My First official post and it is about Sen. Murray and CAFTA

[theplutsnw]

Here is the response I got back about why she voted for CAFTA.

Dear Mrs. Plut:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Dominican Republic-Central America
Free Trade Agreement (DR -CAFTA). It is good to hear from you.

On August 5, 2004 the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic signed the Central America Free
Trade Agreement. To date, only El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala have
ratified the treaty. I voted in favor of the implementing legislation that
passed the Senate on July 1, 2005, and passed the House on July 27. In order
for this agreement to be enacted, legislation must be passed by all
participating countries.

As a supporter of international trade, I also agree that labor, environmental,
and transparency issues must be properly addressed. I will continue to
encourage the Administration to seriously consider these issues during all
potential trade negotiations. I will also work to ensure that Americans
affected by DR-CAFTA have the resources to compete and thrive in our
transitioning world economy.

As you may know, DR- CAFTA defines rules that would govern market access of
goods, services, government procurement, intellectual property, investment,
labor, and the environment. It is a regional agreement within which all parties
would be subject to a similar set of obligations and commitments, but with each
country defining its own separate schedules for market access. Under this
agreement, 80% of US consumer and industrial exports and half of US farm exports
to Central America would become duty-free immediately. For the other nations
involved with DR- CAFTA, 100% of non-textile and non-agricultural goods would
enter the US duty-free immediately. All remaining trade would have tariffs
phased out over a period of 5-20 years, while sensitive products would have the
longest delay before tariffs would begin phasing out.

Now more than ever, Washington State is dependent on international trade. As a
Senator from the single most trade dependant state in the country, I am always
looking for ways to ensure that Washington’s workers can compete fairly in the
world market. While our state, national, and world economies continue to change
I will continue to fight for policies that keep us strong at home and
competitive abroad.

Thank you again for contacting me on this important and very controversial vote.
Please keep in touch.

Sincerely,


Patty Murray
United States Senator

[wli]

1. ugh, sold out

People need to scream "wage arbitrage" more often.

[NVMojo]

2. JEEZ!!!

but thanks for the post!

[Pithy Cherub]

3. Aren't you just poppin' your buttons proud?

:sarcasm:

btw, welcome to DU :toast:

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Sen. Cantwell also voted for this

and she will NOT get my vote in 06. I don't care who is running against her -- I'll just not vote for either Republican.

[glitch]

5. Shash. Too bad, she should be better than this.

The only excuse I would've accepted would be she traded her vote for a promise that DOE would clean up existing nuke waste at Hanford and not allow additional waste storage, or the DOI promised to never ever allow logging of the patheticly small tracts of remaining old growth forest.

I would accept these as excuses only because CAFTA can be reversed at some point.

Not that I think either of those happened, that it's just what it would take to forgive Cantwell and Murray for this one.

Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott would make fine Senators. Sure, we love them in the House. But we could sure use them in the Senate, that's for DAMN SURE.

[cosmicdot]

6. she "will continue to encourage the Administration ...

...to seriously consider labor, environmental and transparency issues ..."

That'll be effective.


not sure if that requires

:sarcasm:

or

:rofl:

probably this

:cry:

[Buns_of_Fire]

7. "I will continue to encourage the Administration

to seriously consider these issues..."

Isn't that sweet?

I'm going to continue to encourage the swarm or wasps that live right outside my front door to seriously consider not stinging the crap out of any visitors, too.

Betcha I have more luck with my "encouragement" than Ms. Murray does with hers. Especially since I intend to emphasize my concerns with a large can of Raid. Ms. Murray and her colleagues should consider doing likewise, metaphorically speaking.


(Oh, and welcome! :toast: )

[theplutsnw]

11. That was the part I got

the biggest laugh out of. I could not agree more, what in the hell is she thinking. Both senators, I got a similar response from Cantwell. Now is not the time to play nice, this is about so much more, we need to start thinking about saving face and helping this party stand for something. Very upsetting, but in my opinion, first things first, and that is winning seats now held by Repukes first. We can go after repuke-lite later. Maria and Patty make some bad votes but they also make much better votes then their repuke colleagues in the house (ie. Doc Hastings). That is my 2 cents about this anyway.

[Rainscents]

8. You know, whoever republican running against her will use this shit

against her. I am so disappointed with her and Cantwell vote. Cantwell have to run on '06 and I am pretty sure, ROSSI(SCUM BAG) will be running against Cantwell... He will trash Cantwell big time on this issues.

We really need Dem's seat secure, I really hope Dem's will come out with someone to go against Cantwell.

[AntiCoup2K4]

10. Rossi the scumbag is defintiely running.

It looks like it will be a scumbag named McGavik from Safeco Insurance, who used to work for the scumbag Slade Gorton.

No Dem opposition yet that I know of, though I wish they would come up with somebody. Cantwell's a flaming corporatist & PNAC hack.

[paineinthearse]

9. theplutsnw

Welcome to DU :hi: