Profiles in Legislative Courage

Today, in a violation of legislative protocol and pre-existing agreements with the Administration, Nancy Pelosi shepherded through the House a bill designed to put off consideration of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement until after the November elections. According to House Democrats, this is to allow Colombia to address concerns about the harassment of labor organizers by bad people that don’t work for the government so that the bill can eventually pass with a lot more self-congratulatory back-patting.

You’ll likely recall that, about this time last year, the Administration formally signed a Free Trade Agreement with Peru. Shortly thereafter, Democrats came to an agreement with the Administration on labor rights (among other issues) in pending FTAs — including the one with Colombia. Although maligned by anti-free-trade advocates, it paved the way for passage of the Peru FTA last November — with Speaker Pelosi’s and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel’s “yes” votes.

The deal that worked for Peru isn’t apparently good enough for Colombia, though. Naturally, this has nothing to do with the fact that there is an election this November or that opposing these agreements in stump speeches is basically necessary for turn out Democratic voters or that the agreement itself will likely pass in a bipartisan vote about a week after the Presidential election. Nope, it’s all about the extra-legal harassment of labor organizers. Yup.

One week.

House votes to delay Colombia trade pact [LA Times]

41 comments:

Was this before or after the Republicans booed Jackie Speier’s speech she gave after being sworn in, where she dared to criticize President Chimpy?

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@SFL: WTF? Wasn’t it enough that she got shot at Jonestown? PS: Wish I had stayed in SF for the official protests, besides the long and winding one on Saturday–you know, the Falun Gong warm-up version at Union Square.

First of all “Columbia” ought to throw off their post-indigenous identity and become “Quetzelconquetzle”. Having done that, all FTAs are null and void.
Power to the People!

If not, I declare that the Ark be named “Quetzelconquetzle”!

Maybe I should change my avatar to this new photo of Nancy. I feel like I need a little change of pace, such as.

Thanks Rep. Pelosi. Thank the FSM that our Congress is concentrating on the truly important issues of the day (the war? health care? environment?) and not wasting their time on bills that will only put more money in the pockets of the few. Now what could we be importing from Colombia that makes this agreement so critical? According the CIA Factbook the leading export commodities from Colombia are petroleum, coffee, coal, nickel, emeralds, apparel, bananas, cut flowers. Could there be something else that was left off the list? Something relatively small and very valuable?

I was never a fan of the term limits proposed during the Gingrich Revolution but so many of these Democrats and Republicans desperately need to go home to K Street where they belong.

Both Obama and Hillary C have supported NAFTA in the past. But y’know, I doubt that many of the jobs that left PA went to Mexico; prob more went to China and elsewhere in Asia. Ironically, the NYT reports that wages are rising so fast in China that some US companies are now looking for cheaper labor elsewhere. Didn’t some German Jewish guys write a couple of books about this kind of thing? Guys with long beards?

@SFL: This would be a good choice for summer, as she’s already wearing white.
Give the Dems a break - it’s not easy acting busy in an election year while doing nothing whatsoever.

Let’s be fair. The Congressional dems were elected on a no-intern-buggering platform, and so far they’ve kept their promise.

I’m all for Colombian exports.

@nabisco: link no work

@ WonkRefugee

Nah. The ark should be named “The Drunken Desperate”.

@Tomm: Exactly! Drunk and Desperate is an accurate translation of Quetzelconquetzle.

I met Madame Speaker a while back at a candidate dinner here in NM . I wanted to discuss endangered species act issues with her because the tribes out here have to jump through a lot of hoops over the Rio Grande Silvery Minnow, which is endangered through no fault of the tribes (they didn’t dam up the river, etc) especially low rainfall years and brought up the ESA issues for the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta. “Not my district,” she snapped and moved on. Was not impressed.

Tribes in CA and the NW have a different relationship to the ESA than do the Rio Grande Pueblos, which have to factor the silvery minnow into their overall water management and development actions. It’s my impression that tribes elsewhere are generally OK with the act because it helps protect salmon runs whereas it’s kind of a pain in the ass here, especially when minnow management takes priority over other uses and can conflict with the exercise of tribal water rights.

I’m waiting for the code to go blow up dams. I’ve heard it’s…

So, does that mean they’ve wrapped up the steroids in baseball thing? I guess no ball players are ever going to do drugs anymore, huh?

I really, really do not understand Colombia. If they’d just legalize the stuff, they’d be a rich country and they could tell everybody else to fuck off. Ditto Afghanistan.

@JNOV: Well done, mi amiga. I’m glad mw made you laugh on that one as much as he made me laugh. Hope you’re feeling better today. BTW, your link be broken - I think this should work.

@RML: She has to scream “Not my district” at everyone because every other fucking day MoveOn has people bombarding her calling for Shrub’s impeachment. While on the one hand I feel like if she just began the impeachment she wouldn’t have that problem — and then she could answer your questions about the endangered species act; on the other hand, she obviously has decided to NOT do articles of impeachment and at the end of the day I’m her constituent, and I want her to have enough time to listen to ME and not you bitch and moan about the Patriot Act and anti-choice legislation or the endangered species act affecting New Mexican minnows. So next time I write a letter or see Nancy at a town hall meeting, I’ll mention the ESA and the minnows in New Mexico. Deal?

@ lefty - that’s ok. it was a while ago and our snowfall and run off is at 150 percent of normal this year, so the fish and everyone should be happy this year.

@jnov - these dams are considered to be critical infrastructure under the Homeland Security Act. Besides, if anything happens to Cochiti Dam, the Pueblos of Cochiti, Santo Domingo and San Felipe will get washed away.

