NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY | An urban myth or reality?

Kansas City Star ^ | May 30, 2007 | Matt Stearns (McClatchy Newspapers)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY | An urban myth or reality?

Super suspicious foes

The government denies any such plans, but campaign against it continues.

By MATT STEARNS
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON | If the government really has a secret plan for a 12-lane road-and-rail NAFTA Superhighway that will split the heartland from Mexico to Canada, it is playing with a great poker face.

“There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA Superhighway of any sort,” said David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce.

Sen. Kit Bond, a Missouri Republican and a powerful member of committees that would authorize and pay for a NAFTA Superhighway, if one were being planned, dismissed the notion as “unfounded theories” with “no credence.”

And yet:

• A pending congressional resolution condemns it.

• Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, speaks darkly of “secret funding” for it.

• Anti-immigrant commentators fulminate against the alleged four-football-field-wide behemoth as a threat to private property, national security, and “a major lifeline of the plan to merge the United States into a North American Community,” as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly wrote.

Responding to denials, Rep Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican, the chief sponsor of the House resolution opposing the NAFTA Superhighway, scoffed: “I’ve heard that line before. They’re just calling it something else … It’s a decrease in our security and an erasing of our borders.”

Goode is hardly alone: His resolution has attracted 21 co-sponsors, from both parties.

Authorities say the whole idea, inspired by the free-trade agreement signed by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, is an Internet-based urban myth fueled by fear and suspicion.

Those accused of selling out U.S. sovereignty by shilling for a superhighway say that legitimate efforts to increase trade efficiencies through international cooperation, technological enhancements and infrastructure improvements have been turned into something sinister.

For example, conspiracy theorists see Kansas City as a pivotal point for the superhighway because of Kansas City SmartPort, an effort to turn the region into a transportation and logistics center. Officials are working with Mexico to establish an inland customs facility — for exports of U.S.-made goods only, not, as some fear, as a security-reducing inland port for imports from Mexico and Asia, said Chris Gutierrez, president of SmartPort.

“We get hit with it all the time,” said Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat. “It’s on some weird set of talking points. They say we’ll actually cede sovereign U.S. land to Mexico. People call and complain about it all the time. We try to explain that’s not the case.”

Here is what Paul, a GOP presidential candidate, told a New Hampshire audience: “They already have a plan for a highway running from Mexico up to Canada, a 12-lane highway with trains running in the middle. It’s going to be an international highway. And there’s been some secret funding already into our budgets to start this program moving. There’s going to be eminent domain powers used to confiscate tens of thousands of acres to build this.”

Variations on the theme abound.

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan says it will be a 10-lane highway, not 12, but adds that it will include oil and gas pipelines.

Running for Congress last year in Kansas, Democrat Nancy Boyda, who campaigned against the superhighway, warned that 30,000 acres of private land in Kansas would be taken to build it. Boyda defeated five-term incumbent Rep. Jim Ryun, who called the superhighway a myth.

Others see it as a first step in an effort to erase national borders and sovereignty and unite all of North America into a single union, with one currency.

“It’s a drift toward a European Union,” Goode said. “I don’t want to have one currency for all North America. I support our country being our country.”

Those convinced that the NAFTA Superhighway is coming point to several disparate efforts that they say prove that the government isn’t telling the whole truth:

• The controversial effort to build the “Trans-Texas Corridor,” which would largely parallel existing highways, primarily moving freight. The suspicious see it as the NAFTA Superhighway’s first leg.

• A Bush administration proposal to allow some Mexican trucks to drive deeper into the U.S. heartland than previously allowed. Boyda’s bill to limit the program passed the House, 411-3.

• North America’s SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO. The Texas-based nonprofit coalition advocates for improvements along major trade corridors, such as Interstates 35, 29 and 94.

