Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

In comments to an article on Clinton's NAFTA position:

Alexa, on February 25th, 2008 at 12:19 am Said:

Al, if you add China-Most-Favored-Trading-Nation-Status (CMFTNS), which was 1999 if I remember correctly, then what was done to the Mexican worker becomes even worse. They were paying Mexican workers in the maquiladoras $2.22/hr. When that scumbag Rahm Emanuel pushed through the CMFTNS after he did the dirty with NAFTA five years previous, US factories moved to China where they could pay workers $.60/hr. [That, of course, is when John Tanton and his 13 anti-immigration groups found a new voice, after being disgraced in the 80s and the CA Proposition ###, dont remember, and gave Lou Dobbs his career boost.]

What bothers me about Hillary Clinton is just how f**king stupid she is. I mean, she is close to brain-dead stupid. Has the perspicacity of a dead gnat. The insight of a blind toad. And the vision of a house plan still locked in an architect’s drawer. What people read as smarts in her is power. Her supporters are no less lacking.

I haven’t read Sirota’s latest. He gave a great link about two months ago:
The Economic Policy Institute (founded by economist Robert Kuttner who blames Bill Clinton for the subprime mess - more below)
“Revisiting NAFTA
Still not working for North America’s workers”
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/bp173

Everything you needed to know about NAFTA . . . now. Oh, and dont miss Sirota’s video the day after Clinton laughed about NAFTA during an October debate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBypp2hqxaQ&eurl=http://www.politicswest....

After 12 serious tries over 25 years by bankers, Bill Clinton got rid of the Glass-Steagall Act put in place in 1933 to protect consumers against the runaway excesses of the Roaring 20s. (It was replaced by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.) Two days later Robert Rubin left the Clinton Admin to become head of Citicorp Group, the first bank to take advantage of the loose rules the banks craved. For you wonks who want to understand what this means, and for those genuine reporters who might read this board and who, like most, have zippo idea that the subprime mortgage mess was made possible by Mr. Genius 20C Political Mind himself (along with Dem neocons like Emanuel) here you go:

The Bubble Economy
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_bubble_economy

The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.ht...

Would Glass-Steagall save the day from credit woes?
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/would-glass-steagall-save-day-cred...
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Alexa, on February 25th, 2008 at 12:35 am Said:

CORRECTION: November Debate.

Also read:
Trade Fights by John Nichols
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20020401&s=nichols
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Alex, on February 25th, 2008 at 4:14 am Said:

“I argue,” said Senator Clinton, in clearly personal terms, that NAFTA “would work. The results speak for themselves” and “literally changed millions of lives and… changed America.”

Said Clinton in clearly personal terms…pretty dishonest way of characterizing how she viewed NAFTA…quote in context:

“We all know the record of the DLC, the Progressive Policy Institute and, of course, the Clinton-Gore Administration. The economic recovery plan stands first and foremost as a testament to both good ideas and political courage. National service. The Brady Bill. Family Leave. NAFTA. Investment in science and technology. New markets. Charter schools. The Earned Income Tax Credit. The welfare to work partnership. The COPS program. The SAFER program. All of these came out of some very fundamental ideas about what would work.

The results speak for themselves. Those ideas were converted into policies programs that literally changed millions of lives and, I argue, changed America. Twenty two and a half million new jobs, 7 million people out of poverty, 35 million Americans using the Family Medical Leave Act, record home ownership and college enrollment, the lowest crime rate in 27 years and the lowest welfare rolls in 35 years, the lowest minority unemployment on record, and hundreds of billions of dollars were used to pay down the national debt, and we had the first 3 surpluses in a row in more than 70 years.

Now some have recently called that record a binge.”

You make it seem like she is talking solely about NAFTA, despite your well placed “among other legacies”.

Despite the rhetoric, Obama and Clinton have essentially the same record and positions on NAFTA.

I'd say the quotation was tortured a bit (I guess by Sirota) to make it appear worse, but it's not distorting what she said (and Obama's point is specifically you can't take credit for all the good in Clinton 1992-1998 and selectively disclaim the bad when challenged) and I'll give Obama credit for talking against NAFTA.

Overall though excellent, information-packed comments (despite some entertaining vitrol directed at Hilary Clinton, "perspicacity of a dead gnat") and I'll let Al respond to the last critique himself!

Al Giordano, on February 25th, 2008 at 6:06 am Said:

Alex - What part of “among other legacies of the 1990s Clinton administration” didn’t you understand?

So if I praise, say, “cute puppies, rainbows, unicorns, chainsaw massacres, children and other living things,” does that mean I never praised “chainsaw massacres”? That seems to be your argument. C’mon, you can do better than that!