North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

The House of Representatives approved NAFTA on November 17, 1993, 234-200. The agreement's supporters included 132 Republicans and 102 Democrats. NAFTA passed the Senate 61-38. Senate supporters were 34 Republicans and 27 Democrats. Clinton signed it into law on December 8, 1993; it went into effect on January 1, 1994.

President Bill Clinton while signing the NAFTA bill stated that "NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement."

U.S. Economy Lost Nearly 700,000 Jobs Because Of NAFTA

 When the North American Free Trade Agreement was first signed in 1994, proponents said it would eventually create jobs for the U.S. economy.

17 years later, a new report estimates, the American worker only has hundreds of thousands of job losses to show for it.
According to a report by Economic Policy Institute economist Robert Scott, entitled "Heading South: U.S.-Mexico trade and job displacement after NAFTA," an estimated 682,900 U.S. jobs have been "lost or displaced" because of the agreement and the resulting trade deficit.
The historic agreement, signed just three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, tore down trade barriers between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, making trade and investment easier for businesses without allowing for the cross-border movement of labor. Despite the agreement being considered a boon for Mexico, the country's economy grew only 1.6 percent per capita on average between 1992 and 2007, The New York Times reported in 2009.
The EPI's calculation of 682,900 jobs lost to NAFTA takes into account jobs created as a result, too. Last year, for example, U.S. exports to Mexico supported 791,900 jobs. It's just that those jobs created pale in comparison to the 1.47 million U.S. jobs that would be necessary without the imports resulting from NAFTA, the report found.
Still, the number of jobs lost to NAFTA looks minimal when placed against the havoc freaked by the financial crisis. Only in 2008, at the height of the crisis, the U.S. economy hemorrhaged 2.6 million jobs, according to CNNMoney.
The U.S. is currently considering a similar trade agreement with South Korea, called U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). KORUS, like NAFTA, could similarly displace American jobs, EPI warns.
Perhaps the most drastic switch post-NAFTA has been in the two country's trade deficit. In 1993, before the signing of NAFTA, the U.S. held a $1.6 billion trade surplus over their neighbor to the south, which supported 29,400 jobs. By 1997, the tides had turned, and Mexico laid claim to a much larger surplus of $16.6 billion. As of 2010, it's not even close. Mexico's trade surplus now hovers around $97.2 billion.
Jobs continue to be lost to NAFTA today. In the years 2007-2010, the U.S. economy has lost 116,400 as a result of the trade deficit created by NAFTA. And last year, the growth of Mexican auto exports to the United States alone created more Mexican jobs -- 30,400 -- than the entire U.S. auto industry.
It's the U.S. manufacturing sector that has suffered most mightily from NAFTA, alone accounting for 60.8 percent -- 415,000 total -- of the jobs lost to the agreement. Specifically, those making computer of electronic parts have accounted for 22 percent of all job losses, and motor vehicle and parts workers accounted for 15 percent of job losses.
Job losses haven't been limited to certain geographic regions, either, as all fifty states have lost jobs as a result. And while the states with the largest total number of job losses, California and Texas, do hug the southern border, it's actually manufacturing-heavy states to the north, such as Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, that have lost the largest share of jobs to Mexico.
Comment:
This is self explanatory. Read it and weep for our American workers!!!
Jack Meehan, Past National President
Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Open Letter from O’Hara and Devine families to Adams, Morrison, Gibney, McGuinness, Hartley and McFarlane

We welcome the fact that Danny Morrison has broken his silence and has given some insight into the events of the first week of July 1981 concerning the hunger strike in Long Kesh. In that light we would like to ask a few questions in the hope of getting answers that may finally put to rest the events surrounding the tragic deaths of our loved ones.

Danny has stated that he relayed the contents of an offer to the PIRA prison OC, Bik McFarlane, on July 5 1981.

Richard O’Rawe, the prison PRO, has said that Bik sent him down a comm detailing what was on offer, and that he said to Bik “Ta go leor ann” (There is enough there). This has been verified to some of our families by two ex-Blanketmen who had been there on the wing and heard the words. Also, Bik himself, in a press interview in 2009, finally admitted he had had a conversation with Richard, and that he thought the Brit offer was “amazing.” In light of this, we must assume that Bik made his and Richard’s views known to their outside leadership. What we would like to know is:

Q1: Why was this offer not accepted?

