9/11 Nine Years Ago: A Day Spent in a TV Station –

How We Could Have a 6.5% Unemployment Rate Today Instead of a Koran Burning

Where were you on 9/11 nine years ago? What were you doing? I was in Houston and spent the day at a TV station as a “terrorism expert.” How’d that happen? Where do we go from here?

How did it happen? I was invited to the Houston Fox 26 station because I had been their “Middle East Expert” during the first Gulf War with Saddam in 1990. Why? Frankly, no one else was available. I was picked because I had been writing a “fiction” book about a flash war in the Middle East (and a terror attack on the U.S.) when Saddam invaded Kuwait. (I had been in international attorney for large companies but was laid off in the Texas 80’s bust. I figured it might produce some “income”). Little did I know that my “fiction” book would become fact within two years: first the Saddam invasion of Kuwait and second, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center (which really was the first attack on the U.S. but got little attention because it killed six people).

On 9/11, we had little idea of who was behind it and what was going on. My book was about Saddam leading such an audacious act, but I was wrong. Osama bin laden had created Al Qaida in the 90’s out of anger of U.S. forces being in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War. Bin laden had traveled the world; Saddam never left Iraq. Saddam and bin Laden hated each other – one was religious, the other anything but. It took someone with global experience to come up with the idea of using our own aircraft as flying bombs. It wasn’t the first time anyone had done so: Japanese Kamikaze’s did the same – but with their own planes.

Where are we now, and where are we going? Nine years later, Ground Zero is still just a hole in the ground. Not even the memorial has been completed. We seem to have lost the ability to build things. In California a pipeline over 40 years old exploded. Nearly 25% of our bridges are unsafe, like the one that collapsed in Minnesota over the Mississippi. After decades of complacency and inattention, we need a major infrastructure update - replacing half century old pipelines and old bridges is an investment in our future. China's infrastructure is NEW. This is what we should be doing.

David Brooks pointed out in a thought-provoking article today that our unemployment rate would drop from 9.6% to 6.5% if we had people with technical skills to match the unfilled jobs existing today! Instead, our young people are all trying to be lawyers, accountants or hedge fund managers, which are in overabundance. An example: When I left the legal profession to own and operate a green company, my income level jumped to the highest it had ever been, despite the worst recession in 70 years!

I think the recession has led to the rise in Islamophobia that we see today. I wish people were as concerned about rebuilding America’s infrastructure and skills training.

We could create an entire industry and jobs based on new clean energy, so we can continue being global technology leaders. Yet we seem to be focusing on answers that do not improve infrastructure or training – tax cuts for the top 2% will not increase training of high-skilled technicians nor replace bridges before they collapse or keep citizens safe from pipelines that are a half century old. Nor will it lead to using advanced drilling technology that is available in other countries but not our own.

Like Pearl Harbor, 9/11 was a wakeup call. But the answer is not finding fault with others who are building community centers two blocks from Ground Zero when there is already a Mosque four blocks away. The fault has been our own inability to build our skills or a replacement for the World Trade towers.

That is what America should be thinking about on this nine year anniversary of 9/11.

What Texas Did When Global Recession Hit a Year After Independence

Texas came perilously close to losing its war of independence from Mexico in 1836. It had no army, bullets, guns, shoes or cannon balls. They had to promise, beg, borrow and steal (as it turned out) to finance the tiny army standing against the huge army of Santa Ana.

They had the Texas government on the run after losing battles at Goliad and the Alamo. If it hadn’t been for an entrepreneur pulling up at Harrisburg (part of Houston today) in a steamboat – just as the first Mexican scouts popped over the ridge), the entire government of Texas would have been killed. As it was, they pulled away from the dock as bullets started flying.

And the year after they got independence, Texas was hit by a 5-year global recession. And do you know what they did about it? The answer will surprise you.

You’ll find out on this week’s edition of the “Global American” radio program. It covers not only little known facts about how close Texas came to remaining a part of Mexico (and Sam Houston and Santa Ana’s first meeting under a tree, where Houston was recovering from a bullet in the leg) but it also lays out the parallels between that time and now -- from global recessions to technology leadership.

What are the Global American values? They are the values of our founding fathers -- truth, equality and justice – applied on a global scale.

