This month's topic is the fast track legislation currently before the US Congress. But first, stay tuned for these messages:I still have computer equipment for sale. A 21 inch multimedia monitor for 700 bucks, and a Macintosh 7200/75 with 24 megs of RAM for $800, OBO. Call me at 320-5105 if you're interested.
Last month I opined that it ought to reflect badly on Arizonans that a majority elected Evan Mecham and Fife Symington. Ahem, I stand corrected; a plurality elected Mecham. But that shouldn't reflect badly on me.
The annual RESULTS breakfast to raise money and consciousness to combat world hunger will be held at the Arizona Inn on November 8th. Expect to hear more about this in next month's Rant. But if you'd like to get involved, call Lois Stevens at 628-7647 or Mary Guinger at 622-2042.
Also please note the ads in this issue benefiting the AIDSWalk and the Rape Crisis Center. Please do what you can.
But under the heading of Doing What You Can, I'd like to urge all of you to phone your congressional representatives and ask them to vote against Fast Track. That would be the legislation, currently pending, which would allow the president to negotiate world trade agreements not subject to amendment.
Proponents of fast track will tell you that it's been granted to the last five presidents, and that without it, the US is in danger of falling behind in the race to form regional trading blocs. I'm tempted to say that proponents are being disingenuous on the issue of fast track, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just say that they doesn't know what they're talking about. The Clinton Administration has landed over 200 trade agreements without fast track. The idea that other countries can safely ignore the largest market in the world and go ahead without us is just ludicrous.
It was fast track authority that brought us NAFTA and GATT, and we all know how well those are working out; NAFTA has put our trade deficit seriously out of whack, cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, and worsened environmental and labor conditions on both sides of the border. As for GATT, it's now being used to try and nullify health, safety and environmental regulations that the multinational corporations of this planet object to.
Which is why they're pushing for more fast track authority. Not only do they want to extend NAFTA to another "fledgling democracy," Chile, but the bipartisan Clinton-Gingrich forces are looking to roll us over with the MAI agreement that I was ranting about a few months back.
Under the MAI, corporations will have greatly expanded powers to nullify laws at the local, state and national levels. And our beloved leaders would love nothing more than to slip this through while nobody's looking. Oh, they may pay some lip service to labor rights and the environment, but don't be fooled. Under so-called "compromise" language written by Republican Rep. Bill Archer of Texas, those safeguards will be weakened beyond the pitifully toothless provisions in the NAFTA accord.
Fast track is all about ramming through an agreement that the American people wouldn't approve of if they had a chance to examine it. It's all about evading the constitutional requirement that the Senate advise and consent to treaties with a two-thirds majority. It's all about letting Bill Archer and Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott have final say over what will and won't be negotiated. And it's all about letting a small army of corporate lawyers hammer out the details in secret without any input from the people to be affected.
So why not give Jim Kolbe or Ed Pastor a call today, and ask them to vote "no, thanks" on this one?