I'm telling you people right now,

Even though you may not be seeing or hearing about this on the evening news or read much about it in the paper (bad PR for the Administration, no doubt), this is definately something we ABSOLUTELY NEED to follow. The passage of CAFTA was only acheived through a rotten political stunt pulled by the Bush Administration; we can't let this one slide. Peoples' lives and well-being are on the line.

The more I find out about the CAFTA vote, the more uneasy I get. There is no doubt in my mind that this vote is not another success of 'representative democracy', but rather a victory of absolutist oligarchism.

Voting time was extended from the usual 15 minutes to 62 minutes; legally, the agreement didn't pass. The official results after the 15-minute voting period was 180-175 against CAFTA, but somehow, Bush was able to stop the clock and convince (more like force; using threats of cutting members from the committy, cutting funding or offering political favors) undecided voters to vote YES on CAFTA, or even decided voters to swtich their vote (can you even DO that?!). At the end of the 62 minutes, the count came out to 217-215 in favor of CAFTA -- JUST enough to get it to pass.

Votes were 'lost' in technical problems with the voting machines as well, and for some reason the committy members could not be found for the full hour of the extended voting process to re-cast their votes. (Source: Lori Wallach of Public Citizen - Global Trade Watch in an interview with DemocracyNow!, International News report)

Recent actions of the Guatemalan government demonstrate how fiercely Bush persued this agreement, even though he himself said it was "economically unimportant".

A peaceful march of Mayan Indians was disrupted by beatings, tear gas and gunfire; many injured and at least two dead. The action was organized on March 15th to oppose CAFTA -- in defense of indigenous and workers' rights -- which was recently ratified by President Oscar Berge. After the protest, police were ordered to surround the headquarters of Guatemalan trade unions to apprehend organizers. A recently released study even displays a history of workers' rights abuses in some of the CAFTA countries (including Guatemala). . (Sources: Lori Wallach of Public Citizen - Global Trade Watch in an interview with DemocracyNow!, Guerilla News Network report, Senate Floor Statement from Carl Levin - US Senator, Michigan)

I encourage everyone on this board to do your research and come to your own conclusions, here's some starter links:

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/1514/At_...s_in_Guatemala Self-explanitory.

http://levin.senate.gov/senate/statement.cfm?id=240042 Senator Carl Levin's floor statement regarding CAFTA.

http://www.citizen.org/trade/cafta/ Public Citizen - Global Trade Watch hompage.

http://www.democracynow.org/article..../07/29/1420251 Listen to/watch segment on CAFTA vote from today's broadcast of Democracy Now!

http://tenthousandpercent.com/shunt....infocus/cafta/ Bush's utopian view of how CAFTA will spread "hope and democracy" through Central America.

http://news.findlaw.com/wash/s/20050...727181730.html White House report "Bush Lobbies Congress to Pass CAFTA", has excerpts from Press Secretary Scott McClellan's statement on CAFTA.