Bush Messages: Defeat Terror and 'Keep America Competitive' - New York Times

Bush Messages: Defeat Terror and 'Keep America Competitive' - New York Times

Fear Mongering! again.

Dow Closes Above 11,000 for First Time Since 2001 - New York Times

About time! The US equity markets, and even better year for the international markets. Time to sell your investment real estate.

Read more at www.nytimes.com/2006/01...

CNN.com - Poll finds anti-incumbent mood - Jan 9, 2006

It will be interesting what happen's in the 06 Midterm election. Corruption will always be a issue when power and money are in play. Hopefully this latest scandal will allow some reformist to make it a little more difficult for special interest $ to grease the wheels in D.C.

Read more at www.cnn.com/2006/POLITI...

Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein

This page is where I found the photos of Rummy and Saddam. It has a nice summary and supporting documents of the history between the US and Iraq.

Read more at www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/N...

Saddam Shaking Hands With Rumsfield Video

Click Here to download Video

Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.

Ahmadinejad’s nuclear gamble | Economist.com

Iran's current strength in the world is the direct result of two major policy mistakes the US has made. 1st the Occupation of Iraq and the subsquent instability that resulted, and 2nd not striving harder to be less dependent on Oil (i.e. finding alternative ways to create and use energy)

The US occupation of Iraq has left the world's police force understaffed to deal with potentially larger and more dangerous issues namely Iran's obtaining Nuclear weapons. Remember Iran not Iraq has been proven to support terrorist groups (Saddam didn't work with these groups because he feared them operating in his country could work against him because Iraq wasn't a secular Islamic Republic which is what the groups wanted all of the Middle East to be (ok I am generalizing here)

The Iranians with Oil at over $60 a barrel have been able to use their petrodollars to buy off the Europeans and Asians in any UN Security Council type action. The head of the Iraninan Nuclear program recently laughed at the idea that the US would be able to stop them from developing their program.

This most unwanted development is a result of poor stratigic vision by the Bush Administration. Of course it is also a result of Western policies for over a century coming back to haunt us.

Read more at economist.com/agenda/di...

DeLay Abandons Bid to Remain House Leader - New York Times

[About time!]

Read more at nytimes.com/aponline/po...

My 9-11-01 Story

On Tuesday 9-11-01, I was going to work like usual. I worked at 2 World Trade Center on the 62nd Floor for Morgan Stanley in their Investment Consulting Services Group. I was sore from running that morning (I had only just resumed running on Monday). It was such a beautiful day that morning I almost took the ferry from Hoboken to the WTC that morning.

When I got off the elevator my coworkers were running to the stairs saying something about a ball of fire. I knew at that moment then something was VERY wrong but I couldn't begin to imagine what was occurring only yards away from me. The run down the stairs was orderly we only stopped when the Port Authority came over the loud speaker and told us to go back to our offices because there was a fire in 1 WTC and they were evacuating it. I was on the 10th floor and going back up 52 flights of stairs wasn't appealing so I went to the lobby (the way the elevators worked in the Trade Center to get to my floor I had to take 2 elevators to get there an express to 44 than another to 62.

When I reached the lobby, the glitter of falling glass and debris immediately struck me. I knew then this was a really really big deal to put it mildly. I stood at the window and said "oh my god oh my god" for I think 5 minutes(I lost track of time from the shock of it all). What I saw was a huge ring of debris, ashes, and pieces of airplane, encircled by a huge ring of people looking at what had happened. Cars were on fire and I could see pieces of an airplanes wing. I pulled myself away from this scene because I knew I had to get out. To get out I needed to go into the mall area of the trade center, which required me to walk around the lobby and go down a escalator. As I walked around the lobby I was again captivated by the sight of the plaza between the two towers. But this time I noticed a more ghastly sight than before. The end of the short flight from the windows of tower one that people were taking to escape the jet fuel fires. Words cannot explain how I feel about seeing people just like me that had this choice jumping or burning. For a long time it was a lot of guilt which I have learned is a natural feeling after something like this occurs. I quickly turned away from this horror and headed down the escalator to the mall underneath the trade centers. Here thousands of panicked people were trying to find a way out. The regular exits were of no use as if debris hit us from 80 stories high it would most likely kill you. I remember someone in the crowd yelling "everyone go this way, no everyone go this way". Then all of the sudden a huge bang and the ground shook like an earthquake and the crowd scattered (if you've ever seen a school of minnows get scared this is what I was reminded of at this moment). I ran under the arch of a storefront like they tell you to do in an earthquake. I had no idea what had happened but I thought maybe 1 WTC had collapsed or something(I am sure this is when the second plane hit 2WTC). Luckily I then found some of my coworkers and we decided to run through the subway station at to the Chambers St exit. Exiting at Chamber St was the only place people were pushing to get out (Interestingly that subway exit is still there as I discovered when going to a meeting this year at the World Financial Center). I looked back once at the Trade center and didn't know why my tower was on fire ( I found out later about the second plane). After looking back my coworkers and I ran (literally) from downtown to midtown. It was eerily similar to a Godzilla movie where the authorities were yelling over loudspeakers everyone uptown. I finally was able to contact my parents I think around 10am. It was very hard to find a payphone to call them on, and cellphones weren't working as the network was overloaded from millions of NYers trying to use it. I found out that my office had collapsed in front of the W in Union Square. We finally got to a coworker's sister's apartment and were safe.

The hardest thing for me is trying to come to grips with how people can hate so much they would do something so incredibly horrible. I don'’t think I will ever understand this. I hope someday the world really does discover how to exist in peace not quarrelling over petty things. The days after 9-11-01, I was so struck by the common bonds we all have as humans, not just New Yorkers, but the small global village we live in. I will end this blog very simply. Never Forget and lets pray this never happens again.

Welcome to my Political Blog

I have A LOT of opinions on what's happening in the world. In this blogs I will document my thoughts how I think the worlds large trends intersect. Major themes I will talk about are the intersection of economics and policy, the impact of resource scarcity (oil, water, etc) on the global political sphere.

Professionally I have expertise on the global markets, but I also have religiously followed current and historical events since I was a young boy.

I was unfortunately on the stage for one of the United States worst moments.

I was on the 62nd Floor of the second World Trade Center to get hit by the Terrorist on 9-11. I will post more on this later. Needless to say it had a major affect on my life ever since. In this blog I will look examine how policy changes and other important ideas can hopefully move to eradicate the scourge of terrorism in our world.