@All: I’ve gone with my new Pelosi look on a trial basis. Gravatar should catch up in a few hours. Let me know how you feel about the new me in my summer whites, or if I should go back to the familiar SFLefty look. It’s a little jarring still to switch to seeing Nancy’s right plastic cheek….as opposed to the LEFT plastic cheek on SFL 1.0.

@SFL: I can always count on you! Sad thing is you can’t check your linx until the edit option is off. It’s like playing Russian Roulette only to find out your gun is unloaded right before you get stampeded by lambs.

Hey - you would not BELIEVE the apologists crying about that FLDS thing. They keep trying to make it a 1st Am thing and then a Waco thing and a Ruby Ridge thing, and I’m like, rape, pedophilia, murder, slavery, false imprisonment, battery are the issues. And, hey, fucktards — see anything BLOW UP? See any tanks and whatnot? Maybe we actually LEARNED something from that CLUSTERFUCK that was Waco, and we all know how peace loving those paramilitary folks are. I’m ready to fly to Utard and beat the first person I see.

jnov = Kim Possible.

G’night, all.

@RML: Night, Darlin’

I am officially old. Not one of my cute links go where they’re supposed to. I’d write EPIC FUCKING FAIL, but I’m too old to write that. It’s like when my mom used to say, “Solid” in the 70s and a little part of me died each time.

So, I got off the Mariah Carey kick I was on a couple of days ago (I’ve decided that other than the whistle and the belt, she really doesn’t have much — hell, I can sing Vision of Love (minus the whistle), so it can’t be that hard).

Then I got on this Christina Aguilera kick, and she is the best singer in the world hands down. I don’t know what Mya was thinking when she lent her piss-poor voice to Lady Marmalade. (Yes, they totally destroyed it in some ways, but they made it so much better in others - and the wigs, clothes, make-up sigh). If I were Mya and I found out Christina had signed on, I’d fake esophageal herpes or something. I’d intentionally contract esophageal herpes if I were Mya.

Pink is my girl - she’s from Doyestown, PA, so I gotta support the local talent. And my son’s 1st GF’s brother (sheesh) is in the Get This Party Started video. (He’s at 1:30 - the kid she kisses, and I nominate this song to be CP’s if we don’t have one.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rTlWqW6fSYc

Now, I’m on a Jennifer Holliday kick. Anyway, I found these You’re Gonna Love Me folks (I hate the real title of the song). I’ll save the best for last. Note the tiny bubbles and dudes with awesome hair. I love their reactions.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=od3sbMeYokI

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lD8RV6nw480

And this is for you Old Heads:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JKJw1h4KQuw

@JNOV: thanks for the heads up on my dead links. Sadly, I had also checked out for the eve.

But given that you’re searching for a new chanteuse, I’ll direct you once again to my favorite Colombian export. She’s not just purty, but can sing and dance.

(now, preview nabisco, PREVIEW….)

“I feel like I need a little change of pace, such as”. - SFL

I am wondering if this is the beginning of a trend. Will Promnight be swithching from Kitty Harris left to Kitty Harris right, etc?.

Fyi … If you want a complete makeover, I have released my option on the Sarah Silverman moniker and she is now a free agent. She failed to meet my reserve on e*Bay.

@SFL: I like the new one. It shows crazy-eyes. I loves teh Crazy-Eyes.

@ string bikini theory (my current favorite name), I am thinking of a change. But I don’t know how.

Every time I see a picture of Pelosi, I think “hey, there’s my buddy SFL.” Does anyone do that with me when they see Kitty Harris’ tits?

@jnov: I think Mya was added to that collaberation for her visual “talents,” not her voice.

And I don’t know why that comment is what I decided to respond to, of all things on this thread.

BTW, I like your new look, SFL.

@Nabisco: Yes, Shakira gets love in the JNOV household. We love all <strike>nippy</strike> hippy shakey curvey happy women. That’s why we came back around to Mariah for a while, but we have lost interest.
 
 
Here’s my favorite Portuguese export:

WTF! It worked on the preview!
 
 
 

THAT’S IT! DAMN YOU HTML MUTHERFUCKER!
 
 
Behold God: http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii58/BethCA66/

@RML: RE: dams — The idea of Jail scares the SHIT outta me, so I’ve decided to sign on to Army Engineers approved projects. I still have dreams of dumping red paint on the big heads a Mount Rushmore. For Columbus Day I’m thinking about dressing our local statue in bondage garb.

I can has eddut awpschun?

@JNOV: Love your lolcatz there. Not sure what the Portuguese export is in there, tho.

@SFL: My guess is the footballer. Too eurotrashy for my tastes.

@SFL: I used the HTML window and inserted a photobucket picture. It showed up on the preview but not in the comment. Is the link busted, too?

@mellbell: Ack! Ack! Elizabeth! It’s the Big One!

This is the last time I’ll try. Is his O face:

http://www.cristiano-ronaldo.org/topless-at-euro-2004-78-photo.html

@JNOV: I like my guys a little more off-beat. The wedding I was at a few weeks ago, there was a guy who caught my eye and I nicknamed him “the Physics professor,” because that’s what he looked like. (He seemed to have brought a date, alas.) A friend of mine always responds to such choices with, “At least I know we’ll never compete over the same guy.”

@Mellbell: I hear you. My tastes run the gamut from rumpled myopic professor to slick shake a boom boom youngin’. I guess I’m stuck in some student-cougar no man’s land.

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