Ports

Remember the shells and bean game? Hide a bean under a nutshell, rapidly move the shells around, then ask "Where's the bean?" Are the American people unwittingly involved in a shells and bean game with much greater stakes: our national security vs. our American ideal of non-discrimination? The status of the acquisition of the operation of 6 American ports remains murky today, just hours before the scheduled turnover to the United Arab Emirates' government's corporation, DP World. The turnover of the ports is scheduled for this Friday, March 2nd, despite congressional calls for Mr. Bush to intervene.

If it seems like only yesterday that Senate and House Republicans were talking tough on the Dubai Ports deal, that's because it was!

Today, GOP leaders are singing a completely different tune. Here's Bill Frist:

Frist said Republicans trust the Bush administration and think its determination that the port deal doesn't threaten American security is "in all likelihood absolutely the right one."

Have we learned anything new to give us more confidence in Dubai? Not exactly! This is from the evil Rupert Murdoch's GOP rag:

Surprise - Bush lied again! Remember when it was just 6 ports?

UAE terminal takeover extends to 21 ports

By PAMELA HESS
UPI Pentagon Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A United Arab Emirates government-owned company is poised to take over port terminal operations in 21 American ports, far more than the six widely reported.

The Bush administration has approved the takeover of British-owned Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to DP World, a deal set to go forward March 2 unless Congress intervenes.

ON HISTORICAL MARKERS AND DIRTY DEALS

A SWEETHEART DEAL IN EVERY PORT (The UAE to run our ports? ...Help me out...Is that a democracy?)

Come on. When does all this "I'M SHOCKED" crap from the public get old?

You have to hand it to MICHAEL MOORE for being hot on the trail - the man who said the Bush family relationship with oil-rich Arabs, including the bin Laden family, was suspiciously tight. The Carlisle group (Bush) and the once near-bankrupt Halliburton (Cheney) are now making fortunes from the U.S. cookie jar.

WHAT ARE WE STARING AT NOW? A SWEETHEART DEAL IN EVERY PORT.

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.

Is the U.S. at war with the United Arab Emirates?

This is not an abstract question. In fact, it goes to the heart of Bush's "war on terror." And if we are at war with UAE, is Bush committing treason by putting its government in partial control of U.S. ports?

Bush's "war on terror" began officially on September 18, 2001, when Congress approved Bush's "Authorization for the Use of Military Force", which states: