Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crime. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The Perfectibility of Mankind and the Left

This is a post by Geoff B., once thought lost in the great pub crash of 2009 and recovered via the Wayback Archive. Its original publication date was December 24, 2008. Kindly restored by Camp o' the Saints and slightly edited by mois.

The Perfectibility of Mankind and the Left

 
One of the basic differences between the Progressive Left and Conservatives/Classical Liberals is on whether or not humans can be, or be made, perfect in this world. The perfectibility of mankind.

To Conservatives humans can never be perfect in this world. For religious conservatives man achieves perfection only when joined with God. In this world perfection is to strive for, but will never be achieved. Failure happens to all and is forgivable. One should acknowledge one's failures and vow to avoid repeating the mistake. Apologize to those injured. Seek forgiveness. Show remorse. Make amends. Be punished if society deems it necessary. In politicians, as in others, perfection is not sought. The perfect not being possible, Conservatives then seek the best available in an imperfect world of choices.

For the progressive Left and the socialist Left, humans are perfectible. The imperfections seen are explained as due to the circumstances that people are in, how they were brought up, how they were educated, or how they were treated and seen by society. To the left people would be perfect if the world around them could be transformed to retain their innate perfection. This is the Utopia sought. The world must be perfected so all humans will be perfect.

Politics is the means used to structure this perfect world for all humans. Force, of course, is required to change the world into the perfect state so that all will live in perfection. This brings up an interesting dichotomy.

An Open Letter to @LauraMeckler of the Wall Street Journal, cc: @HillaryClinton @WSJopinion @WSJ #ReadyForHillary

By Lee Cary

Ms. Meckler:

Thanks for your recent article ("Hillary Clinton’s State Department Staff Kept Tight Rein on Records", dated 19 May 2015).

As a writer for the American Thinker website (Nov. 2007 through Jan. 2015) I tried to get a clear response from the Department of State concerning roughly $6 billion of department funds that were not thoroughly accounted for during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure there. It was an exercise in futility that I documented in the article entitled "State Department won't say how missing records for $6 billion were stored", dated 25 September 2014.

Legacy media, including the Wall Street Journal, reported the story initially, but soon moved on (e.g., "State Department can't account for $6 billion in last 6 years")
.
Mrs. Clinton’s tenure at State was also cited in two other "Management Alerts" issued by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). The three OIG Alerts were catalogued in my article entitled "Hillary's reputation for competence as Secretary of State erodes from within", dated 12 October 2014.

You, Ms. Meckler, are on the cusp of a significant story. Question is: Will you pursue it? I’m an old grandfather and have retired. Time for your generation and the Wall Street Journal to hold the D.C. scammers accountable. If not your generation, then who?

Dr. Lee D. Cary

 

TPP: I've read Obama’s Secret Trade Deal and Elizabeth Warren Has Every Right to Fear It

By Michael Wessel, Pro Publica

“You need to tell me what’s wrong with this trade agreement, not one that was passed 25 years ago,” a frustrated President Barack Obama recently complained about criticisms of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). He’s right. The public criticisms of the TPP have been vague. That’s by design—anyone who has read the text of the agreement could be jailed for disclosing its contents. I’ve actually read the TPP text provided to the government’s own advisors, and I’ve given the president an earful about how this trade deal will damage this nation. But I can’t share my criticisms with you.

I can tell you that Elizabeth Warren is right about her criticism of the trade deal. We should be very concerned about what’s hidden in this trade deal—and particularly how the Obama administration is keeping information secret even from those of us who are supposed to provide advice.

So-called “cleared advisors” like me are prohibited from sharing publicly the criticisms we’ve lodged about specific proposals and approaches. The government has created a perfect Catch 22: The law prohibits us from talking about the specifics of what we’ve seen, allowing the president to criticize us for not being specific. Instead of simply admitting that he disagrees with me—and with many other cleared advisors—about the merits of the TPP, the president instead pretends that our specific, pointed criticisms don’t exist.