Q2: Who, on the outside overrode Bik’s authority?

Q3: Why was the Hunger Strike allowed to continue, on direction from the outside (not the POWs)?

Q4: Mrs McDonnell asked Gerry Adams to save her son’s life and put an end to the Hunger Strike by ordering the POWs off it. Mr Adams’ reply was that he did not have the authority to do this. Who had the authority (Brendan McLaughlin was ordered off it due to his medical condition)?

Q5: Why was the IRSP (who were joint participants in the Hunger Strike) not informed about the offer through Mountain Climber?

Q6: The British sent you their offer (to be released upon the ending of the Hunger Strike) in the form of dictated statements on the 6th and 20th of July. Why were these statements never shown to the POWs?

Q7: Who took the decision to withhold the statements from the hunger strikers and the prison leadership?

Q8: On the 29th of July, Gerry Adams told the mother and father of Kieran Doherty, and the hunger strikers, that ”there was no deal on the table, no movement of any sort” despite him being at the centre of ongoing communications/negotiations with the Brits from July 4th to July 20th.

Why did Adams deliberately mislead the hunger strikers? Did he think that they might call off their fast if they found out what was really happening? We should not forget that four of those men who listened and joked with Adams, went on to die horrible deaths in total ignorance of what the British were offering.

In Danny Morrison’s recent letter he spoke of the “families’ pain”‘. Danny can’t even hope to imagine the pain felt by some of our families. We, the undersigned, believe that the Hunger Strike was prolonged when an honourable settlement was available, a settlement that would have saved the lives of six brave men.

We called for an independent inquiry three years ago, asking all those involved in this matter to attend. Only Richard O’Rawe and the late Dr. Garrett FitzGerald said they would attend.

We once again call for on Gerry Adams, Danny Morrison, Jim Gibney, Martin McGuinness, Tom Hartley, and BikMcFarlane to attend. The least we deserve, is a reason why they won’t attend, and failing that, they could provide answers to our questions.

Is sinne
Peggy and Tony O Hara, Michael and Louise Devine.

Comment:

I have written about this issue before and I am in contact often with my good friend and Hibernian Brother Joe McCloskey from AOH Derry Div. #1. Joe is a brother of Peggy O’Hara and uncle of Tony and his brother Patsy, who died on Hunger Strike in 1981. Michael and Louise Devine are the son and daughter of Mickey Devine, the last hunger striker to die. If anyone has a right to full disclosure of the facts regarding the deaths of those ten valiant young Irish patriots, it is without doubt their families, some of whom very obviously still harbor serious doubts about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their loved ones. May God Bless those troubled families and grant them the peace that they deserve. As far as others are concerned, we must form our own opinions based on available information while keeping an open mind to further information that may become available at a later date.  

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

President's Tea Party 'smackdown' goes viral

GENEVIEVE CARBERY

A TWO-YEAR-OLD clip featuring President Michael D Higgins deriding a conservative US talk show host took on a new lease of life and went “viral” yesterday. By late last night it had been viewed more than one million times.
There has been huge reaction to it from users of social networking sites in the United States where it was described yesterday as a “Tea Party smackdown”.
The clip dates from 2010 when a debate took place on Newstalk radio between Mr Higgins, then a Labour Party TD, and the Boston talk show host and Tea Party advocate Michael Graham. In the clip from a debate about foreign policy on George Hook’s programme, Mr Higgins tells Graham to “be proud to be a decent American rather than being just a w**ker whipping up fear”.

The sudden spike in traffic for the clip is linked to social network sharing site Upworthy.com. On Wednesday it posted the clip with the headline, “a Tea Partier decided to pick a fight with a foreign president. It didn’t go so well.”
In the post, Mansur Gidfar of Upworthy wrote that Michael D Higgins was “fed up with over-the-top Tea Party rhetoric, and he isn’t afraid to show it. Listen to him call out radio host Michael Graham on everything from healthcare to foreign policy. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.”
By last night the story had received over a million unique page views (1,041,032) on the Upworthy site and had become the site's most widely viewed post ever, a spokesman told The Irish Times. The Upworthy story was shared 60,184 times on Facebook and 28,230 times on Twitter, he said.

