JoPa Getting Piled On


I'm sorry - but I don't quite get this. The same administrators and school trustees who weren't exactly clued into what was going on nine years ago now are throwing the book at legendary Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno and firing him. Yes, he should have retired long ago, but the school apparently wanted him and more importantly, so did the student body. But because school administrators did not act on information he gave them nine years ago about a FORMER employee Joe is being shown the door. Don't get it.

I understand that the grand jury investigation transcript of the charges against the actual perpetrator and two senior administrators (of which JoePa is not named) looks bad, but I don't understand the over-the-top vitriol shown towards Joe - and especially from conservatives. Some of the same people who bristled at the recent media treatment of Herman Cain are leaping on this bandwagon and casting the first stones at JoePa (mostly because they hate and misunderstand football, I presume). And, do you also realize that there is more coverage tonight of "students marching in the street" then there ever was for violence at the Occupy Wall Street stuff?

Over at ESPN, sports pundits are howling outrage at how college football has undermined our society (even though ESPN has caused much of the recent conference shuffling with their own meddling - see Longhorn Network). Also, several former ESPN on-air personalties have been shown the door for sexual harrassment themselves during this same time period - did those pundits go straight to the police with what they knew? I don't think so. I understand the Penn State charges are serious - but the moral hypocrissy of the press is also.

Bloggin' the Mid-Terms

Very early on all cable news networks started claiming a Democratic landslide with victories in Senate and House races thus giving the “fighting” dems, as Nancy Pelosi calls ‘em, a majority in both congressional bodies . Well not Fox – they just look sad, but MSNBC talking heads start expounding on glittering generalities (one of my favorite alliterations) about why and what. CNN is looking for some magic number to put the Dems in the majority tonight. Hmmm – I wonder who’s side they’re on. This is around 7:00 PM PST.

Trying to kill time why they await more results, Chris Mathews floats a hypothesis about how the Republicans actually ran several black candidates but lost – “I guess that’s a failed strategy”. Someone points out that all of them ran against incumbents in a year that everyone is pissed at Republicans because of the war. It doesn’t really mean anything. Besides Harold Ford, a black democrat is losing also. Of course in that Tennessee race they blame race for the loss. In the Republican situations its because they are Republican.

Oh by the way, former Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut wins as an Independent against the guy who beat him in the Democratic primary earlier this year! Guess who said he could win anyway as an Independent.

I always find it hilarious how a bunch of people can sit around and yak and come up with one-liners about why people voted. It’s not much different than your after football game sports talk. After a closely fought football game won on a last minute field goals set up by a fumble, the talking sports heads will go on and on explaining “keys of the game”. Finally someone will blurt out –“well it really came down to Bill Parcell’s aggressive game plan”. Yeah, I bet he really planned on winning on a last minute field goal.

CNN blurts out something similar. Paula Zahn looking like she’s at a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta in her red bolero dress says “It must because of the war”. Duh. But I’d like to pour her a margurita, por favor. After some more pandering about how wonderful the Democrats are someone on MSNBC says all of these early Democratic wins on this night all occurred in “blue” (Democratic) states and no one will know anything until the “red” (Republican) races come in. Most intelligent thing said all night.

Chris Mathews asks John McCain if Enron caused the potential Republican downfall. Wha? That’s right - and it would have been worse if Ken Lay hadn’t died. Chris Mathews says everyone hates conceding Senator Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania because he’s pro-life and against gay marriage. Someone finally says that most of America feels that way.

Basic election fact – in mid-term campaigns the controlling body and with usually its incumbent President always give up a number of seats to the opposing party – it’s commonplace for Congress to give up 20 seats either way. Remember the Republicans taking over during the Clinton years? It’s sort of normal – so this result is not shocking in the House. The Senate would be a bit different – but remember the GOP has Joe Lieberman as an Independent anyway.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann cannot believe his teleprompter when it still shows that Republican George Allen (son of former NFL coaching great George Allen) is still ahead in a tight race from the Senate in Virginia. He’s dismayed because the vaunted exit polls said that everyone is still against the war! How could this b e.

