U.S. considering North Korean Free Trade Deal

[unlawflcombatnt]

The Bush dictatorship is apparently working on another "free trade" deal with none other than North Korea. This "deal" was initially described in the Wall Street Journal, and reported by David Sirota at his site. Sirota writes:

"The broad strokes are simple: the Bush administration and both parties in Congress are considering signing a "free" trade pact with South Korea that would cover a special project in North Korea that allows Big Money interests to exploit the enslaved people there.

This proposed deal goes beyond the other awful trade deals that we've watched the Bush administration and Congress consider recently - it goes beyond the job-destroying Central American Free Trade Agreement and even beyond the proposed trade pact with Malaysia, a country that prohibits a minimum wage. This trade pact "would be the U.S.'s largest pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement passed Congress more than a decade ago." The Journal story, of course, is filled with hedging. No one wants to come out and say this is what the trade negotiations are all about, or that they really want this North Korea piece - even though its obvious Big Money is salivating for it. What they want is the issue to go back into the background and get quietly passed without anyone noticing. They would rather the public ignore the effort to validate the "joint-venture Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea" that "combines South Korean capital with North Korean labor" (read: combines multinational corporate cash with exploitable slaves). By the time the complex is in full operation in 2012, "it could employ more than 750,000 North Koreans" – again, North Koreans who are literally enslaved and barred from leaving their prison...."

"But even beyond the geopolitical implications are the implications for American workers – and workers all over the globe. Even considering this atrocious pact lays bare what our government sees our "free" trade as: a vehicle for driving wages, workplace standards, environmental protections and standards of living into the ground in order to pad Big Money's bottom line. Such a deal would force the world’s workers to compete with slave labor. It would rewarding a dictator like Kim Jong Il in that it would create a premium for corporations to exploit his enslaved population. The fact that this is even being talked about as a legitimate consideration inside our government tells you everything you need to know about the hostile takeover of our government by Big Money interests...."

Working For Change: U.S.- N. Korea Trade Pact

If the link doesn't work, try going directly to the site at
http://www.workingforchange.com/

This is actually hard to believe. But in fact, David Sirota gets this information directly from a Wall Street Journal article. The original article, of course, is chocked full of the spin one would expect from the greed-motivated editors of the Wall Street Journal.

unlawflcombatnt

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[PsycheCC]

1. It's amazing that working Americans aren't rioting in the streets

to protest these "free trade" agreements that are really just about giving wealthy business owners access to cheap, or in the case of North Korea, slave labor. We abolished slavery, but I guess it's okay to rent a slave now, if you're rich and don't want to share your profits with your laborers.

[unlawflcombatnt]

2. Few Know About This

There may well be some rioting, or at least protests, if enough people find out about this. David Sirota just found out about this yesterday. Hopefully people will pass this information around and post it elsewhere. The Bush dictatorship was hoping to slip this one by the electorate before it had seen the light of day.

We need to start getting out of the current free trade agreements we're already in, not get into new ones.

unlawflcombatnt

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[EVDebs]

22. The current Trade Summit had a call for devaluing the dollar

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/07/12/trade-summit-bad-trade-policies-could-create-global-depression/

mentioned in today's paper. Bush has already devalued the value of Republican rhetoric.

[guruoo]

28. That's exactly what * is preparing for...

"War on terror", TIA, expanded police powers, spying on personal email,
access to internet records, and telephone records are being used to
build NSA domestic 'enemies' database.
They know it's coming. That's what it's all about.

on edit: * also knows that Americans that are forced to work two,
three jobs just to feed their families and pay off backbreaking debt
won't have as much time or energy left to defend their own interests.

[Selatius]

33. There's nothing cheaper than workers in forced labor camps.

In China, they have plenty of labor camps for prisoners and political dissidents.

[rucky]

3. North Korea Wins!

Weak & greedy GOPers will sell out our SECURITY and our JOBS for BIG CORPORATIONS.

all Kim had to do was point a few nukes our way, and Bush is ready to give him a handout.

So much for the carrot and the stick.

[cliss]

4. I could not agree with you

more. What kind of message are we sending? Light the fuse under the bombs, and WE WILL BE GOOD TO YOU>

WTF???? I mean, it just shows you how the US can be manipulated. Even Condiment Rice herself said that our diplomacy is 'skewed all over the world'.

