"Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party." ~Winston Churchill

Three years ago today on July 21, 2005, the spokesperson of my opponent Robin Hayes told the Winston-Salem Journal,"Congressman Hayes is extremely pleased to create a fair and level playing field, but it still does not change the fact that CAFTA is not a good deal for 8th District businesses."

The week before on July 14, 2005, the Associated Press reported Hayes insisted he would vote against CAFTA: "I know there is no way I could vote for CAFTA." That same day in 2005, the Raleigh News and Observer reported Hayes said, "What does CAFTA sound like? NAFTA. It's not in the best interests of a core constituency I represent."

Despite recognizing in advance that the CAFTA deal was contrary to the interests of his constituents, Hayes broke his promise and supported the measure anyway. Hayes had then actually cast the deciding vote both in favor of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and Fast Track Trade Authority for President George W. Bush after saying he wouldn't support either of the trade deals.

Though Winston Churchill may have been right at the time he said "History is written by the victors," that may no longer be the case.

That was a time before the age of the Internet, C-SPAN, citizen journalists, and 24 hour news shows. As a civics and history teacher, Churchill's statement has long made me skeptical of how much we can believe of what we read and see reported by our media and leaders. As a candidate for Congress in North Carolina's 8th District, I have recently had a personal reminder to be vigilant.

My opponent Robin Hayes, who many of you may recognize as one of the 10 richest members of the entire House or Senate, has been experimenting lately with some revisionist history of his own about jobs and the economy, his support of oil interests, and his reversals on bad Free Trade deals.

Then there is this video I'm sure Robin Hayes wishes didn't exist.

Imagine if you can an economically devastated Congressional district in the South that has been ground zero for the collapse of the American textile industry. This district has five times elected the heir of what was once the world's largest textile company, Cannon Mills, as their representative in Washington. Who better to trust and understand the hardships that unfair trade deals were causing the families of the district?

The people in this District believe in second chances. Robin Hayes was forgiven by the voters of this District for his reversal on giving President Bush Fast Track Trade Authority in 2001 because Hayes cried on the floor as he changed his vote promising to never do it again.

Anyone can make a mistake, and Robin's saving grace was his public remorse.  

Hayes was forgiven by good people, his remorse believed, and his promise to never again allow his party's arm twisting to render him more detriment than voice of North Carolina working families was accepted. Then comes this date in history just 3 short years ago and Robin Hayes' solemn promises to the people to vote against the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

The U.S. jobless report for June is breaking front page news everywhere today.

WASHINGTON - Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy’s fragile state.

Of course, that's not news at all to folks in North Carolina's 8th District where we've lost 62,000 jobs ourselves since Robin Hayes took office.

In fact, if there's even anyone in this bellwether District that never saw this recession on the horizon, it's my opponent, Robin Hayes.

Hayes said the national economy is on the rise. "The economy around the country is very, very strong. Growth continues."

Can you even imagine?

We've all seen the results of the "free" trade system that has run our economy for the last few decades: communities shattered, families broken apart, dreams run aground. And in exchange? A tidal wave of cheap plastic junk, and a new generation of workers overseas to be exploited in sweatshops.

To put the American Dream back within reach for workers everywhere, we need a trade system that embodies progressive values rather than focusing solely on the corporate bottom line.

Well, for the first time in decades, we now have the opportunity to pass such a trade system into law. But it won't happen without your help.

(After the jump - learn more, including how you can take action to make a progressive trade system a reality.)

Which means... "We are all Americans" and is a rallying cry for some in Brazil, or I am told.

I'm surprised it hasn't been covered more here, but Obama made an important speech on American foreign policy in Miami to a group of conservative Cuban-Americans who are strongly anti- Castro. My post is more or less a rehashing of the excellent post and analysis at the field, which also has some background documents from our beloved Al Giordano's Narco News.

I wrote this a few months ago for Union Review and thought cross-post it here. I wrote this on behalf of myself, not my union or any other ... these are just my opinions and though there might be similarities between what my union has released on Obama and what I have written, this is truly just my perspective.

  I've said before that I believe that the Democratic nomination fight is over, though the hype may drag on for a bit. But, a nice chunk of super delegates--perhaps as many as a dozen or more--may make their choice based on where the candidates stand on trade. And that's a good sign for people who actually care about choices made on the basis of issues.

OK we keep hearing all of this information that Senator Clinton is not in favor of free trade. But why is it that her actions seriously contradict her speaking points? I simply don't understand why voters, the media and her opponents don't talk this up more than they have.

It's long past time to stop allowing Senator Clinton to continue to claim is her innocence in both NAFTA and CAFTA.   This diary will discuss some of her claims about both.

Today's the day when a lot of people will be sitting across the breakfast table or the water cooler. Which Democratic candidate has the best policies? If one actually believed their surrogates on Sunday, there isn't much difference at all.

But the differences are vast--and if we don't face them right now, we'll be stuck with them into the future. The differences aren't about health care (which will be negotiated with Congress, and for which the only right choice--single payer--is off the table for the near future.)

The difference is the "mindset that gets us into wars." So it's time to talk Turkey...and Indonesia...and China...and Colombia.

Cross posted at Daily Kingfish and MyDD.