What I can tell you is that the administration is being unfair to those who are raising proper questions about the harms the TPP would do. To the administration, everyone who questions their approach is branded as a protectionist—or worse—dishonest. They broadly criticize organized labor, despite the fact that unions have been the primary force in America pushing for strong rules to promote opportunity and jobs. And they dismiss individuals like me who believe that, first and foremost, a trade agreement should promote the interests of domestic producers and their employees.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

GONNA PUT SOME ICE ON THAT, GEORGEY-BOY? Peter Schweizer Eviscerates Bogus "Newsman" George Stephanopoulos

Via Mark Steyn, we arrive at a new set of revelations by Peter Schweizer regarding phony journalist George Stephanopoulos. You may recall that former Clinton operative and current Clinton operative-cum-ABC News employee recently interviewed Schweizer regarding his recent bestseller. Or, rather, he grilled Schweizer over the author's brutal evidence that the Clinton Global Graft Foundation appeared explicitly designed to extract government favors in exchange for massive payoffs.

Schweizer's evidence is overwhelming and, rather than acting like a real journalist, Stephanopoulos instead conducted an interrogation rather than an interview -- never disclosing that he had multiple, deep, and devastating conflicts of interest. It wasn't just that the "newsman" had donated $75,000 to the Clinton Global Grift Initiative:

For example, in his on air apology for this ethical mess, Stephanopoulos did not disclose that in 2006 he was a featured attendee and panel moderator at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

He did not disclose that in 2007, he was a featured attendee at the CGI annual meeting, a gathering also attended by several individuals I report on in Clinton Cash, including mega Clinton Foundation donors Lucas Lundin, Frank Giustra, Frank Holmes, and Carlos Slim — individuals whose involvement with the Clintons I assumed he had invited me on his program to discuss.

Stephanopoulos did not disclose that he was a 2008 panelist at the CGI annual meeting which, once again, featured individuals I report on in the book, such as billionaire Clinton Foundation foreign donor Denis O'Brien.

ABC's most visible news employee did not disclose that in 2009, he served as a panel moderator at CGI's annual meeting, nor did he disclose that in 2010 and 2011, he was an official CGI member.

Stephanopoulos did not disclose that in 2013 and 2014, he and Chelsea Clinton served as CGI contest judges for awards, in part, underwritten by Laureate International Universities — a for-profit education company I report on in the book. Bill Clinton was on its payroll until his recent resignation.


Disgraceful. Unethical. Disgusting.

And all in a day's work for today's crony media.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

10 Startling Charts That Completely Debunk the Global Warming Scam

It's amazing to me that, post-Climategate, anyone with more than three working neurons could believe in the legitimacy of the United Nations' global warming bunko scam.

Over at the world's most popular climate site, our favorite peer Christopher Monckton of Brenchley fires a massive salvo of data, charts and explanations that crush the progressives' latest attempt to regulate capitalism. My favorite charts are as follows:

10. 2000 Years of... Consistent Climate Cycles

SOUNDS SUSTAINABLE TO ME: Nearly $30,000 of debt for every man, woman and child on the entire planet

By Michael Snyder

Did you know that there is more than $28,000 of debt for every man, woman and child on the entire planet? And since close to 3 billion of those people survive on less than 2 dollars a day, your share of that debt is going to be much larger than that. If we took everything that the global economy produced this year and everything that the global economy produced next year and used it to pay all of this debt, it still would not be enough. According to a recent report put out by the McKinsey Global Institute entitled “Debt and (not much) deleveraging“, the total amount of debt on our planet has grown from 142 trillion dollars at the end of 2007 to 199 trillion dollars today. This is the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and those numbers mean that we are in substantially worse condition than we were just prior to the last financial crisis.

When it comes to debt, a lot of fingers get pointed at the United States, and rightly so. Just prior to the last recession, the U.S. national debt was sitting at about 9 trillion dollars. Today, it has crossed the 18 trillion dollar mark. But of course the U.S. is not the only one that is guilty. In fact, the McKinsey Global Institute says that debt levels have grown in all major economies since 2007. The following is an excerpt from the report

Seven years after the bursting of a global credit bubble resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, debt continues to grow. In fact, rather than reducing indebtedness, or deleveraging, all major economies today have higher levels of borrowing relative to GDP than they did in 2007. Global debt in these years has grown by $57 trillion, raising the ratio of debt to GDP by 17 percentage points (Exhibit 1). That poses new risks to financial stability and may undermine global economic growth.

