And an interesting comparison between the the paths of Bush and Gore since 2000 from the Post. What a different country and better place the US would have been with a Gore administration. The Republicans are so full of sour grapes, obviously touchy about the massive failures and lies that will define the GOP for years to come. Gore was so right about so many things and that's something the GOP or the Supreme Court can never take away.
What other good articles is everyone seeing out there from around the world?
Whether it's Mr. Bubble or Republicans, the pro-free trade crowd always makes it sound so easy and as if it made 100%, perfect sense. What bad could come from free trade? It sounds so, well, free and isn't freedom what America is all about? If only it was so easy. The down to earth reality is that there is always a hitch, something that makes it not quite as "free" in reality as it is on paper and this is yet another example.
People in Costa Rica are worried, just like many in the US, that such a free trade agreement will damage the local system and take away jobs. What makes these "free" trade agreements difficult is that when you combine the size of the US farms (for example) and then add to that the healthy benefits of government subsidies to those farms, it's not really much of a free trade system where everyone receives an equal opportunity. It's also quite different from the whingers at Boeing and Airbus who complain every time the other side receives billions from their respective governments.
Across Africa and the developing world the complaints are similar, with governments often signing up for these great new trade agreements despite rarely found benefits to the local populations. Global trade can deliver a lot of great benefits, many of the benefits that the "free" traders talk about but the system we offer today is anything but fair and needs to be updated. It's time to move away from holding the small and poor nations over a barrel and serving big business interests and start thinking more about how these agreements actually impact humans. The possibilities exist but we need to modernize the first draft and start addressing real world issues instead of theory.
UPDATE: The religious right leader claimed that he was speaking on behalf of the White House, "I came to you representing the White House." More from the Seattle Times' blog.
The White House is denying that it gave its seal of approval to religious right homophobe Ken Hutcherson to travel around the world with his Holocaust-revisionist buddy Scott Lively and portray himself as a "special envoy" of George Bush's White House and the Faith-Based Initiative. But Hutcherson tells The Stranger's blog, slog, otherwise - and he names names:
I just spoke to Pastor Ken Hutcherson. He tells me that White House spokeswoman Alyssa J. McLenning is wrong, that he does have the title he claimed, and that it comes from a “partnership” he’s established with Jay Hein, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
“You need to talk to Jay Hein,” Hutcherson told me. “He’s the one that I’ve been talking to and the one that we are partnered with.”
Hutcherson claims to have met with Hein at least twice in person about this partnership, once a few months ago in Seattle, and once last month at the White House. I asked Hutcherson what the title and the partnership mean in terms of his work in Latvia. He replied:
“In my meetings, I can represent as being with them [the White House] and having the power I need to get things done.”
UPDATE: Religious right preacher says White House is lying when it denies appointing him as a special envoy. He's also now naming names.
The Bush White House reportedly appointed arch-homophobe Ken Hutcherson as a "special envoy" of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. You'll remember him as the man who got Microsoft to dump its supports for gay civil rights (Microsoft subsequently dumped Hutcherson and came back to the fold). Hutcherson himself is claiming the White House appointed him. The White House is reportedly denying it (though their denial sounds awfully legalistic to me).
Hutcherson then claims he used his new White House anointed status to meet with Latvian government officials and go bother our US embassy officials in Latvia. And who reportedly tagged along with Mr. Hutcherson on his White House endorsed trip? None of than religious right anti-gay activist Scott Lively, a man accused of publishing Holocaust Revisionism by HateWatch. You see, Lively is the guy behind the theory that gays were the really masterminds behind the Holocaust.
Hutcherson also says he was there pushing Latvia to oppose gay marriage. Good God, do these people ever quit? Hutcherson also lectured the US Embassy officials about their supposed support for the homosexual agenda - I'm sure they had nothing better to do than meet with this goofball now officially representing the Bush the White House.
Last week, ex-NFL player Pastor Ken Hutcherson flew in from Washington to give advice on fighting LGBT rights.
He was joined by another American, Scott Lively, co-author of 'The Pink Swastika- Homosexuality in the Nazi Party'. This disturbing book is an insane diatribe claiming that ‘homosexualism’ not only gave birth to Nazi imperialism but also led to the Holocaust itself. It's crackpot theories stem from rumour, conjecture and fantasy and despite the fact that few take it seriously, it's a best-seller in anti-gay circles.
The scary tome, which happens to be on its 4th edition, claims that: “homosexuality is primarily a predatory addiction striving to take the weak and unsuspecting down with it”.
And just to bring the conspiracy full circle, who do you think helped promote Lively's theories in the past? None other than religious right homophobe Peter LaBarbera, who has worked at the Family Research Council and was yet another man at the Concerned Women for America. LaBarbera published Lively's crackpot theories in his anti-gay rag, the Lambda Report.
These are the hateful, bigoted people who make up the religious right. These are the wackjobs the Republican party and the Bush White House continue to embrace.
People like this are no better than genocidal dictators, and should be treated as such. (And by that, I don't mean that George Bush should sell him weapons and Donald Rumsfeld should go shake his hand.) From Sky News:
The man is HIV positive, but after a few sessions of this treatment: a rub down with the cream, a splash on the face with another potion and a drink of a murky looking liquid, the President claims he'll be cured.
He's already treated dozens of his people with his traditional medicine, succeeding, he says, where modern medical science has failed.
Sceptics are not welcome.
"Who do I have to convince?" he demanded, jabbing his finger towards me.
"The World?" I suggested....
This 'cure' is sponsored by The Gambia's Department of Health....
The Minister, Dr Tamsir Mbowe, did not think that would be a problem.
"One hundred per cent the President can cure everyone. It is absolutely medically proven," he said....
President Jammeh cures Aids on Thursdays and Asthma on Saturdays, the rest of the time he runs the country he's ruled for 12 years.
Confused about how to respond to AIDS campaigner Gao Yaojie when she was announced to be honored by the Vital Voices Global Partnership in the US for her work, the 80 year old was put under house arrest, making it impossible for her to apply for a US travel visa. After extensive discussions with the highest levels of the communist leadership, Gao's house arrest has been lifted. Now she is being praised by a high ranking communist official for her work and the police who were blocking her house have since moved on.
Gao, who previously had been awarded by the UN and other international organizations but has been unable to leave China because of politics, became a controversial figure when she exposed tainted blood selling schemes in China as well as actively working working with AIDS patients and orphans.
It's the year of the pig, which many are claiming means conflict and more natural disasters. Welcome to the year 4074 according to the Chinese calendar. Hillary Clinton was born in the year of the pig though some see trouble ahead for her.
But a word of caution to the presidential candidate.
The pig finished last in the race that determined the zodiac's order, behind the dog.
Other animals in the zodiac are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey and rooster. The zodiac runs on a 12-year cycle, and each year is associated with the five elements that Chinese mystics make up the universe: metal, water, wood, fire and earth.
Therein lies the trouble.
Pig years can be turbulent because they are dominated by fire and water, conflicting elements that tend to cause havoc, Lo said.
