This ain’t yer Granddaddy’s Union
The things I do for you! LOL!
Today I ventured into the bowels of the John Birch Society, holding my nose, to see what I could dredge up on the NAFTA superhighway and the North American Union … called by some “a myth.”
Yeah — sure — snort!
Rumors about this direct route between Mexico and Canada have been leaking out for a couple of years — Lou Dobbs and Rep. Ron Paul [R] are the only people who seem to be willing to talk about it. There’s this little agreement called the Security and Prosperity Partnership [SAPP — just perfect!] that we should be aware of … ‘cuz when the Dubby talks about prosperity, he sure isn’t talking about US.
I became aware of this proposed corridor linking the three N. American nations when a friend called me from Kansas City [located on the likely route] early last summer, yelping into the phone about a radio broadcast he’d just heard. Since then, I’ve factored this in [and not as “myth”] to the vitriolic and emotion-loaded border/immigrant debates and Dubby’s unpopular position with his devotee’s. I figure if he’s willing to buck them, there’s money in it. So, with Texans in a tizzy about their little bit of it today, I decided to take a deeper look.
Besides dozens of other questions, both pragmatic and philosophical, how does this all play with Homeland Security? We get mugged and mortified with x-rays and security wands at the airport, have to give up our hair gel and shoes, we will [eventually] all have to belly up to a National ID — but who will be watching the “corridor?”
The uber-Conservatives are outraged about this [for different reasons than we would be, of course] and they end up the source of most of the information. The last article here is sincerely Right Wing, but it raises this non-partisan point — shouldn’t this be something the American public not only KNOWS about but has opportunity to discuss?
Should’a, would’a, could’a — impeach NOW!
Jude
Is the Security and Prosperity Partnership the beginning of a North America [Union?]
Tom DeWeese, American Policy Center
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Is our government working quietly to create the equivalent of a North American Union — much on the lines of the European Union?
Some charge that such a Union will eventually override our Constitutional government, our judicial system, our economic system and even our currency, which, some speculate, will be replaced by something called the Amero. Can it be possible?
Others say such charges are just another trumped up conspiracy theory of a lunatic fringe.
I can’t possibly address every issue and describe the complete history of the situation in our short time together, but I can go over the highlights and give you an idea as to why many of us are greatly concerned and in fact believe we are entering the fight of our lives.
Here’s a quick run down.
On March 23, 2005 President Bush met with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in what was officially described as a “Summit.” The three leaders then announced the signing of an agreement to create common policies concerning various economic and security issues among the three nations.
The initiative is called the Security and Prosperity Partnership or the SPP.
It’s purpose?
According to a joint statement from the three leaders, the SPP is to “establish a common approach to security to protect North America from external threats, prevent and respond to threats within North America, and further streamline the security and efficient movement of legitimate low-risk traffic across our shared borders.”
Desirable or not, such an undertaking represents a radical change in how the three nations interact and cooperate with each other. It is a matter of changed foreign policy, monetary policy, and military policy.
Yet there has been no Congressional oversight or authorization for the undertaking. No funds appropriated.
Meanwhile, since that Summit in 2005, at least 20 working groups have been organized under the SPP to produce memorandums of understanding and trilateral declarations of agreement covering nearly every issue affecting our daily lives.
Whether or not you accept the idea that a North American Union is being established, clearly it must be acknowledged that a new layer of tri-national government bureaucracy is being created.
As you know, the major debate in the US today is over border security. Our nation is being flooded with hordes of illegal aliens. They are over-burdening our schools, hospitals and social services.
In many parts of the nation, hospitals and services are being forced to shut down, damaging the quality of life of American citizens.
On top of the illegal alien situation, we face danger from the threat of terrorists as Americans are forced to surrender liberty in the name of fighting this threat.
And there is the flood of illegal drugs pouring over the border, straight into our kid’s schools.
More than 80% of the American people have demanded something be done to secure the borders.
Yet, the Administration has fought efforts to close the border. Why? It appears obvious in light of agreements made in the creation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership.
The SPP calls for “harmonizing” our borders into one seamless entity called North America.
So, under what authority are more than 16 government agencies being organized to create the SPP?