A link to the clip was also retweeted by some influential American tweeters, with some 50,000 followers, including actor Mia Farrow, Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi and author Jeffrey Feldman.
Half a million followers received the link in a tweet from evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins describing Mr Higgins as “no ordinary president”. The clip was posted on YouTube in February 2012 by a pro-Obama blogger. “It made the rounds on a couple of political blogs a few months back but never gained any significant traction,” Gidfar told The Irish Times yesterday. “It was a great clip, though, so I thought it was worth trying to send it viral again,” he added.
“For a lot of Americans, it’s incredibly rare to hear someone emphatically reject Tea Party talking points so straightforwardly in a media setting,” he said.
Yesterday, Graham tweeted: “If opposing Arab terrorists and supporting Israel’s right to self-defence still means I’m a ‘w**ker’, nothing’s changed.”
A spokesman for Mr Higgins had no comment to make.
To listen to Mr Higgins debate with Graham, go to irishtimes.com

Comment:
If there was ever any doubt about this Marxist/Socialist political “hanger on”, this rant should clear up that doubt. He has hung around on the fringes of Irish Labour Party politics for decades and managed to get elected to various low level political offices while spewing his anti American rhetoric and involving himself in demonstrations against American foreign policy, two Presidents of the United States of America, and the reprehensible protests which were specifically designed to ridicule the valiant men and women of our American military who were passing through Shannon Airport. He has the unmitigated nerve to call somebody else “a wanker”, I submit to you that Mr. Higgins was then and is now nothing more than a sniveling little anti American politician whose very offensive opinions and remarks we, in the United States of America, could do very well without.

Jack Meehan, Past National President
Ancient Order of Hibernians in America
Proud Citizen of the United States of America and Ireland

Irish President Michael D Higgins is asked “Why should Americans visit Ireland now?”

In advance of The Gathering, Ireland’s President speaks out to the 42 million Irish Americans (as long as they are not wearing the uniform of our U.S. armed forces).

CATHY HAYES, - IrishCentral Staff Writer - 14 August  2012

As Ireland gears up for The Gathering Ireland 2013, Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins is calling on Americans to visit the “Old Country” and celebrate their Irish roots.

 Recently the President spoke to travel blog,about his time spent in the US, his affinity to the country, and Ireland’s rich resource, its Diaspora.

The site forthrightly asked the President, “Why should Americans visit Ireland now?”

His response was to the point and went directly to what the consumer / traveler is truly concerned about - value for money, finding their roots, and that world famous Irish charm.

Higgins said, “They would find Ireland a great value right now. In my memory, I've never seen such values on hotels and guesthouses and so forth as there is right now. It's also great value because part of the excesses of the Celtic Tiger years has been blown away.”

With over 42 million Irish Americans it’s not surprising that Ireland has become a major destination for genealogy vacations.

He said, “By now the original census materials from the 19th and 20th centuries have been put up online and digitized. So it'll be possible for people to trace where their ancestors came from - even on a brief holiday.”

Finally he touched on the famous Irish welcome from the country of Cead Mille Failte (“A hundred thousand welcomes”).

Ireland’s new president ended by saying, “There's incredible warmth towards people who come from the United States to experience Ireland (as long as they are not wearing camos). And it's a beautiful country to visit and the people have time to stop and talk to you. With the Celtic Tiger, there was a certain emphasis on getting things done, but now we've gone back to the best of ourselves and I very much welcome that.”

Comment:  

This is how Mr. Higgins welcomed our American heroes to Ireland. Hypocrisy is thy name, Uachtaran.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Proud citizen of the United States of America and Ireland

                          

 An Uachtaran -Wee Michael D.

Michael D. Higgins  – The most anti-American head of state in the western world. This fact is sure to do wonders for American business and tourism.

 

He protested against the US Presidential visit to Ireland in 1984.

 

He protested against the US Presidential visit to Ireland in 2004.

Michael D. Higgins has always been Ireland's No.1 participant in anti-American protests and demonstrations

Tánaiste announces €3m aid package for Somalia

Sunday, July 29, 2012 - 12:24 PM

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore announced an additional €3m in life-saving assistance to Somalia during a visit to the capital, Mogadishu today.

