“I have always opposed NAFTA.”

“I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have.”

“Ten years after NAFTA passed, Senator Clinton said it was good for America. … Well, I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America - and I never have.” –Senator Barack Obama in Toledo, Ohio on February 24, 2008

Now in an interview with Fortune magazine out on Monday June 23, 2008, the very junior Senator from Illinois wants us to believe that was just rhetoric. He really didn’t mean what he said.

“Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” –Senator Barack Obama in a Fortune magazine interview to be published Monday June 23, 2008

Never mind the heat of battle rhetoric, how about the more reflective printed word?

In his own flyer, Obama is quoted as saying that “one million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio.” But those figures come from an anti-NAFTA source, the Economic Policy Institute written by Robert Schott. Other economists have criticized that report’s methodology and its conclusions as having overstated the impact of NAFTA, rather they point to a lax enforcement of regulations that have permitted an exodus of American manufacturing jobs and primarily to China, Korea and other East Asian countries not to Mexico or Canada. Other economic studies have concluded the trade deal resulted in much smaller job losses or even a small net gain. Here’s what the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has to say on NAFTA’s effects on American jobs:

NAFTA’s net effect on jobs in the United States has been minuscule, given the size of the U.S. economy and the importance of other trading partners.

The best models to date suggest that NAFTA has caused either no net change in employment or a very small net gain of jobs.

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One of the goals and objectives of By The Fault is to provide disaffected Democrats options as to where go to from here in participating in the electoral process. The Working Families Party of New York may be one such option if you live in New York state or Oregon.

From the Working Families Party website:

The Working Families Party is a grassroots community and labor based political party. We have come together because we believe that we can create a New York that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well connected.

Our goal is to inject the issues that our state’s working and middle class families care most about — issues like access to healthcare, fair wages, affordable housing and good schools — into politics. We aim to hold our politicians accountable for the promises they make on those issues.

Our organizing strategy is to start local, think long-term, combine campaign work with organizing and education, and not waste supporters’ votes.

We’re building political power for the rest of us—those of us who aren’t executives or lobbyists. We’re organizing into chapters all around the state. We’re winning real victories.

And we want you to join us.

Here is the New York website: Working Families Party New York. And here is the Oregon website: Working Families Party Oregon. Thanks to reader Cognitive Dissosance for the Oregon tip!

There is also a Working Families of Massachusetts (WFM) but they are not yet organized as a political party. The WFM is more a coalition of labor organizations that espouses working-class issues.

Not an endorsement, just a public service announcement.

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Russia secured the last quarter finals spot by dispatching Sweden 2-0. In the other game in Group D, Greece completed its defence of its title with its third loss. Spain won yet again in dramatic fashion, slipping past Greece 2-1 with a goal in the finals. It was another Greek tragedy. Spain wins the group and will face Italy in the quarters. Russia will square off against the Oranje of the Netherlands. The other two matches are Croatia v Turkey and a very intriguing Portugal v Germany.

For more on the matches and the tourney, please visit Euro2008.

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Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released yesterday its figures (full report) regarding the global numbers of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs):

“UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres expressed concern Tuesday about the growing number of refugees worldwide after an annual survey said there were 11.4 million refugees and 26 million others displaced internally by conflict or persecution at the end of 2007. “After a five-year decline in the number of refugees between 2001 and 2005, we have now seen two years of increases, and that’s a concern,” Guterres said in London. (…)

“We are now faced with a complex mix of global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future. They range from multiple new conflict-related emergencies in world hotspots to bad governance, climate-induced environmental degradation that increases competition for scarce resources, and extreme price hikes that have hit the poor the hardest and are generating instability in many places.”"

The number of refugees and IDPs increased by 2.5 million this year compared to last year. The UNHCR provides relief for approximately 14 million people.

So who are these millions of people? Unsurprisingly, we found roughly 3 million Afghans in Pakistan and Iran, 2 million Iraqis in Syria and Jordan. Both countries account for almost half of the world’s refugees. They are followed by Colombians (552,000), Sudanese (523,000) and Somalis (457,000). At the same time, the top refugee-hosting countries in 2007 included Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Germany and Jordan.