As reported by Congressman Ron Paul:
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According to Administration officials, “…The SPP is neither a treaty nor a formal agreement. Rather it is a “dialogue” launched by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States… What is a dialogue? We don’t know. What we do know, however, is that Congressional oversight of what might be one of the most significant developments in recent history is non-existent. Congress has no role at all in this ‘dialogue.’ According to the SPP, this ‘dialogue’ will create new supra-national organizations to ‘coordinate’ border security, health policy, economic trade policy, and energy policy between the governments of Mexico, Canada and the United States. As such it is but an extension of NAFTA-and CAFTA-like agreements that have far less to do with the free movement of goods and services than they do with government coordination and management of international trade.”
Congressman Paul went on to say the SPP is “an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments.”
It is important to note that administrators of NAFTA and CAFTA are major participants in SPP working groups. Thus the connection to these trade agreements is obvious and substantial.
According to Article 5.11, under the NAFTA agreement, participating nations must reform their laws to NAFTA regulations.
The United States Supreme Court has held that the US government cannot hide behind a claim of federalism to avoid its “international obligations.”
NAFTA, then, appears to be the governing entity for the SPP. That means NAFTA regulations (and ultimately SPP regulations) will supersede U.S. laws. NAFTA courts (and ultimately SPP courts) will overrule U.S. courts. And NAFTA policy (and ultimately SPP policy) will override U.S. labor, energy, environmental, health and economic policy.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership is basically NAFTA on steroids.
But how will the Administration move forward to fully implement the SPP without Congressional oversight?
Answer: Fast Track.
Renewed again in 2002, President Bush has been given by Congress the power to freely negotiate treaties and trade agreements with foreign nations.
According to the lobbying group, Public Citizen, the bottom line of Fast Track is that “the White House signs and enters into trade deals before Congress ever votes on them. Fast Track also sets the parameters for congressional debate on any trade measure the President submits, requiring a vote within a certain time with no amendments and only 20 hours of debate.”
Mexican economist Miguel Picard wrote in an article published in the foreign press detailing the “deep integration” planned for North America. He said there will be no single treaty and nothing will be submitted to legislatures of the three countries. Instead, he says, the plan for a “merged future” will be implemented through the signing of regulations not subject to citizen review.
Picard concluded by saying the schedule calls for beginning with a customs union, then a common market, then a monetary and economic union, and finally the adoption of a single currency.
Who benefits from the creation of such a union?
Multinational corporations.
They are the driving force behind its creation. They seek one currency, one set of rules, one controlling entity — to enable them to move goods and services effortlessly across the border.
Above all, they do not want the public involved in the process.
At a September meeting in Banff, Canada, top officials from all three nations met to outline policies within topics such as “A Vision for North America,” and “Demographic and Social Dimensions of North American Integration.”
Top US officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills were in attendance. No media was present. No details of these top level discussions were released.
However, the Toronto Star, on September 20th, reported, “The public has been kept in the dark while business elite have played a lead role in designing the blueprint for this more integrated North America.”
One participant at the Banff meeting didn’t like what he was witnessing. Mel Hurtig, a noted Canadian author said, “We’re talking about such an important thing, we’re talking about the integration of Canada into the United States. For them to hold this meeting in secret and to make every effort to avoid anybody learning about it, right away you’ve got to be hugely concerned.”
The SPP is not about free trade. Its use of public/private partnerships creates an elite of certain, chosen global corporations which basically become part of government at the expense of their competition and our national independence.
One more major example of how this works is the planned NAFTA Super Highway or, as it is officially called, the Trans Texas Corridor.
This massive highway would be ten lanes wide, with rail lines, utility corridors for natural gas and oil and power lines running down the middle.
It is designed for containers loaded in foreign lands, such as Asia, to arrive in Mexican ports, there to be loaded in trucks and shipped up the NAFTA corridor through the U.S. and into Canada.
As global corporations are now reaping the benefits of using cheap labor in foreign lands such as China, South Korea and Indonesia, now they want to use the NAFTA Super Corridor to reduce the transportation costs as well.
These corporations certainly care little about national sovereignty or security.
