Reply and Context to a Comment on Yesterday's Posting
Yesterday, commenting on a posting that had nothing to do with the UAE (United Arab Emirates) ports deal, my amigo Mark Martin wrote:
"Back to UAE: See, this is what I meant.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11657573/
Shamey, shamey.
First off, thanks for the link. I always welcome any and all further or followup info on matters aired here!
Secondly, however, what's with the "shamey, shamey" horseshit?
Now, it might seem to casual Myrant readers that you seem to be presuming to know my "position" on the complex issue of the UAE, Mark, when all I've stated to anyone other than my wife Marj is the following on this very blog, circa my February 18th posting:
___
"The week began with the subcommittee reports on the scandalous failure of the gov't at all levels in their individual and collective Katrina response; it ended with this bon mot from Ted Bridis of the AP:
"White House Defends Sale of Port Operations to Arab Firm"
WASHINGTON (Feb. 17) - The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports...
The world's fourth-largest ports company runs commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
Four senators and three House members asked the administration on Thursday to reconsider its approval. The lawmakers contended the UAE is not consistent in its support of U.S. terrorism-fighting efforts.
"The potential threat to our country is not imagined, it is real," Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said in a House speech.
DP World said it had received all regulatory approvals for its purchase and noted that the administration did not object.
"We intend to maintain and, where appropriate, enhance current security arrangements," the company said in a statement. "It is very much business as usual for the P&O terminals" in the United States.
Lawmakers said the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. They also said the UAE was one of only three countries to recognize the now-toppled Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.
We are soooooooooooooooooo thankful Bush and Cheney were reelected to keep us all so safe and secure from all alarm..."
_______________
This was followed on the 18th by my comment on the Vice President Cheney shooting of Texan millionaire Harry M. Whittington after the victim apologized to the shooter (which is still a mind-boggling fillip); to these two matters, Mark replied in his comment that day:
"I'm going to split with you on this post.
AGREE: I don't get this freaking UAE deal at all!
DISAGREE: I bet you a dollar that if Whittington had shot Cheney the end result would be the same - "accidents happen" would be said by all involved..."
Afterwards, Mark wrote (in his comment to the unrelated posting of Feb. 21, which was primarily about a different form of fearmongering: Fulci movies!):
"update om UAE:
I have dug in and learned more about it this week.
I don't think it's the bogey man. And I think a lot of people who are freaking out about it are going to have egg on their face and have some splainin ta do. (not you, I mean people like Hillary Clinton, Bill Frist etc)."
So, I'll assume the "not you" still applies, and thanks for that.
The fact of the matter is I've not said anything on the UAE issue publicly since that 2/18 posting.
Thus, I reckon it's time, if only to clarify this ongoing exchange for those who read this blog and its comments. I've been staying abreast of the developing and unfolding UAE story, too, from multiple news sources (inside and outside the US; reading/hearing what the foreign press is saying is essential).
First of all, may I note that Mark's reference to "the bogey man" is highly applicable here.
For six years, this President and Administration have maintained their power base by escalating and manipulating fear as their primary tactic: psychological terrorism in the extreme. They won their second election by primarily playing that card with relentless intent.
Thus, the President and this Administration have no one but themselves to blame for the emerging UAE crisis. They've cold-cocked themselves from their blind side with this unexpected (and somehow perfect) culmination & collision of various policies -- deliberate fearmongering to maintain and concentrate power; closed-door corporate deal-brokering contrary to true democracy; layers of secrecy, non-disclosure, and partial disclosure at so many levels of power; deliberate withholding of information, for various reasons, from both the public and the President; etc. -- on an issue that cuts to the heart of some of the American public's deepest fears.
When power erects itself so completely on fanning and maintaining irrational fear -- as this President and Administration have with such surgical expertise -- the pragmatic rationalities of "doing business" in a global economy quickly succumb to the irrational when the combination of elements is this iconic and volatile.
Saudis controlling our ports? Saudis buying our ports?
* You don't foment xenophobia in the US populace for six years without reaping what you sow.
* Secondly, the controversy and outrage over the UAE deal -- whatever its particulars -- is also feeding upon the awakening realization that the US has been sold off piecemeal to the very foreign interests "we" have been so successfully conditioned to fear.
