North American Union

[Littleboy]

Hi Pastor,
Yes, thats exactly whats going on!
His dad was big on the "one world order" thing
when he was running the U.N...
And he is too!

[nChrist]

Brothers,

I really don't care what Bush wants. It's illegal and Unconstitutional unless there is a vote of the people. I also don't care about the safety of the Mexican trucks, but I do care about our sovereignty. Those are our roads and we paid for them. That's our border, and it's the duty of the Federal Government to secure it and ENFORCE the law of the people already on the book. It's not a matter of choice whether or not to enforce our laws. The choice is doing the duty of office or facing criminal and civil charges for dereliction of duty set by law.

We already have an army of terrorists, dope runners, and other criminals here because of open borders. As far as I'm concerned, those responsible need to spend some time in Federal Prison - including Bush. This is not a dictatorship, rather a representative form of government. Our elected officials are NOT free to do whatever they want to, rather to obey the law and do the duties of their office. The people are the boss, and the law of the people is already established. The penalties for disobedience are also on the books, and it gets close to TREASON in some areas. The same applies to all of our representatives. There's room in prison for all of them. They have duties to perform, and they'd better get about the business of the people and the law.

[Soldier4Christ]

Feds outsource Mexican truck safety 
Trilateral trade association becomes chief inspector

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has delegated key inspection requirements for Mexican trucks to a non-governmental trilateral trade association, whose goal is to impose North American standards on all commercial motor vehicles operating in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

Since the early 1980s, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, or CVSA, operating as a non-governmental organization, has quietly knit together the motor-vehicle agencies in the three countries, building a common regulatory continental structure below the radar of public opinion, available now to function as the backbone of the FMCSA effort to allow approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States.

According to a Colorado law enforcement document obtained by WND, the FMCSA has made arrangements for the CVSA to provide inspection decals to all Mexican trucks who pass inspection in the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck NAFTA demonstration project.

The CVSA is a non-profit association composed of "state, provincial, and federal officials responsible for the administration and enforcement of motor carrier safety laws in the United States, Canada and Mexico."

CVSA membership includes all 50 states, the District of Columbia, all 13 Canadian provinces, Mexico, and various U.S. territories, including Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

According to the group's website, the CVSA has evolved from an informal gathering of western states motor-vehicle agencies in the 1980s, to a trilateral group setting uniform commercial vehicle safety requirements in all of North America.

The Colorado law enforcement bulletin specifies that Mexican carriers who are part of the "Cross Border Demonstration Project" must display a valid CVSA inspection decal.

The law enforcement notice further specifies, "In general, vehicles with valid CVSA decal(s) are not subject to re-inspection until the decal is expired. If obvious violations are noticed, the vehicle may be re-inspected."

The key position of the CVSA in the FMCSA's Mexican truck demonstration project is affirmed by a cross-border operating requirements handbook published on the FMCSA website.

The group's website identifies CVSA as "a public/private partnership," with open invitation to individuals and trucking companies to join as members, along with law enforcement organizations.

A section of the group's website describing CVSA inspections notes, "Inspections must be performed by and CVSA decals affixed by North American Standard Level I and/or Level V certified inspectors. The term 'certified' as defined in this section means the government employee performing inspections and/or affixing CVSA decals must have first successfully completed a training program approved by the Alliance."

The website further specifies, "CVSA decals, when affixed, shall remain valid for a period not to exceed three consecutive months. Vehicles displaying a valid CVSA decal generally will not be subject to re-inspection."

The language consistently reflects standards for North America, consistent with the group's goal to standardize continental driver and vehicle safety requirements on a continental basis.

A Level I "North American Standard Inspection" is specified on the CVSA website to include examination of driver's license and other driver's records including alcohol and drug testing, as well as a vehicle inspection for multiple physical safety requirements.

A Level V inspection is a vehicle-only examination under the Level I North American Standard Inspection requirements, without a driver present.

The FMCSA website currently identifies five Mexican trucking companies and three U.S. trucking companies qualified to participate in the demonstration project.

As WND has reported, both the House and the Senate have overwhelmingly voted to remove the funding from the Department of Transportation's FY 2008 appropriations bill.

DOT, however, has decided continue allowing approved Mexican trucking companies to run their long-haul rigs throughout the United States, arguing that the vote of Congress is not binding until President Bush signs the bill.

WND reported Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., the sponsor of the House amendment to block DOT funding, has charged the Bush administration with being "hell-bent" in opening our borders to Mexican trucks, while defying the will of the American public and failing to convince Congress that Mexican drivers and trucks will meet the same safety standards as U.S. drivers and trucks.

WND has also reported that Melissa DeLaney, spokeswoman for the FMCSA, indicated further defiance to Congress and the will of the American people by suggesting that the FMCSA might sidestep the amendments designed to cut off funding for approved Mexican trucks to continue to operate within the United States.

"We are committed to incremental steps in demonstrating the safety of the cross-border program," DeLaney told WND, "but there is no requirement to have a demonstration project."

FMCSA close working relationship with CVSA is demonstrated by "Operation Safe Driver," a trucking industry program the two are launching together today in Orlando, Fla.

