Just when I think I understand the world, and this country, something comes along that just totally baffles me. At a time when unemployment is skyrocketing, and outsourcing is gutting our workforce, why would we allow foreign companies to manage some of our largest seaports? Apparantly a London based company has been managing US seaports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. That's wierd enough, but now the Bush administration has no problems with the buying of the London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the company that currently operates these ports, by Dubai Ports, a company in the United Arab Emirates. Bush protests that the Dubai company is in full compliance with US laws, and has vowed to cooperate with all security requirements. He states, "I can understand why some in Congress have raised questions about whether or not our country will be less secure as a result of this transaction but they need to know that our government has looked at this issue and looked at it carefully."
Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats have objected to the sale, and requested that the President delay the move for further study. And the loudest objections are not coming from low-level legislators. House Speaker Dennis Hastert(R-Ill) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist(R-Tennessee) have both objected, and there is a proposal to pass a bill to block the sale. And in a further sign that the president is losing touch not just with the American people, but his own party, Bush has vowed to veto any such legislation.
So let's see if I have this straight, we spend billions in Iraq to remove a toothless despot with no proven connections to Al Quaida, the 9/11 attack, or weapons of mass destruction, but we are putting some of our most important seaports into the hands of a country that is known to have been the financial base of operations for some of the 9/11 hijackers, and is suspected in complicity with the smuggling of nuclear materials. Isn't it nice to know that more than two-thousand of our young men and women have died in the desert so we can allow the billionaire sheiks of the United Arab Emirates to monitor six of our most vulnerable areas?
Please, someone, anyone, impeach that idiot before he kills us all!
4 comments:
You and I are of like mind this morning.
I can't wait to see how his
ultra-conservative friends
defend this.
Pardon the expression, but
"they hate them A rabs".
All but their Oil $$ that is.
I started a hand written letter
to my Senators & Representatives
last night. Plan to call them too.
I'm sure I'm on their hit list.
P~
Marius,
You liberals are all alike! Our leader is simply letting the free market pick the winner (you do know about capitalism right)?
How do you think those "ARABS" got so rich? Selling oil to each other? Racing camels? Or perhaps they got rich selling oil to the largest consumer of oil in the world.
Think about the situation from this perspective. Would a "christian" bar owner try to get his /her most loyal drinker to get back on the wagon? Of course not, this would put our shop keeper out of business!
Never underestimate the power of greed. Regardless of race/religion, the pursuit of money will come before all else (remeber why you let Louisiana).
I think this company will go to EXTREME lengths to ensure that our ports remain open.
Wow. I know that you get a lot of ironic comments, Marius, and I certainly hope that this is one of them...
To Anonymous - Please note that the majority of the protesters in this situation are... wait for it... Republican. That would be "conservative". (kahn * sirv * uh * tiv)
The problem lies not in the fact that the peoples involved in the deal are businessmen who rely upon our country as customers. It lies in the fact that their systems of checks and balances are less adequate than the already pathetic ones that we currently employ.
A mere 5% of the cargo coming in to our country gets checked. That's one out of every 20, for you conservatives who seem to have such trouble with basic math.
The proposed buyers are not even this "efficient". Regardless of their intentions, to is far too easy to take advantage of, which is to our disadvantage.
Capitalism is all well and good, as long as you know what you are getting...
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