Posted on 07/18/2005 12:40:00 PM PDT by datura
Since democracy is the worldwide goal of the Bush Administration, we must face the stunning fact that the integration of different nationalities under a common European Union (EU) Constitution was rejected by decisive democratic votes. President Bush can thank conservative leaders for saving him from the embarrassment of endorsing the EU Constitution, shortly before it was so soundly defeated in France and the Netherlands.
The EU Constitution was defeated, because Western Europeans don't want to be politically, economically, or socially integrated with the culture, economy, lifestyle, or history of Eastern Europe and Muslim countries. Western Europeans recognized in the proposed EU Constitution a loss of national identity and freedom, to a foreign bureaucracy, plus a redistribution of wealth from richer countries to poorer countries.
Will the political and business elites in America hear this message, and stop trying to force CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement) on America?
The Senate Republican Policy Committee appears to be tone deaf. Its just-released policy paper argues that CAFTA should be approved, because its purpose is "integrating more closely with 34 hemispheric neighbors - thus furthering the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)," which the 2001 Quebec Declaration declared would bring about "hemispheric integration."
Americans don't want to be "integrated" with the poverty, corruption, socialism, and communism of our hemispheric neighbors, any more than the French want to be integrated with the Turks and Bulgarians.
Just as the French and Dutch were suspicious of the dangers lurking in the 485-page EU Constitution, Americans are wary of the dangers hiding in the 92-page CAFTA legislation, plus the 31 pages that purport to spell out the administrative actions the U.S. must take in compliance. No wonder CAFTA's supporters are bypassing our Constitution's requirement that treaties can be valid only if passed by two-thirds of our Senators.
The Senate Republican policy paper argues that CAFTA "will promote democratic governance." But, there is nothing democratic about CAFTA's many pages of grants of vague authority to foreign tribunals, on which foreign judges could force us to change our domestic laws to be "no more burdensome than necessary" on foreign trade.
We have had enough impertinent interference with our lives and economy from the international tribunals Congress has already locked us into, such as the WTO (World Trade Organization) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Americans don't want decisions from another anti-American tribunal any more than the French and Dutch wanted their lives micro-managed by Belgian bureaucrats.
The EU political elite ridiculed the French and the Dutch for not realizing that globalism is on the march, and we should all get on the train before it leaves the station. The French and Dutch woke up to the fact that the engineers of the EU train are bureaucrats in Brussels and judges in Luxembourg, who invent regulations and judge-made laws, without so much as tip of their hats to democracy.
The pro-EU political bosses blamed the "non" vote by the French on worry about losing their jobs to the cheap labor of Eastern Europe and Turkey. But the worry was grounded in reality, and Americans are likewise correct, to worry about how CAFTA will put U.S. jobs in competition with low-wage Central America, where the average factory worker is paid about one dollar an hour.
CAFTA would even prohibit U.S. states from giving preference to American workers when taxpayer-funded contracts are granted.
CAFTA is not about free trade; it's about round-trip trade. That means multi-national corporations sending their raw materials to poor countries, where they can hire very cheap labor and avoid U.S. employment, safety and environmental regulations, and then bringing the finished goods back into the United States duty-free, to undersell U.S. companies that pay decent wages and comply with our laws.
The promise that CAFTA will give us 44 million new customers for U.S. goods is pie in the sky, like the false promise that letting Communist China into the WTO would give us a billion-person market for American agriculture. Or, the false promise that NAFTA would increase our trade surplus with Mexico to $10 billion when, in fact, it nosedived, to a $62 billion deficit.
Knowing that Americans are upset about Central America's chief export to the U.S., which is the incredibly vicious MS-13 Salvadoran gangs, the Senate Republican policy paper assures us that CAFTA will diminish "the incentives for illegal immigration to the United States." That's another fairy tale, like the unfulfilled promise that NAFTA would reduce illegal aliens and illegal drugs entering the U.S. from Mexico.
By stating that CAFTA means the implementation of a "rules-based framework" for trade, investment, and technology, the Senate Republican policy paper confirms that free trade requires world, or at least hemispheric, government. You can't have a single economy, without a single government.
CAFTA may serve the economic interests of the globalists and the multinational corporations, but it makes no sense historically, Constitutionally, or democratically. Americans will never sing "God Bless the Western Hemisphere" instead of "God Bless America."
How?
