Incredibly strange? (4.00 / 4)

Maybe so, although not any stranger than entrusting the economy to people who helped to create the economic crisis. And to these Rubinites, corporate trade has always been priority one--even more important to them than deregulation.

Leaving alone the wrongness and immorality of these deals, I think you're right to suggest that moving ahead on them could weaken both Obama and the party. Nothing splits the party like trade. Labor would be rightly enraged. A majority of Dems in the House voted against the Peru Free Trade, and there'd be even more opposition to any Columbia Pact, whatever phony "protections" it includes.

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by: david mizner @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 14:27:25 PM CDT

Add expansive trade policies (4.00 / 5)

to no EFCA and you get this, as explained by Thomas Frank:

http://online.wsj.com/article/...

Card Check Is Dead

Some Democrats only care about labor's money.

snip

Why does labor always get it in the neck?

First, there are those Democrats who don't care much for labor to begin with. Then there is the wide spectrum of Democratic donors and supporters who simply don't understand the problems of blue-collar life. They might dislike the religious right, but they didn't give money to Democratic political campaigns to increase union membership.

Or maybe it's just the money. Consider the lineup of lobbyists that retail giant Wal-Mart has assembled to make its case against EFCA. According to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the House and Senate we find that Wal-Mart's lobbyists include Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti (which employs former presidential candidate John Kerry's liaison to Congress during the 2004 campaign), a former legislative director for Rahm Emanuel, and a former assistant to Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

Summers, Geithner, trade, Obama standing in the way of justice on torture, staying in Iraq until the end of 2011.

It all adds up.

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by: Tom Wells @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 16:45:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Obama Is A True Visionary (4.00 / 5)

He's the first person in history to discover a new kind of pragmatism--one that never works.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 15:16:12 PM CDT

but it really does work -- for the wealthy, corps., & pols themselves -- that's the point -- (4.00 / 1)

this has been shouting itself over and over for me lately bec of the torture "debate" --

they're all making it a "does torture work?" thing now --

slavery "works"
murder "works"
ponzi schemes and insider trading "work"
piracy "works"
terrorism "works"
"free trade" agreements "work"
handing Wall St. trillions without strings "works"
...

the problem is that it ALL "works" and is ENTIRELY "pragmatic" -- to those who don't care about us (or our government or laws, etc) in any way.

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by: amberglow @ Fri Apr 24, 2009 at 11:34:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Sure, bailout the autos (not) and pass more trade deals. (4.00 / 3)

On top of what is going on to the UAW and the autos, MI and OHIO will be red for the next 30 years if Obama passes more crappy trade deals.  MI already knows he lied to us to get elected.  Now we want to see how far he is going to take it.

So where are all of the Democrats who are going to take Obama on?   Tester is voting against the new bankruptcy bill for the consumers.  Deals a deal, he says.  Democrats.  What a joke.  

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

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by: dkmich @ Thu Apr 23, 2009 at 16:10:15 PM CDT

the Congressional Dems are all for it -- they're shoveling in fundraising $$ and acting accordingly (4.00 / 2)

handing out "pollute free" cards as part of making climate change legislation toothless is next -- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/... -- Democrats Seek Free Carbon Credits for Utilities

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by: amberglow @ Fri Apr 24, 2009 at 11:39:38 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Losing patience... (4.00 / 2)

So far, Obama's economic policies are stubbornly and consistently of the tiresome trickle-down variety that spawned this mess in the first place.

OK, we had or have a credit/banking crisis.  But that's no excuse for pitting US workers against their indentured counterparts around the globe.

Neither the "stimulus" package, nor a "green economy", nor publicly financed college-for-all, nor (if I may say) EPCA will arrest our backslide into oligarchy.

Sadly, fair trade (the only solution) is dismissed as "protectionism".

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by: jumperpin @ Fri Apr 24, 2009 at 11:00:16 AM CDT