At CommonDreams, Nadia Prupis writes
Democrats Rally to Block Fast Track Trade. An excerpt:
President Barack Obama is facing renewed opposition to his effort to implement so-called "fast track" trade promotion authority, a power that would enable him to negotiate trade deals and speed them through Congress.
Democrats are rallying a coalition of labor, environmental, and religious groups, backed by a core group of lawmakers, to fight the implementation of the promotion authority they say would give the president free rein to arrange trade deals without input from Congress and with no regard for job loss, food safety, and financial regulation.
Trade promotion authority would grant Congress an "up or down" vote on any trade deal that reached Capitol Hill.
"This is one of the broadest advocacy coalitions that we’ve had," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), who is leading the coalition, said during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday. "There is no reason why we should exacerbate the loss of jobs or lower wages in the United States."
Chief among the coalition's concerns is Obama's would-be approval of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would lower trade barriers between the U.S. and 12 nations that make up 40 percent of the global economy.
Critics say the deal threatens civil liberties, workers rights, public health, food safety, and global financial stability. Its secretive negotiations are also a contentious issue, as the full text of the trade deal itself remains hidden from Congress and the public view, while representatives from banks, pharmaceutical companies, and other corporate interests have been allowed access to the documents.
DeLauro, who has argued for months that the agreements "go well beyond trade," said Congress must be involved in negotiating a deal with such potentially far-reaching impacts.
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2011—Some words the President might choose...:
One would hope that there would be a few days given over to mourning for the dead and public good wishes for the full recovery of the injured in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting this morning [of Gabrielle Giffords and others]. But since we live in a Twitter and Facebook and Instant Messaging world, such hope no longer gets a chance. Efforts to set the narrative are already fully under way.
Those whose violent, eliminationist rhetoric has polluted the air waves and other media for the past couple of decades, ramping itself up a little more each year, especially with the arrival of an African American in the White House, are, of course, denying that the shootings of a Congresswoman, a judge, a child and bystanders on a street corner in Arizona have anything to do with their savage words. No surprise. One thing they're good at is refusing to accept any responsibility for the consequences of this murderous talk, whether it's Timothy McVeigh blowing up a federal building or Scott Roeder assassinating a doctor. [...]
What we're going to be saturated with for the next week or so are the inevitable false equivalencies. We'll hear, for instance, how there are "nuts on both sides." Undeniably true. But there is no ubiquitous liberal—much less, left-wing—network of talk-radio stations spouting Two Minutes' Hate 24/7. The collective voice of the right wing on radio and the Internet with its coded and uncoded calls to violence, of "2nd Amendment remedies," of cross hairs superimposed on states and on individuals simply has no visible counterpart on the left. When the right discusses the violent left, it must seek overseas examples or something from decades ago in America's past.
Michael Savage bleating on Savage Nation radio, says: "Only vigilance and resistance to this baby dictator, Barack Hussein Obama, can prevent the Khmer Rouge from appearing in this country." Erick Ericksson at Red State says: "At what point do the people ... march down to their state legislator's house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp?" No matter how it tries, the right cannot divorce itself from the pustulence of its violent rhetoric no matter how many times its practitioners say "not me, not me" after people are murdered for taking these vile imprecations to heart. A few crocodile tears from Glenn Beck won't cut it.
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On
today's Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin collects Paris headlines and his picks for best & worst of reactions from the right. The House wastes no time in failing to govern. Weird news: obit for a forger. Pollsters find more "independents" than ever, yet no less partisanship. (Because B.S.) How Europeans relate to their Muslim populations. Comparing the NAACP bombing news.
Armando notes Saxby Chambliss' as not-lobbyist, Chris Christie's continuing War on Toast, and the nuances of free speech issues. TX open carry advocates split over tactics. More from "The Tragedy of the American Military."
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