The most amusing quote about the UAE port thing:

[xiphias]

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley says, "We want to turn over the Port of Baltimore, the home of the Star Spangled Banner, to the United Arab Emirates? Not so long as I'm mayor and not so long as I have breath in my body."

Um, dude? Right now, the folks controlling the home of the Star Spangled Banner are the British, the folks that were shelling Fort McHenry when Francis Scott Key wrote that poem.

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Well, that's different, then, isn't it? They earned it by right of conquest.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

From the same slope-browed idiots that brought us internment of Japanese-Americans, Red Baiting, and gay bashing comes... reflexive hatred of all things Arabic!

Will O'Malley keel over when the new guys get the keys to the port?

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

I would feel better about this whole thing if it were handled less sketchily and didn't involve a government that, if not an obvious enemy or anything, at least raises some relevant questions for the issue.

Oh, and if there weren't the usual obvious cronyism.

Frankly, this is one of those things that look like it should work fine IF everyone handles it properly. Given our gummint's track record on that, I have zero faith in this being a good idea.

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

The most amusing comment I've seen about this was in the discussion about this issue in ozarque's LJ when someone pointed out that at least those Brits aren't in control of Boston Harbor. :D

[mswae.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

::laughter::

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

I thought the most amusing quote was Bush saying we wouldn't have done this is we were concerned oabout the security of our country.

Seriously the real issue is the usual secrecy and fuck the 3 branches of government approach. If only to educate people this should have been done with the mandated 45 day investigation period and out in the open.

If Carter says its no problem then I am sure it isn't but the issue is the King George thing. I read in a recent speech he said my goverment as if it doesn't belong to anyone else!

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Carter based his assumption on the idea that the Bush administration did all applicable research, deliberation and oversight. I saw the footage, it's what he said. Given the lack of all three, well...

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

oh well - Carter should know better!

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why we'd want ANY other country to run any of our ports. Are we so incompetent that we can't do it ourselves? I don't care if it's Great Britain or the UAE, I just don't want someone else controlling access to our ports. If we're going to play with the grownups, then we should be able to carry out all the normal grownup functions ouselves.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Well, what I've found is that they don't control access, exactly: what they do is loading, unloading, and cargo management.

Why do we farm it out? Because they're the companies that do it. I guess there are only so many firms in the world that actually do port management, and they're headquartered in various places around the world, and this time around, the company that gave the best bid was headquartered in Dubai.

It's not an international thing so much as a corporate thing. Now, I'm certainly open to the idea that cargo loading and unloading is a job which should be handled by governments rather than corporations, but, right now, it's handled by corporations, and they all get to bid on it.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Fine, it's a corporation. International is international, whether it's government or private. The fact that it's a corporation not a government just means the money we pay them is going to a foreign corporation instead of a foreign country. I'd still rather our money stayed in our own economy but for travel and imports.