The Harder They Come, The Harder They FallOver the last two weeks, the mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were saved from bankruptcy by the U.S. Treasury backing their debts, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch & Co. was swallowed by Bank of America Corp., and the Federal Reserve loaned American International Group 85 billion dollars. Over the last week the Dow Jones Industrial has fallen more then 800 points, yet compared to the week of September 17th, 2001- when the Dow fell 1369.7 points (14.3%) or December 12th, 1914, when the Dow fell the equivelant of 2336.17 points (24.39%) in a single day- we ain’t seen nothing yet.-Bloomberg, www.analyzeindices.com, New York Times
Pop Go the WeaselsOn September 17th the U.S. embassy in Sana, Yemen was attacked. Militants in uniform drove up and began shooting and firing rocket-propelled grenades upon the embassy. When the guards fired back the militants detonated 2 car bombs that left 16 dead. There were 6 Yemeni guards killed, 6 militants, and 4 civilians.-New York Times
Oops, We Did it AgainU.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently apologized to Afghan civilians for killing innocent civilians. According to the New York Times: “In Western Afghanistan, the Afghan government and the United Nations say about 90 civilians died. The U.S. Military says only 5-7 were killed, along with more than 30 insurgents.” Gen. David McKiernan has said that without more ground troops, the military must use more air power- which tends to raise civilian casualties. In Kabul he spoke out that “Our interests are the same as yours: an Afghanistan where all citizens can strive for a better and brighter future without fear of violence and terrorism,”.-New York Times
They Just Didn’t Want to Touch Him…In Tallahassee, Florida a nude man walking his dog was Tasered by police when he refused to cooperate. After being asked what he was doing, the man responded that “Allah told me to watch a Bruce Willis movie and walk the dog”. The cops reasoned that the Taser was the only way to get the man into custody without hurting him. This speculator is wondering if the cops feared the man may have pulled a Bruce Willis on their asses after that comment.-AP