What is surprising is that debt has actually grown the most in China. If you can believe it, total Chinese debt has grown from 7 trillion dollars in 2007 to 28 trillion dollars today. Needless to say, that is absolutely insane…

Monday, May 18, 2015

CONGRESSMAN: Changes needed in Jade Helm military exercises

By Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)


Over the past few weeks, my office has been inundated with calls referring to the Jade Helm 15 military exercise scheduled to take place between July 15 and September 15, 2015.

This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law.


Certainly, I can understand these concerns.

When leaders within the current administration believe that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans, or even "cling to guns or religion," patriotic Americans have reason to be concerned.

We have seen people working in this administration use their government positions to persecute people with conservative beliefs in God, country, and notions such as honor and self-reliance.

SHOCKER: Hillary Claim That She Used Only One Personal Email Account While at State... Also a Lie

I hope you're sitting down:

Emails published by the New York Times Monday indicate that Hillary Clinton used more than one private email address during her time as secretary of state, contradicting previous claims from the Democratic presidential contender’s office.

Multiple emails show Clinton used account “hrod17@clintonemail.com” while serving in the Obama administration as secretary of state.

Clinton’s attorney, David Kendall, had previously told Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) that that particular address had not “existed during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.”

Another statement from Clinton’s office said she only used one address during her time as secretary of state... Clinton served as secretary of state from Jan. 2009 to Feb. 2013. The emails she sent with the “hrod17@clintonemail.com” were sent in 2011 and 2012, according to the documents released by the Times.

A representative for Clinton’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheBlaze.


As security experts noted a few months ago when the Hillary email scandal first broke, it's virtually certain that Hillary's email server was compromised by foreign governments. Which means Hillary put her own butt-covering over national security.

If America is willing to elect a sleazy, lying, unscrupulous, unethical, lying crook like Hillary in 2016, well, we deserve everything we get. Yes, I said "lying" twice. Because she warrants it.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Remember When Barack Obama Tried to Silence Political Speech in 2007?

By Sara Noble

Barack Obama said during a speech at Georgetown last week that we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, indicating that Republican leaders Boehner and McConnell were the ones needing changing. He also said, we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues, specifically referring to Fox News at the time.

Signs of how Obama thinks about dissent and free speech were evident in a bill he tried to pass in 2007. The bill would make lying a federal crime if it concerned politics around election time.

By rights, that should put Obama in prison but it’s geared to set up Republicans.

Barack Obama’s answer is always to add big government control and he wants to do it if a politician or someone loosely tied to a politician lies or appears to have lied. It would have a chilling effect on political speech.

In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer introduced S. 453, the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007, a bill which was reintroduced in 2009 by Sen. Conyers and then again in 2011 by Senators Schumer and Cardin.

It was unnecessary since voter intimidation is already illegal but it had a clause that distinguished it.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

GREAT NEWS: Russian, Spanish-language ads fueling rampant driver’s license fraud in Vermont

By Bruce Parker

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Foreign-language ads are helping out-of-state illegal immigrants fraudulently obtain Vermont driver privilege cards, the chief inspector of the Vermont DMV has revealed.

“We found two ads out of state … saying you can come here and get a driver’s license,” Capt. Drew Bloom, chief inspector of the DMV, told Vermont Watchdog.

“One of them was in Spanish and the other was in Russian,” he said.

The revelation comes days after DMV Commissioner Robert Ide said his department’s investigation into driver’s license fraud extended to foreign countries and even other continents.

In the first of two print ads obtained by Watchdog.org (above), a message in Russian translates as follows:

Under What Authority Can Obama keep his TPP Trade Deal Secret?

By Jon Rappaport

To the US Congress: reveal the contents of the TPP now

It seems like a case of mass hypnosis. People claiming they can’t say what’s in the TPP trade agreement. And mainstream media accept this premise.

“That’s right. Congress must stay silent.”

Pop quiz: who says the text of the TPP must remain secret?

