[maestro]

?......Is French Aid like 'Cool-Aid'.....?

Africa......400 years of French Aid still has'm ___________!

[Naspino]

Oh yeah -- I'm sure Africa is more efficient at producing cotton than the United States.

[Lurker]

"America's 25,000 cotton farmers collected $4bn from Washington last year, allowing them to sell their goods abroad at half the cost of production, at the expense of far more efficient producers in West Africa. Without government support most American cotton farms would go out of business, but Oxfam estimates they cost West Africa $200m a year in lost exports."

While noone hates government 'price supports' more than I do, this paragraph reeks of bulls***.

There's no way on Gods green earth that West African cotton farmers are more efficient than American cotton farmers.

Also, the math in this one is suspect. 4 billion divided by 25,000 is $160,000 per Cotton Farmer. Somehow I doubt this figure, but I could be wrong.

L

[montag813]

I wish we would let France send the AIDS money so we can spend the $15 billion on the needs of this country.

It is disgraceful to send a penny to Africa while their are mineral-rich billionaire dictators there who can easily fit the bill, and while we have 6% unemployment here. Let Africans pay for African AIDS victims. Add the $15 billion to the tax cut bill instead. I am so sick of Karl Rove's cynical racial politics fantasies, which also are leaving our borders undefended. Enough!

[PeaceBeWithYou]

According to the NCC(National Cotton Coucil) this claim is bogus, and it first showed up in the WSJ on Wednesday, June 26, 2002.

The WSJ rebutal is here >>> Cotton Policies and Prices - NCC Provides Missing Information and Clarification of Misinformation in WSJ Article.