Are Reporters Too Wary of Bush and Republicans

Renana Brooks, a clinical psychologist practicing in Washington who said she had counseled several White House correspondents, said the last few years had given rise to "White House reporter syndrome," in which competitive high achievers feel restricted and controlled and become emotionally isolated from others who are not steeped in the same experience. She said the syndrome was evident in the Cheney case, which she described as an inconsequential event that produced an outsize feeding frenzy. She said some reporters used the occasion to compensate for not having pressed harder before the Iraq war. "It's like any post-traumatic stress," she said, "like when someone dies and you think you could have saved them."“White House reporter syndrome?” The doctor is in.

Let's see now, the VP shot someone; didn't report it until it was too late to test for alcohol; blamed the victim initially; and then magnanimously took the blame later once the damage control was completed. To say this was an inconsequential story shows the psychologist's bias; that someone would post this nonsense shows bias. It's all so convenient... the reporters have a syndrome of some sort. Why, how could it be otherwise? How unreasonable for them to be wary of a presidential spokesman who insults a leading senator by referring to them as 'yodelling?' Where was this site's psycho-babble calling Scot McClelan immature and unprofessional? Or where was the psycho-babble analyzing a president who is borderline illiterate and incapable of substantive thought? Where was the analysis pointing out GWB behaves like he has tunnel-vision and is so overwhelmed by events he retreats into soundbites he thinks he understands? Of course, what can we expect of 'reporters' who think alternative perspectives are not needed since we can trust panels exclusively made up of republicans and conservatives? I

Bush and Dubai: Is This Being Tough on Terrorism?

The debate over the administration's decision to bless a $6.8 billion dollar port security bill intensified this morning, with Homeland Security Chief Chertoff defending the deal. I'd like first to provide some background on the deal which is receiving little attention from critics of the takeover. Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation, a U.K. company, currently controls the U.S. ports in question. Those ports are located in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. It's the fourth largest port company in the world. The shareholders of that company agreed to the deal, in which Dubai Ports World (DP World) would pay $6.8 billion to take over that company. (DP world has since announced it will take out a loan to finance the cash deal). The Bush administration gave the green light to the deal. This deal makes DP World the third largest port operator in the world. Before the deal, it was the seventh largest.


Port security is the neglected middle child of our national security debate. Only some 5% of containers coming into the U.S. are inspected. According to 2004 figures, in the three years after 9/11, we spent about $500 million on port security. That's what we spend every 3 days in Iraq. The Coast Gaurd has estimated it needs about $5.6 billion to make our ports "minimally secure"--meaning having locks on gates, security cameras, basic access control, etc. The Bush administration has barely even begun to fund that. So when we finally get the chance to have a public debate on port security, we should make sure it's an informed one and one aimed at best securing the safety of the American people.


Now, let me make it clear. The government of Singapore has an interest in PSA, Port of Singapore, which does operate various U.S. ports. Its interest is via Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government investment agency. But I think it's one thing to have an investment interest in a company and quite another to have the foreign state controlling the company. One of main criticisms of the Dubai deal centers on sovereignty. The CEO of DP World is Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, who works directly for the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. For all the U.S. regulations DP World will have to follow, for all the safety it may be able to guarantee us, the fact remains a foreign government will hold our physical and economic safety in its hands.