The message is loud & clear = The US has no principles, none. Everything can be bought & sold, including your grandmother for $5.00.

[unlawflcombatnt]

5. Treachery, not Diplomacy

"The message is loud & clear = The US has no principles, none. Everything can be bought & sold, including your grandmother for $5.00."

That's it exactly. Now Kim Jong Il has given the U.S. an excuse to "negotiate," or to use "diplomacy." So it gives the Bush dictatorship an excuse to offer N. Korea an alleged "concession," like a free trade pact.

The truth is that this trade pact was already being planned. But now the Bushites can call it "diplomacy" instead of "treachery."

unlawflcombatnt

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[Deja Q]

13. Even security jobs are going overseas now...

x(

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6094051.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

Just think, N Koreans will be paid half a pittance to keep corporate servers safe.



One day, corporate America is going to make a big mistake by trusting enemies with increasingly valuable tools and work...

[Zhade]

69. Paid?

NT!

[TahitiNut]

26. Bullshit. This is Big Ownership partnering with Kim Jong Il

The "winners" are the wealthy global corporatists and the 'owner' of the slave labor in North Korea. The "losers" are absolutely every working person on the planet, whether they be the starving and impoverished North Korean workers, the South Koreans, or the soon-to-be-impoverished American workers.

This is human labor as a commodity - make women into no-choice baby factories, destroy public schooling, threaten with war and carnage, and collect-95%-of-the-wealth-created-from-the-labors-of-others commoditization of all labor except "executive" labor, of course.

(Isn't it amazing that none of thes 'businesses' seem to be able to find executive 'labor' in these countries willing to work for $100/day? I'll bet I could.)

[unlawflcombatnt]

6. Pass this information on

I want to encourage anyone reading this to pass this information along. I've still heard nothing about this in the news. And if this continues, this may get through Congress, or at least be too far along, before anything can be done about it.

Clearly this isn't the most glamorous or interesting story of the day. But if it is as big as NAFTA, which is what the Wall Street Journal is claiming, it would be an even bigger disaster.

Employing North Korean workers, instead of American workers, is exactly the same thing as replacing American workers with slaves. Sirota states this could involve the employment of 750,000 North Korean workers. That means the replacement of 750,000 American workers (or South Korean workers) with North Korean slaves. It's hard for American workers to compete with slaves.

unlawflcombatnt

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[Minnesota Libra]

7. This administration never gives up selling out fellow Americans...........

....for their own gain. I'm beyond being shocked at this criminal bunch. When do they qualify for the death penalty?????

[unlawflcombatnt]

19. At least "high crimes"

I think they've long since qualified to be prosecuted for "high crimes." But they've managed to defuse every charge in every case by one means or another.

This trade deal is not going to be sellable even to most of the religious Right, much less moderates, liberals, or progressives.

Bush's only hope is to slip this in before anyone finds out about it.

unlawflcombatnt

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[AzDar]

8. I'll send this along to Lou Dobbs, and I encourage others to do

the same. He seems to be the only 'journalist' truly interested in revealing the wholesale sell-out of our country by this
treasonous Administration.

On edit: The only 'corporate' tee-vee journalist, I should say.

[unlawflcombatnt]

17. Thanks

I would greatly appreciate it if you got this to Lou Dobbs. This is right up his alley.

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[lumberjack_jeff]

9. K&R. Now we know why South Korea and the US have been...

Silent and uncharacteristically circumspect about the potential threat from North Norea. If George were allowed to be his normal belligerent self, he'd jeopardize bid'ness.

Encouraging economic development in North Korea isn't necessarily a bad thing. Doing it at the expense of US workers is.

edit: spelling

[Critters2]

11. Unbelievable.

I'm speechless, truly speechless. I'll be e-mailing some folks on Capitol Hill about this.

Selling out American workers again. Yep, speechless.

:wow:

[bigluckyfeet]

29. One Outrage After the Other

When you think how can they come up with something new,they do.These thugs have no loyalty to no one but the bottom line.I will spread the article around.

[sandnsea]

12. Doing it at the expense of NK workers is too n/t

[unlawflcombatnt]

15. Exactly

It never made since that Bush made a much greater effort to villainize Iraq than he did North Korea. North Korea is much closer geographically, and could potentially hit the U.S. with a nuclear-armed missile. Iran cannot. They're not even close to having a missile that could reach the United States.

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[acmavm]

10. Is this not what bullys who are really cowards do? When they find out

they might just get hit back, they start to grovel and bribe. But in this case, this is overkill. bush** doesn't need another free trade agreement, especially with NK. But hell, that cheap labor will come in handy if, by some chance, the scam they got going down there in the Mariannas gets shut down. What with publicity that place got thanks to old Tom DeLay, they may feel it would be prudent to move their sweatshops to a place where it's way harder to find out what's going on.

The American worker is screwed if he doesn't take to the streets. But so is American big business because their customer base will be wallowing in poverty.

[unlawflcombatnt]

20. Good Points

It'll be a lot easier to cover up criminal exploitation of workers in North Korea than in the Mariannas.

You're so right about American workers getting the shaft, and how that'll hurt Corporate America as well. Corporate America needs to sell its products to someone. The less money workers have, the less they can buy, and the less potential profit for Corporate America.

At present, consumer spending is being kept afloat by debt-financed spending, not wage-financed spending. There's a limit to how much longer spending can increase when wages are stagnating. Eventually consumer ability to borrow enough money to fill the gap will be exhausted. And we're getting closer to that limit all the time.

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[calmblueocean]

14. Holy crap!

That was my first reaction. How could they actually "free trade" as a justification for slave labor?

But then I thought, how is that any different than our arrangement with China, or any number of the developing nations we use as sweatshops? Are Happy Meal toys and cheap DVD players really worth our souls? It's time we started making this an issue.

[unlawflcombatnt]

16. My reaction was the same

It's mind boggling. It would be difficult to find a country where workers are as enslaved as they are in North Korea. Which makes them a great source for even cheaper, more exploitable labor than even China. Which means even more profits for American-based Corporate multinationals.

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[w4rma]

18. Very bad. (nt)

[havocmom]

21. K&R

May post a reply AFTER I can see something beside red! :grr:

[unlawflcombatnt]

30. I know the feeling

I wouldn't have believed this myself, had it not come from David Sirota. He cited the entire Wall Street Journal article.

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[catmother]

23. right now all i can say is Jesus H. Christ.

[Mr_Spock]

24. This is a joke right?

One can only hope...

[Rainscents]

25. This is UNBELIEVABLE!!!

[guruoo]

27. Kick&Recommend

[unlawflcombatnt]

31. The South Korean people don't like it either

This pact is apparently part of a larger free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea. It appears that the people of South Korea don't like it any more than the people of the United States and Mexico liked NAFTA.

This article is apparently from Al-Jazeera. The link is:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C0873C59-9C04-4827-AD6E-3CC982264EFF.htm

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[Selatius]

32. North Koreans will learn the true definition of cheap labor slavery

Authoritarian state socialism is replaced by capitalist exploitation.

[unlawflcombatnt]

34. North Korean Workers paid 26 cents per hour!!!

From "bilaterals.org" comes the following information:

"March 6 (Bloomberg) — North Korean workers stitching Made in Korea labels on $150 sneakers may hold the key to a $29 billion free-trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea, the biggest U.S. accord in a decade.

The 6,000 North Koreans, working 48-hour weeks for 1/20th of the pay of their southern colleagues, are churning out pots, sneakers and clothes in a South Korean-funded business park just north of the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

South Korea’s government is counting on free-trade status to help lure local and overseas companies to the park near Gaeseong, an ancient capital of united Korea. The U.S. says goods made north of the DMZ won’t qualify for special treatment.

``The free-trade agreement must be expanded to include Gaeseong products,’’ said Kim Dong Keun, chairman of the park’s management committee, in Gaeseong. ``I understand that nothing has been set in stone. The matter is still up for negotiation.’’"


"The U.S. last year exported $29 billion of goods to South Korea and bought $43 billion of Korean imports, according to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The U.S. is the country’s third-largest trading partner.

``The starting point is that an FTA applies to goods originating in the U.S. and the Republic of Korea,’’ Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said at a seminar with economists in Seoul on Feb. 14. ``How Gaeseong is treated under the free-trade agreement is going to be a complex issue...’’"

"South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun Chong said at a Feb. 2 press conference with U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman in Washington that his government expects goods made in Gaeseong to be part of the trade deal. Portman said the agreement would only cover goods produced in South Korea"

That's what Portman said in March at least.

Later in the article it mentions that the North Korean government is paid
roughly $50 per month for each worker.

$50 per month?!?!! They're working 48 hour work weeks.

That's 26 cents per hour!!!

Is this slavery, or what?

The link to the article is at:
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=4003

unlawflcombatnt

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[Selatius]

35. The absurd part is it's not slavery in a technical sense

As long as some money is being paid, it can't legally be called slavery no matter how many times North Korean workers are terrorized by soldiers of the regime.

[unlawflcombatnt]

36. 26 cents/hour is close enough to be called Slavery

And American workers would now have to compete with workers making 26 cents/hour. I don't think Americans can educate themselves enough or increase their "skills" enough to out-compete workers making 26 cents/hour.
Unless Americans develop the "skill" to survive on 26 cents/hour.

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[Selatius]

37. In a very real sense, it's true, but one cent is all that is needed...

to classify a "slave" under the law to a "laborer" under the law. However, I would generally say the reality is it's slavery whether the law says it is or is not.

[sam sarrha]

42. 26 cents/hr is just less than half what minimum wage is in Mexico by 22 c

ents a day... 8 hour day, which i am sure is unknown in either country

mexico is not by the hour it is by the day

[Greyhound]

50. Todays "free market economy" is far superior to slavery.

Think about it, a slave must be purchased for a considerable outlay of capital.
If you want get any work out of a slave you have to feed it and provide at least rudimentary medical care. Else they get sick and die quickly.
You have to watch them, or else hire others to watch them so they don't run away.
Then you have to deal with the whole middle-man slaver guy whose going to hold you up for as much as possible, and pawn-off the weak or sick.

What we have (indentured servitude) now is much better and much cheaper.

[unlawflcombatnt]

64. Good Point

These semi-slave workers, with the exception of a small $50/month "rental" fee, are basically free. If they die, their employers have lost nothing money-wise, because they haven't invested anything. They're simply renting them from North Korea. What a cheap labor bonanza.

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[lumberjack_jeff]

45. So, to summarize...

1995 - NK is considered a potential threat to build nukes.
1998 - Clinton crafts a framework on which NK agrees to not build WMD in return for trade agreements.
2000 - Bush is (s)elected. Anything Clinton is now bad. Bush discards the agreement and ignores NK for 6 years.
In the interim, NK builds nukes and the missiles to deliver them.
2005 - Bush quietly works with SK to develop a NK business park in which products which are currently made by US workers can now be made for 26¢ per hour in NK.
2006 - NK fires a shot literally across our bow.
2006 - South Korea and the US urge Japan and those at direct risk to be cautious - don't do anything rash.
2006 - Japan, the instigators of WWII and with a very bloody military history, begin a buildup.
2007 - American manufacturers replace US workers by contracting with the NK government for slave labor. These payments are used to buy and build more nukes and missiles.

George Bush: Assuring our safety, one fucked-up business deal at a time.

[MGD]

38. In capitalsim, man exploits man; under Communism, it's just the opposite

John Kenneth Galbraith

[sadiesworld]

39. Damn, they're actually going to do it...

I predicted this several months ago as a natural part of the the progression down the the slippery slope of "free trade". Maybe some of our resident "free traders" can tell us how spoiled and lazy we are compared to North Koreans, or how this move will create more jobs here at home, or help with immigration issues, or how we can unite with these poor brainwashed creatures in raising labor standards? I mean, it can't be JUST about the cheapest labor possible, can it?!

[sam sarrha]

41. wake up and smell the Fascism..!! everything is about money and power

money=power

[unlawflcombatnt]

51. Yes

At least under the Bush dictatorship it is.

[sam sarrha]

53. Fascism is the control of government by corporations, its a phenomenon

and the same thing always happens..

[unlawflcombatnt]

55. Exactly

And that's right where we're at now. Corporate America controls everything, including our voting machines.