The borders would be little more than speed bumps. Truck would not be stopped and inspected. Instead, they would be simply scanned by high-tech gamma ray screening in drive-by inspections.
Nor do they care about private property ownership in their drive for cost cutting.
In Texas alone, some 584,000 acres of private land is scheduled to be taken by eminent domain for the highway. Texas Department of Transportation has the authority to use the “Quick Take” provision, which will allow them to give notice to property owners that they must leave their land in just 90 days.
Even if the landowner disagrees on the compensation — and appeals the decision, they still must be off the land in 91 days.
As part of the Corridor’s public/private partnership, the Texas state government is keeping up its end of the deal by stonewalling every effort to obtain information as to whose property is affected. They have operated virtually in secret.
When news has leaked out about the NAFTA Highway, Texas officials deny it and simply say it is just improving its state highway system.
The Trans Texas NAFTA Corridor is not, however, an improvement project for I-35, as the state claims.
The NAFTA corridor will be a completely separate highway — a toll road run by a foreign corporation. The state of Texas has signed a 50 year lease with a Spanish company named Cintra. The company will build the highway, run it and collect the tolls.
That lease contains a “no compete” clause meaning that I-35 can not be expanded nor can any other non-tolled competitive highway be improved.
Above all, as goods are shipped into Mexican ports, use of American ports on our East and West coasts will be drastically reduced, costing Longshoreman jobs.
These facts are causing great concern among U.S. labor unions. The corridor will allow free access to the U.S. for Mexican trucks, which means the containers can be moved through the U.S. by Mexican nationals. In addition, the flood of Mexican trucks will not be required to meet U.S. standards for safety.
These are just a very few of the details concerning the SPP. We believe it is the beginning of the creation of a North American Union much on the lines of the European Union.
The game plan is very much the same. The excuse for the EU was trade. But today, according to the former president of Germany, 84% of that nation’s laws now come from the European Union.
It begins in secrecy and slowly builds incrementally. But step by step a structure is put into place run by communitarian law and regional governing councils of appointed, well connected, yet unknown and unreachable officials hiding behind public/private partnerships, not answerable or responsive to citizens.
This is why we fear the creation of a North American Union.
The United States is the most unique nation on earth. We are the only nation which was created to protect our natural rights.
The greatness of the American system arises from the fundamental principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That means that public policy must be enacted only by elected representatives of the people. This principle ensures that the people can remove and replace policy makers who make policy with which the people disagree.
To harmonize this land with nations which do not share our values and governing principles can only result in a lessoning of our liberty and our quality of life.
To do it in secret, refusing to allow us to engage in debate before such massive changes take place is nothing short of treason. ++
Lawmakers Weigh In On Trans Texas Corridor
Keith Elkins, keyetv.com
AUSTIN - The state’s transportation agency was in the hot seat at the State Capitol Thursday. They faced plenty of questions from state senators and angry taxpayers over toll roads and Governor Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor project.
The project would build tollways, railways and utility lines from the Oklahoma border to MĆ©xico.
They came packing signs, wearing boots, and demanding to be heard. More than a thousand angry Texans came to the State Capitol, saying no to Texas toll roads and Governor Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor transportation plan.
“We are not against roads, we are not against progress, we are not against toll roads, but we refuse to have our land taken for a trade route and revenue generated for private or state profit,” Dr. Amy Klein said.
It’s not just farmers and ranchers who are frustrated with the state transportation agency.
“We don’t even know basics. We’re truly are in the dark and we’re the transportation committee,” State Sen. John Carona R- Dallas said. “And that’s our frustration, if not our embarrassment.”
It took 18 months and nearly 200 emails to force TxDOT to tell anyone exactly what they’re up to. And saying no to elected officials who control your budget has never been popular in Texas.
“We catch a lot of flack, and a lot of it we deserve, but let me tell you, if I don’t leave you with anything else, I must impress this upon you–the population growth and density this state faces is unlike anything it’s ever faced in its history,” said Ric Williamson, chair of the Texas Transportation Committee.
Controversial roads are proposed for future congestion. But some say it’s just a money grab by the state.
