North American Union

[nChrist]

YEAH!

Here's a vote of sanity. NOW is past time to secure the borders and END the rest of the insanity!

[Soldier4Christ]

China mega-port catalyst for NAFTA Superhighway 
North America about to be hit by tsunami of Far East goods

The Chinese deep-water port at Yangshan, near Shanghai, provides ample evidence North America is about to be hit by a tsunami of containers from China.

Yangshan is a reclaimed island the size of 470 soccer fields that lies in the East China Sea Port, offshore from Shanghai.

According to Bloomberg News, the Chinese have invested $15 billion to develop Yangshan, currently the largest port in China.

Currently handling 20 million containers a year, Yangshan is expected by 2010 to operate up to 30 berths, capable of exporting 30 million containers a year, with the vast majority destined for North America.

The Chinese developed Yangshan to accommodate the largest post-Panamax megaships now being constructed, with a capacity to carry up to 12,500 containers, three or four times the size of container ships now operating.

Yangshan Port is connected to the mainland by the 20-mile long Donghai Bridge.

As a clear indication of globalism's impact on the U.S. economy, international trade has grown from 13 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 1990, to 24 percent in 2000, with projections of 30 percent by 2010, according to Andrew Goetz and Sutapa Bandyopadhyay, transportation economists at the University of Denver.

Goetz and Bandyopadhyay observe that until now, most of the foreign trade enters the U.S. through containers delivered to West Coast ports, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, with the containers "transferred to rail cars and trucks for distribution to inland load centers and eventually to wholesale and retail outlets throughout North America."

With the West Coast ports "sagging from the weight" of the massive increase anticipated in containers coming from China, Goetz and Bandyopadhyay suggest the transportation infrastructure of North America is being transformed, with a plan of opening new international trade "gateways," including deep-water ports in Canada and Mexico, as well as developing advanced truck-train transportation infrastructure, including newly configured north-south transportation corridors connecting the U.S. with Mexico and Canada.

WND previously reported plans to deepen and widen the Panama Canal so post-Panamax container ships can access U.S. ports such as New Orleans, Houston and Corpus Christi.

In 2005, the largest container ships carried an average of less than 2,500 containers. Today, megaships containing 9,500 containers are in operation. The Emma Maersk, one of the largest container ships, is over four football fields long (1,300 feet) and capable of handling 12,500 containers, stacked in 22 rows across its deck.

A YouTube.com video showing the Emma Maersk at sea gives an idea of the megaship's magnitude.

According to the foreign trade statistics maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. imbalance of trade with China is in the billions and growing every year, from a deficit of approximately $162 billion in 2004, to $202 billion in 2005, and $233 billion in 2006.

China now holds $1.3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, 80 percent of which is held in U.S. dollar assets, the largest amount of foreign exchange currency ever held by any country in the world.

As WND reported, repeated visits of top Bush administration bureaucrats, including Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have failed to get China to eliminate unfair trade practices, including subsidizing its currency.

Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton University economist who was former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview reported March 28 that the U.S. was at risk of 40 million jobs being shipped out of the country to outsourcing in the next decade or two.

The Wall Street Journal reported 40 million jobs lost were more than double the total of U.S. workers employed in manufacturing today.

Blinder was a top adviser to President Clinton whose "free trade" views led him to strongly recommend the passage of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

WND also reported President Bush, in response to a question at the press conference concluding the third summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership in Montebello, Quebec, Aug. 21, ridiculed as "conspiracy theory" the idea SPP could develop into a North American Union or promote the development of a NAFTA Superhighway.

Yet, WND has documented plans by Transport Canada, the counterpart of the U.S. Department of Transportation, to build an Asia-Pacific Gateway Corridor linking deep-water ports in British Columbia in a continental transportation infrastructure aimed at taking a share of the rapidly developing Chinese container market for Canada.

WND also reported a Transport Canada announcement that Ontario and Quebec have signed a memorandum of understanding to seek a public-private partnership to finance a segment of the Canadian Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor, according to the dictates of Canada's National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors.

WND reported the official website of the Mexican northeastern state of Nuevo Leon reports its governor, Jose Natividad Gonzales Paras, has actively discussed with numerous U.S. government officials – including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, and Secretary of State Condelezza Rice – the extension of the Trans-Texas Corridor into Mexico to create what Mexico is calling a "Trans North America Corridor."

