Pathetic: Obama Trade Document Leaked, Revealing New Corporate Powers And Broken Campaign Promises

[geefloyd46]

WASHINGTON -- A critical document from President Barack Obama's free trade negotiations with eight Pacific nations was leaked online early Wednesday morning, revealing that the administration intends to bestow radical new political powers upon multinational corporations, contradicting prior promises.

The leaked document has been posted on the website of Public Citizen, a long-time critic of the administration's trade objectives. The new leak follows substantial controversy surrounding the secrecy of the talks, in which some members of Congresshave complained they are not being given the same access to trade documents that corporate officials receive.

...The newly leaked document is one of the most controversial of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. It addresses a broad sweep of regulations governing international investment and reveals the Obama administration's advocacy for policies that environmental activists, financial reform advocates and labor unions have long rejected for eroding key protections currently in domestic laws.

Under the agreement currently being advocated by the Obama administration, American corporations would continue to be subject to domestic laws and regulations on the environment, banking and other issues. But foreign corporations operating within the U.S. would be permitted to appeal key American legal or regulatory rulings to an international tribunal. That international tribunal would be granted the power to overrule American law and impose trade sanctions on the United States for failing to abide by its rulings.

The terms run contrary to campaign promises issued by Obama and the Democratic Party during the 2008 campaign.


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[sharp_stick]

1. Please point out the

relevant sections of the document.

I'm not going to wade through 52 pages of legal jargon to verify or disprove Huffington Post article.

Also it would be good form to at least link to the original article you paste from:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/obama-trade-document-leak_n_1592593.html

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Keep those blinders on...

I trust Public Citizen.

[sharp_stick]

7. So do I

they posted the document, now I'm asking someone to interpret and footnote the thing.

You may enjoy the comfort of blind trust but I prefer to actually try to know what something says in the proper context.

[nolabels]

12. Trusting confirmed hibitual liars like Mitt Romney helps too

It's kind of fun to read behind and in between the lines of the propaganda and falsehood of corporate funded and subsidized news outlets to understand their real weakness and fears.

No doubt that corporations control and own most of the government but that little hitch of the POTUS having Fiats on foreign policy must irk them.

[bajamary]

2. Oh gee

What the heck are you doing Barack?

[Marr]

3. Cue the attacks on the source in 3...2...1...

[robinlynne]

11. of course...

[bajamary]

4. link to the analysis

Below is the link to the 9 page analysis by the progressive non-profit organization: Public Citizen.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/Leaked-TPP-Investment-Analysis.pdf

"The outrageous stuff in this leaked text may well be why U.S. trade officials have been so extremely secretive about these past two years of [trade] negotiations," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch in a written statement.

[thecrow]

8. Link to the TPP itself:

http://www.ustr.gov/tpp

And no, I do not believe that our President is doing something so unfair to America.
This is just hyper-panic politics produced by a party that is currently throwing the kitchen sink at us.
Get a backbone, people!

On Edit: Another thought: I had to search through Public Citizen to find the article mentioned in Huff Post.
There is a party who is front and center on bringing the President down, by hook or by crook. Are you really going to
buy into their schemes? Then maybe you should sign up for Freeperville, where people fall for anything that comes down the pike.
I have read where people won't read Huff Post and it has become a headache, I agree, because it crashes my computer everytime I go there, and Public Citizen is a good place but watch the framing. Watch the news. They are trying to get people to doubt Obama, and this is just the start of the pile on.
The TPP is in its 13th negotiation meeting next month, and I doubt it is a done deal. No wonder they are trying to get it done without outside politics in an election year.

And all you naysayers...What the hell are you trolling DU for? Yeah, I thought so.

[Mojorabbit]

13. public citizen has always been a good source

do you have evidence to the contrary? I hope it isn't true as it probably would be the last straw for me. I would hope the leader of this country was actively working to help the average citizen and not to give up our sovereignty.

[avaistheone1]

14. Public Citizen is hyper-panicing? lol

Put on your critical thinking cap. Don't get railroaded like we did with Clinton on NAFTA.

Face it. This is Obama's SHAFTA.

[bajamary]

15. not a troll

Hi crow,

I, for one, am not a troll but a 64 year old Progressive Democrat who worked for Obama in 2008 in IN, MI, and WI. Who are you? An Obama apologist?

This trade deal is very real. Read it for yourself, I did.

