Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Port (Deal)

Maybe it's lack of reporting, or even lack of proper objection, but your News' Dark Time wonders why objection to the Dubai Ports ownership of US seaports isn't based on more fundamentally conservative principle: Government Ownership!

The NDT staff is yet to hear one conservative commentator or report of same who objects not to our ports being owned by "an ally of questionable commitment", but rather owned by the government of a foreign power. If one wanted to craft a piece of legislation to distinguish between the previous owner, a British company, and the proposed new owner, one would look no further than the question of state ownership. Have our staunch conservatives thrown in the towel on this one? Imagine if the deal goes through. The selected-acting-president has put himself four-square with the principal of expanded government ownership. Not something your good conservatives want to support, regardless of the preferred head-gear of the owners.

Heck, if our administration wants to sell the ports to a government, why not just buy them for usaCo, a wholly owned (for the moment, anyway) subsidiary of the closely held bushCo? And, while you're at it, give a tax break of equal magnitude to the fat cats who will buy the ports. Would that make it any more difficult to fathom than other tax cuts in the face of spending increases we've learned to expect.

is the current deal going through only because the level of indirection from bushCo to Dubai Ports hasn't been unwound by the so-called major media? Or will a Frist-engineered 45 day "cooling off" period allow the republican hill-mongers to buy the time to sink their paws into some of the loose cash likely to flow?

yes, children (in the voice of Fiorello LaGuardia), that's not grandma under the covers, it's the Big Bad Wolf!