Under what authority?

Members of Congress are scuttling around like weasels, claiming they can’t disclose what’s in this far-reaching, 12-nation trade treaty.

They can go into a sealed room and read a draft, but they can’t copy pages, and they can’t tell the public what they just read.

Why not?

If there is a US law forbidding disclosure, name the law.

Are We a Nation of Laws... or a Nation of Thugs?

By Karl Denninger

I've laid this out many times over the years but perhaps it deserves a more-concentrated version.

The United States is relatively unique in terms of structure in our governmental system, and has a well-defined hierarchy of laws that the founders put forward a means to respect.  Let's start with that hierarchy, which is indisputable:

  • Natural law; that is, law that is simply due to nature.  The essence of being human defines these foundational boundaries; no government can or ever does, as you cannot lay claim to what which you never possessed.
  • Constitutional law; that is, law that is supreme in the nation and is intended to respect natural law (which sits above it) and divide responsibility for the remaining areas of governmental debate into appropriate sections.
  • Federal law, that is, laws bearing on and governing those areas of responsibility The Constitution granted to the Federal Government.
  • State law, that is, laws bearing on and governing those areas of responsibility The Constitution granted to the States, beginning with each State's Constitution and continuing through its statute system.
  • County and incorporated entity law, which bears on those areas of responsibility State Constitutions granted to the counties and incorporated political subdivisions (e.g. cities and townships.)

An alleged law further down the hierarchy that proclaims something to be illegal (or legal) that is contrary to the provisions above it is void as if it was never passed; it creates no office, it provides no power or shield.  If this general principle is disregarded then there is no law at all since any inferior political subdivision instantly loses its inferior status when it passes such an act.  

You cannot believe in a representative republican form of government, nor take an oath to same in any respect and at the same time permit or recognize any such act of usurpation as doing so is a declaration that the political subdivision in question has become superior to those above it.

Further, note that an act contrary to the law does not change the law; it merely ignores or contravenes it.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Why the Clinton Foundation Scandal Should Terrify Every American

By Peter Schweizer

One of the last vestiges of broad-based bipartisan agreement in American politics is the belief that foreign money should not influence U.S. political leaders and their decisions. The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the ban on foreign political money, and President Barack Obama and Republicans have echoed similar themes.

We now know that the Clinton Foundation served as a conduit for the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign individuals, entities, and governments. Moreover, during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Sec. of State, former President Bill Clinton received numerous lucrative speaking fees funded by foreign entities, including a $500,000 Moscow speech paid for by a Kremlin-linked bank with interests pending before Mrs. Clinton’s State Dept. 

But does any of this matter? Moreover, is it, as some have intimated, akin to “bribery”?

As Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton made combatting corruption by foreign actors “a major focus of U.S foreign policy,” as her spokesperson at the time put it. More specifically, she pledged her support for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) “anti-corruption agenda.” So, how does the OECD define bribery?  

BOOM: Federal Court Issues Historic Ruling in Hillary Email Scandal

By Judicial Watch

Last Friday, a federal court judge did something we had never seen before – U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton reopened a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The lawsuit had sought documents about an advertisement intended to air in Pakistan entitled “A Message from the President of the United States Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.”

Judge Walton issued the ruling on Friday, May 8, in response to a joint motion by Judicial Watch and the State Department. This is historic. My attorney colleagues at Judicial Watch tell me they are aware of no precedent of another FOIA lawsuit being reopened by a federal court.

Judicial Watch filed suit in December 2012, after the State Department failed to respond to a September 24, 2012, FOIA request for all records concerning the advertisement produced by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad intended to air in Pakistan. The advertisement was an absurd and dishonest “apology” for the Internet video that President Obama, then-Secretary of State Clinton, and other administration officials falsely blamed for inspiring “spontaneous demonstrations” resulting in the attack on the U.S. Special Mission Compound in Benghazi, Libya. The disgusting ad was a misuse of tax dollars and part of the cover-up of the truth about the Benghazi terrorist attack.

How Illinois Public Sector Unions Destroyed Chicago

By ProPublica

What happens when you’ve been kicking the fiscal can down the road for years, but the road suddenly hits a dead end? That’s what Chicago – and the state of Illinois – are about to find out.

