[WVEngraver]

Spot on Jim.

There is something very wrong with "free trade" and that's because it only works in fantasy land ... between countries of very similar economic structure and standards. Even Adam Smith, the founder of free trade in modern economics, recanted later in his life.

It's being touted as a "conservative" and Republican philosophy but it is in fact a very liberal policy. Classical liberal to be exact. This is one of the reasons why modern Republicanism no longer represents the true Conservative view .... and it hasn't since Reagan.

Conservatives throughout history have backed a certain level of protectionism ... ie: tariffs. Hamilton being the best and foremost example in early American history. Even high tariff liberals, like Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, put country first. Nationalism was not twisted into being part of the Communist ideology as it is being done today. Free trade in the 1800s was seen as a radical left wing idea here in the United States. England experimented with it and look where it got them in two world wars ... American industry bailed them out each time.

When we send our manufacturing overseas, we export our true assets and wealth. Research and development is a direct result of home grown manufacturing. We are becoming a nation of consumers on government subsidized benefits. The American worker (and the high cost of employing him) is being dumped for Chinese slave workers while the multi-national corporations and their Benedict Arnold CEOs retain their customer base here in the US.

As Patrick Buchanan stated .... "The hens of free trade are coming home to roost"

This is the beginning of a major economic meltdown. This lending debacle is a not an isolated issue but a side effect of a much larger, looming dark cloud. Everyone wants to blame Bush when this is actually a snowball Clinton began rolling. Democrats pushed legislation to ease homeowner lending to lower income families. Sorry ... but owning a home is NOT a right. Now, the Arabs put pressure on this country for waging an un-Constitutional war in the Middle East by driving oil prices up and robbing these very same people of what little wealth they had to pay these mortgages. Free trade agreements put them out of work and onto food stamps. These are the growing pains of our emergence into the global economy while at the same time trying to save the Dollar from total collapse. Decades of band aid policy and corruption passed from administration to administration is finally boiling over ... kiss world dollar hegemony and national sovereignty goodbye. Problem, reaction, solution folks ... our government has created this and now the solution that is on the table is a redistribution of wealth and a national healthcare plan. People need to stop looking to the government for a solution to everything because that sort of indifference to Liberty is the path to tyranny.

Also ... Bruce Springsteen can kiss my redneck ass. I hope his next album is "Born in Venezuela".

Have a nice day!!