It was the present President Bush's father who said, when he was President, "The American way of life is not for sale."
"Oh, but it is. See, it really, really is," the UAE deal states, "and to the very people we have demonized as our enemies."
The UAE port deal puts paid to that conceit for good -- it's all for sale, and in fact most of it's already been bought and sold and changed hands again -- even for those Americans who've been blithely ignorant of/indifferent to the fact that the US has already been sold piecemeal to multiple foreign interests: our debt (which Bush and his Administration have escalated into the stratosphere), our real estate, our businesses, our jobs, our future.
Oh, and, yes, our ports.
Our security.
The security this President swore to protect when he took office -- along with our civil rights, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.
That is the nerve this UAE controversy has struck, plucked, and is busily fraying.
"Shamey, shamey" indeed.
But shame on who?
Sadly, just as reason didn't apply to anything else relevent to this Administration's watch -- the monstrous distortion of the 9/11 tragedy, the rush to war, the derailment of the Afghanistan War to launch the Iraq War, global warming, the plight of the detainees, US torture of prisoners, Katrina, etc. -- reason isn't being applied to the UAE deal.
After six years of rampant xenophobia and fearmongering and the calculated redefinition of the English language to a language of propaganda instead of communication, it's hard for the US population to "see reason" any longer.
It's hard for Bush to plead for rational scrutiny of the UAE deal when he has so monumentally based his Presidency on the constant denial of reason.
Shamey, shamey.
[Continued tomorrow...]
Yesterday, commenting on a posting that had nothing to do with the UAE (United Arab Emirates) ports deal, my amigo Mark Martin wrote:
"Back to UAE: See, this is what I meant.
Shamey, shamey.
First off, thanks for the link. I always welcome any and all further or followup info on matters aired here!
Secondly, however, what's with the "shamey, shamey" horseshit?
Now, it might seem to casual Myrant readers that you seem to be presuming to know my "position" on the complex issue of the UAE, Mark, when all I've stated to anyone other than my wife Marj is the following on this very blog, circa my February 18th posting:
___
"The week began with the subcommittee reports on the scandalous failure of the gov't at all levels in their individual and collective Katrina response; it ended with this bon mot from Ted Bridis of the AP:
"White House Defends Sale of Port Operations to Arab Firm"
WASHINGTON (Feb. 17) - The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports...
The world's fourth-largest ports company runs commercial operations at shipping terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
Four senators and three House members asked the administration on Thursday to reconsider its approval. The lawmakers contended the UAE is not consistent in its support of U.S. terrorism-fighting efforts.
"The potential threat to our country is not imagined, it is real," Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said in a House speech.
DP World said it had received all regulatory approvals for its purchase and noted that the administration did not object.
"We intend to maintain and, where appropriate, enhance current security arrangements," the company said in a statement. "It is very much business as usual for the P&O terminals" in the United States.
Lawmakers said the UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. They also said the UAE was one of only three countries to recognize the now-toppled Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.
We are soooooooooooooooooo thankful Bush and Cheney were reelected to keep us all so safe and secure from all alarm..."
_______________
This was followed on the 18th by my comment on the Vice President Cheney shooting of Texan millionaire Harry M. Whittington after the victim apologized to the shooter (which is still a mind-boggling fillip); to these two matters, Mark replied in his comment that day:
"I'm going to split with you on this post.
AGREE: I don't get this freaking UAE deal at all!
DISAGREE: I bet you a dollar that if Whittington had shot Cheney the end result would be the same - "accidents happen" would be said by all involved..."
Afterwards, Mark wrote (in his comment to the unrelated posting of Feb. 21, which was primarily about a different form of fearmongering: Fulci movies!):
"update om UAE:
I have dug in and learned more about it this week.
I don't think it's the bogey man. And I think a lot of people who are freaking out about it are going to have egg on their face and have some splainin ta do. (not you, I mean people like Hillary Clinton, Bill Frist etc)."
So, I'll assume the "not you" still applies, and thanks for that.
The fact of the matter is I've not said anything on the UAE issue publicly since that 2/18 posting.
