Re: Do You Believe?
The "Titanic" is a good analogy. Bush is the captain of this ship that ran into the iceberg...Not sure whether Kerry can right the ship anytime soon, or stop the leaking, but am pretty dang sure pretending it was a good idea, and that he meant to steer into the iceberg, as Bush is doing, is not going to produce the desired results.<br /><br />I see again one of our Canadian friends is throwing his support to Bush, and that always fascinates me (not that it matters of course, as he can't vote) but that this president can somehow get people on his side in complete oposition to their own self interests.<br /><br />Take for example the softwood lumber tariffs. A few large timber companies in the US (who amazingly enough are big contributors to Bush) convinced this administration, in defiance of all rulings by the WTO who say it is illegal, have imposed a roughly 34 % duty on all softwood lumber coming into the US from Canada, causing billions and billions of dollars of losses to Canadian interests. This has done untold damage to the BC, Ontario, and Quebec economy.<br /><br />Interestingly, it has done damage to the average US consumer as well, as it is estimated to increase the cost of lumber to the consumer by about 20% (the US National Assn of Homebuilders and the retailer all oppose this tariff)<br /><br />So when the average American goes into his Home Depot to buy say a 10 foot 2x6 he is likely to pay about $5.00 for it. Without these tariffs, the price for that board would be about $4.00 Now Bush supporters can take heart in that about 1/4 of a penny of that $1.00 goes directly into the Bush campaign fund, with the balance of the 99 and 3/4 cents into the pockets of the big timber companies. All at the expense of the Canadian economy and American consumers. And to top that off, American taxpayers are funding a legal fight at who knows what cost brought by our justice dept against the WTO that they have no chance of prevailing in, as it is a classic example of a frivolous lawsuit, just for the oportunity of paying 20% more than we need to to build a house.<br /><br />Free Trade, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, indeed.<br /><br />Now add in things like the beef embargo, and grain embargo, and who knows what other restrictive trade polices against Canada that this administration will come up with, and I simply cannot understand why any Canadian could possibly support this president.<br /><br />Bush is consistent, of course, in that you can easily trace any of these trade policies directly to large contributors.<br /><br />And hey, I am not one of these Bush haters you hear about. I think the guy is talented. If I were making a product that nobody wanted, that cost people money with no apparent benefit, I would hire this administration crew to market it in a heartbeat.<br /><br />I just don't want him representing my interests.
