Have you noticed? You can't even get any outrage going among FReepers, who can usually muster up outrage at a moments notice.
Yes, I know. It's distressing.
I for one (as were there others), brought this up during the port debate and were as outraged by this as the other. But, what are we going to do? Is it not obvious to all by now that this administration and most of our Congress don't give a damn?
I've written and faxed extensively about both, as well as the immigration issue, all of our elected rep's and quite frankly, I'm tired and I'm fed up.
If you don't notice the outrage, perhaps it's because everyone else is tired and fed up too.
What I find rather funny is I tend to be quite a bit more hesitant about the Dubai company taking over the plants than I ever was about the "ports" deal. I haven't done any research on exactly what parts it is the plants manufacture and just off the top of my head it seems like there would be more room to cause problems with the plants than there ever was with the "ports" deal. After all, they could start using sub-par material which would fail over time, they could slightly alter the specs which could also cause failure, they might have access to classified information, etc. (I underlined might simply because haven't done any homework like I did on the "ports" deal.)
Seems to me there's a lot more room for sabotage with the parts deal than there ever was with the "ports" deal.
I'm using asterisks around the "ports" deal because I did do my homework there and concluded:
It wasn't ports.
It was some docking facilities within the ports, a few terminals located in the ports, a few warehouses located within the ports, etc.
Security would still be handled by the same organizations who were in charge previously and are in charge today.
The same personnel who load/unload cargo would have been doing the same thing as they are doing now.
And so on...
Problem with the port deal is some people didn't look beyond the end of their own noses and all they heard was "The muslims are coming, the muslims are coming! And they're taking over the ports!"
These same people didn't realize the unions were upset about the deal because Dubai is known to upgrade and streamline operations. Needless to say there would have been people out of a job because of the mechanization of their jobs.
Quite a few people have an image in their head about countries in the ME, as in they live in mud buildings, they have poor education standards and are a third world country.
These same people refused to see the Board of Directors were made up of a diverse group of folks. Why, gasp, there were even a couple of Americans on the Board! (but they were traitors doncha know.) Also, the Dubai company couldn't possibly be interested in profits or be the slightest bit capitalistic because muslims aren't interested in that kind of stuff./sarc
Ok, off the soapbox now. More than likely if I did the homework on the manufacturing deal like I did on the "ports" deal, I probably wouldn't have a problem with it either. I just don't feel up to doing the research only to have it fall on deaf ears in the event my homework turns up no rational reason to be alarmed.
The illegal alien demonstrations have everybody kind of sitting back taking a look at how the wind is blowing and checking their Y2K stash. Aside from that, prediction dates for the start of the real ME war range from June to August. There are a few other things such as gold and possible bubbles that have people wondering. Even the C/E threads are running on auto-response anymore.
Sure makes you wonder about where the previous outrage by the "spittle flecked bloggers" and Sean Vannity. They were as sincere with their outrage over the ports deal as Bill Clinton was faithful to his wife.