Tell your Senators and Rep to nationalize our ports.

[Eric J in MN]

You can find the email addresses for your Reps at www.vote-smart.org

Then send a message such as:

We should nationalize our ports.

The ownership and operation of US ports is properly a government function to done by federal employees.

A private company which receives, manifests, loads, offloads, and transfers containers has a proft motive to put speed first.

A government agency doing this could put security first.

[leveymg]

1. Tell them to do the same with the multinational oil companies

We'd have the national debt just about paid off in five years.

[kentuck]

2. Yes, we could pay for them with the missing money in Iraq...

Supposedly they paid about 6 billion to the "British Company" (Carlyle Group?)...I think we could afford that much to get the ports back into our possession.

[Eric J in MN]

3. We can spend billions upon billions on the Iraq War.

We should be able to find the money to improve security closer to home.

[Eric J in MN]

4. kick

kick

[Yoda Yada]

5. Get opinions from ILA and ILWU first...

...There is a thread below "Nationalizing our ports: My analysis as a longshoreman" (Popol Vuh) that explains things more clearly. Let's NOT be "loose cannons" here (about nationalizing our ports). The east coast ports are run differently. I live in a community adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles.... and the Los Angeles harbor commission President David Freeman said the ports transaction with an Arab company is a bad idea. Rep. Jane Harman and Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) were at the port several days ago and both expressed concern over losing control over some of the port's operations by selling to a foreign company/government.

HOWEVER.......Getting back to the thread I mentioned (from the longshoreman)...he says, ..." you have to understand that by nationalizing U.S. ports, the docks will become federalized, which in turn will place the ILA (east coast) and the ILWU (west coast) longshoremen's union under the National Railway Act...."

IMO that would open up an additional "can of worms". (Of course, it would be great for any government who is trying to abolish unions.)