I got an interesting email today. Sen. Feinstein wanted to thank me for emailing her about her TPA vote. She wrote "Thank you for contacting me regarding the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. I appreciate the time you took to write, and I welcome the opportunity to respond." Very nice opening someone wrote for her, the only problem is I didn't email her about her recent vote. I've emailed her about other votes, and I was thinking about sending her a complaint on her ill-advised vote. But I never actually emailed her. Maybe she's feeling guilty about this bad vote.
I don't think senators can claim copyright so I'll put the rest of her email and comment.
"First, please know that as a United States Senator, I carefully review each free trade agreement that comes before me to ensure that the best interests of American workers and businesses are served, and that the agreement will not adversely affect the U.S. economy, human rights, labor rights, and environmental standards.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is currently being negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, is intended to eliminate tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade between the partners on nearly all goods and services. The United States currently has free trade agreements with every nation in the Partnership except Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Vietnam.
President Obama formally notified Congress of his Administration's intention to enter into negotiations on December 14, 2009, and the members have since participated in extensive rounds of negotiations.
As you may know, Congress must approve each trade agreement before it comes into effect for the United States. Please be assured that I am closely monitoring the negotiations, and I will keep your thoughts in mind as I review any final agreement.
Once again, thank you for writing, and I hope that you will continue to keep me informed about issues of importance to you. Should you have any further comments or questions, please feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841, or visit my website at www.feinstein.senate.gov. Best regards.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator"
First off, there is a major problem with her second paragraph. She seems to have forgotten that they aren't supposed to let on what is really going on with this treaty. She calls it the free trade agreement. Didn't the puppet master's tell her that you need to call it the"Fair Trade Agreement". The truth is that it is designed by the corporations that wrote it that it is a Free Trade Agreement, but they aren't supposed to let on that this is mostly laws of, for and by the corporations and indirectly the billionaire class. Let's face it, both parties are beholding of the rich, it is just that the Democrats pretend that they are concerned about the "people".
The rest of the second paragraph hasn't been true up to now, why should we believe that this trade agreement is in " best interests of American workers and businesses are served, and that the agreement will not adversely affect the U.S. economy, human rights, labor rights, and environmental standards. " She did get one part right, but only one part, businesses. How has NAFTA benefited the American worker or the Mexican worker or the Canadian worker? Good jobs got deported, and we imported goods made in sweat shops, slave labor. How can the American worker compete with $.50 per hour that Vietnam is now paying, if the worker is lucky. So this is a great deal for the corporations, they get free trade, we get free meals when we stand in line for assistance. I'm lucky that I can support myself, mostly because some people haven't figured out how to emport my job to India. But don't be under the illusion that someone isn't getting.
The rest of the email is fluff, designed to say nothng, admit nothing and explain nothing as for why she voted so poorly. As in the "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "She chose poorly". When you don't understand why this should be a "Fair Trade Agreement", then nothing else will pass mustard about what is needed for the American worker. The constitution is for "We the People", not "We the corporations" but you would never know that the average guy votes for people like her. Let's hope that the house has a more difficult time passing the "fast track agreement" or we the people are getting the royal screw job, better known as SHAFTA.
Makes me mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more. I'll remember this vote and remember to actually write an email that will let her know how I feel. I can't always depend on Diane reading my mind.