Oh, the Irony
I pointed out my favorite irony in the port contretemps here.
John over at Americablog notes another one here:
Bush is willing to chuck our civil rights out the window with his illegal domestic spying program, indefinite detentions at Guantanamo, and more. But suddenly we have a war-on-terror issue dealing with Bush’s rich Middle Eastern oil buddies and NOW Bush is more interested in civil rights than national security.
DailyKos also has a good one, similar to my favorite, here:
The negative reaction among the right-wing faithful was an all too predictable, classic example of the monster turning on its creator: After years of pumping their fawning admirers full of terror and working as hard as they can to blur the distinction between regimes in the Middle East that had nothing to do with 9/11 and the people who did, the Bush Administration shouldn’t be surprised that their supporters are unwilling or unable to objectively whip out the analytical razor-blade and expertly split hairs between a nation with direct links to 9/11 and Al Qaeda, and a company owned by that nation’s government.
And this is not an irony, but redstate.com has a great letter from North Carolina Republican Congresswoman Sue Myrick to Bush regarding the port deal. I’m going to post an image of it in a moment, but for now here’s the text:
Dear Mr. President:In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO—but HELL NO!
Sincerely,
Sue Myrick
UPDATE: A scan of the Myrick letter is here.
Oh, but the plot thickens. Check out this clip from the NY Times editorial today:
"It is no secret that this administration has pursued an aggressive antiregulatory agenda, and it has elevated corporate leaders to its highest positions. Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department convened the panel that approved the ports deal, came to government after serving as the chief executive of the CSX Corporation, which was a major port operator when he worked there. (After he left, CSX sold its port operations to Dubai Ports World [the UAE company now slated to take over port operations in the US].)"
Wha?!? I may be naive here, but are you kidding me?
The whole editorial is good (and short). Check it out.