McCain Touts Free Trade In Colombia
Ariz. Senator Was In The Country When U.S. Hostages Were Freed
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Photo
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, shakes hands with sea port workers in Cartagena, Colombia, Wednesday, July 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
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Colombia
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Photo Essay
John McCain
Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
The GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting also toured Colombia's largest port by speedboat to review the country's U.S.-backed drug interdiction programs, a day after he praised President Alvaro Uribe for Colombia's anti-drug efforts but pressed him to improve the government's record on human rights.
McCain was in the country when Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors from leftist guerrillas, but he didn't learn of the rescue until he was aboard a flight to Mexico. Uribe called McCain to inform him of the success.
"He told me some of the details of the rescue, the dramatic details," McCain told reporters. "It's a very high-risk operation. I congratulate President Uribe, the military and the nation of Colombia."
The Arizona senator got in several plugs for a proposed U.S.-Colombian Free Trade Agreement his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, opposes, suggesting the tariffs imposed on American goods now exported to Colombia would disappear under the agreement - creating jobs in the United States instead.
McCain was also promoting NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he has said would benefit the U.S. economy over time. Such agreements have been deeply unpopular in several general election swing states like Ohio and Michigan.
And he said such trade agreements should be broadened to include other countries.
"I would like to see a hemispheric free trade agreement," McCain said at a news conference here. "I would like to see our continued assistance to countries like Columbia."
Protectionist sentiment at home is worrisome "because history shows that isolationism and protectionism has very unpleasant consequences," McCain said.
But he added: "I am committed to getting every single American displaced from his or her job because of foreign competition ... a new job and a better future."
Obama, who was speaking in Las Vegas to the United Steel Workers annual conference, said trade should work for all Americans and that it was a mistake for the U.S. to open its markets without asking other countries to open theirs.
In remarks aimed at McCain's trade stance, Obama said: "It's not change when he offers four more years of trade agreements that are written by and for corporate lobbyists, agreements that don't protect our workers, don't protect our environment, and ignore the plight of workers abroad. That isn't change."
McCain wrapped up a visit to Colombia and was headed to Mexico on a two-day Latin American swing he insisted was not intended to be political.
McCain began the day visiting a Naval hospital, where he handed out awards to soldiers wounded by improvised explosive devices.
Touring the Port of Cartagena, McCain rode a boat operated by the Colombian Navy but paid for by U.S. funds under Plan Colombia, a ten year, $5 billion effort to stem the flow of cocaine and other drugs out of the country. The fleet of boats, dubbed the Midnight Express, patrol the port day and night, intercepting other boats suspected of carrying illegal drugs out of the port.
"There is a long way to go to stem the flow of drugs into the United States of America," McCain said. "The progress I've seen since previous visits here has been substantial and positive, while recognizing that in human rights and other issues, progress still needs to be made."
He also reviewed Plan Colombia-sponsored efforts to search cargo containers suspected of smuggling drugs aboard large ships coming in and out of the port.
The Arizona senator is accompanied on the trip by his wife, Cindy.
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After rigorously campaigning in Columbia, Canada, and Mexicao, McCain has surged ahead of Obama in those countries. He has also had a bump in the polls in England after his wife Cindy campaigned there.
Obama has focused on the US, and has risen in the polls there. Obama said that he has no immediate plans to campaign in Columbia because McCains lead is still within the margin of error.
McCain is a bought and paid for walking talking lying wholly owned subsidiary of Washington D.C. lobbyists.
1. Trade all your hard earned income in to the Government.
2. Trade in your freedom and security for whatever other countries think is best for us.
3. Trade your car in for a bus ticket.
4. Trade your future in for a repeat of the Carter years.
5. Trade security for "hope"
6. Trade paychecks for welfare checks
7. Trade "God Bless America" for "God D*** America"
8. Trade Victory for Surrender
9. Trade %u201CI have a dream%u201D for %u201CNightmare on Obama Street%u201D
10. Trade $2000 campaign contribution for a whatever you want.
11. Trade %u201CA chicken in every pot%u201D for %u201C A pot smoking chicken%u201D
12. Trade your Bible for a Koran
13. Trade buying your cat food for eating cat food
14. Trade driving to work for working just to afford to drive
15. Trade social justice for Socialist justice
16. Trade %u201CCommon Good%u201D for %u201CCommunism is Good%u201D
McCain is a bought and paid for walking talking lying wholly owned subsidiary of Washington D.C. lobbyists.
