Can NAFTA be Repealed?
By louisehartmann
Four congressmen have submitted to Congress a bill to repeal NAFTA. Free trade appears to be losing its base of support on Capitol Hill. Six anti-free-trade Democrats - Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Jim Webb of Virginia, plus Independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont - captured Senate seats formerly held by free traders. According to one analysis by Global Trade Watch, no fewer than seven Senate and 30 House seats flipped from pro- to anti-free trade in the 2006 election. This trend continued in 2008. Thirty-six new free-trade opponents were elected to the House and seven new free-trade opponents were elected to the Senate in the last election. Now it's become so apparent to everybody that the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Friedman flat-earth free-trade insanity has destroyed America's middle class that - almost the exact opposite of twenty years ago - no member of congress is highlight a free trade stance in their campaign efforts. One day soon we may see the insanity of NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and the transnational corporate takeover of worldwide economies come to an end. The return of the protectionism that built American industry over the past 200 years may well also bring back our jobs and bring back our middle class!
The Arizona House on Monday voted 31-22 to bring to the floor a provision that requires President Barack Obama to produce his birth certificate if he runs for re-election in 2012 and wants to be on the ballot in Arizona. It still faces a formal vote. Next we'll probably see legislation coming out of the Arizona legislature that requires brown skinned people to carry with them at all times papers that prove they're citizens or face arrest by local police officers. Oops. That bill was just passed by both houses of the Arizona legislature and is awaiting the governor's signature. What will they come up with to top that? Mandatory hoods at all public gatherings? Ya never know...
Comments
#2
For those of you haven't read anything or want to read something really, I mean really good, about what has happened the last 30 years, read Cornered by Barry Lynn. This book next to In The Jaw of the Dragon, are must reads for the everyday citizen..........Our liberty is at stake because the laws from the Second New Deal, that protected the small businessman and worker have been coopted by Milton Friedman's, "Free Market" fraud. The Federalists have won the day but haven't won the war, yet, if we fight back by letting our Congress and President know we will not support them if they are Free Traders that support NAFTA and the WTO.
#3
It's not just manufacturing to China , we are also outsourcing our computer based information management job pool to India. That was the promise of NAFTA. We would rid ourselves of the drudgery of manufacturing and our kids would become computer literate and the future would be bright for them in the new information age, no sooner did they graduate and gain employment than the companies they worked for downsized the domestic work force in favor of cheap computer savvy mouse jockeys in India.
#4
Repeal NAFTA?
Whereas the U. S. Constitution makes no provision to pass Agreements, how many votes are needed to repeal an Agreement?
Repudiate NAFTA, it never got the 67 votes needed to pass as a Treaty in the Senate.
#5
So many problems in this country will fix themselves if we can get manufacturing back to this country. So much of why this country is as divided as it is is because nobody is making any money any more and people are frustrated, and as Thomm has said many times before, one group of people (we'll call them the teabaggers) blame immigrants and people of color. We liberals blame large corporations, the uber rich and the corupt government that make the laws as favorable to their corporate sugar daddies as they need to in order to get their re-election campaigns financed.
#6
Wow thx Louise for posting this- Imagine is what John Lennon no doubt would say if he were here. LOCALISM must be our battle cry. A large component of slavery, and Illegal immigration, animal torture, crazy right wing control of the airwaves could all be significantly reduced if each community could or would be allowed to become self-sufficient. See http://www.verticalfarm.com/Press/pyra-1.jpg We could install glass pyramids of hydroponics in city centers and make them carbon neutral and zero waste as in here http://www.popsci.com/futurecity/home2.html.
#7
THX for the Advance Uncorrected Galley copy of Unequal Protection!! Arrived so quickly! Will be reading this and writing another book review! Here was book review of last copy Edison Gene:
We CAN change the world!
#8
Is this guest for real? Schill hides behind his credentials.
Carbon resides and travels in what is known as the Carbon Cycle. Carbon cycles at various cycling intervals. Cycles of time accountants typically deal with are for example when paying wages and or salaries and or bonuses. These are usually computed as either hourly, daily, monthly, or yearly intervals of time.