WND also has documented plans the Texas Department of Transportation has finalized and disclosed on its website to build the four-football-fields-wide Trans-Texas Corridor.

[Soldier4Christ]

Senate votes to eliminate funds for Mexican truck program

An immigration reform activist is praising the U.S. Senate for passing an amendment that will eliminate funds earmarked for the Bush Administration’s pilot program that would allow Mexican trucks to haul freight throughout the United States.



The Amendment was sponsored by Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), and passed by a whopping 74-24 margin. Since the amendment contains language already included in a House-funding bill, it will likely survive the conference committee and stop the program. Susan Tully of the Federation for American Immigration Reform says the Senate vote is a real blow to the Bush Administration.

"It’s a real big deal stopping the Mexican trucks from coming. President Bush signed the agreement with Mexico and Canada for the Security Prosperity Partnership across the borders and through that partnership without any agreement or any oversight on the part of Congress," says Tully.

She says there is great concern that the Mexican trucks have lower safety standards, and could facilitate the smuggling of drugs, terrorists, and illegal aliens. However, Tully says that perhaps the greater concern is that the Mexican truck pilot plan is just one step in the overall agenda of bringing about a North American Union. According to Tully, one can go to SPP.gov and find all of the documents pertaining to this pilot program and see exactly what is taking place.

She says that the American people need to thank Congress for stepping up and she hopes they continue to pay attention to this situation. But Tully says unfortunately there are members of both parties who will continue to push a globalist agenda. "I believe they’ll keep coming back with other ways trying to do end runs around Congress. And President Bush is committed to this," she says. "He’s a globalist. His father was a globalist. Bill Clinton’s a globalist. Hillary Clinton’s a globalist. And if any of these same people are elected, this agenda will be continued."

[Soldier4Christ]

Mexican official urges North American Union 
Tells Denver trade conference EU is 'model we need to follow quickly'

At a Denver conference on intercontinental trade corridors, a Mexican mayor called for a swift move toward a European Union-style merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Referring to Europe, Evaristo Lenin Perez of Ciudad Acuna – a sister city of Del Rio, Texas – told the Great Plains International Conference, "It's a model we need to follow quickly."

Perez later told WND, "If only people know the benefits of opening the borders and working together, improving the quality of life for all, then no one would be opposed to the idea of a North American Union."

A spokesman for organizers of the conference – which began Wednesday and concludes today – rejected the Mexican mayor's view.

"This is not what the conference is about, it is not about a North American Union," said Joe Kiely, vice president of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition. "It is about developing infrastructure and economic opportunities in the Great Plains. I am equally surprised the other items were brought up here."

Ports-to-Plains describes itself as "a planned, multimodal transportation corridor including a multi-lane divided highway that will facilitate the efficient transportation of goods and services from Mexico, through West Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma, and ultimately on into Canada and the Pacific Northwest."

The conference, held at the Adams Mark Hotel, is promoted as an opportunity to "highlight the efforts of communities and citizens working together to bring the benefits of investment in transportation infrastructure and trade home to the Great Plains region."

Asked why he chose the conference to promote the idea of a North American Union, Perez told WND, "It's as good as any place and the right people are here."

"This is not a new idea," he said. "In fact when there are border meetings between border governors or border legislatures this is a topic that continually comes up."

Perez also affirmed the Ports to Plains Corridor is basically a NAFTA Superhighway and needs to be developed as such.

"We need to begin by building the infrastructure in the three countries, investing in Mexico, and then we can sell the main idea that Mexicans should stay in Mexico. We just need to create an equal level for all," Perez said.

Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Efrain Valdes told conferees he came to build relationships he hopes will last for decades to come.

"We are all North Americans," he said. "Three countries, but we are all North Americans."

Michael Reeves, president of Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition, kicked off the conference with brief remarks.

Eduardo Arnal, consulate general of Mexico in Denver, later provided numerous statistics documenting the strong economic relationship between Mexico and the U.S.

"Because of NAFTA, we are partners in the fight against terror and need to help ensure each other's safety," Arnal said.

Arnal later discussed with WND the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. and the issue of illegal immigration.