And I think I'm seeing that Republicans can say Baa as well as democrats. Whoo whoo! Now, aint you sumpthin? Well, ahs sa stoopid..well..ah jes don no how i gets dressed ever mornin..
Entering into treaties that would affect U. S. Trade policies, that would remove the application of those policies from the Congress to foreign entities is UNCONSTITUTIONAL! SO I really dont need to know about no veto, bro.
I may not know everything about politics, but I know when a President kow-tows to a foreign potentate and calls US Citizens vigilantes..then I know he aint no US president, in fact, us uneducated sacks of poo..KNOW old Bush is usurping the constitution with CAFTA.
The congress is calling CAFTA a "trade agreement" not a treaty.
It is my understanding "trade agreements" just get an up or down vote of congress, they don't need a 2/3 majority.
Since it is a "trade agreement" and not a treaty, Congress cannot change the text of the agreement once it is submitted by the USTR.
The presiden approves or vetoes the "trade agreement". Since the president is pressuring Congress to pass CAFTA, guess what he'll do?
Under fast track the president has been unconstitutionally granted authority to negotiate "trade agreements".This is a clear violation of the separation of powers built into the US Constitution.
Well, that and forcible overthrow, but how realistic an option is that? What's approach is actually going to get the job done, instead of just being emotionally satisfying to talk about?<<<
Thats it in a nutshell, I'd say!
I've gone constitution party anyway. No dem or Repub will ever get my vote. And, if my no vote helps the "other guy" win, so what? ones as good as another.
Don't be afraid to vote "off the board" when both main candidates are clearly unacceptable - ESPECIALLY if it doesn't appear that the election in your state will be close. After a certan point, it makes no sense to constantly split hairs over which one's slightly better than the other. If they're both substandard, it's better to signal to the political class that both choices are unacceptable. It may result in a temporary setback if the "worse" one wins, but long-term, it's the only way to turn things around.
Bump.
If (and it's a big if) we had a Pres. with any stones he could issue an executive order, bypass Congress entirely like they normally do and put an end to some of this nonsense.....remember Paul Begala's famous line?....."stroke of the pen, law of the land....kinda cool". Of course it'll never happen, especially with this mumbling, bumbling, stumbling guy.
The Groupies don't like to hear that, of course, but they'll learn to cope.
It would look rather bad if they refused.
Jim, is there a way to get the local chapters to execute the contacts with the campaigns to organize such interviews? Has there been such an attempt before?
Why would he.
His brother Jeb has formed an unconstitutional "public/private partnership" called FloridaFTAA. Its sole purpose is to establish Florida as the headquarters for the FTAA. He must have some inside information that these agreements, NAFTA-plus, CAFTA and the FTAA are all going to get passed, or he wouldn't have sunk his money into the FloridaFTAA, IMO.
I know.....I was trying to make a point with that GOP cheerleader about what a Pres. can or can't do and even though executive orders are never over-ridden by Congress, a "real" Pres. could make serious noise with some EO's directed at the 'free traitor' crowd. Of course EO's are patently un-constitutional but hey......when did that ever get in their way?
"Please tell me you were trying to be sarcastic."
Bwahahaha! Gotcha!
"As a participant in GW Bush's "Ownership Society", that makes me wealthier, too."
Yeah, GB and his corporate buddies "Own It". George isn't doing much for the people other than stomping the crap out of the "insurgents" which is a good thing.
" Any USA President that signs this Trade/Treaty should be IMPEACHED."
They'll build statues to him in the Third World.
"You seem to be utterly clueless to the fact that since NAFTA and GATT our trade deficits and budget deficits have soared, same with illegal immigration (which includes numerous thugs committing all sorts of mayhem on Americans), debt at all levels (fed, personal, corporate) has increased tremendously, property taxes in areas servicing illegals rise unabated to deliver them all their "services" and benefits, etc. so try as I might fail to see how this all works in the interest of working people."
I think he's probably well aware of these facts but has a personal financial agenda he is following.
Take a look at any large American firm.
Calculate the cost of American Citizen personnel.
Cut that number to a tenth.
Drop the other 90% on to your profit line.
I agree.....I hope I didn't actually force him to think about the reality of what we're facing...these country club conservatives don't seem to have a clue or the stomach to understand what's going on right under their noses.
This is a sovereignty issue. Unaccountable international tribunals issuing decrees along with unelected CAFTA bureaucrats writing law is not a republican form of government. This looks more like soviet socialism.
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