Stop Me Before I Vote Again

http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2007/05/10/timeline-the-secret-bush-democratic-trade-deal-what-it-means/

Just when you'd like to feed him to the woodchipper, leave it to ex-underwear model Dave Sirota to turn in a good tale:

... a handful of senior congressional Democrats and the White House - cheered on by K Street lobbyists - joined forces [Friday] to announce a “deal” on a package of trade agreements that could impact millions of American workers and potentially calls into question the entire election mandate of 2006 (I say potentially because the full details are still being concealed by both Democrats and the White House). You’ll notice the irony of the deal with just a glance at the front of the New York Times business section .... the deal was agreed to (though its details have still not been made public) on the very same day the U.S. government reported another widening of America’s job-destroying trade deficit.

In defiance of last fall's swing votes, that put the likes of him in the chairman seats, donk pseudo prog Charlie Rangel, shown above, is a willing party to any old K street finagle -- so long as His Eelness gets his power palm greased like his fried hair.

If you want some background, here you go:

http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/PB07-02WTOPovertyApr07.pdf

Congressional Democrats have been quietly negotiating with the Bush Administration to achieve a bipartisan consensus on trade, one that can move forward not only the Doha negotiations but the range of bilateral trade deals

....[S]ome congressional Democrats skeptical of the bilateral agreements seem willing to consider extending fast track authority beyond its current June 30, 2007, deadline if it will No. 07‐02 get a Doha deal done....

Congress should think twice before extending fast track authority to achieve a new WTO agreement. Most evidence suggests that the emerging set of tariff and subsidy reductions will have little impact on global poverty; according to the World Bank, the number of people living on less than a dollar‐a‐day will decline by less than one‐half of one percent with a Doha deal. More worrisome, some the world’s poorest nations may end up worse off, while some of the poorest people – small farmers – lose ground even in countries the World Bank predicts will gain from an agreement. Finally, the costs of liberalization to poor countries, particularly in lost tariff revenue on which they depend for key government services, make the new WTO agreement anything but friendly to development and poverty reduction.

Stuff like this is what's really putting the 'post' in post-industrial, at least around these parts.

Face it, America -- the jackass party is not only a war mule, it's also a cross border mule, carrying your job on its retreating back.

That trade growth pause the jobbled American majority voted for last November, is easily within the Dems' power to grant, simply by not renewing the Administration's "fast track" powers, which end this June.

The Dembo congress -- like with the Iraq gig -- can't claim "'tweren't us that done it," when your neighbor's jobless, and your raise went south. As of July, it'll be undeniably their baby too. So watch and laugh a bitter laugh as the Donkey Congos grant Cheney his fast-track renewal.