The Fate of the Union - Oppose Fast Track Trade Authority

On the White House Website, we are invited to "Watch and Participate". How can we participate when the world's largest trade agreements have been negotiated secretly by your administration since you were inaugurated in 2009? Two rounds of negotiation for the little known TTIP were held in December alone. If you were to fulfil your mandate to present an annual report, you could report the progress that has been made on these agreements, which will dwarf all other efforts of your administration. The 800 pound elephant is in the room, visible to us all, yet this is what we are told:

"To boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership.  And tonight, I’m announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union -- because trade that is fair and free across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.  (Applause.)(?!!!)
(excuse me, these talks were launched long ago, and are nearing completion, like the barely known TPP. You still want "fast track"?)
We also know that progress in the most impoverished parts of our world enriches us all -- not only because it creates new markets, more stable order in certain regions of the world, but also because it’s the right thing to do.  In many places, people live on little more than a dollar a day.
(Please take a look at Bangladesh, and tell me how the lives of people have been improved there in the past decade, as well as Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iran)
So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate such extreme poverty in the next two decades
(we were promised that this job would be done by the year 2000, by the G7/8 and the WTO, we paid the price, and who got the $$?)
by connecting more people to the global economy; by empowering women
(perhaps start by requiring equal pay for equal work);
by giving our young and brightest minds new opportunities to serve (at McDonalds), and helping communities to feed (Mon$anto), and power, and educate themselves; by saving the world’s children from preventable deaths; and by realizing the promise of an AIDS-free generation, which is within our reach."
This will be remembered as the most degenerate excuse for a report on the "State of the Union" ever made:
"He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
Please do it in writing next year, as was the tradition prior to Woodrow Wilson. -
Meanwhile, those of us who are not delusional will fight tooth and nail to prevent "fast track" approval of these behemoth trade agreements, which must be stopped.

INDYRADIO

bring the ruckus to Facebook:  http://facebook.com/IndyRadio

The future of radio comes not from the Tower of Corporate Media but through WiFi and cellphone it now belongs to us. Circa 2013 we have a window of opportunity since web radio is received on desktops, mobiles and phones without added charges, and there are more than 50,000 free independent stations you can access with simple software. You don't need to download files, or worry about how much storage your device has available.

The newest playlists from Indyradio appear at  http://rd0.org