February 29, 2008
The danger of Obama's amateur diplomacy
Thomas Lifson
After suggesting that he would invade our ally Pakistan and talk to our enemy Iran, Barack Obama has moved on to potentially damage our relations with Canada, our friendly neighbor and number one foreign oil supplier.
Under the terms of NAFTA, Canada is prohibited from cutting off oil exports to the US if there is a worldwide shortage or supply disruption unless supplies are also rationed to Canadian consumers by the same amount.
After the Hillary/Obama debate, Canada's trade minister pointed out that if NAFTA is re-opened, Canada might want to opt out of this clause, which would then leave Canada free to sell its oil to any other country for whatever price it could get.
Both Clinton and Obama have made a big issue out President Bush's alleged insensitivies to other countries. And now these two geniuses are blithely talking about canceling a trade agreement with our two neighbors on which both their economies now depend.
The Financial Times reports:
Beijing has signalled its interest in Canada's growing oil sector. Two of China's biggest energy groups, China National Offshore Oil Co and Sinopec, have invested in small Calgary-based companies with ambitions to extract heavy crude oil from oilsands in Canada.
So the Obama campaign has been caught in a lie and is potentially opening a door for China (among others) to become involved in our most secure source for foreign oil, where the oil sands contain deposits equal to those of Saudi Arabia, while alienating our best friends in foreign countries.
Do we really want to let this man into the Oval Office?
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and the 18 year olds go crazy with FlimFlamma Mania!!!!!!!!!!!
February 29, 2008
Obama NAFTA Flap about ready to explode
Rick Moran
This is all the more incredible because it has now been confirmed.
At Tuesday night's debate, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama traded charges that the other was not serious about reforming NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement. Unions have been up in arms about the treaty for years because it rewards the mostly non union labor in Mexico while taking union jobs away from Americans - at least in theory. There have been no definitive studies showing NAFTA is a negative for the American worker.
Regardless, both candidates trashed the agreement and said they would reopen it to renegotiation. But Obama went a step further; according to Canadian TV he actually had one of his primary aides get in touch with the Canadian government and assure them that Obama was just demagoguing the issue and that he would not press for any major changes.
The Obama camp denied this story and called it a smear. Evidently CTV doesn't like being referred to as a liar because they have released the information that the Obama camp couldn't afford to have out there - the name of the Obama aide who spoke to the Canadian government:
The Obama campaign told CTV late Thursday night that no message was passed to the Canadian government that suggests that Obama does not mean what he says about opting out of NAFTA if it is not renegotiated.
However, the Obama camp did not respond to repeated questions from CTV on reports that a conversation on this matter was held between Obama's senior economic adviser -- Austan Goolsbee -- and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago.
Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue.
On Thursday night, CTV spoke with Goolsbee, but he refused to say whether he had such a conversation with the Canadian government office in Chicago. He also said he has been told to direct any questions to the campaign headquarters.
CTV is also reporting that their high level source in the Canadian government is reconfirming the visit by the Obama staffer.
This idiotic gaffe could easily cost Obama Ohio. And the Clinton campaign has a ready made issue of honesty and integrity fall right into their lap.
Goolsbee is Obama's Senior Economic Advisor so it's not like the campaign could argue he went rogue on them. It's just one more piece of evidence that far from being an "Agent of Change" Obama is a politics as usual sort of guy.
Whether his supporters start realizing that is unkown.
going for him is that he has the LEAST association with the present administration. We know the LEAST about him.
BOTH parties are nominating the people who are farthest from the status quo. The only reason BenD wasn't drafted was that Laura said he sounds just like GW talking in his sleep.
GW has been a MASSIVE fuckup, and the reason for it has been that the religious right has pulled the American version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, ie, it doesn't matter if you know what the fuck you're talking about, as long as you praise Jesus.
So that schtick fucked up China for 20 years, but the USA had a lot farther to drop. A 2 year recession is probably optimistic.
Free trade is a fact of technology - it's going to happen, the only question are the terms. Luddites don't help when the fact is that there is a net gain across the board.
If Obama gets in - and that looks like as good a bet as anything - it will be a reaction to the opposite extreme of the Bushite Republicans. The most realistic hope is that it will take a couple years before his people settle in and their scams start becoming a problem.
Scams sometimes develop because people set out to commit fraud. Other times they develop because some well-meant person or organization loses sight (or never had a clear picture) of what they are doing. And there's whole ranges between outright fraud and simple mistake.
In the case of Bush, it's been wildly reckless to ignore the question of exactly what he expected to do with Iraq & Afghanistan once he knocked them over - and to fail to see the obvious, that there is a whole library of material on the politics of war that would predict the problems we had in Vietnam and are having again in Iraq - and a good place to start would be with Mao - not to forget Sun Tzu.
Now we are seeing that the wars themselves are likely to become secondary issues to financing them - we may be forced out because of economic issues - like running out of fuel and ammo.
The possibility that Obama may be a flim-flam man is a smaller risk than the certainty that the Republicans have been massive fuckups, and even McCain only acknowledges maybe a third of their problems.
Voting is a small thing, a ritual once every 4 years to make us think we can affect issues. What really matters is what we do the other 3 years 364 days that we aren't voting.
"What really matters is what we do the other 3 years 364 days that we aren't voting".
If we could convince the crowd of lefties, that lives on hand outs, to work for their own money, we could lower taxes on the rich, and really stimulate the economy..
Interesting observation:
"""If Obama gets in - and that looks like as good a bet as anything - it will be a reaction to the opposite extreme of the Bushite Republicans."""
I've come to believe Bush was borne out of the same phenomenon. Clifton personified immoral behavior and Bush is nothing of not over the top with the churchianity.
he's a dry drunk shilling for the RNC because of his family's ego. He's as authentic as Poppy's pork rinds.
The political ambitions of the people who put him in office is much older than Clinton, and Clinton's problem behavior is a superficial issue compared to the fucked up policies and tactics of the likes of Nixon's watergate, Reagan's Iran-Contra, let alone Bush 2.
So the guy likes a hummer. Jesus fucking christ, get him a chorus line, who the fuck cares? So he's an egotistical asshole, tell me which president wasn't - maybe Jimmy Carter? - who was OCD instead.
What happens is that politically, we're like blind men careening down the road, first falling off one side, then ricocheting off the other.
some dude that turned out to be Republican pulled your pants down in front of a bunch of girls you were hoping to impress.
Or put ben-gay in your jock...
staying on task.
Apart from the fact that you changed the subject for no good reason, you should know by now that (a) I just happen to like mocking idiots who make grand and stupid pronouncements - it's a really cheap hobby; and (b) it was your daughter who came onto me, but I was too busy with decent looking chicks to take the time.
I sincerely doubt either of my preteens daughters would give you a second glance unless you have blue hair and play in a rock band.
Both rate extremely high amongst their peers as measured by SAT's so maybe they found you intellectually compelling....
lol.
Gettin lonely? lol
-- Modified on 3/4/2008 1:31:52 PM