I’m hoping that the Department of Homeland Security is tapping the phones of one G. W. Bush. Because it appears that he’s in cahoots with a company, individuals or country that helped siphon money to the 9/11 hijackers, and is now endeavoring to take charge of half a dozen major ports–the most security-vulnerable means of entry into the country we have. And frankly, if someone is getting calls from people who may have assisted Al Qaeda, I want to know about it and know what they’re saying.
(Considering that even the most avid Bush supporters in Congress are lining up against this, it’s interesting to see that he has truly, finally become the uniter he claimed he was.)
PAD
• 
Al Qaida may have finally hit on a way to get the anarchy they have sought.
Not sure who’s really to blame for that mosque bombing.
Although, there have apparently been retaliation murders on the part of Shiites against Sunnis.
So, I pose the question here that I posed somewhere else: how many such incidents does it take before we can officially declare Iraq in a civil war?
Does any of this matter? Bush’s supporters feel no pain. They’re all too busy singing Kumbaya in the streets over the pending legal ban on abortion.
Maybe I’ll move to a country that doesn’t have a facist government for a change.
Dunno Rich, doesn’t look like there are any actually “free” countries left in the world.
Random points:
At any rate, whatever the wisdom of the sales to China, the point here is whether or not allowing foreigners to own ports with the explicit exception of Arabs will end up playing right into the hands of the Al Qaida forces.
Personally, I think it should be a federal law that only US owned companies should run our ports, but what do I know?
At the very least we should expect the UAE to make some public retaliation–I’d expect their people to demand it, not entirely without reason.
In which case, I would fully expect this administration to make the same response that they made when any other foreign government got into a snit over their decisions – “Fûçk ’em.”
Actually they don’t seem to have gone through the approvals process at all.
Seriously, is anyone even attempting to make a counter argument that this approval sailed through as a favor to a well-connected company?
One might pause to marvel at how Muslims went nuts over a few supposedly blasphemous cartoons when it is from within their own ranks that those who are able to destroy mosques emerge.
Which exposes the hypocrisy of fundamentalists. Not that they’d care.
Wow, Bob, you really are bucking for the title of X-Ray Jr, aren’t you?
What? You think he isn’t X-Ray?
Not sure who’s really to blame for that mosque bombing.
As per usual, they’re ultimately blaming us, although maybe in this case they have a point under Colin Powell’s “You break it, you bought it” theory of occupations.
So, I pose the question here that I posed somewhere else: how many such incidents does it take before we can officially declare Iraq in a civil war?
Consider it done now. But don’t worry, I fully expect the Bushites to issue another declaration of victory by, oh say September of this year.
Join me, Sasha, and we shall rule the galaxy as father and son.
Bush the idiot earns his name again.
Wasn’t port security one of his talking points after 9/11? And isn’t port security STILL in the same place now as it was then? Underfunded and ineffective, with only 5% of shipped cargo screened (let alone inspected)?
All sizzle, no steak. PR fluff and no substance. Incompetent oafs…..
“”All sizzle, no steak. PR fluff and no substance. Incompetent oafs…..””
Agreed.
So how did these guys get re-elected anyway…?
As they pointed out on the Daily Show, we can rest easy knowing our port security will be just as inept as it was before.
So how did these guys get re-elected anyway…?
Gay marriage, calling people cowards, dragging us into a war that we should’ve never gotten into.
All the usual BS from Republicans.
“”Gay marriage, calling people cowards, dragging us into a war that we should’ve never gotten into.
All the usual BS from Republicans.””
I’ll buy that…kinda scary that folks out there think those are the real issues hurting our country…
Because Karl Rove convinced everyone that if Kerry was president, everyone would turn gay, and then get blown up by the terrorists.
My question is why do we need other countries to manage our ports in the first place?
Can’t we manage anything ourselves anymore?
As they pointed out on the Daily Show, we can rest easy knowing our port security will be just as inept as it was before.
Which is why I find it hard to swallow that Bush really didn’t know about this deal. After all, there has been about half a dozen independent and bipartisan reports since 9/11 detailing how woefully inadequate port security is in this country. You’d think the president would pay attention to something that would impact on port security or at least on people’s perception of port security.
Oh wait, he ignored all of those reports on port security.
So, I guess he wouldn’t have paid attention to this deal.
Gay marriage, calling people cowards, dragging us into a war that we should’ve never gotten into.
That and the Democrats keep nominating these total douchebags to run against him.