The program, subtitled "Cutting it Close Can Cut Your Life Short," is aimed at addressing the 12 percent of fatal crashes in the U.S. involving trucks and buses.

The effort is aimed at "launching a new campaign concentrating on the unsafe driving practices of commercial and non-commercial drivers."

The Colorado law enforcement document was provided to WND by the Peter Boyles radio show in Denver.

A copy of the document is available for viewing on the program's website.

[Littleboy]

I've alway's said:
REP. slowly bleed us to death,
DEM. cut at our throat for a quik kill!
Both are guilty for where we're at today,
And mans willingness to do evil and promote it!
Almost ALL of them want open borders...
My SSGT. said to me many years ago about all this stuff & that it will cause a war within our borders,
when OUR Goverment started giving OUR freedoms away for the sakes of their AGENDAS...
I've also have always said:
The IMMORAL MANORITY WILL BECOME THE MAJORITY & when this happens OUR Country IS DONE!
My Family died for this???
I Believe if the Framers of this Country could have SEEN what we would become & do to the Constitution,
They would have left this too the British!
Even the good that we do won't hide the BAD that we've become!
Your Loving Brother Duane

[Soldier4Christ]

'Stop SPP' marches in 9 cities tomorrow 
New York, Chicago, L.A. among sites for protest of 'North American Union'

Protest marches opposing the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America are scheduled tomorrow for nine cities across the nation.

Opponents of the SPP will gather in Atlanta, Chicago; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; New York City; Sacramento; Clearwater, Fla.; and Yakima, Wash., to bring attention to a U.S. agreement with Mexico and Canada they charge is part of an incremental move toward an EU-style continental merger.

President Bush first declared the establishment of the SPP at a summit meeting with Mexico's then-president, Vicente Fox, and Canada's then-prime minister, Paul Martin, in Waco, Texas, March 23, 2005.

Jonnie Crivello, national organizer for the March for America!, explained to WND in an e-mail that the goal of tomorrow's event is to demonstrate the country's opposition to the SPP and the establishment of a "North American Union."

"In addition to letter writing and making phone calls to elected officials, Americans are now taking to the streets to show that there are real people behind the demands to halt North American integration and to keep the United States a sovereign nation," Crivello said.

"March for America! is a vehicle to unite," she stressed. "Many Americans who otherwise might never have heard about the Security and Prosperity Partnership or the North American Union will learn about both through our marches."

Crivello told WND originally was established last summer to oppose the Bush administration's attempt to pass its "comprehensive immigration reform" bill.

Then, in August, the group held a protest in Seattle in opposition to the third SPP summit meeting, held in Montebello, Quebec.

WND reported Bush met with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper August 20–21.

In response to a question from Fox News during the final press conference in Montebello, Bush ridiculed as a "conspiracy theory" the idea that SPP might develop into a North American Union.

Still, opponents organizing tomorrow's "Stop SPP" marches insist the administration is following the European model, charging that Europe progressed from a trade agreement comparable to NAFTA – the European Coal and Steel Agreement reached 50 years ago this year – to the European Union today, a full-fledged regional government with the euro as its currency.

After protesting the SPP summit, Crivello decided to keep the March for America! idea going.

She was encouraged by radio talk show host Jim Stachowiak of Freedom Fighter Radio, who picked up on Crivello's idea and proposed to hold a Nov. 17 "Stop SPP" march in his home city of Atlanta.

Crivello liked Stachowiak's suggestion and decided to keep alive the March for America! website to endorse "Stop SPP" nationwide.

Since then, organizers in Chicago; Clearwater, Fla., Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento and Yakima, Wash., have joined Stachowiak.

"We will not wait for the North American Union to be put in place in a stealth fashion, just as the European Union was created in Europe," Crivello told WND. The time to act is now. We encourage all Americans who are concerned to join us, to carry the flag in their city."

[Soldier4Christ]

North American Union
'a couple years away' 
Bilderberg author who 1st exposed plot
in 1996 sees EU replication as imminent

The next giant step toward world government will be integration of the U.S., Canada and Mexico in European Union-style merger in the next few years, says the author of a best-selling book on the power of shadowy international organizations promoting the move.

"I would say [it's just] a couple of years away," reports Daniel Estulin, author of "The True Story of the Bilderberg Group."

Estulin, a Canadian now living in Europe, says the original plans for a North American Union involved the U.S. and Canada as the prime participants. It was motivated primarily by the desire to harvest Canada's abundant natural resources.

In his new book, Estulin reveals the first efforts in this plan date back to 1996 when the elite Bilderberg Group first discussed plans for the dismantlement of Canada as an independent nation and proposed its merger – minus Quebec – with the United States into a Greater North America.

"Actually, the North American Union, or rather a Canada-U.S. merger, was initially discussed shortly after the Reagan-Bush candidacy won the White House," he says in an interview with WND. "Upon taking over the reins of the country, George Bush and Ronald Reagan called in the presidents of the key trans-national companies and asked them for the real picture. The money people told them that if the United States were a corporation it would have to be shut down immediately. It was bankrupt."

(Story continues below)

The solution proposed then, according to Estulin, was merger between the U.S. and Canada.

