The inevitable: U.S. gasoline demand will show decline in 2008 for first time in 17 years… Sales of pick ups, minivans and SUVs, says one analyst, are “falling off a cliff.” These are the dynamics of a market economy... Fasten your seatbelts!
Ralph Nader appeared before a devoted crowd in NYC last night.. Reminded all that he hitch-hiked to DC in ’63 to “put GM under federal regulation”, by way of warning that if you know something but don’t act on it you don’t know it... Harper’s reports that as of March 14% of registered voters would consider a Nader vote…
Also in Harper’s… the estimated total value of investments in military contractors held by members of Congress: $150 million.
CAFTA = murder? Since the passage of a free trade treaty with Central America, at least 8 trade unionists have been murdered in Guatemala… killings in Honduras are also reported. This per reportage of USLEAP (U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project).. “[T]he worker rights provisions of CAFTA,” writes USLEAP, “represent a significant reduction in the ability to apply U.S. trade pressure to address worker rights violations.” CAFTA worker rights protections are vested in U.S. Labor Department, as are those of NAFTA… Says USLEAP: there have been “no meaningful advances on worker rights in over ten years.”
Colombian killing fields… More union leaders killed in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined under current Rightist president, Uribe. 23 killings in the first four months of ’08 alone.
Is that just sick, or what? Criminally insane.
And Ralph. The sad thing for me is knowing he would try to do all he says he would from the White House but with a Congress so out of touch from the newest and best and most decent ideas and policy proposals its doubtful how far Nader would get with his Twelve Issues that Matter. But I aim to be hopeful.
Heck, even the Libertarians have some intriguing stuff in their platform and they’ve already approved it for candidate Bob Barr. Rather intriguing guy himself.
And the Greens keep me wistful.
Maybe we could throw the planks from every party’s platforms in a hat and the first 20 drawn get done in the next administration. Yeah, okay, but that’s just one idea.
By Nettle on June 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pm