> Frist announced today that he would break with the President and
> direct Congress to stop up the works on the port purchase. A good many
> powerful Republicans have joined him.  Dub immediately issued a
> declaration that he would veto anything that stands in its way. Don't
> we live in interesting times?  Frist backs up on a corporate message
> ... Dub backs up on a security message.  For the first time in too
> many years to count, Pubs and Dems are presenting a united front ...
> and the President stonewalls.

> Pod send us an interesting piece from the UK regarding the port
> purchase; she asks that we kindly not shoot the messenger.  Actually,
> I don't have any problem with looking at this situation "differently"
> ... in the Perfect World that lives in my heart, we welcome in those
> from other countries, people of good will, and we all work and live
> together in harmony -- except that it won't happen in Bushworld today.
> Dub created this hysteria ... AND the increased danger from such an
> event ... he's gonna have to live with the fallout.

> In the last years, traveling to the coast, I've had to forego my nail
> clippers and file, endure groping and wanding, and MAIL myself items I
> couldn't carry on a plane. A few months ago I was forced to surrender
> a pack of matches by humorless, grim-faced officials, while my luggage
> was being mugged -- contents scrambled, one item broken and at least
> one missing.  All in the name of security.

> It's an emotional response, a litmus on the world we endure today. The
> United States government doesn't trust one little blonde woman from
> the Pea Patch, USA ... or YOU, either ... but it trusts the UAE to
> manage the major ports in the country?

> It's the "trust me" shuffle, again. We've trusted that the ports were
> under control, only to discover that over a million pieces of cargo
> come in unchecked, daily.  The ports remain one of our most vulnerable
> areas for attack. Now Dub's fearful that if we don't allow this
> transaction, he will lose credibility with the Arab countries?  If I
> were him I'd worry about credibility with the American people.  If
> the US of A is no longer in the mood to trust ANYBODY, we can lay the
> blame for that squarely on the not-terribly-impressive shoulders of
> George W. Bush.

> Dub's on CNN now, giving his position -- "sends a terrible message to
> our good friends around the world."  Too late, Dub.  Message is
> already sent.  Life is dangerous, down to my nail clippers. And our
> "good friends" today may not be, tomorrow.  There was a time when
> Osama bin Laden was our good friend.  There was a time when Saddam and
> Rummy shared a big hug -- we've got the pic's in our photo album.

> The happy, out-going people we used to be has been replaced by a
> cautious, suspiscious population.  They don't trust a lot of things
> they used to, and today ... they don't trust the judgment of George
> Bush.  That makes me very happy.

> Hear that, Dub?  Hand over those clippers!  And untie those shoes,
> too!  MY rant for the day.

> Jude

> Jeremy Warner's Outlook: American aversion to inward investment from
> Dubai only harms its own interests
> Macquarie quits Stock Exchange bid; Private-equity tax perks under attack
> 21 February 2006
> http://news.independent.co.uk/business/comment/article346704.ece

> If they weren't so rich, one might even feel sorry for the royal
> family of Dubai. Not only have they been forced to pay far more than
> they intended for the ports operator P&O, but they now find themselves
> the object of a vicious political backlash in the US from congressmen
> who think that an Arab nation with financial links to the September 11
> hijackers, however tenuous, an inappropriate owner of the company's US
> ports.

> At this late stage, it's hard to see what harm this xenophobic
> nonsense can do to a deal which has been approved both by shareholders
> and all relevant regulatory authorities, including the US Committee
> for Foreign Investment.

> Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, has vigorously defended
> approval against the onslaught of recent days. To reverse that
> decision now would require a change in the law to force DP World to
> divest its US assets. Even if this were forthcoming, it wouldn't
> undermine the takeover, the attractions of which lie mainly in P&O's
> Far Eastern ports, not its US operations. P&O doesn't in any case own
> the US ports, which it only runs under licence.

> So the deal itself looks safe. More disturbing is the message this
> outpouring of ill-informed, semi-racist hostility sends to the Middle
> East. One of the hijackers came from the the Emirates and it is
> certainly true that some of the money to fund the September 11 terror
> attacks was funnelled through UAE banks. Yet to want to use these
> coincidences as a pretext to block the involvement of DP World in
> American ports beggars belief.

> What do these congressmen imagine will happen? That the ports will
> become a conduit for terrorist bombs? It's no wonder that so much
> Middle Eastern money has been repatriated from the US since 9/11. The
> environment in the US for Arab businessmen and financiers has become
> so hostile that it's scarcely worth the hassle of staying. Nor is it
> any wonder that these regions have become so determined to build rival
> centres of commercial, industrial and financial power.

> Dubai's latest plan is to funnel $15bn of its oil swelled coffers into
> developing a leading position in the global aerospace industry
> following its success in building what will soon be the world's
> largest airline. And why not too? By the look of it, they wouldn't be
> allowed to invest in these industries in the US... ++

> It is not enough to be compassionate; you must act.
> -- The Dalai Lama

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