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The Center for American Progress reports
Democrats in the House dealt a stunning blow to the administration's trade agenda on [June 12], just hours after President Barack Obama personally lobbied lawmakers to grant him authority to negotiate several global trade deals that Congress could vote on without amending.
In the week leading up to Friday's vote, House leadership expressed optimism that it could muscle through the so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), despite loud objections from most Democrats and conservative Republicans. Under the rules, the House had to pass: 1) a provision to aid workers displaced by foreign imports--Trade Assistance Authority or TAA and 2) the TPA. But Democrats, who have historically supported providing federal assistance to workers displaced by trade agreements, led a campaign to torpedo the TAA in order to kill the full bill. The TAA failed in a vote of 302 -126 and the TPA passed 219-211 (with 28 Democratic votes), meaning the overall measure will not advance to the president's desk.
House leaders promised on Friday to bring both back for a vote early next week. The Senate approved the full package earlier this month.
[...]Democrats and their allies in the labor movement have objected to the secrecy surrounding the TPP negotiations and various provisions said to be included in the deal. One section allows companies to take governments before an arbitration tribunal and argue that certain regulations interfere with their bottom line. Another would would delay the introduction of generic versions of life-saving pharmaceuticals. Progressives have also criticized the deal for failing to adequately enforce labor and environmental standards and prohibit the Pacific Area countries from manipulating their currencies.
Additional coverage at The New York Times , The Washington Post , pbs.org, and C-SPAN.
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @10:16PM
The main problem with NPR and PBS is 1) Unwillingness to consider risky ideas 2) Depth and insight of analyses are typically lacking to those with especially high standards.
NPR/PBS are corporate sponsored, commercial media. Any claim to the contrary is ignoring the constant barrage of advertisements they broadcast for their sponsors. But, they also want funding from government sources that are subject to whims of political tides. Once accused by the Republicans of not being far enough to the right, and so should have their funding cut, they swung even farther to the right-wing, pro-corporate extreme than they were before with just the pressure from their corporate (mainly petroleum companies) sponsors.
There is also a demographic within PBS that is very pro Zionist. This demographic taints their news reporting to be ridiculously pro-Israel.
But, they are probably better than most other large media in the U.S. Not because they are even approaching slightly good, just because the others are so much more terrible.
gewg is right about Pacifica. There are a few great programs on Pacifica (Letters and Politics" is consistently good, Behind the News is usually good). Pacifica is left-wing media, and the voices on Pacifica are some of the strongest critics of the non-left Democratic party, as well as of their colleagues in right-wing corporate media, including PBS/NPR.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2015, @01:52AM
Hey, I wouldn't steer you wrong.
Pacifica is left-wing media
That's going a bit far.
I don't consider someone Left unless he rejects Capitalism as a failed system.
Now, there are a bunch of -Democrats- on my Pacifica affiliate.
On KPFK, the only folks I can think of who are actually Left are Michael Slate, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party [kpfk.org]
and Chris Burnett is an Anarchist. [google.com]
Eric Mann [thestrategycenter.org] is a human rights activist and a union man.
His dedication to civil liberties is legendary.
Blase Bonpane [kpfk.org] is a former missionary priest (Central America) who is big on Liberation Theology.
He's cut from the same cloth as Eric.
Chris Hedges is one of the smartest guys on the planet and is a captivating speaker.
He is a recurring guest on Pacifica.
A recent page by him on Marx's prediction of the implosion of Capitalism [commondreams.org] is the best thing I have read in a long, long, long time.
-- gewg_