'Mostly Peaceful' Activists Riot Before Geneva WTO Meeting

Recall back in the summer when Tea Party protesters were portrayed as "raucous" and "angry mobs" by the lamestream media? Well, get a load of how these leftwing anarchists are portrayed in this dispatch out of Geneva.

Anti-capitalism demonstrators smashed windows of banks and watchmakers in central Geneva today during a violent protest against the World Trade Organisation.

Several people dressed in black used mallets to break windows at Credit Suisse and other institutions during the demonstration by some 3,000 mostly peaceful people.

They also smashed windows at a Starbucks cafe.

A Reuters reporter at the scene said some demonstrators seemed to be smashing windows at every building they passed.

Protesters also set off fireworks in the Swiss city's main shopping street, which was lined with police in riot gear.

The demonstration was called to protest against the WTO's three-day ministerial conference that starts on Monday.

Police spokesman Patrick Puhl confirmed protesters set fire to four cars and broke shop windows during a march Saturday.

Puhl said other acts of vandalism were also committed during the march.

Activists say trade policies adopted by WTO members create poverty in rich and poor countries by squeezing farmers in developing countries and depressing labour standards in industrialised nations.

Here's one of those zany activists wearing a ski mask and wielding a hammer.

Where are the water cannons when you need them?

Obama's NAFTA Problem

Look's like Barack Obama wants to have his cake and eat it too with NAFTA.

Obama targets NAFTA but says supports free trade

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama assured U.S. trading partners on Sunday that he did not oppose free trade despite making increasingly critical comments about multilateral deals such as NAFTA.

So what's his problem with NAFTA?

He has pounded rival Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, for switching positions on NAFTA and said repeatedly that he would revisit that pact to instill environmental and labor standards.

Right, so Obama is for free trade, just not this free trade.

Obama can "revisit" all he wants, you don't get to unilaterally change an existing trade agreement. And somebody might want to clue Obama in that saying you want to do so will make it a little hard to negotiate agreements in the future with anybody if he does be come President. Of course, Obama has a different take

:"What the world should interpret is my consistent position, which is I believe in trade," he said after meeting with workers at a manufacturing plant in Ohio.

"I just want to make sure that the rules of the road apply to everybody and they are fair and that they reflect the interests of workers and not just corporate profits."

So now Obama says he wants to negotiate higher standards in future trade agreements, as long as he get's to define what "fair" is. Obama also has plans for future negotiations:

Looking forward, Obama said the World Trade Organization's Doha round of trade talks should have provisions that reject child labor and poor environmental standards while creating opportunities for developing nations to sell their goods to wealthy countries.

Note to Obama, if you truly want to negotiate with these people, you might want to cool it with your current talk about changing an exisiting agreement such as NAFTA. The other parties involved have absolutely no reason to believe you.

Good luck with that.