Chicago’s immediate problem is yesterday’s credit downgrade by Moody’s Investors Services, which turned its debt to junk and could force the city to immediately come up with $2.2 billion to satisfy debts and other obligations.

When big cities have had debt crises – such as Detroit’s recent problems or New York City’s epic problems in the 1970s – states typically rode to the rescue in one way or another. But Illinois, which has the lowest credit rating of any state in the nation, says it can’t help the stricken city.

The downgrade follows a Friday decision by the Illinois Supreme Court, which invalidated state limits on cost-of-living adjustments to state pensioners. The limits were part of a slate of reforms signed into law in 2013 by then-Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, to deal with underfunded pensions.

Moody’s said the court decision was key to its downgrade because the city has been hoping to dig out of its own financial hole by reducing cost-of-living adjustments, which typically raise the cost of pensions by close to 50 percent.

Chicago’s predicament actually has its roots in a 2003 decision by Illinois to kick the pension can down the road – by borrowing money to fund pensions rather than trying to get the benefits reduced or to stepping up payments to make them financially sound.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

ABC’S STEPHANOPOULOS GRILLED "CLINTON CASH" AUTHOR: Forgot to Note His Own Donations to Bogus Foundation

While Politico got credit for the story, it turns out it was Andrew Stiles at Washington Free Beacon who broke the original scoop.

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos donated $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, records show. The contribution is publicly available information, but the host had not previously disclosed it to ABC viewers, despite taking part in on-air discussions about the Clinton Foundation and its controversial relationship with foreign donors.

...Stephanopoulos’s recent coverage of the topic has been challenged by critics who question his objectivity as a longtime Clinton aide. The host’s April 26 interview with Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer, for example, elicited partisan reactions after Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed the Schweizer to acknowledge the lack of a “smoking gun” among the allegations in his book...

Conservative commentators, meanwhile, complained about Stephanopoulos’s “aggressively” dismissive questioning, and took issue with a former Clinton operative asking Schweizer, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, about his “partisan interest” in writing Clinton Cash ... ABC News viewers should have also been reminded of the host’s connection to the Clintons, the politicians at the center of the discussion.


IN AN AGE OF TERRORISM: Defense Bill Should Not Allow Illegal Aliens to Enlist in the Military

By Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA)

Despite the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted down repeated attempts to encourage the recruitment of illegal immigrants into the military, we are seeing yet another attempt to encourage such recruitment recently inserted into a must-pass defense funding bill.

Even worse, the push to recruit illegal immigrants is happening at a time when U.S. citizens are being downsized from the military or turned away by recruiters.

The House Armed Services Committee recently approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that encourages the secretary of defense to declare that illegal immigrants categorized under President Barack Obama’s first executive amnesty—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)—are “vital” to America’s national interest and thus eligible to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces. Congressman Ruben Gallego’s, D-Ariz., amendment passed the committee with six Republicans joining all 27 Democrats.

The recruitment is being encouraged at the very same time the Pentagon is laying off tens of thousands of American troops. According to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, the active Army will be cut by more than 80,000 uniformed personnel by the end of fiscal year 2017.

Moreover, competition for enlistment is already so challenging that American high school graduates now face “more difficulty qualifying for the armed services than ever in the 40-year history of the all-volunteer force,” according to media reports.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

BEST RESPONSE TO LIBERAL MEDIA’S LATEST LIE: Lack of Infrastructure Spending Caused Amtrak Crash

In 2009, didn't Barack Obama market his unprecedented $787 billion "Stimulus" program under the banner of repairing America's failing infrastructure? Why, yes, yes he did.

President Obama on Tuesday signed into law the largest spending bill in U.S. history, a package he pledges will save millions of jobs and bring the country back from the brink of economic catastrophe...

He said the federal government will send unprecedented levels of support into infrastructure, education, research, energy, health care and state government. He pledged to enact the bill with an "unprecedented level of transparency and accountability."

Fast forward to this week's tragic Amtrak accident. Cue legacy media jumping to the "You low-life taxpayers aren't spending enough money on infrastructure!" argument.

