The rift between Bush and Republican Congressmen gets worse.

[Drake Tungsten]

I've been reading that there's a good chance that Halliburton may be the American company picked to take over control of these ports. Wouldn't that be rich?

[KrazyHorse]

[Colon™]

OMG.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by MrFun
Using the same attack you use, I can call all people who oppose affirmative action as being racist.

Except that those who are against affirmative action may have rational arguments against it.

[Ted Striker]

Yay for racism !

What's interesting about Dubai is that it's a conservative economist's wet dream come true.

1) No taxes
2) 100% foreign ownership allowed

All sorts of unbridled free market crap like that abound

So the reason that the company owning the ports is a risk is because????


This time period reminds me of the late 1980s, early 1990s, when Japanese hysteria was running rampant. You only have to look at a few films from that time to see it.

ZOMG teh Japanese are going to take us over!

Face it we're a nation of Xenophobes, always looking for a damn enemy for no reason.

Cept right now we got plenty to go around:

China, Iran, North Korea

You know, countries we can't bully around

I suggest another invasion on some wimpy country or at least a good old coup. I heard the Kenyans are having a bad year maybe we should go whoop on them for a while.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Sandman
There's no way America would ever do anything that sensible.

Edit - in reply to Spiffor

I know

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Colon™
Nationalizing port operations would affect security, how?

You'd be able to put more stringent security procedures in port operations, you'd make sure that the control over port operations won't escape the national interest (because the superior interest the port operations would serve is the nation, instead of the shareholder).

Overall, there would be fewer bad surprises, as far as paranoia is concerned.

Now, I'm not sure that port operations are strategic enough to warrant nationalization. But if you want some "economic patriotism", you use nationalization. You don't grant this to private contractors that happen to be American, since they are just as mercenary as foreign private contractors anyway.

[Colon™]

What security procedures? Checking incoming and outgoing cargo is what customs does. Checking shipping movement is what the US Coast Guard does. What the port operator does, is moving all those big boxes from a ship to share or vice versa and the only security procedure involved is that nobody runs away with those big boxes.

[DinoDoc]

I'm curious why it throws Congress into fits of racist frenzy for an Arab company to have the gaul to try and move boxes around in the US but having a Chinese company do the same rates barely anything.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Because Islam is the new boogeyman. China is so 1997.

[DinoDoc]

Why? China has shot down a military aircraft using a suicide bomb and held the crew hostage. How is that not worth boogeyman status?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Why? China has shot down a military aircraft using a suicide bomb and held the crew hostage. How is that not worth boogeyman status?

Don't ask me. I don't make the rules.

[DaShi]

I think that the US should do something for the UAE or Dubai to help make up for what happened to this deal as a show of good faith.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The post I quoted was by KrazyHorse and the thumbs down indicates that I agree with him that the racism and xenophobia on display in America over the Dubai ports deal is sad. I also agree with Imran, whose post was neither unfair nor ignorant.

This is sad -- you, KH, and Imran have become PC nuts.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The sad thing is that you have let xenophobia and racism to conquer rational thought