"Canada is virgin country with a multitude of natural resources, water, mines, oil, gas, etc.," he explains. "They decided that it was going to take 14 or 15 years to put the whole project together. In the interval, the economies, social programs and laws of the two countries would be quietly harmonized as much as possible."

Back then, part of that harmonization plan involved the separation of Quebec as an independent state, he says.

"Actually, when all is said and done, it all comes down to money," Estulin says. "Money makes its own rules. If your goal is to make the most money possible using Canada's natural resources, what would you ask for? Number one, give me control over the sun. Number two, give me control over the air. Number three, give me control over water. Now, we know we cannot control the sun, nor can we control the air. But we can control water. Water, after all, is the most important element that can be controlled."

But the plot for a North American Union, as exposed in detail in Jerome Corsi's new bestselling book, "The Late Great USA," is but a prelude, Estulin says, to the ultimate merger – one-world government.

"Everything is in place," he says. "Europe is now one country, one currency and one constitution. North America is about to become one. The African Union has had its working model going for over a decade. Asia is openly discussing the near-future Asian Union, being sold to us as an economic inevitability beneficial to all its citizens."

Estulin sees the current focus in the U.S. on the presidential election of 2008 as something of a farce in light of this trend.

"Does it really matter who wins?" he asks. "As I make very clear in 'The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,' every politician of note and promise belongs to the Bilderbergers, CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) or the Trilateral Commission. Unless you are one of them, you can hardly hope to win the presidency. If we vote for the lesser evil, forced upon us by the secret oligarchies and the powerful men behind the curtain, we end up playing the game imposed upon us by them. Democracy, I guess what I really want to say, is a fallacy, an unattainable dream, a useless label trotted out and dusted off by the rulers every four years for the benefit of the great unwashed – us. There are two sides in this equation – the powerful elite who control the world's wealth and the rest of humanity."

Estulin "guarantees" today's Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani will not get the nomination of his party. With less certitude, he speculates the current mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, could still be positioned to head the GOP ticket.

"Bloomberg, according to my sources within Bilderberg, will emerge as a credible candidate of consensus for the discredited American political establishment, your virtual "People's Choice" candidate," he says.

What is the agenda behind these groups, which Estulin says are comprised of "self-interested elitists protecting their wealth and the investments of multinational banks and corporations in the growing world economy at the expense of developing nations and Third World countries"?

"The policies they develop," he writes, "benefit them as well as move us towards a one-world government."

Those questioning Estulin's conclusion as mere speculation need only recall organizational financer David Rockefeller's own words as recorded in his "Memoirs."

"Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will," he wrote. "If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."

Estulin's book, first written in 2005 in Spain, has been translated into 24 languages, most recently this English edition. He has covered the Bilderberg Group as a journalist for more than 15 years.

Why does he singularly devote so much attention to exposing their activities?

"They cannot survive the light, and they know it," he says. "This is why the powerful people have long insulated themselves from that possibility. You see, the greatest form of control is when you think you are free while you are being manipulated and dictated to. People have been disarmed through the greatest hypnotist the world has ever known – the oblong box almost everyone has in the corner of their living rooms known as the television. By persuading ordinary people that what they can see with their eyes is what is there to see, the men behind the curtain have ensured their own survival, because people will laugh in your face when you explain to them that there is a bigger picture they are not seeing."

What is his personal prescription for fighting back? He offers a five-point program:

    1. Understanding that governments do not represent the people nor have their best interests at heart.

    2. Understanding that corporate media's main job is to hide the transgressions of the most powerful people in the world not shine the light of truth on it.

    3. Understanding that the corporate media forms part of the world's elite societies such as the Bilderbergers, the CFR and the Trilateral Commission.

    4. Understanding how money works and how through intelligent use of money we can destroy the Bilderbergers of this world.

    5. Getting out of debt now.

[Soldier4Christ]

Gunshot precedes anti-North American Union marches 
Drive-by incident at organizer's home, but protests carried out in 9 cities

Protest rallies against the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America were held successfully in nine U.S. cities, marred only by a drive-by shot fired without causing injury into the home of the organizer of the Atlanta march.

Organizer Jim Stachowiak of Freedom Fighter Radio explained that a 9 mm gunshot round was fired into his suburban home Saturday at about 5:40 a.m. on the day of the marches.

Stachowiak told WND no one in the home was injured by the gunshot and Atlanta police were called.

The police removed the round for analysis and filed a report on the incident. No suspects were identified.

Stachowiak told WND he had no proof who may have fired the gunshot, although he felt confident it was done in anger to discourage his efforts to organize the protest.

Despite the incident, Stachowiak attended the Atlanta March for America, which began on the state capitol steps and proceeded to the CNN world headquarters as planned.

On April 10, 2006, and again on May Day 2006, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and their supporters took to the streets of over 100 U.S. cities, often marching under the Mexican flag.

The "Stop SPP" marches Saturday were small by comparison, numbering in the hundreds.

Still, Jonnie Crivello, organizer of the March for America!, told WND she believed the rallies were successful, with protest participants meeting or exceeding expectations in all nine cities.