Oh god Hillary is on. I got to go throw up. Be back in a minute.

Hillary beat some guy named John Spencer. Waitaminute, wasn’t that the appealing character actor that was on the West Wing and LA Law? And died last year? No wonder she won. Hmm I wonder who that striking man is by her side at the podium? There’s a stain on his jacket. Hillary is wearing some yellow coat jacket number which makes her look like the Morton Salt Girl.

Keith Olberman still can’t believe that John Allen is still winning with 94% of the vote. What in blazes is going on here? Criss Mathews ask some Republican if they will ever win again in the Northeast. His inane questions are driving me batty. Let’s go to CNN.

CNN projects former Tennessee Vol and Washington Redskin QB blowout Heath Shuler as a winner in North Carolina as a fighting Dem. Man this is like SportsCenter! Unfortunately former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swan loses in his Governor bid in Pennsylvania. CNN’s Anderson Cooper, you know of the 360, is interviewing three pundits who are standing at bar-like structure and they all have lap-tops in front of them. I guess they are all working on their fantasy football lineups during the slow times. Anderson Cooper’s mom is someone famous but I can’t remember right now. CNN runs a tagline that the Dems needs 8 seats to capture the House. Of course everyone knows they will capture the House. That’s a done deal.

Actually the big news of the night that keeps streaming along the bottom of the TV screen that Britney Spears has filed for divorce from that no-good scum K-Fed. I really can’t believe they haven’t broke in with a special report. Waitaminute Heath Shuler lobs a TD pass to Lynn Swan. Juggernauts win! Wow. George Allen must have had a great game plan.

Chris Mathews is stunned that incumbent Republican Senator John Kyl is projected to win in Arizona – almost a half hour after he projected the other guy to win. Keith Olberman is wearing a baby pink tie – in fact every MSNBC’er is wearing a peculiarly distinctively different solid color tie. It’s almost like they are playing Risk! with their ties during Election Night. “the Ukraine is weak, Newman!”. All networks project the Dems will take the House. Okay already, now tell us about Britney!

Ooops we did it again. About an hour ago everyone projected some white guy over black Republican Michael Steele in the Maryland Senate race even though now with 45% of the vote in Steel still leads. Now they’re trying to explain it. James Carville shouts down Anderson Cooper while he still talks on and on about Clinton. Anderson did a 360. Nice dome James. Back at MSNBC, Chris Mathews complements former Congressman Dick Gephardt at not being fat like other older politicians. “My lord when I saw Al Gore the other night I thought I was talking to the Hindenburg!” Let’s play some hardball.

CNN reports from the White House that Karl Rove had just called the President to tell him that the House is now under the control of the Democrats. Wha? Someone had to call him? All he had to do was to watch the friggin’ TV! That chick reporter said this was a colossal change for the White House. Wolf Blitzer said this a “major, major” development. Business talking head Lou Dobbs said this was a shocking sea of change. My god – it has been forecast before the goddamned football season started. For friggin’ Pete’s sakes. No one gives a shit about the House. Except for the fact that someone named Nancy Peolsi gets to shout out her extremely radial leftist krap all day long. She makes Hillary look good.

Now everyone has pulled back their projection of incumbent Democratic Senator over black Republican Michael Steele in Maryland. They are amazed that perhaps black voters in urban Baltimore may have voted for a Republican. Go Orioles. It is also fairly obvious now that Republicans are leading in closely contested and much talked about Senate races in Tennessee and Missouri but all networks don’t want to call them because that would be the end of their show – with the Senate still under Republican control. Boo hoo. I’m sure you realize that everyone on MSNBC and CNN are major Dems and want them to take control desperately. Their contempt for the latest results is written all over their carefully color coordinated ties.

