And You Call Yourself A Homeland Security Advisor?

Fran Townsend was on Fox News Sunday proudly stating something preposterous enough to make me spew Cheerios through my nose.
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Fran Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to President Bush, was on Fox News Sunday this morning and proudly stated something about as preposterous as anything to come out of the White House this week.

She reasoned that we weren't alarmed about the British company managing our major ports after the London bombings, so why should we be alarmed about the Dubai Ports deal. Thanks, Fran, for making me spew Cheerios through my nose.

First, until this past week many of us had no idea our government was in the business of routinely selling management of our sea ports to foreign companies.

Second, I don't recall anything in the 9/11 Commission Report about British royals meeting with Osama Bin Laden for weenie roasts in Afghanistan. The UAE emirs did. Never mind that Dubai was a conduit for the 9/11 plot. The UAE didn't break ties with the Taliban until September 22 -- 11 days after 9/11. As recently as September 2004, USA Today reported that Dubai continued to be a haven for terrorist plotters.

"Osama bin Laden's operatives still use this freewheeling city as a logistical hub three years after more than half the Sept. 11 hijackers flew directly from Dubai to the United States in the final preparatory stages for the attack."

The White House can fire off baseless charges of racism all they want. You and I know that the opposition to this deal isn't about anti-Arab bigotry. It's about an administration that's ignoring national security for the sake of globalization and the selling of America to dubious interests, while average citizens here compete for minimum wage at Wal-Mart.

So who or what does the president really care about? The Bush White House has no problem with ignoring the Constitution and FISA law to fight terrorism -- a posture which negatively impacts you and me and our civil liberties. But they're unwilling to put national security first when it comes to appeasing foreign corporations. Everything they've done has been at the expense of average American citizens and for their own political and financial gain.

The Bush administration has never had any real interest in national security, nor have they any stake in keeping American jobs and assets in the hands of Americans. They're great at coming up with sweet-smelling propaganda campaigns to mask their corruption and failures. But their national security record can barely be called a record, much less a strength. Their Homeland Security infrastructure is a national punchline, especially after their goofus handling of Katrina. Their failing grades from the 9/11 Commission and their inability to capture Bin Laden due to the bloody neocon folly in Iraq is punctuated with their hardline posture on the Dubai deal forms the sum of their national security record.

With nearsighted and simplistic Homeland Security advisors like Townsend, no wonder Americans now trust Democrats on national security more than Republicans. But what does that say about the Republicans? Think about it. Americans trust a party which has had no legislative power over a party which has had ALL of the legislative power in Washington. In other words, we're favoring a question mark over an established track record.

One more thing about Republicans and racism. Ann Coulter: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." My good friend Bill O'Reilly: "They've got all kinds of Muslim crazies up in Canada running around." Dick Cheney on racism: our vice president while in Congress voted against the Martin Luther King holiday, and voted in favor of South African Apartheid.

So the White House wants to play ball on national security and, evidently, racism this year? That's rich. Bring it on, Karl.

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