Thus, I reckon it's time, if only to clarify this ongoing exchange for those who read this blog and its comments. I've been staying abreast of the developing and unfolding UAE story, too, from multiple news sources (inside and outside the US; reading/hearing what the foreign press is saying is essential).
First of all, may I note that Mark's reference to "the bogey man" is highly applicable here.
For six years, this President and Administration have maintained their power base by escalating and manipulating fear as their primary tactic: psychological terrorism in the extreme. They won their second election by primarily playing that card with relentless intent.
Thus, the President and this Administration have no one but themselves to blame for the emerging UAE crisis. They've cold-cocked themselves from their blind side with this unexpected (and somehow perfect) culmination & collision of various policies -- deliberate fearmongering to maintain and concentrate power; closed-door corporate deal-brokering contrary to true democracy; layers of secrecy, non-disclosure, and partial disclosure at so many levels of power; deliberate withholding of information, for various reasons, from both the public and the President; etc. -- on an issue that cuts to the heart of some of the American public's deepest fears.
When power erects itself so completely on fanning and maintaining irrational fear -- as this President and Administration have with such surgical expertise -- the pragmatic rationalities of "doing business" in a global economy quickly succumb to the irrational when the combination of elements is this iconic and volatile.
Saudis controlling our ports? Saudis buying our ports?
* You don't foment xenophobia in the US populace for six years without reaping what you sow.
* Secondly, the controversy and outrage over the UAE deal -- whatever its particulars -- is also feeding upon the awakening realization that the US has been sold off piecemeal to the very foreign interests "we" have been so successfully conditioned to fear.
It was the present President Bush's father who said, when he was President, "The American way of life is not for sale."
"Oh, but it is. See, it really, really is," the UAE deal states, "and to the very people we have demonized as our enemies."
The UAE port deal puts paid to that conceit for good -- it's all for sale, and in fact most of it's already been bought and sold and changed hands again -- even for those Americans who've been blithely ignorant of/indifferent to the fact that the US has already been sold piecemeal to multiple foreign interests: our debt (which Bush and his Administration have escalated into the stratosphere), our real estate, our businesses, our jobs, our future.
Oh, and, yes, our ports.
Our security.
The security this President swore to protect when he took office -- along with our civil rights, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.
That is the nerve this UAE controversy has struck, plucked, and is busily fraying.
"Shamey, shamey" indeed.
But shame on who?
Sadly, just as reason didn't apply to anything else relevent to this Administration's watch -- the monstrous distortion of the 9/11 tragedy, the rush to war, the derailment of the Afghanistan War to launch the Iraq War, global warming, the plight of the detainees, US torture of prisoners, Katrina, etc. -- reason isn't being applied to the UAE deal.
After six years of rampant xenophobia and fearmongering and the calculated redefinition of the English language to a language of propaganda instead of communication, it's hard for the US population to "see reason" any longer.
It's hard for Bush to plead for rational scrutiny of the UAE deal when he has so monumentally based his Presidency on the constant denial of reason.
Shamey, shamey.
[Continued tomorrow...]
posted by SRBissette at
11:04 AM
4 Comments:
Jeez, will you calm down already?
"Shamey shamey" to Hilary!
Dear Myrant readers -
I thought you would realize that I meant "Shamey shamey" to Hilary instead of flying off the handle like some kind of Ben Burford! I'm trying to have a conversation with my buddy Steve here, so please stop jumping to conclusions! It is so rare that we actually agree on something - please don't ruin it for us!
Thank you.
To further clarify:
Shamey shamey on Hilary AND BILL.
Not Bissette.
Jeez - so TOUCHY!
It should be noted that Mark Martin is being sold off piecemeal to foreign companies. His drawing hand will soon be operated by a company based in Abu Dhabi, though they assure comic readers that they can expect the same high quality work they have come to expect from Mark.
If that's true, they're going to have a bitch of a time feeding him. Mark considers most non-US food 'snot'; I know, I've fed 'em curry! Just ask Mikey Dobbs!
Shamey shamey on every neocon in power -- they played these fear cards; now they're dealing jokers. Let's see how the game plays out, and hope we don't all get blown to hell in our respective handbaskets on the way.
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