Like I have said before I don’t watch Fox that much but I would have to say they are the more sober of the bunch – they are now even talking about how the Dems may take over the Senate (with some suddenly quick turning numbers) – the other two channels are tripping over their generalites and these guys are really talking turkey without much flag waiving. I’m pretty surprised. Its seems generally fair and balanced – and real. How refreshing.

Arizona voted on one of their Propositions to make English the State’s official language. How sad. MSNBC projects Ahnuld Schwarzenager to be reelected as governor of Califronia. Chris Mathews says it because of the huge nature of “celebrity”. That is amazingly so wrong. Ahnuld tried to change a bunch of stuff last year and got soundly defeated and as deft a politician as I have ever seen he swung back to the center, approved a hike in minimum wage, amongst other things and soundly defeated a guy who was well know to support every tax hike known to man.

Chris Mathews continues to misread graphics on the screen. Webb pulls ahead of Allen but he doesn’t know it. Keith and Chris are now getting excited. More blather about the wicked witch of the west Nancy Pelosi. David Schuster reports from Allen headquarters – he’s a pretty good reporter. But the MSNBC guys are abuzz – I mean its actually sort of exciting. I wonder if Heath Shuler can hang onto the ball.
Chris Mathews says George Bush’s only position as a lame duck President is to keep taxes low. He says this “only helps the rich”. What a myopic little prick. Keeping taxes low helps the entire economy!. After 9/11 Bush rushed into play tax cuts that kept an economy staggered by 9/11 – remember the airlines? – afloat. What political and economic nonsense. This man does not have an economic brain cell in his head. And he’s on fucking TV!

Finally, at 9:29 PST Tennessee is declared for the Republican Bob Corker. Chris Mathews is disappointed. He’s says they won’t project Corker…oh we will…we have all the votes…oh wait we don’t..well let’s see. It’s projected by MSNBC anyway but Mathews too busy pontificating he can’t believe it. Allen trails by 2,000 votes as he signs off at 12:30 AM EST. There is also talk about a disputed count. It will go into a recount. But it now doesn’t look good for Allen. I guess he didn’t have a good game plan.

It’s fairly sad that Chris Mathews keeps saying that black Senator candidate Harold Ford lost in Tennessee because he was black. Frankly, I like Harold Ford. I’ve seen him on TV before and he seems like a sharp guy to me – very candid – fairly in the middle – well spoken and on point – a true gentlemen if you ask me. But apparently he lost in Tennessee because he was black according to Mathews. I mean Gore couldn’t even win as a VP candidate in Tennessee. It’s not the color – it’s the party affiliation. And Ford came really close. He will do well somewhere else.

Hillary Clinton apparently spent $29 million to run for a pretty much uncontested seat. Unbelievable.

No one knows about the Senate yet. The Dems will have a tough time doing anything anyway with Bush waiting with his veto pen.

NO NEW TAXES!

It's a Whacky Whacky State

California is the most bizarre place for an election. It has a state mandated ability for any idiot with money to put a Proposition on the ballot for the collective to vote on and make law. This is why the state is excessively hard to manage because many of the voted upon issues have hamstrung the state. This year’s slate includes:

Prop 86: Tax cigarettes another tax of $2.50 per pack ramping up the on the street cost to almost eight dollars. This state loves to tax vilified people without representation – this is outrageous and for no new real reason except that they can. This will lead to bulk market sales of cigarettes and pretty much racateeering. Anyone heard of prohibition? Wait for the “drug” running and the black market affect.

Prop 87: A proposition created by local venture capitalists to create a fund to finance alternative energy issues without any result in sight. And it will create a tax on gasoline. Can you understand anything crazier than a tax on gasoline in these times? – but this is what they are proposing. And they had shills and ads out here by Clinton and Gore that were pure lies and bullshit. It damns me that an ex-President can sell himself for such an ad lowlife prop it is unbelievable. That is the man – a shill. Over and over Clinton – an unelected but former President is telling people that they should tax themselves for funding a bullshit alternative energy fund on behalf of the rest of the country? Impeach the bastard again!

