Miscellaneous

Blackwater may be creating their own market. Turkish authorities have apparently seized weapons from the terrorist group, which espouses Kurdish independence (PPK), that have been traced to weapons brought into Iraq by Blackwater employees.

Speaking of guns...a couple of negatives on General Petraeus, whom I defended yesterday in regard to the moveon.org NYT ad. Remember that between his earlier command of the 101st Airborne and his present assignment, he served for a time as head of the U.S. effort to train Iraqi forces, which has not been particularly successful to date. Further, he was also in charge over the process of providing weapons for these forces-in-training...but established no process by which these weapons could be traced (i.e. the simple recording of serial numbers, who they went to, etc.). His only defense of this lapse has been "we were too busy."

And, finally today, there is the upcoming Dubai buy-in to NASDAQ. Apparently Dubai is purchasing approximately 20% of NASDAQ and will open a sort of NASDAQ East in Dubaii. More on this later, but this is a good example of supply side economics in the new global economy. Indeed, it might be seen as the nail in the coffin for old fashioned nationalism and American patriotism...brought to us by who else but the Bush Administration.