Un-UN With Hugo Chavez from Venezuela and Mahmoud Amadinejad from Iran blasting Bush and Bush blasting everyone in the world who doesn’t agree with US, the UN took on a decidedly un-united tone during it meetings this week. Isn’t it odd that the top reps from two leading vendors of petroleum would journey to the home of their largest customer and piss on his daisies? Are all world leaders so ineffective at governing for the people that they need to hide behind the curtains of war?


See No Evil The Canadians blasted the Americans for rendering a Canadian citizen to Syria’s harsh prison system where he was held and tortured for a year before being released, totally innocent of all except being born Syrian. Is this what American’s want to see? Is this what American’s see?

Pssst! Password? So a couple of thousand laptop computers disappeared from the Department of Commerce. But don’t worry, department spokespersons say, they are password protected. Now if only the Defense Department, whose computers are regularly hacked, would get some of these super passwords from the good folks at Commerce, we can all start to feel safer.

Eight Commandments? The Bush Whitehouse seems hell bent on election that it is going to change the Geneva Convention so that those responsible for violations will not be prosecuted as war criminals. They of course don’t say that; they say they need to torture people to find out why they want to kill us. In a related matter, the Bush Whitehouse wants commandments six and nine deleted.

More HURDles for HP? Now it seems Mark V. Hurd, HP’s CEO, might have had his mitts in the boardroom spy scandal ricocheting around silicon valley. CEO’s have proven slippery though, and it may be hard to stick him with any dastardly deeds. Meanwhile, HP’s stock has turned down.

Zuckenberg and Facebook Ever hear of them? Who or what are they? Your guess is as good as mine, but in that world that no one except the alien brethren among us knows about, Yahoo has offered 22-year-old Mark Zuckenberg $900 million, that’s just a paltry $100 million shy of a billion bucks, for Facebook, a social networking company for college types that lets them gossip, flirt and keep track of parties, those coming, not those in the past, which, presumably college kids of today like those of yesterday want to forget. Yahoo says they will keep Zuckenberg around to run the company as he wants (well maybe not exactly as he wants, but like anyone with $900 million invested might let him).

Another Virgin Sir Richard, already owner of a stable of travel, media, and entertainment virgins, wants that red-hot momma, Earth, to cool down her act, and he’s putting his money where his mouth is. Branson says he will put up $3 billion to develop energy resources that do not contribute to global warming. Hey, I like this guy and the Al Gore guy who helped persuade his thinking, but is Richard being eleemosynary or opportunistic? Keep your eye on alternate energy stocks...maybe you can pocket a buck or two.

No More E.Coli To get the government off their spinach, California growers say they will implement new growing and handling procedures to ensure they don’t ship e.coli infected products. How long did they plan on waiting?

$10 Oranges? The shortage of Mexican laborers caused by America’s crackdown on illegals streaming across the border has left California farmers woefully short of pickers, and their fruit is rotting on the branch. So, $10 oranges? Maybe not, but it ain’t gonna get cheaper. Gracias, Washington amigos, for another failed policy.

Please, Mr. Big Oil, “We would really appreciate it” if you changed your contracts. That’s pretty much the Interior Department’s response to its $12 billion mistake in favor of the oil companies. Of course, not one oil company said boo so I guess they didn’t notice the error either…I mean it’s hard to imagine ‘big oil’ being so disingenuous. Curiously, the Interior Department said it will not try to correct the mistake because it has no leverage against the oil companies and doesn’t want any. HUH? It has also prevented federal auditors from recovering $30 million in deliberate lease underpayments by the oil companies.

That’s all for this week, my friends. Stay alert; don’t get uh, twisted!