Prop H – an advance on California’s long held stance on NOT increasing property taxes that will purportedly fund low cost housing. While laudable, give developers a lot of money to do something that doesn’t make sense sound stupid to me. Another dumb soak the “rich” effort.

It’s a whacky whack state. I long for Texas.

Halloween Surprise

Well before John Kerry opened his mouth and inserted his foot and threw Republicans a softball…no make that a beach ball... I was going to make some general comments about next week’s election. And mostly about our local election out here in California and all the wacky inanities that come with this beautiful but in some cases, backward politically, state. But since the recent headlines deal with the national congressional and Governor races let's chat about that.

First of all let me preface those remarks by telling you where my point of view is coming from. I like to call myself a “rock-n-roll Republican” – and I have been meaning to write a post as to what that means but we’ll do that at length a little later. But suffice it to say I prefer less government, low taxes, no bloaty government programs and a strong national defense. But on the other hand I can be a bit more flexible on social programs. I’m not a bible thumper, I don’t think Roe v. Wade should be overturned and if gays want to get married have at it. Just don’t raise my taxes, please protect the country and promote free enterprise. Pretty simple really.

I sort of want to refrain from talking politically on these pages because unfortunately the discussion usually devolves into yelling and name calling. I’ve been to more political web pages and it really is just a bunch of screaming back and forth. That’s not much fun – I’d rather talk much more about how my fantasy football team sucks. I did start the blog to have a place to spout off because I do grow tired of the incredible nonsense I see on TV on almost every channel. It is so left, so intellectually dishonest, it defies comprehension. And no, I do not watch Fox religiously, more to the contrary I watch MSNBC – so I cannot silo myself.

What really capped this off for me was the media coverage of hurricane Katrina. Ws the government slow to respond? Yes. Was it despicable that they somehow reorganized FEMA and were so focused on terrorism that they could not respond as usual? Yes. I don’t have a problem with people piling on about that. Was the President of the free world’s comment “You’re doing a helluva job Brownie” a stupid statement? Hell yes. Go ahead – take your shots. It is warranted.

What I didn’t like was the assertion made over and over and over that everyone knew the hurricane was going to hit New Orleans. Over and over and over. Any idiot could see this happening – why weren’t we more prepared? Should our response have been better? Yes. But wasn't this also done with the fine collaboration of that well known political machinery in Louisiana? Puhleese. Everyone know that Louisiana is the most backwards state in the Union – and since my girlfriend is Cajun, I think I can say that. I think even some of my LSU friends would say that as well. But in the press it was over and over “any idiot could see this coming”.

That weekend I was sitting in my hotel room at a casino on Lake Charles, LA and on Friday night I saw reports that Katrina had spun around the tip of Florida. I also saw a report of people deciding to spend the night on their boats of the Louisiana shore not respecting a potential imminent threat. I guess they were just a stupid as the President. But no one in the press continually attacked them – probably because they’re dead now. I left my buddies at the krap tables and by the pool around noon Saturday amid bright sunshine as schedule so I could have dinner with friends in Houston that night. It wasn’t until I landed in LA and went to a party that people told me that New Orleans had been evacuated. My friends by the pool and at the kraps table had to scamper out in a hurry and through a lot of traffic later that evening. “Any idiot could see this would happen” spouted the media machine.

Just like anyone could see that 9/11 would happen because someone filed a report saying that someone was interested in flying planes into buildings. Were we asleep at the switch? Yes. Was it obvious to everyone? Hell no. In fact in pre-9/11 times if we took certain action against foreign students taking suspicious flight training classes any administration would have been rung up for violating people’s civil liberties. Even now people bitch about the Patriot Act and other actions the administration has taken to protect us.

And for Iraq – I was always conflicted on it. Did part of me want to go in and kick ass? Yes – as a child of post-World War 2 there was that part of me that wanted to flex our political will if we could and if it was prudent. Let’s do it – let’s quit being passive and try to do something in this region which somehow creates most of world’s problems. And in a post 9/11 world I think it was important to be proactive instead of being reactive. But I always couldn’t figure out how it would work for a long term. Iraq was put together by the British and it had three distinct different religious groups. This looked messy to me. While I thought the idea of promoting a democracy in the Middle East for a certain country or area was laudable I found the thought to be somewhat unrealistic. But hopefully our guys knew something that I didn’t.