“It would have cost me $30 on this Trans Texas Corridor to drive from Arlington down here to speak to you fine gentlemen and Miss Shapiro and I’m going to leave it right here for you,” Linda Lancaster, opposes Trans Texas Corridor, said.
The problem, according to experts, is a matter of money–higher construction costs, additional roads needed to handle more drivers and state highway dollars that never stretch far enough.
That’s why TxDOT entered into a controversial public-private contract with a foreign company. A Spanish firm that gives the state billions up front-and then collects many more billions in your toll fees long after construction is complete.
The problem is, state lawmakers are just now finding out what the fine print is in some of those contracts, which could bind the state for up to 50 years.
According to TxDOT officials, the Trans Texas Corridor project could cost more than $105 billion including right of way and construction costs. ++
CANAMEX Fwy. won’t clip area
But many people have thought so
Weldon B. Johnson, The Arizona Republic
Feb. 2, 2007
At a recent meeting organized in opposition to the proposed South Mountain Freeway, many people seemed surprised, if not shocked, to hear of a connection between the roadway and the so-called CANAMEX Freeway.
“This is the first time I heard it was part of this CANAMEX Freeway,” Ahwatukee resident Kitty Pesetsky said. “That concerns me.”
Arizona Department of Transportation officials say there’s a reason few people have heard that the proposed piece of Loop 202 is part of the five-state network of roadways that makes up the CANAMEX Corridor - it’s not.
“The South Mountain Freeway would not be part of the CANAMEX Corridor,” ADOT spokesman Timothy Tait said. “The whole idea of the CANAMEX is they’re trying to get up to U.S. 93 by Wickenburg because they want to get up to I-15 (in Nevada). The proposed South Mountain Freeway would take them out of the way.”
The purpose of the CANAMEX Corridor is to make it easier to transport goods, services, information and people between Canada, Mexico and the United States. It was first defined in 1995 as part of the National Highway Systems Designation Act.
According to the CANAMEX.org Web site, the transportation component calls for the development of a continuous four-lane highway from Mexico, through the states of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Montana into Canada.
The Web site reads: In Arizona, the CANAMEX Corridor shall generally follow I-19 from Nogales to Tucson, I-10 from Tucson to Phoenix and U.S. 93 in the vicinity of Phoenix to the Nevada Border.
The “in the vicinity of Phoenix” part was described as being purposely vague at the meeting.
But a Maricopa Association of Governments study and recommendation from 2001 is a bit more specific. That report recommends CANAMEX traffic follow Interstate 10 out of Tucson, veer west on I-8 until heading north on Arizona 85 near Gila Bend before reconnecting with I-10 west of Phoenix. Traffic would then head north on a proposed highway along Wickenburg and Vulture Mine roads to join up with U.S. 60 and eventually U.S. 93.
ADOT spokesman Matt Burdick reiterated that there is no connection between the proposed freeway through Ahwatukee and the CANAMEX Corridor.
“There have been a few people in Ahwatukee that have constantly brought up the CANAMEX stuff,” Burdick said. “Despite the information we’ve given them to show it’s not part of CANAMEX, they continue to harp on it.”
At last Saturday’s meeting, opponents of the freeway sought to link CANAMEX with the South Mountain Freeway.
They talked about potential dangers of hazardous cargo being transported through the area and trucks filling up on “dirty diesel” fuel in Mexico (with higher levels of sulfur than allowed in the United States) and spewing fumes into the Arizona air.
Melanie Pai, president and one of the founders of Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children (PARC), said that the official route wouldn’t necessarily be the one followed. That would especially be true for vehicles with business or facilities within Phoenix.
“The proposed route is lengthy and anyone who has a stop in Phoenix will be using (the South Mountain Freeway) as an alternative,” Pai said. “Two of the trucking companies, Swift and Knight, have facilities located just on the other side of (South Mountain). It’s a shorter route.”
The current proposed route of the South Mountain Freeway would follow the path of Pecos curving north to meet I-10 at 55th Avenue. ++
Fears of Canada-Mexico superhighway driving U.S. critics loco
Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, February 24, 2007
OTTAWA - Are North American governments secretly conspiring to build a “NAFTA superhighway,” four football fields wide, from Mexico to Canada, to bypass regulatory controls and whisk goods swiftly to market?
