The Left and Right Vie For Political Fodder on "PortGate"

Oliver North has an excellent article on the Washington Times Insider Page (requires free registration). He really cuts through the bias from both sides and lays out the details that are glaringly missing from most "news" reports. It is not as cut and dried as the talking heads and teleprompt readers make it sound. I must admit that my first reaction to hearing the story was, "what are these people smoking?". I highly recomend taking a moment to register and read Col. North's article.

Upon further investigation I've come to a different, albeit ambivalent, conclusion.

"Who really cares who the port facilities are owned by?"

It definitely was not the previous administration. Anyone for Chinese food?

In an article titled "At L.A. and Long Beach, a raft of security worries" from the 7/18/05 issue of Government Computer News, those ports are described as "landlord ports, which means all the terminals are leased by private companies, which provide their own security." The issue of who "owns" the ports and are they secure is not new. Watching the alphabet soup networks, one would think this is a groundbreaking first. Foreign ownership of port facilities? Balderdash! It's un-American!

Let me just say that I firmly believe portions of our port facilities should not be owned by terrorists, friends of terrorists, terrorist in-laws, cousin terrorsists, terrorist sympathizers, terrorist supporters, financiers of terrorists, be-frienders of said terrorists or terrorists aiders and abetter's. That having been said, I can safely say that the Dubai Port World company conforms to those requirements.

The "newsies" however, tend to use phrases like the ports are being "sold to a foreign power" or "turned over to" an "arab nation" to spin viewers' opinion. Anything is fair game in the promotion of the religion of Bush bashing. In reality the British firm, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., was bought out by the United Arab Emirates owned commercial entity, Dubai Ports World. They also run port operations in Australia, South Korea, India, Germany and China.

Hat tip to Crazy Politico's Ranting's, for commenting and linking to his blog. He has obviously punched a few more search buttons than I have.

With a deftly crafted headline bullet, the "newsies" have successfully manipulated public opinion. Most American's have neither the time nor the inclination to research headlines and verify media truthfulness. Coincidentally.....they know that!!! They can feed the sheeple what they think the sheeple need to know. Being one of the sheeple, you just eat it up and regurgitate what you've been fed.

"Yes, it's true, I saw it on the news!"


Technorati links
U.S. Ports, Dubai, portgate, DP World, Oliver North, CFIUS, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, United Arab Emirates