The Cazayoux campaign released this web-only video about the race:

Don's candidacy has sparked a fire amongst the unions here in LA-06.  While they've worked with political candidates before, I've never seen them this excited about a candidate.  If you like the idea of adding to the Democratic majority in the House with someone who will be there with us on the economic issues we all care about, then donate.
 

I also had the opportunity to interview Don.  The interview is below the jump!

Barack Obama is speaking this morning to the Alliance for American Manufacturing in Pittsburgh, PA.  (Sen. Clinton will be there later today.)  It's a non-partisan, non-profit partnership forged to strengthen manufacturing in the U.S., bringing together a select group of America’s leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers.

Here's some of what he's telling them:

You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign lately about who’s "in touch" with the workers of Pennsylvania.  Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are singing from the same hymn book, saying that I'm "out of touch" – an "elitist" – because I said a lot of folks are bitter about their economic circumstances.

Now it may be that I chose my words badly.  It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. But when I hear my opponents, both of whom have spent decades in Washington, saying I'm out of touch, it's time to cut through their rhetoric and look at the reality.

After all, you've heard this kind of rhetoric before. Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough for you. They'll "promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer.

But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?

I’m the only candidate who doesn’t take money from corporate PACs and lobbyists, and I’m here to tell you that you can count on me to stand up for you after this election, just as I’ve been standing up for workers all my life.  That’s why I’m running for President of the United States.

Senator Clinton and Senator McCain question my respect for the workers of Pennsylvania. Well, let me tell you how I believe you demonstrate your respect. You do it by telling the truth and keeping your word, so folks can know that where you stand today is where you'll stand tomorrow.

I believe that's what they call a "shot across the bow."

Read the whole speech.

A couple of years ago in June of 2006 I wrote a diary entitled, "NASCO = "NAFTA's trade supercorridor" which received about 18 comments, some of which were responses of mine. I wrote the diary based upon a report by Lou Dobbs of CNN fame. That fact harmed any real debate on NASCO because of the way Kossacks feel about Dobbs.

Nevertheless, the diary and numerous diaries later by other Kossacks almost always developed into "tin foil" hat debates. Everyone seems to have their own opinion about these concerns and proudly voice same without any attempt at research or simple curiousity. As America continues to become the latest banana republic we can only blame ourselves.

Each day I visit dailykos, economyincrisis, augustreview and a couple of different national debt clock sites due to my own interests. Each day I become even more convinced we need to act as one and we need to hurry.

More after the break...

Before it was learned that the trade agreement with Colombia was to be put on hold, I had written and posted the following to UnionReview.com. I thought to post it up to Kos today because the information is still important, IMO, to spread around; tell me if you agree.

The Colombian Free Trade Agreement is a disaster waiting to happen. The proof is in the pudding; a tasty dessert called NAFTA, which is responsible for hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, both unionized and unorganized.

As it turns out, we have a presidential candidate whose chief strategist had to step down, to a degree, because he is making money off the Colombian agreement. While we can be annoyed at Clinton for denying her relationship to this agreement, I think we can get even more annoyed that she, by way of her husband, earned $800,000 for four speeches supporting the Colombian agreement.

Mark Penn isn’t the only Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter on the wrong side of the Colombia trade agreement.

Snip

Glover Park Group was arguing the same position on the free trade agreement as has Penn, the contentious Clinton strategist and Burson-Marsteller chief executive who lost his campaign job over the weekend after The Wall Street Journal revealed that he’d met with Colombian officials to plot strategy on the pact.

Yes, Hillary may have been for NAFTA before she was against it, but I'm pretty sure this applies to a large majority of the original NAFTA-boosters. And nevertheless, she voted for some NAFTA expansions, agreements that were almost word for word NAFTA or even worse, with Chile, Singapore, Australia, Morocco, Bahrain and Oman.

Obama has also denounced NAFTA in ads, in stump speeches and more, but he has also wavered, casting NAFTA expansion votes for the Bahrain and Oman FTAs.

When did it become acceptable for Americans to allow

Torture?

When we all learned about the secret movement of "yet to be charged" prisoners to secret torture prisons in foreign countries, referred to as

Rendition; Where was the outrage?

When we all learned about the Secret prisons, where we took people to be tortured and that our President and Vice President had approved them; Why was our President not impeached?

We can argue about NAFTA (though you know where I stand on these trade deals), but we have to agree the legacy of the first two terms of President Bush and even greater damage done by nearly a dozen years of a Republican-controlled Congress grows clearer every day.

Dollar falls in Europe, Canada, Japan...

NEW YORK —  The dollar fell Tuesday, hovering near its all-time low against the euro, after the Bank of Canada cut its interest rate by half a percentage point to 3.5 percent and indicated that more trims will be needed to deal with a deteriorating U.S. economy.

The dollar fell to 1.0042 Canadian dollars in late New York trading, from 1.0074 Canadian cents on Monday.

The euro bought $1.5208, up from $1.5192 on Monday after touching a record high of $1.5266. The British pound rose slightly to $1.9859 from $1.9847, while the dollar fell to 103.14 Japanese yen from 103.96 the day before.

This Congress has a lot of work to do on behalf of the working families in this nation, and they're going to need more, and better Democrats joining them in 2009 to undo the damage.