If you don't like a study, bury it!

[kurto]

More business as usual... if the results of a study contradict your politics... just deny it, dismiss it or bury it.:
[ QUOTE ]
WASHINGTON - The Labor Department worked for more than a year to maintain secrecy for studies that were critical of working conditions in Central America, the region the Bush administration wants in a new trade pact.

The contractor hired by the department in 2002 to conduct the studies has become a major opponent of the administration's proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA.

The government-paid studies concluded that countries proposed for free-trade status have poor working environments and fail to protect workers' rights. The department dismissed the conclusions as inaccurate and biased, according to government and contractor documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

The Senate Finance Committee, which approved the agreement by a voice vote Wednesday, sent it to the full Senate for consideration this week or after the Independence Day recess.

The contractor is the International Labor Rights Fund.

In a summary of its findings, the organization wrote, "In practice, labor laws on the books in Central America are not sufficient to deter employers from violations, as actual sanctions for violations of the law are weak or nonexistent."

The conclusions contrast with the administration's arguments that Central American countries have made enough progress on such issues to warrant the free-trade deal.

The administration and its congressional supporters say eliminating trade barriers for U.S. products would open new markets in Central American for U.S. farmers and manufacturers. Critics say the deal would allow serious labor violations to continue in the countries covered by the pact — Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

Hoping to lure enough Democratic votes to win passages, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) this month promised to spend money and arrange an international conference to ensure "the best agreement ever negotiated by the United States on labor rights."

Behind the scenes, the Labor Department began as early as spring 2004 to block public release of the country-by-country reports.
The department has now worked out a deal with the contractor to make the reports public, provided there is no mention of the federal agency or government funding.

At the same time, the administration began a pre-emptive campaign to undercut the study's conclusions.

Used as talking points by trade-pact supporters, a Labor Department document accuses the contractor of writing a report filled with "unsubstantiated" statements and "biased attacks, not the facts."


[/ QUOTE ]

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Confirms a pattern ..... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. Why don't just shut down the media too, so Bush can control all information like Göbbles did?

[JackWhite]

On this issue, the Bush Administration wouldn't have to cover anything up. I am sure the media would have done it for them. I am willing to bet that about 90% of the mainstream media are for total free trade. With the exception of people like Lou Dobbs at CNN, almost nobody reports things like this. The leadership of both parties, as well as the entire political establishment, believes in these type of trade deals. They couldn't care less about slave wages, child labor, or horrible working conditions. It is the ideology that matters.

[kurto]

Well... it depends if there's a celebrity attached. Every once in awhile there is a story about so-and-so's shoes are being done in a sweathshop.

Frankly, I'm not as concerned if the media chooses to ignore a story as I am to know our govt. pays for studies then buries them when they don't like the results.

[slamdunkpro]

Every President since Bush 41 has screwed up international trade. Why is it news now that Bush 43 is doing it?

[kurto]

The news, to me, isn't about screwing up trade. I thought it was far more interesting the denying studies.

Its the pattern. Don't like the government findings of global warming? Just edit them out! Poof: solution fixed.

Don't like that research shows countries Bush wants to make trade deals don't qualify? Bury the report.

I'm just looking for someone to balance there plans with reality. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]