Writing about the Dubai ports fiasco, Larry Kudlow (thanks to Doc Washburn) endorses the politically motivated, trumped-up concept of "Islamophobia," and repeats the mantra that the jihadists represent a Tiny Minority of Extremists. Unfortunately, he offers no means by which we can with certainty and permanence distinguish that Tiny Minority from the Vast Majority of Peaceful, Law-Abiding Muslims Who Unhesitatingly Subscribe to Western Pluralism.
Make no mistake about it. What is going on right now on cable news channels, in the newspapers and over the Internet is simple Islamophobia. The Democrats who are vocally against the deal are assuredly motivated by political gain. But Republicans should know better. If we're to win the fight against the Islamofascists, a tiny minority of the Muslim community, we cannot afford to erect political, trade or commercial barriers against those Arab nations who have aligned themselves with the United States in the terror war and who wish to do business with us as part of that alliance.Repulsing them is just plain stupid. Tearing down barriers to promote global connectivity is a much better strategy wherever it makes national-security sense.
Dubai has offered its help. We should take it.
per Larry Kudlow:
BINGO! Now why doesn't he get it? The port deal doesn't make national security sense. The department of Homeland Security even said so.
Well,
He's gotten part of it right.
He senses this has something to do with Islam. Virtually every other 'journalist' has parroted the line that it's 'anti-Arab'.
I wonder how his collegues would report this if the company were from:
Pakistan
Uzbekistan
Bangladesh
Iran
Indonesia
Northern Nigeria
Afghanistan
Southern Philippines
Southern Thailand
Well, racial profiling, of course!
why is a shipping company owned by a government?? or do I have that wrong??
The Port deal always sounded incredibly stupid to me. But when I heard all the Democrats were against it, I felt I needed to reconsider. Now that Jimmy Carter has weighed in, in favor, I am now unconditionally persuaded against the port!
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/2/21/103107.shtml
For five years in the late 1990s, Larry Kudlow twisted himself and his readers/listeners into pretzels attempting to rationalise and support the unsupportable stock market bubble. He remains one of the most arrogant and fundamentally fallacious shills on every political/economic cause he advocates. Abiding by his advice on any subject is seriously hazardous to your health and wealth.
Islam- + o + phobia means "fear of Islam"?
I'm down with that.
I've read their playbook.
There's a lot to fear from people who buy into it.
So count me in, Larry.
I fear Islam.
The answer:
-fight for your Civilization's survival.
Or doesnt Larry care?
Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel has a much better take on the "Islamophobia" of scotching the ports deal:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-parker2606feb26,0,1301577.column?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
OT, but this is a little noticed but worrying phenomenon:
See the lead story on EU Referendum:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
the only redemming aspect of the port deal,is that Dubai recognizes the threat from Iran and it's nutty mullahs, and needs US protection. they need the US more than the othe way around. the other point, is that it can be a launching pad to attack Iran for the US. with more attacks by alquaeda upon the house of Saud, you might see the Saudi's clamoring for more protection.
Now we see them come out of the woodwork... Trumpeting this false "anti-Arab" slander, which, of course, it's not at all -- They are the blind, the complicit, and the both:
George Bush
Larry Kudlow
Stephen Forbes
Wolf Blitzer
Fareed Zacharia (big surprise there...)
John McCain
Jimmy Carter
Tommy Franks
George Stephanopolous
William Kristol
Fred Barnes
The list goes on and on...
Those in the US who are willing to assume -- ASSUME that in 4 short years, the "government" of UAE has jettisoned their heartfelt Al Qaida sympathies and adopted sufficient US "friendly" sympathies to warrant the Port Deal. For this short period, and for their supposed change in heart (which, by the way, we're to take on faith only, we're being asked to believe that the UAE's change of heart has been so complete, and has been so massively evident that this deal should go through unquestioned) I ask: where is the Press on this? Where are the encouraging and heart warming stories for Americans about exactly how wonderful an ally the UAE has been so far? Tell us all the splendid ways the UAE has helped her new staunch"ally" the USA in the war on terror? Why, if this is true, is there a complete silence? Why so secretive? Are there really stories about how the UAE has helped us? If so -- TELL THEM. Are they really stupendous allies now in the war on terror? If so, TELL US WHY!!!