Crivello told WND the March for America! website is being updated to post photos from the Saturday marches.

Video of the march in Westwood, Calif., has been posted to YouTube.com as well as of the Las Vegas event.

Over an hour of separate videos from various cities participating in the march are listed on YouTube.com.

[Soldier4Christ]

Billionaire to Canada:
Time for amero is now 
Wants euro-style currency
to avoid exchange problems

Stephen Jarislowsky, a billionaire money manager and investor the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail bills as the Canadian Warren Buffet, has told a parliamentary committee Canada and the United States both should abandon their national dollar currencies and move to a regional North American currency as soon as possible.

"I think we have to really seriously start thinking of the model of a continental currency just like Europe," Jarislowsky told the Canadian House of Commons' finance committee, according to the Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Jarislowsky's call for immediate action belied an article published in the Boston Globe on Sunday that said the call for the amero to become the new North American regional currency was "purely theoretical."

In an exclusive telephone interview with WND, Jarislowsky repeated his call for a European Union-style currency to be created between Canada and the United States.

"The idea would be a European Union-type set-up," Jarislowsky said, "with a North American Central Bank that would issue the new currency and sit over the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States."

"An alternative would be to create a peg on the U.S. dollar which would allow the Bank of Canada to adjust the Canadian dollar in a 5 percent plus or minus range, based on the fluctuation in value of the U.S. dollar," he explained.

Still, Jarislowsky was less confident the U.S. dollar peg would work.

"The Bank of Canada only pinpoints inflation," he told WND. "My idea would be to have the Bank of Canada manage the Canadian dollar with a view both to inflation and the U.S. dollar. The Bank of Canada has never been very receptive to this idea."

Jarislowsky insisted Canada was going to be forced to do something because the increased value of the Canadian dollar vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar was likely to depress business activity in Canada and cause a recession.

"Two-thirds of the Canadian economy is tied to the U.S. economy," Jarislowsky pointed out. "Some 85 percent of our exports are headed for the U.S. market. Our economy is tied to the U.S. dollar, whether we like it or not."

In an interview published with the Globe and Mail, Jarislowsky emphasized the likely adverse impact on the Canadian economy triggered by the rise in the value of the Canadian dollar.

"We don't have a single mill in Canada which isn't losing cash at the current exchange rate despite the fact we invested hundreds of millions in dollars into new equipment when we had the money," Jarislowsky said.

"I believe that if we stay at the present levels, the entire forest products industry practically is going to be in liquidation-bankruptcy and there's going to be an enormous loss of employment," he continued.

Jarislowsky told the House of Commons finance committee that a regional North American currency would reduce the adverse currency exchange risk being experienced in Canada since the Canadian dollar has risen more than 20 percent against the U.S. dollar this year.

Jarislowsky brushed aside stated opposition from the Canadian Finance Department, including a negative recommendation to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty because of concerns a common North American currency would mean an erosion of sovereignty for Canada.

"I know Finance Minister Flaherty quite well," Jarislowsky told WND. "Sure, first he will have to deny he is taking seriously the idea of a new currency, then later he will come out and say he was forced to create one anyway."

Jarislowsky insisted he made very seriously the suggestion to create a euro-style currency for North America.

"Pretty soon, the Finance Ministry will have no choice but to create a new currency," Jarislowsky argued, "unless the Canadian dollar all of a sudden changes course and reverses against the U.S. dollar all on its own."

"In the provinces we are already seeing economic activity slowdown because of the rise in value of the Canadian dollar," he insisted. "If our automobile and lumber industries begin to decline, we will have a serious recession as a result."

"The Finance Ministry knows how closely our economy in Canada is tied to the U.S. market," he continued. "A common currency would avoid the problems we are now facing with currency exchange risk added to the normal risks of doing business."

Jarislowsky currently heads the Canadian investment firm Jarislowsky Fraser Limited, headquartered in Montreal.

According to Canadian Business, Jarislowsky has amassed a personal fortune of $1.2 billion, ranking him as the 25th richest person in Canada.

Canadian Business also claims the average private client at Jarislowsky Fraser typically has more than $10 million in liquid assets to invest.

Forbes put Jarislowsky's net worth at $1.5 billion, ranking him No. 512 in the list of the world's richest people in 2006.

Forbes estimates that Jarislowsky Fraser currently manages $50 billion for a select list of institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals.

Jarislowsky's 2005 book, "The Investment Zoo: Taming the Bulls and the Bears," was a business best-seller in Canada.

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the U.S. dollar at the end of September. Since then, the Canadian dollar has been trading above the U.S. dollar, at values not seen since the 1960s.

The Canadian dollar closed yesterday at $1.01 to the U.S. dollar on major currency exchanges.

Canada's Finance Department did not respond to WND requests for a comment.

[Soldier4Christ]

Hundreds of safety violations documented for Mexican rigs
'Clear double standard' subs foreign limits for U.S. laws

Members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association say they have documented hundreds of safety violations by Mexican trucks rolling on U.S. roads under the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project.

