I haven't commented on the United Arab Emirate purchase of a British company that has major operations in some of our largest east and gulf coast ports because, frankly, I thought it was a non-story. Boy, have I been proven wrong.
What does it really matter who owns the company? Most the workers are Americans. And we only check about 5% of the containers anyway !!! Did people just suddenly become stupid overnight?
Over the past week or so, the story has been covered on the various radio talk shows, and here is where they break down:
Rush Limbaugh sees nothing wrong with it, but thinks it was a bad political decision. He did joke that since Jimmy Carter supported the deal, it was doomed to failure.
Matt Mittan says the Emirates were a safe haven during Desert Shield/Desert Storm for U.S. troops.
Sean Hannity came down with both feet against The President on this one.
I didn't get to listen to my other shows, although I believe I know where they stand.
LOCAL POLL RESULTS
UpdateNumbers inside {parenthesis} indicate final numbers. {03-01-006}
My Internet service Provider, DNET,
has a section on their front page where they run polls on various issues of the day, and today's poll was very timely. (It may have been up for a couple of days, I've been logging on in a hurry and by-passing the intro screens.)
Here is the poll and the choices. I have placed the results beside the choice:
The Bush administration will allow a UAE company to run the operations of some large US ports.
Do you believe this was a good decision?
01.23% Yes, we have an open market and they had the best bid.
{01.13}
04.93% Yes, they (the US gov't) reviewed the purchase and said it was fine. {This {04.54} was my choice}
12.34% Not a security threat, but not a good decision.
{12.50}
77.77% No, this is a threat to national security.
{77.27}
03.70% I don't care either way.
{04.54}
Commentary
The results of the poll shocks me to no end. Although the vast majority of people on this ISP are in a couple of counties in Western North Carolina, past results have been generally translatable to the national population.
One ray of sunshine out of all this is that people are viewing people who practice Islam (even moderately) with a jaundiced eye. That is progress. In this case, I believe we are throwing out the baby with the bath water. If the UAE, or anyone else wanted to ship nasty stuff into the USA, the door has been wide open. No need to buy a company that runs ports. After all, this IS where most of our drugs have come through, and our illicit arms trade goes out. Trust me on this. The stuff that comes and goes by human mule across our borders is where the amateurs play before going pro.
I have sympathy for Bush 43 on this, but can't help laughing at him at the same time. In my opinion, this is a case of the chickens coming home to roost in regards to his criminal neglect of the borders...In particular the southern one. The people know this, and don't trust him with border security in general. If he had been tough on our border with Mexico, this deal would have barely made a ripple.
But, but, but Jimmy Carter agrees with Bush 43 ?!?
I'm torn.
Warning...Conspiracy Alert!
I wonder Who broke the story, and Who has been pushing so hard for it to get traction? Just wondering.
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