Saturday, May 13, 2006

If you wait long enuf....

Schumer's Dubai deal
Washington Times Op-Ed



Ya know, if you wait long enough, all our Congressional elected elitists inevitably show themselves for the uninformed, power hungry fools they are. Of course, they always bank on American short term memory for current events to keep their reputations intact... if you can say they do. Afterall, public opinion of Congress (all of 'em... Dems and Reps) is a full 10-12 points lower than the Prez's.

But I have to wonder if this little ditty will make as big a splash across the MSM headlines as the original ports battle over Dubai and P&O? Gawd... who am I kidding? Of course not.

From the beginning I have contended that, after alot of resesarch, the Dubai ports services were second to none in the world. They have a proven track record in sundry ports not only in the Middle East, but in US allied ports globally.

I was also royally annoyed that Schumer and ilk decided not only to power play the deal out of existance for political/election points, but that they were about to inflict taxpayers with the cost to ramp up our own ports cargo inspection equipment to the calibre of Dubai's terminals elsewhere. A cost that DP World had already offered to absorb with the purchase.

Well now... ol' Chuckie has really put his foot in it now. By demanding all ports model their cargo screening on the Hong Kong model if they want to continue shipping to the US, he's just placed a seal of approval on the Dubai port ops cargo screening systems, as well as other foreign vendors.

DOH! Or, as the WA Times editorial points out succinctly....

Mr. Schumer might not even fully know what he has proposed.



Boy is that an understatement. The guy was never in possession of facts... just poll numbers for hot issues and fear tactics. I'm not sure what I find more offensive. His disingenuous political tactics and manipulation of public opinion by a concerted media misinformation campaign, or his inflated ego that assumes he is qualified to dictate mandates for the US to the global shipping industry?

Clearly the WA Times is not in favor of Schumer's backhanded approval, still holding to the "can't trust DP World" mentality. But what I find amusing... a fact that the op-ed just doesn't get... is that with Chuckie's back door legislation, he avers that while Dubai wasn't good enough to operate cargo terminals in the US, he's happy with mandating them, or the Chinese etal, to do the same job in foreign ports for American-bound cargo. Huh?

Could it be he always knew DP World's terminal ops was never an issue? Or is he truly that stupid as to not know who are the state of the art providers in the shipping industry?

Either way, his roundabout approval of DP World's cargo screening comes too late, and with too little MSM fanfare. But this is one citizen that remembers his distain for the same company whose equipment methods he now holds up as a model to be emulated.

1 comment:

Douglas V. Gibbs said...

This gave me a perspective I hadn't considered. Good post.