Where's all the evidence that they are our staunch friends...? Or is it one of those "street" vs. the "Arab leadership" things... The kind of thing where they're really our allies, but if they let it get out, well then the "arab street" would revolt... I'm sick of this kind of grotesque dysfunctional relationship with the world's Arabs. It is as if our taint is so huge among them that we must hide in fear in the shadows lest the truth get out... as if anything connected with the USA is somehow so currupt and tainted that knowledge of cooperation with the US among Arabs will doom the enterprise... If so, who is the bigot in the "relationship"? Is it the USA, who is willing to do anything with the Arabs according to Arab "rules", or the Arabs who are tainted with every manner of terrorism and support for terrorism, the Arab who is saddled with staggering corruption, staggering hatred, staggering intolerance, staggering violence, staggering religious fanaticism, and staggering backwardness? Where is the shred of evidence that this particular Arab government deserve to preside over critical US ports, or deserves to have our faith and trust placed in their lap?!? Where is the evidence that they have abandoned Al Qaida, Islamism, totalitarianism, and Sharia, and turned toward the USA unflinchingly?
I don't see it. I have never seen it... I'm waiting to see it! Show us an iota of evidence even..!!!
Those who are willing to cringe before such sometimes Arab "allies, those who are willing to vociferously argue that the UAE's good offices have earned them the unquestioning trust and respect of the US polity are not to be trusted. In fact, these cringers and apologists have "outed" themselves now. We can see who they are clearly, and they have little to tell the rest of us who are so rightfully and viscerally suspicious. If there's a story illustrating how complete the UAE's conversion is, a story which illustrates how the UAE has more than sufficiently wiped away the taint of their "former" Islamist and totalitarian credentials, Then Let's here it! I am all ears!
What we get instead are hints of a favor here, the turning over of this guy there... and, of course, hints about the real "deal" behind the deal, US miliatary access to the UAE's deep water services after 9/11... This is no small thing -- and I support our use of these ports. I also know we have been paying HANDSOMELY for their use... We are paying customers. As such, and as a world superpower, we owe the UAE NOTHING beyond the money we pay them for the services we receive -- don't we have better administrators cutting these deals on America's behalf?!? Certainly this "deal" making need not include access to our most vulnerable and priceless ports...!?!? At best the Administration appears to be selling the US very cheaply, and reciprocally over-valuing the cooperation of this tiny dubious Arab Islamist totalitarian state.
Those Americans who have shown themselves to be willing to cringe before this tiny corrupt fabulously wealthy fabulously secretive totalitarian state, and who are so willing to defend the state of the UAE against all reason, undermine their credibility. When one becomes aware that these persons have proffered US ports and positions of responsibility in return for concessions which we should have every right to DEMAND from true "allies" rather than pay for many times over again, grossly sell the American Nation short.
They reveal themselves to be somewhat questionable persons in regard to the Islamic Jihad, the links between Arabs, Islam, and terrorism, and American security. They seem blind to the impact of this secret port decision, and they appear willing to betray fellow Americans by smeaing those who are righteously suspicious of this deal with the slanders of "racism" or "anti-Arabism" or "Islamophobia".
We are right to be suspicious of this deal, and of Arab regimes. We are correct to be highly worried when we learn about secretive deals between a supposedly open and transparent American government and society and a closed mysterious totalitarian religious entity such as the UAE, who only withdrew their support and recognition of the Taliban 2 short weeks before we invaded Afghanistan.
If such deals are part of the cost of "dealing" with such Arab regimes -- I'm sure we can find better and more secure ways of obtaining what we want.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Arabs and Muslims had someone on their side as worried about what we think of them as so many on this side worry about what they think of us? Just once, wouldn't it be refreshing to see the Arabs talking about how much more they must do to earn our respect and trust?