• The Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP. It’s a collaborative effort on several fronts, including trade and security, by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Bohigian, the trade official whose portfolio includes the SPP, said the effort is intended only to “reduce the cost of trade and improve the quality of life” through efforts such as decreasing the wait time for trucks idling at international borders. Reducing the average wait time from 35 minutes to six minutes has saved more than $1 billion, Bohigian said.

But Boyda said: “These are legitimate questions. This is an issue about trade, jobs and security.”

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

[Just another Joe]

Please Mr. government man, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.

The govt may not have specific plans.......other than to privatize it to some Mexican company so they can wash their hands of it.

[Russ]

Check out: nascocorridor.com

[muawiyah]

The last urban myth like this one concerned the Postal Concentration Centers ~ back in the 1960s the leftards got the idea the Post Office Department had built concentration camps to which they'd be sent after being rounded up by the government.

These, of course, were simply "concentration points" to which non-preferential classes of mail were sent for distribution and re-dispatch.

It went on for years and years and years. Thousands of letters were written by POD and then USPS officials to fearful leftwards around the country telling them what a PCC really was.

It was all to no avail. Leftards will believe what they want and many probably believe thousands of their little friends are still imprisoned in a PCC.

[chatham]

North American Union Plan Headed to Congress in FALL!!
See:
www.worldnetdaily.com/newxs/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55830

Informative!!!!!!

[Dog Gone]

Threads like this are flypaper for the unhinged.

[cripplecreek]

It made a lot of around news here a few years back. There was a plan for a shortcut of sorts to I-94. I think it was more of a test case to see how it would be received but it wasn’t received well. Their estimates that they would only have to “relocate” some 350 families didn’t go over very well.

[Mark Felton]

Texas, Gov. Ron Perry (REPUBLICAN), has hired a MEXICAN company to build the trans-Texas superhighway from the Mexican border to Oklahoma.

To build it they are using emminent domain powers to force out farmers and other landowners.

This is a REPUBLICAN led disgrace.

[Mark Felton]

check link?

[listenhillary]

What this group is doing makes sense.

I won’t change any minds on FR. Clinging tightly to conspiracies is a favorite past time. Finding pieces of corroborating evidence is like finding a bit of gold in your sluice pan. I wouldn’t want to deprive anyone from having a good time.

flame away

[hedgetrimmer]

What this group is doing makes sense.

In a world of corporatist fascism, it does.

[listenhillary]

Have your State Representatives demand that the Mexican construction contract be invalidated and a US company chosen instead.

It’s your money and your Representatives that control the purse strings.

Petition to recall your Governor.

[listenhillary]

fascism would be the state control of business.

Corporate fascism sounds like some cool phase somebody made up and it sounds evil because of the “facism” part. It makes no sense.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Actually, a SPANISH company has teamed up with H.B. Zachry, a construction company, under RICK perry to build TTC-35 of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

[philman_36]

What about the HIGH PRIORITY CORRIDORS from the NATIONAL HIGHWAY SYSTEM DESIGNATION ACT OF 1995?
Is anyone saying that those corridors weren't implemented into law?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I’m not sure what those very real corridors have to do with this mythical one.

[philman_36]

...has hired a MEXICAN company...
They're from Spain, not Mexico.
Cintras merged with Zachary.

[listenhillary]

Eisenhower's Federal interstates stomped all over states rights.

The President also felt that the newer, multi-lane highways were essential to a strong national defense.

That what that bastard wanted you to think! Why the secrecy?

See!

(extreme sarcasm off)

[philman_36]

I’m not sure what those very real corridors have to do with this mythical one.
Seems to me like they're progressing into a "bigger is better" system of roads.

[philman_36]

Why the secrecy?
I have no idea. Would you care to speculate or offer an opinion as to why there was so much secrecy?

[hedgetrimmer]

Actually, in this case, business is controlling the state.

Corporatist fascism is correct, enabled by the public/private partnerships that created the SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO.

[listenhillary]

Maybe we should have a law for separation of corporation and state?

