Posted on 02/22/2006 1:39:33 PM PST by Nasty McPhilthy
Okay, first let’s get a couple of facts straight.
First there is NO American corporation capable of operating our ports. The London based company that was doing this job, Britain’s Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. was one of a very few capable of doing it.
Second, the President has no authority to prevent the sale of British P & O to the Dubai State owned corporation, Dubai Ports World. This is a private business deal. However, the President and his administration do have the power to terminate the contracts with this private corporation to operate our ports.
Sometimes good policy is bad politics and when that is true politics will always win out. In my opinion, the President should delay approval of the deal and call for Congressional hearings and recommendations for a solution to this dilemma.
Given that choice, then the question remains, who’s going to run them? Port operations is a highly specialized endeavor and American industry cannot afford to wait for a new company to come up to speed. The same argument holds for Senator “Microphone Moth” Schumer’s suggestion of using the TSA solution (true to his nickname, he was the first to pop up in front of a microphone to protest this sale). How long will it take for a federal organization to hire and train the necessary employees and get the whole operation up to speed?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want another federal bureaucracy operating facilities which ought to be run by private companies. Haven’t we learned anything from the USPS, Amtrak, and FEMA? Senator Chucky’s dream deal might be a socialist state, but it’s not mine. If you liked FEMA’s handling of the Katrina disaster, just wait till you see “Hurricane Harbor.”
Do we hire Haliburton to perform this function? They are probably the only American Corporation capable of taking up this function, but would require some time before they had that expertise. Besides, I can hear the Liberals howling now…“Cheney’s rich buddies…”…“Bush’s oil field friends enriching themselves…”…“A plot by Rove to get Haliburton another lucrative contract…” I can hardly wait.
By the same token Mr. President:
How can you be SO tone deaf? Did you really not expect this kind of reaction? Are you truly so out of touch with public opinion? Have you no clue what the American people feel about the Middle East?
Tuesday you stated:
“I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a . . . British company. I am trying to conduct foreign policy now by saying to the people of the world, ‘We’ll treat you fairly.’”
The answer, Mr. President, is that they ARE different. September 11, 2001 changed ALL dynamics with respect to the Middle East. I am astounded that you of all people don’t understand this. The enemy we are fighting DOES have an Arab face.
If 9-11 changed the dynamics, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with the deaths of over 2200 American servicemen and women have cast those changes in concrete. For you not to understand that is a disturbing fact.
I am fully aware that you don’t pay attention to the public opinion polls in making your decisions, and I am in full agreement with that attitude. It worked well for President Reagan and it has, for the most part, worked well for you. Such a philosophy leads to stability in governmental policy compared, for example, to President Clinton’s “finger in the wind” policy. However, there is a difference between independence, which is good, and obtuseness which is destructive.
What are you thinking, Mr. President? After five years you are finally going to use your veto on this? After years of profligate spending bills, only now you are going to use your veto pen?
You need to consider the debt you owe to the Republican Party. I am aware that you have no further political aspirations, but you owe your fellow Republicans some consideration. This may be a business winner, but it is a political loser.
Please wake up. This is not a time for you to stick to your guns. You owe the American people some deference to their feelings on this issue. Even worse, you have provided your political opponents, and those of all Republicans, a ready made issue in this election year.
Mr. President, Lindsey Graham described you as “tone-deaf.” I would describe this decision as your being blind, deaf, and dumb.
Political correctness is preventing our security people from doing their jobs more efficiently by outlawing “profiling.” Now you are allowing your desire to demonstrate your equanimity toward Middle Eastern nations to affect our entire nation’s peace of mind and potentially our security.
I have been an ardent supporter of yours on most issues, but on this issue you are wrong. It is time for you to reconsider and relent. There is nothing in this entire imbroglio that will suffer from a reasonable delay to allow Congress to investigate it.
It would be better, in this case, for America to proceed with a consensus opinion rather that one made unilaterally by your administration.
As for you hyperventilating opponents:
Take a breath, please. Take time to consider what I have stated above, our alternatives in this case are very limited. There are currently no American alternatives to Dubai Ports World. It is easy to criticize the administration on this, but criticism is pointless without a viable alternative, so don’t just whine, offer a solution.
I already know the Microphone Moth’s solution, a new federal bureaucracy like the marginally functional TSA. Do we really want another bureaucratic boondoggle on our hands? I know I don’t.
I also know this, if I were on the Halliburton’s board of directors, I would get my lobbyists activated, and put a team of experts together and come up with a strong port operations proposal immediately.
Who ya gonna call? Port Busters!
Right on point. BTTT
"First there is NO American corporation capable of operating our ports."
That's in the first sentence and it's all one needs to read to understand that this guy's full of horse apples.
For me, this is the big news here!
What has obstructed American companies from operating American ports?!
Is it unions, government regulations or confiscatory taxes?
And the dems would fall in line supprting Halliburton's bid.
I was against this deal until I read that Chinese companies run some of our other ports. If the Chinese why not the UAE?
Excellent, excellent article. Thanks for posting. Answered many questions I had, if I can believe what this person is reporting. (Isn't it sad that now days you have to question everything you read)...anyway, thanks for posting. I hope we can find an American company to perform this duty.
Pause a moment and take the following test:
In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by:
(a) Norwegians from Ballard;
(b) Elvis;
(c) A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
(a) A pizza delivery boy;
(b) Crazed feminists screeching that being able to throw a grenade
beyond its own burst radius was an unfair and sexist requirement
in basic training;
(c) Geraldo Rivera making up for a slow news day
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
(a) Luca Brazzi, for not being given a part in "Godfather 2;"
(b) The Tooth Fairy;
(c) Butch and Sundance who had a few sticks of dynamite left over
from the train thing
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
(a) Mr. Rogers;
(b) Hillary, to distract attention from Wee Willie's women problems;
(c) the WWF, to promote its next villain: "Mustapha the Merciless;"
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
October 12, 2000, 17 US sailors lost their lives on the USS Cole and this was done by:
a) That Purple Teletubbie
b) Gary Condit
c) LA Crips street gang
d) Muslim extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
December 2000 a person tries to light a shoe bomb on a commercial jetliner and this was done by:
a) Mother Theresa
b) an Italian guy from New York City named "Giacomo"
c) hard working Hispanic farm workers
d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked and destroyed by:
(a) Bugs Bunny,
(b) the Supreme Court of Florida trying to outdo their attempted
hijacking of the 2000 Presidential election;
(c) Mr. Bean
(d) Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
All three. And Halliburton, while it designs and builds port infrastructure, is not interested in operating ports because the margins are so low.
SSA Marine, a US company, operates Long Beach, but as a joint venture with COSCO.
All the above.
Did any American company even submitt a proposal?
I stopped there. Somebody give the guy a link to CIFIUS.
Name one US corporation in the business of running that many ports simultaneously. Or are you the one that's full of horse apples?
The President is not tone deaf. Since the first day he has led us away from ethnic and religious prejudice or profiling. And he is not going to change and pander to bigotry.
No, but SSA Marine is a U.S. company that operates plenty of port terminals. If we are going to go the route of American-companies only, we'd better be ready for the retaliation.
SSA Marine.
Yeah - that's where he was definitely wrong.
Phil T. Smith.
I chuckled all through the tests just thinking about his name.
Are you related?...:>)
That's all cute and everything but what does it have to do with the topic at hand? I have Arab people living on my block. You think I should just sneak into their homes tonight and murder 'em?
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