Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Wikileaks strikes again with the document of the the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. This agreement will have a serious effect on internet intellectual rights. The countries involved are United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei Darussalam.

Update: Raw Story reports that the agreement could hurt sick people getting access to medicine.

Critics say the proposal, if enacted, would severely limit access to affordable medicine, the Internet and textbooks, and shrink consumer rights and protections.

“The Obama administration’s proposals are the worst – the most damaging for health – we have seen in a U.S. trade agreement to date,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s global access to medicines program. “The Obama administration has backtracked from even the modest health considerations adopted under the Bush administration.”

Wikileaks Secret TPP Treaty IP Chapter

Joel Award Winner: Joy-Ann Reid

Joy-Ann Reid lashes out at progressives for the failure of the American Jobs Act to pass the Senate.

Every time something like this happens, I’m reminded of all the angry liberals who complain that President Obama hasn’t pursued more progressive policies on healthcare, or civilian trials for terrorists, or closing Gitmo, etc. Recall, always, that people like John Tester and Ben Nelson (and Joe Lieberman and Jim Webb and Joe Manchin) are in the Senate, and they are Democrats, too. Which means that it isn’t just Republicans who stand in the way of the kind of progress progressives (and at this point, a strong majority of all Americans) crave.

I asked Reid on Twitter if she thought a more bipartisan bill would have passed. Reid never replied to me. What I do know is in the same post Reid wrote this.

The White House is now looking at ways to break up the bill and try and pass the parts that have “bipartisan support” — which in and of itself is elusive, since most Republicans won’t vote for anything this president is for, and many Democrats are practically Republicans.

Let me get this straight. Progressives shouldn't participate in democracy by advocating for the things that want because Republicans will vote against it. However, according to Reid, Republicans would filibuster anything (and have) if President Obama supports the legislation. This is Reid's political strategy? That isn't a strategy. That is defeatism.

Obama did the Reid strategy of appeasing Republicans and and corporate Democrats by attempting to outcut the Republicans during the debt ceiling fiasco. The result was Obama's poll numbers dropped like a rock.

As for corporate Democrat Ben Nelson, his poll numbers have sucked since 2009. Nelson is currently polling behind Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. Democrats should have ran a candidate in the primary against Nelson. Voters are turning against Nelson because they are finally realizing that he stands for nothing. The midterm elections saw House Blue Dogs and Blanche Lincoln in the Senate. Democrat Bill Halter polled better for the general election. The Obama administration and the DNC decided to back Lincoln. The result was Republican John Boozman winning the seat. Again I asked how does Reid's strategy of appeasing corporate Democrats help maintain majorities?

Reid lashes out at progressives for somehow forcing President Obama to back a populist jobs bill. Reid goes on to say it doesn't matter what kind of bill the President supported because Republicans were going to filibuster it. This incoherent rant wins her the Joel Award for contradiction.

The truth is Obama got something for going on the offensive. The do nothing Republican House has been sitting on the trade deals for South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Obama and the Occupy movement have been demanding jobs. The House suddenly got off their collective asses and passed all three trade agreements. Obama tried being bipartisan and Republicans sat on writing legislation for the trade agreements. Ask yourself if Republicans would have moved if Obama continued being bipartisan.

Worst Pep Talk Ever

I couldn't make up shit like this. Factory workers in Youngstown, Ohio were given this pep talk by John McCain.

"A person learns along the way that if you hold on — if you don't quit no matter what the odds — sometimes life will surprise you," McCain said in a speech at Youngstown State University after meeting the five remaining workers at Fabart, a steel-fabricating factory that had more than 100 employees a few years ago.

Who the fuck on McCain's staff pick this campaign stop. It's obvious that the Maverick is clueless on economic matters. Sadly, I'm not shocked that McCain would lecture five factory workers, about to get laid off, to pick themselves up by their bootstraps.

McCain went on to preach how wonderful free trade is. I'm not anti-free trade, but I am politically astute enough to understand that no presidential candidate should preach the virtues of free trade to a town that lost 40,000 jobs. Obama's people need to use McCain's Youngstown visit in the general election. McCain will lose Ohio if he keeps telling the state's voters how great NAFTA is.

McCain jokingly pointed out that NAFTA in fact is composed of five letters, though O'Connell seemed to be equating it to a "four-letter word," as in a curse word.

In response, McCain said again that those jobs were gone forever and he defended NAFTA as an overall plus for the U.S. economy, even as he conceded that wage discrepancies and product dumping have hurt U.S. workers.

"I've met too many people who've been displaced as a result of free trade to say, 'Aww, it's all been good for our economy, don't worry about it,' " McCain said. "But I think the adjustment is not to erect barriers and protectionism. I think the answer is to understand that free trade or not, we are in an information technology revolution. ... We've got to be part of that new economy rather than trying to cling to an old economy."

McCain's message to Ohio voters, 'Your jobs are gone.' Not that he has to worry. The Straight Talker is one of the richest members of the Senate.