WHY???? Why Is the Media Running W/ The Port Deal????

[Beetwasher]

:shrug:

That to me is the most fascinating aspect of this. They've latched onto this thing and are actually going apeshit w/ it. Yes, there's bipartisan outcry, yes, it's outrageous. But that could be said for other stories as well.

My theory: There are some power brokers who are actually and truly alarmed by the security implications of the deal and so they are running w/ it. Many of these people allowed the traditional media to cover for Bush for a long time to ensure their bottom lines. Bush was good for business. However, handing our ports over to a terrorist supporting state is NOT good for business. Another terror attack is NOT good for business and there may be some people, who while greedy have a shred of conscience left and draw the line at something so dangerous and irresponsible. That's my theory, what's yours?

[wryter2000]

1. My theory

The worm has turned, and they always want to be on the winning side.

[Quakerfriend]

7. Ditto!

[DrRang]

22. It's easy to visualize, like Darth Fudd, or Bill, Monica and the cigar

[nickinSTL]

2. I don't know...

But I like the top headline on CNN:

Bush: No need to worry about port security

http://www.cnn.com/

:evilgrin:

[JHB]

8. These aren't the droids you're looking for...

For some reason that clip runs through my head when I see that headline...

[smartvoter]

14. LOL. And it works in Freeperland. nt

[Chimichurri]

3. my local paper says there has been an outcry of people

contacting congress and local government because for 5 years we've been terrified into believing we are in grave danger and this has perplexed the sleeping populace. It's odd because there's been other things much more egregious, IMHO but I guess this was easy to understand.

[Hamlette]

12. I agree

Bush has told his people if you vote Dem you'll die because Arabs are out to get you.

He overdid the propaganda and it's coming back to bite him on the butt.

[NewJeffCT]

17. I think you are correct

We've been fed the meme that those brown skinned freedom hating people are all terrorists... so, folks are confused when they see Bush approving the sale to "those people"

[Marie26]

30. Their own brainwashing turning on them

"Fear the Arabs" has been so drilled into us that the backlash was inevitable. And they can't even back away from it w/o debunking their whole fear-based approach.

[wiggs]

4. Gift to GOP in election year. nt

[liberal N proud]

5. My guess is that is is similar to the Katrina effect

They haven't been turned around yet by the Rovian methods used on them in the past.

I am sure the story will be off the news is a few days, never to be seen again.

[MrPrax]

6. Could be a Grift?

It is not outside the realm of possibilities that Bush's buddies are MORE than capable of 'stringing along' UAE investors over a deal, they KNOW, will never go through.

In a deal like this, there are a LOT of fees, legal costs, courtisans and lobbyists payoff--could be the various fees from the deal not going through could run into the millions.

The rest of the scam is pure cream for the Repukes--Bush is defending it now...but then he turns around does exactly what his Harshest critics accuse him of not doing--'he listened to the American people' and in a grand flourish...kills the deal.

His buddies go home with cash, the media got happily distracted over a ratings winner and Bush looks like like a populist who listens...

Could happen

[KittyWampus]

9. Excuse me, but the WPost came out in favor of it & tv is giving Bush

apologists ample time to disseminate their lies.

[Beetwasher]

11. Yeah, I Saw That

But it's really a minority stance from what I can tell. Sure, they've got SOME cover and SOME outlets in their corner, but it's meager compared to what they can usually count on.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Let's see how much congressional Republicans use this for cover...

It's a cinch that (failing a new 'terra attack) congressional Republicans will want to distance themselves from a 30-39% approval president.

But how to do that and still support his agenda? :think:

[NewJeffCT]

16. even Bill Schneider called him "this unpopular president"

I almost hit the floor when I heard him say that Republicans are trying to distance themselves from "this unpopular president"...

[Beetwasher]

18. Get Out!

Damn, never thought I'd see the day. When was this, yesterday?

So many on this board have asked "When will they start referring to him as 'this unpopular President'", and there it is, from Schneider no less.

[NewJeffCT]

24. yesterday... down the hall from my office

They have a TV that is usually turned to either CNN, CNBC or MSNBC and yesterday there he was... basically saying how it played for both Democrats & Republicans. Said that Republicans could lose the national security edge if they don't oppose the ports deal, and it would also help distance them from "this unpopular president". Also said that national security is basically the only thing Republicans have to run on!

I think it was on Wolf's show.

[Cleita]

23. Wow! That's a 180 degrees from "this very popular President"

one heard over and over again in the news media a couple of years ago. Bush better have his ice skates on when he goes to Hell.

[Junkdrawer]

25. If I'm right, the Veto will be used a lot this year...

We'll see...

[BushOut06]

13. Maybe because both Dems and Repugs are pissed?

Not very often that you find an issue where both parties are equally pissed at the administration.

[Rose Siding]

15. I don't think there's any conscience involved

The issue does have broad interest, with different emphasis from varying factions. One thing the media can be sure of: they won't get heated flak from anyone but the most purist rovistas.

And what a catapult for the natioal political stage! Look at Hillary's proposed legislation to "prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from running port operations in the United States." This issue is a unifier that will appeal to left and right; everyone from populists to nationalists and even bigots.

[FormerRepublican]

19. They're on Bush's $1.6 Billion domestic propaganda payroll...

[Cleita]

20. Here's a little article about Dubai and their port security.

Dubai is one of the United Arab Emirates.

http://www1.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=C7ACB2AE-1ECD-471F-B7EBC50D1B5A9148

News that Pakistan's top nuclear scientist was engaging in nuclear arms sales sent shock waves around the world. What was alarming to security experts was how easily the sensitive materials slipped undetected through major ports. The sheer volume of goods shipped through seaports makes ferreting out contraband material a nightmare.

When Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan wanted to ship nuclear-related materials to spots like Libya or Iran, his customers had little to fear. The contraband goods, hidden amidst the huge number of massive shipping containers that move every day through the port of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, easily escaped detection.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Brookes, now a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Mr. Khan's actions have underscored the vulnerability of high-volume seaports to high-tech smugglers. "What we really have learned from this - not focusing just on Dubai," he said," there are a lot of places in the world where these sorts of materials, this sort of contraband, can pass through."

And if a simple smuggler can so easily move his wares through a port, it is even more frightening to contemplate what a determined terrorist might be able to accomplish. More at link.

Could it be that our global mega-corporations need ports that are more business friendly to launder money, smuggle in drugs and contraband and in general not be harrassed by port security? Wouldn't crooks like BFEE profit from this? Wouldn't the media finally think that this is going to far?

[Talismom]

21. What about a credible smokescreen to distract from the completion

of the new prisons in the US (for those like me who plan to disrupt their progress) coming to light just as the extension of the "Patriot Act" is rammed through.

[IsItJustMe]

26. When Lou Dobbs gets pissed off long enough, people listen.

Only explanation I can find. He was the first one that brought it up, and he's been playing that fiddle ever since.

I think you can also contribute to him the concern over Illegal Immegration. He is a major paine in Dubwas Ass. I'm honestly surprised that Lou is still around raising hell. Kind of gives me long term hope that this country may survive.

[kenny blankenship]

27. Ma and Pa Kettle are scandalized (rightly); public sensation lures media

For 5 years the folks-at-home have been whipped up into a lather of excitment and pleasantly terrorized by Bush's Global War On Everything. Even more tantalizing than the idea of acquiring real estate on the other side of the globe is the constantly repeated theme that the Enemy is coming from the dark side of the globe, or the moon, to attack us: "They're under the bed, around the corner, booking their flights RIGHT NOW to come and get us." It has been the central fact of the nation's life; when we aren't stuck in traffic or watching movies about gay cowboys eating pudding we are all huddled and shivering in fear. The only reason we aren't all wearing black latex and ball gags is because the bondage and domination is so complete in this scene, no props have been necessary to get good heartfelt performances from the actors. Americans LOVE a good scare--and this has been the best one in a long long time. But they have a problem. They want the scarey thing to be real once they've first been convinced of it. They don't want to drop in and out of the shivery illusion that thrills them so--they want to stay there, always.

Bush has screwed up by convincing the people that Islam is coming to get them (while of course denying he says any such thing) and that it's such a terribly dangerous world (oooh hold me!) that other countries are either 100% compliant ally-vassal states or they are our enemies, enemies that hide their enmity and hatred for us until the right moment to strike. He's done such a good job of instilling the perpetual xenophobic crisis mindset, complete with accompanying light-dark dualism in our people, that the revelation that he's sold off national security sensitive assets to a foreign government that must be counted among his potential enemies list (Muslim, Arab, non-Democratic, occasional terrorism sponsor) is felt by the people as a slap in the face. Either this sale was a scandalous mistake, the result of incompetence among the King's ministers, or something very sinister must be going on. What sinister plot is afoot can only be guessed by the popular mind: is it a cozy deal between foreign despots and our King, who despite his pomp and his claimed rule over the world turns out to be merely their petro-marionnette? Is it a backstairs intrigue to allow terrorists potential access to our vulnerable areas? Or is it that the Global War On Everything was simply an illusion spun to concentrate all power into Bush's hands, that the long war was just a giant fraud, while "the merry dance of death and trade" goes on just as before without change, with the Emirates and Bush in royal league against the common people. And that the old seduction of war, the feeling that "we are all in this together", was only a con-artist's come-on which secured our trust while he sold our country out from under our feet. We can only guess, but whatever people surmise to be the real story it all adds up to a dramatic loss of trust between a people and their sovereign Dungeon Master. Whatever the truth turns out to be, that is what has already happened.
So yeah, the media is lapping it up on all fours. Passions were excited. Now they've been jilted, ice water on the erection. Somebody is going to be blamed and that's a story.

[IsItJustMe]

28. Good analysis. Critical thinking skills still alive and well.

[coalition_unwilling]

32. Yes, it's the irony that the media are going after * on an

issue of economic nationalism that has me chuckling. Think about it: the media didn't go after him seriously on torture, on illegal wiretaps, on Katrina, on Iraq or on 9/11 foul-ups.

Instead, they choose to go after him on an issue of which global capitalist entity will operate the ports, when the underlying issue of port security has been an issue since Sept. 12, 2001 and will continue to be an issue, regardless of which country's company is running the ports. Even if a U.S. company were operating the ports, with current port security, we're seriously exposed to danger.

With only 5% of incoming containers inspected currently, with many Soviet-era suitcase nukes unaccounted for, with the hostility of 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide thanks to our feckless behavior in Afghanistan and Iraq, you'd think the media would go after * for having made us far less safe over the past five years.

Instead, they're pitching this story as incompetence at work. Oh well, I guess I have to enjoy Repuke self-destruction wherever it comes from.

[Beetwasher]

33. Yup, Great Post!

:thumbsup:

[Marie26]

29. Maybe it has something to w/Cheney shooting?

The media has always acted like this Administration is a strong, responsible defender of national security, etc. Then Cheney does something incredibly reckless & stupid. Media goes nuts over it. Starts new current of: is this Administration really just reckless & stupid? Then this UAE port deal breaks, and it seems to answer the question: Yes, they are reckless and stupid. The Cheney story raised the doubts, the UAE story confirmed them. There's Katrina, corruption, etc. too, but these two stories coming in such quick sucession seem to seal the deal.

[DrGonzoLives]

31. Or

Bush is letting this happen so that Republican candidates this fall can safely distance themselves from him.

But Rove would never plan anything like that.