Any other administration in the history of this country that displayed this level of both corruption and incompetence would have been raked over the coals. But the Dems keep shooting themselves in the foot.
1 Speaking of wire tapping
http://contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/morrissey%20quizzed%20by%20fbi_23_02_2006
I guess the SMITHS aren’t on Dubya’s IPOD
Now this is interesting.
Staunch ally, indeed.
More fun facts about our staunch ally.
“My question is why do we need other countries to manage our ports in the first place?
Can’t we manage anything ourselves anymore?”
Hëll, we outsource just about every other job in this country, what do you expect?
And the rest we give to illegal immigrants.
Personally, I think it should be a federal law that only US owned companies should run our ports, but what do I know?
I could live with that but since apparently 80% are foreign owned it will probably cause a lot of trouble. If it turns out that turning the ports over to US companies actually decreases the competance in how they are run it would obviously be counterproductive.
I wonder how many foreign ports are US owned? Obviously, if we institute a US only policy we will probably lose control of them. fair’s fair. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but one must look at all of the consequences. So far the ports have not been used for terrorism so we need to be careful about making cahnges for the sake of making changes.
So how did these guys get re-elected anyway…?
The ZDemocrats chose Kerry. Because they thought he was the most electable. No, really.
That and the Democrats keep nominating these total douchebags to run against him.
Oh great, now I have to clean a coffee/saliva mixture off of my keyboard. Thanks a LOT, Den.
BTW, thanks for the info on the UAE. In fairness, it is now claimed that they have been very cooperative since 9/11 and their cooperation is considered essential in controlling Al Qaida money since the UAE is pretty much the Swiss Bank of the middle east.
As for the bit about çámël jøçkëÿ slavery, let’s not kid ourselves–outside of Israel there is not a single country in the region worth a jot, at least as far as the leadership goes. If the leaders of just about everyu Arab country (and Iran) were lined up against the wall and shot it would be, by almost any moral judgement, entirely well deserved. But we ahve to work with what we have. Not that this means we have to give them our ports.
I think you put it well: You’d think the president would pay attention to something that would impact on port security or at least on people’s perception of port security. It’s looking more and more like there wouldn’t have been much impact but how anyone could have missed what would be the obvious perception is beyond me.
>So how did these guys get re-elected anyway…?
Voters.
There may be a nation, somewhere, where the majority of voters vote in an intelligent, well-informed manner but, if so, I’ve yet to run into it.
I wonder how many foreign ports are US owned?
If we own any foreign ports, then I’d really have to question why we aren’t controlling our own then.
The ZDemocrats chose Kerry. Because they thought he was the most electable. No, really.
And, iirc, he got more votes than Gore and Clinton ever did.
Apparently not so unelectable after all, as the Right would have you believe.
And, iirc, he got more votes than Gore and Clinton ever did.
Apparently not so unelectable after all, as the Right would have you believe.
Yeah, he also got more votes than Kennedy, Lincoln, Washington and pretty much everyone who ran during a time when there were less voters.
The next nominee will probably break his record, for much the same reasons. Even if he or she loses.
As for the right being the ones pushing the idea that he was unelectable–he got 3 million votes less than Bush. I’m not sure any other credible nominee would have done that badly. I don’t know that Dean would have won but I think he would have put up a much smarter fight.
But hey, you’ll have another chance to nominate him.
>So how did these guys get re-elected anyway…?
Voters.
There may be a nation, somewhere, where the majority of voters vote in an intelligent, well-informed manner but, if so, I’ve yet to run into it.
Sad isnt it ,much easier to go with the emotions ,ignorance and “isms ” when making your decisions then to use some common sense or heaven forbid read a book or a newspaper ,once in a while
There may be a nation, somewhere, where the majority of voters vote in an intelligent, well-informed manner but, if so, I’ve yet to run into it.
Don’t worry. The next time an election goes your way you’ll be amazed at how swiftly the voters will have smartened up.
“And the rest we give to illegal immigrants.”
Well, to be fair, a lot of the jobs we give to illegal immigrants are jobs most people would never want in the first place 🙂
Oh great, now I have to clean a coffee/saliva mixture off of my keyboard. Thanks a LOT, Den.
Anytime.
BTW, thanks for the info on the UAE. In fairness, it is now claimed that they have been very cooperative since 9/11 and their cooperation is considered essential in controlling Al Qaida money since the UAE is pretty much the Swiss Bank of the middle east.
It may very well be that they are very cooperative now, but it looks like prior to 9/11, things were different.
