Rank exaggeration helps nobody

[nadinbrzezinski]

anybody in contact with OSD please, have them correct these mostly on the mark flyers for the TTP

http://stopptpp.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/tppflyers1.pdf

What is the issue as far as the flier is concerned? In Secret.

If this was such a secret none of us would know about this. That ranges from the OSD folks to us media critters, to Amy Goodman.

There is more... while there are issues of lack of openness, this is being held by Commerce and hosted by the State Department.

Here is one more, we are also covering Comicon (best fun, freak, what have you show on Earth), next month. It took an Email to the office of the Trade Representative to get press credentials. Anybody care to ask how many hoops we had to jump for Comicon?

This treaty is bad enough already... (been working on the background to write the article to go with the coverage, which included reading the leaked chapter of the treaty) Tomorrow I hope to confirm or deny that Wyden was refused access... sorry, this media thing does not mean I trust Salon when they claim such. So yes, I asked his media contact today... that's the way it is.

Now like ALL international agreements, (and private negotiations) quite a bit of this will not be open to the press or public. The issue is not TPP, it is how all treaties are negotiated. And no, before anybody says so, I am not in the pocket of any powerful media organization... or anything like that. I just want to be fair and let you know... that single item will have a lot of folks ignore the rest of the message, because you can bet your sweet potatoes there will be media covering this... lord knows I will be there, and I suspect my local media will be there, with at least my compadres from Reuters and AP... as well as international media, especially international media.

[sabrina 1]

1. It was not an exaggeration to say that the trade deal talks going on for a long time were secret.

Had there not been a leak, and we do not know who was responsible for that, we would still not know what had been going on.

Controversial Trade Pact Text Leaked, Shows U.S. Trade Officials Have Agreed to Terms That Undermine Obama Domestic Agenda

WASHINGTON - June 13 - A leak today of one of the most controversial chapters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) reveals that extreme provisions have been agreed to by U.S. officials, providing a stark warning about the dangers of “trade” negotiations occurring under conditions of extreme secrecy without press, public or policymaker oversight, Public Citizen said.

“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 TPP negotiations,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “Via closed-door negotiations, U.S. officials are rewriting swaths of U.S. law that have nothing to do with trade and in a move that will infuriate left and right alike have agreed to submit the U.S. government to the jurisdiction of foreign tribunals that can order unlimited payments of our tax dollars to foreign corporations that don’t want to comply with the same laws our domestic firms do.”

Obama Trade Deal Secrecy Insulting, According To Key Democrat

The agency responsible for trade negotiations -- the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative -- had denied Wyden office access to any of the draft documents involved in the trade pact, offering an unusual legal argument that only a handful of members of Congress were permitted to view them. After Wyden introduced his legislation, however, USTR partially relented, allowing Wyden to see the documents, but not his staff.

........

"I would point out how insulting it is for them to argue that members of Congress are to personally go over to USTR to view the trade documents," Hoelzer said. "An advisor at Halliburton or the MPAA is given a password that allows him or her to go on the USTR website and view the TPP agreement anytime he or she wants."

The general public and most nonprofit organizations have no access to the documents, although a number of corporate officials can see them.

That's an outrage, to conduct these meetings in secret and to deny Wyden who is the Chairman of the Trade Commission access to them. Seems they were writing legislation in secret. That is Congress' job. That is WHY it was secret. Good for the leaker or we still would not know about this.

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/06/11/trans-pacific-partnership-sherrod-brown-urges-transparency-for-nafta-for-asia/

Trans-Pacific Partnership: Sherrod Brown Urges Transparency for “NAFTA for Asia”

Brown couldn’t really get specific about his complaints with TPP, because like most people he doesn’t know all of what’s in the document. So he’s going this route, working with others in Congress, to try and get some input into the deal. The letter basically warns that Congress and the public need to weigh in on the deal before they get frozen out of the process. Otherwise, it will be presented to Congress fully negotiated, in a “take it or leave it” fashion. This has been the history of recent NAFTA-style trade deals.

“(USTR) say they don’t want to negotiate in public,” Brown told me. But the asymmetry here was troubling to him. “It’s easier for a CEO to view the end product than a member of Congress, that’s the problem.”

Pretty disturbing and a further confirmation that Corporations now have more power than Congress.

But there is no question that these deals were secret as both Wyden and Sherrod Brown have said so the flier seems accurate to me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. <----- at average joe

Who will see satellite dishes and press...

But whatever.

[sabrina 1]

3. Well, thanks to the leaker, who I hope doesn't meet the same fate as all whistle-blowers these days.

And now that it has been exposed, I would hope the media will cover it and am glad you will be doing so.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Yeah, but you are missing the point

Average joe will discount the rest of the flyer because there will be no secrecy (perception here).

I may have a few issues with two oter parts, but at that point it's semantics and interpretation, and it is bad enough...

Any country can join after implementation makes NAFTA look like a game. Some language is straight out of NAFTA too, and the conflict resolution is down right medieval.

[sabrina 1]

5. I don't think so.

I think people are now so suspicious of their government on all sides, that they will not be surprised to learn they were trying to do something in secret at all. That has been my experience even with people who are older and not online.

Besides, the flier is telling the truth and that is a very important point, that they WERE secretly writing laws and should be known to the people. All anyone has to do is ask if they have any doubts.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I live in San Diego, target audience

I know my target audience.

[sabrina 1]

7. Then inform them. The truth should never be hidden.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Whatever,

now back to the serious article on it...

I should not have bothered... lesson learned, will not bother.

[zappaman]

9. +1 n/t