"The best and only way to stop illegal immigration is for the United States to invest in Mexico," he said. "A fence will not work. It's a simple equation of supply and demand – Mexicans go to the U.S. for work because the demand for their labor and wages is there."

Arnal said although Mexico must share responsibility for the immigration issue, it is the U.S. that really needs to step up and begin investing more in Mexico to help bring the country to a level playing field.

The Canadian perspective was delivered by Phillippe Taillon, vice consul and trade commissioner of the Canadian Consulate in Denver. Like his Mexican counterpart, Taillon presented statistics on the relationship between the three countries and told the crowd "NAFTA has been hugely profitable for all three countries."

He also expressed an interest in continuing to integrate rail, truck and air transportation networks as Canada looks to open new markets from Asia.

[Shammu]

What I am going to say is NOT RACIAL just facts.

I am going to call this the "North American Union", for the lack of a better name.

The problem with the North American Union, is it would hurt America, and Canada. The only one who would really benefit would be Mexico. Mexico would bring down the standard of living for both countries, maybe not so much for Canada, as for the United States.

Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Efrain Valdes told conferees he came to build relationships he hopes will last for decades to come.

"We are all North Americans," he said. "Three countries, but we are all North Americans."

Mexico has always referred to themselves as Central America. Lease when I was in school, back in the day. Mexico had more in common with other Central America(n) nations, then in the United States, and Canada.

And I'm going on quit on this subject, before someone thinks I am judgmental towards Mexico.

[Soldier4Christ]

Congress debate begins
on North America Union 
Resolution calls for end of NAFTA superhighway,
abandonment of integration with Canada, Mexico

A House resolution urging President Bush "not to go forward with the North American Union or the NAFTA Superhighway system" is – according to its sponsor Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., in an exclusive WND interview – "also a message to both the executive branch and the legislative branch."

As WND previously reported, on Jan. 22, 2007, Goode introduced H.C.R. 40, titled "Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada."

The bill has been referred to the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

WND asked Goode if the president was risking electoral success for the Republican Party in 2008 with his insistence on pushing for North American integration via the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP.

"Yes," Goode answered. "You won't hear the leadership in the Republic Party admit it, but there are many in the House and Senate who know that illegal immigration has to be stopped and legal immigration has to be reduced. We are giving away the country so a few very rich people can get richer."

How did he react when President Bush referred to those who suggest the SPP could turn into the North American Union as "conspiracy theorists"?

"The President is really engaging in a play on words," Goode responded. "The secretary of Transportation came before our subcommittee," he explained, "and I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about the NAFTA Superhighway. Of course, she answered, 'There's no NAFTA Superhighway.' But then Mary Peters proceeded to discuss the road system that would come up from Mexico and go through the United States up into Canada."

Goode is a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development of the House Committee on Appropriations.

"So, I think that saying we're 'conspiracy theorists' or something like that is really just a play on words with the intent to demonize the opposition," Goode concluded.

Goode stressed that the Bush administration supports both a NAU regional government and a NAFTA Superhighway system: "The Bush administration as well as Mexico and Canada have persons in the government in all three countries who want to a see a North American Union as well as a highway system that would bring goods into the West Coast of Mexico and transport them up through Mexico into the United States and then in onto Canada," Goode confirmed.

The Virginia congressman said he believes the motivation behind the movement toward North American integration is the anticipated profits the large multinational corporations in each of the three countries expect to make from global trade, especially moving production to China.

"Some really large businesses that get a lot from China would like a NAFTA Superhighway system because it would reduce costs for them to transport containers from China and, as a result, increase their margins," he argued.

"I am vigorously opposed to the Mexican trucks coming into the country," Goode continued. "The way we have done it and, I think, the way we should do it in the future, is to have the goods come into the United States from Mexico within a 20-mile commercial space and unloaded from Mexican trucks into U.S. trucks. This procedure enhances the safety of the country, the security of the country, and provides much less chance for illegal immigration."

As WND has reported, the Department of Transportation has begun a Mexican truck "demonstration project" under which 100 Mexican trucking companies are being allowed to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.

Previously, Mexican trucks have been limited to a 20-mile commercial zone in the United States, with the requirement that goods bound for locations in the U.S. beyond the 20-mile commercial zone be off-loaded to U.S. trucks.

