[snopercod]

Constitution Day made me post this story.

[snopercod]

Sure, make me take the heat from the bush-bots...

Seriously, the misguided folks on this forum that think any country can survive by manipulation symbols need to try a little exercise.

For an entire day, write down everything you touch or use to survive. Start with the pencil and paper and go on from there. Note where each object is made.

At the end of the day, write a 200 word essay describing how you can get along with all those physical objects, because very soon, you're going to have to.

[My2Cents]

Oh right...North Carolina's going to vote for Howard Dean.

[Constitution Day]

Constitution Day made me post this story.

Tsk, tsk.
I can't even make my wife do anything, much less you! ;)

[Huck]

"We'll be a Third World country."

Can we institute repressive voting restrictions??

[Constitution Day]

This is sure to foment some lively discussion among NC Freepers.
Now, if you will excuse me, I will be back on this thread tonight.

---

NC ping!
Please FRmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[dinok]

The CEO of the company I work is against sending jobs overseas and thinks it is slowly destroying the American Industrial base.

GW as well as Clinton in his days, worshipped at the altar of the Arabs for cheap oil and the Chinese for cheap labour. All this at the expence of the American Middle class. We are told to retrain...yet now high paying jobs technical jobs are going to Asia.

The only one's profiting form it are the Chinese dictators who get their cut, and the middle men who arrange those deals.

Is it free trade when a Chinese worker is forced to work for penies to the dollar by his dictatorial government? Some free trade.

The democrats and the republicans are guilty of this.

[Mad Dawgg]

"We'll be a Third World country."

Are we all gonna die?

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Sounds like they are not too happy with their U.S. Representative either. Perhaps the GOP will lose some congressional seats next election. It is also possible more voters will just stay at home on election day.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

I feel your pain.

[harpseal]

When and if GWB decides he wishes to be more than a one term President he will sign or some variant.


In no particular order of importance.

1. Get rid of government subsidies for offshore investment of US companies. OPIC is the first such program which should go but support of World Bank programs that subsidize the outflow of Capital would be another.

2. Use tariffs on those nations which are engaged in unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation (China and India for example), those nations which refuse to open their markets to US products (China for example with its 50% tariffs on US consumer goods and non tariff barriers), those nations that subsidize competition to American Industry (airbus for example) and those nations which have slave conditions for their workers.

3. Use tariffs and other means to prevent the relocation of jobs offshore that are essential to the national defense. If necessary take control of the company seeking to export vital technology or industry by means of eminent domain (No I do not like this last option and I will only defend its use as an absolute last resort like say in the case of rare earth magnets essential to smart bomb technology). Provide a hardened, widely distributed infrastructure to supply all that is needed for our military units and civil defense that can be continued to be deployed in the event of any military attack.

4. An immediate end to guest worker programs. If people wish to come to the USA to work and make a life let them immigrate according to the rules.

5 Provide economic development zones where the corporate income tax is zero for operations within these zones. In order to operate in this zone a company must agree to only purchase American components if available and employ only American citizens or legal immigrants in these operations. These economic development zones shall be eventually be expanded to include every bit of every state once the benefits are shown I would like them to be totally implemented immediately but I realize4 that may be overreaching. It must be stated for clarification that simply being in the geographic area of the zones does will not subject any company to any new mandatory regulation. Everything is voluntary for getting the exclusion from corporate taxation. The profit attributable to direct imports is subject to the same rules that exist everywhere else in this nation for corporate taxation. Only free from such taxation is the profit attributable to American content and any American improvement. In short no new mandatory regulation will be a part of this. It is my opinion that there will not be a lack of companies seeking this tax relief. And no the regulation implied is absolutely minimal in order to get this through.

6. Scale back unnecessary regulation including the tort system. Institute a cap on punitive damages, limits on class action suits, and limits on liability to the actual percentage of liability with no plaintiff able to collect if said plaintiff was involved in the commission of a felony at the time of the alleged tort or was more than 49% negligent in the alleged tort. Note that the loser in a frivolous lawsuit shall pay the attorney fees of the winner. There are many other regulatory structures that also need to be included that need to be included such as repealing the Family leave mandate, getting rid of OSHA etc.

7. Increase the domestic content in purchases by the Department of defense and give absolute preference in non-domestic content to proven allies of the USA over say the French or Germans. The only reason any content for DOD purchase may come from non US allies is that content is not available elsewhere and is essential.

8. Do not allow expense involved in moving operations overseas to be included in business expenses under the IRS code.

9. Prosecute for perjury anyone who has made a false statement in order to employ an H1B or L1 visa worker. I will be lenient on the actual perjurer if he/she was ordered to make this false statement and he/she provides testimony to aid in the conviction of the person ordering the perjury. Just because a person is a CEO does not give them a pass on criminal behavior.

10. Prosecute anyone who orders the transfer of vital defense technology or funds a R&D project that could be of use to our military overseas except to strong allies of the USA. Make the necessary enhancements to our espionage laws so that continued support or funding of any R&D in a nation whose government has threatened the USA is guilty of espionage. The UK and Australia come to mind as meeting these criteria for being eligible for transfer of technology first. There will be other nations and a gradation of what can be transferred to which specific nation. Under no circumstances may technology be transferred to any nation whose government has threatened the USA within five years without a complete change of government or specific exemption from Congress and the administration.

