It Would Be Outrageous Under Any Name or Pretext. (It's All About Conduct)

Updated Post, 2/23/06, below
Our ports just became more vulnerable
Hillary is the President and we’ve just learned that she’s been illegally spying on Americans and she wants lots more executive power to “protect America” even if this means operating torture (overt or covert) facilities and “rendition” programs in violation of a bunch of “old laws that don’t apply to today’s reality.” That she has surrounded herself with a bunch of extremists whose main qualification is loyalty to her & her corporate interests. She has had long and profitable relations with Arab leaders whose countries have been known to support terrorism. Her family has close ties to the Saudis (where 15 of the 19 highjackers on 911 came from), and the only civilian airplane to fly right after that tragedy was the one to carry Saudis out of the US. Hillary lied to Congress and the American people to launch a very costly & on-going war in Iraq that has made America from the most loved country to the most hated one in the world.

Now, insensitive to the feelings formed in our country after 911, she’s giving control of all US major seaports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The conservatives are outraged and are demanding the impeachment of the President for high crimes & misdemeanors, according to Artile 2, Section 4 of the US Constitution. After all, this conduct rises way above the bar set a few years ago when another President lied about a sexual tryst and was impeached for it. Can you believe it?

For a President that has been talking big about national security, he has shown utter incompetence and indifference to the needs of our troops & the veterans. Bush hasn’t done much to make our country safer. Sure, he can talk in the abstract about preventing terrorist attacks, but his policies show a different track. Katrina, four years after 911, revealed how unprepared and bloated with political cronies Bush’s administration is. Now he’s giving control to a UAE company, Dubai Ports World, not only our ports but much of the US Army’s movement of its military equipment—which flows out of two Texas ports.

Let’s see what the UAE/Saudis have been up to in the last few years. They have been the transfer point for nuclear material to Iran, Libya, and North Korea. They had been the only countries that recognized the Taliban in Afghanistan as the legitimate government. [remember that war & Mr. “Bin Missing”?] When the US asked for help to examine the financial transactions of Al Qaeda through UAE banks, they refused, just as they have been uncooperative with our investigations regarding terrorist attacks against us.

When the Chief Homelander, Michael Chertoff, was asked about it on CNN, he refused to explain why the administration has turned over control of operations at six of the nation’s largest ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, a country with dubious ties to international terrorism: “The discussions are classified. I can’t get into the specifics here…As far as my agency is concerned, port security really rests principally with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.” OK, in other words, “stop asking, we know better!” Sure, I cannot see any reason why we would not trust this administration…

I don’t know what to make of the following facts: Papa Bush was in a business meeting with a brother of Osama Bin Landen when the 2 planes hit the twin towers on 911. Dubya’s first oil partner in Texas was a Bin Landen who later got killed in a private airplane accident. Strange coincidence. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist/adherent, but if I were I'd say one of the Bushes may be the anti-Christ, hell-bent to bring about Armageddon. It could be good for business, especially for Bushco. And, if you profess to be a born-again Christian, who knows, maybe you'll get to see the good side of Rapture. It's a win-win situation!
So, what is your area of expertise?
Meanwhile, back in the real world, we have elected people who don't give a damn about the rest of us. And, having Americans, like FEMA'S Brownie, in charge doesn't exactly make me confident and secure. Why, Bush has surrounded himself with inccompetent people. Can you name one cabinet member (past & present) who's done an outstanding job? Has there been anyone who hasn't compromised his/her integrity?
I hear the laughter behind our backs, you know the kind, when the salesman thinks we deserve to be ripped off because we're stupid and we haven't done our homework....

Addendum (Updated, 2/23/06)
Bush hasn't vetoed a single piece of legislation since he took office, but he's ready to do so if Congress acts to invalidate the selling of American ports to a state-run company with dubious reputation. His spokesman, McClellan, lied again when he said that the top brass and the Secretary of Defense had been asked and approved of the action. Rummie came out and said he knew nothing about it and heard on the news this past weekend. Likewise for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace who also said that he found out about the deal over the weekend. The deal was concluded back on February 13th.

If there are any persons left who maintain the illusion that we're safer today, they should read this. The US authorities failed twice to to detect a shipment of depleted uranium in a container sent by ABCNEWS from overseas as part of a test of security at American ports. The 15 lbs containers went undetected through the New York/NJ and Los Angeles ports. "If they can't detect that, then they can't detect the real thing," explained Tom Cochran, a nuclear physicist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which lent the material to ABCNEWS for the project. Both containers were clearly labeled "RADIOACTIVE" when shipped from Asia to the US!

The race card
El Presidente, all the right-wingnuts, (and curiously, some progressives), have been trying to attach extraneous attributes--like racism--to this argument in order deflect the criticism and to make it easier to shoot down. What's unacceptable to me is that this adminstration handles security issues incompetendly. There is a huge public record out there about this, and most of us are very familiar & very uncomfortable with Bushco's policies regarding national security. [Those who care about racism, conditions of ..serfdom, and treatment of foreign workers, should check out UAE.]

Further, the deal to sell our seaports--a very sensitive security gate--to foreigners has to do with ..security indeed. I don't care if the persons in charge are white, black, green or purple, as long as they're qualified and are thoroughly checked to meet security clearance because of the sensitivity of their work. We do just that throughout our sensitive areas of our government, non-citizens are often denied security clearance, and those who get it usually don't have ties or have abetted terrorists! Of course, we have to ask questions and exhibit an alertness the Bush administration lacks. This issue slipped by [this is the timeline of the deal] for a week, when (as noted above) several key members of the US government weren't aware of the sale; some reports say that even the President didn't know until a few members of Congress raised objections!

Lastly, our concerns, much like our liberal attitude towards people, has to do with standards of conduct not with ethnic orgin, race, and religion. Why wouldn't you raise an eyebrow or two upon learning that the keys to our door were handed over to people & a country with a very questionable conduct? The blue-ribbon 9-11 Commission (to name one source) has documented aplenty the connections between UAE and terrorists.