OGTEleven

I read in today's paper that Madeline Albright's consulting firm recently lobbied for this.

In a way. A whole bunch of congresspeople from each side screaming and yelling can cause it to be stopped. So they will have stopped it, and done nothing illegal.

Let's say after further review of the UAE port deal that all currently concerned members of congress are truly satisfied by the data and feel the deal is good. Even if that came to pass (doubtful because the threshold is so high) is there any possible way they could let the deal go through? The way this thing has played out won't allow for that. Even if it turns out to be the ultimate business deal of all time I think it is dead politically already. Can any of you see it differently?

Good luck with that. BTW....don't drop the soap.

Not being against the sale of a part of one corporation to another is proof that Bush is putting corporations in charge of everything? Corporations have been in control of these functions at the ports since before George was president. George Washington that is. If you want to make arguments about Bush helping "corporations" go ahead. When you use this as an example you blow your credibility.

It might not be fair but the host probably had you pegged as an idiot right away.

Map? What about them using those newfangled GPS thingies? Dumbasses.

I honestly don't know what to think, but I will say these three things: 1. It is probably impossible to find a large port-running company that does not, in some way, have ties to the ME. A global economy is a blessing and a curse. 2. Perception is reality whether it is reality or not. Sometimes it is really reality, and sometimes it is just pretending to be reality, but it is always reality. Get it? 3. Martina McBride is indeed a very attractive woman.

Mr. Snyder, Mr. Jones, Mr. Kraft, I'd like to introduce you to the Golden Goose. Hey, what are you doing with that knife?

Because it is all a Halliburton conspiracy. Either that or it is about a trillion times more complicated than you make it out to be.

The war is less than a decade old so it cannot be the sole cause for these election results. While it is far from clear that the war is the solution, it is equally unclear what other solution(s) may have yielded progress. Care to offer any theories?

Sure. And we can seal off the borders to Canada, Mexico and the 53rd dimension while we're there.

That's a great demonstration of your military and geographic knowledge.

What will this do to his trade value?

And what happened in the parallel universe in which we stayed out of Iraq? Are we all skipping down the Primrose path with flower petals raining down on us?

Woe is me. Poor poor me.

Just piling on an old topic I've seen because you took an unwarranted shot at crayonz. As for who am I.....I've been around here since your girlfriend was in diapers. Translation: A couple of years.

Is that avatar your girlfriend's mom or her aunt?

It is a stupid comment by Carucci for many reasons. It infers the Bills need to focus on the QB position. They love saying all of this crap on radio and TV about most teams as if there was one postion on the field. All it proves is that these radio shows are worthless. Without real comment about either JP (entering his 3rd year so conclusions are impossible in either direction) or KH (decent but won't ever be great) it is clear the Bills have larger needs. They could get Elway in his prime for the vet minimum and still have zero chance unless their other problems are fixed. I hope/trust Marv will try to do this. On the radio however it will all be about the QB as usual.

Happy Birthday and a philosohical question: When is a Bills draft really a party? I'm not sure I can make it this, but will if I can.

I scrolled over those links..... #1 - NY Times 2-6 Washington Post. Do you detect a trend? And wasn't it perjury about a blow job? If perjury about a blow job is ok, wouldn't (even in a VERY extrapolated scenario) perjury about a drunken hunting accident be equally ok in your book? If everyone should have shut up about Clinton, why shouldn't they shut up about Cheney? Should they wait until he commits perjury and then shut up?

I think there are a few facets to the issue. To me, the biggest is that the news gets filtered/spun by forces that are outside of our control. There is no guarantee that reporting good news means good news will be recived. One comforting fact is that the truth is the truth. Lack of reporting/broadcast/proper messaging can never change this. Eventually, the truth has a way of being revealed. It is inexorable but not always fast enough. A big part of the race we are in is based on the truth being delivered before some really bad stojan happens which is based on falsehoods or half thruths. We have always been in this race and always will be. Our "weapons" in this area are always growing as global communications capabilities expand. This forces the enemy to ratchet up the rhetoric and combat our message with theirs. This is dangerous for them because they risk being exposed as the frauds that they are. All of our communication power is great, but the real truth is always on the ground. The more and faster we help that truth get better and better, the more we become the winners. The media and its makeup is certainly another cmponent. Coke vs Pepsi doesn't really cut it. No matter the political leanings of the networks, they all follow the same formula when it comes to running their companies. This is their right and they may be maximizing profits through story selection at tis current structure (as CTM pointed out, bad news sells). They probably don't realize as much as you'd think that they are the major funnel of news and that their reporting has an impact overseas. I find this sad on a couple of levels. While I don't think they should change their structure at the request of the state, I do sense that they are wrong in their read of bad news selling better than good. I think they'd be surprised at the reaction ratings wise, if they were to report good news. Even if they had a separate show called "The Good News from Iraq" (catchy huh?) I'm wiling to bet it would do well. The Coke vs Pepsi thing makes it too risky to venture beyond proven formulas. The good news is that once a wildly different formula is proven successful, others hop on (diet coke begets diet pepsi). Just see reality shows (barf) for an example. Where do I think the government could help? Well, nowhere really. Not immediately, just gradually. They could have done it much earlier. Less regulation in communications spawns lots of 7-Ups and Iced teas to combat Coke and Pepsi's iron grip. Bottled water - whooda thunk? Coke and Pepsi latch on to these winning formulas too, but the innovator is always rewarded. There are tons of examples of this in technology (MSFT, CSCO, ORCL, and others too numerous to count --- BTW throw me the stock symbol of the next big thing here....thanks). Disruptive technologies are one thing....disruptive media is another. You would thinkthe barriers to entry were higher in technology, but I'm not so sure. On a positive note, technology is definitely helping lower barriers to ebtry in media. I feel the govt should help guard against artifical barriers being erected by the Cokes and Pepsis. Done rambling....

Some fish got arrested for beating up his wife. Yawn. It's February so just the same as every year. I'm not bothering with a link or a name because he is a fish and not worth it.

I thought it said Shania. Martina is better looking so I ignored it.

I'm not sure I buy that. If Cheney,turned, fired, noticed (too late) the guy's head peeking over a bush and then saw his head disappear in a downward motion, would he not say "I saw him fall".? Outside of our right to better jokes, with which I agree, what could Cheney have possibly done (wild speculation allowed) during the course of a hunting accident that would be deemed as something which impacted his role as VP? Why hide anything? Even if he was smashed drunk, dressed in a tutu and singing show tunes why not just spill the beans? Well ok, maybe not about the show tunes but really? Outside of shooting the guy on purpose, what could he have possibly done wrong that would truly matter?