The signs point to several really bad things happening in the future of the United States.
- Bush's port deal is going to sneak through (already has, really) if my guess is correct. There is something very fishy about this deal.
- Bush is planning on leaving Musharraf to fend for himself in Pakistan.
- Bush is going to keep pushing to go to war with Iran.
- The American middle class is going to continue to be decimated by the administration's policies.
- The November elections are going to be little more than a joke.
The first item is being worked on as we speak. Nobody is reviewing the deal. Everyone that is part of the administration and connected with it is selling the deal like used car salesmen. The CEO of Dubai Ports World knows the deal is going to be accepted. He is just sitting back laughing while Bush tries to sell it. We are being asked to swallow this port deal just like we were expected to swallow other mess ups. Think about how many times you have heard the words, "80% of U.S. ports are already run by companies from other countries and some of those are owned by other governments." It is being repeated ad nauseum. Doesn't make it any better of an idea, but that's not the point. They are trying to wear the opposition down by beating this into their skulls. Some are already changing position on the sale.
There is something fishy about this deal. I started smelling a rat when I noticed a few things about the information being pointed out about Dubai and the U.A.E.
a) The sisters of Osama were said to have taken money to Abu Dhabi (U.A.E.) that some believe went to Osama from there. That was in 2001.
b) Osama has visited the U.A.E. several times. It is a major point for hawala transactions.
c) The two video tapes made of al Zawahiri and bin Laden before the one of al Zawahiri released the other day looked as though they had been made in a professional studio. The lighting and backgrounds were professional. One is more likely to find one of those in Dubai (Al Arabiyya) than in remote mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan. Interestingly, the one showing al Zawahiri the other day looked a little less so. He had a lace curtain behind him.
d) Bush came out and said recently that Osama and those he plotted and planned with (Al Zawahiri) would be caught. This after having earlier claimed that they didn't matter.
e) During his "surprise" visit to Afghanistan, Bush told the Afghanis that they had to capture Osama.
f) Bush has been unusually upset over the Dubai ports deal. Yes, it will cost some friends of his money if it doesn't go through, but there are always other business deals. Heck, he just created a new one for some of them in India. It leads me to guess that the Dubai ports deal could be worth something of political value, not just monetary.
I am beginning to wonder if we are witnessing signs of another Iran-Contra type deal here, with Osama as the prize in return for the port deal, turnover to be done in Afghanistan. Anyone want to wager what would happen to Bush's (and all Republican candidates') approval numbers if Osama were caught? I know this seems far-fetched, but it seems a more likely scenario the longer I watch.
The second item was already looking as though it were true, but became a lot more obvious when Bush started pushing Musharraf around and making statements indicating lack of support on his visit. Musharraf even gave him an opportunity to take a leading role in ending one of the longest festering problems on the planet, Kashmir. Bush turned him down flat.
Musharraf is an ally. He has been helping in the fight against al Qaeda. Even if Osama is captured, we will need an ally in Pakistan to continue to fight al Qaeda. Make no mistake, Osama is not all of al Qaeda. He is a leader, not the only leader. Al Qaeda is not a fragile, new organization. It has been going for decades. Al Qaeda recruits all over the world. It is organized. It is more dangerous to us than the other terrorist organizations in the world. It is more capable of facing a first world nation and winning than the others. We underestimate al Qaeda at our peril. They are playing chess and Bush is playing checkers and failing to understand it won't work. To use a sports analogy that Bush would be more likely to understand, he has us boxing while they are doing judo. That puts us at a disadvantage as long as it goes on.
The third item is still gathering steam. He has to do a lot more jumping up and down and maybe say "9/11" a few hundred more times in order to get Congress to let him go to war. Either that or come up with a coup of some sort (bin Laden?) that will assure Republicans something to run with in November and get them all firmly behind him again.
Bush's trip to India showed he had no intention of helping American workers keep jobs. He basically said so. He also has no actual problem with nuclear proliferation as long as it is his buddies who reap the profit. That is why he wants more nuclear plants here, too. He doesn't care that they are dangerous to surrounding populations and create waste that we have no way to actually clean up. He wants to have his friends make money. If you don't believe me, tell the ants around the Hanford plant in Washington state. They would probably be happy to know they aren't radioactive. The people probably wouldn't believe you, though.
The fifth item is being done by having Republican Secretaries of State and other election related positions in as many places as possible continuing to put in or fail to remove those wonderful Diebold machines. They are so secure. After all, nobody is allowed to examine the "proprietary" code. And it would take several people's complicity to change the results, wouldn't it? (Snark)