Words with amorphous meanings to Americans

Bernie Madoff - convict

Americans are such damn funny people... as in strange.

Many people have been in the news lately from the banksters to auto makers to politicians to CEOs. They proclaim they are responsible for this or that (not so much CEOs).

Responsibility: They take it, but what does it mean? It would seem acceptance of responsibility should carry with it some consequences. It doesn't appear that is so. Except for Obama who could lose his job in 3 years, no one appears to suffer in any way for their having claimed responsibility.

Socialism: Americans mostly hate it, but live with it every day. Most firefighters, police, the FBI, are all socialized. Few would find it preferable to have private militias protecting them.

Free trade: There's no such thing unless it's linked to human rights. It's merely a mixture of tariff controls, or lack thereof, which allows exploitation of people so other people can buy stuff cheaply. I think we can all agree NAFTA has certainly improved the lot of thousands of Mexicans, right? Many more after NAFTA are middle class with shiny new cars and big houses, right? Yeah, that worked out pretty well.

Theft: This one depends on your level of masochism. If banksters have fucked you by destroying your 401k or diminished your other retirement accounts and you liked it, then you don't see any theft. If you live in the real world, you realize there are many more Madoff's out there who need free room and board courtesy of the state.

War crimes: They don't apply to American politicians. Nor do they apply to Tony Blair. So they are not really crimes.

There are many other such words, but I'm not out to write a damn dictionary.

International trade tribunals seen trumping state laws

Its just a matter of time until CAFTA and/or NAFTA and the WTO will bite you in the ass. You had better wake up.

Read the article and then forward a link to it to your Congress critter. Its a piece of cake in Yahoo! mail or Gmail. You just highlight some words, click on the "link" button and paste a URL.

A Canadian company wants to open a new plant in Claremont, N.H., to bottle fresh water from a source in Stockbridge, Vt.

But if Vermont wants to limit how much water the company takes, it may run afoul of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

States around the country are growing increasingly worried about the threats posed to their laws and regulations by the secret tribunals that resolve disputes in international trade. Experts say everything from environmental rules to the licensing of nurses and other professionals could be affected.

"Free trade agreements are to state sovereignty and economic development what global climate change is to the environment and natural resources," said state Sen. Virginia Lyons, D-Chittenden. "I think it's a really significant issue for our state, and for every state in the country."

Vermont is one of seven states to establish committees to study the possible impacts of international trade on their laws.

Assistant Vermont Attorney General Elliot Burg said NAFTA and other trade agreements have opened up a path for international companies that want to circumvent state laws they don't like.

"The issue is not really fair treatment or equal treatment" of domestic versus foreign companies, Burg said. "It's really, `We don't like the laws you're passing.'"

I would suggest you be more civil than I am on this blog. My missives to Congress critters almost never contain any profanity beyond "hell" or "damn". They are rather prudish over there and chuck emails which contain overt outrage.

Via Boston Globe.