Speaking of clubhouse politics, when are Seattle libs gonna start noticing that Jim McDermott, Seattle's U.S. Rep.-for-Life, is not their friend?

Contrary to popular belief, McDermott's primary function in Congress is not as advocate for Single Payer health care, a noble (and necessary) crusade that has virtually no chance of Congressional passage prior to revolutionary uprising. Instead, McDermott's primary purpose is that of waterboy for Boeing, particularly on military appropriations and free trade issues.

That's never been more clearly demonstrated than in a current, little- noticed bill sponsored by McDermott and ramming its way through Congress. The Sub-Sahara Africa Trade Bill (H.R. 1432) essentially extends NAFTA to 24 sub-Saharan African countries. Under the guise of "developing" these countries, the bill would suspend even the rather mininal U.S. trade assistance now offered unless the countries adhere to strict, corporate- friendly, IMF-style austerity programs and deregulation, in exchange for allowing free imports of goods from those countries.

Africa, unfortunately, isn't even the point of H.R. 1432. There's no requirement in the bill that such goods either originate in Africa or be made by Africans. The bill is a setup for sweatshop labor camps with imported Asian workers (a global economic scam already being perpetrated in the U.S. trust territory of the Northern Mariana Islands in the North Pacific).

More importantly--especially for Boeing--many of these same African countries have similar trade pacts with China. Hence, the bill has little or nothing to do with Africa at all--aside from imposing further IMF-style degradation on the world's poorest populated continent. What the bill represents is an end run around irritating debates like Most Favored Nation status for China (Boeing is the country's leading proponent of making MFN status permanent for the butchers of Beijing), by trans-shipping products made in China through Africa and into the U.S. without any limits.

Naturally, the Boeing/China angle to this bill has gotten zero attention in local media, which generally doesn't pay much attention to Boeing's enormous influence (thanks to retaining some 70 D.C. lobbying firms) on U.S.-China policy. Nor does it pay much attention to McDermott's role in not just voting for, but actively helping lead the global corporate attack on humanity in the name of profit. His willingness to condemn most of a continent (not to mention more Chinese peasant and prison labor) to further abject poverty, to marginally boost Boeing's net worth, speaks volumes about the man.

McDermott, in a heavily Democratic district, has one of the safest seats in the country and is routinely re-elected without any kind of meaningful challenge to his record. It's time for such a challenge. In the meantime, spread the word far and fast: stop the Sub-Sahara Africa Trade Bill.-- Geov Parrish