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Thursday, February 23, 2006

News of the Weird

  • Illegal Immigrants Protest in Tampa: In an effort to sway legislation which will demand more accountability for illegal immigrants and those who interract with them, a group of roughly 350 illegal immigrants protested loudly in Tampa yesterday on street corners.

    I have to ask: since they're illegal, did they apply for a legal permit for the protest? And where was the INS in all of this?

  • Woman Must Buy Back Stolen Jewelry in Pinellas County: A woman who had her home broken into recently (and all her jewelry stolen) was delighted to discover a local pawn shop had her stolen goods. She went to retrieve the gems, and was handed a bill for $400.

    Yup, pawn shops are entitled to charge you to return your stolen merchandise. And, as the pawn shop owner righteously pointed out, he did put a lot of money into advertising this recent windfall.

  • The United Arab Emirates: Today we find out that in the Sept. 11 Commission meetings (around page 130 where it's being discussed what Clinton's options were to catch Osama Bin Laden) a mention is made of a resort area where Bin Laden had been staying. The Clinton administration made the choice to not try to go after him there, since they would also probably have killed all the royals of the UAE along with him. The report also mentions that the UAE retains it's relationship with the Taliban.

    The UAE has no ties to terrorists? Yeah, right.

  • More Comes out About the Port Deal: We also discovered yesterday that there was an unusually special deal which was struck with Dubai Ports World (DPW). The government agreed to not get too demanding about seeing any book work for DPW. However, the deal did stipulate that if and when another terrorist attack occurred, the DPW would need to agree to produce any necessesary paperwork and the DPW would appoint a 'go to' person for such circumstances.

    BUT when such a deal is struck, the company doing business on American soil keeps those documents on American soil, and appoints an American representative (so that everything is governed under U.S. law). Yet in this particular deal, there were no such restrictions. P.S. Ed has some interesting additional thoughts about this topic today.

  • Bush Afraid to Appear Weak: And of course, Bush (being afraid as usual to appear weak) refuses to back down or apologize and continues to insist that he will veto any attempt to stop the acquisition by DPW.

    Doesn't he realize that real men admit mistakes?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Bush has just signed his equivalent of a death penalty politically. I have no idea how he could ever recover from this fiasco.

THis is American soil, with American interests, I understand that this deal is solely for the "maintenance of the port facilities" but there is no way this deal should go to ANY foreign country, much less, one that is in the middle east. It wouldn't matter if it was Kuwait or even a European country. THey are OUR ports and OUR port facilities and they are OUR responsibility. How can we even begin to think of handing any small portion of that responsibility to any other nation???? Bush is so wrong here, and the Republicans will pay dearly for this mistake, I'm afraid.

Paul Nichols said...

Even Sean Hannity is limply suggesting a red flag here. This is a bad situation. Congress, bless its heart, should override any veto(s) and stop this twisted goofiness.

I am a Barry Goldwater-Jack Kemp-Ronald Reagan Conservative Republican. Sadly, I see none of them in President Bush. I voted for him twice, but I guess he just wasn't ready for the Presidency.

I will say I'm glad that neither of his opponents were elected.

High Power Rocketry said...

Yay new post :) Thanks, these are so weird.

Michael K. Althouse said...

Non of those stories, unfortunately, surprise me except for one. If the jewlry store is in possesion of stolen propery, then isn't it in possession of stolen property?? I'll very generously grant that they may not have known it was stolen, thus saving them any criminal ramifications, but don't they still have to give up the stolen items to the police at least?

If I buy a car that was stolen but I didn't know it, I may not go to jail, but the car still is!!

Crazy!

~Mike

Jamie Dawn said...

I am still looking for anything anywhere where any politician of either party EVER made a statement of concern about those ports being under the management of a British company.
Also, there are many other vital US interests that are managed & operated by foreign companies.
Where have our politicians been on this matter? Why are they all rising up NOW?
Why? Because it is politically advantageous for them to do so, and if the tide turns in support of the deal for some reason, they will jump ship and support it stating that their questions have been resolved.
Hillary Clinton said what I said here yesterday, that NONE of our ports should be managed by foreign companies. I fully agree, but WHY has she NEVER made this statement before?
She knew those ports were managed by a British company, and she knows of other American interests that are owned/operated/managed by foreign companies, so why has she never come out with this statement before? If she felt so strongly about ALL ports not being managed by foreign companies, then why was she silent previously?
Here's my problem with all of this. All the politicians from BOTH sides failed to raise ANY red flags about those ports being operated by a British company, or any other foregin companies that are managing American interests. They didn't seem to have any problem with it before, and they should have.
They all need to come out & say that their only problem with this deal is that it is being made with Arabs. It is the truth, and they should just say it.
In the future, these same politicians can no longer whine about Arabs being mistreated or not having representation or having their feelings hurt or being the victims of racial profiling, because if they reject this deal solely because the company is owned by Arabs (which is what they are doing, since they had no problem with the previous foreign company managing those ports), then they will be doing the ultimate in racial profiling.