If you believe some right-wing websites in the United States, it’s all but a fait accompli. They insist a gargantuan project is in the works that will carve a 365-metre-wide swath through the continent’s heart, with 10 traffic lanes, rail lines for freight and passenger trains, fibre-optic cable lines and pipelines carrying oil, gas and water.
Conservative commentators Pat Buchanan and Phyllis Schlafly, and websites such as WorldNetDaily, link the supposed superhighway to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a series of agreements being negotiated among the United States, Canada and Mexico. They fear the SPP will lead to a North American union similar to the European Union, with a resulting loss of American sovereignty.
If you’ve never heard of the NAFTA superhighway, it may be because no such plan actually exists. The whole idea, one American official recently told a congressional committee, is an “urban myth.”
But some remain unconvinced, in part because the largely secretive SPP process has created an information void that provides oxygen for conspiracy theorists.
Most SPP work is being done by 19 working groups that meet behind closed doors. The project only surfaces publicly when politicians from the three countries gather for periodic updates, like Friday’s SPP ministerial meetings in Ottawa.
So far, anxiety about the purported NAFTA superhighway has been confined to the United States. Activists in Canada, by and large, don’t quite know what to make of it, though the Sierra Club has expressed concern that NAFTA super-corridors could be used to pipe Canadian water to American markets.
Even the Council of Canadians, never shy about expressing alarm about anything that furthers “deep integration” with the U.S., declined comment. “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on, like everyone else,” says spokesman Stewart Trew.
In the U.S, though, the furor over the NAFTA superhighway is so intense that the American government’s Security and Prosperity Partnership website has posted a denial under the heading, “SPP Myths vs. Facts.”
Those who swear that a NAFTA superhighway is in the works cite two main pieces of evidence.
One is the Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed statewide network of transportation routes, each of which could include six automobile lanes, four truck lanes, freight and commuter rail lines, and infrastructure for utilities. It would take up to 50 years to fully build.
The other is the existence of North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO), a non-profit organization whose mission is to develop “the world’s first international, integrated and secure multi-modal transportation system.”
NASCO, whose members include companies and governments in the United States, Mexico and Canada - including the city of Winnipeg and the province of Manitoba - promotes and lobbies for what’s known as the “international mid-continent trade and transportation corridor.” It says the corridor connects 71 million people and supports $1 trillion US in total commerce between the three nations.
The 4,000-kilometre corridor runs from the Pacific port cities of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo in Mexico to Manitoba, with a major offshoot to the Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Detroit and Windsor.
In the U.S., the corridor tracks interstate highways 35, 29 and 94.
As it happens, the first leg of the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor would run parallel to Interstate 35, leading critics to allege that the massive Texas project is a prototype for the coming NAFTA superhighway.
Allegations like that exasperate Tiffany Melvin, NASCO’s executive director. The Texas plan, which NASCO supports, is a response to growing highway congestion in that state, she says. “There’s no plan - I cannot emphasize this enough - to extend this to other states,” Melvin insists.
She blames any misperception on fear-mongering by people who have strung together local highway projects to “make it appear to be some evil plot that has been kept secret from the public.”
If there’s any such secret plan, it’s news to Andy Horosko, Manitoba’s deputy minister of transportation and a member of NASCO’s board.
“When we talk about the super-corridor, we’re basically talking about how do we make best efforts in terms of the existing infrastructure,” he says. “We’re not part of any super-plan that’s going to have this four-football-field-wide corridor with no regulatory controls on it.”
Nor is NASCO linked to the Security and Prosperity Partnership, says Horosko, though one of the SPP’s key transportation milestones is to establish “an intermodal corridor work plan” and test it in a pilot project.
“We certainly are aware of what they’re doing,” says Horosko. “Any time we see something that we think lines up well with SPP, we certainly try to make sure that the federal government is aware of what we’re doing and can bring it to the SPP table.”
But even assuming there’s no secret plan to pave over a chunk of mid-America, recognition of the importance of trade and transportation corridors in expediting the movement of foreign and domestic goods is growing.
