Monthly Archives: February 2008


Is It Going To Be dear leader obama?

It appears that some dems are thinking that is the way it should be:

3. What Obama Meant. Any review of Obama statements or past votes is subject to an explanation by Obama of what he REALLY meant. Any criticism of Obama’s statements which do not take into account Obama’s clarifications and explanations of what he REALLY meant are unfair personal attacks and the attacker is a “liar” who will say and do anything to get elected.
4. Obama’s attacks are always fair and merited. Any suggestion otherwise is, at the least, vaguely racist.

As an independent I’m looking forward to new blood, most likely obama but perhaps mccain, to pick on from time to time when they become, as Garrison would say, the current occupant.

There is no excuse for not engaging in this exercise when they are pretenders to the throne as well.


All You Need is Change

Change, we are going to change things! This idea has been the recent mantra of the 2008 election.
Mark Morford nails the truth of this:

No, not the bland politicalspeak Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton brand of broad sloganeering bumper-sticker change, the kind where part of your naive perky innocent unicorns-in-the-sky self really wants to believe it’s all going to be hopeful and good and radically different, but yet you kind of know, deep down, when you peel back the masks and the rhetoric and the spin, that when all is said and done, pretty much the exact same jackals and demons and CEOs will run the bleak global circus, same as it ever was.

The only change we will get from clinton, obama or mccain is in the details of how the voters are bribed.
None of them will do anything to change the fundamental system of privilege and corporate welfare that creates the conditions for massive income disparity and corporate rapaciousness in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong. There will always be income disparity in a healthy economy but in a healthy economy it will truly be the result of individual capabilities, effort and creativity not earmarks, subsidies or direct and indirect wealth transfers.


Friday Ark #179

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Is It Really Free Trade?

Free trade, free trade, all aboard for free trade.
The Canadian and Columbian governments are close to executing a free trade agreement:

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier concluded an official visit to Bogota Tuesday, saying a Canada-Colombia free trade pact was imminent and praising its peace efforts in a statement.
“Discussions on a free trade agreement with Colombia are ongoing and Canada remains committed to concluding the negotiations in the near future,” Bernier said.

But will it really be a free trade agreement?
That would require that any individuals or groups of individuals in the two countries can voluntarily exchange goods and services without government restrictions in forms such as taxes, tariffs, prohibitions, etc.
Columbia is the world’s leading cocoa cultivator. Will there be unrestricted trade in cocoa related products?
The only role that the respective governments might have to play in a truly free trade environment is to provide a dispute resolution process (judicial system) and to provide police services in cases of fraud, theft or violence that the involved parties can not resolve amongst themselves without resort to violence.
That these agreements may make some steps in this direction can be a good thing. To the extent they serve to maintain the current state enforced corporate welfare system, well…, they are not so good.
Via Poliblog.