We also explore what it will take for America to remain a technology leader when China’s economy is predicted to exceed ours sometime in the next few decades. The host has negotiated technology agreements worldwide (as well as international kidnapping and fraud cases) and offers insights you don’t get from radio personalities who don’t have that expertise.

Potential solutions to these complex issues are part of the Global American series. Tune in Saturdays at 9 am Central time on (Houston) Business 1110 AM, streamed live on www.Business1110ktek.com .

A copy will also be on our website 24/7 at www.GlobalAmerican.org

Are Americans losing our core values?

Are Americans losing our core values?

Should radio personalities who promote hate and false statements be co-defendants in criminal court for inciting extrmists to burn a Tennessee Mosque or stab a NYC cabdriver? If not, then should someone who encourages an Islamic extremist to kill people be immune from prosecution? Aren't they the same thing?

Houston radio personality Michael Berry recently said "I hope someone blows it up" referring to the Islamic community center proposed in lower Manhattan. If he were a Muslim saying that about a synagogue, don't you think he'd be in jail now? What's the difference?

Free speech doesn't include the right to yell "Fire" in a theater, or to incite acts of violence --by anyone.

Have we fallen into the trap of extreme thinking - to heck with truth and facts? Is it part of a worldwide trend to greater extremism in religions other than Islam?

Are we ignoring our own best assets - our founding fathers values of equal justice?

We'll talk about American values today --from religion to politics and technology -- on the next Global American radio program this Saturday at 9 am Central time on Business 1110AM, streamed on www.Business1110KTEK.com and on www.GlobalAmerican.org

The Flood Worse Than Katrina - Do What the Taliban Don't Want Us to Do

The Taliban don't want us helping the Pakistani flood victims -which is exactly why we should.

I have been to Pakistan. Most of them are poor farmers trying to make a living with nothing, not terrorists. A few rich at the top control all the power, not these people who have only seen our stick but not any carrots (the top also hordes the money that comes in - so don't send money. Send goods with USA stamped on them!)

Our image has nowhere to go but up. Here is the perfect thing to donate--Family sized Lifestraw water filters. Bad water is the root problem right now. Here is the Lifestraw website link:

http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw

The floods are far greater than Katrina--Katrina displaced 1 million. Pakistan has had up to 20 million people impacted and displaced.

I'm also proposing it as a Rotary and Chamber project. If the Taliban don't want us giving aid, then that should tell you it is the right thing to do. Time is wasting. Act now.

The NY Mosque & What our Founding Fathers' Would Have Done

The 1st Amendment of our Constitution states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"

The controversy over the proposed Muslim community center with a prayer room a couple blocks from Ground Zero (which has been called a "Mosque") would have been supported by our founding fathers. Why?

Because that was one of the reasons they fled England, which under Henry 8 (VIII) made the Church of England the official church (because the Catholic church wouldn't let him divorce his wife, so he had her head cut off instead).

Our founding fathers saw the negative things that happens when one religion dominates a country as the "state religion," hence the language they wrote "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"

To make exceptions (you can build anything but a Mosque) violates that founding American principle. There was a time that Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues were banned. That was wrong for the same reason.

Now, for both Christians and Jews to suddenly say that the 1st Amendment should not apply to Muslims, because a few of their conservative extremists conducted an attack not unlike the Catholic IRA bombing in Northern Ireland of the 1970's is violating that other hallowed American principal: equality of treatment.

I am shocked that the Jewish ADL came out for the ban on construction, considering it has been on the vanguard of fighting against religious discrimination and for good reasons. Jews have been discriminated against for many centuries. But in saying that same rule doesn't apply to an Islamic community center, it is basically saying that its fights against religious discrimination has exceptions when it comes to Muslims. That throws out the very reason of its existence.

I have attended Muslim Mosques and community centers in Houston (as well as churches, synagogues), along with other Republican candidates for office (Congress). I heard sermons that sounded very much like the sermons I heard in churches and at synagogues - be good, take care of your family, pray - the same guiding principles. During that experience I learned that the Muslim Koran says positive things about Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The Jewish Torah doesn't mention it because they are still waiting for the 'messiah.'

Unlike most Americans, I was lucky enough to travel the world and actually see what is going on rather than just relying on TV and a blank slate on what other people are like. I traveled to Muslim countries as part of over 50 countries (including Hindu India and atheist China) during my negotiating days early in my career.

