"national security of America is being blackmailed"

* Digby: "For all the talk about loose lips sinking ships, I can't think of anything any whistleblower has done that gives al Qaeda more information about our vulnerabilities than the terrible performance of this administration."

* tristero: "Like Mark Danner, I'm glad that the US is not yet Sierra Leone. The problem is that Bush just takes that as a challenge, rolls up his sleeves, smirks a few times, and then proceeds blithely about his God-given mission to wreck the United States in every way he can think of."
btw - everyone is pointing to that Danner interview today - go read if you get the chance.
(and speaking of Smirky, did you see the ABC interview he gave? so creepy)

* anon (thnx) in the comments points to this buzzflash editorial:

"Maybe the sheikhs of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates have some nasty goods on Bush, Cheney, the Carlyle Group, Halliburton (you name the corporate crony relationship) that the Bush dynasty can't afford to be revealed because it involves illegal financial transactions and questionable geopolitical agreements.

In short, maybe the national security of America is being blackmailed."

a few points here: 1) i have no doubt that the USG is being blackmailed and/or have simply sold out, extending to national security. 2) maybe they are even being blackmailed by sheiks, and that possibly/probably extends to this deal (or at least, Bush's response to it) 3) HOWEVER, it's important not to conflate these separate issues. you don't need to own/lease/manage ports to smuggle dangerous stuff into the country.

* i occassionally highlight something odd from the server logs - usually relating to google's odd ranking system, or something disconcerting that someone is searching for (or both). today's offering is that I'm the number 6 google response when you search for "punish wife"