"We don't say it all that often, but President Bush is right"

That's the lede from today's New York Times' editorial calling for Congress to pass the Colombia free trade agreement:

Mr. Bush signed the deal two years ago. The Democratic majority in Congress has refused to approve it out of a legitimate concern over the state of human rights in Colombia and less legitimate desires to pander to organized labor or deny Mr. Bush a foreign policy win.

We believe that the trade pact would be good for America's economy and workers. Rejecting it would send a dismal message to allies the world over that the United States is an unreliable partner and, despite all that it preaches, does not really believe in opening markets to trade. There is no more time to waste.

Good stuff! Speaking of those "less legitimate desires to pander to organized labor," here's reason contributor Will Wilkinson on why Detroit's Big Three automakers are just the right size to fail:

Lots of companies fail. Lots of cities, built around those companies, decline. If employees of the Big Three deserve to have taxpayers pay part of their relatively lavish salaries, then employees at thousands of failing businesses deserved the same. They had no chance of getting it, though, simply because they don’t have the right history with Washington. There is no other reason.

There is nothing that helps people more than high rates of economic growth, compounding, compounding. But everyone is not helped equally. Economic growth requires dynamism, requires “creative destruction,” and some people get trapped in the wreckage, become wreckage. Not everyone is hurt equally.... But the impulse to freeze the system, to try to tape all the cracks and staple all the cleavages, to ensure that nobody has to explain to their kid why Christmas this year is going to be a lousy Christmas, that is one of our greatest dangers. Our sympathy, untutored by a grasp of the larger scheme, can perversely make itself ever more necessary. When we feel compelled to act on our uncoached fellow-feeling, next year’s Christmas is likely to turn a bit worse for everybody. And then somebody has to explain to the kids that they can’t find a job at all.

Comments

rap | November 18, 2008, 5:01pm | #

God I hate being a Grinch!

J sub D | November 18, 2008, 5:04pm | #

Bush II got the Columbia free trade agreement right. I am now on record agreeing with both the NYT and Georbe W. Bush.

What's that?

Lamar | November 18, 2008, 5:11pm | #

This free trade agreement will show whether all that campaign wind about restoring our credibility throughout the world was for real.

Ska | November 18, 2008, 5:12pm | #

mmm.....cleavages.

Tulpa | November 18, 2008, 5:14pm | #

to try to tape all the cracks and staple all the cleavages,

Sounds like Mr. Wilkinson has some sexual frustration issues. Take it up with your significant other, don't broadcast it to the world.

Urkobold™ | November 18, 2008, 5:15pm | #

YES, STAPLED CLEAVAGES. IS THE URKOBOLD ALONE IN FEELING A MOMENT OF NOSTALGIA FOR 70s ERA PLAYBOY? NOSTALGIA THAT FADES WHEN THE URKOBOLD RECALLS THE AUTOSEXUAL GLORY THAT IS THE INTERNET.

phalkor | November 18, 2008, 5:15pm | #

I'm get nothin for Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are mad
I'm getting nothin for Christmas
Cause the market ain't been nothin but bad!

John | November 18, 2008, 5:16pm | #

"This free trade agreement will show whether all that campaign wind about restoring our credibility throughout the world was for real."

No the way to international credibility is to totally fuck our allies by not signing free trade deals with them and demanding re-negotiations of the ones we have. Didn't you hear that?

Screw the NYT. That deal has been sitting before Congress for a long time and they never said squat. Now that the election is over they decide they can write something about it. Who cares what those clowns think. Further, they support a bill that they know the Dems won't pass anyway. All this editorial is a bullshit move so they can say "see we don't always support the Democrats." Fuck them. Even when they are right they still suck.

John | November 18, 2008, 5:19pm | #

Next thing you know the NYT will be telling us there are real terrorists in GUITMO. Oh they already did that the day before the election. Some day that fish wrap is going to go broke and I am going to drive up to NYC just to piss on their building and laugh at people as they leave work without jobs.

sage | November 18, 2008, 5:20pm | #

What do you mean, John?

Orange Line Special | November 18, 2008, 5:21pm | #

How could something be bad if Reason, Bush, and the NYT agree?

Let's try a flashback!

P.S. Since I just naturally assume the Colombia thing is just a crooked scheme I haven't bothered looking into it. But, I've heard talk that it isn't really "free trade" but just an adhesion contract. Does anyone know of an intellectually honest site that has more information on that?

Lamar | November 18, 2008, 5:25pm | #

John,

Why don't you just cancel your subscription?

@8)-

Grandpa Withers | November 18, 2008, 5:28pm | #

"NOSTALGIA THAT FADES WHEN THE URKOBOLD RECALLS THE AUTOSEXUAL GLORY THAT IS THE INTERNET."

