don't blame me i voted for the other guy dept

i missed it when it came out last week that the bush admin wants to turn over the ports of ny-nj, philly, baltimore, miami, and n'orleans to a company from dubai, one of the 7 little persian gulf coastal territories that form the federation known as the united arab emirates, which lies between qatar and oman and gave us 2 of the 19 on 9/11. (that's 2 more than iraq!)

i think AP had it first.

bill maher picked it up for his friday hbo show, and c-span put it into a question to washington journal viewers over the weekend.

i don't recall hearing a single favorable comment.

the closest to neutral was a guy who asked if callers attacked the scheme because the company is arab or because it's foreign.

a woman said if bush wants to outsource the ports he ought to outsource the secret service. when asked what the connection was, she said if he's going to farm out our security he should farm out his own personal security too.

there was also a very emphatic and determined caller of the type i call a last-straw gop, a lifelong republican who says he'll never vote gop again.

last but not least was somebody who had finally come to the conclusion that bush has mush for brains—which is, of course, a euphemism.

now bush says he'll veto any bill congress passes to block the deal.