WND reported last month that Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., successfully offered an amendment to the Department of Transportation Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill to block DOT from spending any federal funds to implement the Mexican truck demonstration project.

Dorgan’s amendment passed 75-23, after Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., changed her vote to support Dorgan.

By a voice vote, the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to the FY 2008 DOT appropriations bill comparable to Dorgan's, designed to block the agency from using federal funds to implement the Mexican truck demonstration project.

DeFazio chairs the House transportation subcommittee that oversees motor carriers.

"With the Trans-Texas Corridor, which I would say is part of the NAFTA Superhighway system, and with this NAFTA plot with the Mexican trucks just coming in and not loading off to U.S. trucks, they will just drive right over the Rio Grande and come on over into Texas," Goode argued. "A lot of these Mexican trucks will be bring containerized cargo from the west coast of Mexico where they will be unloaded in Mexican ports to avoid the fees and costs of unloading at U.S. ports."

"So, when you look at the total package," he continued, "we do have a NAFTA Superhighway system already in place. There are those in all three countries that believe we should have a North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Partnership, in my opinion takes us down that road. And I am vigorously opposed to the loss of our sovereignty."

Why, WND asked, do so many congressmen and senators insist on writing and telling their constituents that they don't know anything about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or that SPP working groups are really just to increase our competitiveness?

"In the House, a strong majority voted to provide no money in the transportation funding bill," Goode responded. "I commend Congressman Duncan Hunter for submitting an amendment to the Department of Transportation funding bill [which] got over 360 votes that said no funds in the transportation appropriation measure, prohibiting Department of Transportation funds from being used to participate on working groups that promote the Security and Prosperity Partnership."

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

As WND reported, Hunter's amendment to the FY 2008 Department of Transportation funding bill prohibiting DOT from using federal funds to participate in SPP working groups creating NAFTA Superhighways passed 362 to 63, with strong bipartisan support. The House approved H.R. 3074 by 268-153, with the Hunter amendment included.

"So, I think a majority the House, if you had an up or down vote on the SPP, would vote down on the SPP," Goode concluded. "But some still say, and it's a play on words, that we don't have a Security and Prosperity Partnership that will lead to a North American Union. I don't think they can say anymore that we don't have a Security and Prosperity Partnership arrangement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, because that was done in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005, and the recent meeting at Montebello was to talk about it further."

WND asked Goode to comment on the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, a group of multinational corporations selected by the Chambers of Commerce in Mexico, Canada and the United States as the central adviser of SPP working groups.

At the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, the NACC met behind closed doors with the three leaders, cabinet secretaries who were present, and top SPP working group bureaucrats, while various public advocacy groups, environmental groups, labor unions – and the press – were excluded.

Should SPP working group meetings be open to the public?

"I wish they were," Goode responded. "If it is as the Bush administration says, 'We're not planning any North American Union,' then why wouldn’t those meetings be open, why wouldn’t you let the media in?" Goode asked.

"But some of the very big corporations want the goods from China to come in here unchecked," he continued. "It costs money for U.S. trucks to transport Chinese goods from West Coast ports like Los Angeles or Long Beach. But if you can have a Mexican truck and Mexican truck driver, that's going to be cheaper. And it's all about the margins. The margins relate directly to how much money the multi-national corporations are going to make."

Has the Senate debate on the Dorgan amendment brought the issues of the NAU and NAFTA Superhighways more to the attention of the Senate?

"I think so," Goode said. "That debate had a very positive effect. You had grassroots support calling the Senate on the Dorgan amendment."

"The Bush administration engages in the same play of words with all these issues," Goode added. "Take a look at the Kennedy-McCain comprehensive immigration reform, which the Bush administration has now tried to jam through the Senate not once, but twice."

"The Bush administration claims it's not [amnesty] when you let someone stay in the country and give them a path to citizenship," Goode pointed out. "Well, that's their definition, not my definition, and not the definition of the majority of the public. The majority of the public called in and buried the amnesty bill because of public pressure. Public pressure also got de-funded the pilot program on Mexican trucks in this country."

So should the U.S. pull out of the SPP?