Speaking of which, I caught a little of the deputy secretary of the treasury testifying on MSNBC last night. He cited several cases in previous administrations in which foreign companies were given control of our ports w/o a full investigation.
Now, what could have happened since the end of the last administration that might make some people change the way people view this issue?
I wonder.
If nothing else, I hope this issue shines a light on how criminally irresponsible our port security has been since 9/11.
As for the bit about çámël jøçkëÿ slavery, let’s not kid ourselves–outside of Israel there is not a single country in the region worth a jot, at least as far as the leadership goes.
True. But if there’s a booming boy slavery trade in the UAE, it might shed some light as to why Michael Jackson wants to live there now.
I wonder how many foreign ports are US owned? Obviously, if we institute a US only policy we will probably lose control of them. fair’s fair. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but one must look at all of the consequences. So far the ports have not been used for terrorism so we need to be careful about making cahnges for the sake of making changes.
But part of the problem we’ve had is that we tend to fix things after the terrorists have taken advantage of them. Report after report has shown that our ports are vulnerable, but the President and Congress have refused to put more money into security (that $300 trillion dollar hole we’ve dug ourselves into might have something to do with it). I’d rather we improve things now than wait for the terrorists to try something.
True. But if there’s a booming boy slavery trade in the UAE, it might shed some light as to why Michael Jackson wants to live there now.
Jesus. Hadn’t thought of that.
I’d rather we improve things now than wait for the terrorists to try something.
No question. Actually, if they’d put some of the money they’ve blown on airport security into the ports it would be better. Not that I’m complaining about how safe the airports are but I really think that they are not where the future action will be. No 9/11 style attack will ever happen again.
I’m not concerned about the idea of a nuke being shipped into a port either, since it would be way smarter to just walk it over the border. I’m worried about some of those giant tanks of flammable stuff you see as you drive into NYC. It seems as though this is a pretty common feature in a lot of cities. I suspect it wouldn’t take much to set them off.
>Don’t worry. The next time an election goes your way you’ll be amazed at how swiftly the voters will have smartened up.
Sorry, no. In this country, at least, it’s a matter of if they get it ‘right’, it’s almost by accident, or because there wasn’t any other option open to them.
Consider in ’88 when the Conservatives (Canada’s answer to the Republicans) were re-elected with a majority, following one of the most scandal-plagued administrations in Canadian history, and after a promises-laden campaign. The day after the elections, they came out and said they weren’t going to be able to keep their promises, because the government’s finances were in worse shape than they had thought. Uh, how could they not be aware? THEY were the government before the election! This makes them either liars, or incompetent. Yet, lots of people believed them and thought they were doing a good job.
Or, in ’93 when, after another five years of nearly wrecking the country, they were handed a devastating electoral defeat, going from 177 seats down to 2. Unfortunately, the Liberals (Canada’s answer to the Democrats, sort of) won. I’d been a Liberal supporter pretty much all my voting life, but even to me it was evident they were lying through their teeth about all their fine election promises (tip off: they kept telling people “trust us, we’ll tell you how we intend to do all that AFTER the elections”.) So, of course, they broke pretty much all their promises, yet voters kept going “but, but, they PROMISED!”
Worse: that election saw the introduction of a new party which ran on a platform incorporating a balance of the best ideas of the right and the left. Fiscal responsibility (appealing to Conservatives) and making sure the little guy didn’t get trampled in the process (appealing to the Liberal type voters.) They outlined exactly how they would accomplish this in a credible, detailed manner, using the government’s own published, verifiable figures. They got my vote.
So, of course, not one of their candidates got elected.
Yet, still, Canadians whined about there not being an alternative to the Big Two parties.
I repeat: the average voter, by any standard of intellect you care to name, has all the brains of a piece of granite.
Bill –
The next nominee will probably break his record, for much the same reasons. Even if he or she loses.
I doubt it, as the %-age of the voting public has most likely decreased over the last few decades, save for the last couple of presidential elections.
Bladestar –
Well, to be fair, a lot of the jobs we give to illegal immigrants are jobs most people would never want in the first place 🙂
10-15 years ago, most fast food places were filled with people who weren’t illegals.
I doubt so much has changed in so little time, as to whether people would actually work such jobs.
No, the problem is not the jobs, it’s more likely the pay, and the fact that nobody should have to work a job at the piss-poor minimum wage rate (or worse).
“I’m worried about some of those giant tanks of flammable stuff you see as you drive into NYC. It seems as though this is a pretty common feature in a lot of cities. I suspect it wouldn’t take much to set them off.”