I found that the majority of Muslim people are not like Al Qaida; they are like us. They want opportunities for work and a good education for their kids, and to be left alone. Just like everyone else I've met on this planet. They also tend to be conservative.

But like all religions, including Christians and Jews, there are Muslim extremists who can't tolerate anything other than their own narrow views. Do we punish the entire community for the acts of a murderer - or just the murderer?

In a world short on freedoms of religion, America must remain the special example it was when our founding fathers established our Constitutional framework. We do not establish a state religion nor should we prohibit the practice of a religion, even when its near a place where a terrible crime was committed.

If we forsake our Constitutional values, we will be committing a worse crime - a crime against our founding fathers to insure that all religions are treated equally.

Climate Change, Myth or Real? On Global American Radio

Climate Change, Myth or Real?

Our radio interview with Dr. Ron Sass of Rice University is now available on our website www.GlobalAmerican.org

Check it out - your kids’/grandkids’ future is at stake. The Pentagon has issued a statement that climate change is a greater risk to America’s national security then even terrorism!

It is predicted that an additional 5 million more illegal immigrants could try to move into the U.S. as a result of climate change drying up their farms and incomes.

Recent events such as the worst heat recorded in over 130 years of Russia’s history and the unprecedented flooding in Pakistan, as well as the intense heat and flooding in the U.S.-- and the breaking loose of the super-iceberg in Greenland that has the potential of destroying ship traffic and dumping enough fresh water into the Atlantic to stop the Gulf Stream from circulating -- are were predicted as signs of climate change.

Dr. Ron Sass is a scientist, not a politician, has studied climate on a global scale. He talks about the difference between the impact natural emissions and man-made emissions have on the planet, and the impact these changes could have on the lives of your children and grandchildren.

Dr. Sass confirms that, yes, there is a natural cycle of heating and cooling of the planet -- but that since industrialization we are seeing temperature increases way above and beyond the normal cycle of the last 800,000+ years. In short, we are busting the cycle wide open.

Like frogs in the kettle being slowly warmed, there is a good chance we won’t notice it’s too late until we have already been cooked. Last winter, when the northern U.S. was hit by unprecedented cold weather, the arctic was over 40 degrees warmer than normal!

That extra warmth leads to greater melting that is shedding even the world’s highest mountains in the Himalayas of its snow and ice cover, which is feeding the floods in Pakistan, India and even China.

An ice melt of the Antarctic could raise sea levels 200 feet. Over half of the world’s population lives near the coast. No wonder why the Pentagon is worried since mass migrations lead to greater conflicts.

Logical reasoning tells me that if the climate proponents are wrong, we will end up with cleaner fuels, air and water, and more forests capturing CO2. If the climate skeptics are wrong and we do nothing, we could end up with a dead planet that looks like hothouse Venus. Which is worse for your children and grandchildren?

Check it out on www.GlobalAmerican.org

Pakistan's Nukes & Our Indifference = Trouble

Our indifference to the millions of ordinary suffering Pakistani's who have nothing after the worst flooding in the country's history will win us nothing but trouble -- when the people decide the Taliban are helping them more than we are. The Taliban are handing out soup and assistance while we do nothing."

Yes, it's a Taliban trap but people know only what they see. Are they seeing us there, helping? No. I hear supposedly intelligent people who say "they are already terrorists" so who cares? This is beyond stupid and shortsighted.

The millions of ordinary Pakistani's now homeless and without food and water are not terrorists. Most of them are just poor people trying to get by. Since the floods they have not seen any sign of their own government helping.

But our indifference could turn them into people willing to throw out their lousy government (where power is rotated among the few rich who could not care less about main street Pakistani's who are mostly dirt poor) --giving terrorists control of their nukes. How does that help us?

I've been to Pakistan. I'm sorry to say that most Americans don't know squat about the world we are supposed to be leading. Acting ugly and wanting to nuke anybody as a "solution" won't keep us great or make us great.

We need to be good global neighbors if we are to beat the Taliban and Al Qaida and show Pakistani's we are truly a great people - and avoid letting Pakistan's nukes fall into terrorist hands.

We need to do for Pakistan what we did for Haiti and many others in their time of need...its the right thing to do if we are to lead the world in the right way.

Duh!