Selling Our Security

When I heard that Bush intended to allow a company owned by UAE - and yes, it is a state company - to purchase port operations for some of our largest cities I was convinced he has lost what few brain cells still rambled in his head.

I still believe sale of this port's operations to a nation that has thrown so many roadblocks in our way regarding Bin Laden is a mistake.

But it also opened my eyes to a situation I was unaware of and that is that 30% of our port operations are run by foreign agencies, not by American companies.

When did this happen and can this help explain why port security is an issue that does not seem to be improving? After all, it is up to the company to decide how security is handled. The coast guard must sign off on the plan but the company itself sets the bar.

When did we sell off chunks of our nation's daily operations?


http://nytimes.com/2006/02/21/politics/21cnd-port.html

The shipping business, they said, went global more than a decade ago and across the United States, foreign-based companies already control more than 30 percent of the port terminals.

That inventory includes APL Limited, which is controlled by the government of Singapore, and which operates terminals in Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Globally, 24 of the top 25 ship terminal operators are foreign-based, meaning most of the containers sent to the United States leave terminals around the world that are operated by foreign government or foreign-based companies.


The US needs to turn back towards it's own econommic self interests. Our middle class is losing ground, our jobs are being outsourced and now it appears many of the jobs connected to national security have been sold.

It's time for some serious assessment of US direction.

Unsubstantive Politics

Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man in Texas while hunting and it's been fodder for jokes and malcontents alike. Some have even suggested Cheney shot the man on purpose for nefarious reasons.

Let's make no mistake here. I dislike Dick Cheney's politics. I think he is acutely aware of his own self interests which means his ethics and actions can and should be questioned. However, when the left takes on the great conspiracy theories as a rallying cry they do themselves a disservice.

It was an accident. Cheney did make sure he had a clear shot, Whittington didn't announce himself when he returned to the group. Both were irresponsible. Both were at fault.

I find plenty to bash Cheney about without resorting to such fallacious declarations.
Same with Rush Limbaugh and his weight or Mean Jean Schmidt and her appearance.

If this is where the political focus is going then the left has no more substance than the right and I don't believe that's true. I do think it's time for a change in regimes. Balance needs to be restored to our government and if for no other reasons, that's why I'll be voting mostly democratic in 2006.

But if we're going to make this a substantive election then let's address issues and not phantom arguments that have no form.

How Much Do You Trust Your Government?

In a Washington Post report yesterday it was revealed by government officials that most of the "suspects" that the NSA have been spying on here in America were later cleared of any suspicion of terrorist ties.

For most of us, that is not a surprise. For the diehard Bush Can Do No Wrong crowd it means once more they'll look the other way as his lies and machinations are exposed.

Yet two more articles come to light that should give us as much concern as domestic spying.

The first is a request Bush has made to kill terror suspects on US soil. Considering that he wants to kill suspects and not convicted terrorists and taking into consideration that most of his suspects in the domestic spying issue were cleared, is it really feasible or wise to give him that authority? Think he wouldn't abuse it? Feel secure about the intelligence agencies in the US today?

The second came to my attention this morning. An article from the BBC states:
And, in a grand finale, the document recommends that the United States should seek the ability to "provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum".

US forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".

Consider that for a moment.

The US military seeks the capability to knock out every telephone, every networked computer, every radar system on the planet.

Are these plans the pipe dreams of self-aggrandising bureaucrats? Or are they real?

The fact that the "Information Operations Roadmap" is approved by the Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken very seriously indeed in the Pentagon.

And that the scale and grandeur of the digital revolution is matched only by the US military's ambitions for it.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4655196.stm

It seems the Bush administration is planning a psychological war using US media.
Read the article. It's a chilling look into politics.

How long will it take for the majority of Americans to shout "enough!"? Or will opposition be silenced before threats can be processed?

I fear for our republic. I fear for our freedoms.

Letter to the senators

I recently sent this letter to our two state senators. Am I over stating the case?


Senators Byrd and Rockefeller,

I wish to first thank your staff for their attention to the emails that your constituents regularly send. It is gratifying to know someone is reading the concerns of West Virginians.

In reading this article today in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/04/AR2006020401179.html, I find that once more concerns over the actions of this administration have preoccupied my mind today.

With the cuts being made to education and to Medicare I fear many of our citizens will be asked, again, to sacrifice when there is little to give away.

Why are we once again offering tax credits to corporations while cutting services to the most needy in America? How much more burden can the American taxpayer be asked to bear while corporate America receives more and more perks? Where is the respect for our blue collar worker and the product he effects when health care, retirement benefits and living wages are denied while the CEO receives bonuses for cutting the workforce?

The middle class is dwindling. Minimum wage is not enough to sustain an individual, much less a family. Costs of heating and gas are placing an unbearable burden on the working class. Our elderly are being forced more and more to choose between health care, food and heat while programs that have assisted them and filled in the gaps are no longer being funded under the Bush administration. The prescription drug plan is, frankly, a joke which provides little or nothing for the most impoverished in our state and the copays for Medicare have once more been raised, forcing seniors to deny themselves health care.

We, the people of America, need help, senators, and we need relief.

It is my fervent hope and desire that 2006 sees a shift in the make up of the senate and house representatives. We have no balance of power in Washington and it is shown in the abuses now taking place.