There was an interesting disaster novel, whose title escapes me at the moment, about that ten-fifteen years back. A liquid natural gas supertanker comes a cropper just outside New York city. It didn’t explode or catch fire, but one of the tanks ruptured, setting loose a huge cloud of freezing gas which pretty much froze anything it touched solid. The authorities were presented with something of a problem as the city was faced with an invading cloud which would kill anyone it came in contact with, assuming a stray spark didn’t set it off first, causing the tanker to go up like a tactical nuke.
Fortunately, FEMA didn’t exist back then, and the various levels of government were actually competent (this was fiction, after all) so, though many people did die, the majority were eventually saved.
I doubt we’d be so lucky in the real world.
Thought du jour
“People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.”
— Brooks Atkinson
Globe & Mail 0602.24
Don’t worry. The next time an election goes your way you’ll be amazed at how swiftly the voters will have smartened up.
1) What StarWolf said, with the addition of:
2) Depending on how many easily-manipulable-with-no-paper-trail voting machines are in place, I think it’s an arguable proposition that this country is ever going to have another national election with trustworthy results.
TWL
So you think there’s no chance that Democrats will increase their numbers in the House and Senate this year?
Hey, woouldn’t a better title have been “Sitting on the Dock of Dubai”?
Great, Starwolf just told the terrorists how to exploit one of our most vulnerable points, our ports. It’s a good thing the government has a lockdown on secu r i t
dámņ
LNG products would be replacing crude and refined oil products in the US by now if we could get over the safety issues. No one wants to build transfer facilities close to land for just the reasons Starwolf mentions. So we’d need offshore pumping facilities and underwater pipes to bring the LNG to shore. But then the pumping facilities would be hard to protect, since you can’t control the access from the water as well as you can on land with fences, walls, and gates and such.
So you think there’s no chance that Democrats will increase their numbers in the House and Senate this year?
How do you get that from what I said? (That’s also assuming I’m the one you’re responding to, which could be my error.)
I think there’s a chance they’ll increase their numbers, yes — possibly even a decent chance. I would not attribute that to any particular degree of or increase in voter intelligence.
Hey, woouldn’t a better title have been “Sitting on the Dock of Dubai”?
Ow. Ow ow ow. Very nice.
TWL
“This makes them either liars, or incompetent.”
Can’t it be both?
Tim,
Can’t take credit for it, I ran into it somewhere on the web.
Well, I figured if one really believes that the voting machines are being rigged by Rove and Co, it stands to reason that they will use them to win. I mean, what’s the point of being mustache twirling evil if you don’t USE it?
Just out of curiosity, StarWolf, how DID they save the city from the giant freeze gas?
Personally, I think it should be a federal law that only US owned companies should run our ports, but what do I know?
I wholeheartedly agree…I mean, I’m all for the world govt. people coming together, and all that other feel good crap, but this is a serious security risk. Not to mention that we should NOT NOT NOT trust an extremist Muslim country. Or an extremist Christian country…or any radical foamy at the mosth type. but I dare say the the radical Muslims in the Middle East have more than earned our total distrust. Call me when they aren’t rioting over cartoons, killing each other, or electing terrorists as the leaders of their country.
What? You think he isn’t X-Ray?
Nahhh…..he sounds nothing like X-ie.
Also, he isn’t posting all the time…
that is something X-ray could never deal with.
“Well, to be fair, a lot of the jobs we give to illegal immigrants are jobs most people would never want in the first place :)”
I hate that line. This is one of those lines that gets said so often that no one thinks about it before they say it. If they did, they would realize how full of it that line really is. Please, name just one of these mythical jobs that “we” won’t do.
Construction? We nail lots of illegals on the local construction sites around the Central Virginia area. Thing is, I know lots of people who are legally in the U.S. that have no problem with doing that job. I have two uncles who are in the biz as lifers (because they enjoy it) and I did it through my high school years.
Fast food joints, gas stations or quick marts? There are lots of legal teens and adult part timers who have no problem with that work. Don’t know many people who “won’t do” that kind of work.
Hard labor or “working the fields” for a living? Hey, I grew up country (and I’m only just turned 35). Most of my friends did that kind of summer work on summer vacation. We didn’t dislike it any more then we disliked any other honest living. Many of my friends have siblings who are 8 to 10 years younger then they are who have done the same thing we did. Not seeing much of a shortage of able bodies who are also willing in this arena.
