“The Night of the Hunter” with DP Mitchum and Hillary Gish
I realize I’m just a cartoonist with a big mouth and who am I to talk politics? But if all I can manage is the quick scan of blogs and news headlines, barely being able to read entire articles, I’m all about supplying a quick summary for the attention-limited like me.
Daily Kos has the most succinct update on the situation. The upshot of which is that London has allowed the Dubai Ports deal to go through on the English end of it. There’s only the 45-day review to get by now. And objections which may be presidentially vetoed.
Bill Clinton has been mediating, giving Dubai helpful suggestions (he suggested they submit themselves willingly to the 45-day review), while his wife is seeking legislation to stop ports being run by foreign state-owned companies. He supports her too. He just wants everybody to be friends. And it seems like Dubai Ports World has a lot of Americans working (Bilkey) and lobbying for them (Dole, Daschle), and supporting them for reasons of their own (Clinton, Powell… Bush).
Why all this support? You know that the real question we’re asking ourselves is not “are all arabs terrorists?” (they’re not) but rather, “are our politicians selling us out?”
This kind of nagging fearfulness reminds me of “The Night of the Hunter,” where all the adults in charge are murdering hypocrites (James Mitchum excellent as the serial killer preacher), corrupt, or just plain stupid, while the only ones sensing danger are one kid and one little woman with a gun, played by Lillian Gish, who saves the day with her wit and goodness. Is this how we see ourselves now?
I hope not. Because we’re not kids victimized by stupid, greedy people on Capitol Hill. We’re people who don’t vote and then complain when the people we didn’t even not elect make hair-raising deals behind our backs and under our noses.
The Dubai deal will most likely go through. The only thing that will stop it is a no-confidence vote against the president if he vetoes efforts to stop it. Is this going to happen? I don’t know if they do no-confidence votes in this country. But if so, that’s a showdown I wouldn’t miss, even if it meant getting up early.
In the meantime, Congress has been duly notified of another Dubai-deal, this one regarding a Dubai-owned company “set to take over plants in Georgia and Connecticut that make precision components used in engines for military aircraft and tanks.” [WaPo]
Fact is, Dubai is set to play a huge role in our future. I’ve already noted in previous posts that they’ve also got a huge global aerospace program/airport maintenance entreprise in the works. Add this to the ports deal and the plants deal, and you’ve got a polaroid to watch as it clears into a picture. I don’t profess to know what it means. It could be good, it could be bad.
UPDATE as of March 3rd.
More: “Dubai flap threatens other investment in US”[Reuters]
CFIUS broken? [WaPo]
