July 28, 2005
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THURSDAY WHATEVERCAFTA
Starting with a little quote from soobee72’s news today (and check her out for daily news – it’s great):
CAFTA passed. Barely, and it took an hour to get the votes, not the usual 15 minutes, but it still passed. And now, it goes to W. I just heard on Morning Edition that the elephant in charge of closing the votes waited until the majority was reached at just after 12 and then jumped up to close the vote without allowing anyone to change their vote. I have no idea of if anyone would have, but the image is sort of darkly funny, isn’t it?
OK, what IS CAFTA? It stands for Central American Free Trade Agreement. Well, for one thing it’s now known technically as DR-CAFTA because the Dominican Republic has joined the negotiations that previously included Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatamala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It means immediate elimination of tariffs on about 80% of US exports to the participating countries and the rest will be phased out over the next 10 years. Okay, now I know that we liberals oppose CAFTA but I have no clue why, so on looking it up I find out that, for example, George Nader’s organization “Public Citizen” says: serves to “push ahead the corporate globalization model that has caused the ‘race to the bottom’ in labor and environmental standards and promotes privatization and deregulation of key public services.” Public Citizen claims that independent farmers in America, Canada and Mexico have been hit particularly hard by NAFTA, with thousands wiped out and farmland shifting into the hands of huge agrobusiness concerns such as Tyson and Cargill; the group fears DR-CAFTA will have same effect in Central America. Now I get it, it’s the giant corporations against us peons once again. Us peons being the ones who die in the wars, eat dirt, and don’t get our taxes waived. That’s enough for me – I can tell I hate it. If you want many more details read Wikipedia’s description of the whole mess. It’s reasonably impartial. Onward.
Deep Thought: “One time I don’t think you should listen to your body is when it says “I’m dead.”
Today I am grateful for: The word, “so??!!!”
Guess the Movie: “I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.” Answer: City of Angels, 1998.
Winner: CanadianNational.
House Passes Free-Trade Agreement in Tight Vote
After last-minute lobbying, Bush gets a CAFTA win
by Rick Klein
WASHINGTON — President Bush eked out a hard-fought victory early this morning on his top trade priority, with the House of Representatives narrowly approving a free-trade agreement with Central American countries. The measure was widely viewed as a referendum on the Bush administration’s trade policies. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:38 pm
+ = Heading for 3 days at the beach tomorrow morning with the family – so happy.
- = Will miss being here – back Sunday night.
Comments (12)
I think it’s time to lose the illusion of American democracy. CAFTA, like NAFTA, is bad for the majority of Americans — and Congress knows this to be true. As the income gap widens, more and more of us are working harder and harder to support the wealthy, not just via the tax code, but in our daily employment, as well. The cartoon pretty much says it all, I think.
I’m glad to be opting out of the lunacy.
onward indeed…
City of Angels. The remake (and this is rare for me to say) was better than the original. Heigh ho, it’s onward we go.
I love that quote from Happy Heathen about us working to support the wealthy. I subscribe to Public Citizen. It’s a good perspective that’s not democratic or republican.
If NAFTA and CAFTA were like Europe – where labor rules and justice rules, political rules, environmental rules, all came with free trade, these would be good things. Instead, everyone gets screwed – except rich multi-national corporations.
City of Angels wins!
Mexican farmers really got screwed over. They’ll probably be coming north to take our jobs.
RYC: Right now, there’s no way anyone would give us the privilege of a mortgage, but we’re good with that. Interest rates won’t mean anything at all when we go to buy, because we’re going to pay cash. ‘Tis an ambitious goal, but meeting goals is what I do best. Time will tell if this one’s beyond my reach…
I still think it wise to view the plutocracy as what it is, rather than giving it the veil of democracy. Things are much easier to understand in that context. (I could be wrong, as always…)
Anyhoo, be well!
Thank you for the Wikipedia link. I do hope I have time later today to check it out. Curiously enough, I discovered Wikipedia this morning, when I googled “Hitler law Internet argument” in order to find a discussion of a thing I forgot the name of, which happened to be “Godwin’s Law,” which is funny stuff as long as you’re not ultra-sensitive to people making jokes about Hitler. Some are, and that’s entirely understandable.
CAFTA Stinks. Canada looks better everyday, actually so does a lot of Europe. All my daughter wants to to be self sustaining. Its hard, in an apartment! Is an eight year olds wisdom great or what?
My throat hurts. Badly, but I will survive. Coffee is keeping me alive today. Love this post, more people should be able to read it. Thanks for the quote from City of Angels too…its a beautiful one!
why haven’t you been posting?
Have fun at the beach.
Tell me all about it when you get back, please.
- Rain.