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Our country owes China and Japan billions of dollars.  Now we are on the verge of selling the operation of several of our East coast ports to the United Arab Emirates.
Anyone care to voice an opinion on this deal?  Why can't we exclusively own and operate our own shipping ports?!!

Danged government!#$@%!@%

How'z THAT for an opinion Don?  LOL

Sorry, that's all I got this morning..... I'm not revved up quite yet, I'm out of coffee.  :(  Maybe I'll think of something better a little while later.

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Just for the record, the US has approved the management of 6 US ports to a BRITISH company. The issue that everyone is running nutty with is that the same British company has been offered a proposal to the purchased by a company out of the United Arab Emrites.

#1: The issue would have to be VOTED ON AGAIN if the sale to the UAE company were to take place. Therefore, approving the British company to manage those 6 ports does not automatically mean they will maintain the management if they are purchased by the UAE company.

#2: This doesn't mean that the whole port will be run by terrorists or even arabs. State Port Authority employees will still oversee all security at each port. Historically, many of our port operations have been handled by companies based in other countries. They are still subject to Port Security run by US Port Authorities AND they hire American employees to all of the operations jobs anyway.

Now the economic issue to outsourcing jobs...that's a whole different issue!!

I'm not saying that this isn't newsworthy and should not be watched closely, but take some time to educate yourself on the real facts when you hear something on the news. Six companies own about 80% of all media outlets in the US (TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, professional sports, advertising) and 10 companies own about 93% of all the media outlets in the world!! More often than not you are hearing a story skewed towards their political agenda. TV, newspapers, and magazines are not in the business of helping you, they are in the business of brainwashing you into buying things....take them at face value!!

Before you ask, the 5 companies that basically tell you what you think are the following (with their approximate media market share):

Time Warner - 11%
Murdoch News Corp. - 4%
Viacom - 6%
Liberty Media - 13%
General Electric - 40%
Disney - 8%

The other big players on the world stage are AT&T, Bertelsmann (Germany), Vivendi (France), and Sony (Japan)

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C Mc
KJ, FL

very informative and on target post, topher.  thanks for the info.  most folks don't take the time to reseach things such as this, they'd rather jump to conclusions or blindly follow the first information they hear.  unfortunately, the tv, radio and print media is, just as you described, very opinionated and agenda driven.

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All work and no play make Homer something something

Yes you are correct about how the ports have been handled historically.  But perhaps it's time to just take complete control of our own port systems for the sake
of security.  I'm basically a liberal on all issues, but even I see some potential problems in this sale.  Money seems to talk very loudly these days.

You are correct General Electric does a lot of defense contract work and they for sure want to have things going their way as much as possible.  Rupert Murdoch's
magazines and papers have a real slant to them.  You need strong muscles in your right arm to keep a balance when reading those.  LOL   Then the boys and girls on Fox News -- take out their programmed chips and they wouldn't know what to say.
So yes, "the truth" can be influenced heavily for a price.

Just to answer this question, just follow the $$ trail and you'll be quick to find out.

In the case of one of the larger ports in question in Long Island, NY, the port operations is currently run by a Seattle based shipping company. The British company in question has undercut the operating costs of the Seattle company and the Seattle company bowed out.

This is just speculative, but I would bet the $$ trail goes something like this:

Citizens of Long Beach want tax cuts and more $$ for education. The mayor wins reelection on the platform that he will increase education spending and cut taxes. The mayor wins the election and has to find a way to save $xx off the budget to meet his campaign promise. This British post management company offers to run the port of Long Beach at a significant savings to the city. Needing to make his budget work and make the people happy, the mayor accepts their proposal. The deal is set to go into effect once the Seattle-based port management company's contract expires in 2 years. 5 months before the port management is set to switch hands, the British company is entertaining offers to be bought out by a Dubai, UAE based company. Not only is there little security risk, because customs and the US Coast guard is still in charge of port security, but the UAE company is buying the British company for $8 billion, and the merger will mean even more significant savings in the management of Long Island's port. The media may be playing upon the fears of the people when they raise a big stink about a business based in an arab country taking over our ports, but the reports are highly speculative and not particularly fact-driven. Companys who buy other companies for $8 billion tend to be in it to make money. If they want to blow up a US city, they can just scheme to cross the Canadian border for a fraction of that cost. The British company gets their big merger $$$, the UAE company gets their profit from the management contract, the mayor saves $xxx for the city, and the citizens of Long Island get their tax cuts and education spending.

Replace a few words here and there and I'm sure I'm not that far off base....just a guess

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Here's a good objective article on the subject..in USA Today no less:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... ions_x.htm

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Hmmm...think Murdoch may have something to do with programming those chips?  LOL

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[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]

Very good points there Topher.  Often the money trail tells a lot about the motives.
Hopefully customs could never be influenced to "look the other way" for the right price by the wrong people.  Dang I sound like a paranoid.  Totally unlike me!  Somebody slap me please.

Pot for Sale? This thread is going to get deleted! I'm telling