Unlike Singapore, this is a government that formally recognized the Taliban. One of the emirates in the UAE was essentially the center for al-Qaeda's illegal financial dealings, with hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing from the UAE to the 9/11 hijackers. (For a comprehensive list of UAE-9/11 links, click here). On the one hand, Bush never fails to remind us of the 9/11 hijackers, and on the other hand, he wants America to forget that some of those hijackers were UAE nationals. Of course, no one is implicating the government that controls DP World as having been aware or facilitating these connections. The truth is that since 9/11, that government has dramatically clamped down on terrorism and suspicious financial dealings within its borders.
But how can a President who so readily invokes 9/11 be so quick to forget its lessons? The review of DP World was incomplete, at least incomplete to satisfy the public uneasiness about having this foreign nation--with so many ties to the darkest of days--securing the lives of millions of Americans. The President has spent so much PR money and effort scaring Americans into thinking terrorists will strike again, that he has now boxed himself in when he desires to give DP World a stake in our national security. No matter how trustworthy that company is, Americans are simply not comfortable with having a Middle eastern country control our ports. It may be irrational, but that is a political reality the President must deal with.
The company itself may be adequately qualified for the job, but there are other considerations which must be wieghed. Just a couple years ago, our embassy in Abu Dhabi was shutdown to a terrorist threat. What happens if DP World, because of its new interest in the United States, becomes a target? What will occur if those 6 ports have to be shut down because of a terrorist threat? As Commander Flynn explained, even a two-week shutdown of U.S. ports "will collapse the global trade system." It's all speculation, of course, but these factors merit serious consideration and a robust public debate before we hand our security over to this company.
What is unquestionably one of the most important decisions about our national security was made by the same cabal that has long ago lost our trust on such matters. The decision was made in secret, without a full investigation and without the input of those who will be most affected by this deal. If this administration has the temerity to invoke 9/11 at every press conference and speech, then let it show us that why we can feel trust a foreign government to prevent another such attack.

Cheney Exposed? White House "Discovers" 250 Emails Related to Plame Leak

The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney's office senior aides had sent in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing Friday.


The emails are said to be explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to discredit Plame Wilson's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration's prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to the investigation said. Sources close to the probe said the White House "discovered" the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004. Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his wife's undercover status to reporters.

Read More http://counterpunch.org/leopold02252006.html

UAE asked for Review and Not the White House

I find it amazing that UAE asked for the 45 days review as declared by our law and not by the White House. What is going on here? The same White House that is so HARD on terrorism. The same WH that said we want to fight the terrorists in Iraq and not here.
Why is the White House so ready to break OUR Laws to allow this deal. We need to hold this administration for breaking our laws.
Also consider this, the deal is due to be finalized Mar 2, that is Dubai will take over ownership of 22 ports even as we "go" through this 45 day review. Something is amiss here.

Many flags have been raised including by the Coast Gaurd which said it was an intelligence failure.

Bill Frist went into closed door session and returned to the microphone to say he was satisfied with what he was told and that the deal should go forth. Was Bill Frist taken to the woodshed?

Susan Collins came from the same meeting and she said she is even more convinced that we should have more reviews and that Congress should have the final say and not the White House.

Our Government Is Selling Off Our Assests

We have borrowed so much money from foreign countries and are in so much debt, consequently OUR government is selling off our assests.

Does anyone care?

DuBai Ports Connection Runs to Bush and Others

The Lou Dobbs show, CNN, 2/22/06:


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The oil-rich United Arab Emirates is a major investor in The Carlyle Group, the private equity investment firm where President Bush’s father once served as senior adviser and is a who’s who of former high-level government officials. Just last year, Dubai International Capital, a government-backed buyout firm, invested in an $8 billion Carlyle fund.

But there’s much more:

Another family connection, the president’s brother, Neil Bush, has reportedly received funding for his educational software company from the UAE investors. A call to his company was not returned.