Stephen Blank, a business professor at Pace University in New York, says the mid-continent corridor is well positioned to become North America’s main trade conduit, in part because its roads and rail lines already exist.
That doesn’t mean upgrades aren’t required, adds Blank. “Everywhere along our North American infrastructure system there’s tremendous need now for maintenance, which has fallen way behind, and also for thinking about what we’re going to build next. And none of that is realistically being done.”
The mid-continent corridor is more of an entrepreneurial concept than a physical plan, Blank says. He credits NASCO for “driving the concept of north-south trade. For the first time, I think entrepreneurs have begun to realize there’s business to be done up and down the corridor.”
Yet the mid-continent corridor faces competition from other regions that are promoting their own trade and transportation corridors.
One is the Canamex Corridor Coalition, a joint project of Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Montana, which is pushing a trade and transportation corridor from Mexico to Calgary. Little of the needed infrastructure now exists, though.
As well, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies is championing a corridor called Atlantica, spanning the Maritime provinces, Newfoundland, southern Quebec and several New England states.
Supporters envisage the port of Halifax as Atlantica’s gateway. From there, super-sized “train trucks” would haul Asian goods to the U.S. midwest. A parallel energy corridor would ship offshore oil and gas to American markets.
But none of these competitors are as far advanced as the mid-continent corridor, which NASCO has been promoting since its formation in 1994.
“This is really a success story,” asserts Blank, who says the mid-continent corridor offers “one of the first examples of a sense of collaboration north-south among urban centres.”
Manitoba has been using NASCO to forge closer links along the corridor, all in the name of opening doors for business, says Horosko.
“We’ve benefited a whole lot just from putting Manitoba on the map,” he says. “We are certainly known along the corridor. We’ve got contacts in Mexico as a result of this participation.” ++
Mexico’s Trucks, America’s Silence
Patrick Mallon, TheOneRepublic
3/2/07
Our weak border President continues his mission to make America more like Mexico when on Thursday, February 23, the administration announced details of a plan to permit 100 Mexican trucking companies to travel freely in the U.S.
For the sake of contrarians, let’s assume this is a good thing in that trucker’s making a quarter of the hourly wage of American drivers will help reduce the cost of goods crossing the border. Additionally, foreign trucking companies will be able to squeeze five to ten more years of road life out of their fleets, thus reducing overhead and capital investment. And goods will flow more freely back and forth across the border. Sounds good on a remedial level, which is about the extent of the government’s willingness to disclose the impact and consequences to a largely uninformed American public.
One undeniable fact is that there is a national shortage of roughly 120,000 drivers in the U.S., and many high-paying jobs go begging for a few good men.
Many of the Mexican companies have already been conducting short-distance hauls throughout the border states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. Unlike previous agreements which contained mileage limits, there was no driving mileage restriction included in the announcement. The plan is to be implemented within two months, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. While it is intended to be reciprocal, permitting American truckers free rein in Mexico, very few U.S. companies will submit their personnel and equipment to the almost certain robberies and hijackings which trademark Mexican roads.
Actually, this 2007 move puts the global elite a little bit behind schedule. The broad stroke of granting Mexican access to all U.S. highways was promised by 2000 under the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. Back in December 2003, the Washington Times reported that: “The U.S. Transportation Department in November 2002 issued the new rules that would allow Mexican operators to begin working in the United States. But the move was stopped when consumer, labor and environmental groups sued to block Mexican trucks and buses from expanding operations outside a very narrow commercial zone along the border.”
The position of the Teamsters, who have condemned the program as “nonsense,” is the same now as it was then. “They are playing a game of Russian Roulette on America’s highways,” said general president James Hoffa.
But now Bush, seeking to compel the implementation of a North American Union policy on multiple fronts, has tasked various governmental organizations and officials with making this happen expeditiously. And he is doing it regardless of public appeals to protect American trucking jobs, or environmental concerns that higher polluting, aged, and in many cases, completely unsafe Mexican trucks will soon rumble through America’s already overcrowded freeways and side streets.
Of course, there is no provision that the Mexican driver himself not disappear into the American landscape once he rolls into a Kansas City truck stop.
