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Panama flag by Rita Willaert on Flickr
The White House has given the go-ahead to a third trade agreement since December, this one with Panama. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk hinted that the Panama deal was coming soon in a conference call earlier this month announcing the Colombia trade deal. The NAFTA-style trade deal with Korea was announced in December. From the Hill about the Panama deal:
United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk has given the Panama trade agreement a green light, paving the way for a congressional vote on the long-stalled deal within months.
Kirk notified Congress on Monday that Panama has cleared all the hurdles needed for passage of the U.S.-Panama trade agreement. He said technical discussions on implementing the legislation can now begin with Congress.
House Republicans are continuing to push an arbitrary deadline of July 1, 2011 for passage of all three outstanding trade deals.
“I look forward to working with the administration to ensure that all three of our pending trade agreements are considered by Congress by July 1. We are on the home stretch, and I welcome the opportunity to show the world that we once again have a market-opening trade agenda that creates U.S. jobs,” [Texas GOP Rep. and Trade subcommittee Chairman Kevin] Brady stated.
And Ron Kirk, in a conference call with reporters, seems to be making every effort to meet that deadline, as I wrote two weeks ago.
The Assassination Stress Tests call for Colombia to hit its main points by mid-June – just in time for the deadline imposed by House Republicans to push through all three pending trade deals, including Korea and Panama. While the Administration initially balked at moving all three trade deals together, it appears as though they’re doing just that. Trade Rep. Ron Kirk was frustrated by the lack of movement on the Korea deal in a White House call this afternoon, during which he also revealed that the Panama trade agreement would move “in the coming days.”
Each of these trade deals will kill American jobs, sacrifice American sovereignty, and, in the case of Colombia, do nothing to stop the deaths of dozens of union members every year. None of these deals should pass. The next question is, how do you stop the “free trade” freight train?
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#3rdworldnation
I say here we come but Amerika is already there, lets hope we stop here instead of moving to 4th world
Remember NAFTA-gate?:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/the_facts_about_nafta-gate.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/03/obama-denies-assuring-can_n_89539.html
Now it’s clear that it was true all along…you’ll notice by the way if you read all the FactCheck quotes carefully is that Golsbee wasn’t meeting in Canada as officially part of the campaign (a legal fiction) and he says he didn’t give the exact quote, which in other words means Golsbee did say Obama’s NAFTA stance was just words.
Then – surprise! – here’s Obama in Canada saying he’s not going to renegotiate NAFTA!:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-02-20/news/17190753_1_beggar-thy-neighbor-policies-austan-goolsbee-nafta
Now Obama is not only not renegotiating NAFTA, he’s out doing NAFTA-type deals all over the world! Goolsbee is part of the Rubinite Hamilton Project along with Gruber.
money talks bullshit walks… We have no, zip leverage in any of this. The working class is continuing to be sold down the river… How will working America survive??
So we’re being fucked by Obama and all those Democraps we’ve elected. This is news, why?
A MAN, A PLAN, A ROOT CANAL.
LAN AC TOOR ANAL PANAMA!
Unfuckingbelievable. Traitors.
Trade unionists, and their allies, need to take to the streets.
The only monkey wrench that will stop these deals is massive public demonstrations, Madison writ large.
Stop voting like a Dembot for Hopeycrats. May not help, but surely will not hurt.
Here, hear.
Unions should have broken from the Democrats as far back as Clinton. Instead the unions go full bore to sells us corporate Obamacare. Look at how Obama trots out the UAW like some obedient poodle.
Obama the INSANE
More war
No Jobs
High Gas Prices
Low taxes for the Rich
this OBAMA makes everyone want to join the birther movement
More slave labor for corporations. What else is new.
Yeah the unions should have abandoned the party long ago. Like I did. But then so should the progressives. Pot & Kettle.
It won’t and evidently that is the republican plan. It is plain as the nose on our faces! Take everything away from citizens, their rights, their freedoms, their jobs, their retirement money, their social security insurance and give it all to the weathly few.
Besides, what exactly do we have left to trade? Two and Half years ago when I was working for the largest shipping company in the world, the only exports we had were chicken parts and scrap metal.
What the hell can we trade freely now?
I’m sure working Americans are looking forward to achieving Panama’s standard of living. To the plutocrats, it’s all good.
They would if the labor movement hadn’t purged it’s ranks of the communists and socialists in the late 40′s and early 50′s. Now they content themselves with whatever crumbs the ruling class leta fall their way.
I hope they do try to link all the FTAs together. That will make it easier to take them all down at once.
I know Obama’s neolib economic team wants these deals, but politically they are a non-starter. It’s going to be a rude awakening indeed.
Possible election bumper sticker?
“Obama, now everyone’s a birther.”
“Birther Bipartisanship.”
I agree with you
Obama political team is in for very, very, rude awakening,
Gov. Walker and other GOP governors have Unions and Progressives in an up ROAR!
the idea of a DEM president doing NAFTA type of deals in this type of political climate is just insane!
Hope and change equals more NAFTA deals and more wars?
I just want to puke.
Do Americans have the stomach to fight this increasingly Junta-style regime? Like the Middle Easterners have been doing, sacrificing their lives to bring down unjust dictatorial regimes?
The “powers that be”, i.e., the Wall Street-CIA-Pentagon Junta regime that is in control of the US Government, doesn’t care. That has been shown graphically, especially since Obama became their con-man front.
Sure, as long as they can pick up extra lives by jumping up and grabbing oranges or whatever.
If the Columbia government stops killing union organizers how will it protect itself from greedy peasants? Here is an idea. Just blind them and cut out their tongues.
Organized Labor and by this, I mean trade uniions, have placed themselves into their Absolute Predicament. Thus, with Organized Labor capitulating to the Obama Crowd on Card Check, tells the proverbial American Story and perpetuates the Bush Era of Gross Incompetence. “Ain’t America Great!”
Today, if Card Check were now embedded into the Rule of Law, the folks like us here at the Lake, would be arguing that Card Check would have to be negotiated into the missing Universal Labor Standard for all Free Trade Agreements. But this not going to happen, since Organized Labor has had its teeth filed down and to the point for having drank too much of “The Man’s” kool aid and for a demented non-existence. And what’s going on in Wisconsin reveals some Truth-telling. These political fights tend to be reactionary relative to human nature since there is no pro-active mindsets in the American politics of today.
And so it is that Native Americans have to continue to remain the constant and consistent Icon for some Truth=telling.
Jaango
The trade agreements are almost unstoppable now.
The only person who could prevent passage for the next 20 months is Harry Reid. I’m not holding my breath.
“The next question is, how do you stop the “free trade” freight train?”
The only viable solution at this moment is to urge Donald Trump to run for President.
Better a Democrat turned Republican, who understands trade, than a gang that is owned by global corporations.