So, I'm watching CNN...
I was watching CNN a few minutes ago as they covered Sen. Warner's press conference on why knocking down the Dubai Ports deal was a bad thing. Warner was in front making the opening statement, Rumsfeld was in the back, Generals Pace and Abizaid said a few words and answered a few questions on Iraq with happytalk.
And as my mind blurred listening to the pap, my eyes unfocused and suddenly I saw who was standing in the background. LIEBERMAN. Joe Lieberman had the prime photo spot at a press conference held to support the administration's most unpopular policy. It was Warner, the DoD, and Lieberman!!
I know I shouldn't be surprised, but Liberman is standing with the White House on an issue that is so unpopular Republicans don't support it. Okay, certainly he's allowed to take that view, but volunteering yourself up as an administration prop? (No photos out yet.)
Oh, and the big story this is spinning off of is that Dubai Ports company has said that they are going to "will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity." Not give up ownership, mind you, but the security concerns will be abated. So, basically, they're gonna subcontract the thing.
(Solomon caught me in a misstatement here. I know Dubai was not going to own the ports, simply operate them. What I was trying to say is that from what I'd seen of their statement, they did not say that they were going to abandon the operations contract to someone else, simply that they were going to allow someone else to do the operations. That's what I was trying to say with the subcontract line. I don't know if that's the case or not.
And, no, I haven't really been paying too much attention to this beyond the politicsbecause I think it's a non-issue in the big picture of security. I really don't think it matters who waves the cargo through the ports if we check less than 5%.
But, thank you; you're right. I fell into lazy shorthand here. Sorry. - Mike)
And as my mind blurred listening to the pap, my eyes unfocused and suddenly I saw who was standing in the background. LIEBERMAN. Joe Lieberman had the prime photo spot at a press conference held to support the administration's most unpopular policy. It was Warner, the DoD, and Lieberman!!
I know I shouldn't be surprised, but Liberman is standing with the White House on an issue that is so unpopular Republicans don't support it. Okay, certainly he's allowed to take that view, but volunteering yourself up as an administration prop? (No photos out yet.)
Oh, and the big story this is spinning off of is that Dubai Ports company has said that they are going to "will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity." Not give up ownership, mind you, but the security concerns will be abated. So, basically, they're gonna subcontract the thing.
(Solomon caught me in a misstatement here. I know Dubai was not going to own the ports, simply operate them. What I was trying to say is that from what I'd seen of their statement, they did not say that they were going to abandon the operations contract to someone else, simply that they were going to allow someone else to do the operations. That's what I was trying to say with the subcontract line. I don't know if that's the case or not.
And, no, I haven't really been paying too much attention to this beyond the politicsbecause I think it's a non-issue in the big picture of security. I really don't think it matters who waves the cargo through the ports if we check less than 5%.
But, thank you; you're right. I fell into lazy shorthand here. Sorry. - Mike)
posted by mikevotes at
3:54 PM
4 Comments:
Um, have you paid any attention to the ports story at all? Dubai Ports World is the subcontractor. There was never a question of ownership of the ports, only of transferring a contract to manage the ports from a British company to a Dubai-based company.
By
Solomon Grundy, at 4:48 PM
Can someone say BlackWater?
http://www.blackwaterusa.com/
By
Yukkione, at 5:20 PM
You're right, Solomon. I didn't phrase that well. I think its more poor writing than misapprehension. I'll put up a correction.
I only included that part to give some frame of reference to the meat of the post.
But thanks.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 5:56 PM
Lieberman is just a disgrace. Whenever people ask me whether there was ever a time I would have voted for a Republican over a Democrat, I point to Lowell Weicker, one of the last decent Republicans, whom Joementum beat way back when--with the support of the National Review.
By
JUSIPER, at 9:20 PM
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