"The Department of Transportation is allowing Mexican long-haul rigs to operate in the United States without requiring U.S. rules and regulations to be enforced," Rick Craig, the director of regulatory affairs for the group, told WND in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is providing exemptions from U.S. safety rules that the FMCSA claim are covered in a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Mexico," Craig continued.

"It's a clear double standard," he said. "Mexican truck safety regulations are being accepted by the FMCSA as equivalent to U.S. rules, even though the FMCSA refuses to provide any real detail about how or why the decision was made."

The association has filed a lawsuit against the DOT and FMCSA in San Francisco, challenging that the Mexican trucks the government is allowing into the U.S. under the DOT demonstration project are unsafe when tested by U.S. safety rules and regulations.

Catherine O'Mara, a paralegal at the Cullen Law Firm which is representing OOIDA, has provided the court with documentation of her research on safety violations by the Mexican trucks.

She searched the FMCSA database looking for all safety violations cited for four of the Mexican trucking companies currently in the DOT test for the year preceding the start of the demonstration project on Sept. 21, 2007.

The largest number of safety violations, 1,123 in total, was found for Trinity Industries De Mexico S de R L de CV.

Second on the list was GCC Transporte SA de CV, with 372 violations, followed by Avomex Internacional SA DE CV with 206 violations and Fidepal S de RL de IP y CV with 11 violations.

WND examined the FMCSA violation records O'Mara provided the court.

Among the safety violations listed on the FMCSA database for the four carriers were multiple infractions for inoperative or defective brakes, faulty suspension, defective systems to secure loads, defective lighting devices, tension bars cracked and/or broken, axle positioning parts defective or missing, tires with less than adequate tread depth, various parts and accessories needing repair, inoperable required lamps including headlights and tail lights, wheel fasteners loose and/or missing, and defective power steering systems.

Other violations in the OOIDA database included drivers who were not licensed for the type of vehicle being operated.

Each violation in the database was identified by the vehicle description and license plate number, as well as the time, date, report number and inspection facility location where the infraction was documented.

"Our search of the FMCSA records indicates the FMCSA should know the Mexican trucking companies in their test have unsafe safety inspection records according to U.S. standards," Craig told WND.

The FMCSA is also accepting the Mexican commercial driver's license, or CDL, as equivalent to the U.S. CDL," he added, "even though Mexico has no CDL database that is reliable. There is no way, for instance, to track driving violations in Mexico that Mexican drivers are cited for."

Craig also pointed out that the FMCSA is operating under a 1991 MOU with Mexico regarding commercial driver's licenses.

"This is a problem," Craig told WND, "because U.S. CDL regulations have changed a lot since 1991. Now, U.S. drivers who are cited for violations in non-commercial vehicles, for instance DUI or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs violations, that can go toward disqualifying a CDL, even if the driver is driving the family car on their own time when they are cited for the DUI."

The legal brief filed by the Cullen Law Firm objects to the FMCSA argument that Mexican regulations will provide the same level of safety as compliance that corresponds with U.S. safety regulations.

Under the current terms of the DOT Mexican truck demonstration project, the Cullen Law Firm argues, the FMCSA has decided to substitute compliance with Mexican regulations with compliance of FMCSA regulations.

Under FMCSA's own admission there is no drug or alcohol testing facility in the entire country that is certified," Craig pointed out. "The current FMCSA plan is for Mexican drivers to send drug and alcohol testing specimens to a U.S. certified testing facility, even though there is no reliable way to determine who the specimen came from in Mexico."

"In light of the empirical data set forth in Mr. Craig's declaration"” the brief argues, "there is no question that the harm faced by American truckers is concrete, particularized, and imminent."

The brief contends the safety violations noted for the Mexican truck should have prompted out-of-service orders.

"In examining the records of violations for these Mexican operators, we found many cases where the same truck comes back over the border and is cited again for the same types of violation," Craig told WND.

The brief also points out that the terms of NAFTA had specified the border would be open to the extent that Mexico-domiciled carriers are willing and able to abide by the same laws and regulations as are applicable to U.S.-domiciled motor carriers.

The OOIDA lawsuit seeks an order from the federal court to halt the DOT Mexican trucking demonstration project until the FMCSA is able to demonstrate its ability to enforce the standards of U.S. safety rules and regulation upon the Mexican trucks given access to U.S. roads.

On Nov. 14, the House of Representatives passed the DOT Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill by an overwhelming bi-paritsan 270-147 vote.

WND reported at the time Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., offered an amendment to the DOT Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill to block DOT funding for the Mexican trucks, which passed by a voice vote.

WND also reported Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, successfully offered in the Senate an amendment comparable to DeFazio's.

The House bill emerging from the conference committee included language to de-fund the DOT Mexican trucking demonstration project.

The Senate version of the DOT Fiscal Year 2008 appropriations bill also contains the language which emerged from the conference committee to de-fund the DOT Mexican trucking project.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill if it reaches his desk with these provisions in place.

[Soldier4Christ]

Canada openly proclaims NAFTA Superhighway 
Readers bombard Newsweek with evidence after adverse story on Ron Paul

A Newsweek story critical of Rep. Ron Paul and labeling the NAFTA Superhighway a baseless conspiracy theory has generated approximately 250 adverse reader responses on the "comments" section of Newsweek's website, many citing hard evidence that the proposed transcontinental trade corridor is quite real.

