the Republican Congress was trying to balance the budget over the objection of President Bill Clinton (remember, old people were going to eat dog food, no Social Security checks if we balance the budget). Ten years later, Concord is back on my radar, they have one agenda, balance the budget, and all of us need to pay that call some heed.

Then other two are new sources I came across courtesy of GJ Walberg.

In the Agora is a multi-writer site that has quickly become one of my favorite daily reads, check it out they are doing a great job.

Daily Recycler is the other new site, great video content, really different from other sites I read. Check this one out, the Jennings interview of Clinton is unbelievable.

Timothy Burger

Arrest These Men

Here is the video of Indiana Pacer employees (basketball players) assaulting their clients (fans). I hope someone at the Detroit Police Department sees this and arrests these men, they should go to jail.

I am not an attorney, but this looks like a crime to me and I would like to see the law enforced. The commentary over this incident has focused on a discussion of sports violence and out of control fans. I think that misses the point. This group of thugs had already started a fight over a routine play that cleared the benches. They were yelling at each other, threatening each other, and fighting before any fan did anything. Then they went into the stands and assaulted some fans.

If you want to look at this as something more than a simple assault, here is how I would look at it. We treat athletes (and rappers) differently than we do other people, we treat them as celebrities and let them off when they do things others would be punished for. If the guy at the concessions stand punched someone in the face because they didn't like what they said, they would be fired and go to jail. If that guy punched his co-worker because he didn't like how he was doing his job and then punched a customer when he objected to watching them fight instead of getting him a hot dog, I don't know what would happen, but he wouldn't get suspended from his job for a while.

Ron Artest and all of his team mates should be in jail right now, waiting for an arraignment on Monday morning.

Timothy Burger

Friday Investment Thoughts and Questions

-If you understand how the Kmart-Sears merger is going to create a company that can compete with Wal-Mart, Kohls, Target, Home Depot, etc. Please let me know. I just don't get it, two bad retailers, with extremely strong competitors combine and both the stock of the acquiring company and the target both rise? I have been looking into it and I may write a longer post, but right now, this makes no sense to me. Seriously, drop me an e-mail at timothyb[at]timothyburger.com if you have some good thoughts.

-Are American leaders trying to talk down the dollar? Earlier this week Treasury Secretary John Snow was talking it down, and today Greenspan said:
""Current-account imbalances, per se, need not be a problem, but cumulative deficits, which result in a marked decline of a country's net international investment position -- as is occurring in the United States -- raise more complex issues," said the Fed chairman." -WSJ

-Congress considers approving a massive $800 billion increase in the debt limit, bringing the limit to $8.134 trillion. Nothing quite like raising the limit on your credit card instead of controlling your spending, any guesses on how this will end. Add this to the weak dollar story, and consider buying non-dollar assets.

-I have urged shorting Google for the past couple of weeks, I now drop that recommendation. Since I made that recommendation Google is down almost $35 per share. If you are foolish enough to invest based on what you read on this page, you made some nice money on that short, take your winnings and go home. Google is probably still overvalued, and the price could drop more, but it could snap back up just as easily.

-Keep watching Merck, somehow the stock went up this week on a negative New York Times and 60 minutes stories. The bad news may be priced into the stock, we will see.

Timothy Burger

When is a Dollar Worth 80 Cents?

Paul Musgrave has a nice article about the falling value of the Dollar posted at In the Agora. The decline of the Dollar has been one of the reasons it has made so much sense to have a significant portion of your assets invested overseas in the past few years and a major reason why that will continue to make a lot of sense.

Timothy Burger

A Rival for Hillary?

From Instapundit:

"Patrolling the Bay Hap River, Kerry and his crew discovered they were about to be ambushed by a Vietcong soldier who had just popped up at the shoreline with a loaded rocket launcher in his hands. With the VC about to fire, Kerry crewmate Thomas Bellodeau shot and wounded the attacker, saving the entire boat.

Only then did Kerry leap to the shore to chase the wounded enemy down - finishing him off behind a hootch.

When critics suggested that Kerry's actions that day were something less than heroic, they were hooted down by the press.

Certainly the as yet unnamed Marine in Fallujah deserves, if not the Silver Star, the same slack the press cut Kerry."

Timothy Burger