CelticBear’s Musings

CNN.com – Bush backs Dubai port deal, vows veto – Feb 21, 2006

Wow. It’s mind boggling the extent to which the Bush administration’s arrogance and self-righteousness goes.

In short, the British company that used to manage some of the administrative operations of some American ports has been bought out by a company in the United Arab Emirates. Congress want to put a hold on the transfer of ownership until it can be more heavily scrutinized, and Bush is saying it’s all been looked at, everything is fine.

Here’s the thing: It’s not so much that a couple of the 9/11 terrorists came from the UAE. Terrorists can have any nationality. The problem is that the UAE was one of three countries that recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, and has in the past been supportive of terrorist activities, as a government. That’s a problem. And it’s ironic that a year after the Bush administration admonishes the American port security, they turn ownership of ports over to a company in a country that is argueably more supportive of terrorism and absolutely more supportive of alQueda than Iraq ever has been.

The Bush admin’ is saying “Oh it’s OK, everything’s been checked out. Security is not an issue.” On who’s word? And here is the biggest problem of the Bush administration–they want whatever they say to go, right or wrong. They have absolutely no respect for the “people’s branch” of government, even to the point where a lot of Republican congresspersons are saying “Now hold on a second. We need to check things out ourselves. You can’t go willynilly making deals like this without our backing.”

The Bush/Cheney arrogance and self-righteousness and belief they are above the law and do not have to be answerable to neither citizen nor the press (which is supposed to server as the eyes and ears of the people,) is out of control. From something as debatably small as Cheney’s avoidance of the press in explaining what happened with the hunting accident to the much bigger issues of secret meetings with oil companies right before rolling out energy agendas which favor the oil companies. From methods of gaining and assesing the value of intelligence that took us to war with Iraq to rebuffing scrutiny of security leaks. Time and time again this administration has shown utter contempt for the American people that THEY are employees of! They work for us and they act like we’re they’re royal subjects, and they’re not answerable for what they do to our country.

Maybe the port sale is on the level. Maybe it in no way unduely benefits the Bush/Cheney families who are practically married to Arabian royal families. Maybe there is no security risk, and everything is fine. But congress needs to investigate it for themselves. Bush is not king or emperor no matter what he thinks. Things like this need to be investigated by representitives of the American people. Is that too much to ask of this president?