Wall Street Set to Plunge

"It's going to be a very rough ride this morning for U.S. equities," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

"It's going to be a very rough ride this morning for U.S. equities," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

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Why Bernanke shouldn't cut rates

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Tea in Riyad

Give our regards to Riyadh
Jerusalem Post ^ | 1-9-08 | CALEV BEN-DAVID

Posted on 01/10/2008 6:02:50 AM PST by SJackson

When George W. Bush is done paying his respects to the memory of the six million at Yad Vashem and walking in the watery footsteps of Jesus at Capernaum, the US president can look forward to a far different experience when he touches down in Saudi Arabia next week.

There, according to the official White House press guide for this Middle East tour, the president will enjoy a tea service with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh's Nasiriya Guest Palace, which is "lavishly decorated in traditional Western European style, with Baroque furniture and numerous crystal chandeliers from the Czech Republic and Austria"; have dinner in the king's Riyadh Palace, with its "marble floors and walls containing sheets of gold, colored with precious stones and embedded jewels"; and enjoy a visit to Abdullah's Al-Janadriyah weekend farm retreat, which boasts "150 Arabian thoroughbreds" and an enormous tent-like structure with "tent-poles made of ebony and ivory with precious stones enclosed" and a "dining room that also includes an 80-inch flat-screen television the king often watches while eating."

Courtesy demands that a guest being welcomed in such posh settings should bring a suitably generous present for his hosts.

In Bush's case, this consists of a $20 billion arms package that includes the JDAMS (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) laser-guided "smart bombs" that Jerusalem would prefer the Saudis did not receive, even if it is reluctant to challenge the White House directly on this issue. ( ...continue)