Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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January 1, 2008 8:30 AM
How America's Trade Policy Undermines Our Sovereignty - Exhibit A
From Public Citizen:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The World Trade Organization (WTO) announcement that the U.S. must pay $21 million in compensation for the U.S. ban on Internet gambling is the latest stark example of how U.S. trade agreements can undermine a wide array of domestic policies unrelated to trade, Public Citizen said today.
"Americans just got a harsh wake-up call about the price of 'trade' agreements and entities such as the WTO that require us to conform all of our domestic policies to hundreds of pages of rules unrelated to trade that were pushed by global corporations behind closed doors in 1994," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division. "This ruling shows once again that the WTO's incredible overreach and interference with domestic policy is a serious threat to democratic policy-making and national sovereignty."
This could be the beginning of the slippery slope.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
The slippery slope began with NAFTA which allowed foreign companies to override our Constitution, Federal and states laws at will.
WTO just cemented it.
And don't expect the Democrats to complain about it. Its not important like finding homes for polar bears, battling creationism or making sure "don't ask, don't tell" is done away with.
The slippery slope started with RAYGUN's 1985 US-Canada "free" trade scam that further povertized the northern states bordering Canada and sadly both parties were able to get away with it back then. Of course, from there it snowballed into NAFTA and then the rest. At this point stopping the snowball is harder than ever despite more Americans despising "free" trade scamming these days.
And don't forget that even those who supposedly oppose them aren't putting their foot where their mouths are. Here's even more BAD NEWS.
Kucinich is planning to get Iowa caucus voters to vote Obama if he can't make it !
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/01/6107/
Now, let's see. First, it's just one state and a caucus is NOT democracy since fewer people decide the outcome of the state. Second, Obama gave his support to more NAFTA extensions, something Kucinich supposedly opposes. Does Kucinich really want to win or is he just there to get another 15 FUCKING minutes of fame ?!?!?
Edwards must have somehow pissed off Kucinich.
But we'll take 'em.
GOBAMA
It doesn't matter which candidate Kucinich backs, be it lawyerboy Edwards or Oprahboy Obama. He has already forfeited his candidacy even as he keeps denying it by trying to fucking fool us into believing that it's just for Iowa ! Much as Iowa caucuses are the beginning of stolen elections in America, it's nowadays the "perfect" place to see which candidates means business vs the ones ready to chicken out. Then again, Kucinich probably never was hell bent on cancelling all those NAFTAs out there after all.
Isn't it interesting how Nebraska Nathan and spankinrankin make the exact same punctuation mistake? That makes me think they're exactly the same person.
Kucinich had two choices:
1) Endorse no one.
2) Endorse someone who most closet represents his positions.
Instead he did neither and shows reflects his lack of character and honesty. Its no wonder he couldn't raise money or get anywhere poll wise. People didn't trust the little ass.
Now I can understand why Markos and others never took him seriously.
He was just a attention whore.
Isn't it interesting how Chris V has NOTHING to talk about but instead accuses others of making "punctuation mistakes" even though the fucktard never points them out? Chris V is just a sock puppet for the Hillary/Obama campaigns !
We have like five regular commenting readers on this blog, and they can somehow find something to generate a flame war over. /sigh
Anyway, here's an interesting underused survey tool ranking the nominees on their issues:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21116732
Note how green Ron Paul is.
3rdoption,
DUH ! The dude's from Texas so why would you expect him to be against Big Oil? Besides, the last best Texan pol to be against Big Oil was Senator Ralph Yarborough.
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/coxral.html
How many of your pols in your state are anywhere close to being the "People's Senator"? I know that out here in MS there are NONE.
3rdOption
Thats a nice survey tool you found, its really handy and thanks for posting the link.
Ron Paul on numerous issues comes off as a Ayn Randy sort of fella, hence his appeal to college students. His only virtue is that he lets it all hang out.
I'd say he's your guy if you are young and pulling down a nice six figure income and never have to worry about getting old, crippled or losing your job.
For the rest of us, he's Dr. Kervorkian.
There are a few words that we never or seldom hear spoken anymore in this country..
One is Sovereignty..
Another is self Reliance..
The other is Egalitarian..
America became great due to it's being Sovereign, self Reliant and Egalitarian..
Why does the elite want to destroy this..?
The repudiation of these terms and principles will be our downfall..
Simple as that..
spankinrankin,
Don't pay any attention to that phoney LATTE "liberal" ChrisV. He's probably having a hard time admitting that the Democratic Party is FUBAR (FUCKED UP BEYOND ANY REPAIR/RECOGNITION) so he'll bring up useless bullshit such as punctuation. All ChrisV wants is more NAFTA and HillaryCare. Put that prick in the hurtlocker and kiss him goodbye !
none of these anti-freetrade articles mean anything until you point out that the elite are rightwing. Otherwise, people just read you and turn to Buchanan, LePen, Hitler, or some other rightwing pseudopopulist. or they turn to some moderate ass like lou dobbs who doesn't really go anywhere with his populism. People need to realize that RIGHTWINGERS are responsible for all this, and that CENTRIST DLC dems, NOT liberals, are the freetraders. Until then, your articles are crap that will inspire just a new generation of rightwingers and JBS members.
nafta/cafta both were voted for by majority of gop/against by majority of dems. Point that out. Not that I like dems, but the truth on liberalism vs. conservatism must be revealed.
And stop being afraid of the word leftism. EMBRACE it. DON'T be cowards. On my youtube account, I have praised communists before! THE HORROR!!!!! I am not a commie, but i do admire a lot of them and their goals.
Where the hell did you dig this stuff up on Kucinich? it's not his fault he is marginalized and labeled as a media whore. If the media pushed him he would be winning and you would not accuse him of being a media whore.
Also, Sirota should point out how multiculturalism and PCness are caused by rightwing economic policies. For example, Gingrich and Sons were obsessed with privatization and economic growth, so they did away with worker protection, socialism, and pro-American policies and instead instituted more private enterprise that was free to be global and anti-worker in outlook, and less controlled by the gov't/regulations. Even the gov't ITSELF became more businesslike. THIS lead to mass immigration more than anyting, and the development of PCness to keep the immigration coming. And the funny thing is that the same rightwingers who promoted the privatization, economic freedom, and business-oriented society are now WHINING about the results. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Thou reapest what thou sowest!!!!
And the dems who followed were centrists, not LIBERALs, for the one thousandth fricking time.
and semantics ARE everything. calling something left/liberal is a far cry from calling it rightwing. Even sirota talks about the language being important. Hell, i got the idea from him!
Speaking of "free" trade,
Mexican Farmers Protest NAFTA
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/03/6144/
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