This hasn’t been discussed on this blog so I thought I would bring it up.

Executives at Dubai Ports World are intensifying a public relations effort this week as lawmakers ratchet up protests against the Bush administration over allowing the United Arab Emirates-owned firm to run six U.S. ports.

The government in Dubai will lobby port officials along the East Coast, and DP World’s chief operating officer — American shipping executive Edward H. Bilkey — is expected to travel to Washington this week for meetings on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.

Michael Seymour, president of the North American arm of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O), the company DP World wishes to buy in order to run the six ports, said in a statement that the London-based P&O “is itself a foreign-owned terminal operator that has long worked with U.S. government officials in charge of security at the ports to meet all U.S. government standards, as do other foreign companies that currently operate ports in the United States.”

So where do consevatives stand on this? Do we oppose this propsed sale because the government of Dubai might use this company to allow terrorists into our country? Do we applaud the sale because it is an expression of capitalism in the Middle East that will lead to more freedom for the people there? How secure will our ports be if this deal goes through? Is this deal bad politics simply because it gives the Chuck Schumers of the world ammo to attack the GOP?

This story is absolutely terrifying. Foxnews is reporting that British citizen David Irving has been sentenced to three years in jail in an Austrian court for denying the Holocaust. David Iriving is probably a kook, most likely an anti-Semitic clown and not someone I have a great deal of respect for. I am sure both the British and Austrian governments share that sentiment, but since when does a thought, an opinion however odious mean that you can be imprisoned?

The Western European “democracies” are backsliding into tyranny. The infamous Danish cartoonists and their editors are under investigation by both their country and the EU for inciting violence. The concept of free speech us under assault across Europe because the elites don’t like what is being said. The same is true here; the elites don’t like what us proles are saying. The only difference is that in the United States we have been able to maintain the concept of free speech far better than our European friends.

It is sad to watch these once great nations descend to this level, sort of like watching a friend succumb to alcoholism.

My five favorite also-rans. Enjoy!

5. Winfield Scott Hancock, 1880

4. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, 1972 and 1976

3. Wendell Wilkie, 1940

2. Jack Kemp, 1988

1. Barry Goldwater, 1960