Dickie's Quickies

SunRocket, my VOIP provider has raised $25 million from a venture capitalist firm. My guess is that the VCs are seeing an opportunity to raise quick money by selling out in a couple of years to a larger firm, or buying up smaller ones in consolidation. For them, it's a win-win sitch either way. From SunRocket's perspective, they need the money. Their business is quickly growing, but more competition is entering the market rapidly. They've had some technical glitches in the past few months in part tied to their growing number of customers, so this money will need to go towards infrastructure as well as marketing.

The Saudi government, according to the NY Times, is warning the U.S. that Iraq may disintegrate. If that happens, so does the neocon "strategy" of "bringing democracy to the Middle East" any time, soon.

Here's an interesting perspective on the Bush Administration and the way they've run the country.

Of course, part of the point of fiscal responsibility, after all, is that disasters do happen and the government should have fiscal leeway to respond to them. But the US today has no leeway at all, thanks to this president and his party. The “compassion and resolve of our nation” are amply demonstrated by a whopping huge expenditure, the costs of which are to be imposed on future generations of American taxpayers. Or more accurately, coming during a week which also saw the annual rate of growth in the current account deficit hitting nearly $750 billion, (more than 6% of GDP), the President’s latest act of “compassionate conservatism” puts the rest of the world on notice that it is going to have to stump up even more credit for this Argentina of the northern hemisphere. One wonders whether these particular creditors’ goodwill is likely to prove as durable as the levees of New Orleans.