"There is a broad coalition of Americans developing across the United States who are opposed to a North American Union and know that Ron Paul is right and we need to take action now before it is too late," Jesse Benton, national press secretary for the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign 08 told WND.

Particularly interesting among Newsweek's reader comments were citations of Canadian government websites that openly discuss and declare plans to create a NAFTA Superhighway.

Several readers pointed to a Canadian government video clip gaining wide circulation on the Internet. It involves a Nov. 20 "Speech from the Throne," in which John Harvard, lieutenant-governor of the Province of Manitoba, Canada, opened the second session of the 39th assembly of the provincial legislature with comments proclaiming support for the development of a "Mid-Continent Trade Corridor."

"Manitoba is also taking a major role in the development of a Mid-Continent Trade Corridor, connecting our northern Port of Churchill with trade markets throughout the central United States and Mexico," Harvard told the legislature.

"To advance the concept," Harvard continued, "an alliance has been built with business leaders and state and city governments spanning the entire length of the Corridor. When fully developed, the trade route will incorporate an 'inland port' in Winnipeg with pre-clearance for international shipping."

A video posted on YouTube shows excerpts from Harvard's speech juxtaposed with clips of President Bush and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the press conference of the third summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 21, ridiculing the North American Union and the NAFTA Superhighway as baseless conspiracy theories.


A Destination-Winnipeg trade group website identifies the Mid-Continent Trade Corridor as "the northern gateway of this vast Corridor, a network of highways and railways linking the business community with cities to the south, through the U.S. and into Mexico."

The Canadian government's Canada Transport website describes the Mid-Continent International Trade Corridor as a rail and highway network which stretches from Manitoba to Mexico.

Other Newsweek readers provided links to an Alberta government website.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation in Alberta, Canada, has posted on its website a trade corridor map that shows a NAFTA Superhighway clearly designated in the same route, including Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94, that the North America's SuperCorridor Coalition, or NASCO, designates as the I-35 NAFTA Superhighway.

Craig Offman of the National Post writes that this Alberta map of the NAFTA Superhighway on the Alberta Government website is currently Number Two on the popular U.S. web site Digg.com.

"Well, now, Mr. Paul might think he has some real fodder," Offman writees. "The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation website uses the exact phrase, showing a thoroughfare that begins in Manitoba and drops all the way down to West Texas."

"Why would the Canadian government web page in Alberta show a NAFTA Superhighway if the highway doesn't exist?" asks a Newsweek reader linking to the Alberta site. "Keep on lying to the people, Newsweek, it is what you do best."

"We have had that map with the NAFTA Superhighway on our website for 5 years or more," Jerry Bellikka, director of communications for the Alberta Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation told WND in a telephone interview.

"The website is a site for truckers," Bellikka explained. "We try to harmonize our trucking regulations with Canada and the United States so truckers can log on and see where they fit on our requirements when they are traveling along these North American corridors."

WND asked Bellikka if the Alberta Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation had any intention of changing the NAFTA Superhighway map on its website.

"No," Bellinkka answered directly. "We have no plan to change the designation of NAFTA Superhighway on our website."

[Soldier4Christ]

Mexican trucks roll on despite opposition 
Congress unified on bill to halt Bush administration program

The Bush administration continues to push forward with its controversial project allowing Mexican trucks to move freely on U.S. roads despite strong protests from both chambers of Congress, where legislation is pending.

"Congress has stated clearly that it believes going forward with such a program, without the information needed to assure safety on American roads, is not safe," said Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Dorgan successfully amended the Senate Transportation Appropriations Bill to include language to stop the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program, hoping the Bush administration would respond.

However, even though the House and Senate agreed to retain the language, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, is continuing with the program.

According to the conference report on the House bill, HR 3074, issued Nov. 13, "None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

The bill, however, awaits approval by both the full House and the full Senate.

Jenny Tallheimer, spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, told WND, "At this point the transportation appropriations bill is being lumped with the other appropriations bill into a larger omnibus bill.

"Both the House and the Senate are currently negotiating the details of the larger appropriations bill, and once that is complete the legislation will be introduced in the House and the Senate," she said. "No time table has been set at this point however."

There also is no guarantee that the language in the conference report designed to defund the Mexican Truck program will remain in a new omnibus bill.

Without an appropriation bill containing such language, the program can continue.

FMCSA's website lists 10 Mexican carriers with a total of 55 trucks that are approved to transport goods throughout the U.S.

The FMCSA was asked to comment but did not reply to phone calls or e-mails.

About 40 more Mexican carriers will soon join the 10 already approved. The agency, according to its website, said it "has notified an additional 37 Mexico-domiciled motor carriers that they have successfully passed a Pre-Authorization Safety Audit."

The FMCSA says there are four U.S. carriers participating in the cross-border program.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., continues to show frustration with the Bush administration.

His spokesman, Joe Kasper, told WND, "Rather than working with Congress to ensure the program is implemented in a manner that is safe and efficient, the department has instead decided to continue its plan of opening our roadways to an increasing number of Mexican trucking companies."