Here's my stand on the matter. I don't want these ports, or any other US ports or vital interests, under the management of ANY foreign company... period.
BUT, if we are going to allow such deals with other foreign companies, then I see no reason not to see this deal through. Making hay over this ONE deal simply because they are Arabs just does not pass the smell test. Hay should have been made a long time ago, and it wasn't.

This all smells of politics to me more than anything else.

Saur♥Kraut said...

Jamie, I understand where you're coming from, but I suspect that many of these politicians didn't know that the ports were being managed by any company that wasn't US-based and operated.

Also, it isn't racial profiling. For instance, did you know that the majority of muslims aren't arabic? But in the case of the UAE, they have had obvious ties to terrorists before, and probably continue to. I don't think we should risk assigning something as important as our ports to another country that has such obvious ties.

As to your point about how the ports shouldn't be operated by ANY companies that aren't American, I agree.

Mike, I know! I was shocked! But the woman's now trying to drum up support for legislation which would prevent this in the future. However, our local pundits are saying that this could be a two-edged sword because it might discourage pawn shop owners from cooperating with the police in the future (!)

Alex, ;o)

Paul, ditto.

Susie, *LOL* and ditto. Yeah, congress can override a veto, thankfully. However, To pass a bill over the President's objections requires a two-thirds vote in each Chamber. Historically, Congress has overridden fewer than ten percent of all presidential vetoes.

Still, it could probably be done in this case and no matter what, the longer that Pres Bush holds out, the worse it will look for Jeb if he wants to run for Pres next (in the past he's said he wouldn't, we'll see).

TSB, I think you're entirely correct.

I think the word verification is very appropriate here: kfafle

Ed said...

I guess the United Arab Emarites were big investors (billions) in the Carlyle group whose senior advisor was George H.W. Bush. They were also major investors in a software company owned by Neil Bush, George's brother.

Where can I get a piece of this action?

Beaver said...

" Woman Must Buy Back Stolen Jewelry in Pinellas County"

Way to go Einstein! Isn't it illegal to sell and buy stolen goods?

"Bush Afraid to Appear Weak"

So did the evil-possessed Empress Alia in Children of Dune. But then again, she did end up murdered. Could this be a foreboding?

This is NOT a suggestion!
*foreign nerdy canuck covering her ass*

Cheers to all,

Beav'

OldHorsetailSnake said...

And yet it was Florida that put him over the top in the first election. You guys have a lot to answer for...

(Hee. Hoss 1, Saur 0)

Lee Ann said...

Wow, The political situation is getting more frightenig by the day!

The woman had to buy her stolen jewelry back...that is messed up!

Anonymous said...

Only in America will you hear of illegal immigrants staging a protest seeking to sway public opinion about illegal aliens. God Bless America.

United We Lay said...

Why were'nt they all arrested and deported??? THEY'RE ILLEGAL!!! What the HELL is worng with this country???

Dave said...

Saur,

From one of my offices I have a view of a pawn shop, Pimp shop and check cashing store. Thievery really does stimulate the economy.

I'm metro-sexual so I don't recall having made any mistakes except for maybe those yellow pants.

Some Random Girl said...

I think this is seriously such a ridiculous thing to do. I am just appalled. I voted for Bush too and I didn't think I would say this but I am now sorry too. I think he is just losing it. Did he get hit in the head with doveshot? I don't know what the hell is going on in Washington (much of the same we just notice it more now, I suppose) but I am more and more in the belief that we are in the end times. Just like you were talking about last week or something! by the way...did you get my post about the canceling of my other blog? I am assuming you know who I am....the artist within, ring a bell? talk to you later!

chosha said...

And where was the police officer to charge the pawn broker with receiving stolen goods?!

Bush sucks.