[sam sarrha]

40. we bankrupt the world fighting Communism in the Cold War, 5,000,000 dead

fighting communism in Viet Nam.. a red under you bed mentality nearly destroys the constitution.. and now we are selling our unborn Grandchildren into debt if not slavery as fast at the F'n president can make free trade deals COMMUNIST China, while letting them manipulate their currency and dump subsidized steel and everything else to take over our economy..

we have 2 maybe 3 shoe factories in the USA.. we no longer make the tools to make the machines that will be necessary to recover the ability to make clothes or ANYTHING.. if china decides to use the 'Art of War' to blackmail us or to simply destroy us in a Megalomaniacal Tantrum the next time Bu$h gets drunk and says something stupid or has John Bolton do it for him.. you have to remember that Mao died of syphilis of the brain and was bat shit crazy at the end... you never know what is going on in china.. or who is really in charge. but you really need to read the
'Art of War'... we are at war with china and they are winning.. they own us and if they decide to call in the loans or turn their ships around and not sell us anything from the factories we dismantled and sent over there.. we are DEAD MEAT... there will be 'nothing' in any store by the end of the week. the constitution will be suspended and martial law will never end.

[MGD]

43. That would be the best thing that has happened to us in a while

It would hurt but it would force us to remember some very important lessons that we have forgotten. It wouldn't even be the first time we have had to relearn these lessons.

[Mass]

44. Question: as bad as this treaty is, what do you suggest we do to help

the North Koreans who need help? (and this treaty is as bad as they get).

- Starve them to death until they send their dictator into exile?

- Attack North Korea to liberate them?

- Other suggestions?

Obviously this treaty is not the solution, but sometimes, I have the feeling that, even if a solution was offered, people here could not care less. They are so self-centered that the plight of other people do not matter.

[lumberjack_jeff]

47. Any aid must be predicated on a stand-down of their aggressive weapons...

... program.

Further complicating matters is the reality that there are no non-governmental entities in NK. Every dollar paid for slave labor goes to the government which will use the money as they see fit. Currently they see fit to spend most of their GDP on weapons, and there is little evidence to suggest that this attitude will change.

Food aid and agricultural trade agreements in return for weapons concessions may be a good start.

[unlawflcombatnt]

49. Economic Treason

My main concern is with the AMERICAN people & workers.

I don't care how Corporate America tries to spin this. It's just another slimeball excuse to exploit cheap labor. It's not designed to help anyone except the greedy Corporatists in South Korea and the United States.

Impoverishing South Korean and American workers is not a "solution" to anything. This deal is not "diplomacy." It's economic treason disguised as diplomacy.
It's motivation is 100% greed, and 0% "national security."

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[Lydia Leftcoast]

65. Actually, this is part of a SOUTH Korean scheme

to make money in North Korea, and the U.S. is only tangentially involved.

The South Korean industrialists excuse it by saying that they have to "prepare North Korea for eventual reunification."

[Mass]

46. According to this, the deal has been killed

Not because of worries about workers's rights, but because of the pharmaceutical companies (Ah, the power of corporations).

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-14-voa15.cfm

[unlawflcombatnt]

48. Thanks for the link

However, it doesn't sound like the deal has been "killed," just delayed. Another article, from Voice of America, outlines the Kaesong (or Qaesong) issue.

"Another point of contention in the talks is the Kaesong industrial zone in North Korea. South Korea built and continues to pay for the zone in order to exploit cheap North Korean labor, and Seoul wants goods from Kaesong to be viewed under a free-trade deal as originating in the South. Washington has so far refused that demand, arguing too little is known about how the North Korean labor force is recruited, treated, and paid."

The link for this is at http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-07-10-voa10.cfm

The Kaesong zone is where the North Korean workers are bused into in order to make their 26-cent-hour wages, to the benefit of the investors in South Korea. The U.S. would like to take advantage of the same "investment opportunity" that the South Korean Corporatists now enjoy.

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[leesa]

52. Funny. Weren't they just blathering on and on about sanctions and

now we're going to be "free trade partners"? These people are a joke!

This must mean our economy is in worse shape than even I thought.

[unlawflcombatnt]

54. Key word is "blathering"

The Bush dictatorship isn't going to do anything. They don't want to jeopardize access to 730,000 semi-slave laborers who they'll only have to pay 26 cents/hour. Better to risk getting nuked, than to lose a lucrative source of slave labor.

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[silvertip]

56. The beginning?

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-deregulation.htm

   I believe that the above might have been part of the
beginning of the attack on the American workers along with the
breaking of the air traffic controllers union. It keeps going
from bad to worse, Bush & Co. along with their corporate
will apparently not rest until the American worker is down on
par with the third world countries.

