Port security brou-haha

The ruckus over President Bush's plan to allow a Dubai-owned company to assume control over port terminals in New York and other major American cities smacks of serious hypocrisy to me.

First: any issue relating to oversight of vulnerable or critical infrastructure should receive as much scrutiny as humanly possible.

Second: given the above, it should not be possible to investigate any single instance of infrastructure control more than any other (since they should all be scrutinized as closely as possible)- BUT, certainly companies of "controversial" origin would merit additional scrutiny in principle.

Third: I don't think anyone would disagree with either of those two points.

But let's call a spade a spade: investigating a company (or an individual) based on their origin is PROFILING. And I don't think it's wrong to do it in certain circumstances.

So anyone who thinks Bush is insane to allow a Middle Eastern company to control US ports and demands increased oversight, yet rails against the administration (and others) who favor other kinds of profiling in the aim of catching terrorists, is a hypocrite.

I am vehemently anti-Bush and pro civil liberties, but above all else, I think it's critical to be consistent.