Sunday, April 18, 2004

Marshall and NAFTA

Just when you thought Chief Justice Margaret Marshall and the gay marriage ruling were the biggest controversy, along comes this: ["Nafta Tribunals Stir U.S. Worries"]. Quite frighteningly, Kerry was clueless:
"When we debated Nafta, not a single word was uttered in discussing Chapter 11. Why? Because we didn't know how this provision would play out. No one really knew just how high the stakes would get."
This is a lie. Many of us who were against NAFTA talked about Chapter 11 and Chapter 16 and many other terrible things hidden inside this treaty. We weren't senators. We weren't aides to senators. We were ordinary folks who bought the treaty and looked it at. We listened to the Ralph Naders, Jerry Browns, Ross Perots, Jesse Jacksons, Pat Buchanans and the public interest research groups who saw this stuff plain as day. We read the treaty. We educated ourselves. And, we warned our leaders.
Millions of jobs later, secret tribunals later, billions in trade deficits and peso bailouts later, our nation and its workers are worse off. Where the hell were you, John Kerry? Nowhere to be found, that's where.

North Carolina Caucuses
Democrat:
Edwards - 9,093 - 51.1 percent - 56 delegates.
Kerry - 4,844 - 27.2 percent - 30 delegates.
Kucinich - 2,175 - 12.2 percent - 4 delegates.
Dean - 1,009 - 5.7 percent.
Sharpton - 582 - 3.3 percent.
Uncommitted - 106 - 0.6 percent.

Colorado Caucuses

Democrat:
Kerry - 4,730 - 63.7 percent - 39 delegates.
Uncommitted - 1,454 - 19.6 percent - 10 delegates.
Kucinich - 964 - 13 percent - 4 delegates.
Dean - 182 - 2.5 percent
Edwards - 66 - 0.9 percent.
Clark - 25 - 0.3 percent.
Sharpton - 3

Isn't it amazing that almost 40 percent of the caucus-goers in Colorado didn't vote for the Democratic nominee? Isn't it interesting that almost 75 percent of North Carolina voters didn't vote for Kerry either. Granted, it is Edwards' home state. But still ...