At least six people died and many more were injured in a terrible Amtrak accident on the night of May 12, and before the cause had been discovered, multiple cable news networks used the tragedy to make a political point.

Programming on CNN, CNBC and MSNBC all used the accident to claim the government needed to spend more on infrastructure all before National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators made an assessment to determine the cause of the crash.

Say, Dems: what the hell happened to that $787 billion anyhow?

Oh, and cue the real cause of the accident (hint: what happens when you crank a passenger train up to 106 MPH and hit a curve?):

The engineer of the Amtrak train that derailed near Philadelphia -- killing at least seven and sending more than 200 to area hospitals -- applied the emergency brakes just seconds before the train jumped the tracks while hurtling along at almost twice the speed limit, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said Wednesday.

NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt, stressing he was working with preliminary information, said the train was traveling at 106 mph as it entered a sharp curve where the speed limit was 50 mph. The engineer he said, launched a "full emergency brake application" a few seconds before the train derailed 11 minutes after leaving the Philadelphia station, crumpling cars and throwing around many of the 243 aboard.

Which leads me to the most astute response to liberal media's insane conclusion-jumping:



Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

STUNNING REPORT: Obama made up the whole story behind the Bin Laden raid to make himself look good

By Michael Snyder

Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has uncovered one of the biggest lies in modern American history. It turns out that much of what the American public was told about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden was a blatant lie. According to Hersh, Osama bin Laden had been captured by Pakistan all the way back in 2006, and he was being held by the ISI as a prisoner at the Abbottabad compound that the Seals ultimately raided in 2011. In addition, Hersh says that the ISI and Pakistan’s military knew about the Seal raid in advance. Arrangements were made so that the Black Hawk helicopters could travel through Pakistani airspace safely, and the ISI guards at Osama bin Laden’s compound were pulled away before the Seals got there. And by that time, Osama bin Laden was reportedly in such bad health that he was essentially a cripple. There was no “firefight” at all – only a turkey shoot. Afterwards, Osama bin Laden’s body never made it to the USS Carl Vinson for a “burial at sea”. That was all just part of the cover story according to Hersh. Of course the White House and Obama’s lackeys at CNN are strongly denying all of this, and they will continue to deny the truth for as long as they possibly can. But there are individuals in the U.S. military and in the U.S. intelligence community that can come forward and tell us what really happened. Let us hope that at least some of those individuals still care enough about this country to do that.

According to Hersh, one of the biggest lies that Obama told was that Pakistani leadership had no idea that the Seals were coming in. Actually, the truth is that the head of the army, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the director general of the ISI, General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, were both heavily involved in the planning of the operation. The following is an excerpt from Hersh’s article for the London Review of Books

So, About That Obama-McConnell "TPP" Trade Deal...

By Karl Denninger

The Senate finally did something intelligent on trade...

President Obama suffered a defeat at the hands of his own party on Tuesday, as Senate Democrats blocked a key component of the president's trade agenda. 

After fierce lobbying on both sides of the issue, the bid to start debate -- on expanding the president's authority to negotiate trade deals -- failed on a 52-45 vote. It needed 60 votes to advance ... "What we just saw here is pretty shocking," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, accusing congressional Democrats of standing with "special interests." 

Cut the crap Mitch.

The problem with these trade deals in general, whether it be NAFTA, the most-favored nation status granted to China and others, is that when they involve "developing" or "third world" nations they simply enable wage and environmental arbitrage.

It is expensive, in relative terms, to avoid poisoning the air, water and land.  There is little that is cheaper than simply running a pipe to the nearest body of water and dumping your toxic waste in it; essentially every means of treating that waste to make it safe, or recycling it is more expensive.  All things being equal if you're a manufacturer that uses toxic materials (and most do) if you can put your plant where nobody will stop you from dumping the toxic waste, you will.

Likewise, if the prevailing wage for jobs that are primarily manual labor and do not involve a high degree of skill is a nickel an hour in whatever the local currency is, while our minimum wage is a couple hundred times higher, all things being equal if you can put your plant where the prevailing wage is a nickel an hour you will.