Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 26 February 2006

Various big media television networks ^ | 26 February 2006 | Various Self-Serving Politicians and Big Media Screaming Faces

[snugs]

In the case of the UK they are faxed to the US prior to the boat selling by THE SHIPPING LINE so how is the operator of the port going to alter them.

[samantha]

Senator Frist and all the over reacting Congress People should just step back and assess the situation before they open their mouths. They are letting that Idiot Schumer run the show. He is the last person in the world that should talk about any Port Problems with his wife Iris Weinshall being the Commissioner of the NY City DOT and the incompetent way she has handled things. Just look at the Staten Island Ferry Tragedy where she was tagged by the Coast Guard for shabby running of the DOT and the part she played in that matter. She is still there and is protected by Bloomberg who hired as his Spokesman Schumer's former employee. Strange bedfellows.

[snugs]

Yes I did hear it was a bit like Kerry being for it before being against and then for it again total sit on the fence.

[prairiebreeze]

Reagan reference, of course.

[Peach]

That is VERY good information. And the damage our side of the aisle has done to the Bush presidency is enormous, imo. Not irreversible, but not good either.

[Peach]

Definitely. Maybe when we call their offices about various issues, we should mention FR and how to handle key word searches. Tell them they'd need to sign up for a screen name in order to do searches though.

[Morgan in Denver]

Morning snugs,

It's more like posturing now to see if a candidate can get traction for the future. The press loves the early start but front runners are not always the eventual candidate anyway. It's a competition to see who will claim to predict the candidate first. Meaningless but for the bragging rights.

[Bahbah]

Tell them they'd need to sign up for a screen name in order to do searches though.

LOL. I'll watch for the "rovianstorm" screen name.

[johnny7]

Looks like Feinswine's been seeing Paula Poundstone's tailor... what a clown-suit!

[Morgan in Denver]

Hi Johnnie, yeah, you're probably right.

Backbone? You want backbone? ROFLOL Yeah, right.

[A.Hun]

Goodmorning..along the lines of the kneejerk reaction of last week...I hope as the facts and issues become more known, we will see a backlash against the Dems,

My initial reaction was that it was no problem, and if Chuck Schumer was against it, there were far more concerns than the security of the ports. If that was not true, he should have been protesting the other international firms managing our ports, and just not this one.

I believe I have been vindicated, however, I do not have a problem whatsoever with more scrutiny of the deal. The ports are our achilles heal.

However, the unions are why Schumer made a big deal of this, not security. This has been an angle of the unions since 9/11. Schumer and the unions want to run the ports.

The fact that longshoremen are by far the highest paid blue collar workers in the United States inflates the cost of anything they are connected with, and the union's concern is the well being of the union, not the United States. Note the port shutdown of 2004 over replacing longshoreman by increased efficiency.

Here are some pertinent facts that may be helpful to people still making up their minds.

This is the letter that started the debate over the Port isssue.

http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/Dubai_Ports_letter.pdf


This is the Unions testimony before the Senate...if you read betwen the lines, it is a push for more union members on the docks.

http://www.ilwu.org/dispatcher/2004/03/2004-03-ilwutestifiesportsecurity.cfm

This is why the longshoreman's unions internationally would like to get rid of the management of ports, and the UAE in particular..

http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0206/itf1.htm

http://www.mua.org.au/war/dubai.html

http://www.actu.asn.au/public/papers/thewf/index-The.html

http://www.ilwu.org/press/2004/upload/MUNZ-ILWUletter.pdf

http://www.ilwu.org/press/2005/upload/mining_maritime05_rls.pdf

More union labor is not the only objective this brouhaha has served...New York wants every penny of federal money it can get to feather their own nest.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/166786p-145928c.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/166786p-145928c.html

http://www.cfr.org/publication/4317/conversation_with_charles_schumer.html

(By the way, Schumer says in this article that DeLay is a nice guy...go figure)

There are reasons that George Bush would be so adamant about not nixing this deal.

Here is general info on Dubai and the UAE

http://www.uaeinteract.com/government/default.asp

It is said that Dubai has helped in the war on terror but it is hard to find specific cases.

http://www.american-partisan.com/cols/2002/tremlett/qtr1/0212.htm

Their is no doubt that because of it's location, strategically the UAE is an important ally. It also has the only port in the region capable of handling aircraft carriers. As war with Iran is looming, control of the Straits of Hormuz will be critical.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2004/n08092004_2004080902.html

This has been a political masterstroke for the Dems, and one that has been planned for a long time. Pushing the union, embarrassing the administration by misrepresenting facts, sucking in naive Republicans, paying back Dubai for its anti-union stance have all been accomplished.

Maybe other Freepers with the right connections could find the smoking gun that lays out the collusion between Chuckie Schmuckie and the unions.

[rodguy911]

Absolutely Peach, that's a big one for us as well. When the jury is in I think the fact that there is no damning evidence presented by those opposed to the British sale of port leases to UAE will surface.What if's can happen under anyone's rule. The actions of UAE have been more in support of us than not for some time and we have to take the import of that into consideration. Looks like another great day on the threads. Thanks to phsstpok for the pre-thread and all he does, Alas Babylon for this thread and snugs for all she does,I will be in a work/freep mode today.

[anita]

I think some of these guys should handle Freepers to do their research and give them a little PR guidance. We'd do a heck of a lot better than their current staffs.

Right, Dick Morris said Bill Clinton received close to $60000 for his two speeches from UAE. How good it would have been if someone challenged Hillary with this information in the committee the other day.

[snugs]

My goodness I thought the National Health was bad enough in Britain but reading some of that article Canada sounds worse.

At least in Britain the private sector never stopped and in recent years has been used as a way of jumping the queue in the NHS. One tactic is to see the Specialist/Consultant privately he will then put you "up the list" for free NHS treatment. Sounds bad I know but we have already paid for the NHS through our taxes so why not use the system for our own benefit.

Also the NHS itself has used the private sector to help sort out backlogs and many people seeing the benefit have taken out some form of private cover. One new insurance scheme we have is that if you have not been treated for a complaint and are still waiting after a certain period of time under the NHS you can then go privately instead. A sort half way scheme but it is helping to take the pressure off the NHS.

[Morgan in Denver]

Congratulations Peach! Well deserved!

[A.Hun]

daybreakcoming spotted this:

[areafiftyone]

He's been on this since 9/11 but most people ignore him but the word is MANIFEST NOT MANIFOLD. UPCHUCK IS AN IDIOT.

[ken5050]

If anyone ever has a spare hour or so, it would be an interesting exercise to go back on these threads for the last year or so, and see how many times Biden, McCain, et al, have made the Sunday shows..

[rodguy911]

Congrats to all winners and participants in last weeks thread, another 1,000 plus post and near 20,000 page view thread outstanding.

[snugs]

:0)