www.nationalview.org and Note From a Madman brought to you by
for your Information Technology needs
owned and operated by Noah "The Madman" Greenberg
This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Today's Note From a Madman
April 8, 2008
From "Ask the White House"
So President Bush is touting his new Columbia Free Trade Agreement as the new
panacea which will cure all of the ills that his economy has brought down on us.
And in an effort to aid him in his quest, United States Trade Representative
Susan Schwab has been brought out to answer the questions of the lucky few who
are actually answered about what a free trade agreement with a third world, drug
producing nation will do for us.
Columbia's per capita income is just over $7,300. In comparison, Mexico's per
capita income tops $10,000, and they're coming across our border in droves just
to have a job. So what can we offer to Columbia. duty-free and how will that
make our economy great once again?
"We exported over $8 billion to them, but could be exporting more if we also had
duty-free access to that market,"
-Schwab
What are we exporting to Columbia anyway? Are they purchasing Cadillacs and
yachts, or is that just reserved for the drug lords who are pushing their drugs
in our nation, in our schools and on our streets?
MATTHEW IN CHICAGO: isn't is possible that thousands of Americans will lose
their jobs to foreign competition? Columbian workers will work for less than
American workers and tens of thousands of Americans have already lost their
jobs.
SCHWAB: We recognize that trade can also have a negative impact on some of our
citizens and that in those cases the government has a responsibility to help
workers obtain the skills to successfully reenter the workforce.
Well that's a relief, right Matthew? We've had seven-plus years of US jobs being
lost to overseas manufacturers and service companies. Do we need to export jobs
to another nation?
And haven't we learned from the failed (yes, failed) NAFTA agreement (on the
Mexico side) that these agreements are just ways of opening up our nation to
lose even more jobs? All that these free agreements do is allow wealthy global
corporations another avenue to rip us all off in the end.
Which one of our free trade agreements with a third world nation has actually
been beneficial to us? Someone tell me.
"Over 5 million American jobs depend on exports and for the most part, these
jobs pay 13-18% higher than comparable jobs in our country. One in three acres
in the U.S. is planted for export. Exports create jobs and income for Americans
and U.S. exports to our FTA partners have grown much more rapidly than our
exports to the rest of the world,"
-Schwab
So why are we now importing more food than we export. Ms. Schwab? And why are
our family farms going out of business at a record pace of they're making such
huge incomes from exports? that question must not have made it into the Q&A.
The biggest import that Columbia sends to us is drugs. And the biggest
profiteers in that nation are drug kingpins. Thinking that a free trade
agreement will stop the exportation of the highly profitable drugs which are
making billionaires in Columbia is just foolish. And thinking that the people
there will stand up and say "No more drugs to the US" because of this agreement
is simply pie-in-the-sky thinking or just a plain lie.
Say it like it is: The Bushies are just trying to make their rich friends richer
and that's how it's been since January 2001.
-Noah Greenberg
Is McCain Really Nuts?
McCain's speech to the VFW could not have been crazier. While touting how
peaceful Iraq is, MSNBC broke into his speech to report the following:
McCAIN: Faced with the prospect of defeat, we had two fundamental choices.
We could retreat from Iraq and accept the horrible consequences of our defeat.
Or we could change strategies and try to turn things around. It was, I believe,
a critical moment in our nation's history, and a time of testing for our
nation's political leadership.
In the year that has passed, our nation showed its strength -
MSNBC: And speaking of Iraq, we do have breaking news out of Iraq, where at
least four mortars have been fired into the heavily-fortified Green Zone today.
It's unclear at this time if there are casualties or any major damage. Now the
news comes just a day after five U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq. Two, again,
inside that Green Zone.
-Forwarded and commented by Robert Scardapane
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg