We'll need Republicans to help us defeat TPP. Perhaps this is one way to do this. Now if they put take this "carve out" out of the final bill that goes before the Senate to get these votes, it should serve as an example to Democratic congress critters why we needed them to vote down Fast Track, since all of the crap they'd been promised that the bill would have to get their vote will have been removed and they now have no other say other than to push Obama to veto it if gets too extreme for them knowing that this will increase their likelihood towards losing their seats. Unfortunately Obama's not running for office again, so is likely not as "persuadable" to veto something that gets changed for the worse later.

vote.

Without fast track, republicans would undoubtedly remove the tobacco 'carve out' and change pharmaceutical and other rules that conservatives are mad about. Then it would have passed in both the republican-controlled House and Senate. Oddly fast track may have motivated Obama to agree to and submit a TPP that republicans will reject.

... to come up with a version that doesn't have the carve-out provision in order to get a version that these senators would vote for. I'm guessing that other countries might say no to that change too.

This provides us more ammunition to be able to call Republican senators in other tobacco states to tell them to vote no too on this. Tell them that not only will their contributors be pissed if they vote yes on TPP, but their voting constituency will also be PO'd too.

TPP will be a bill we need to lobby senators on both sides of the aisle to vote no.

If Wyden votes yes, I'll call his office and said that I'll be happy to see Pete DeFazio take his office in 2016!

not going to happen. It is interesting that Obama went for the carve-out. He must know that Big Tabacco would not be happy and it would cost him republican votes in tobacco states which he can't afford based on the closeness of fast track votes.

If they aren't able to renegotiate that in time, it shows that world sanity still hopefully will ultimately win out and keep us from moving towards corporate fascism.

I wonder how many other corporate entities will lean hard on the tobacco industry to get them to pull back from their pressure on voting this down now. Perhaps there will be some buyout or other corporate pressure from other bigger companies on the tobacco giants. As someone else noted here, these smilies would be needed soon!



All the more reason to put more pressure on other tobacco state senators to get their no votes too now!

So if they want to vote No because of tobacco, and that's what it takes to get them to a No vote, then I'll take it.

Afew years ago over 100 nations got together to encourage better health and wellbeing in their peoples. As part of this coalition, most agreed to pass laws similar to ours discouraging tobacco use.

Since then, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on behalf of tobacco interests everywhere, has lead international lobbying and graft to try to destroy these efforts in each nation. The USCOC president has bragged publicly that they were in the process of getting the right to sue nations that passed laws restricting tobacco profits.

BTW, the chamber is a private organization, of course, but billions across the planet see the name U.S. and think we're behind this great evil.

I am SO glad!!! Go Obama!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

What are you saying? I'm talking about international tobacco's not getting the right to sue the U.S. and other TPP signatory nations for losses of profits due to anti-tobacco laws.

Are you saying McConnell, Tillis, et al will be able to block ratification over this?

I don't care who it's from.

That have "hurt their profits" in other countries when we ship underpriced corn products, etc. there. Maybe if that prospect becomes large that this will happen in ISDS courts if TPP passes, then the prospect of losing their ag subsidies will have our ag companies lobby Republican senators in states like Iowa and Nebraska to vote no too! There are ways to use this sort of issue to push corporate entities to work more for us too now I think.

...and got a letter back from his office that basically said he would Oppose it. Of course, he had tobacco interests in mind, not lil ol me. But weird that my right wing Senator appears to agree with me on one issue: against TPP.