Kasper called it "a dangerous program that threatens our security and the safety of vehicle motorists."

"It now appears the only way Congress can make the department listen is by ensuring it does not have the funds to move the program forward as currently planned," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

North-of-border link finishes NAFTA superhighway grid 
Atlantic-Pacific route would allow cross-continental goods deliveries

Canada has announced a plan to extend the NAFTA Superhighway network north in a way that would finish a continental grid designed to accommodate an anticipated tsunami of containers from China and the Far East.

The Canadian Intelligent Super Corridor, or CISCOR, is a national transportation route designed to reach from the West Coast ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert to Montreal and Halifax.

As WND has documented, recent articles published in The Nation and Newsweek magazines have attempted to characterize the NAFTA Superhighway as a "conspiracy theory."

Yet, the CISCOR case study provides strong evidence that the continent's ports, highways and rail lines are being reconfigured into an inter-modal system emphasizing technological logistics and "inland smart ports" designed to meet the demands of world trade, largely driven by the relocation of North American manufacturing to China.

Inter-modal is a transportation economics reference to containers that can be transported on several different modes of transportation, including container ships, trucks and trains, without having to be unloaded or repacked.

According to the CISCOR website, the Saskatchewan-based CISCOR Inland Port Network of the cities of Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw is designed to serve "as the central logistics and coordination hub, creating a Canadian east-west land bridge connecting three major North American north-south corridors: North America's SuperCorridor, or NASCO, the Canada-America-Mexico Corridor, or CANAMEX, and the River of Trade Corridor Coalition."

A multi-color North American continental map on the CISCOR website leaves no doubt the Canadian super corridor is designed to interface with the NAFTA Superhighway, extending down into Mexico.

The CISCOR map strongly models the continental map displayed by NASCO on the trade group's website in 2005.

The CISCOR website confirms an earlier WND report documenting the Canadian national transportation plan to open Prince Rupert and Vancouver as deep-water ports capable of handling the new class of 12,500 container-capacity post-Panamax ships now being built for China.

The CISCOR strategy falls under the umbrella of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative as defined by Transport Canada, the Canadian counterpart to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

WND previously documented how the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railroads are included in Canada's Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative, positioned to operate as NAFTA railroads.

Under the CISCOR plan, the Saskatchewan cities are defined as an "inland smart port," as are Kansas City, San Antonio and Denver in the U.S.

The CISCOR website cites the University of Texas Center for Transportation research to define an inland port as follows: "An Inland Port is a physical site located away from traditional land, air and coastal borders with the vision to facilitate and process international trade through strategic investment in multi-modal transportation assets and by promoting value-added services as goods move through the supply chain."

The plan to make the Saskatchewan cities an inland port centers on utilizing the West Coast deep-water ports in British Columbia as the input point for millions of containers from China and the Far East.

American companies have taken advantage of cheap labor in China that in some cases functions at slave or near-slave levels. Communist Chinese prison camps also continue to make goods for the U.S. market, despite human rights pressure.

Reconfiguring the transportation infrastructure of North America into NAFTA Superhighways or Super Corridors drastically reduces the cost of transporting the containers from China

A quick look at the continental map shows the physical location of the Saskatchewan cities qualifies them to be an "inland port" because the area can function as a switching center, with easy access either to CANAMEX or to what NASCO refers to as the NASCO Corridor, the complex of Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94.

Containers can be unloaded by crane in Saskatchewan and placed in giant warehouses. There they await pick-up by truck or train to be transported to the next regional warehouse for delivery to the final destination in North America.

An inland port is considered to be a "smart port" when technology – such as Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID systems – are utilized to facilitate customs clearance, security, warehouse distribution, multi-modal trans-load operations, empty container management and advanced container logistics tracking.

As WND reported, the Chinese ports management firm, Hutchison Ports Holdings, is working with Lockheed Martin in a joint venture with NASCO to place RFID sensors along I-35 to track inter-modal containers from China that enter North America through the Mexican ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo.

An 87-page business analysis archived on the CISCOR website lays out the case for developing Saskatchewan as an Inland SmartPort in the following points that begin the report's Executive Summary:

    * A majority of the new containerships entering the world fleet in the next five years will be post-Panamax vessels ready to transport cargo from China, Southeast Asia and India to North American ports already strained with capacity.

    * The Panama Canal is approaching operational capacity and the U.S. transportation network is struggling to meet the predicted 15 percent annual rise in Asian container traffic.

    * In response to the rapid growth in North American trade, the shift in the global freight supply chain and the increased congestion at U.S. ports and along the inter-modal system, shippers are now routing a growing share of cargo via Canadian ports.

The CISCOR business report Executive Summary concludes, "Canada can serve as the North American gateway at the intersection of three powerful and shifting trade networks – the north-south North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the European-NAFTA, and the highly-utilized trans-Pacific route."

"The desired result is a fully-integrated, seamless cargo transport corridor moving cargo from the ports to rail and highways and to an inland port logistics center that serves all North American markets," the CISCOR Executive Summary concludes.

