Predictions Gone Wild

Lord, I wonder what's has got the matter
Wit' time, you know, wit' time
It seems like the hours, oh, everything done changed
-- Hoodoo Man Blues, Junior Wells (1935)

I've been going over the entrails of a chicken and feel the need to expand on my prediction regard the Dubai ports kerfuffle. It's not good enough to predict what will happen (Congress blocks the deal, Bush vetos, Congress doesn't override). Anyone with halfway decent mojo could do that. I'm going to tell you how it happens.

Dubai Ports World will form a partnership with some Americans. It won't be Halliburton like the NY Daily News reported. That would be to difficult to make fly. No, it will be a new shell company composed of Republican lackeys. DPW will capitalize the whole thing and run things. The lackeys will reap some sweet salaries and, in turn, pass along hefty contributions to Republican campaigns.

I predict the Republicans will make lemonade out of this bushel of lemons. When this started they didn't stand to gain from the deal. When it's finished, they will have made it a fancy money laundering scheme to pocket millions of Middle East petro-dollars. See if they don't.

Update: No sooner I finished writing this word crossed the wires that DPW had found their partners. So, a further prediction: they will not sell their stake in the ports, they will simply turn over mangement of the ports to some Americans. They would have done that anyhow. Nothing of my prediction changes. (I'm not sure I like it this far out on a limb.)