Snow: Who knew?
Then there is the cabinet connection. Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of railroad company CSX/. After he left the company for the White House, CSX sold its international port operations to Dubai Ports World for more than a billion dollars.
In Connecticut today, Snow told reporters he had no knowledge of that CSX sale. “I learned of this transaction probably the same way members of the Senate did, by reading about it in the newspapers.”
It just doesn’t stop:
Another administration connection, President Bush chose a Dubai Ports World executive to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. David Sanborn, the former director of Dubai Ports’ European and Latin American operations, he was tapped just last month to lead the agency that oversees U.S. port operations.
Conspiracy theory? Let’s follow the gagillions of dollars and let the players speak for themselves:
December 2002-February 2003: Carlyle Group Purchases CSX Lines, LLC
February 27, 2003#2003-07CSX and The Carlyle Group Complete Conveyance of CSX Lines
Jacksonville, FL, and Washington, DC - CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX) and The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm, announced today that they have completed the conveyance of CSX Lines, LLC, from CSX to a venture formed with The Carlyle Group. CSX received $300 million, consisting of $240 million in cash and $60 million of securities issued by the venture.
As part of the transaction announced December 17, 2002, former CSX Lines President and CEO Charles G. (Chuck) Raymond and his management team will lead the Charlotte, N.C.-based ocean carrier, now named Horizon Lines, LLC.
- Carlyle Group Website/Press Release
January 2003: Bush Nominates John Snow, Chairman and CEO of CSX to be Treasury Secretary
President George W. Bush nominated John William Snow to be the 73rd Secretary of the Treasury on January 13, 2003 . The United States Senate unanimously confirmed Snow to the position on January 30, 2003 and he was sworn into office on February 3, 2003 . As Secretary of the Treasury, Snow works closely with President Bush on a broad array of economy policy issues.
Before coming to Treasury, Snow was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CSX Corporation, where he successfully guided the global transportation company through a period of tremendous change.
- Treasury Dept. Website
December 2004: DP (Dubai Ports) World announces agreement to purchase CSX’s shipping terminals
In December 2004, DP World - International made it’s most ambitious move to-date, with the announcement that it had signed a definitive agreement with CSX Corporation to acquire the international terminal business conducted by CSX World Terminals and other related interests for a cash consideration of US$ 1.15bn, completion of this transaction is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2005.
The CSX World Terminals container terminal portfolio consists of interests in 9 terminals with 24 berths and a combined future capacity of 14.6 million TEU across operations in Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America.
- DP World Website
December 2005 - Early 2006: DP World makes bid to purchase Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (“P&O”), a UK company that operates some US ports
The increased recommended cash offer is a revision to the terms of the original recommended proposals in respect of the Deferred Stock (the “Revised Proposals”). With the exception of the price and the timetable, the Revised Proposals are subject to the same terms and conditions which apply to the Deferred Scheme as set out in the document posted to P&O Stockholders on 20 December 2005 (the “Scheme Document”).
- DP World Press Release
“Scheme Document”? You really can’t make this shit up.
To sum it all up, Lou Dobbs lays the smackdown on the Chimp:
DOBBS:
President Bush has put forth a challenge tonight that I simply can’t ignore. The president yesterday said he wanted those who are critical and questioning of this port deal to “step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British company.”
Well, first of all, Mr. President, to equate any country to your principal partner in the coalition ignores that special relationship this country’s enjoyed with the United Kingdom for decades and decades. This also is not just a British company and an Arab company, as I think you well know.
Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation is a British privately owned company. Dubai Ports World is a UAE government controlled and owned company. You see the difference, of course.
And furthermore, the money used to fund the 9/11 attacks, most of it, in fact, was sent to the hijackers through the UAE banking system. In fact, two of the hijackers were originally from the UAE.
The UAE stonewalled U.S. efforts to track al Qaeda bank accounts after 9/11. In addition, the Emirates does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state. And the UAE was a transfer point for shipments of nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
And if those aren’t good enough reasons, I would just suggest I’m at a complete loss to offer what might be considered good reasons.