Here is the link to the 9 page analysis by the progressive non-profit organization: Public Citizen.

http://www.citizen.org/documents/Leaked-TPP-Investment-Analysis.pdf

[AnotherMcIntosh]

18. You may find that if you have a small number of posts and merely ask that Obama

take action consistent with traditional Democratic values and his 2008 campaign positions, you'll be attacked by some as a troll.

[geefloyd46]

9. Appreciate linking of the document

I thought I had linked the HUff Post doc so I was surprised it wasn't there. I want to have good form

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/obama-trade-document-leak_n_1592593.html

[Jake2413]

6. Why does he keep doing everything not to get re-elected?

[AnotherMcIntosh]

19. His re-election is assured. As Rahm Emanuel said, where else are they going to go?

Rmoney is worse.

[Remember]

21. ?

Maybe there are reasons that will come out after the election is the only reason other than what Micheal Moore said about Obama.

[obiden20122008]

23. beats me. Really.

[geefloyd46]

10. Public has been a very solid source of information before Obama came in and they

will after. I've even contributed to them myself and I will not discredit something because they tell me something I don't like. Frankly, I believe they have a pretty good record of reporting accurately it's not Fox news or any of the other four government channels.

[krawhitham]

16. Why do we assume this Leaked Document is real?

[limpyhobbler]

17. I don't care if it's real. The issue is not the document. It's the secret corporate deals

to undermine democracy. I think this might be the "crony capitalism" we keep hearing about.

[snot]

20. K&R'd!

[geefloyd46]

22. Very interesting commentary to this post.

I'd like to believe this is just dirty tricks but I have a lot of faith in Public Citizen and both sides are trolling from the same big businesses in order to stay competitive in our election system. The one thing I know about American big business is they seldom give millions of dollars away for altruistic reasons so it makes me wonder what exactly they got for it and that is for both sides, unfortunately.

[demwing]

24. I promise I will vote for Obama

...contribute what I can, register voters in my state, and generally be a good soldier all around.The opposition is too well funded, and I don't really have another choice, so Go Obama! 2012!!!

But this is that last damn time I'm holding my nose when I vote. Afterward this election, I have to change how I vote. I have to change how I think about voting.

I don't yet know exactly what that means, but I DO know this: If I want Blue, I have to stop voting Purple, and hoping I end up with something "Blueish". I have to stop telling myself that Purple is as close to Blue as I'll ever get, and I definitely know that I have to stop telling myself that I should be happy that Purple ain't Red.

Sorry gang - but as much as Purple ain't Red, it ain't god damned Blue, either. If we want Blue, we have to vote Blue. If we want Progress, we have to vote Progressive. If I want populism, I have to vote for the Populist. If I want to limit the influence of corporations, I have to stop voting for the corporate spokesperson. If we want ANYTHING in life, we have to aim for that thing, not just near it.

Sigh...as I said - this election, for one last time, I'll do the pragmatic thing --I will vote for Obama.

But win or lose, come next December, this shit has got to change.

[sabrina 1]

25. Good post, I think you speak for a lot of people. Enough is enough. We have no choice this time

but that alone is what makes something like this possible.

The next four years will have to be spent finding candidates for all offices who can be trusted to turn this around. I hope there is an explanation for this.

We've seen the charts, money flowing up away from the American people.

One thing that gives me more confidence in Obama, contrary to what we are supposed to think of it, is that Corporate money is going to Romney. That seems to mean that the Corporations do not have faith in Obama as much as they do in Romney to strengthen their control over this country.

I think he should use this as a campaign issue. OWS has helped people understand better the influence of money on elections. We also know that a majority of people when polled on the issue, want that influence ended. This would be a good time to notify the public that that money is going to Romney and ask them to ask themseves why.

Make Corporate money poisonous, which is not hard to do because it is. But Democrats should keep the pressure on Romney about being bought by corporations.

[fasttense]

26. This TPP sets out the perfect set of rules in order to implement fascism.

No longer would our Constitution and laws rule economic activity in our country, an unelected, conflicted, set of Tribunal judges would rule us all. And the Tribunal judges would be ruled corporations, much like the US Supreme Court.

You think I exaggerate? Read the document it is a corporate wish list. It is NAFTA on steroids. It allows for unlimited compensation to corporations if a nation were, to pass a law that might reduce the value of their property. The Tribunal could overrule the US Constitution.

If this monstrosity were to be implemented, it would be a document for the enslavement of the nations agreeing to it.

Why would any liberal agree to even a part of this? Obama what are you doing to this country?