Why the rush?

That's what I'd like to know with regards to the UAE/Dubai ports deal.

Why does the administration want to rush this forward - and why would a President, who supposedly knew nothing about the deal, when he learned that there was opposition to it based on security concerns have a first reaction to say

"I'll veto any legislation that tries to stop this deal."

And this with regards to the takeover of US ports, within the continental US, by a state-owned company of a state that supported the Taliban, al Qaeda, and several of the 9/11 hijackers - and currently boycotts all dealings with Israel, one of our strongest allies.

What?

And according to an article on CNN, when questioned repeatedly about the deal, the President (in his own unique way of reassuring us all) stated:

"If there was any doubt in my mind, or people in my administration's mind that our ports would be less secure and the American people endangered, this deal wouldn't go forward."

Wait... "no less secure?" Woah. Our ports are already extremely insecure with only about 5% of containers being inspected. So, shouldn't we be looking for ways to make our ports *more* secure? Saying they are "no less secure" is no big confidence booster.

And, as reported, the Coast Guard stated:

"The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities."

And now yesterday's absolutely incredible revelation that:

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

Meanwhile President Bush continues his defiant attitude with staunch support for the deal to move forward, complete with his absolutely condescending remark to the American people that "You don't need to worry about security."

Really?

But we should worry about it enough to let you wiretap our phone calls illegally, and monitor our internet searches unethically, and restrict our civil liberties?

But don't worry about letting an Arab country with proven ties to 9/11 and terror take control of our ports, just because they've been good for the last four years?

According to our President, "My position hasn't changed."

This can be one of only two things:
1) A dictator attitude of "whatever this administration wants to do is ALWAYS right and no one should ever question it", or
2) A sign that there is something more going on here than we have all been led to believe

Hmmm... oddly enough the UAE is an oil-producing country. And we are an oil-executive led country. But I'm sure there's nothing inappropriate going on behind the scenes.

Gosh, the President would tell us if there was...