What we, and the rest of the world, didn’t really know was the extent of the rise in radical Islamic fundamentalism. I would suggest to anybody to read the book “The Looming Tower” which explains how radical Islamic fundamentalism didn’t start when some guy from Texas took office, but actually started after World War 2 – and because some other guy, exiled from Egypt came to America and didn’t like what he saw. And not in New York City or Hollywood – but some little town in Colorado. He came back to Egypt, wrote books, started a movement, killed Anwar Sadat - because he was not religious enough - and now radial Islamic claim him as their George Washington. This is what we, nor any administration, nor any political head arguing against global warming or saying he wore boxers et al, saw coming. Please read the book – it’s a friggin eye opener.

And that is what we are up against. A very serious problem with, not a country but a religious ideal. You may think this rhetoric about how “they want to change our way of life” is just a campaign slogan – but it is very real. They want to kill all infidels – which is us. Do all Arabs feel this way? No. But alot do. And it’s not because of our “government’s policies in the region”. Its because we are who we are. No one did anything. No politician misspoke. They just hate our way of life. It’s against their religion.

And while most of us would say – go ahead practice your religion - it’s a free country – not many religions promote annihilation of everyone else. Which is what Sharia does.

What’s surprising to me is that no one in the media talks about this. This is the immediate threat. This is what we should be “prepared” for. But no. They talk about Hillary’s numbers, how Bush’s number are declining , how Barak Obama looks appealing. Asleep at the switch? The hurricane is coming? Duh?

By the way – did you know the economy is booming? No, I bet you didn’t - because the media hasn't told you yet.

Which brings us to Mr. Kerry. As any news outlet would tell you he’s not running for anything. Who cares? He wants to be part of the story. He came out west to stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelideis who is nothing more than an angry accountant wonk who thinks that everything can be solved if you raise taxes. Besides having three adorable daughters who have campaigned for him he is a despicable human being. He ran adds linking his opponent Ahnuld to Bush on and on and on. His past campaigns for Treasurer jobs consistently ripped the opponent instead of standing on his own virtues. His tactics are lower than low. Can’t talk about the issues but he can’t rant and rave about the negatives all day long. He’s pretty much is on the record for raising every tax known to man in California if he gets elected. And so he trails in the race by double digits. So let bring out Kerry – he will energize the campaign.

Kerry – on the stage again – comes out swinging against Bush. He just can’t help it. Say what you want to say about Bush. But you know where he stands. Kerry, Clinton – all wordsmith experts saying not alot really. And he says what you know already. Standing on the steps of a college he says “You know we are here to talk about education but you know if you do well and study hard you may get somewhere but if you don’t you’re stuck in Iraq” .

When I heard this news clip driving in my car to work never in my mind did I think Kerry was disparaging the troops . I knew better. He was too arrogant to do so –he just wanted to take a swing at the President. And he missed- in fact he threw the bat.

Why is this important? Because a man who ran for President thought he could just swing for the fences but got caught up. If you didn’t think he was after the troops then he was after the President – and after saying education was a big deal. But do any of you really think he tried to say the President was dumb even though he is on record at being dumber? Do you realize that Bush had better grades at Harvard than both Kerry and internet inventor Al Gore? The reality is you don’t because the media has not told you. So how does this compute? Bush was "smarter" than those guys, but if you don’t do your homework….huh?

Is a verbal gaffe that bad? – not really. But one week before an election? Dumb. And dumber.

Please cast your vote wisely.

The Meathead Initiative

The amazing thing about this Tuesday voting in California was that it was really a Democratic Primary but Republicans came out in droves anyway to defeat bullshit Propositions that get thrown on the ballot every year and frankly continue to weaken the State’s ability to get it’s finances in order.