When we have spent so much money in their region on oil and aid, when we have helped Muslims the world over to escape the horrors in their respective shit-holes of origin -- when aid and money and tolerance flow with such abandon from our region to theirs, you'd think we would be held in higher esteem than we are -- you'd think we wouldn't have to work so hard every time for their "trust" and "cooperation" -- wouldn't you? Something is deeply wrong with this relationship -- and it's not us.
Kudlow cold has Charles Martel in a posting above. A great believer in the Divinity of the Dow, and all of its Works and Days, that certainly shapes his ends, disguise them how he -- Kudlow -- will. The great business of living is Getting Money, and that business is one, in the Kudlovian universe, where only a fool or a madman might have other goals or interests. And so it is that the Great Dissolver, cupidity, will drain from those nice men who run Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and the rest of the emirates, will always be focussed on making money, and on nothing else. Just look at Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the rest -- no sooner did they get rich than they forgot all about Believers and Infidels, and mosques and madrasas. Completely.
And since it is Kudlow who now comes across as an echo of CAIR ("Islamophobia" and "anti-Arab bigotry" being the charges intended to silence all critics of this criminally-negligent deal), one would like to add a final observation: doesn't he remind you of the late Roy Cohn?
OT
Some marvelous anti-dhimmitude by no less a person than Sir Trevor Philips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (UK)
Muslims 'must accept' free speech
How does this guy get to have an audience of its own??
Used to watch him on the John McLaughlin show years ago. Never seen a "pundit" with such muddled thinking. Nothing coherent or even relevant. Lawrence O'Donnell is a genius compared to Kudlow. Buchanan is twisted, but he makes sense in his own little world. With Clift, you know that if you wake her up at night, she will be able to recite the liberal bible by heart. She makes sense. Kudlow never has.
If the UAE is ideologically so very much aligned with the United States, then why won't the government allow the free download of Ishad Manji's book The Trouble With Islam Today in Arabic?
If the UAE has a problem with Manji's ideas, what kinds of problems do the government and people generally have with the US Constitution, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, separation of Church and State, religious pluralism? And if UAE is against such things and considers such things against Islam, then how far away is the UAE from Bin Laden?
Ideologically, not that far at all...
Once you step on the toes of these muslims, you're never going to be fully accepted again, they don't have the same concept of forgiveness that we have here in the west and they never forget. Hell, they still talk about the crusades in the Middle East! So though the situation for Denmark is slowly cooling down
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/26/business/image27.php
we are no longer the innocent dhimmis that we used to be.
A very good article that raises some important points
http://canadafreepress.com/2006/jonsson022506.htm
Must read stuff.
One thing nobody has yet castigated is the final sentence. "Dubai has offered its help. We should take it." Pardon me, since when does purchasing a profit-making group of companies in pursuit (if we are lucky) of commercial growth amount to "offering help" to anyone? This man is not sane.
Kudlow states,
"None of the eager critics of this business transaction can furnish a scintilla of evidence that the Bush administration hasn't done its security due diligence on DP World. And so far, no one has proven that the security-vetting process of the executive branch is flawed. Instead, what we have here is a perfect storm of bipartisan criticism based on a combination of nearsighted protectionism and xenophobic anti-Arab sentiment."
Among the many short-sighted claims, Kudlow misses the essential point: critics of the port deal do not have the burden of proving that DP World poses a security risk or that the security assessment process is flawed. DP World has a burden of proof, and an extremely severe one: given the context of the global jihad and its ideological foundation DP World must prove that their management, all their employees, their company policy and culture, wholeheartedly endorse and are committed to the defense of the United States, the US Constitution and the principles upon which our society rests.
This is a burden, of course, that DP World will never be able to satisfy, and, hence, DP World should not only not be trusted with management of US ports, but should be considered suspect in all government contracts or any other contracts involving American interests.
