Goodbye Dubai?

So it looks like the Dubai Ports deal has sunk. (Maybe; see below.) A good thing, because it was becoming a distraction.

The uproar was always suspect; as people who know something about port security said, the real problem is not so much who owns the company that manages the port, but the Bush administration's unwillingness to spend the time, money and energy necessary to provide real security. (I admit that critics who pointed out that the management of the company that runs the port would have access to information that could aid potential miscreants have a point. But I suspect that most of that information could be gleaned in other ways, and without much trouble.)

Now maybe we can focus attention on the issue that should be front-and-center: the Republican attempt to cover up for the President's totally illegal wiretapping program, and even to facilitate it's unwarranted (in both senses) extension into the future. If you're not worried about that, you should be, and if you know people who aren't worried about it, tell them why they should get their heads out of the sand (or some other deep dark place) and stand up to be counted.

(DPW's statement backing away from the deal said that it would "transfer" ownership of American assets to an American "entity." Which could mean that it intends to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary organized in the US and, therefore, legally an American company. Would this pass muster? Hard to tell, but at least it would buy enough time for W to get the bill for the war and Katrina relief, to which critics were going to attach the anti-foreign-ownership bill, passed and signed. Of course, it may be that DPW simply intends to sell its new American assets, a process that would take months at best. If that's the case, my money's on Halliburton.)