Like an addict going into a bar after just getting out of jail for their last bender, Time Warner is going for the Internet funny money again.

This time it's Google, which has promised to rescue Time Warner's AOL investment by valuing the failing online service at $20 billion.

For Google, this is funny money. When your stock is like gold, while you know it's water, it's easy to give everyone a drink. Bubble companies always go through this phase. Yahoo did, Microsoft did, and now Google could buy Time Warner about five times over so why not toss it a bone?

But think about that for a moment. Time Warner -- even with AOL -- is worth 20% what an ordinary (albeit lucrative) search engine is worth. Something is wrong with this picture.

What's wrong with this picture is that no one -- certainly not Google -- is going to hand over the full 20 large. This is a political move, aimed at preventing a break-up of the company. See, CEO Richard Parsons says, the problem is the market undervalues us, AOL itself is worth $20 billion while the company is selling for $23 billion.

Carl Icahn isn't fooled, and you shouldn't be either. Google is not going to pervert its search results, regardless of any contract language. And this deal is more likely to sink Google than raise Time Waner.

But not yet.