"Yes," Goode answered, "but the best way to end SPP would be to have a chief executive that wouldn't do anything with it."

What does Goode think of the state legislatures that are passing anti-NAU, anti-NAFTA Superhighway, and anti-SPP resolutions?

"If enough state legislatures pass resolutions like that, it surely should have an impact on the House and the Senate," Goode said.

"President Bush's position is that we need to carry out NAFTA and we need to have this free flow of goods with Mexico and Canada," Goode explained. "Well, Bush's approach involves a derogation of our sovereignty and it also undermines the security and the safety of the country."

"It will be much easier for a truck to get a container on the west coast of Mexico and haul in a biological or radiological or nuclear weapon than it would be if you are going to have to unload the trucks on the Texas-Mexico border and put the goods and material in a U.S. truck," he continued.

"The problem is that the NAU, NAFTA Superhighways and SPP all go back to money," Goode stressed. "The multinational companies want their goods from Mexico and China because they want the cheap labor."

What about the U.S.'s large and growing trade imbalance with China?

"I don't want to have to be an 'I told you so' person," Goode answered, "but I was a vigorous opponent of PNTR ["permanent normal trade relations"] and before that of 'most favored nation' trade status with China. We need tariffs and quotas with China. Personally, if I know food is coming in from China, I won't buy it. The American people with the adoption of COOL, country of origin labeling, with the food clearly labeled, I think you will see the American public will shy away from Chinese products."

In 2000, Congress voted to extend to China "permanent normal trade relations," or PNTR. "Most favored nation" or MFN trade status, was given to China first in 1980 by the Carter administration. Country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, rules are administered by the Department of Agriculture.

Goode concluded the interview by thanking WorldNetDaily for covering the SPP, NAU and NAFTA Superhighway issues: "I want to thank you for putting these issues out where people can read it," Goode said. "You have enlightened hundreds of thousands if not millions of American citizens who otherwise would have been greatly in the dark on the SPP."

[Soldier4Christ]

Protesters kept away from 'secret' trade meeting
Mexican official urged swift movement toward 'North American Union'

Protesters were kept outside for the third and final day of the Great Plains International Conference – a Denver event on intercontinental trade corridors in which a Mexican official urged swift movement toward a "North American Union."

Gene Baldock, coordinator of the protest group, told WND, "We just want people to have both sides of the story, and at these secret meetings people aren't getting both sides."

Baldock also pointed out the meetings were funded, in part, with taxpayer money.

The conference was sponsored by Texas, Colorado and other member states and communities.

Scott Flukinger, spokesman for the conference, said, "Everyone is welcome here, they just need to pay the registration fees like everyone else."

"I understand the concerns," he said, "but once people are informed about what is really happening then those concerns are often minimized."

Baldock argued "the decisions and planning that occur in these meetings will have an impact on the American economy and will have an effect on everyone."

He said the protesters tried to enter the meeting each of the three days and were turned away: "We were told it is a private meeting."

As WND reported, on the first day of the event, which ended Friday, the mayor of Acuna, Mexico, called for the swift formation of a North American Union.

At the conference, David Bradley, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, urged businesses to become "more engaged in border issues."

"With the American's decision not to open the southern border, this has allowed standardization to go by the wayside, and instead leaves politicians alone in rooms to try and standardize," he said.

He contended the result of the controversial trilateral agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico – the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America are "underwhelming and those efforts need a kick start if North American is going to compete with other regions."

"If the goal is to make the North American trading block a vibrant one that can take on the EU and China, we need to get rid of roadblocks at the borders," Bradley said. "The biggest challenge is complacency."

Bradley joked with the audience after sharing news the Canadian dollar was on par with the U.S. dollar for the first time in 30 years.

"Someday, the way things are going, American baseball players will want to be paid in Canadian dollars," he said.

Another speaker at the trade conference, Ronald Corvais, president of the Americas division for Lockheed Martin praised the SPP.

"The SPP is good, and we need to insure that the SPP remains dynamic and effective," he said. "The North American private sector is committed to shaping a competitive North America."

Corvais also told the audience North American integration is supported from the top.

"Today we are looking at three nations working to enhance security and trade, and the efforts are supported at the highest levels of business and government," he said.

He denied, however, that any secret deals were being made.