It is pretty amazing!

John | November 18, 2008, 5:29pm | #

That is a good idea Lamar. :-)

Episiarch | November 18, 2008, 5:31pm | #

I need a Columbia trade deal myself. For blow.

James Ard | November 18, 2008, 5:58pm | #

Somebody needs to do something, I haven't smoked a joint grown in Columbia since 1983.

The Angry Optimist | November 18, 2008, 5:58pm | #

where are all the Paultards and paleos talking about how trade deals like this are "managed" trade and not free?

Naga Sadow | November 18, 2008, 6:00pm | #

LONEWACKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*shakes fist in air*

Naga Sadow | November 18, 2008, 6:02pm | #

Epi,

I too demand a free trade agreement. With the Czech Republic. Ever seen their women? Un-fucking-believably hot!

P Brooks | November 18, 2008, 6:02pm | #

a legitimate concern over the state of human rights in Colombia

If only they'd connect the dotz and point their editorial finger in the direction of our Plan Colombia as a major contributor to the sorry state of human rights in Colombia.

James Ard | November 18, 2008, 6:03pm | #

Oh, and John nails it on the Times Technique. Get their guy elected, then write about the shit that might have tarnished him. And don't forget the preemptive story to get the lemmings to refer to a big story as "old news".

Hazel Meade | November 18, 2008, 6:20pm | #

I have to agree about the NYTimes being composed of a bunch of lying manipulative sacks of shit.

You should read their editorials on the bailouts and mortgage releif. Against all logic, they keep pushing the line that the way to stabilize the mortgage market is to stop foreclosures, prevent housing prices from falling, and keep poor homeowners in debt. After each editorial like this, comments run 9 to 1 against the idea. This on a board where 90% of the posters routinely kiss Paul Krugman's ass. Yet they refuse to desist.

Joel | November 18, 2008, 6:30pm | #

..and staple all the cleavages...

Youch! Jeez, I knew Bush might make some grim/weird decisions in his last couple of months, but ... well, that's just wrong!

Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh | November 18, 2008, 6:42pm | #

Where's our bailout?!

mike farmer | November 18, 2008, 6:43pm | #

The NYT is sooooo yesterday.

P Brooks | November 18, 2008, 7:16pm | #

Dear Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh:

You should have bailed out a long time ago.

economist | November 18, 2008, 7:18pm | #

"Fuck them. Even when they are right they still suck."
Exactly my thoughts on Michael Moore.

Soda | November 18, 2008, 8:55pm | #

The NYT article mentions this kind of in passing but does not show you the numbers.

Murder rates 2008:

Colombian union member: 4 per 100,000
Colombian overall: 37 per 100,000
Venezuelan overall: 49.4 per 100,000
Chicago: ~15 per 100,000 (can't find the exact figure)

I've asked this in liberal forums and gotten no answer (figures). But what exactly is the rationale for restricting trade due to human rights concerns? Worse case the human rights violations in question remain unchanged but now with restricted trade as the shit icing on a shit cake.

Orange Line Special | November 18, 2008, 9:49pm | #

Now that Insty's linked to the NYT article, my ardor for the CFTA has surged to a mighty fire in support of freedom and liberty!

Now, some might think I'm being sarcastic and I think all those named above are tools. That is not true.

zoltan | November 19, 2008, 12:04am | #

Hazel Meade, thank you for that little ray of optimism. The fact that even NYT's online readers are against the bailout makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Eric Haskell | November 19, 2008, 1:05am | #

staple all the cleavages

I'll have to check with Michael Mukasey, but I'm pretty sure that's a form of torture.

Jordan | November 19, 2008, 10:13am | #

I'm get nothin for Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are mad
I'm getting nothin for Christmas
Cause the market ain't been nothin but bad!

I'm get nothin for Christmas
Mommy and Daddy are sad
I'm getting nothin for Christmas
Cause the government took all that they had!

R C Dean | November 19, 2008, 10:24am | #

Soda - interesting data, but a link would be nice.

Soda | November 19, 2008, 11:34am | #

My mistake RC Dean. Links included now.

Most recent murder rates (some 08 some 07):
Colombian union member: 4 per 100,000 New York Times
Colombian overall: 37 per 100,000 Wikipedia
Venezuelan overall: 49.4 per 100,000 Wikipedia, Telegraph
Chicago: ~15 per 100,000 Huffington Post

Apparently I can't add more than 5 links. But that's a start.

ck | November 19, 2008, 2:14pm | #

Screw the NYT. That deal has been sitting before Congress for a long time and they never said squat. Now that the election is over they decide they can write something about it.

NYT, 4/12/08

Nick Kristof in NYT, 4/24/08

NYT, 5/29/07