This go-round included Prop 82 – a measure to tax anyone who makes over $400,000 to pay for “free” pre-school for 4-year olds “so they can improve their chances in the educational system”.

I hate Propositions like this. Let’s tax the “rich” to provide a nebulous benefit and create a further un-needed beauracy. This state, and this nation, cannot afford bullshit programs that feel good, sound good, by taxing everyone. Now some of you may say “well the rich can afford it” but where does it stop? We are over taxed in this country big time – and it occurs in so many ways you don’t even know about. This is not the way to govern. This is bad, bad government. (And just for the record I don’t make anything even remotely close to $400K – I just hate the principle that all of our ills can be solved if we create a bucket of taxes for people who some perceive can afford it ).

Even now the push to get the Estate Tax repealed is losing steam because of the President’s waning popularity. Why does it make sense that a man or women works their whole life to build a nest egg, a business, a farm – and then when they die it must be taxed again when it is bequeathed to their siblings. This is double taxation. It is wrong. But the argument will be this only affects the rich. Ya know what – as inflations rises et al this is affecting more of us any way – but in principle it is just plain wrong. And you may not realize but many of our parents with their pension plans (that today really don’t exist anymore in corporate America) are richer than they let on. This really affects many of “us”.

Ok I got off the point – but it’s similar. Let’s create a tax such that we can fund something – this is slippery slope folks – and one not to go down. I’m sure most of you pay close to 8% for sales tax right now. And politicians are always looking to raise that number. This means that on any goods you buy you pay a 10% surcharge on. Do you realize that ? Do you like that? I bet you didn’t realize.

I just realized that tax was recently imposed out here in la-la land for a 10% surcharge on all canned soft-drink purchases. I never knew what that extra charge was on my grocery receipt but now I know. Why should that be? Because some politician said “well if we tax this we can raise money for this”. This is just wrong.

Well that’s what Prop 82 was about. And it’s known as the Meathead Initiative. You see, Rob Reiner, the actor and producer who played the live-in son-in-law on the great comedy All in the Family is an out-of-control political activist. When I moved out here in the late 90’s he got a “prop” to get passed where they “taxed” buyers of cigarettes a ridiculous amount to pay for “education”. Again, another made-up tax. Of course we can tax those horrid cigarette smokers – and this got put up for a vote? Hey, why don’t we tax all the serial killers to create better driveways for everyone? This is pretty much the way it goes out here.

So Reiner’s cigarette deal wins and now his “group” has a bunch of money to create further taxes. They actually use these funds (illegally by state laws that they eventually got caught by no other than the LA Times – the wonder) to advertise for this new Prop 82 initiative. I’m not even going to try to argue why mandatory pre-school is either a good or bad idea – but I’ll have to tell you I don’t understand it. These guys go on and on about how children are left behind because they don’t have the prerequisite skills to enter into kindergarten?

I mean fucking come on! The first 13 grades are a skate – and probably even more now. Show up, write your name, pass the test – you will graduate. I know I am not an expert on what is going on now but when I was in school this was a romp. Do you really believe some assimilation with bead-making will really make a difference – and at a cost to our biggest breadwinners and job makers? That will, in itself, create another tax basket that will only be expanded upon and modified like a bad scab? This is just Orwellian crap.

The fact that Hollywood blowhards like Reiner (who I have liked in everything he has done on an entertainment scale “Diane – look at these swatches”) can get away with this Holy Grail crap and all the lemmings out here can nod and go “yeah that’s what we need” is outrageous . And, more so, it’s un-American.

This country was founded on the principle of no taxation without representation. And I don’t understand why out here in CA any new tax initiative can be put on a ballot for the willy nilly to vote in and or out. It’s fucking criminal.

Well anyway Prop 82 was soundly defeated in this Primary. And while the pull for the election was to vote for the two Democratic nominees for Governor, Republicans came out in droves to defeat this piece of krap.

Thank God America still works.