Two Tiers, Slipping Into One

R ICK DOTY is a 30-year veteran of Caterpillar, the big tractor and earth-moving equipment manufacturer. He is paid $23.51 an hour as a machinist, and he receives additional benefits worth almost as much. That sets him far above newly hired workers consigned to a much lower wage scale.
To these fellow workers, Mr. Doty, who is also a local union leader, struggles to justify an inequality that he helped to negotiate.
"I remind them they are making more now than they were before they came to Cat," said Mr. Doty, who spends part of his day at the one-story union hall of United Automobile Workers Local 974 arguing that $12 to $13 an hour is good pay here. "And I assure them that five years down the road, when the present contract expires, we in the union are going to improve their lot in life."
That does not seem likely. After more than a decade of failed strikes and job actions — mainly in Illinois, where Caterpillar has its biggest factories — the U.A.W. reluctantly accepted a two-tier contract that provides for significantly lower wages and benefits for newly hired employees. The new second tier is as much as $20 an hour below the cost of employing Mr. Doty, 50, and a dwindling band of other veterans.
As older workers depart, at Caterpillar and at other companies, the longstanding wage advantage that manufacturing workers enjoy over their counterparts in services or construction is shrinking fast. The trade-off is the promise of a manufacturing revival at long last in the old Rust Belt, as new hires come aboard at much lower labor costs.
"What we've done is reposition ourselves to actually grow employment in our Midwestern plants," said Jim Owens, Caterpillar's chief executive. "We finally have a labor cost that is viable."
Caterpillar is adding a significant chapter to the labor cost-cutting that is widespread in America, particularly at old-line manufacturing companies. Until recently, cutbacks in the wages and benefits of hourly workers were limited mostly to money-losing companies: failing steel mills, for example, and struggling airlines. They have said that their survival was at stake.
Now, however, even healthy and highly profitable companies like Caterpillar are engaging in the practice, and as they do so, the longstanding presumption that factory workers at successful companies can achieve a secure, relatively prosperous middle-class life for themselves and their families is evaporating.
"Caterpillar is a powerful symbol of this process," said Harley Shaiken, a labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley. "It dominates its field. It is one of America's largest exporters, and it is very profitable. If there ever was a company that could bring back the social contract of the mid-20th century, it is Caterpillar. But it chooses not to."
AS Caterpillar's managers see it, they have no choice. "There is a balance that must be struck between being competitive and being middle class," said Douglas R. Oberhelman, a group president. Although Caterpillar's factories are among the most productive in the world, the managers argue that the company cannot afford to be more generous simply because it is doing well right now.
"You could say that in good times you could afford a different kind of package and in bad times you couldn't," said Christopher E. Glynn, the director of corporate labor relations. "The real question is: What's competitive? And our target is competitiveness."
The new contract reflects the company's success in imposing a "market competitive" pay scale; that is, wages and benefits that attract enough qualified workers by being slightly better than the packages offered by others in each community or region where Caterpillar has operations.
In the Midwest market, the competitive wage-and-benefit package is about $23 an hour, on average, Mr. Glynn says. Caterpillar's package for new hires in the U.A.W. contract ratified 13 months ago is pegged above that, at $28 an hour, which includes about $9 an hour in benefits.
Only the most skilled workers in the new lower tier — electricians and machinists, for example — make more than $20 an hour, or $41,000 a year, while in the gradually expiring upper tier, everyone does, even unskilled laborers and shop helpers.

Texas Nonprofit Is Cleared After GOP-Prompted Audit

Group Says Probe Was 'Political Retaliation' by DeLay Allies

The Internal Revenue Service recently audited the books of a Texas nonprofit group that was critical of campaign spending by former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) after receiving a request for the audit from one of DeLay's political allies in the House.
The lawmaker, House Ways and Means Committee member Sam Johnson (R-Tex.), was in turn responding to a complaint about the group, Texans for Public Justice, from Barnaby W. Zall, a Washington lawyer close to DeLay and his fundraising apparatus, according to IRS documents.