As for the IDPs, the order may be different but the countries are roughly the same: 3 million people in Colombia; 2.4 million in Iraq; 1.3 million in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; 1.2 million in Uganda; and 1 million in Somalia.

The UNHCR also reported a 5% increase in applications for asylums. Most of that increase comes from Iraqis trying to obtain political asylum in Europe (good luck with that! European countries have gotten less and less generous in the political asylum departments).

There is some good news though:

“Some 731,000 refugees were able to go home under voluntary repatriation programmes in 2007, including to Afghanistan (374,000), Southern Sudan (130,700), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (60,000), Iraq (45,400) and Liberia (44,400). In addition, an estimated 2.1 million internally displaced people went home during the year.”

For those who cannot go home, the UNHCR tries to find long-term resettlements solutions in third countries. There are more applications but not that many successes, only 1% of refugees are resettled in third countries. And as the New York Times notes, the burden of receiving refugees is shouldered by poorer countries rather than rich ones. But it is a problem because a large population of refugees can be a source of instability for the receiving countries, especially when there are ethnic differences and when politicians use refugees for their own purposes (as was the case in the DRC and the Hutus refugees from Rwanda).

June 20th is World Refugee Day.

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“I am basically voting for Senator McCain because I am so disenchanted with the Democratic Party.”

I don’t think Obama and his supporters realize the depth of feelings and the antipathy that a large part of the Democratic voters hold towards Obama and the Democratic Party. And trying to blackmail us into voting for Obama by holding us hostages to Roe v Wade is frankly despicable. We are well aware of the repercussions of a McCain Presidency. We are also well aware of the repercussions of an Obama Presidency. As of now, I’ll take my chances with a McCain Presidency though I do not intend to vote for McCain. I may abstain.

That’s the thing about PUMA voters, we will each take our own path but what unites us is our opposition to the very junior Senator from Illinois.

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The PUMA PAC has a list of action items with which you can help. Here’s the PUMA Action Item of the Day:

Copy and paste this link into your email and send it to the Ten Senators who now want us to hop on the Unity Pony after the Sexist Horse has left the barn. Checklist for Change? Not so much.

YOUTUBE LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM39yIKoSo4

Senator Barbara MIKULSKI Contact Senator Mikulski

Senator Debbie STABENOW Contact Senator Stabenow

Senator Blanche LINCOLN Contact Senator Lincoln

Senator Patty MURRAY Senator Murray

Senator Dianne FEINSTEIN Contact Senator Feinstein

Senator Barbara BOXER Contact Senator Boxer

Senator Maria CANTWELL Contact Senator Cantwell

Senator Mary LANDRIEU Contact Senator Landrieu

Senator Claire MCCASKILL Contact Senator McCaskill

Senator Amy KLOBUCHAR Contact Senator Knobuchar

The video is Johnny Matthis & Deniece Williams singing Too Much Too Little Too Late

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Meet the Reverend James Meeks, the “respected leader’ for Barack Obama and another “spiritual advisor” for Obama. How many does this guy need, anyway? The Reverend James Meeks is a noted homophobe calling homosexuality a “sickness.” He’s also a pledged delegate for Obama from Illinois. One more reason that I won’t be voting for Barack Obama.

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This is the strange case of English public school boys from the fields of Eton on to the halls of Sandhurst and careers in the SAS (Special Air Service Regiment, the special forces of the British Armed Forces) who then become mercenaries and attempt to overthrow a government in 2004. And this is a story about oil.

If you have never heard of La Guinea Ecuatorial, or Equatorial Guinea, you are not alone. It’s one of the most obscure of Africa’s 50 plus nations. To begin with, Equatorial Guinea is one of two former Spanish colonies in Africa, the other being Spanish Sahara, now occupied by Morocco. Equatorial Guinea is small and composed of two parts. Rio Muni is a sliver of land tucked between Cameroon and Gabon. The other part of Equatorial Guinea is five inhabitated islands in the Bight of Biafra. Combined the country is about the size of Maryland. Some have called it the “most wretched place on Earth.”

