Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez speaks at 'America Wins With Trade' campaign

Today at the History Center in St. Paul, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) held an event for its campaign "America Wins With Trade." Speakers included Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, former Chair of the House Rules Committee, Representative David Dreier (R-CA), and Rhett Dawson, President of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI).

The "America Wins With Trade" campaign is aiming to encourage Congress to work on the Panama, South Korea, and Colombia trade agreements. Jason Oxman, CEA's Senior Vice President of Industry Affairs, said that CEA represents around 2,200 US companies that want their business to grow, and such free trade agreements would enable this to happen.

Rep. Dreier spoke concerning the problems of "raw politics" preventing the trade agreements from being made, even though in the case of Colombia he claimed that many Democratic congressmen did wish to ally with the nation. He said that it was a "tragedy" that bipartisanship had broken down over the issue of trade in Congress, and he called for Democrats to join with Republicans and work for the common interest of American workers and consumers. Dreier struck a political note when asked about the Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), saying that he hadn't heard anything positive from Obama on the issue of trade, and that Republican nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was the only one who "passionately embraced the issue of free trade."

Secretary Gutierrez, when asked on the importance of free trade agreements to the United States' world standing, said that "we need to be seen as a reliable partner," and that the US needs to engage the world and be committed to a free trading system. He made the importance of trade clear when he said that trade made up much of the US's GDP in the second quarter, and such projects as residential construction have relied on it. In relation to the proposed Colombia trade agreement in particular, Gutierrez stated that Colombia has been a "tremendous ally," and that it is a mistake not to have a full trade agreement with the nation when such agreements exist with other South American countries like Mexico, Chile, Peru, and the Dominican Republic.

Log Cabin Republicans endorse McCain

Today at the University Club of St. Paul, the Log Cabin Republicans announced their endorsement of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as their presidential candidate. The group, comprised of homosexuals who support the Republican Party, voted 12 to 2 in favor of supporting the presumptive Republican nominee.

The "Big Tent Event," was highlighted by speeches from several prominent conservatives. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, called for a return to smaller government policies of Ronald Reagan, claiming Democratic nominee Barack Obama's capital gains tax plan would hurt the middle class. Norquist predicted that as soon as voters realized this "the election will be over much sooner than we think."

Former Congressman Jim Kolbe also made an appearance at the announcement lunch lauding the Senator for his maverick approach and his willingness to embrace diverse viewpoints. "He's a different kind of Republican… he knows what we need to do to confront these challenges," said Kolbe, the second openly gay Republican member of Congress. "We have a long way to go, but we're going to get there one step at a time.

Students protest peacefully in Saint Paul

Today at Mears Park in Saint Paul the Swift Students For Truthiness gathered to advocate their standpoint on contemporary politics.

The peaceful, non-partisan organization, mainly comprised of students from Wisconsin and the Will Mitchell University in Michigan, stood promoting their progressive views on education, taxation, war and other similar issues.

Thomas Fraint, one of the organizers, said "I think one of the biggest reasons I'm out here is because we have been hurting for the past eight years and I don't think [McCain] really realizes it."

He detailed one of the group's liberal views when he spoke of universal health care: "from a moral standpoint, every American deserves health care; but from an economic standpoint we spend more money than any other country, yet we are ranked right above Cuba, so maybe it's about time we should steal someone else's good idea."

When asked why the group is non-partisan as opposed to Democrat (since the Swift Students For Truthiness clearly share the Democratic point of view), he replied: "if I was out here with an Obama sign wearing blue, people's minds would then close."