Dubai Theatre: The Saga Continues...

I was going to write a long update on the port situation, but I realized I've already stated my opinions a few times. Instead, this will just be a link-dump where I link to news updates and the opinion pieces on which I agree (to one degree or another). Enjoy.

This development is not likely to help the President-
CNN.com: Lawmaker: Port deal never probed for terror ties
Coast Guard official says ports 'far more secure now'

A review of a United Arab Emirates-owned company's plan to take over operations at key U.S. ports never looked into whether the company had ties to al Qaeda or other terrorists, a key Republican lawmaker told CNN on Wednesday...

No wonder the Washington Post reported today that the GOP discontent with the White House is growing.

Joe Conason has a piece in the New York Observer defending critics of the deal-

How fortunate that the opinion pages of our mightiest newspapers are open to diverse viewpoints. We would otherwise miss the opportunity to learn from liberal, conservative and centrist pundits alike that opponents of the Dubai ports deal—which now include about 70 percent of the American public—must be crazed, racist and xenophobic.

One original thinker after another insists that there can be no honest criticism of the Dubai deal. They tell us that every critic, no matter how measured, is a protectionist bigot; and that every argument, no matter how rational, is a calumny against Arabs and Muslims. There is a strange whiff of demagogy in these screeds...

Matthew Yglesias shares those sentiments and has ideas for a compromise-

..Skeptics of the port deal suggest we discriminate between foreign entities based on their nation of origin, something the United States does regularly. Our border with Canada is administered differently from our border with Mexico. Visa rules distinguish between citizens of different countries. We share some intelligence with some states, and not with others. We have formal defense commitments to some countries, but not with all of them. That's foreign policy, that's National Security 101...

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow throws his two cents in-

...Now, obviously I know essentially nothing about the operation of ports in America, and not too much more about the UAE. But I do know that the UAE was one of a small handful of countries that recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government. I know that the UAE was considered a financial safe harbor by al Qaeda. I know that members of the UAE royal family used to hang out in the desert with their buddy Osama bin Laden. This morning, I learned that the UAE boycotts Israel, and that dealing with countries that boycott Israel is apparently against US law.

The UAE may be a progressive state by regional standards. The people of the UAE may be the finest you’d ever hope to know. But the government of the UAE clearly plays both ends against the middle, and that’s the point here...

As for TruthDig founder Robert Scheer? Well he's just enjoying the theater-

Do You Buy Dubai? That’s this season’s big hit, a zany farce with pompous officials in the Bush administration and their hysterical courtiers in the mass media asserting positions that are patently absurd but hilarious to watch. Audiences are eating it up...

And this is one show a lot of people are watching closely.

Meanwhile, the President says he still stands by the deal. Naturally.