The country became independent in 1968 after 190 years of Spanish rule. For its entire 40 year history, only two men have served as President and they both rank as two of the most tyrannical despots on a continent where despots have been the norm. Francisco Macías Nguema was the first President of the Equatorial Guinea ruling from independence until his overthrow on August 3, 1979. During this time, Macías Nguema developed a cult of personality (he declared himself a living god) and his supporters turned over any perceived opposition to Macías Nguema to the security forces with reckless abandon. The country came to be known as the “Dachau of Africa.” By the time of the coup, 600,000 Equatorial Guineans, or 50% of the population, had fled the country. And approximately 50,000 Equatorial Guineans were in jail at the time of coup, not to mention an estimated 100,000 dead or missing. In 1979, Equatorial Guinea had only a third of the population it had had in 1968.

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Cross-posted from The Global Sociology Blog.

Via the Guardian,

“A school in north-east Thailand has introduced toilets for transvestites after a survey showed that more than 200 students saw themselves as transgender, a director said today.

Sitisak Sumontha said he believed the 2,600-student Kampang school, in north-eastern Thailand, was the first secondary to introduce unisex toilets.

“These students want to be able to go to the restroom in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped,” he added.

The toilets are designated by a sign depicting a human figure split in half - part man in blue and part woman in red.

“I’m so happy about this,” student Vichai Sangsakul told Thailand’s PBS news channel. “It looks bad going to female restrooms. What would other people think?”

Transgenders are often seen on TV soap operas in Thailand and are common in the capital, Bangkok, although rural areas are more conservative.

The country also holds transgender beauty pageants and the deputy education minister, Boonlue Prasertsopar, said the ministry planned to count the number of transgender university students.

“If there are a lot of them in a university and it’s a problem, we may have to consider building toilets and dormitories for them,” he added.”

Imagine if a school principal here in the United States suggested anything equivalent. Oh boy, the parents would be up in arms, right-wing groups would swarm to the place to declare the end of the Western civilization and O’Reilly would have a whole segment on it.

In reality, this costs nothing and hurts no one. And even though I’m an old-fashioned progressive (redistribution first, identity issues later), I don’t see any problem with this. Anthropological research has long shown that gender identity is a pretty fluid business and not everybody see themselves as in the neat “male” and “female” boxes that societies construct for us (and with the social sanctions for those who don’t fit). So, any initiative that reduces the level of stigma some categories of people may endure is a good thing.

And, obviously, Thailand is ahead of us in terms of acceptance of transgenderism.

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John Heilemann writes this week in the New York Magazine on the political legacy and new found political clout of Senator Hillary Rodman Clinton. The article is entitled The Fall and Rise of Hillary Clinton: What She Won By Losing. It is a compelling read. A few money quotes.

Albeit temporarily, the loser has more power than the winner. She, not Obama, is in a position to bring the party together or rip the thing to shreds. She, not he, has the capacity to orchestrate a merger of their warring factions of supporters.

My sense is that damage is done and it is not Clinton’s doing. If she can pull that miracle of re-uniting the party off, then she is more powerful and more astute than Obama. I may have to reflect on this more but my suspicion as to where to lay the blame of the demise of the Democratic Party lies in several quarters: the Obama campaign who ran a devisive campaign from the get go highlighted but not limited to by his “bittergate” comments that will have long-term repercussions for the Democratic Party, the media for turning women’s hopes into anger, the DNC leadership for disenfranchising the voters of Florida and Michigan. But in truth, the Democratic Party has long been divided against itself. It is an unworkable coalition led ostensibly by a liberal elite that is wholly ignorant of the party’s working class roots and largely out of touch with American values. In short, the Democratic Party is no longer what it once was, the party of FDR and LBJ. It is something else, the party of Barack Obama, Tom Daschle, John Kerry and Donna Brazile.

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