The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is circulating a letter sent by the speaker of the Colombian House of Representatives to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). In it, Colombian Speaker Oscar Palacio criticizes Pelosi for her opposition to the U.S-Colombia free trade agreement President Bush sent to Congress April 7.
In the letter, Colombian Speaker Oscar Palacio says the U.S. House's decision to shelve the agreement "affords colonial treatment to us that is unbefitting one of the United States' staunchest allies." The House voted April 10 to circumvent the fast-track law applying to trade deals and shelve the agreement, despite President Bush's attempt to force a vote.
Palacio also says arguments based on violence against Colombian union members are "erroneous." U.S. labor unions have used violence against union members as a cornerstone of their opposition to the deal. The LA Timesoutlined violence against Colombian unionists in March.
"Under the framework of the Democratic Security Policy, Colombia has made great efforts to prevent crimes of that nature from occurring," Palacio says.
See the text of the letter, as provided by USTR, below.
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Eight Democratic lawmakers and three activist groups will use tax day to call attention to the cost of the Iraq war, ceremonially presenting taxpayers tomorrow with a jumbo-sized IRS 1040 form showing how much each American family owes for the war.
Participating lawmakers are Reps. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), and Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas). The groups are USActon, Americans United for Change, and Iraq Campaign 2008. The lawmakers and groups will gather on the Cannon terrace at 10 a.m.
According to Schakowsky's office, the war has cost $526 billion directly with a $1.3 trillion on the U.S. economy. When that sum is divided, Schakowsky's office says, it leaves the average American family with a $16,500 cost for the war.
A border security and immigration PAC is calling for a nationwide boycott of Absolut Vodka for an ad the Swedish distillers ran in Mexico portraying an "Absolut world" showing Mexico extending across much of the western United States.
The vodka company has pulled the ad, but William Gheen of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), told The Hill "that's not good enough on this one" demanding that the ad agency as well as the executive that approved the ad be fired by Absolut.
ALIPAC and 100 other groups will go ahead with a boycott of the vodka, organizing the boycott through a website the PAC created.
"Absolut vodka is trying to sell liquor to Mexicans that aspire to control the Southwest United States," Gheen said in a statement announcing the move. "Everywhere we look, Global corporations have a hand in this brewing disaster and Absolut just made the list."
The ad has attracted attention from various other border security groups and bloggers. One bloggers on the conservative site RedState wrote, "time to pour the Absolut down the drain. The brand from my beloved Sweden will have to be replaced."
"In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokesman for the company said on its website.
Charlton Heston, the Academy Award-winning actor and gun rights activist, died Saturday at the age of 84.
Heston first made a name for himself in Hollywood, playing the lead role in legendary films "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments." Though he actively supported Democratic presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson as a young actor, he veered right and championed conservative causes as he grew older.
He served as president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. He was at an NRA convention when he gave his most famous political speech, one in which he held a gun over his head and challenged his critics with five words, "from my cold, dead hands."
Watch the speech below, and read his family's statement regarding his death after the jump.
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) criticized the Bush administration today for lobbying Congress to oppose the so-called "media shield" bill, officially titled the Free Flow of Information Act.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Attorney General Michael Mukasey all sent letters to key senators each sent letters to Senate leaders and key committee chairmen expressing intelligence, security, and law enforcement concerns over the bill. The Justice Dept. also launched a website yesterday dedicated to opposing the bill.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), seeks to "protect the free flow of information to the public" by providing conditions under which the government can compel journalists to release information. The administration says these conditions are too restrictive.
For a Republican in Congress, signing the pledge not to increase taxes is all but required; pledge signers include all but 21 GOP members of Congress. The hottest pledge list, however, is the one to swear off earmarks. Since Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) signed the earmark pledge last summer, 36 others have joined him, including Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), who signed on Wednesday.
Biggert, in a press release, said that while she supports a moratorium on earmarks for all of Congress,
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