I agree perhaps with Emperor Bush

So there's all this hubbub about a company headquartered in the United Arab Emirates taking over management of six major United States ports. A bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress appears to be racing to see which party can first take advantage of xenophobic/discriminatory racism to
claim that they're the party protecting America.

They're both fucking wrong. According to a Los Angeles Times editorial: "Dubai Ports World, like the foreign companies that already run the majority of key U.S. ports — including 80% of the terminals in Los Angeles — does not own the points of entry. It is a contractor that coordinates logistics. And most important, it's not in charge of security. Port operators work with U.S. security officials (port police, the Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security) in charge of preventing terrorism."

Of course this isn't to say that our ports are even remotly secure. More from the L.A. Times: "After all, ports could be appealing and vulnerable targets for terrorists, handling about 2 billion tons of freight each year, only 5% of which receives close inspection. The remaining containers are vetted through an informal process that emphasizes faith in 'trusted shippers.'"

But having Congressional leaders get their underwear in a twist over who's in charge of logistics, granted the U.A.E. is one of the few countries that recognized the Taliban as the legit government of Afghanistan, is misguided and a waste of energy. Additionally, the Bush administration has vetted this company. And though this is the President on whose watch 9/11 occurred (after he had seen an intel briefing projecting the likelihook of al Qaeda using jets as weapons), who lied us into a war and also assumes corporations can never do wrong--I do believe that in this case, they wouldn't turn us over to the enemy, as certain members of Congress seem to be chickenlittleing.

So there you have it, I'm actually taking Bush's side. Sort of. The fact that he didn't even know this company was from the United Arab Emirates before he agreed to this, well that's just bloody sketchy.

Dick Cheney is still the atheist devil, but at least he didn't shoot anyone today! yay! I live in a country, in which the Veep not shooting someone in the face with a shotgun is cause for celebration!

mike