"What Went Right" # 27 - Emeril actually stopped saying "Bam!" for approximately 72 hours.

This whole Dubai Ports deal story is like newsy crack. Everyone's pickin' up the habit. I must honestly say that I think this story is a dog. Yet since nobody can resist piling onto this scrum, I've also got my favorite overwrought bits to mention. Such as the Sludge Report offering up a conspiracy story that says there was a "secret deal between DP World and the White House". And the Dems bubbling over with glee that they can play the same "9/11 changed everything" games of pointing fingers at everyone to gain political advantage (to paraphrase Stuart Smalley, "when you point a finger at someone, there are 3 more pointing right back at you,"). Whatever happens with this DP World deal, the Bushies will get slammed. They've got no out. Approve the deal and they look careless, deny the deal and the World sees Dubya as a vastly weakened powerplayer forced into anti-Arab capitulation. It's a lose-lose situation.

Set aside the Ports story, and you're still left with a White House totally flummoxed by Cheney's recent shooting mess, the terrifying fact of Iraq's escalating sectarian violence, a totally-downplayed Bushies' Katrina report (including a 19-page section titled "What Went Right"), and less heat from the Winter Olympics than that of a 40-watt bulb. So there's not much good newziness out there, no matter your political persuasion. Thankfully, I live in a beautiful city on a beautiful day with some time at hand to work on stories of my own creation. Hope your own day's content is worth smiling about. Rock on.