States can’t mess with, tax, regulate corporations and corporations can’t work with states or federal government. No privatization of government functions as that might lead to cross contamination.

They must never be allowed to communicate ever, that will lead to fascism.

[hedgetrimmer]

Maybe we should have a law for separation of corporation and state?

This country founded with a deep suspicion of corporations and the power they can wield over individuals if allowed.

and corporations can’t work with states or federal government.

Right now, under public/private partnerships, they are. And as 'partners' with goverment they are calling the shots-- to the detriment of our Constutiton, our invidual rights and our freedom.

[listenhillary]

What we should really do to show those globalists, is to go back to single lane highways and turn our airports back into farmland.

That will show them who the boss is.

[DManA]

There already is a super highway from Mexico. It’s called the desert.

[hedgetrimmer]

What we should really do to show those globalists

That would be you, apparently.

[RoadTest]

“What this group is doing makes sense.”

No, it doesn’t. Say that the whole rumor is true; why move the Mexican border to Kansas city?

Why not just improve the existing border checkpoints to handle the “tsunami” they claim is coming?

[Ben Ficklin]

In addition to the Hi Priority Corridors, there will soon be a Corridor(s) of the Future. The one, or more, corridor(s) that get this designation will be announced this summer.

Earlier in the year, many of the corridors in contention for the designation were eliminated from the process, leaving 10-12 corridors still in contention.

Those that keep harping about I 35 need to recognize that the I 35 Corridor was eliminated at that time.

[TLI]

The controversial effort to build the “Trans-Texas Corridor,” which would largely parallel existing highways, primarily moving freight. The suspicious see it as the NAFTA Superhighway’s first leg.

Oh golly, no way. We "suspicious" types fully expect the 12 lane highway complete with railroad lines to simply dead end at the Red River.

Right.

[ears_to_hear]

This plan is not coming from the US Commerce dept, it will never see a vote in the congress. This plan is being developed by the one world leaders of Canada, the US and Mexico.

The leaders of all 3 nations are on board.

This is a part of the North America Union program

[ckilmer]

The Real Reason Canadians Are Worried About Climate Change

by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 04.13.07

Business & Politics

Even though ours is a joke headline, we're not making this story up. It looks like a new political species, the "neo-climatons" are making a political evolutionary jump, now that Al Gore has everyone, including the Washington DC Beltway Pols, believing Climate Change is real. Via: Ottawa Citizen Online:- "Canadian water is on the table at trilateral talks between politicians, businessmen and academics from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. A series of private conferences for the North American Future 2025 Project will include the discussion of "water transfers" and diversions, according to the outline for the project, a trilateral effort to draft a "blueprint" on economic integration for the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico." Go read the whole story; but we put some choice tidbits for you below the fold. Meanwhile, does this kind of talk done in private encourage free LeBatts for the southern neighbors? If so, nice. Finally, and as we've pointed out before, this water transfer scenario is highly implausible. Should a mega-drought hit the US, there won't be the time or the resources to pipe blue Canadian water to enough places in the US to sustain existing culture. What might plausibly happen is that dust-bowl style, plenty of thirsty dry jobless US citizens will be making their way north. We're just saying...

""It's no secret that the U.S. is going to need water. ... It's no secret that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water.

"At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements," says Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, director of the project, which is spearheaded by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a powerful Washington think-tank, in partnership with the Conference Board of Canada and CIDE, a Mexican policy institute."

..."News of the talks emerged the same day as the UN's blue-chip panel on climate change released a report predicting that the U.S. would clash with water-rich Canada as the drought-stricken MidWest looks north to the Great Lakes."

..."Gordon Hodgson of the Ottawa-based Conference Board says that, even though it includes the board's logo, the project outline does not necessarily reflect his institute's views.

"The reality the Americans perhaps don't fully appreciate is that we don't have a whole lot of water to export. ... There are near-scarcity conditions in Western Canada, and a lot of water is being used to extract bitumen from the oil sands.""

