Does Thom Hartmann know what the hell he is talking about?

[underpants]

I was reading this fantastic article yesterday by Hartmann

that included the following:

Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.


and

he (Thomas Jefferson) just as easily could have been writing of the World Trade Organization, which now has the legal authority to force the United States to overturn laws passed at both local, state, and federal levels with dictates devised by tribunals made up of representatives of multinational corporations. If Dubai loses in the American Congress, their next stop will almost certainly be the WTO.

Ultimately, it's not about security -- it's about money. In the multinational corporatocracy's "flat world," money trumps the national good, community concerns, labor interests, and the environment. NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO tribunals can - and regularly do - strike down local and national laws. Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" are replaced by Antonin Scalia's "Rights of Corporate Persons."

Okay so does this apply to the UAE? from this map

here it appears to me that the UAE isn't in the WTO. Am I missing something?

Now if Friedman is right the US Congress is somehow going to have to let this pass through or at least fail to block it. Man o man is that going to require some serious dancing by the Republicans. There baseS are stirred up over this like it was Clinton's fault (which might be the next spin).

Anyway I was wondering if Friedman was right about this.

[Daphne08]

1. Thom Hartmann wrote that, not Friedman. n/t

[underpants]

3. Oh god

way too much head cold medicine this morning.

[lectrobyte]

2. that sounds like the anti-Friedman. Go read his flat planet book for

his ideas on trade.

[rodeodance]

4. Many poo-hoo'ed him when his book came out but I believe he had

a lot of good things to say about money, and the effects of globalization.

[pk_du]

5. I read somewhere on DU that UAE has an embargo on goods

from Israel (no ships going thru Dubai can carry them - regardless of destination) - if true - they cant have much of case at WTO even if they are members.

[acmejack]

6. Hartmann definitely knows what he is talking about, IMO!

Friedman, not so much. Friedman's head may be what is flat, not the Earth, these globalists are what have gotten us into this mess in the first place. Hartmann is a renaissance man as far as I am concerned, though. He is certifiable, a certifiable genius.

[underpants]

7. So the US Congress may be FORCED to accept this deal?

Whoo boy the MSM is going to have to do some real covering if that is the case, for everybody.

[GregD]

9. Agreed

I don't know anyone who is as well educated on a wide range of topics. He is an expert on (and has authored several books concerning) climate change, corporate domination, a variety of mental disorders and the US Constitution.

He is also astonishingly quick on his feet when debating opposing opinions, and regularly invites said opposition onto his show so that he can teach his listeners how to debate them.

[htuttle]

8. Looks like the UAE joined the WTO in 1995

http://www.legal500.com/devs/emirates/cc/uacc_011.htm