Sell Outs
This is the sort of news that inspires Larry, Brad (not our Brad R.), Tom, and their many clones to send out for celebratory bottles of Bollinger:
The White House now says the secret trade deal between a handful of Democratic congressional leaders and Bush administration officials will most likely not mean adding labor and environmental standards into the core text of trade agreements, but instead will mean merely unenforceable NAFTA-esque “side agreements” or even weaker “letters” of understanding. A group of House Democrats is responding to the secret deal by demanding a hearing on a resolution that would prevent Democratic leaders from bringing fast track to the floor of the House if a majority of Democrats oppose it. And the pundit attack machine pushing the deal is out in full force. “Journalists” Cokie and Steve Roberts say “Democrats can’t afford to listen to the labor movement” and Clinton administration free trade architect Gene Sperling praises Democratic dealmakers for triangulating against their own party.
Added: Fucking over the working class is one thing, and great fun for the neoliberals; but one interlocutor is smart enough to foresee that when the same race to the bottom starts to really devour the jobs of white collar workers — his peers! — there might be some hell to pay:
But even if we do everything I’ve suggested — which we won’t — American workers will still face a troublesome transition as tens of millions of old jobs are replaced by new ones. There will also be great political strains on the open trading system as millions of white-collar workers who thought their jobs were immune to foreign competition suddenly find that the game has changed — and not to their liking.
That is why I am going public with my concerns now. If we economists stubbornly insist on chanting “Free trade is good for you” to people who know that it is not, we will quickly become irrelevant to the public debate.
But he really shouldn’t worry. Sure, it might cost his kind in private social life, but it won’t cost them in establishment prestige or influence because the kind of scientistic public relations value that neoliberal economists provide for transnational corporations is simply too fantastic a bargain for too powerful a force. Corporate America will always need True Believers to tell the peons that the poison is yummy and, even if it’s maybe not yummy, it must still be imbibed for the sake of statistical models — as well as for the sake of third world peasants who will instantly starve and die unless they are saved by the benevolent sweatshop builders of The McWorld.
And Guilded Age 2.0 is getting a much needed patch release
Gee, you mean the Democrats aren’t looking out for the little guy either? I’m shocked, shocked!
Man, it is a good time to be a multinational corporation. To be an individual citizen? Not so much…
mikey
Yep, it’s another middle finger to working-class people. Can’t say I’m surprised. We’ve got big problems in this country, and the Democrats aren’t addressing them; rather, they’re trying to get those sweet, sweet corporate campaign dollars. You can see this in their scuttling of real lobbying reform, in their love for trade deals, and their stamp of approval on a business-friendly immigration deal. Are they as bad as Republicans? Hells no. But they need to be whipped into shape. Currently, there is no party in this country that represents the economic interests of workers.
“Currently, there is no party in this country that represents the economic interests of workers.”
There is no viable party in this country that represents the interests of the public in general. This crop of Dems doesn’t make me as sick as the current and past crop of GOPers, but they amply prove to me that I have no motivation to identify myself as one of them. When people ask me my political persuasion I just answer “Not-Republican.” Sadly, this is probably as close as I will get to being a Democrat.
Without public financing of campaigns, we’re d00mz0r3d.
So: Are we done hearing yet about how the Greens are responsible for the Republicans winning elections? If the Democrats were any clearer in saying “fuck you” to the majority of the country, the FCC would shut them down.
Once again, Republicans or Republicans Lite. Choose wisely…
I know this is OT, but please check out Pam’s place right now. She calls for immediate carpet-bombing of Gaza and her readers are all like: ”
Der Tod zum arabischen Ãœntermenschen!”
Unlike the “Death to Germany” kerfluffle last year, Palestinians are not white enough for Pam to take down, or even revise her call for genocide.
Fortunamente, some of the corporate-whore Democratistas weel be open to primary challenges een ’08.
No, I am no saying we should go all John Hawkins on their culos. But the struggle for the soul of el Partido Democratista she continues.
We must continue to push, continue to hold their feet to the fire, continue to expose their craven cringing before the mighty dolare, and whenever possible, we should replace those Dems who have sold their spine for a Mess o’ Pork weeth more progressive officeholders.
¡Despida todos las Democratistas Invertebradas!
¡Pfui!
So maybe Joe Lieberman won’t be a party of one much longer?
Five months, and still no minimum wage bill.
Yeah, this revelation really supports the Democrat’s claim that the “amnesty” bill is about welfare for illegal immigrants.
Fucking Rangel and Sperling. Rangel is already an asshole for slamming Mississippi back in January. Too rich to help poor people. God, this makes me sick.
Off topic- Who wants to be terrified beyond rational belief?
Read this.
If I understand it properly, Bush now believes another major disaster in the US would make him Emperor.
Once again, Republicans or Republicans Lite. Choose wisely…
Lite, please. Got to watch my figure, and Republican Classic just loads on the carbs and unnecessary death, dismemberment, graft, corruption, scandal, hypocrisy, and fucking with civil rights for fucking’s own sake.
The Democrats are useless, but they’re not actively raping us the way the Republicans have, do, and will again.
You guys in the top 0.5% of incomes want to eliminate forty million American jobs? That’s fine, mother fuckers. Go ahead and do it. I’ve got your “troubled transition” hanging, bitch. I hope you filthy economic royalist assholes have got your God damned life insurance paid up.
Do it, and then we won’t ever have to deal with any of you cocksuckers or any of your rotten spoiled rich kids any more. Your Blackwater fags in their butchie black sunglasses and their butchie black uniforms aren’t going to save you either. Oh sure, they’ll shoot a lot of us but we’ll wash them under like a tidal wave; a tidal wave full of man-eating sharks. The Blackwater thugs who don’t get captured but die right away will be the lucky ones.