I know lots of people who, when they were out of work, would have gladly taken just about any job they could find. Thing is, they couldn’t always find those jobs. What I’ve found, both personally and professionally, is that the some employers in those fields often don’t want to pay minimum wage or above to get this kind of work done.
The smart ones pay minimum wage. They can deny knowledge of the person being illegal if they played within the labor laws. I actually saw an employer in Florida get busted for paying around $3.00 an hour to illegal day laborers and not kicking in any benefits. He was dumb because he had no out when he got busted. When he got shut down, an employer who used legal labor moved in and filled almost every job he found with those “people who didn’t want to do that kind of work”.
******************************************************************************************************
“I think there’s a chance they’ll increase their numbers, yes — possibly even a decent chance. I would not attribute that to any particular degree of or increase in voter intelligence.”
Nah…… The Ds will only increase their numbers in the next two elections or win the 2008 race if they start learning to play smarter then the Rs. Playing smarter does not mean playing louder, dirtier, more dishonest or more disingenuous then the Rs. They’ve shown that they can do that very well. They’ve shown that they can do shrill better then most. They just can’t seem to pull off “smarter” lately. This is actually a kinda scary prospect for the future of the Democrat party when you consider that they’ve basically been getting outsmarted at every turn for six years by an administration that runs like the Three Stooges meets Howdy Doody.
The Ds have been getting handed one winning hand after another for six years now. What do they do with them? They throw them down and bet all their chips on hands filled with nothing and a pair of twos. You can’t win the game if you play like a twit and you can’t get public support for your side if you show that, while your opposition is foolish, you are both foolish and recklessly, aimlessly careless in the course you choose to take. They way they’ve been acting with the last few GOP “scandals” and SCOTUS nominations….. Well…. I don’t see the Ds’ national party figuring that out anytime soon.
Complete list of P & O North American port operations from web site (and not 6 like the news reports say):
Portland, ME
Boston, MA
Davisville, RI
New York/New Jersey
Philadelphia, PA
Camden, NJ
Wilmington, DE
Baltimore, MD
Norfolk, VA
Miami, FL
Gulfport, MS
New Orleans, LA
Lake Charles, LA
Beaumont, TX
Port Arthur, TX
Galveston, TX
Houston, TX
Freeport, TX
Corpus Christi, TX
Now will someone please tell the Chimp and Rummy?
>Just out of curiosity, StarWolf, how DID they save the city from the giant freeze gas?
Other than the basic plot, I fear it was pretty forgettable. Some of the cloud did make it into the city and killed people, but the bulk of it didn’t get that far. City officials may have opted to risk towing the thing back out to sea from the side away from the container breach, but don’t quote me on that. If it turns up in the next few days, I’ll let you know. As I think on it, I’d have been tempted to try cloud seeding, if the conditions were right, in the hopes of provoking rain which, while falling through the cloud, would have frozen and thus helped raise the overall temperature of the gas.
Any physics majors can check me on that?
Well, I figured if one really believes that the voting machines are being rigged by Rove and Co, it stands to reason that they will use them to win.
But you’ll note that I didn’t actually claim they were being rigged in said manner. I said that they have no paper trail and are easily manipulable, both of which are verified fact at this point.
Those two conditions make it difficult for me to trust ANY election outcome, regardless of whether I like the result — and I said above that the problem was having elections with trustworthy results.
At this point, heavy partisans on either side could claim a rigged vote, and nobody would have the slightest chance of debunking the claim. If that’s not a threat to democracy in action, what is?
Now, having said that … I just got home from a Dar Williams concert and am seeing my six-week-old nephew tomorrow, so I’m in way too good a mood to start any battles. 🙂
Any physics majors can check me on that?
Well, this physics teacher says it sounds plausible enough for decent fiction. 🙂
TWL
PAD,
There is nothing wrong with a UAE based company, not a government company, renting dock space at our ports. This is like Saudi Air having a terminal space at LaGuardia.(Which they do.)
The GOP outrage at the port deal, which was known and written about by the Wall Street Journal since November, is nothing more than posturing to distance themselves from Bush during an election year. When Lindsay Graham does this, I’m not surprised, I’m amazed it took him so long. Even John McCain thinks the port transfers are a good idea.
Hillary Clinton, in a fit of nonsense, has said we need to use caution before we “transfer soverignty” over our ports. WHAT?? Nothing like that is even being proposed. Yes, we’re talking about the UAE, which (a few people , NOT the government of)has ties to Al Queda and the 9/11 highjackers, but we’re also talking about Dubai, which is the most pro-american city-state in the UAE and which is a confederacy at best.
