UK Sunday Times: Dubai Ports row has left Bush high and dry

[PhilipShore]

The Sunday Times - Business, UK
Dubai Ports row has left Bush high and dry
February 26, 2006

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2058398,00.html

DUMB, DUMBER, DUMBEST.

So who are the dumb? Democrats who think the public will ignore all their votes against tighter security if they can stop an Arab company, Dubai Ports World, taking control of six American ports.

The dumber? Republicans who leapt on the anti-deal bandwagon for fear of being outflanked on the right by the Democrats.

And the dumbest? President George Bush’s staff, none of whom thought to tell the president that a company owned by an Arab government was spending $6.8 billion (£3.9 billion) to buy P&O, the venerable Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, established in the year in which Queen Victoria acceded to the throne. The company manages 29 ports around the world, among them facilities in Miami, New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans.

[seafan]

1. The author shot his credibility with this statement:

But such a policy should be adopted only after calm study of the effects of higher interest rates and other consequences of such a move towards autarky, not during a highly politicised debate between Democrats seeking to embarrass the president, and a White House that has elevated inarticulateness to new heights.

NOT that THIS ADMINISTRATION has spent the last 5 years trying to terrify Americans to death about Middle Easterners, and now, suddenly *we needn't worry about our security* when control of our ports is held by a country with a dark record for supporting terrorists/recognizing the Taliban as legitimate ...

...NOT that THIS ADMINISTRATION engaged in widespread racial profiling after 911, and now claims that because people are apprehensive and angry about this secret deal, WE are patronized and insulted as *haters*....

...NOT that the UAE just happens to be a long-time BUSINESS PARTNER of the * family,...let's see, GHWB, Neil, GWB, Jeb, Marvin and all their buds, forever cutting deals to enrich themselves, when there are millions of poor people in this country who are in need!!!

[Hoping4Change]

14. I thought the author's credibility was shot by his unquestioning

acceptance of WH spin that the dumbest man in America wasn't told it was an Arab company.

[Career Prole]

2. Dems "who think the public will ignore all their votes

against tighter security"?!
"Democrats seeking to embarrass the president" ?!?!

Who's the friggin' meme-spouter who wrote this article for the Times?

"Irwin Stelzer is a business adviser and director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute"

So what's the Hudson Institute, then?

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , chief of staff and national security adviser to Vice President Cheney until that indictment unpleasantness a few months ago, has found a new perch as he awaits trial.

Libby is joining the Hudson Institute -- a conservative think tank focusing on foreign policy and national security -- as a senior fellow, focusing on issues related to terrorism and Asia. He's also to advise Hudson on strategic planning and help other scholars.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010502119.html

I wish these people would just acknowledge bush is a total miserable failure without throwing in lies about us...but that would require judgment and integrity.

[Ronbrynaert]

3. nice catch

Conservative think tank editorial.

[Career Prole]

7. Ol' Irwin's got the stink of the neocons on him...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Irwin+Stelzer%22&btnG=Google+Search

[expatriot]

4. This is bullshit.

"Bush, forced to admit that he didn’t know about the deal or its approval until he read about it in the papers, was late engaging his critics."

The White House never said Bush found out about after he read the paper, but that he wasn't BRIEFED on it until it was in the papers. For god sakes, he doesn't read the newspaper. Who the hell is Irwin Stelzer? Sounds like a fake name to be. I think Rove wrote this article.

[Mandate My Ass]

6. This is serious bullshit, it does read like Rove wrote it

Most important, the trade-offs in this decision have become more complicated. Against any security problems created by Arab control of some port operations, and all disinterested experts say these are negligible, must be weighed the geopolitical consequences of telling a friendly Arab state that it is unwelcome in America.

That’s not all. If America puts down an unwelcome mat for Dubai, it will also be sending a signal to foreign investors in China, Russia and the Middle East that hostility to foreign investment is high. They might decide to put their money elsewhere.

This isn't just a company making an investment here! It freakin' port security, our most vulnerable point, and money shouldn't even freakin' factor into it. Put Americans in charge of American security, no matter what it costs. Bush has no problem putting his hand out to Congress for billions for Iraq because we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. :puke:

[Career Prole]

8. Check out the author...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Irwin+Stelzer%22&btnG=Google+Search

Not Rove, but close...

[Mandate My Ass]

9. oh my gawd

Yup! Dig the opening line of his SOTU recap article:

He came, he saw, he spoke. His was the sound, the opposition Democrats, sullenly refusing to applaud at many points, provided the fury, and sober reflection reveals the significance to be nothing at all.

[Career Prole]

11. LOL! The "sullen" Democrats provided the fury...

What'd the GOP bring? Oh yeah...their usual simultaneous orgasm.

[CJCRANE]

5. Full of RW framing & unproven assumptions.nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. "Economist Irwin Stelzer is Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man"

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,1329342,00.html

This is an editorial, anyway, not LBN.

[sablefish]

13. Just a thought....

Perhaps Bush wants to have another terrorist event in the U.S. To get the American people back into war fever mode. The way he can do this is to give the contract to the UAE.. (and pretend he was "out of the loop") When the A-bomb goes off he can swipe their oil too. They are just a U.S. puppet government like Saddam was... Why shouldn't they suffer too?

[CJCRANE]

16. B*sh would blame Iran..

Same MO as 9/11: Saudi & UAE patsies did 9/11 and B*sh used it as an excuse to invade Iraq.

[thecrow]

12. This is what I love about DU

From an article in a foreign newspaper DU recognizes the article and the writer as shilling for the GOP in under an hour, and connects the dots to a conservative think tank.

God bless the internet!!!
GOD BLESS DU!!!

I love you guys :)

[melody]

15. Like they had to tell BubbleBoy Dubai was an ARAB COMPANY???

This man who built his crappy businesses on oil money wouldn't know this?