I just realized this about the free trade deal with Panama

[matmar]

I knew from listening to Thom Hartmann and Sam Seder that this deal was about rich people now being able to legally dodge taxes because of Panama's banking secrecy laws.

What I just realized was that because of the rules established under the WTO it would be illegal for Congress to go after this kind of behavior.

[truedelphi]

1. Very true, except under the Constitution and the Articles - no government

officials are to establish such relationships with other nations.

WTO and NAFTA both require that our nation abandon its sovereignty, in order to play "slave" to these types of nefarious organizations. And quite often, it is very much to the detriment of the people.

When California finally got MTBE out of its gasoline, the state had to pay some 970 millions of dollars to a Canadian MTBE manufacturer for breach of contract. The state of California had decided to no longer abide by WTO and/or NAFTA style regulations regarding MTBE. The stuff was causing asthma, and leukemia - but heaven forbid if the people of California tried to get their air healthy! As they did so, the state ended up in Court for many years and finally had to shell out massive settlement monies.

That almost one billion dollars should be here in state helping us deal with our budget problems. Note: When Washington DC scolds the states about their huge deficits, not once does any Washington DC official mention how much money the states lose due to these agreements!

Excellent website about this type of thing:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NAFTA_FTAA/NAFTA_FTAA_InvestorsRights.html

[truedelphi]

2. K & R number nine. n/t