There's a new "free trade" agreement on its way. It's been described by opponents as "NAFTA on steroids". But for the most part, people can't really debate it. Because the agreement is classified.

That is to say, the classification system, whose original stated purpose was to make it a crime to disclose military secrets to foreign enemies, is being used to make it a crime to reveal the government's proposed trade treaty to the American public.

I guess they liked the way that worked out for the NSA so it's now the standard technique. Why debate anything in front of the rabble?

Elizabeth Warren doesn't like it, though:

I have heard the argument that transparency would undermine the Trade Representative's policy to complete the trade agreement because public opposition would be significant. In other words, if people knew what was going on, they would stop it.

And somehow someone let Alan Grayson see the agreement, and he says:

"What I saw was nothing that could possibly justify the secrecy that surrounds it," Grayson said, referring to the draft Trans-Pacific deal. "It is ironic in a way that the government thinks it's alright to have a record of every single call that an American makes, but not alright for an American citizen to know what sovereign powers the government is negotiating away."

...and...

The TPP is nicknamed "NAFTA on steroids." Now that I've read it, I can see why. I can't tell you what's in the agreement, because the U.S. Trade Representative calls it classified.

In any event, the Stop TPP (how they didn't call themselves "Stopp TPP" i'll never understand) has re-purposed a Gary Frank Hulk drawing as their logo, so you kind of have to support them.