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Posted by SgtRDS-E4 at 08:39 PM : Jul 02, 2008
And so is Obama...so where''s the big CHANGE?
If you critisize Obaaama too much you will get deleted from these blogs.
My name use to be von_marko. Liberals spew HATE and profanity non stop on this site, with no problems.
I published word for word quotes of Obama today with side by side quotes from Karl Marx and I got REMOVED.
Google did the same thing today to a major anti-obama blog.
Liberal hypocrites! For free speech until the truth hurts too much.
Posted by RGRXX175 at 07:56 PM : Jul 02, 2008
It''s called a baseball cap and a majority of American men wear them.
Got to give it to McCain for the timing... Coincidence? ha ha and there''s Santa Claus as well...
What''s a bigger laugh as well- GM hits a low since the 1950''s and the GOP is down in Colombia campaigning- right boys- Like they can help us- whose been doing the lines anyway...
It wasn''t legitimate criticism of Mr. Obama that got you "banned", if indeed "banned" you were, as I remember, less than 12 hours ago, your hate speech was loud and clear on the threads, so if you were indeed banned, it was most likely from the unnecessary racist epithets you are so fond of including.
It has been my experience that even if others object, as such as yourself have to many of my postings, as long as you don''t violate the rules (and there are laws against hate speech, btw) you won''t be banned.
A word of advice, though I doubt if you can understand. Stick to the facts, or opinions, and leave the epithets back where you pull them from.
It wasn''''t legitimate criticism of Mr. Obama that got you "banned", if indeed "banned" you were, as I remember, less than 12 hours ago, your hate speech was loud and clear on the threads, so if you were indeed banned, it was most likely from the unnecessary racist epithets you are so fond of including.
Posted by brianbwb at 01:09 AM : Jul 03, 2008
The moderators here will tolerate much, but they won''t tolerate out and out racism. Good for them!
MCCAIN WILL WIN.
Note: John Mccain, What A Patriot, What A Hero, what an American Vet !!
Obama & Webb: What Radical Liberals...Ha !!!
Irony: That Lying George Bush Jr. gave Credit to John McCain, knowing Full Well, he had Nothing to do with the Bill or it`s Passing !!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008
/06/30/bush-wrongly-credits-mcca_n_11002
4.html
Senate Republicans have broken with President Bush to help Democrats add support for veterans and the unemployed to a bill paying for another year of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The 75-22 vote also added billions of dollars in other domestic funds such as heating subsidies for the poor and money for fighting wildfires to the $165 billion for the military operations overseas.
...The huge tally in the Senate was driven by $15.6 billion over two years to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and more than $50 billion over the upcoming decade to provide returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.
Both Sens. Obama and Clinton voted in (Favor of the Bill.)
Note: Sen. McCain Skipped the vote
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose fortune was estimated to be worth more than $750 million, eventually released comparably limited information about her finances after repeated demands from Republicans who asserted the public%u2019s right to know because they said her finances were intertwined with those of her husband%u2019s presidential campaign.
The Kerry campaign had benefited from a $6.4 million personal loan Sen. Kerry secured using, as collateral, equity in a Boston townhouse the couple jointly owned.
Likewise, John McCain%u2019s presidential campaign benefited from Cindy McCain%u2019s fortune, using a `Legal Loophole` to travel the country in a Jet Owned by her company for Cut-Rate Fares.
Real Elitist: While Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control made as much as $29 million - and likely substantially more - from her family%u2019s business interests from 2004 through last year, data from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Senate, U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Center for Responsive Politics also reveals that they spent $11 million purchasing five condominiums for the family, hired additional household help and racked up progressively larger credit cards bills almost every year.
Their credit card bills peaked between January 2007 and May 2008, during which time Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another, while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.
