Congress must act on Korea FTA
President Bush recently rolled out the welcome mat for South Korea’s newly-elected President Lee Myung Bak in his first presidential trip to the US with a two-day summit at Camp David. The trip was historic because it marked the first time a South Korean leader has been invited to the exclusive presidential retreat.
Congress can and should match the president’s historic gesture by bringing forward a vote on the landmark US Korea Free Trade Agreement. Every American business- from apple farmers to Apple computers- will benefit from this trade agreement’s elimination of tariffs, expansion of market access, and enhancement of intellectual property rights.
According to a report from the International Trade Commission, the US Korea FTA could boost our country’s GDP by nearly $12 billion, grant American companies unprecedented access to South Korea’s trillion dollar economy, and eliminate 95% of Korean and American tariffs within three years.
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!
It’s clear that the state’s water infrastructure is broken –we haven’t made needed improvements to the state’s water project in 50 years; we’ve seen the largest court-ordered water restrictions in state history this year; and, after two straight years of below-average rainfall, Governor Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought last week.
Thank goodness!
California must fix its ailing water supply system. Southern California’s major water source is the convergence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, known as the Delta in Northern California. And most Southern Californian’s don’t know how critical it is, let alone where it’s located! Yet, failure to restore and protect the Delta severely jeopardizes our state’s economy, environment, tourism, recreation and tens of thousands of jobs and the future of our quality of life in this state.
Thank You Mr. and Mrs. Loving
Sadly, Mildred Loving passed away on May 5 and didn’t live to see the
California State Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage. I
did not know Mrs. Loving, but I believe she would have applauded the
decision.
In 1958, Mildred, a black woman, married Richard, a white man in
Washington, DC. They then moved back home to Virginia and were
promptly arrested for “cohabitating as man and wife, against the
peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.” They avoided a jail sentence
by returning to Washington but challenged the Virginia law,
eventually leading to the 1967 Supreme Court decision (Loving v.
Virginia) which ruled the Racial Integrity Act of 1924
unconstitutional and opened the door for interracial marriage
throughout the United States. There was immediate, loud and
predictable public outcry: a sin, abhorrent, will rip apart the
fabric of society, certain to destroy the institution of marriage,
dangerous to the children, etc. Excluding a few knuckle-dragging
racists, interracial marriage is now pretty much a “duh,” as is
“interreligion” marriage.