Me And My Bush

Moved on! Check TheCairoCalls

...the president! Bush, the president, you dirty-minded $%#$.... God!

It's no secret that I am not the veterans for truth Bush fan club honorary president. Heck, I'm not even a member. If there was ever a the-man-is-a-dim-ventriloquist-dummy club, I would join in a heart beat. This has nothing to do with me being a liberal, communist, islamist fundamentalist, abortion loving, girly man...it is just that everytime I look in his eyes -in the immortal words of Dave Letterman-"[I] get the feeling that someone else is driving"
But I'll have to take that back.
Bush is finally showing some backbone.
You all know the thing with Dubai ports company deal. In case you don't, here is the thing: An Emirati Company is bidding to buy the right to manage 8 American ports. The president, always the free trade loving guy he is, ok'ed the deal. Respectable senators on the hill had another opinion all together. Some senators labeled this deal as a 'serious breach of American national security', while others thought it essentially means that Qaida gains control of American ports. Some republican hawk (Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.) even called for a divestment of other ports, when George Stephanopolous asked him why they didn''t object to other countries (including China!) controlling other American ports. Some politicians are even claiming that UAE was actually a sponsor of Qaida!!!
What I think however, is that as tempting as it is to guess that all American politicians across the board are having an extreme case of foreigner-paranoia, the matter has a very fundamental political underpinning. Bush's popularity is sinking, and this situation provided an excellent opportunity for 1)republicans to dissociate themselves from him, and 2)democrats to actually get on the right of republicans (especially, president hopeful Hillary Clinton, whom I'm beginning to worry about the prospects of her winning the elections--we'd have a very stressful couple of days each month!).
Bush is, as always, steadfast in his position, saying that he will veto any decision by the congress to stop the deal (C'mon the man only got 2 more years in office, and didn't use the veto yet). So, I guess that we'll have to just wait and see.
Meanwhile, my suggestion to Emiraties is this, and I'm being extremely serious now: if congress stopped the deal, boycott the US. Really, there needn't to be any ideological reason for this boycott. It's simply a matter of defending free trade; the US congress doesn't think that UAE is a trustworthy trade partner, so why should the UAE think that the US is any good. If the US is to promote free trade, it should practice what it preaches.
And, no flag-burning please.

Tags: USA, UAE, dubai, ports, bush