To open the connection to the European Union, CISCOR envisions extending the Canadian Intermodal Network to the east coast port of Halifax.

[Soldier4Christ]

Congress cuts funding for Mexican trucks 
But Bush administration expected to find other ways to keep program rolling

Congress has passed a bill that cuts funding for the controversial Mexican truck program, but lawmakers expect the Bush administration to keep the foreign vehicles rolling on American roads amid safety and security concerns.

Joe Kasper, spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told WND that "without federal funding, it will be difficult to continue the program. However, we must expect that the administration will continue looking for ways to do so."

The newly passed 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the Department of Transportation from using the funds in it "to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

"In a Democratic-sponsored spending bill filled with rewards for special interests, this is actually one of the few beneficial provisions included in the bill," Kasper said.

He points out Bush is expected to sign the bill.

"Congressman Hunter introduced the first bill in Congress to stop the program from moving forward and never relented in his effort to ensure the safety of our roadways and that American security would not be threatened by an inundation of foreign motor carriers," Kasper said.

Ten Mexican carriers, with another 37 awaiting final approval, are now operating under the program. Four American carrier are allowed to drive on Mexican roads.

Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs for the American Trucking Association said Congress "has clearly expressed its will on the issue, and we are waiting to see what the Department of Transportation's next step will be."

"There are four U.S. trucking companies with 41 trucks in the cross-border program. If the demonstration program ends, there will be no U.S. trucks crossing the border," Boyce explained.

Congress has expressed its will before, however, and the program has continued.

Kasper said Hunter, a presidential candidate, "intends to work against any effort by the administration, just as he did over the last year, to ensure the brakes are put on this program once and for all."

The American Trucking Association hopes the Mexican project will be successful.

"We have generally supported NAFTA and the cross-border trucking program as an improvement in cross-border efficiency," said Boyce.

"We had expected that the demonstration program would prove whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can regulate and ensure the safety of Mexican trucks and drivers traveling in the United States," he said.

Opposition to the program comes not only from the U.S. Congress but from the other side of the border as well. The Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation plans to block the border between Mexico and the U.S. in January if the program doesn't come to an end, according to the Mexican newspaper El Financiero.

"It is irresponsible of the Mexican government, of (President) Felipe Calderon, to allow the interests of a powerful 2 percent of people in the Mexican economy to hand Mexican trucking over to the Americans," Elias Dip Rame, president of the Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation, told the paper.

If American trucks are able to continue operating in Mexico, the ATA expects them to be protected.

"In any situation, we expect Mexico's authorities to protect U.S. drivers and vehicles lawfully in that country," Boyce said.

Melissa Delaney, spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, was contacted by phone and e-mail but declined comment.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mexican trucks defy Congress, still roll 
Bill cuts off funds, but Bush insists program can continue

A constitutional crisis is developing between Congress and the Department of Transportation over the federal government's decision to continue its project allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, in defiance of new legislation.

"The DOT response is both arrogant and wrong!" Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wrote in a letter yesterday to Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials told the San Diego Union Tribune the cross-border Mexican truck demonstration project would continue because the program was established in September and the amendment allows programs that have already begun to continue.

But Dorgan insisted a provision in the 2008 omnibus spending bill was "clearly written and designed to put the brakes on the current pilot program."

"Failure to end the pilot program, I believe, will put the Department of Transportation in direct violation of federal law," the senator charged.

As WND reported in September, the amendment championed by Dorgan to remove funding for the project from the 2008 DOT appropriations bill passed the Senate by a bipartisan majority of 74-24.

The amendment survived into the Consolidated Appropriations Act which President Bush signed Dec. 26.

WND left a message with Melissa DeLaney, a spokeswoman for the FMCSA, asking for comment but received no reply.

Polly W. Craighill, legislative counsel to the Senate, wrote a formal letter to Dorgan, at the senator's request, arguing the clear legislative intent of his amendment was clear.

"No funds made available under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 were to be used in fiscal year 2008 to establish or implement a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico," Craighill wrote to Dorgan Dec. 28.

Craighill further expressed an opinion that the legislative history in the Senate established clearly the purpose was to preclude the carrying out of any demonstration program, including the pilot program put into effect in September.

"DOT is showing a blatant disregard for U.S. laws," Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, or OOIDA, told WND in a phone interview.

"The Bush administration is showing itself to be a rogue administration," Spencer said. "I understand the need to reduce the size of government, but I didn't realize it could involve doing away with the entire legislative branch.

"It's outrageous and hypocritical for the Bush administration to be preaching democracy around the world, while blowing off democracy at home," he added.

The Teamsters expressed outrage as well.

"The Bush administration should enforce the law, not break it," Leslie Miller, communications coordinator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters told WND in a telephone interview.

Both OOIDA and the Teamsters have launched federal law suits aimed at blocking the continuance of the Mexican truck project.

The FMCSA website currently lists 11 Mexican trucking companies that remain authorized to cross the border with their long-haul rigs and operate anywhere in the U.S.

[nChrist]

UM?

It doesn't appear that the Law, the Constitution, and the will of the people means a thing these days! We used to put folks in prison for doing things like this, AND WE STILL SHOULD!