Carbon cycles on a geologic scale
Geologists account for carbon that cycles from between those of thousands to millions to hundreds of millions of years. This carbon variation tends to reflect the movements of the plates as in tectonics, the science of how land masses move together and apart. Volcanoes form and explode as land masses come together and apart. Mid-ocean ridges become active and inactive. Climate patterns follow the shifts in these land masses for which reflect the ice ages and changes in sea-levels.
Geologists rely upon data such as oxygen and carbon isotopes and air bubbles preserved in ice cores from which carbon dioxide can be measured. Geologists also will utilize fossil micro fauna and flora, and pollen to extrapolate atmospheric temperature readings.
Carbon cycles on an environmental scale
Environmentalists account for carbon that cycles on time intervals for which affect human population and the species we share the planet with in generations. These data reflect expansions and contractions of biomes, industrial, agricultural, historic and economic periods and cycles. Environmentalist’s carbon data also reflects seasons, and even diurnal cycles such as how plants release carbon in the evening as dark photosynthesis and breathe in carbon during the day.
Environmentalists examine actual temperature readings from NOAA, EPA and other weather reporting data from the mid 1800s to present. Weather balloon data record carbon dioxide concentrations from famous studies such as those from Roger Revelle at Harvard and data from laboratories such as at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. Thousands of weather stations around the world track both temperature and carbon dioxide levels. Satellites monitored by NASA and other countries satellites programs also collect and monitor atmospheric gaseous concentrations and mixes.
Carbon sinks and sources simplified:
The Carbon cycle is defined as the global movement of carbon between organisms and the abiotic environment- including the atmosphere, ocean, and sedimentary rock. Below find a basic list of carbon sources and sinks as an introduction to the carbon cycle per Raven and Berg, 2006 Environment p.88 Figure 5.2. Specific guidance for accounting may be more explicit in any governing legislation.
Carbon sources /free carbon in the atmosphere
Carbon makes up about 0.038% of the atmosphere as the gas, carbon dioxide.
- Carbon in coal, oil, natural gas and wood are cycled to the atmosphere by burning, or combustion. In combustion, organic molecules are rapidly oxidized- combined with oxygen- and converted into CO2 and water, with an accompanying release of heat and light.
- Sources of such carbon combustibles are emitted by industry and agriculture, high concentration of livestock in factory farming (World Watch Institute, 2009), transportation, and of coal as in the production of electricity.
- Tectonic Activity would include gas released at plate boundaries which would include volcanic activity. Volcanic gases have been collected by courageous volcanologists. Water vapor is the main constituent of volcanic gas (70-95 percent), followed by carbon dioxide, both global warming gases (Press and Siever, 1998).
Carbon sinks /fixed carbon in the Earth
- Terrestrial and aquatic plants and trees fix carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis from the atmosphere. Aquatic organisms fix carbon dioxide dissolved in water as carbonate (C0 2-/3) and bicarbonate (HC0-3) for their tests and shells as calcium carbonate (CaCO3). This carbon may be stored for several hundred years or even longer.
- A lot of carbon is incorporated into shells of marine organisms. When they die, their shells sink to ocean floor and form thick seabed deposits. Burial and compaction from rock (limestone).
- Sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels hold almost all of Earth’s estimated 10 23 grams of carbon. For example, the soil contains an estimated 1500 x 10 15 grams of carbon. These sources can store carbon for thousands to hundreds of millions to billions of years.
References:
Press, F. and Siever, R. (1998). Understanding Earth. USA. W.H. Freeman and Company. p.119.
Goodland, R. and Anhang, J. (November/ December 2009). Livestock and Climate Change - Worldwatch Institute.
Read more at Suite101: Carbon Sinks and Sources Budget Simplified for Green Accountants http://accounting-designations.suite101.com/article.cfm/carbon-sinks-and-sources-budget-simplified-for-green-accountants#ixzz0lqWAPsgt
#9
What are the amounts of carbon dioxide on Mars? - its there, but it is tied up in dry ice.
#10
Joseph Fourier figured out the first carbon budget in the early 1800s, without any greenhouse gases, Earth would be too cold to inhabit-- there are college textbooks on global warming, Spen Weart has put out a really great book for example.
#11
I think it would be a good thing, however I don't think we will see NAFTA repealed until we see some form of campaign finance reform, but perhaps I'm being a skeptic.
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