Minister Gilmore's visit coincides with the one-year anniversary of the UN's declaration of famine in Somalia in July 2011.

The Tánaiste is the first Irish Minister to travel to the country in more than two decades.

Mr Gilmore said: “Somalia is one of the poorest and most insecure environments in the world. Our ongoing assistance is saving lives every day.”

The funding will help non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Concern, to scale up vital aid to millions of vulnerable Somalis whose lives are in jeopardy as a result of war and starvation.
It is in addition to almost €30m in emergency and long-term development funding given through Irish Aid over the past five years.
Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Somalia and North Korea as joint last, or most corrupt.

Comment:

Perhaps I am getting the wrong message here but this article comes mere days after I heard that the Irish government is going to be wielding the “budget cutting axe” to agencies that provide much needed services to Irish nationals living in the United States. This is not to mention the vicious cuts to services for people in their own country who are very much in need of those services. The funding that will be necessary to replace these unconscionable budget cuts to their own people and to agencies providing services to the Irish diaspora will once again be placed on the shoulders of the Irish taxpayer. While it is commendable to assist third world countries, the size of the Irish government’s largesse should definitely be scrutinized and brought under control.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Hill braces for lame-duck frenzy

Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer - July 24, 2012 

Tax rates, spending cuts and the deficit will dominate the Capitol this fall, but lawmakers and lobbyists are quietly maneuvering to use the lame-duck session to clean up a whole mess of other issues that Congress has been unable — or unwilling — to handle.

First there’s the United States Postal Service, which will default on $11 billion worth of health care retirement payments in August. Negotiations are under way to patch its finances during the lame-duck session.

K Street and Capitol Hill are also moving closer than ever before to a deal to legalize online gaming — something that’s long simmered on the back burner but that may pass in the lame duck. Congress also may extend parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expire at the end of 2012.

Welfare programs are also on the block: Extending parts of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families may not get done until after the election, even though some programs expire at the end of September.

This diffuse set of bills and expiring deadlines has created a behind-the-scenes frenzy as lobbyists and lawmakers try to set in motion a few deals despite the gridlock that has dominated the 112th Congress.

The action may extend to other fronts, like the Dodd-Frank financial law — lawmakers and lobbyists have spotted opportunity to repeal a provision in the law that forces banks to transfer derivatives trades out of their shops.

Most of the movement is so preliminary that few key players are willing to talk about it on the record. Many of these items could be slipped into larger legislation, outside public view while Washington deals with the frenzy of finding compromise on tax rates for every American. Much hinges on the election — the landscape for legislative victories will change significantly depending on the outcome of November.

But inside the Capitol, there’s an increasing desire to pick off a bunch of legislative wins. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) can hardly make his way across the House floor these days without being bombarded by Republicans who want their priority pushed before the 112th Congress ends.

But House leaders are warning that they can’t do everything that’s punted to a lame duck. Aides in both chambers say Congress will be swamped at the end of the year — making each issue an uphill climb.

All told, the lame duck is shaping up to be one of the most significant sessions in recent history.

Here’s what expires at the end of the year: marginal tax rates for every American, the reimbursement rate for doctors who treat Medicare patients, the alternative minimum tax, the debt ceiling and unemployment insurance. Not to mention automatic spending cuts for the Pentagon and other domestic programs go into effect next year. Plus, House Republican leadership appears to be setting itself up to pass a funding resolution that keeps the government open until the end of 2012 — which will require Congress to deal with spending bills at the end of the year, as well.

The uptick in lobbying and negotiating on a series of peripheral issues underscores the reality of this Congress so far: Nothing is getting done. Just look at the month of July, during which the House has spent much of its time on a series of politically hot votes on defense spending, regulation, taxes and health care. Leadership has been rebuffing attempts to move a farm bill and to reform the Postal Service.

“Ultimately, we thought we’d be doing it during September or the lame duck,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose Oversight and Government Reform Committee is charged with the nation’s postal system.

But instead of reforming the Postal Service — which Democrats and Republicans agree they must do — Congress will most likely just pass a one-year patch.

“They don’t have the votes to pass it,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said of Issa’s postal reform bill, which is opposed by unions. “And it’s Issa’s fault.” Issa maintains that he’s working on a long-term bill with the Senate.

