imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
FORGET CARTER, LISTEN TO BUSH
Photo montage: Rush Limbaugh
I wasn't going to touch the port subject. Just wasn't. In fact, I was not even going to blog today as I had planned on writing, instead. That and wait by the phone as I'm still on "sick kid alert" -- this time asthma. (Because of an asinine law passed last year, should Little H need his inhaler, I'll have to go to his certified daycare facility and administer it to him.) But I digress.
Lately I've been lurking on the edges of politics since I can't blog on politics and write and do both well -- "well" being an entirely subjective opinion here. But this port issue is spewing forth like a volcano. I'm seeing thinking-engaged people become unhinged, especially when they heard that Carter is in agreement with President Bush.
I can't say if I'm for this port deal or not, but I do trust Bush. I trust him implicitly, which is not to say that I always agree with him because I don't. But I do trust him, especially when it concerns the interests of our country. So, with that in mind, forget that bastard Carter and listen to Bush.
Rush is right when he said this knee-jerk reaction is a tsunami.
What we have here is a tsunami. We've got tsunami of coverage on this port deal that is disabling any reasonable debate about this, and I know it doesn't help this idiot Jimmy Carter has just come out for this port deal. I mean, if Bush really wanted this, Jimmy Carter has just screwed it. Jimmy Carter's just blown this deal sky high by coming out and endorsing it.
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There are legitimate really good economic reasons to do this deal, as I said yesterday, but they are going to be overshadowed by the politics.
Here is a good article for some facts.
Paranoia about Dubai ports deal is needless
First, the deal has been vetted by an inter-agency committee. And ports, in any case, are in one of the most highly regulated sectors in the US. What matters is how they are managed, not who owns them.
Second, leading Dubai companies such as DP World bring with them certain advantages. They habitually: spend money to make money; headhunt the best professionals (in DP World that includes top Americans); and produce high rates of growth. The ambitious new $15bn aerospace enterprise Dubai announced this week will be built around that formula.
Third, the honourable senators might get this purchase in perspective by pondering the extent to which the Gulf allies they so distrust already own vast quantities of US assets, as well as dollar assets held offshore. For Abu Dhabi alone, a 1 percentage point move in US interest rates now means more than a $10 per barrel swing in the price of oil. Do the math.
As Rush pionts out, the port deal has caused some strange bedfellows and a delicious, albeit unintended, consequence.
Democrats Finally Acknowledge the Enemy
Now, I know it gives them an opportunity to attack Bush, but at the same time this is a rope-a-dope tactic, if nothing else, by Bush because now the Democrats have come out and admitted that there is an enemy. But up until now, Abu Ghraib wasn't necessary, Club Gitmo wasn't necessary, the NSA foreign intelligence isn't necessary. We don't have any enemies. The biggest threat posed to world security they think is George Bush. Now all of a sudden it's the UAE. Don't forget that aspect. There's a lot to learn here in this, and political events are happening here that Democrats are going to regret having had a knee-jerk reaction themselves on this because next time they run around the acting like there are no enemies. The enemy is Bush. Somebody can say to them, "Why did you oppose the port deal? If there are no enemies, if we really have nothing to face, what's the problem?"
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