The other good news about this week’s Democratic primary is that State Treasurer Phil Angelides, a man who is on record that he will definitely raise state taxes, won the Democratic nomination against moderate Steve Westly in one of the worst mudslinging campaigns I have ever seen.

This almost assures Ahnuld will win in the fall. And I don’t agree with everything he says and does but he’s not going to raise taxes.

Thank God America still works.

Ports of Call (Abridged)

Let me weigh in on the Dubai port management issue - and I'm doing this without extensive research but having spent a considerable amount of time in the civil infrastructure business - so please allow me a few minutes of your time. (And for additional journalistic fall-out please go here).

First of all let's look at the facts - a British company called Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation company Ltd (P&O) decided to sell their company to a Dubai government owned company. Part of P&O's business was to manage six of the US's ports. What typically happens when mergers and acquistions occcur is that clients may have rights as to the transfer of such sale. Such contract terms are common. Such that when this sale was occuring the US did their due diligence as their approval would be necessary for the approval of the sale.

The UAE (United Arab Emeriates) is probably one of the most progressive (and isn't that what we want them to do - did you see Syriana? George Clooney?) Arab countries. The Emeriates are made of up of a collection of Arab countries dotting the eastern side of the Saudi Arabian peninsula including Dubai, Bahrain and others.

I should probably note here that 21 years ago I worked in Saudi Arabia for a year and a half. Saudi Arabia was an arm pit - but known to many as one of the friendliest to our country government-wise. But it sucked being there because there was no fun to be had. Meaning they are fairly fundamentalist and women have to be covered at all times and you couldn't drink. But they welcomed our workers in there to build all of their stuff. By the way that's the way the world works. It's that part of the world most of the Arabs do not go to University or whatever and labor must be shipped in from all sorts of places - Indians, Pakistani's, Filipinos et al.

Well anyway - that's sort of another story - but what everybody knew was that you could drink in Dubai and Bahrain and other Arab places - they were way much cooler. So much so that eventually they built a causeway (bridge) to the island county of Bahrain so that workers could spend weekends over there getting sauces legally. This to me is the sign of a progressive Arab country. Meaning they are not overly fundamentalist. Heck , they may even let women drive.

Ok - again - this is sort off the point here - but you all should know that in the Arab world these are sort of known as the good guys - they understand commerce. Dubai actually believes in tourism! This is not your normal gulag.

Such that when the transaction came down I do believe the Bush admistration and others felt this was not in any way untoward or "dangerous". Companies with foreign ties are doing alot of business in America and have been for years. This is not overly extraodinary. Your everyday Joe does not understand this and of course is up in arms about this - but this is not that abnormal. In fact the number two company in this acquisition process was a Singapore-owned company which does have a Muslim population as well.

Having said that this was handled extremely poor from a political point of view. With the adminstrations numbers down and in an election year many in Congress would take this bait and make politcal hay out of it - which is what has happened. The administration should have realized as much and laid the groundwork for its approval if it really wanted as much. But it didn't - and this rock n' roll Republican can admit as much. It was a real botch job.

Having outside management to operate ports is not such a bad thing. Outsourcing (which has become such a bad word but it really isn't) is frankly a cost effective way in letting qualified firms do what they do based on their inherent economies of scale. For example many companies, and some foreign owned, now operate local water and wastewater services in a more economical way than if the local entity operated it. This provides savings to the local entity instead of raising taxes. And again no one "owns" these facilties - they just manage them under an extensive service contract that lays out all of the detail of the realationship - its called a public/private partnership - and it is good.

In fact one of the best ways to keep our "enemies" at bay is to do business with them (although the UAE isn't one of them)- then they won't want to fuck anything up for fear of losing business - I'm sure that's how Dubai would work.

By the way did you know that the Pittsburgh airport, for one example, is managed by a British company named BAE? I liked the comment one national columnist gave that there are probably more angry and disaffected Arabs in the UK (train bombings) then the UAE? And what if an Arab British citizen was in management at BAE? What may he do? Cue the Twilight Zone music.

