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Robert Winner

TEDCRED 50+

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Transpacific Partnership

United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk is this week in Singapore conducting trade negoations on behalf of President Obama. These Uber secret meetings have been occuring since 2002 with US participation since 2010.

Anti-globalization advocates accuse the TPP of going far beyond the realm of tariff reduction and trade promotion, granting unprecedented power to corporations and infringing upon consumer, labor, and environmental interests

One widely republished article claims the TPP is "a wish list of the 1%" and that "of the 26 chapters under negotiation, only a few have to do directly with trade. The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them

USTR Kirk has been challenged by many to make the details of the meeting public and accused of lack of transparency and that the US citizens should be kept informed of US trade negotiations.

Do we the citizens have a right to know what is being proposed?

What do we know ....

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    edward long 100+

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    Mar 9 2013: The only information the government has a right to keep from the people is military battle strategies and the safe combination at Fort Knox.
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      Robert Winner 50+

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      Mar 9 2013: Funny story about troop movements. The wife of the Commander at Mt Home was shopping at Safeway and the clerk ask her while checking out if her husband was going on the deployment. She went home ask her husband .... he called the communications squadron and sure enough there was a movement message he had not seen yet. Very ungood.

      I always enjoy the briefings outside of the senate chambers with a classified sign in the background when the senator tells what they were discussing.

      Remember ... this is the most transparent administration ever ... Obama promised it would be.

      Thanks for the reply.
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        edward long 100+

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        Mar 9 2013: Wait. What? Webster's defines transparent as; "without guile or concealment; open; frank; candid." If that is true I should be able to contact my Senator who will readily relay to me the whole story on the TPP. I will set that process in motion this morning, but I must say I don't anticipate an "open, frank, candid" response anytime soon.

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