Dubya Meet Dubai, Dubai Meet The Congress

On September 21, 2004, as our nation sped toward another Presidential election, I wrote a post entitled, "What Do We Really Know?" You may read the entire post here , however, I will also reprint the pertinent section for today’s post. I've always heard, "consider the source." I don't give a crap about President Bush or Senator Kerry's war shit. I'm worried about issues NOW! I hear, "President Bush vetoed XY&Z while Governor of Texas" or "Senator Kerry consistently voted against XY&Z in the Senate." Okay, but why? Anyone who has studied our legislative system knows that those wily Senators and Representatives will stick anything on the end of an important bill to get it to pass. Folks, wake up. Bills in the legislative arena that are being discussed and in committee are not just "Veterans' Bill 400" or "Clean Air Act 2000." Its "Veteran's Bill 400... oh and cut the quality air standards in coal mines and make it illegal for Veterans to sue for medical malpractice." The same for the Clean Air Act. I'm sure if bills were kept just bills for specific purposes they would pass. But NOOOO... some assmonkey has to stick a bunch of other shit on the end of it that could spell disaster. Imagine the Clean Air Act 2004 would prohibit dumping, yada, yada, oil drilling in Alaska, blah, blah, but someone nicely tacked on the end of it that abortions would now be illegal and punishable by death of any living children you have or your parents. Would you sign that bill into law if you were Governor or President??? Would you vote for that bill if you were a Senator? That's why some things don't pass in the legislative arena folks. That's why they're vetoed at the Executive level. That's why they go to the Supreme Court, or the judicial branch of our government. This little rewind of blog history is in direct relation to the current snarling between a pack of wild dogs and the head dog in Washington (that’s Congress as the pack and Dubya as head dog) over the Dubai ports scandal. The bill under fire would provide emergency money for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and victims of Hurricane Katrina. Important issues in the grand arena of U.S. politics and those of our troops and American citizens. Then, they stick this ports deal on the end of it, essentially giving control of particular portions of six American ports to DP World, a company, for all intents and purposes, owned and operated by the sheik of Dubai, a member of the United Arab Emirates. Now, the UAE recognized the Taliban and that makes a lot of people, including most Congressmen/women a bit uneasy, as it does, my guess here, the majority of Americans, for this corporation to have control over anything related to national security. The issue is dead now as DP World "has agreed to turn over all of its operations at U.S. ports to an American entity, Sen. John Warner said Thursday." (CNN) Yet, this is an important lesson for any American willing to use some common sense and application of learned material. If a bill supporting our troops and Katrina relief efforts cannot pass through Congress due to this outrageous addendum, even in the face of the Commander-in-Chief threatening to veto the measure if he does not get his way, what other important issues have been passed over and what issues have been pushed through, as addendums to other bills? Additionally, I would be concerned not just with the operations of American ports formerly under the control of the British firm P&O, which sold it’s rights to DP World, but I would be concerned with any other port which DP World now controls, which are mainly in India and China. In my opinion, that’s the fox watching the hen house. Kudos to the United States Congress for seeing the lunacy of allowing this bill to pass and standing up for the concerns of the American people. It’s about time some form of intelligence gripped our lawmakers. You may have done it to save your own rear-ends come election time but for now, re-write the bill, keep off the addendums, and send the money where it is needed.