Lou Dobbs has the story, Crooks & Liars has the video, and Bush has a face-full of birdshot. I can't wait for the next rounds of polls!

Bush Family Ties to the UAE

DOBBS: President Bush's family and members of the Bush administration have long-standing business connections with the United Arab Emirates, and those connections are raising new concerns and questions tonight in some quarters about why the president is defying his very own party leadership and his party in defending the Dubai port deal.

CHRISTINE ROMANS: The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush's father once served as senior adviser and is a who's who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

Another family connection, the president's brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.

Then there is the cabinet connection. Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of railroad company CSX. After he left the company for the White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for more than a billion dollars.

In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that CSX sale. "I learned of this transaction probably the same way members of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers." [Yeah SURE!]

Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports' European and Latin American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency that oversees U.S. port operations.

And in other news...

• Bush takes the words right out of our mouths: "This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America."
• Dubai Ports World hired Bob Dole to sell its deal to Congress and the American people. NC Democratic Chair Jerry Meek demanded that Liddy Dole recuse herself from the issue.
• The former Emir of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum, hunted birds in Afghanistan with Taliban and Al Qaeda officials in the 1990's. (He died in January.) He went with Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, then the Head of Saudi Intelligence and now the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S.
• Prince of Darkness Richard Perle, who served on the Committee on Foreign Investments, told CBS it is "a bit of a joke."

DarkSyde spots a few minor inconsistencies in Bushevik propaganda:

• The deal has been long scrutinized and is backed up by our War President and the DoD and it's perfectly fine
• Rummy and Bush just heard about it the other day
• The UAE has been the best ally in the war on terra and has cooperated in all investigations
• The UAE owned company promises to cooperate in future investigations IF they get this deal
• Except they don't have to fully cooperate and have even been granted a special deal so that they don't have to keep records available to U.S. subpoena or court order, you know, just in case there's that needs to be hidden