Here are two "political animals" that have no credibility on foreign policy or national security.
Posted on 02/25/2006 5:15:41 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
February 25, 2006
Look for Ellen Ratner on the barricades next time the World Trade Organization gets together for a coffee klatsch. On this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend, Ratner hurled the verbal equivalent of a paving brick through the window of a Mickey D's. Ratner escalated the flap over the UAE ports deal to an entirely new level, claiming no foreign companies, regardless of nationality, should control our ports, or for that matter other significant chunks of our economy.
Claimed Ratner, the real issue is "what kind of jobs, what kind of outsourcing are we going to do in this country?"
When fellow "Long & the Short of It" guest Jim Pinkerton said that foreign policy considerations [such as the potential relevance of the port deal to our ability to get intelligence and site bases in the Middle East] are more important than who gets port jobs, Ratner replied skeptically "is it?" Apparently for Ratner, the ability of the longshoremen's union to place a favored few of its own is more important than our country's national security objectives.
When host Page Hopkins suggested that the debate had become muddled because people didn't understand that the UAE company wouldn't have responsibility for port security, Ratner steered things back to her anti-globalization polemic:
"I don't think that is the issue: the issue is where do we outsource who owns airplanes, railroads, all those kind of things."
Hopkins: "Are we going to cherry pick and hold Arabs to different standards?"
Ratner:
"No, no, I would feel the same way, when I realized that Britain was running the ports I felt the same way. It has nothing to do with the Arab situation. It has to do with what are we outsourcing - who owns what in America?"
Hopkins: "But if we stop all foreign investment?, where will that leave us?"
Ratner: "We have outsourced everything [sic] and now our standard of living as statistics show this week has gone down."
Pinkerton, while expressing his own concerns about the ports deal and advocating a thorough vetting during the 45-day delay, scored this point: "It doesn't hurt our standard of living to allow foreigners to invest $8 billion in the US."
But Ratner couldn't be budged from her xenophobia:
"We don't allow our radio stations to be owned by foreign investment. There are certain things we don't allow. It has nothing to do with whether they're Arabs or Canadians or British. The fact is there are certain industries we're keep in America and we're not doing that and that's a big problem."
Continued the suddenly jingoistic Ratner: "Why don't we have American companies owning some ports in China or Dubai or anywhere else? Why has American business given up on this? We're a strong country. We ought to be owning ports."
Ellen Ratner and Patrick Buchanan - who knew?
We do. Every American port. Port authorities lease operating spots to private industry. Importers and exporters may own property near port operations but the ports themselves are usually owned by local government entities.
The level of debate on this issue is abysmal. It seems Ratner is under the delusion that the UAE is going to "own" American ports. Can somebody please give her a clue?
And her whining about why American companies aren't "owning" ports in other countries is even dumber.
Ratner:
"No, no, I would feel the same way, when I realized that Britain was running the ports I felt the same way. It has nothing to do with the Arab situation. It has to do with what are we outsourcing - who owns what in America?"
Well, #1, Ratner is obviously bullsh*tting for political reasons about security -- just as Schumer, Clinton and the rest of the Dems have...
However, a Democratic nation and British company were running the ports; NOT a Muslim country with ties to al Qaeda, international terrorism, third party arms smuggling, and taking candy from babies.
FWIW, I feel the same way about the ChiComs and the Saudis owning/operating U.S. ports.
The difference between the Malkins/Freepers, and Ratners of the world is...COMMON SENSE PRINCIPLE AND REAL CONCERN FOR THE SECURITY OF THE U.S., and the courage not to buckle under political correctness and a globalist NWO mutiny.
I always refer to opinionated b**** as Ellen Ratshit.
I don't necessarily support the UAE port deal. I want us to take a good look at it. But I do criticize Ratner's absolute opposition to foreign investment in the US. Would you be opposed, as she is, to the British continuing to run some of our ports, for example?
Here are two "political animals" that have no credibility on foreign policy or national security.
You help the democrats portray this administration as weak on defense...which as we all know, is not the case.
"She"
Yep. It's scary.
Ellen Ratner is such a nothing politically. She's a poor imitation of Sean Hannity--a gasbag. The only reason anyone hears her voice is because FOX News lets her on air. Why analyze any of the meaningless stupidity that comes out of her her mouth or off her pen?
Excellent post! Thanks for the laugh! The rat is perfect...so is the toad, for that matter.
First we learned that FReepers were in bed with Hillary. Today we learn Ellen has a lot of FReeper bedfellows as well. Yeeechh!! Talk about stinky finger!!
She is grossly ignorant as are most who rant and then rant some more about America blah blah blah safety yadayada.
If they really want something to complain about, consider the shiplines bringing the containers to the port terminals to be unloaded. There are no container American ships.....not a single one. The USA has been out of the business for sometime. The last great line Sea Land, the inventor of container shipping by the way, was sold to Maersk Lines a while back.
Control of off loading at a few terminals is but a trivial matter when compared to the total lack of control over the steamship lines.
We are t war and our sealift is carried in foreign ships under contract...... chew on that you Brigadeers.
Seen our borders lately?
I think our national security will be damaged worse if they block this deal, and we lose the UAE's cooperation. Hell, if we piss them off enough, they could nuke us anyhow they still operate ports in some 18 different countries.
You're right in that outside her Fox gig Ratner isn't a significant opinion-maker. But I just can't resist, and it does seem to spark some interesting debate here.
Not sure if anybody's interested, but Ellen's last name of Ratner is a derivative of the occupation of rat collector, which was a prominent job in Victorian England. So isn't it nice to see that the job of rat collecting hasn't left the Ratner family over the years?
Remember, our objective is to defeat the JIHADISTS - not revive the 'Ugly American'.
The UAE is about business and commerce, not Jihad.
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