A Few Words on the Dubai Ports World Imbroglio (Lileks, As Always, NAILS It...!)

James Lileks' Screedblog ^ | 02/22/2006 | James Lileks

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Uh I am not making that claim

Keyboard commando.

[skr]

Very interesting. Thank you for posting the link.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Thanks. I was post #5 on that thread.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I don't recall being terribly surprised.

Actually, the election of Hamas to power is a good thing. Now anything Hamas does is state-sponsored terrorism. Israel can respond with retaliatory strikes on the Palestine Authority and even the Euroweenies and the UN can't deny them the right of self-defense. Hamas has screwed themselves.

Iran is not part of the Arab world.

[LegendHasIt]

I never liked the term "Bushbots"... Even been called that myself a few times...

But I think the term applies to you. Lacking a substantive argument while insulting people questioning a decision that could have adverse, possibly lethal effects on tens of millions of people does not help clarify the situation at all.

By the way; some of us "Keyboard Commandos" 'walked the walk' long before we 'typed the talk'.

[Dane]

But I think the term applies to you. Lacking a substantive argument while insulting people questioning a decision that could have adverse, possibly lethal effects on tens of millions of people does not help clarify the situation at all

Uh Sir, my arguement is that I will trust a President's judgement who has killed more islamic terrorists than all President's combined, rather than those who think with their words from a keyboard kill islamic terrorists.

[Lancey Howard]

LOL, yet another pundit who knows more about the ports arrangement, not to mention complex diplomacies, than the Bush Administration. Where do all these geniuses come from? Why, the Muslims will soon overrun our docks, forklifting A-bombs from ships onto waiting trucks day and night - - it's obvious to everybody!!! Well, everybody except the "tone-deaf" Bush Administration, that is. . . .

The vain, knee-jerk stupidity of some people is staggering.

[FreedomPoster]

>>(Sorry, I don't know how else to reference that thread.)

Just cut'n'paste the URL. And the title, so people know what it is:

Just between you and me...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1583188/posts

JohnRob's software does the heavy lifting of turning that URL into a link. Heck, I can do the HTML, and I use that all the time for ease/speed.

[ARCADIA]

The next time we launch a major effort in this war; would a port operating company be in a possition to incite another cock up like this one:

http://dbacon.igc.org/Unions/21Lockout.htm

Or, have we so soon forgotten the problems that a west coast port shut down created for our efforts to toppel Saddam Hussein. Our Eastern ports kept us going at the time; so of course we feel the urge to surrender them to an enemy organization. The way some of you endorse the UAE you should consider emigrating there.

[Darkwolf377]

The UAE caused 9-11?

Why the hell did we invade Afghanistan and Iraq, then? OH, right, they're all ferriners, one's the same as the other, eh?

Absolutely shameful.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

The UAE is not exactly stuffed stem to stern with pro-American individuals; the idea that the emirs will stand foursquare against infiltration by those who have ulterior motives is the sort of wishful thinking that makes buildings fall and cities empty.

The UAE caused 9-11?

... *sigh*...

[Darkwolf377]

Please stop replying to my posts, your naseating racism makes me sick.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Please stop replying to my posts, your naseating racism makes me sick.

Butch up, sunshine. You troll in response to my postings; I respond.

Too tough for you? Try wearing a cup.

[VictoryGal]

I heart Lileks.

[arthurus]

My opposition to the acceptance of this deal is that the new owners of the company are the government of in Dubai. We simply should not be allowing major government entities of any government into such positions.As far as the domesticic political ramifications, I have to say wait and see. Bush has not shone himself to be "tone deaf" previously and the instances of the left piling on thinking they had him cornered up a tree at the end of his rope have all left the libs hanging at the end of theirs to date. His clashes with the right have tended to move him farther forward also; consider the Miers nomination. Without the Miers "fiasco" he might have had real problems getting Alioto through Congress. As it happened the opposition there was more token than real because he ignited the right, even if it seemed to be against himself.

[arthurus]

Harriet Miers was not a bad move. It galvanized the right and got Alioto almost clear sailing through Congress. It got our attention when it was needed much better than any exhortation to support Alioto or influence your Dem congressman to not oppose Alioto would have been. Miers may not have been a planned operation but I truly believe that as soon as W saw the conservative indignation begin to take form, he chuckled at a realized opportunity and played it for all it was worth and got Alioto through fairly easily. W's political sense is at least as good as Clinton's and and a lot more politically useful because he is getting his program enacted where Clinton was reduced to abandoning most of his(well, hers) and signing things like welfare reform.

[Alia]

I guess the same FReepers who were against Federalizing the airport now want us to Federalize the ports.

Bingo. And the same security precautions if not more will be in place. I wonder, at moments, during this recent dust-devil, if there's jealousy involved -- in that "some countries" have more money than others and therefore it's unfair they get to "invest" in American businesses.

[leadhead]

Lileks should stick to matchbook and postcard collections, he has no idea how ports work and what small role P&O had in US container traffic. In Baltimore they ran two of twenty facilities.

The billions spent by Dubai was for the Asian and Middle East port operations, very little was for US operations.

US Ports that want total control like Virginia, run their own terminals. Maryland decided to sub it out.

[TomGuy]

And we thought W had lost it when he nominated Miers, or when he ignored us on the southern border...leave it to Bush to dig an ever deeper and more confounding hole.

A couple of years ago, GW chastised Israel for not selling weapons to Palestinians.

I didn't understand why. Now, I think I do. The Admin is being graceful -- if your enemy has no weapon to use against you, give him one.

Dems didn't have enough ammo, so GW gave them this. MSM didn't have enough weaponry, so GW game them this.

Otherwise, I'm shaking my head in bewilderment at the Admin. Why would they hand the opposition such a juicy issue, during an election year, and indicate that they will make it the key battleground for the Presidential legacy by threatening to use the Presidential veto for the very first time?

[SJackson]

Bingo. And the same security precautions if not more will be in place. I wonder, at moments, during this recent dust-devil, if there's jealousy involved -- in that "some countries" have more money than others and therefore it's unfair they get to "invest" in American businesses.

You're close, it is unfair that American business can't invest in the UAE, only minority interests. The US should enforce reciprocity with all such regimes.