Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Don't Blame Me...

I voted for Al Gore and John Kerry. Dubya has dropped the ball more times than a Mizzou point guard and has lied more times than Mike Alden. Now he has taken his ineptitude to a whole new level.

This week, Dubya publicly stated that he approved a deal authorizing a British company that owns and operates six of the largest seaports in America to sell their holdings to a company called Dubai Ports that is owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates. That's right- he gave his blessing to a deal that will allow a Middle East government to control the biggest security hotspots in our country! Is this what he calls Homeland Security? Two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE (the rest were from Saudi Arabia whose royal family is close friends with the Bush family as we already know). Also, a Pakistani scientist claims that Iran, North Korea, and Libya have smuggled nuclear components through the UAE.

Both Democrats and Republicans are outraged at Bush for approving a deal that could threaten our national security without consulting with congress first. Congress has promised to pass a bill halting the transaction until more research can be done to ensure every necessary safety measure is in place. Bush further infuriated congressional leaders including the chair of the Homeland Security Committee (who happens to be a Republican) by threatening to veto any such bill. He's never vetoed anything in his entire career, yet he wants to make a stand now? Over this? And now for the really good part: After being bombarded by backlash from this deal and veto threat, Bush now contends- are you ready for this?- that he was completely unaware of the ports deal until it had already been approved by his administration! You read that right. He claims he had no knowledge of a deal that a majority of Americans consider a threat to national security until his administration told him it was already done. And he still supports it!

Why would he adamantly defend his decision to make this deal one day and then deny having made the decision the next? Why would he suddenly shift the responsibility to his administration? Could it be because the public has found out that David Sanborn, who was appointed to be the new administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Transportation Department just one month ago, was Dubai Ports World's director of operations for Europe and Latin America? That's correct, Sanborn ran the United Arab Emirates' seaport operations in much of the Atlantic, and now he has a top level position within the Bush administration. The same administration that Bush claims approved the deal to for the UAE to buy the six major ports. The same administration that denies that Sanborn had anything to do with negotions involved in the deal. As Scott McClellon said, "(Sanborn) has assured us that he was not involved in the negotiations." Gee, I believe him, don't you?

So basically, the Bush administration appointed a man who worked for the UAE's Dubai Ports group to be in charge of the United States' Maritime Administration which oversees security at our seaports after he brokered the deal for the UAE to purchase six of our busiest Atlantic seaports. I can see why Dubya is denying that he had any knowledge of the deal prior to its completion. Clearly he is lying, but as stupid as he is, he may have a strong defense by claiming to be suffering from "diminished capacity" when we eventually put him on trial for undermining our national security. He can't plead insanity, however anyone who voted for him (especially after his first four miserable years) can because they must be crazy.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

In a perfect world....the entire Bush administration would be recalled by their maker.....

TheNotQuiteRightReverend said...

Careful Mama! Don't you know the Feds are watching, listening, wire-tapping, and reading every communication they can? It makes us safer to have Big Brother monitoring us, don't you know? As we all know, speaking freely is only protected by the constitution as long as we agree with our government. Those who disagree are freedom haters who support the terrorists. Joe McCarthy for President! Conformity rules! America, Love it or Leave it! God (not Allah) Bless America!

Anonymous said...

My life is boring enough to welcome a federal investigation into my motives for my first reply to your earlier missive. Bring 'em on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TheNotQuiteRightReverend said...

Boring!? Need I remind you that in the past year you have found a good job, been witness to a federal embezzlement scandal, been in a car wreck, lived in a house that nearly collapsed with you in it, moved to a better place, and have a family that loves you enough to loan you the comlete Star Wars Trilogy AND Wedding Crashers for those times when you may actually be bored. No, I don't think your life is boring. Let's not bait the feds into throwing you into Gitmo Prison just yet.

Seamhead said...

Blogdaddy, to me this seems small potatoes compared to lying to send Americans to war. Some foreign company with ties to some kind of anti-American group would have gotten this contract. Where's the outrage when Bush deceives us to send young Americans off to die? Where's the outrage when we discover he treated the anti-terrorism department like an ugly stepchild prior to 9/11?

Honestly, the reaction by politicians and the media on this issue makes me sad. They all slept while terrible things were happening. Now, they sense some vulnerability from the administration and the go crazy over something that can't compare to his previous crimes.

I expect we're going to see much more of this from the Repubs. They are going to try to distance themselves from this rapidly sinking President.

I still haven't heard anyone in the media admit that Michael Moore was dead right. Nope, in fact, that idiot Chris Matthews compared him to Bin Laden.

TheNotQuiteRightReverend said...

Seamhead- I agree that this is all sad. When I think about how virtually all the members of Congress supported Bush's plan to go to war, it reminds me of that grainy video of Saddam calling out each member of Parliament to ask an "insider" if they were a traitor or not. After several members had been led out of the room and executed, the remaining officials in the chamber stood up and cheered for Saddam. They shouted pledges of allegience to the evil dictator in the hopes of sparing their lives.

Our Congress stood up to be counted as supporters of our unnaturally powerful leader as well. He wouldn't have had them killed for not going along with his plan, but it would have been career suicide to go against his wishes at that time. Bush was fighting the war on terror and the right-wing media called everyone who disagreed with his policies freedom haters or traitors.

Saddam and Dubya control their governments and their citizens through fear. In Iraq, dissenters are thrown in jail, tortured or murdered. In America, they're austracized by their peers and in the case of Congress, are voted out of office only to be replaced by those who tow the party line. An arbitrary "Terror Alert Level" can be raised to an elevated status at the disgression of the President in order to remind us that we are not safe and that we need to support our government's fight to protect us.

True, going to war was a far greater evil than the ports deal, but we have learned that we cannot trust this government to make good decisions and that if we have a chance to take a stand against it, be better do it.

The mainstream media knows Michael Moore was right, they're just afraid do say so for fear that they will be fired or imprisoned for publicly saying so. Joe McCarthy is alive and well.