Selling our ports

For any of you who do not know who Gary Bauer is, he runs the PAC, Campaign for Working Families. Besides this wonderful achievement he also ran for president in the 2000 elections as well as served on the Family Research Council and in President Reagan's cabinet. I always appreciate his end of the day bulletins because they are truthful and resourceful. He writes the following about the growing concerns of the controversial subject of our port selling:


"From: Gary L. Bauer, Chairman
Campaign for Working Families

Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2006


Fallout Continues

The impending sale of major U.S. ports to a shipping company based in the
United Arab Emirates dominated the news this weekend. As this deal gains
greater attention, the fallout continues and public officials are
scrambling to react. The bi-partisan opposition is growing and now
includes powerful congressional figures such as Rep. Peter King, chairman
of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Yesterday, King publicly called on President Bush to step in, saying:

“I'm strongly urging the president to intervene to stop this, to freeze it,
to put it on hold. This contract should not be allowed to go forward until
there is a full and complete investigation. And there has not been a full
investigation of this company nor of its roots in the United Arab Emirates.
There have been allegations of weapons parts going…to Iran. There's been
allegations of corruption… None of these have ever been investigated by our
government.”

The administration is finding itself increasingly isolated in its defense
of this deal. Over the weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News
Sunday that the White House was “unbelievably tone deaf politically.” Also
voicing concerns are Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist, who announced today that he would introduce
emergency legislation to block the sale. The Republican governors of New
York and Maryland are also threatening lawsuits.

Oddly enough, the instigators of the opposition were Senate Democrats – New
York liberals Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, along with Sen. Robert
Menendez of New Jersey. But I find the liberal opposition somewhat
hypocritical. In voicing their objections to this sale, Senators Schumer,
Clinton and Menendez are suggesting that putting the ownership of our major
ports in the hands of an Arab company may not be in the best interests of
our national security. I believe they are right.

But these are the same liberals who block efforts to zero in on the
demographic most likely to be terrorists – young Arab Muslim men. So if it
is okay to reject the port company because it is Arab-owned, why isn’t it
okay to stop searching 80 year-old grandmothers at airports and instead
focus on passengers who fit the right profile?"


If you are as concerned as I am about this sell, I would encourage you to call or e-mail President Bush as well as your congressmen/women and senators. You can find the addresses and phone numbers by checking out this link: www.cwfpac.com . To suscribe to his end of the day bulletins: http://www.cwfpac.com/cwf_eod_request.htm.

What do you think?