Comparing working with Dubai on ports to working with terrorists is like the police arresting you because your next door neighbor was caught on camera robbing a bank. “You live next door, you must have been involved! You must have known and did’nt tell us, that makes you guilty!”
If you’re gonna give Bush a tough time, stick to when he actually does something wrong.
Kevin
One more thing:
The ports ARE, and will continue to be secured by the United States Federal Government, not Dubai. Imagine that if the US actually did inspect 100% of all shipping cargo.
I can hear the cries now: “The Bush administration is throwing out the Constitution and raping our rights with illegal searches of cargo belonging to our citizens, with no warrants, including children’s toys! What is wrong with our President when our country is not safe and he’s spending time searching boxes of action figures!”
The more that comes out the more this looks like a phony crisis.
Consider the scenario Den proposed above–someone sneaking a nuclear device into the country. A very legitimate fear but why would they use a ship to do it?
There’s a chance it would be discovered even before it left it’s country of origin (At least if the country were the UAE, which was one of the first to sign up on a deal that allows us to do that–hopefully this controversy won’t scotch that). It could be boarded and/or sunk at any point along the long voyage. The number of days it would take to get to the USA increases the likelihood that info would leak out.
But they have the ports, right? A nice place to land. Well hëll, if I were a terrorist–and it’s become obvious that I and pretty much everyone on this board would make better, smarter terrorists than the real ones–I’d forget the whole ship idea and go right for an airplane. You afraid of ports? Airplanes land in every major city of the world and they come from just about every country in earth, with the possible exception of Cuba and Iran (and Iran just proposed resuming direct flights to America.)
An airplane would be faster and could land in any city you want, not just those on the coast. My Japanese friends assure me that an airplane is large enough to hold a nuclear bomb.
Our only chance to stop this sort of thing is at the source. For that we need the cooperation of the scumba…er, allied governments in the region.
Now if one absolutely has to blame Bush for something, feel free to criticize the ham handed tone deaf politically naive way this was handled. And lets tie it in to last week’s news–maybe if the Administration had come out strongly to condemn the cartoon riots, had stood up squarely for free speech, maybe then the public would have trusted them when they said this was a wise deal.
My guess is that the cartoon riots–already forgotten by the press–had a major effect on the public. They’ve pretty much given up on the Muslim countries, decided they are too alien to us to be able to trust. I saw some of my most liberal colleagues just shake their heads and say “These people are nuts.”
When the history of the 21st century is written, I wonder if there will be chapters written about the influence of 12 cartoons.
Bill,
If I were a Terrorist, trying to sneak a nuclear bomb into the US, or any other creepy thing, I wouldn’t bother with a port either. I’d sneak it thru the Canadaian border in a sleepy border town. (For the record, I have no intention of doing any such thing) That’s why this is a non-issue.
I live near the Vermont border and have crossed to Canada many times over the last 20 years, mostly with ease. I have a friend who parked in a Canandaian village and strolled through the woods into the US on a lark. (He was buying postcards) Now, he got “caught” and got sent a large civil fine for illegally re-entering the US, but you get the point. A backpack full of anthrax on the Long Trail is worth five nukes, and who needs that pesky Coast Guard meddling with your cause for Allah?
I don’t want any of these scenarios to occur, of course, and I don’t think it would come as a revelation to Al Queada or anybody with a $5.95 Rand McNally map that this is possible, so I’m not telling tales out of school.
What all this adds up to is that wether Dubai, Britain or the Holy See rents a seaport dock space or even several is a red herring. The only way we keep America, or really Western Civilization safe, is to make the point that political violence which specifically targets civilians is NEVER EVER an option, because the retalitory cost is far to grave.
Kevin Ryan
I’m sorry, but Bush has absolutely no one to blame for this but himself. He has spent five years speaking the language of terrorism, keeping Americans jumpy and frightened. It benefited the GOP, it benefited his reelection. And now it’s biting him on the ášš, because Americans in general and New Yorkers in specific hear that Arabs are going to be overseeing the ports and boom, five years of fear mongering blows up in Bush’s face. And it’s exacerbated by the perception that Bush is perfectly happy cozying up to powerful Arab concerns when it means money in the pocket of big business.
The issue, to my mind, is not so much the port safety as it is Bush’s obliviousness to the results of his own actions, a myopia shared by his handlers.
PAD
In light of PAD’s most recent comment (just above), people might find this of use:
http://www.youaredumb.net/archive/2006/2/24
TWL