Yes. It would be interesting to say, "Which crusades did you mean?" to one of these clowns. Not that Christendom should be proud of its "other" holy wars - rather that it would make the point that all of history does not revolve around their own affairs.
I bet they would not even be aware that there was a crusade against the Albigensians in the Languedoc or a long a bitter struggle by the Teutonic Knights against Pagan tribesmen on the Baltic. (Eisenstein's film Alexander Nevsky commemorates - and also distorts and co-opts - the latter struggle.)
Thank goodness the West has now done with such things.
So far as I can see, history hardly seems to feature in the minds of Muslims as a subject of interest for its own sake. It's either a catalogue of grievances, as you mention, or it's a matter of indifference - at any rate if it is non-Islamic.
Look at the attitude of the Turkish authorities to the remains at Zeugma. Some of the most gorgeous mosaics that have ever been uncovered anywhere - I mean that: they're simply breathtaking - were found here, but the Turkish state just put the whole area under water (also displacing some 30,000 Kurds in the process) without allowing more than a fraction of the site to be excavated by archaeologists.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/zeugma.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/zeugma_transcript.shtml
I suppose it wasn't Islamic remains, so it was of no interest ...
My favorite bumper sticker idea:
I'M ISLAMOPHOBIC AND SO ARE YOU
Saudis Bemoan Poor Image in U.S.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SAUDI_FIXING_THE_IMAGE?SITE=TXELP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-02-22-04-37-04
Amazing. All that expensive education in the best Universities in the UK and the US, and all they think of what defines the West is " American fast food, cars".
poetcomic1: "My favorite bumper sticker idea:
I'M ISLAMOPHOBIC AND SO ARE YOU"
I'm think along the lines of...
EMBRACING MY INNER ISLAMOPHOBE
DP111-
My American fast food is The Constitution.
My car is the Bill of Rights.
And my education is the resulting Freedom of Thought.
The Saudis, and all trapped under Shariah Law, will never get it.
Because their minds are pre-gelded by the Koran's restrictions to submission. Mental, spiritual, moral and emotional.
Me, I much prefer slow food (like a nice spaghetti dinner with lots of chianti and warm bread and good music), a ten speed bike, and the works of the pre-Socratics (our intellectual DNA -like Parmenides and Zeno and Heraclitus and Xenophanes and Anaxagoras) over a swift greaseburger, a BMW and a madrasa.
Call me an infidel dog.
But, as Gary Cooper once insisted:
"Smile when you say that."
Profitsbeard posted: The Saudis, and all trapped under Shariah Law, will never get it. Because their minds are pre-gelded by the Koran's restrictions to submission. Mental, spiritual, moral and emotional.
I sometimes wonder if they are trapped or imprisoned. Whichever it is, it is now well past time that we put a full stop to all this nonsense of muslims in the West demanding sharia compliant this and that. All these demands have come about because we have been so tolerant of their rituals.
If muslims are trapped or imprisoned, they will have to be released, if need be against their will. We live in an ever speeding car/world - we cannot afford to be held up by people with the mindset of 7th century barbarians for another 50 or 100 years, as we try to bring them out of the pit.
I liked Kudlow and Cramer . . . but as a comedy team only. Kudlow supposedly quit cocaine, but when I watched him and Jimmy Cramer in the go-go days of the net stocks, you could have fooled me. Cramer still has his show where he wanders around the set, talking to himself. Kudlow is one of the father's of supply-side economics . . . trickle down economics . . . low taxes/high growth. Perhaps he views economics as trascending politics and religion. Interesting many of the wall street/business guys are among the biggest supporters of the Dubai port deal. He had a major cocaine addiction, quit, then converted from Judaism to Catholicism, now he's an advisor to wall street firms. I think he has a utopian vision of econimics as transformational in nature. I think, for example, but I don't know this is the case(but it is my strong speculation)that Kudlow and folks like Kudlow might feel that if only the West Bank/Gaza Strip would initiate free market reforms and low taxes, then the Pals would bring fruit baskets to the Jews, and, if only Sistani would support the flat tax, then, Holy Shia, the Sunnis and Kurds would sup with the Shias, and so on. Not for nefarious reasons, just wrong-headed. See Shimon Peres for another example--he feels that nanotechnology coupled with 'free trade zones' in Jordan and The West Bank will usher in the 'new' middle east where religion no longer matters, but the allmighty sheckel is king. I can sum up my response to all these good hearted(and sometimes dimwitted) folks with these four words: It's The Jihad, Stupid.