Meanwhile, Texas Transportation Commission member Fred Underwood told conferees it's "time to establish the financial plan so we know exactly what we're aiming for."

Our agency will devote the resources to getting this done in partnership with the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition," he said.

[nChrist]

UM?  It's becoming apparent that certain powers plan to do this without the vote and approval of the people. That would be illegal and Unconstitutional, so it should result in jail time for all involved.

[islandboy]

We would need a new prision built just to hold all accountable from our government. I don't think it would have gotten this far without the help of all these elite people running for president. It my have been crafted in such a way there is no stopping it now. Need to pray really hard and long against this one.

[Shammu]

I'd like to note, that God's will, will be done. There is nothing man/woman can do to stop it.......

[Soldier4Christ]

Spokeswoman dodges question about NAFTA Superhighways
Perino says president 'comfortable' working with Mexico, Canada

President Bush is comfortable when the United States, Mexico and Canada work together on issues facing the continent, according to spokeswoman Dana Perino, even though Congress is considering a warning that the nation's sovereignty could be threaten by such efforts.

She was responding to a question from Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House. He asked: "Inspired in part by The New York Times best-selling book, "The Late Great U.S.A.," a resolution in the House of Representatives opposing work on any NAFTA superhighway or moves towards merging the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a North American union now has 27 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle. Do you support such legislation?"

"I've not heard of such legislation, but I think we are very comfortable believing that there can be Mexico, the United States and Canada as three separate countries all working together," was her full response.

The pending resolution expresses "the sense of Congress that the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada."

It was launched by U.S. Reps. Virgil Goode, R-Va., Ron Paul, R-Texas, Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., and Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and has been referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, in addition to the Committee on International Relations.

Nearly two dozen others now have joined with the effort, which says:

    Whereas, according to the Department of Commerce, United States trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly widened since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);

    Whereas the economic and physical security of the United States is impaired by the potential loss of control of its borders attendant to the full operation of NAFTA;

    Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the United States and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union;

    Whereas it would be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents in the United States, which would increase the insurance rates for American drivers;

    Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking into the United States can pose a safety hazard due to inadequate maintenance and inspection, and can act collaterally as a conduit for the entry into the United States of illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities; and

    Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would be funded by foreign consortiums and controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That –

       1. the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System;

       2. the United States should not enter into a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and

       3. the President should indicate strong opposition to these or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

WNDN previously has reported the resolution is a message to both the executive and legislative branches.

"You won't hear the leadership in the Republic Party admit it, but there are many in the House and Senate who know that illegal immigration has to be stopped and legal immigration has to be reduced. We are giving away the country so a few very rich people can get richer," Goode told WND.

How did he react when President Bush referred to those who suggest the Security and Prosperity Partnership could turn into the North American Union as "conspiracy theorists"?

"The president is really engaging in a play on words," Goode responded. "The secretary of transportation came before our subcommittee," he explained, "and I had the opportunity to ask her some questions about the NAFTA Superhighway. Of course, she answered, 'There's no NAFTA Superhighway.' But then Mary Peters proceeded to discuss the road system that would come up from Mexico and go through the United States up into Canada."

Goode is a member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development of the House Committee on Appropriations.

"So, I think that saying we're 'conspiracy theorists' or something like that is really just a play on words with the intent to demonize the opposition," Goode concluded.

Goode stressed that the Bush administration supports both a NAU regional government and a NAFTA Superhighway system: "The Bush administration as well as Mexico and Canada have persons in the government in all three countries who want to a see a North American Union as well as a highway system that would bring goods into the west coast of Mexico and transport them up through Mexico into the United States and then in onto Canada," Goode confirmed.

The Virginia congressman said he believes the motivation behind the movement toward North American integration is the anticipated profits the large multinational corporations in each of the three countries expect to make from global trade, especially moving production to China.

"Some really large businesses that get a lot from China would like a NAFTA Superhighway system because it would reduce costs for them to transport containers from China and, as a result, increase their margins," he argued.

"I am vigorously opposed to the Mexican trucks coming into the country," Goode continued. "The way we have done it and, I think, the way we should do it in the future, is to have the goods come into the United States from Mexico within a 20-mile commercial space and unloaded from Mexican trucks into U.S. trucks. This procedure enhances the safety of the country, the security of the country, and provides much less chance for illegal immigration."

