You speak, we hear loud and clear

Well folks it has been two weeks and it is time to 1) review the results of the poll just ended, and 2) introduce the new poll question.

Two weeks ago we asked a very timely question , Are people making too big a deal of the UAE ports deal?

How did you respond? Let’s take a look.

70% of respondents took the position of No, the UAE has an uncertain history of breeding terrorists/terrorism. Which for anyone that has followed middle eastern events of the later half of the 20th century is a no brainer. We applaud you for keeping up with what is going on outside your 3 foot zone of personal space.

11% of you said that you need more information before making an informed decision. Hallelujah ! We would like to give each one of you a gold star. Instead of jumping to a conclusion, or following an ideology like lemmings you are helping to restore our faith that logic and independent thought has not gone the way of the dinosaur.

Now for the remaining 19%.

16% said National Security will not be at risk and the deal should go through., and the remaining 3% said that it won’t effect them, why should they care.

Alright let’s get just get down to brass tacks. Almost 1/5 of those voting are not living in the real world with the rest of us. How can you think that allowing a company owned by a middle eastern country (and yes Dubai Ports World is owned by the government of the UAE) would not have any effect on you or not compromise the safety at U.S. shipping ports?

Here is an exercise for you to try. From now on, before you go to sleep and lock your doors, hang your house keys on a big key ring on a hook outside of your house next to the front door. Oh yeah, make sure the porch light is on so that anyone driving or walking by can see the keys. Now tell me how safe would you feel in your own house?

Sound ridiculous? Of course it does, and so is giving a foreign government the ‘keys’ to the major ports, or ‘doors’ of our country. Now you may say that the Coast Guard protects and is responsible for security at our ports. Well, you are half right. The coast guard only has authority on the water. Once a ship or container reaches the dock the Coast Guard is out of the picture. And once those containers hit our shores only 5% of them are inspected.

Thankfully Dubai Ports World decided to transfer the operations of U.S. ports to an as yet to be named U.S. entity. Although we have to wonder what kind of back-door deal was hammered out to make them voluntarily give up a deal valued at around $6.8 billion ? And we are curious as to who the U.S. entity is and whom in the administration they may have ties to? (Come on you knew that was coming didn’t you?)

So, in conclusion, a vast majority of you had the good sense to know this deal was bad any way you look at it, or at least wanted to be able to make an informed decision (thank god for dare I say, a common sense type of approach to the issue?) The rest of you, you are still scaring the rest of us, but thankfully you are in the minority and will hopefully come to your senses in the near future.

Before I wrap up, please take a minute to look at the new poll at the top of the page. For the next two weeks we will be asking what you think of the Presidents low (all time low..) approval ratings. Let us know your thoughts.

Until next time,

Be good, stay informed…later