By 2007, she had an annual income of over $400,000 from Hensley & Co. and an estimated net worth of $100 million.
Ref: wiki
Hmmm,
Income seems straight forward.
So what is so SECRET about her income tax returns.
What is in there that she doesn''''t want people to see.
Hmmm
After McCain made a comment RE: it''s now up to Obama to distance himself from Clark, the reporter pinned him down. The question went something like this: "Well, then, can you tell us specifically how your experience as a POW has prepared or equipped you to be President?" The camera goes to McCain, and you can tell he wants to explode! He fidgets around, and then finally he says, and I quote, "Oh please."
THAT''S IT!! The reporter then said that it "took McCain several minutes to compose himself before he could go back on camera."
Then when McCain got back on camera, here was his answer: "I learned to love my country when I was deprived of it."
This poor man needs some help, NOW. I don''t think he will make it to November, especially if people keep on him RE: his non-existent qualifications. He''s just like a lot of other war casualties who did not receive adequate counseling and help once they got out of the war.
Note: John Mccain, What A Patriot, What A Hero, what an American Vet !!
Obama & Webb: What Radical Liberals...Ha !!!
Irony: That Lying George Bush Jr. gave Credit to John McCain, knowing Full Well, he had Nothing to do with the Bill or it`s Passing !!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008
/06/30/bush-wrongly-credits-mcca_n_110
02
4.html
Senate Republicans have broken with President Bush to help Democrats add support for veterans and the unemployed to a bill paying for another year of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The 75-22 vote also added billions of dollars in other domestic funds such as heating subsidies for the poor and money for fighting wildfires to the $165 billion for the military operations overseas.
...The huge tally in the Senate was driven by $15.6 billion over two years to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and more than $50 billion over the upcoming decade to provide returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.
Both Sens. Obama and Clinton voted in (Favor of the Bill.)
Note: Sen. McCain Skipped the vote
Considering the adverse impact these trade deals are having on American families -- millions of jobs lost -- McCain appears to have lost touch with the heartland.
Please forgive my derogatory remark but McCain has a rich wife. McCain does not have to worry about skyrocketing gasoline prices, skyrocketing food cost, mortgage foreclosures and a host of other economic problems families in the heartland are confronted with daily.
ha ha ha - this guy''s a walking talking gaffe machine . . . please tell me they got this on video because it''s a moveon.org ad just waiting to happen. Aren''t people just fed up to here of politicians caring more about the needs of the citizens of other countries rather than digging in and working on the tough issues here at home - like soaring gas prices, affordable healthcare, job losses, and declining housing prices in the suburbs?
This is the guy who thinks he ought to be elected because he saved a couple of bucks outsourcing our military contracts to France.
Then Cindy would be worth $200 mill, and she and John could buy even more votes.
Colombians make less than a thousand dollars a year. They are not going to buy American products.
However, Colombians will be happy to see American businesses close factories in the US and open new ones in Colombia. They will be happy to sell their goods in the USA.
It''s time we call these proponents of free trade what they really are. Americans have not been this betrayed by our government since before the Revolution.
If McCain wants to continue King George''s policies of sending our jobs elsewhere, he better be ready for the Revolution. Support of free trade is the equivalent of Benedict Arnold.
Ever notice how even tempered he is now as compared to before his run for office.
Maybe he''s taking Prozac. It sure looks like they have him medicated.
Maybe they needed to stock up on Colombian cocaine & Mexican marijuana for the party............
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by jtyler271
July 4, 2008 6:01 PM PDT
- ****** News Flash ***************
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Reply to this comment
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See all 32 CommentsAfter rigorously campaigning in Columbia, Canada, and Mexicao, McCain has surged ahead of Obama in those countries. He has also had a bump in the polls in England after his wife Cindy campaigned there.
Obama has focused on the US, and has risen in the polls there. Obama said that he has no immediate plans to campaign in Columbia because McCains lead is still within the margin of error.
Posted by kansas1946 at 07:17 PM : Jul 02, 2008
Quite possibly the funniest thing I have read all week.