In a second question Kinsolving asked: "Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter's Restoring Patriotism to America's Campuses Act would bar Columbia University from receiving any federal money because it not only refuses to allow an ROTC on campus, but also because it invited [Iranian President Mahmoud} Ahmadinejad as a guest lecturer. And my question: Does the president believe that is right, or wrong?'

"I haven't seen the legislation. And we have already said that Columbia University made its own decision," Perino said.

[nChrist]

The people haven't authorized the NAU, and nobody cares what Bush and some big money people want. It isn't going to happen. Further, we should hold our government responsible for securing our borders and doing the duty they should have done. Again, it doesn't matter what any level of government wants. This is the business of the people, and they have NOT authorized it, nor will they.

The government had BEST be about the business of the people and enforce the laws of the people that are already in effect. There are criminal and civil charges involved with dereliction of duty, and the rank or level of government makes no difference at all. We have plenty of room in prison for politicians, and I would hope they've already gotten this message loud and clear from the people. If not, maybe they are now. They can kiss their wild and unauthorized plans goodbye and get about the business of the people. Any citizen can file charges or a law suit.

[Soldier4Christ]

'NAFTA Superhighway stops here,' says OK senator 
Trans-Texas Corridor needs to make 'Texas turnaround' at state border

"The NAFTA Superhighway stops here, at the border with Oklahoma," Randy Brogdon, a Republican state senator who has championed the fight to keep the Trans-Texas Corridor out of Oklahoma, told a packed 300-person audience at the first public meeting of OK-SAFE in Tulsa on Saturday.

Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise, Inc. is a non-profit, Oklahoma corporation set up to oppose the NAFTA Superhighway and the North American Union, as threats to the sovereignty of the United States.

Brogdon objected to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America www.spp.gov, arguing that President Bush had entered the agreement after secret discussions with Mexico's then-president Vicente Fox and Canada's then-prime minister Paul Martin in Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005.

"President Bush has proven that he is more than willing to over-step his executive authority when it came to trade policy," Brogdon told the group.

"Ariticle 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says, 'Congress shall have the Power to Regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States,' not the president," Brogdon pointed out. "Yet President Bush has entered into an agreement with Mexico and Canada called SPP that seeks to eliminate our trade and security borders and he has failed to get the explicit approval of Congress."

The SPP website, in a section entitled "Myths vs. Facts," supports Brogdon's argument, openly admitting that SPP is neither a law nor a treaty.

"Texas highways are famous for 'Texas turnaround' U-turns," Brogdon quipped. "Maybe it's time we tell Governor Perry to do a Texas turnaround at the border with Oklahoma."

"We don't need a new superhighway four-football-fields-wide coming through the heart of our state just so Mexican trucks can carry Chinese containers from Mexican ports to Kansas City," he said.

Brogdon objected that the Bush administration's below-the-radar push for a new continental NAFTA Superhighway will risk the supremacy of U.S. laws on U.S. highways.

"Anyone driving on an international highway system running through the United States would be subjected not to U.S. law, but to international law," Brogdon argued. "We would be subject to an international tribunal in case of a dispute, including accidents or other lawsuits."

Brogdon objected to the Department of Transportation's push to allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to have free access on U.S. roads for their long-haul rigs.

"The Bush administration is pushing the Trans-Texas Corridor under the cause of better roads and economic development," Brogdon stressed. "I'm sure we all want good roads and bridges, but not at the expense of our nation's sovereignty."

As WND previously reported, Brogdon has opposed legislation that would have pre-authorized the extension north into Oklahoma, as a deceptive piece of legislation (HB 1917) that would have put Oklahoma in a highway "pilot project" that was unlimited in scope and required Oklahoma to waive its 11th Amendment rights.

"The 11th Amendment gives protection to Oklahoma from being sued in federal court by a foreign nation," Brogdon explained. "So for us to be a part of this project we had to waive our 11th Amendment rights. This benign piece of legislation that started out as a simple re-surface project in Southeast Oklahoma was in fact the first step to create the NAFTA Superhighway through Oklahoma."

The bill was strongly supported by the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, Inc., a Dallas-based trade organization of which the State of Oklahoma is a member.