"My American fast food is The Constitution.
And the gas in my motor is the 2nd amendment -- let these guys come-a-knocking... I'll give 'em an education in adopting the American way of life... They'll love it for certain -- 72 virgins and all the other malarky too!!!
"Look at the attitude of the Turkish authorities to the remains at Zeugma. Some of the most gorgeous mosaics that have ever been uncovered anywhere - I mean that: they're simply breathtaking - were found here, but the Turkish state just put the whole area under water (also displacing some 30,000 Kurds in the process) without allowing more than a fraction of the site to be excavated by archaeologists."
-- from a posting above
Some were, as you note, rescued -- the Packard Foundation had a good deal to do with it. A nice recycling of computer-and-printer dollars for a higher and better use.
The problem with the Kudlow school of (non-)thought is that if its business then its good. Of this follows that actually the U.S - and the west in general - is between malaria and cholera: on the other hand you have the dhimmi left with all its humbug academics. But the problem that comes with the political right - Kudlow represents it most reckless libertarian wing - is that they believe that if it's business it must be good.
I came to think one extremely effective useful political direction during the cold war. Perhaps I could call this the Truman Democrats; effective against the Soviet but still down-to-earth economically. This is, the Democratic party until 1968 convention and ultimately McGovern 1972.
When you compare jihad to cold war, the democrats were not in a cold war sense dhimmies. They became dhimmis in front of the Soviet in the late 60's.
Today I've been wondering what kind of political direction would do the trick against the jihad. Kudlow and the libertarian gang are what they are - as is the entire Bush crew, for that matter. I've started to think that some kind of rebirth of the Truman democrats could be the trick, just replace Soviet with jihad.
The world's archaeological community BEGGED the Turkish government to delay this inundation abomination against humanity's legacy - and aside from a couple expedited visas to help on existing digs -- not the slightest interest was shown in furthering the exploration for these incredible pre-Islamic mosaics in that region...
The restrictions these Islamic societies now place on expeditions are often under the pretext of "preserving" sites, and preventing the removal of antiquities from their various regions --Although this may sound reasonable, especially in light of prior removals of various pre-Islamic antiquities from Islamic domains -- the truth is that there is NO real archaeological scholarship being conducted in Muslim regions of the world today. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is an absolute embarrassment -- a staggering mess -- at least 150 years behind the times and the rest of the world in terms of scholarship, exhibitions, and scientific prowess. This is incomprehensible given the the absolutely priceless treasures the museum holds. If not for British and French influence in previous epochs, it is doubtful there would even be an Egyptian Museum of antiquities ... A true and gargantuan disgrace for Muslims, Arabs, and Islam.
I support the idea that it's probably a great service to humanity to loot antiquities from Muslim domains -- They are singularly ill equipped to responsibly curate the priceless legacies they've inherited in Persia, Babylon, Byzantium, Egypt, Assyria, etc... Those legacies are, in fact, in danger of being buried forever by the ignorance and complete disregard of their drab dull Muslim overlords... It's just another crime the wasteland of Islam has perpetrated against the rest of humanity.
Biorabbi wrote: "It's The Jihad, Stupid."
Now there's the perfect bumper sticker.
Islamophobia. Given that phobias are completely irrationally based and so is Islam, doesn't that make the term redundant?
I vote for "It's the jihad, stupid!"
