So let me get this straight... RE the bus trip

[nadinbrzezinski]

the President went to a pretty decimated area due to free trade agreements to sing the joys of them? It is not him, it is the DC establishment, how long until they realize NAFTA, CAFTA and the rest of them are taking us to the cleaners? (incidentally they were not good for Mexico either)

You know I was reminded of the PSAs run in Mexico singing the praises of NAFTA and how good they have been for the Mexican Economy and competitiveness... never mind it destroyed native industries... just as it has decimated our industrial economy.

Yes, there are winners in this... but it is not the people of the US, or Mexico, or Canada or any other partner...

It is time to get rid of these treaties but how tone deaf can they be in DC?

[gateley]

1. They seriously can't see beyond their rarified world. They

complicate things too much. It's easy - these hurt us, get rid of them! But it''s too easy, apparently, for DC.

[Hydra]

10. Too much money being made by bad people

It all comes back to this, it seems. Money talks louder than even votes...or maybe that's Diebold's fault?

[loudsue]

12. +++++++1,000,000,000,000,000

Diebold and faux. The two headed monster.

[Ninga]

2. Amen! Spot on! And who in the hell in DC gives a damn....I am so disheartened.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Because they do not look at the level of the people in decimated communities...

to asses the success or failure of a program. The see profit and loss sheets of companies and deduce from those that the people must be happy.

Anyway, people who spend a lot of time in Martha's Vineyard don't have much in common with devastated post-industrial landscapes.

[Angry Dragon]

4. When $172,000 per year is a modest salary

your perception is a long ways off

more than 90% of the families of this nation make less than that and the President calls it a modest salary

[Cleita]

5. Thom Hartmann had an explanation.

He says that things are not economically bad in DC. Everyone is working, the restaurants and businesses are doing well. Of course it's on taxpayer's money. They don't see how bad it is outside of the belt way. I wish the unemployed, homeless and the unions would start descending on DC and start putting up Hoovervilles like they did during the Great Depression. Maybe then they would get it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I suspect that is coming

and as long as MacCarthur don't come out with the army to break skulls...











At this point people need to be reminded of this almost now missing history.

[hifiguy]

14. They wouldn't send the Army today. They'd send Blackwater/Xe.

There would be no pictures published of the towering stacks of dead, either. The bloodshed would make Tienanmen Square look like a picnic if the proles tried anything like that today in DC.

[sad sally]

9. Over 320,000 government workers in DC - a little over 600,000

residents. Sure the number increases during the work week and not all 320,000 employees are in the high pay grades, but still that's a lot of money for the business community.

My Mom said men jumped on trains to get there to set up Hooverville, as few people had money to travel - kinda' like today. Not too many train hoppers anymore, though.

[slipslidingaway]

7. knr - and thanks for the old photos nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. You welcome... we really need to remember what

will be repeated.

[slipslidingaway]

11. We sure do! n/t

[JoeyT]

13. It certainly does answer the question "Why do people vote against their own interest?"

You're voting to screw yourself either way. One way is voting for low corporate taxes so they move and take all the jobs with them. The other way is voting for free trade agreements so the corporations move and take all the jobs with them. All you get to vote for is how you get screwed.

Funny how all the "He can do no wrong!" crowd never turn up in the free trade agreement threads and won't respond to anyone that brings them up.