The Senate isn’t much better. The chamber has yet to pass a single appropriations bill — a failure that has stalled items lawmakers hoped would ride alongside the spending legislation.

Tactically, leaders in both chambers don’t have many options. The House has only 19 days in session before the November election. Republican leaders have told members who have legislative priorities that the floor schedule is largely set.

That’s why people are eyeing the lame duck. There’s even some thought that Congress could jam through a five-year farm bill then — though nothing’s been settled on that front.

The story of how online gambling might be tackled this Congress underscores the complex negotiations to get things done.

Opponents to the bill — including professional sports associations and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson — have softened their opposition, according to sources involved in the negotiations.

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and retiring Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) have been moving toward an agreement to legalize online gaming — many states have pre-empted them and moved on their own. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is still opposed, making an immediate agreement elusive. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who is facing a tough race in November against Las Vegas Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley, has been tasked with finding Republican votes for the bill. He has been unable to so far, according to sources involved in the negotiations.

Onlookers know that the ground is softening — and the hurry of the lame duck could be the perfect opportunity.

“I think there’s a lot of reason to believe why there should be a bill done sooner than later,” Poker Players Alliance head John Pappas said. “Even those in Congress who are opposed to Internet gaming recognize to do nothing would only worsen the problem.”

Comment:

This is a very interesting article. I notice that the once hot issue of immigration reform is not even mentioned let alone the highly touted proposed “Irish E-3 Visa Program” which seeks to create 10,500 “non-immigrant temporary work permits” annually. It appears that this proposed legislation is probably not even in the “pecking order” of bills to be dealt with in the current legislative session. This should come as no great surprise with the rate of unemployment remaining at above 8 percent. Irish immigration activists would be far better off to concentrate their efforts on trying to resolve the immigration status of our undocumented Irish nationals currently residing here in the U.S. and contributing to our economy.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Fury at loyalist band's musical taunts outside Catholic church

 Lesley-Anne McKeown -14 July 2012

The Orange Order has been asked to explain why a loyalist band played sectarian music outside a Catholic church in Belfast on the Twelfth.

Members of a flute band, wearing Shankill YCV uniforms, were recorded walking round in circles outside St Patrick’s Church on Donegall Street in the city centre.

Two separate videos were posted on YouTube.

At one point the band, who stalled for 15 minutes outside the church, played the The Famine Song, an anti-Catholic tune which originated in Glasgow.

At the end of one of the videos, the man recording it — Sinn Fein activist JJ Magee (49) — is threatened by men wearing Orange sashes. One man brandishing a wooden walking stick said: “You f***ing take yourself off. I am warning you. I’ll knock your b******s off.”

Mr Magee, from north Belfast, said he had filmed the band with his mobile phone as he thought they were being provocative.

“I noticed out of the side of my eye two guys approaching me.

“They verbally abused me, then started to throw punches and tried to kick me,” he said.

Mr Magee was not injured in the attack. However, a police officer who was nearby had to draw his baton to defuse the situation.

Sinn Fein councillor for north Belfast Conor Maskey said the Orange Order had questions to answer.

“It is time for the Orange Order to show leadership, step into the 21st century and get rid of the organisation’s anti-Catholic, sectarian ethos,” he said

“Until that happens, then clearly this bigoted side of the organisation will continue to manifest itself in (such) incidents.”

A spokesman for the Belfast County Grand Orange Lodge said that the band had stopped outside the church because of a delay in the main procession.

However, he added: “The institution reviews all parades and will take any issues raised into account as part of that review.”

A PSNI spokesman said: “Throughout this incident police worked closely with stewards and organisers to resolve the situation peacefully. The recorded footage will be studied closely. If any criminal offences are detected a full and thorough investigation will be carried out.”

Comment:

It is time for the Stormont government to cease and desist from issuing weak statements of disagreement with this type of despicable sectarian behavior and ban these marches altogether. The Orange Order has for decades practiced the vilest imaginable forms of anti-Catholic, anti-Irish behavior on a daily basis, but it becomes particularly reprehensible and visible for all the world to see during “marching season”. It must be stopped and it is the sole responsibility of the Stormont government to stop it – NOW!!!

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America