DP World terminal facilites. They currently have no ports in North America. That will soon change. They are certainly poised worldwide for dom... er, financial gain.
Yojimbo wrote: "I suppose it wasn't Islamic remains, so it was of no interest"
I found a link to some of the Zeugma mosaics:
http://www.byegm.gov.tr/yayinlarimiz/newspot/2002/sept-oct/n18.htm
They are truly splendid. It just makes you wonder how much of the worlds cultural heritage has been destroyed by muslims vandalizing them? A depressing thought...
Ain't it odd how the word Moslem has been studiously avoided by commentators on this ports flap? Now we hear the word Arab instead.
If Kudlow is right --- that Islam is not the problem, but that thte problem is instead some squishy combination of xenophobia and anti-Arab racism --- then he clearly has let loose of reality.
C'mon, Kudlow, give me the quotes surrounding 9/11 and 7/7. Or weren't you listening? They were talking about their fake religion, not their racial or national identities.
PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH
I can pass the racism test posed in Kudlow's sad-sack accusations: I object to not only the Arab Moslems working for DP World, I also object to Persian Moslems, the subcontinental Moslems, the caucasian Moslems, the Afro-American Moslems, the Meso-American aboriginal Moslems, east-Asian Moslems... I object to any Moslem working for the company.
They're the source of my fear, which ain't a phobia, cuz it is rationally-based, cuz the Moslems flatly state their intent to subjugate us or destroy us, our choice. Listen to what I just said, Kuddy: our choice, not the choice of a some dumbass elite pundit like you.
Ours.
Alarmed Pig Farmer --
Surely you haven't overlooked my kindly answering your query about Naseem at another thread. I still await the offer of some American homegrown equivalent of prosciutto di Parma, nicely wrapped and mailed just in time for Easter. Operators are standing by.
Here's a thought...........
There is enough money in America for someone who is American to set up a company to manage the ports then U.A.E.would not be necessary.
Kudlow is always hopped up on the idea that The Market will overcome. Everything will always go up in the long run, so he thinks. Problem is, sometime the "short run" lasts a long freakin' time, like twenty years, or maybe a couple of centuries.
I'd like to see how he explains the soon to come economic meltdowns in the West, how he rationalizes that they are only "temporary." They'll only be temporary if Europe kicks out their Muslims, otherwise they'll have so much violence and conflict that they'll never be able to revive their economies. And that doesn't even take into account their sad, unquestioning allegiance to socialism and various wealth ditribution ponzi schemes. Even without the Muslims they'd be soon screwed economically.
Kudlow is blind to Islam, just as he is blind to the obvious inflation in the West, to the fallacies and destructiveness of fiat currency, to the destructiveness of The Fed, to the fact that China is Communist. Somehow, he and so many other financial commentators on TV believe that all of these things will do little to slow down, much less cripple, the all-powerful Market.
Thicker glasses won't help.
So, why is it wrong to fear a group who is willing to kill or enslave you and your family? It seems the irrational ones are the ones who would rationalize bringing a rabing animal into your own house.
Charles Martel:
"For five years in the late 1990s, Larry Kudlow twisted himself and his readers/listeners into pretzels attempting to rationalise and support the unsupportable stock market bubble. He remains one of the most arrogant and fundamentally fallacious shills on every political/economic cause he advocates. Abiding by his advice on any subject is seriously hazardous to your health and wealth."
Well said. Kudlow might have the highest Pundit Bloviator Index defined as (Pundit influence) / (Content produced by Pundit).
I have seen Kudlow on John McLaughlin show, total nothing.
Recently I have heard him substituting for Bob Brinker financial radio show.
Guy literally knows nothing about real life investing. People who got used to Brinker show format would call and ask advice about Mutual fund investments, Mortgages, IRAs, etc.
There was only one answer to any question: US economy is great, growing fast, don't worry, just invest. And, by the way, I have no idea about particular investment you are asking about.
I cannot believe this guy is not teaching econ 101 in some vocational school.