the nations 6 largest ports will now be run by a corporation out of United Arab Emirates......

does our goverment hate us???????

Mucking forons! We're doomed at this rate.


Here is the story.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/16/congress.ports.ap/index.html?section=cnn_allpolitics

i love how chertoff says....safeguards will be put in place to make the deal more safe for the american people......safeguards=tax dollars from the american people...so we will pay more in taxes so they can sell out our jobs and security......

I agree, I think it is a mistake to have a company from the UAE run our port security, (given UAE's record of links to terrorism). But I also think it is a mistake to have a company not from the US run port security. So my question is hasnt the job already been out sourced for some time? The UAE company is simply buying out a British company that was already responsible for port security.

Maybe the UAE will give a big contract to Halliburton, so it will come out even.

Nothing like giving them a key to the door.

Maybe I'm wrong about this but as far as I can remember, the only catch worth noting on the war against terror was a large pile of C4 exposives in a van being smuggled in from Canada by some towel heads on a ferry in WASHINGTON state. I don't remember the details, but it was enough explosives to make a major BANG. It was a few years ago.

gvbest- that is true....it was a british company before the buyout......i think that the usa should be in charge of our own ports no matter what the country....corporate profits from enterprises based in the USA should stay in the USA no matter what the industry.

B-run
and that was durring clintons term and before the war on terrorism began...that guy was going to explode them in LA on new years eve 2000......right now ujama (i believe his name is) is sitting in the prison off of 2ooth street in desmoines that goes past the tyee golf corse

Kinda' like right out of, "When corporations rule the world." Actually, I haven't read that book, but keep meaning to add it to my reading list.

Countries don't matter to corporations. Only money, and borders are irrelevant except to the extent they can influence the acquisition of money.

When the story of the decline and fall of the United States is written, people will shake their heads at our collective stupidity.

Speaking of Corp's this is from a column in todays PI:

http://www.mariaesalinas.com/column.php?article=244

salmo- that is a great book....definately give it a read

Salmo, do you believe that individuals are on average less intelligent than in the past?

There was a mainstream (AP) article a few weeks back that said research shows that well under 50% of the population has enough "analytical ability" to read and understand a newspaper editorial.

Our founding fathers wrote a constitution which they thought would ensure rule, in a representative democracy, by analytical rational men like themselves. The majority that lacked "analytical ability", as the AP article called it, were to be guided politically by neighbors and family who had that ability in selecting rational men who would represent them.

IMO we have become so collectively stupid because the Rovians exploit control of modern media to bypass people with "analytical ability" and directly manipulate the vulnerable majority.

If so,our political system no longer works the way our founding fathers intended.

What's the problem? According to most of you guys we are not at war.

Sounds like payment for keeping their mouths
shut,about what was allowed to happen.

I am pretty conservative, and this one even has me scratching my head.

papaslap- you dont have to be "at war" to be concerned with a secure nation.- somehow i think you know that....do you support the decision of Bush corp.???????

From the CIA:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ae.html

"the UAE is a drug transshipment point for traffickers given its proximity to Southwest Asian drug producing countries; the UAE's position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money laundering; anti-money-laundering controls improving "

look them up under suffrage and you see that the UAE is one of the only countries in the world where people are not allowed to vote....the only other country i found with no suffrage was brunai.....

if we are pro-democracy......how can se turn our ports over to a country with no right of suffrage.....hell even in iran they can vote at 15 years of age.........and for those of us who are totally committed to capitalism.....how do you feel about turning our capitalist oriented ports over to a state owned institution........isnt state owned referred to as socialist or communist here in the USA??????

This is about as pleasant as scooping dog poop. However, I gotta agree that it seems the administration has gone nuts. I have been patient about the festering mess on our
southern border with Mexico. I can no longer be patient. Allowing companies that have given so much support to our enemies, control of our Eastern Seaboard is insane. Instead of the Cole for a target we now have the whole East Coast. And it is rather obvious that those companies are for sale to the highest bidder or worse, the purveyors of holy murder.

SS,

I don't believe that humans, on average, are any more or less intelligent than in the past 2 or 3 millenia. This is in terms of cognitive, or critical thinking, or analytical thinking skills. The primary difference regarding intelligence is the vast increase in information and access to it. But the ability to cognitively process information seems to evolve rather slowly in comparison to the increasing amount of information.

Intelligent men wrote the Constitution and created a representative democracy, which is unfortunately contingent on an informed and participating electorate. I say unfortunate because of the great many who choose to not participate by voting, or not be informed enough to understand issues critical to their well being.

Intelligence comparable to what exists today must have been around for a long time now. Ancient Greeks and Incas, for example, independently discovered complex mathematics. Probably Egyptians too, given their major engineering works.

I suppose some folks simply lack analytical ability, but I think the majority have the potential, but it never gets cultivated or developed enough for them to express it.

KK,

Ties to the White House? Oh, well now the deal at least makes sense. People important to Bush will make money on the deal. Bush may not be very bright, but at least he doesn't sell out his nation for no reason.

Papaslap,

Your point about being at war isn't relevant to the topic. The problem is that the Prez is hired to work for the national interest, not his family and friends' interests. Fortunately, some congressional Republicans are showing some spine, instead of being unthinking cheerleaders for the administration, and properly questioning stupid decision-making by Bush. The highest priority national interest is security. Outsourcing action that is directly related to national security to an entity that doesn't have the security of the U.S. as its highest priority is illogical by any measure. Outsourcing it to an entity that by many estimates is directly contrary to U.S. security interests may be treasonable. As problems go, does that work for ya'?

If TK/KT were here, he would tell you that all Muslims are fundamentally at odds with, and perhaps at holy war with, the entire Western world, and that we are in a fight to the death with them, like it or realize it or not. In which case, even a neocon like him would by logic alone, be opposed to this outsourcing security action.

Sardonicus,

Welcome aboard. See, it really isn't so much about liberalism and conservatism here. Many of us with a liberal bent are pretty tolerant of mainstream conservatism. It's the whack job of a Prez you and the fundy conservatives elected that has us concerned to the point of outrage.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.