   
   What then after that do they break out the Cat O' Nine
Tails and the schackles?

   Good on you for finding that article,if you can keep
digging their little secrets out and putting them out on the
streets and warning maybe the American worker will survive
even this regime.

  

[unlawflcombatnt]

58. Great Link

Thanks for the compliment and for the link. I think the author of the article is stating a theme shared by libertarian Adam Smith. Competition works fine early on, until it progresses to a oligopoly or monopoly. This is right where Smith believed the government should step in -- to maintain competition and not let a small number of producers control the entire market for a goods(s).

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[PsycheCC]

57. Kick! n/t

[earth mom]

59. Wake up America! Your jobs, livelihood and way of life

if fast disappearing! :grr:

[unlawflcombatnt]

60. Yes

Now American workers will have to compete with North Korean workers making 26 cents/hour. What new "skill" can Americans learn to compete with that?

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[unlawflcombatnt]

61. South Korean people don't like it either

"Violence mars Seoul trade talks

Trade talks between the US and South Korea took a nasty turn as protesters clashed with police in Seoul.
About 30,000 demonstrators gathered in the city centre, some throwing missiles and trying to overturn buses. Riot police responded with water cannons...."

"Opponents in South Korea - including farmers and labour groups - say any deal will lead to cheaper US imports, while critics in the US say an agreement will threaten American jobs...."

"Negotiations between the two sides kicked off earlier this year, but little progress has since been made, despite negotiators pushing for an agreement by January 2007...."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5174718.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/5174718.stm

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[Quequeg]

62. reminds me of the Dubais Ports deal.

When the President threatened to veto legislation blocking the Dubais Ports deal, this was obviously an absurd political mistake as well as a bad decision.

But nothing must get in the way of "free trade", even when it involves a member of the "Axis of Evil" who we're told could soon attack us with nuclear weapons.

If we support North Korea with trade agreements, would this make us a member of the "Axis of Evil"? I think we need a regime change!!!

www.StopGlobalism.com       www.VOIDnow.org

[unlawflcombatnt]

63. Axis of Evil

I think Bush should be included in any "axis-of-evil." This trade agreement is all about Corporatists in both South Korea and the United States being able to take advantage of the cheap slave labor in North Korea. It would be like the U.S. setting up shop in the old Soviet Union to take advantage of lower labor costs behind the Iron Curtain. It's the most hypocritical policy this government has ever considered. They're going to pay Communist North Korea a pittance to rent their cheap labor, in order to avoid paying higher wages to the workers in the capitalist countries of the United States American and South Korean.

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[unlawflcombatnt]

67. Oman-US Free Trade Deal

We're very close to pushing the equivalent of the Dubai Ports deal through. The Oman-US Free Trade Deal will apparently allow the Dubai Ports control through it's connection with Oman.

See US-Oman Free Trade Pact:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2731440

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[unlawflcombatnt]

66. US-Oman Free Trade Pact

The Bush-ites are working overtime at pushing "free" trade pacts through. Corporate America just can't find enough semi-slave labor with the current agreements. Their latest work of economic treason is the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Pact. This pact takes their treasonous actions a step further. Not only will it cost Americans jobs, but it will allow for foreign ownership of U.S. ports and security assets. More on this can be found at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2731440

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[unlawflcombatnt]

68. Oman Free Trade Bill Passes House 221-205

The US-Oman Free Trade Pact passed the House by a 221-205 margin. There were 22 slime-ball Democrats who voted for it, and thus voted against their constituents, middle class Americans and working Americans. Given that the margin of victory was only 16 votes, these turncoat Democrats turned the tide in favor of the Bush dictatorship.

The Dems who voted for it were Baird, Bean(OH), Boren, Case, Harman(CA), Jefferson(LA), Crowley, Cuellar, Davis(CA), Dicks, Edwards, Etheridge, Larsen(WA), Matheson, Meeks(NY), Moore(KS), Moran(VA), Skelton, Smith(WA), Snyder, Tanner, and Tauscher(CA).

It's also worth mentioning that, as usual, some Republicans voted against it and in favor of American workers. Both Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado voted against it.

The link to the vote is at:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll392.xml

unlawflcombatnt

EconomicPopulistCommentary

EconomicPatriotForum

___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."