Now that the Republicans have currently put a wrench in this I do not think that is necesassarily a good thing. Eveybody knee-jerked here - the President handled it badly and everyone is piling on to what to me is a PR issue not a policy issue - and now we will lose foreign investment which is also good for the country.

It reminds me when Japan was buying up real estate in the 80's and when they bought Rockefeller Center everyone went "oh no" they will own us. People, debt is good - investment in our assets is good - its what makes the world go around - and I remember at the time thinking well the Japs bought at the top of the market, suckers.

They later sold the Rock at a loss.

That's enough for now. Do you know they now want to give this stuff to Haliburton. I'll post on that next time. Who is more evil? Dubai or Haliburton?

I'd love a friggin' liberal to answer that question.

Outrage of the Week

Check out everything that happened this week:

OK - so the Vice President shot somebody - it was a hunting accident - the victim even feels sorry for the VP. Hey Ted Kennedy got somebody killed. And Clinton got blowjobs in the Oval Office (not that there's anything wrong with that). Its' amazing how all of the Dems pranced with glee about this story (I've been lurking on your blogs). and the press had a field day. "Why didn't you report this earlier" demanded one White House scribe. Man, if I shot somebody I'm not going on Larry King to tell everyone about it. How stupid is that? And then Hillary goes - "well that's how this White House obfuscates info" - hey Hill - what about your White House girl? Get under the table.

But it has provided a good deal of somewhat gallows humour - "I'd rather be hunting with Dick Cheney than driving with Ted Kennedy". Glad we could drag his ass in with this. And even this GOP'er could not believe the news as I was laying in bed sunday night watching Grey's Anatomy and right after the suspenseful pulling the bomb out of the chest cavity scene - set to the that great Anna Nalick tune - and whatshername walks out in the hall to see the entire bomb squad blow up - the TV all of a sudden breaks for commercial and the headline is "VP Cheney shoots somebody" -what a juxtoposition! Well both Deborah and I sort of laughed out loud as I said "man can you guys just keep it in your pants?" sheesh - can you fucking keep it together - I cannot contain the great liberal hoarde with this type of bullshit!

I do like the tune "Cheney's Got a Gun" set to the Aerosmith song though.

Arabs riot over Danish Cartoons. Does everybody now get it that you really can't sit down and talk to these people? That we ARE in a war with radical Islam? That it does threaten our way of life and commonly held civil liberties? Do you friggin' get it now?

When 9/11 happened the common response was "why do they hate us?" And then it morphed to "well WE must have done something wrong" (the great liberal mantra - well if somthing happened it must have been because of us). No we didn't do anything wrong - we helped build their infrastructure, but they cannot build a decent economy for themselves. And they are not really free. So they have alot of time to obsess on nothing and that's why they have nothing better to do but kill each other. Get it?

The Olympics suck. And I'm a big sports fan. When did snow boarding become the biggest Olympic sport - it sucks. I'll have a rant on that later.

And then many on blogs thought Michelle Kwan shouldn't have even got into the Olympics (because some are serious deranged serial conspiracy theorists) and could not even give the girl her due in the very gracious way she bowed out of the Olympics in plenty of time for her alternate. I don't understand why some cannot even see class when its plainly sitting in front of you.

Kelly Clarkson wins two Grammies and performs for the fans in Turin. She gets continually blasted for not thanking American Idol - this is the constant theme in all stories about her the past two weeks. American Idol did not do her latest record - she fired their management and did her own thing with real rock and roll people and you see the results. Why should she have to thank those hacks - and why is that the story line? Report on how her album surprised everybody and the critics themselves. Its a great story.

Bad Media. But you won't here about in the mainstream because they are too busy overreacting to other stuff. More worried about "when" something happened" as opposed to "what " happened as to "how" something might happen.

People - just be careful of what one reads or hears - its being spun for one reason or another and that's too bad - whether its for ratings or its a slow news day - and in th end they are plain lazy. And for that - I am officially outraged.