Pubs and Dems -- united at last!!
Planet Waves
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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Green Man
And things in the news are finally getting...interesting...for a change.
Big New Moon coming. Conjunct Uranus: surprises on the radar...
e
(typed to the tune of THE WALL blasting my neighbors...side 4 in fact...)