11. Deport all illegal aliens immediately and take measures that prevent the entry of any more illegal aliens. Fine all companies knowingly employing illegal aliens Criminal sanctions should be imposed on anyone helping an illegal alien stay in the USA in violation of our laws.

12. Decrease the punishing levels of taxation on companies and eliminate the double taxation on corporate dividends. See effects of item 5 for how minimal this will be if item 5 covers the entire USA. Eliminate all IRS provisions that inhibit free use of independent contractors by businesses for example section 1706.

13. Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker can be paid based on productivity. Overtime compensation will remain the same but instead of 150% of the "wage" the worker would receive 150% of the production pay. If one through 13 are enacted # 14 becomes an irrelevancy as no one will be working for that low a wage.

Now since I started posting this plan another idea has come up that in my opinion is a very good policy that stands on its own. Now I give credit to Jim Gibson and Freeper Ed_in_NJ for coming up with the idea, separately to the best of my knowledge. However I can be corrected on that. The tariff phrasing is from Jim Gibson.

“I suggest that the US Customs Department charge a $1,000-per-container inspection fee on every container entering the United States. This fee would be used to completely fund the cost of inspections. If we assumed that a four-man team could fully inspect two containers a day or about 500 per year, it would require 48,000 inspectors. Allowing for at least 2,000 support personnel, we would need at least 50,000 workers. Because these workers would require high intelligence and skill levels they should earn at least $30 per hour. At 40-hour weeks plus benefits, I estimate the cost per worker to be over $75,000 per year, all paid by the foreign manufacturers. Even so, this would still leave over $2.25 billion to cover all other costs. Any revenue not used would be used to compensate American workers displaced by foreign imports. “

I urge and encourage everyone who agrees with this plan and or the terror tariff idea to communicate this to every politician you can think of.

I note he had no problem triangulating the AWB issue away from teh Democrats he sure better use teh same political sense on this issue.

[Texas_Dawg]

Back in my day... all American high-school graduates got free scholarships to Ivy League schools (and there weren't no fairy-loving hippies there either). After they all made straight A's for four years (because they were all good, smart, hard-working European-Americans, dammit), they moved back to their towns and cities where they ran the farms and factories. These farms and factories were ran with precision and efficiency worth of God Himself and they fed and clothed the entire nation for free. People were so happy that in the entire 1950s (the height of this era) there were only 5 murders in the whole country, and most of those were committed by queers. Yeah, life was perfect back in my day before this place went to Hell in a handbasket. All men got along in perfect harmony with their fellow workers and we all lived rich and happily in the good old U.S.A. Then those damn RINOs came along with their uppity communist "economics" and "same water fountains for everyone" crap. Now this place is a living hell overrun by people the Constitution never specifically said were supposed to be allowed in here.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Problem for these people is that the dimbulbs aren't going to do anything to help them. Bush will sweep the South during the next election.

[philetus]

Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger voted for NAFTA and fast-track, and has seen his 10th District lose nearly 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture industries.

"Certainly, there's a political cost to any controversial vote no matter which side you take," he said. "People are casting stones, but we're trying to pick them up and build something."

From his website:

Congressman Ballenger is well known for his principled, humorous and forthright approach to politics and business.

What a jacka$$

[KevinDavis]

Which admin passed NAFTA? Which admin pass GATT? Which admin ass kissed China?

[Constitution Day]

!!

154 replies already!

[jammer]

I deliberately wanted to see how many posts it took for denial syndrome to show up. Took a long time--#3.

[RnMomof7]

Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger voted for NAFTA and fast-track, and has seen his 10th District lose nearly 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture industries.
"Certainly, there's a political cost to any controversial vote no matter which side you take," he said. "People are casting stones, but we're trying to pick them up and build something."

The only problem is what they are building is in 3rd world nations

"We're basically liquidating our whole middle class, polarizing people on the two extremes, have and have-nots," Chastain said of the manufacturing job losses. "We'll be a Third World country."

I believe that is the goal of the New World order. The aim being the to make people believe the only future hope for them or their children is a new international government. Our Supreme Court Justices are already ahead of this curve

[Mo1]

Jobs in many industries have fled overseas since 1993, when Congress passed the Clinton-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. About half the textile and apparel jobs that existed in 1994 are gone.

And this is all Bush's fault ??

[Ciexyz]

And people think the Demopukes are going to be any different than the Pubbies? Hell, the union leaders are in cahoots with the big money people of both parties. I'm a union member, and I'm convinced that my union says one thing, does another, and nuthin' ever changes, ever, the average people always suffer.

I'm still sticking with the Republicans because the Demopukes are ten times worse.

[dirtboy]

This is the most powerful political dynamic of the next four to six years. Either one of the existing political parties will harness it, or a new one will arise and consign one of the parties (probably the Dems) to the dustbin of history. This force also could very well be a highly destructive one if our current leaders refuse to acknowledge it in its early stages. I truly fear for the Republic in this day and age.