I wonder what US products the people in Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica and Honduras have purchased as a result of the free trade agreements.

It is the stupid primary rules that allow this to happen. As a citizen of north Carolina I have until 04/11/08 to switch parties. This is stupid.

Sigy, professional discretion aside, this being a place where one remains anonymous, do tell more about other aspects of her therapy sessions. If not now, and here, then when/where?

Entelechy on April 8, 2008 at 10:47 PM

Well I am all for “professional discretion” of course, but as you are all discreet here, or so I am told anyway, I can reveal some of her more minor “issues” that have come out in some of her more recent sessions with me I feel.

She has recently been experiencing what some now days call, I believe it is PTSS, about her days facing heavy combat as a Marine in Bosnia. She has been having flashbacks of facing sniper fire and even sustained hand to hand combat. She is still grieving over the loss of one of her fellows, a man she calls Sinbad, although that must be just her nick name for him. She is a very strong woman to still be running for President against now great odds while having to relive all those horrors. And then there is having to deal with that cheating husband of hers with whom she has a very unhealthy love/hate relationship. Poor woman, I do not know how much longer she can go without a complete crack up though.

THE CHOSEN ONE on April 8, 2008 at 10:07 PM

Question for you-

Does Operation Chaos help or hurt in the long run? Short-term it keeps the “rats” at each other’s throats but doesn’t this also give credibility to those demanding the “Fairness Doctrine” be imposed to silence talk radio? Despite the fact that McCain is really a liberal Democrat, his victory in November will renew the idea that talk radio has too much power in the electoral process. Should Juan McCain lose, the mantra will be that Democrats need to put an end to talk radio’s influence by imposing the fairness doctrine by executive order.

Now they can go screw each other, figuratively.

Entelechy on April 8, 2008 at 10:04 PM

As one of Hillary’s past therapists I can comment on that.

Figuratively is indeed the operative word Madam as Bill and Hillary have not actually had sex with each other since some time around 1990, except if you count yelling “#uck you” and “Well #uck you too” back at each other on numerous occasions of course. With Hillary’s election chances going down almost by the day, I have the distinct feeling that will become more frequent soon.

While a lot of attention has been paid to the politics of the Colombia agreement, very little has been paid to the merits, which U. S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab addressed at a press conference this afternoon:

If you look at the Colombia agreement itself, the Colombia agreement is a matter of leveling the playing field. Virtually everything that Colombia exports to the United States currently comes in duty-free through preference programs that have been around — temporary preference programs, but they’ve been around since 1991.
And what this free trade agreement does is open the Colombian market to U.S. exports of goods and services. And on the date that this agreement would enter into force, 80 percent of what we ship to Colombia in industrial and consumer goods would become duty-free.

Colombia currently has tariffs as high as 35 percent on those goods.

And in the case of agriculture, there are tariffs in the 80-plus percent range. Those would also — many of them would drop to zero upon entry into force and then would phase out thereafter.

So from a trade perspective, this is a matter of leveling the playing field. And, as we’ve seen with our other free trade agreements, U.S. exports to our FTA partner countries have grown 40 percent faster than our exports to the rest of the world.

Running in the Democratic primaries, Clinton and Obama are appealing to the least well-informed, least sophisticated element of America’s electorate. Sadly, instead of trying to lead on the issue of free trade, as Bill Clinton once did, to his credit, Hillary and Obama have chosen to pander to their voters’ biases.

Personal foul- Hillary Clinton.

We are supposed to be electing Hillary on her own merits, yet we still seem to be getting back to Bill Clinton no matter how much we want to relegate this failed President to the dustbin of history. To a certain extent, I blame Hillary Clinton. If she really was the anti-FTA candidate she claims to be, she has had ample opportunity to take that position. She never did until the unions started complaining.

THE CHOSEN ONE on April 8, 2008 at 10:07 PM

It’s frustrating that with her new conservative friends behind her for Operation Chaos, she’s not exactly doing herself, or her friends, favors.

Now they can go screw each other, figuratively.

Tag-team triangulation.

Ménage à trois deux.

The only problem is that the routine has gotten so predictable that it may have convinced Democrats to back Barack Obama instead.

My dog gets it.