“This program will make trade with Mexico easier and keep our roads safe at the same time,” said Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Sure. So substandard big rigs, drivers with limited or no exposure to American roads, inadequate English skills, and no oversight over daily hours behind the wheel without rest are a good thing? The agreement does not include drug testing, something American truckers must periodically submit to.
Also, just as in law enforcement, Mexico does not have a computer licensing system even remotely close to that in the U.S. When a Mexican truck license is checked by law enforcement, it’s safe to say ā good luck!
On a consistent basis, American citizens are witnessing gross double standards in favor of Mexican nationals, and clear super-legal advantages that signify U.S. government intentions to exploit all legal means to overcome public opposition.
We’ve been through the granting of home loans, and now credit cards supported by the lamest identification possible. The battle over driver’s licenses never ends. Homes and apartments with an overflow of occupants are given a nod-nod wink-wink. Entire school districts have become Spanish speaking. Generous government benefits flow like unrestricted honey. In-state college tuition rates as well. And let’s not get started with the gang bangers who operate largely unimpeded in many Los Angeles communities.
Unfavorable trade agreements written into perpetuity continue to be implemented with little or no American public debate or approval. Those who have decided to follow these developments must do so without the help of U.S. newspapers, who regard the North American Union and the Security & Prosperity Partnership (SPP), the closed-door agreements that blueprint free scale Mexican trucking and transit corridors, as the province of lunatics and conspiracy theorists. The only TV personality willing to touch is the subject is CNN’s Lou Dobbs.
There are myriad examples of special dispensation for Mexican and greedy American business interests. Case in point:
In ‘Coming influx of Mexican trucks ’serious,’ Michael Gardner wrote in the March 16, 2006 San Diego Union Tribune: “In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the last legal roadblock when it ruled that the federal government was not required to prepare complete environmental studies on impacts associated with foreign traffic.”
A state Air Resources Board report concluded as follows: Before implementation of the plan, the estimate of Mexican trucks crossing into California is at 3,500 daily. The anticipated number of Mexican trucks crossing into California will be 17,500 daily. The smog to be produced by the additional trucks is estimated to be 50 tons. This is the equivalent of smog produced by 2.2 million cars.
While the state tries to meet more stringent emission standards in an attempt to secure increased federal funding for cleaner air programs, higher polluting Mexican trucks appear to be largely exempt from regulations that make business and operating costs more burdensome for American trucking companies.
According to the report, “A quarter of those trucks were on the road before 1980, and as many as nine of every 10 were built before 1993.”
It doesn’t take a grand leap to see where much of this is going. Americans have been saddled with the grand prophecy of Al Gore, conveniently knighted from the Oscar’s. And foreign companies, and countries who pollute the most Ė such as Mexico, India, and China ā well, they get an eternal truckload of Gore’s renewable energy credits to offset excessive pollution.
So, the average American would be reasonable in the following:
The state passes tighter emissions laws - American companies have to pay to upgrade their trucks - Profits decrease ā Foreign companies roll in, and California businesses go belly up with our tax dollars.
The ever-global thinking Supreme Court disrespects Americans while giving Mexican truckers a free pass.
Who has the authority to impound a multi-ton Mexican truck rolling through Omaha with bad brakes and bald tires?
Does the Mexican truck driver receive an American driver’s license, or an international license?
How many of the semi’s will roll right through inspection with a load of drugs or with human cargo?
It is well known in industry circles that Mexican trucks operate nowhere near the American level of safety. Meticulous log books must be maintained for every repair, every change of a lug nut, every brake line inspection. The same is not required in Mexico.
No wonder Bush and the NAFTA crowd want no public participation in these decisions.
It is a fact that for the new “global economy” to function, America’s quality of life must be reduced, and American jobs must go to the cheapest bidder, anywhere in the world.
None of this is new. But what is novel is that the rights we possess, the rights to participate in such huge decisions that affect our nation and future, in our system of representative government, these are being taken away from us by a combination of neglect, and government secrecy. How many Congressman and Senators have even mentioned the existence of these developments?
As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Unfortunately, our own government has no interest in explaining the plan they so furiously wish to impose on us before we know what happened.
And that’s the plan. ++
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007
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Add comment March 2nd, 2007