CAFTA Vote Corruption -- Demcracy Now w/details

[cthrumatrix]

CAFTA Voting Irregularities
Friday, July 29th, 2005

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/29/1420251

snip

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what took place? Start with that Taylor story.

LORI WALLACH: Well, as you said, if the vote had been 217-217, CAFTA would have gone down, and in fact, the vote probably really was 217-217. Even after a year-and-a-half of the White House pushing this NAFTA expansion, after the President was forced to make one of his first visits to Capitol Hill, literally in years, after Vice President Cheney set up shop literally off the floor of the Congress that night, with so much of the Cabinet trolling the halls of Congress that looked like a Cabinet meeting had become basically a roving craps game in the House of Representatives for the entire last week, after threats of cutting people off of committees, taking away all of their funding, after promises and luring in all of corporate America, what it came down to was ultimately, even with that, and for a trade agreement that for the U.S. is not very big economically of a deal, they had to make two people take a walk.

And what happened was there, mysteriously, was the computer problem that did not record the "no" vote of Congressman Charlie Taylor, a guy from the Carolinas, said he voted no. Funny thing, they held the vote open for 62 minutes, and somehow, even though there was a stadium-size scoreboard that has your name and either a green or a red light, Mr. Taylor didn't realize that his vote wasn't recorded and no one found him for an entire hour-plus to go fix that problem.

Then there was a second Member, Jo Ann Davis from Virginia, who claims she got stuck on her way back from the Boy Scout jamboree. Now, the hitch on that one is the Boy Scout jamboree event she was going to got canceled at 5:00, and this vote was at 11:30, and basically you could go by yak between where it was and the Capitol and still be here for the vote, if you intended to be there. Both of those members had agreed to vote no.

And that doesn't even get, Amy, to the eight members of the Republican -- eight Republican members of Congress who were committed to voting no, when, as you heard, they stopped the clock. The leftover members were Republicans, and they sat there and browbeat people. They got two other people to switch votes. Then they let two of those Republicans vote against it. It was disgusting. I mean, when I hear Scott McClellan talk about CAFTA and democracy, it should be CAFTA, the cancer on democracy. Because when you see what happened in our Congress, when you saw in Guatemala, for instance, the military was called out to shoot at peaceful Mayans marching towards the capital to protest and murdered two people, the military called out against civilians in violation of the peace accords, I mean, it's just a perversion of democracy caused by this agreement before it would go into effect. It’s disgusting.

snip

sure....this is democracy...Iraq invaded so they tooo can receive the spoils of "deceipt and corruption"

[cthrumatrix]

1. Official Voting WAS 180 to 175 B4 the "vote trade" started

JUAN GONZALEZ: When official voting had ended in the House at 11:17 p.m., as the fifteen-minute voting period expired, legislators had actually voted to defeat CAFTA, 180 to 175. But in an in an unusual move, the final House vote was held open for an extra 47 minutes, giving Republican leaders time to furiously round up holdouts in their own party until they had secured just enough to ensure approval. This is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:

NANCI PELOSI: What I said was that the Republicans turned the floor of the House of Representatives into a "Let's Make a Deal" set that was reminiscent of what happened at the time of the Medicare prescription drug legislation that evening, and again this time they kept the vote open a long time. But many of the overtures that were made to members was made before even going to the floor. So this is about again an abuse of power, an unethical way of passing legislation and, depending on what members decide to do, may require further attention.

[laura888]

2. House members vote on CAFTA should be plastered all over the airwaves

Right in time for the elections!

[cthrumatrix]

3. LOL....Media report....this is bus. as usual in "bushworld"

our democracy and media were hijacked a long time ago.

It's not about truth or transparency.

[laura888]

4. well, if not the airwaves, then by opponents

Americans don't want CAFTA.

[cthrumatrix]

6. as you can see opponents "made deals" and sold out America

to corporations who don't give a damn about working Americans.

[arcos]

5. kick nt

[TheFarseer]

7. Thank you for posting this

Although I must say that I'll bet alot of republicans knew this would be very unpopular in their districts but couldn't vote against it because of the campaign contributions. Don't put too much stock in those people that missed it because of boy scout jamboree and I'm very skeptical of the guy that said his vote was recorded wrong. They probably knew they couldn't vote against it and still get those big donations to roll in.

Meanwhile I'm trying to convince myself that one of my reps HAD to have had his arm twisted. He could win re-election with a campaign fund of $1.87 and some Tuna Helper coupons. I hope it comes out that he was under extreme pressure. It's the only way he could have sold us out right? RIGHT?

[wishlist]

8. Votes on CAFTA were all about money and campaign contributions

No question in my mind that those who voted for or failed to vote against this bill were influenced by promises of more money flowing their way.

[wli]

13. and threats of withholding money

[spanone]

9. Bush* couldn't win shit if he had to play fair.

Cheating is his way of life.

[JDPriestly]

10. Let's watch what happens after CAFTA.

Let's follow the damage and blame the Republicans for the job losses here and in Central America, the and cheap imports flooding both markets and the damage done to the infrastructure of all countries involved. We need to keep hammering this home. Compare the enthusiasm in Congress for similar trade agreements in the past with the reluctance to vote for this damaging legislation. We are making progress on this. Let's just keep the pressure up. Post any articles or information that is relevant on the downside of CAFTA from now on.

[Pachamama]

11. I totally agree w/ you!

This is exactly what needs to be done...

And this is precisely what many of us did the last two years re. Wilson and the outing of his wife. :hi:

[radfringe]

12. what you get from CAFTA