Damage Assessment

Don’t say I didn’t tell you. No sooner had DPW ceded it’s ownership of American port terminal management, than mainstream newspapers in Saudi Arabia and UAE, two of our strongest allies in the war on terrorism, printed stories decrying American “Islamophobia.” Though our relationship with these countries remains, tentatively, in good standing, opinions such as that can harm us, and will turn the hearts of many in the Middle East against us, at a time when we need so much help from them in catching the bad guys. Many in the US House of Representatives knew the true facts about the deal, but decided to go along with the results of misleading polls in opposing the deal. One of these is Representative Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and a California Republican. “It is not about the deal with DPW,” Duncan explained Thursday, in so many words, “It is about the perception of the deal.”
Hunter was the Congressman who added the DPW blocking amendment to the spending bill.
Many have blamed the President for not presenting and explaining the proposed DPW deal, but Bush and his administration presented plenty of information. The mainstream media just didn’t cover it.
The DPW deal is dead, but ocean transport operations will still be bringing cargo to the United States from foreign port terminals managed by DPW. The Opposition in the US has already announced plans to use the dead deal against the President, and against the Congressional Republicans in the upcoming election campaign.
Unfortunately, you probably haven’t heard the last of this subject from me.

Flip-Flop of the Week:
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton, in speaking out against the House proposal to round up and deport the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants who are currently in the United States,said that to do so, as proposed in the bill, would require "Gestapo-like" tactics.
She said that it was more important to improve the security along the borders to prevent more illegals from entering the country. She added that those illegals who are already here could, perhaps, be allowed to apply for work permits. As much as I hate to, I have to say that I think Hillary is right on this issue. Especially since it sounds remarkably like what President Bush proposed in his State of the Union Address in 2005. She was utterly opposed to the proposal at that time.

About the links on this page:
I have added some links to the sidebar on this blog. The first is Rantings of a Sandmonkey, a Muslim libertarian who lives in Cairo, and is very interesting to read. This is a very widely read blog and worth the visit. Sandmonkey is a graduate of Havard in the United States and is very pro-American and anti-Islamist. He has many articles and links on his site that will disuade the Liberal myth that all Muslims hate America. Second, is Trevor Snyder's blog The Will To Exist. Trevor is very like minded to myself and is much more articulate. And the third, is the National Terror Alert updates, almost a required daily stop. Please give these sites a visit.