More talk today about the Dubai Du-bate on Face the Nation and other Sunday news programs.  Bob Cesca got one in early at HuffPo about Fran Townsend on the Faux News Network that is certainly worth a read.

But the debate happening on FTN was interesting in that there was almost no disagreement between the Dem and the Republican present, and the only one who seemed OK with the Dubai situation was Tom Friedman.  Friedman’s work in The Earth is Flat is good stuff by and large, but I think he might be a bit nuts on this one.  For some reason, the man is genuinely stuck on the Administration’s absurd notion that racial bias can be the only explaination for resistance to the Dubai Ports World takeover of port logistics in the United States.  As I have pointed out earlier, most of the leadership of DP World is American in the first place.

Chuck Schumer pointed out, quite correctly, that Airport security has long-since been the legal perview of American-owned businesses.  That at least points out the disparity between our Administration’s supposed priority of Homeland Security and thier actions.

I know I keep coming back to this argument, but it seems to me that the conversation is about “foreign” ownership of these duties, not where it should be, which is on “private” ownership.  Yes, there are perfectly legitimate concerns about a Dubai-based company doing our security, but in this global age, it’s not really that much more dangerous than any other company.  What is truly of concern is the very idea that our government chooses to farm out our security whilst crowing about it’s ability to keep us safe.

And indeed, at every opportunity, the Bush Administration keeps telling us that either our military or Corporations can do a better job than the government does.  That’s reassuring on so many levels.  Hmm. .  the military controls security and corporations handle the economy; that sounds familiar. . .