[listenhillary]

Mexico and Canada are our the largest trading partners we have. Do we want to hobble and restrict this trade or do we want to encourage it?

We stupidly have ripped up thousands of miles of railroads. We are importing truck drivers from India, because we can’t hire enough over the road drivers.

Won’t it just be horrible to circumvent the stranglehold that unions have on our West coast ports? How could we be so inhumane? Freight corridors are such a bad idea, we all know that sharing the road with 80,000 lb trucks with 3,500 lb cars makes more sense.

As much as some would like to deny it, we are a part of a global economy. We could try to extricate ourselves, but you’re going to have to do it on one fourth of the energy we are using. We can kiss about 10 million domestic jobs good-by if we remove ourselves from the global economy. Pulling our heads back in our shell doesn’t solve anything.

I’ve seen nothing yet that makes more efficient transport of goods a bad thing. We already don’t have control of our border, so what has changed?

[muawiyah]

There were hearings on what became known as the Interstate Highway System in the 1930s and 1940s.

It was in the bag by the time Eisenhower came along as President.

[muawiyah]

What are you guys talking about. Corporations are created because state laws provide for their creation. They are, as it were, creatures of the state.

[Fawn]

Nobody takes WND seriously....(well almost nobody)

[listenhillary]

Sarcasm - just a bit

[listenhillary]

Sarcasm - well maybe more than just a bit.

[hershey]

Bingo.

[listenhillary]

Is Halliburton a corporate fascist? Boeing?

[Mark Felton]

oh, Spanish! Well that makes a great deal of difference since there are no competent American companies to build highways.

The only time public works projects (including defense) whould go to a foreign-tax-paying entity is when they have technology that US firms do not have to substantially benefit the contract.

[Mark Felton]

“Is Halliburton a corporate fascist? Boeing?””

Neither Halliburton, nor Boeing are US corporations anymore (or will be for long).

Halliburton is moving corporate HQ to Qatar.

Boeing president Phil Condit has publicly stated he does not want Boeing to be an American corporation (implying he has no nationalistic allegience to the USA.)

“Boeing’s CEO Phil Condit two years ago expressed his hope that the world, 20 years hence, would no longer see Boeing as an American company but a global one.”

http://www.buchanan.org/pa-98-0630.html

[Mark Felton]

“Nobody takes WND seriously....(well almost nobody)”

Nobody should take ad hominem attacks, like yours, seriously.

Freerepublic was founded for the purpose of debating facts in the media from any and all sources while avoiding emotional ad hominems which is the tactic of leftists.

Can you show evidence that WND is any less credible than the Wash Post or NYT, for instance?

[The Old Hoosier]

HAL is remaining an American company, it’s only moving its HQ to Dubai.

It’s no wonder, though, that American companies move overseas — we tax them to death.

[ViLaLuz]

I certainly take WND more seriously than any of the MSM.

[Mark Felton]

Usually they just move the paperwork to Cayman islands or some such. Halliburton is moving execs and families.

What kind of disengenous little pissants give up their country for tax reasons when they are already making millions personally?

[listenhillary]

You might ask WHY corporations are fleeing the USA. Too many blood suckers. Trial lawyers and politicians with an endless appetite for buying votes with other people’s money to stay in power.

[listenhillary]

A publicly owned corporation looks out for it’s stock holders. We’ve made America inhospitable to business by eying corporations as a bottomless pit of money to plunder.

[Mark Felton]

I know why very well. The corps do have sufficiewntly powerful lobbying capacity if they needed to change laws.

[The Old Hoosier]

They aren’t going to avoid taxes by moving their CEO. The reason for the move is that deep-water drilling will be the future of oil exploration, and it’s more profitable in that part of the world. No one is “giving up their country.” But many companies do leave the US, and it’s no one’s fault but our government’s for making us so business-unfriendly.