Johnson, a member of the subcommittee responsible for oversight of the tax agency, sparked the IRS's interest by telling IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson in a letter dated Aug. 3, 2004, that he had "uncovered some disturbing information" and received complaints of possible tax violations.
Johnson said he was sure the IRS would follow up. "I ask you to report back your findings of each of these investigations directly to me," he told Everson in the letter, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.
The IRS sent two auditors last year to comb the 2003 books of Texans for Public Justice and an affiliated foundation that collected donations for the organization. No tax violations were found, according to a letter the IRS sent the group.
But the circumstances behind the effort -- which were uncovered by the group's director and founder, Craig L. McDonald, using the Freedom of Information Act -- prompted him to allege that the audit was an abuse of the IRS's mandate. He said there was no evidence of wrongdoing in the complaints.
"This audit was political retaliation by Tom DeLay's cronies to intimidate us for blowing the whistle on DeLay's abuses," McDonald said. "Enlisting the IRS to intimidate critics is a dirty trick reminiscent of Richard Nixon. . . . It is not a crime to report a crime, as we did with DeLay."
IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said that federal law barred him from providing a detailed response. But he said, "The IRS makes its audit decisions based on the law. Political considerations do not play a role. We are an agency of career civil servants," excluding Everson and the IRS chief counsel.
Steven T. Miller, the senior IRS official in charge of tax-exempt organizations, said that though he could not address how Johnson's request was handled, referrals related to improper political activity generally must be judged reasonable by two career employees before an audit can proceed.
Texans for Public Justice, based in Austin, has been a thorn in the side of the state's politicians since its founding in 1997. It bills itself as "a non-partisan, non-profit policy and research organization which tracks the influence of money and corporate power in Texas politics." According to McDonald and the group's tax returns, about 45 percent of its $310,000 budget in 2003 came from individual donors. The rest came from an affiliated, tax-exempt group the IRS also audited, the Public Justice Foundation of Texas.
The group regularly publishes detailed reports on campaign spending and corporate lobbying. It is perhaps best known for its March 2003 allegation of illegal spending by corporations during DeLay's successful 2002 campaign for a Republican takeover of the Texas legislature -- claims that culminated last year in the indictment of DeLay and two campaign aides for money laundering and conspiracy to hide corporate donations.
The events leading to the IRS probe are laid out in documents the agency released to McDonald in response to his request for all records related to allegations of wrongdoing by the foundation. It began when Zall wrote a July 19, 2004, letter to Johnson complaining about the Texas nonprofit group and noting that the lawmaker had "jurisdiction to review the Internal Revenue Service's supervision of tax-exempt organizations," according to a copy.


read more here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/26/AR2006022601227.html

Bush Plays the RACE Card on the PORTS

Bush and the Republicans shouldn't talk about the race card as they played it very well against the blacks so should the Arabs be treated any better than the black citizens of America?

Bush played the RACE card with the the citizens of America in Hurricane Katrina. Now, he wants to say one race shouldn't be singled out for owning any of our ports.

Of course, the poor blacks or Afro Americans didn't have anything to line Bush and his cronies pockets so they were singled out or left out to beg for help or die in the flood.

Bush wants the Arabs in the loop as they can line his pockets.

It still boggles my mind that Bush vehemently said he would veto any legislation against the Dubai deal but a day later says, he DIDN"Y know anything about the deal.

How can a President veto something when he doesnt know about it?

Bush lies again or Bush is plain incompetent.

Bouquets, brickbats await Bush in the city of nawabs

HYDERABAD, FEB 26: Hyderabad is the only city apart from Delhi that figures in the itinerary of US President George W Bush when he comes to India this week.
The city of nawabs, where Mr Bush will spend about four hours on Friday, is gearing up to impress upon the President to give it a Consulate status. It may be recalled the external affairs ministry had recently announced setting up of a Secretariat in Hyderabad — the first to be outside Delhi.

Owing to perceived threats from Jihadis and Naxalites, Mr Bush’s security has decided to take him to the various destinations in the city by air. The decision has relieved the Municipal Corporate of Hyderabad and the city police, who are expected to to ensure a smooth passage.
“We had planned to erect platforms for cheering groups to welcome the President at various traffic junctions,” a senior official involved in protocol said.
According to city police commissioner AK Mohanty, US Marine helicopters are being reassembled at Begumpet Airport amidst tight security, while another US airforce aircraft brought two container loads of special communication and surveillance equipment.
Unlike former president Bill Clinton’s visit to
Hyderabad in 2000, Mr Bush will hop over the city in a team of Sikorsky VH-3D helicopters specially brought for the purpose.
As per the tentative agenda, he will be meeting farmers and women leaders at the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University. Later, he will visit the Indian School of Business, promoted by the elite of India Inc in collaboration with American B-schools, to have an interaction.
As the President flies around the town, First Lady Laura Bush is expected to visit two places out of five she prefers. She will be going around the city by road. Though not finalised, she will definitely visit Freedom Foundation — an asylum for orphan children whose parents died due to AIDS.
But while the government is all set to greet Mr Bush, his visit is expected to be marred by demonstrations and morchas by Communist parties and hardcore Muslim groups, who have announced a slew of protest programmes. The grand finale of the protest campaign will be on March 3. Some Muslim groups have already started organising signature campaigns to record their protest against Mr Bush’s visit to Hyderabad.