Brogdon has championed legislation demanding Oklahoma withdraw from NASCO, saving the state a $25,000 annual membership fee.

"NASCO's mission statement says their goal is 'to create the world's first 'international, intermodal superhighway' system," Brogdon pointed out. "NASCO lobbied the Oklahoma state legislature to pass HB 1917 and they found many of my colleagues sympathetic to their cause. In the state senate, we were able to kill the bill during debate. We won a battle, but the war is not over."

Brogdon predicted that the battle to extend the Trans-Texas Corridor north into Oklahoma would be pressed once again by NASCO in the Oklahoma legislature's next session.

"NASCO will probably work with legislators favorable to their cause to package the next bill with a catchy name," Brogdon warned. "The bill will come down as something like, 'Economic Development and Transportation for the Next Generation and Our Kids.' It will be disguised, but I assure you, the outcome will still be the same. Our sovereignty will be under attack."

Still, Brogdon expressed his confidence in winning the battle against the NAFTA Superhighway in Oklahoma.

"I'm encouraged at what lies ahead for this state and for the nation," Brogdon told the group. "History reveals that Americans always rise to the occasion to protect this country. We are in a battle for this nation's sovereignty. But I see American patriots here today, in this assembled group, men and women still dedicated to the Constitutional cause so eloquently laid out by our founding fathers."

"Ladies and gentlemen, know this – our future will not be determined by the politicians," Brogdon concluded. "Our future lies solely in our hands because 'We the People,' and not some bureaucrats in Washington or a trade group in Dallas, are the government of the United States."

WND has previously reported NASCO changed its name from the original name, North America's Superhighway Coalition.

NASCO has also repeatedly redesigned its webpage so as to de-emphasize the continental nature of the "super corridor" NASCO supports.

[Soldier4Christ]

Satellite tracking mandated for Mexican trucks 
Critic: 'This really accomplishes nothing. It's like putting earrings on a pig'

Federal officials, bowing to safety concerns over Mexican trucks on U.S. highways, announced last week trucks participating in the ongoing cross-border demonstration project will be required to submit to monitoring by a satellite-based vehicle tracking system – a move one critic dismissed as an "ornament" that "fails to address the real issues of driver safety."

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a statement Thursday saying the tracking plan jointly developed by FMCSA and Mexico's Secretaria de Communicaciones y Transportes applies to both U.S. and Mexican trucks in the program.

"This will give us the ability to monitor every vehicle from Mexico and ensure all companies are following our strict safety requirements, including those governing hours of service and sabotage," said John Hill, FMCSA administrator.

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, isn't buying FMCSA's claims of enhanced safety.

"This really accomplishes nothing. It's like putting earrings on a pig," he told WND.

"The FMCSA just proceeds with the program, placing more and more ornaments on it, but fails to address the real issues of driver safety."

Spencer pointed to the last line of the FMCSA statement to make his point.

"Vehicles will be tracked by vehicle number and company – no driver information will be collected or tracked," it reads.

"The issues are driver issues. There are no real hours of service regulations in Mexico, there is no effective way of checking driving or criminal records, and the Mexican CDL (commercial driver's license) does not measure up to the U.S. license," said Spencer.

"Tracking trucks and trailers tells us nothing about the drivers. The net effect of this announcement on safety is zero."

The FMCSA initiative comes despite efforts in Congress to completely halt the Mexican truck demonstration program through identical amendments in House and Senate versions of the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. That bill (HR3074/S1789) is currently awaiting conference committee action but may not go into effect until November or later.

"We think the amendments will remain in the final bill," Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., sponsor of the Senate amendment, told WND. But, he added, the demonstration program could continue until the bill becomes law.

"The fact that they continue this program despite the wishes of Congress is in line with the arrogant approach they have taken all along. Under the defunding of a pilot program those carriers that are or will be approved will need to stop at that point," said Piatt.

"The FMCSA has maintained all along that they do not have to manage a pilot program. The administration is simply thumbing its nose at the wishes of Congress and those concerned about true safety on American roads," Spencer told WND.

To date, four Mexican carriers have been authorized to operate in the U.S., and 2 U.S. carriers have been authorized to operate in Mexico.