Sugar, citrus at odds with Bush

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Nov. 03, 2003

FREE TRADE PACT
Sugar, citrus at odds with Bush
Florida's citrus and sugar industries aim to leverage the state's key role in President Bush's reelection bid as they shield themselves from a free trade pact Bush favors.
BY PETER WALLSTEN
[e-mail]

TALLAHASSEE - Listeners to Spanish-language radio in South Florida tuned in last week to hear a surprising political ad aired by the state's sugar makers.

The industry is usually happy to help Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, President Bush, both of whom have benefited from millions of dollars in campaign contributions from sugar companies and their executives.

But this message was sure to make the Bush family cringe.

''This industry, so closely tied to our community, is threatened by a proposal being made by the administration of President Bush,'' the narrator warns sternly, predicting job losses and economic devastation if plans proceed for a ``Bush free trade plan.''

The ad, aired repeatedly on Radio Mambi; along with a toned-down English version on other stations, illustrates the politically harrowing tightrope the Bushes must walk: Pressing a hemispheric free trade agreement called the Free Trade Area of the Americas at the same time the president prepares for what could be a tough reelection battle. (snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7167541.htm

[hang a left]

1. What was it I read about a CIA front group

was it sugar or fruit?

[Robb]

7. fruit

I want to say United Fruit Company... anyone? :shrug:

[Say_What]

8. United Fruit is now Chiquita.

In Cuba expert Jane Franklin's book, Cuba and the United States: A Chronological History, Franklin points out the following:

1960
January Cuba expropriates 70,000 acres of property owned by U.S. sugar companies, including 35,000 acres of pasture and forests owned by United Fruit Company in Oriente province. United Fruit owns approximately 235,000 acres in addition to this. By confronting United Fruit (later United Brands and Chiquita Brands), Cuba is antagonizing a powerful organization that played a major role in the 1954 overthrow of the elected Arbenz Government in Guatemala. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles has been both a stockholder and a longtime legal adviser for the company, including preparation of contracts in 1930 and 1936 with the Ubico dictatorship in Guatemala; his brother Allen W. Dulles, director of the CIA, was once president of the company; UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge has been a member of its board of directors; Walter Bedell Smith, head of the CIA before Dulles, became president of United Fruit after the overthrow of Arbenz.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jbfranklins/Cuba.htm

[ClintonTyree]

2. Good..............

nothing would make me happier than to have Jebbie and Dumbya both get their dicks caught in a big wringer on this. I realize that many Florida Democrats voted for the illegal asshole in 2000 just because of this issue and we're (Democratic Executive Committee) are working on that. We're not going to let the pinhead have this state again. We were a little lax the last election and let it slip away. It won't happen again.

[hang a left]

3. I am very glad to hear that. Hope you got a good plan for those

electronic voting machines.

[ClintonTyree]

5. Now that.................

we can't control. We're counting on folks like Bev Harris and her compadres to tackle that issue. We'll deliver the votes, the counting of those votes will be left to people with more technological savvy than we. It will take dilligence up and down the board to prevent the theft of Florida's electoral voteas in 2004, but we're all working together and believe we can do it.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. Junior alienates the country from the rest of the world, now he's

. . alienating himself from his own country ?

. . now this last part could be a "good" thing ?

. as in bye-bye in 2004 ?

one can always hope ? :shrug:

[Mika]

6. Gotta love the newspeak at the Miami-Herald on this

The spin on this story renders it almost meaningless.

From the Miami-Herald link in the lead post (bold and underline mine),

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/7167541.htm

The sugar industry has ramped up its efforts recently by forming a new political committee, the Sugar Industry Labor Management Committee, to fund radio ads and other efforts. The Spanish-language ads hail sugar as part of the community's ''heritage,'' a message targeted directly at Cuban Americans critical to President Bush's reelection.

Citrus producers have launched what growers call their most aggressive PR campaign ever, designed specifically to bolster the industry's image in the eyes of Florida voters. Florida Citrus Mutual has hired a powerhouse Republican polling firm, the Tarrance Group, to promote the popularity of a product that has long defined Florida's image nationally.

Citrus has signed up big-league Washington lobbyist Bill Paxon, who became a George W. Bush fundraising ''pioneer'' after raising $100,000 for his reelection campaign.

So.. are they for Jeb or agin him? :shrug:

[Say_What]

9. Nobel winner says Brazil should shun unfair Free Trade pact

<clips>

Rio de Janeiro, Nov 3 (EFE).- Brazil should say "thanks, but no thanks" to its inclusion in the Free Trade Area of the Americas unless Washington agrees to drastic changes in its agricultural policies, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says.

"Unless the United States take a very significant step regarding its agricultural and tariff barriers it makes no sense for Brazil to sign an accord," Stiglitz told the daily "O Globo" and added that rather than a bad deal, it's better to have no deal at all.

He said that while former US President Bill Clinton had shown flexibility on the issue of agricultural subsidies, "(US President George W) Bush approaches the negotiations in a totally unilateral way" and was guilty of "hypocrisy".

"He took his promise to cut subsidies and doubled them instead. He talks about free trade and then goes slapping tariffs on foreign steel," said the economist who won the Nobel Prize for 2001 in that discipline. "I am not being anti-American. As an American I feel I have a say in the matter, just as Brazilian producers do, because I am mot being allowed to consume Brazilian meat and other foods. Bush is just defending special interest groups." EFE cm/bl

http://www.efenews.com/

[markus]

10. Ending the sugar subsidies would cost Bush...

Floria and Louisiana, and probably North Dakota (so who cares besides me) and Minnesota. He wasn't getting Hawaii anyway.

And that's just the sugar industry, which would collapse without protection.

Throw in Cirtus and that's probably it for California as well.