Driving vs. eating
The piece by Tim Radford (Re: “Well drilling has deep impact,” News, April 30) is appropriate, measured and smart. Sadly, a significant portion of our populace believes our food comes from a supermarket. Considering what has already occurred atop the Ogallala Aquifer and is happening in California’s Central Valley (between them responsible for nearly half our homegrown foodstuffs), one could reasonably say it is high time we awoke. Who needs climate change? The squeezers have got it handled!
Alas, we’d rather drive than eat.
Gregory Iwan/Longmont
A poem
DANDY-LIONS
I love a yard with dandelions:
they smile as if to say,
“No chemicals nor malithions,
here, did Satan spray.”
Sheri L. Southern/via Internet
Are you listening, Jared Polis?
Fast Track for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be a disaster. It would transfer virtually all Congressional authority over the secret TPP to the president. Congress would be unable to offer amendments or ensure that the TPP benefits the American people. Fast Track would also require changes in an untold number of our domestic laws to conform with TPP.
Even though Congressman Jared Polis says he is undecided, his public statements, website and letters, appear strongly supportive of Fast Track and TPP. All the “Helpful Resources” on the web site are supportive. There’s not a word from Public Citizen, AARP, the Sierra Club, Consumer Union or the AFL-CIO, to name only several of the approximately 2,000 groups opposing this multi-chapter, secretly negotiated “trade” treaty.
Rep. Polis does have one letter on his website from three “environmental organizations” supportive of TPP. Two I’ve never heard of. The third is Nature Conservancy, a group that has received large donations from British Petroleum (BP) and “long ago forged a relationship that has lent BP an Earth-friendly image and helped the Conservancy pursue causes it holds dear” (Washington Post, May 24, 2010).
Polis’ recent forum on trade featured five speakers, four in favor of the Fast Track and TPP and one opposed. This was in spite of several appeals from the community to make the forum more balanced.
Polis has to know that the primary purpose of TPP is to increase the power of multinational corporations. Only five chapters of its 29 chapters deal directly with trade. The rest is a corporate takeover of our sovereignty and democracy.
Polis betrayed his constituency regarding fracking. If he does so again, we will oppose him in the primary. He’s not representing us. There are people who can and will represent us. We should begin raising money to get the job done.
Jacqui Goeldner/Boulder
Corporate carte blanche
The media spin machine is trumpeting a monster deal called the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP). Promoters want to use a legislative gimmick known as “fast track” or Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to help push TPP through with a minimum of debate and no amendments. Congressman Polis says he is “undecided” about fast track.
Government trade officials and nearly 600 corporate advisors negotiated TPP over six years in secret. Now they want to use fast track to ram TPP through Congress.
Polis says his interest is intellectual property. Unfortunately, TPP affects much more than that. TPP gives corporations virtual carte blanche to move financial assets and capital around the globe without any hindrances from local communities or national policies. TPP gives corporations the right to sue governments in international “tribunals.” and impose fines for public policies that might reduce expected profits. Suits can be brought over public health, workplace safety, product safety, protecting communities and preserving the environment. Facilitating inexpensive drugs or saving local open space from fracking could cost taxpayers millions in fines.
With respect to intellectual property, recently leaked draft texts of the TPP contain language that will negatively impact Internet users’ freedom of speech, right to privacy and due process. U.S. negotiators are pushing for copyright measures far more restrictive than currently required by international treaties. TPP would also hinder individuals’ abilities to innovate. According to the Electronic Freedom Foundation, TPP could stifle Internet innovation and growth. A free and open intellectual commons is the sort of intellectual property Mr. Polis should work to protect.
Please contact Mr. Polis at http:// polis.house.gov/contact/ or 303-484- 9596. Tell him to oppose fast track. We need a free and open Internet and public discussion of the TPP.
Andrew Bryson/Boulder
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
