North American Union

[Soldier4Christ]

This would explain why illegal aliens are not considered illegal??

[Faithin1]

It also explains why our borders remain wide open.

[Soldier4Christ]

Mexican truck stampede to hit U.S.! 
Bush administration moving ahead despite congressional opposition

Despite congressional opposition, the Bush administration is fully committed to beginning within weeks a pilot test that will allow Mexican trucks to operate freely across the U.S.

A spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Ian Grossman, told WND the agency plans to grant the first authority for a Mexican trucking company to operate its long-haul rigs throughout the U.S. as early as the end of this month.

WND previously reported an amendment introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., into the Fiscal Year 2007 Supplemental Appropriations Bill is designed to block the Department of Transportation's pilot test until the Mexican government authorizes U.S. trucking companies to operate in Mexico.

WND also reported Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has introduced the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act, designed to block the test until current FMSCA regulations regarding Mexican trucks operating beyond commercial zones along the international border are clarified and strengthened.

The Mexican trucking company can begin operating trucks in the U.S. immediately, once the FMCSA grants the authority, Grossman told WND.

Grossman explained granting authority to the 100 Mexican trucking companies specified under the DOT pilot test may take between four to six months to complete.

"The department is committed to moving forward with this program," he said, "and will continue to work with members of Congress to address their concerns."

Reaction from the Teamsters Union was immediate and sharp.

"The Department of Transportation can't enforce truck safety in the United States, let alone at the southern border," spokeswoman Leslie Miller told WND. "The Bush administration continues to show a reckless disregard for the will of Congress and the American people who oppose this illegal pilot project."

Rod Nofzinger, spokesman for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, was equally critical.

"Unfortunately, the administration is bound and determined to move forward with their Mexican trucking program despite the serious concerns that have been raised by the American public, Mexico-domiciled trucking companies and lawmakers on Capital Hill, both Republicans and Democrats alike," Nofzinger told WND.

"I have little doubt that they want to beat Congress to the finish line on this," Nofzinger continued. "They know that once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's awfully hard to get it back in. Once Mexican trucks start rolling throughout the U.S., it will be very difficult for Congress and the American people to turn them back, regardless of the safety and security risks that they'll be carrying with them."

Hunter also was critical of the FMCSA decision to begin implementing the Mexican truck pilot test immediately.

The congressman's spokesman, Joe Kasper, told WND Hunter has significant concerns about the program.

"Congressman Hunter maintains that compliance and enforcement standards must be clarified and strengthened before the pilot program is implemented," Kasper said. "Congressman Hunter will utilize the program's impending implementation as an opportunity to promote and continue highlighting the importance of the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act."

Responding to the congressional concerns, Grossman said Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta had certified in 2002 that DOT met each of the 22 safety requirements Congress in the Fiscal Year 2002 DOT Appropriations Bill demanded be met before allowing trucks from Mexico to drive beyond U.S. commercial zones along the border.

Kasper disagreed, insisting Mineta's certification was not enough.

"We need public disclosure of the safety requirements and public debate, including a DOT filing in the Federal Register before we approve this test," Kasper told WND.

"While the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act restates the safety conditions included in the FY2002 appropriations measure," Kasper continued, "the legislation goes further by requiring the implementation of English proficiency standards and data base accessibility for law enforcement officials to verify a driver's identification and criminal history."

Hunter's NAFTA Trucking Safety Act has been referred to several House committees, including House Transportation and Infrastructure; Homeland Security; Judiciary; and Ways and Means.

According to Kasper, the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act has collected 18 co-sponsors.

Asked to comment on the Feinstein amendment or Hunter's NAFTA Trucking Safety Act, Grossman told WND the FMCSA "was engaging in no speculation on the course of possible congressional legislation" regarding the Mexican truck pilot test.

[Faithin1]

Somebody please wake me from this nightmare. 

[Soldier4Christ]

The nightmare continues.

[Soldier4Christ]

Angry truckers to encircle D.C. with 'blockade' 
Protesting administration plan to allow Mexican long-haulers on U.S. roads

American truckers plan to circle the White House and state capitals in a "rolling blockade" to protest a federal government plan to allow Mexican long-haul rigs to operate throughout the U.S.

Drivers who participate in "Truck-Out" also are being asked to run their rigs at the minimum speed permitted by law.

The protest is scheduled for April 23-25 to coordinate with the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally and radio talk show marathon in Washington planned by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

"American truckers are going to have their jobs undercut or vanish into the hands of Mexican truck drivers as this Department of Transportation pilot project gains permanency," said Frosty Wooldridge, a writer and talk-show host who drove 18-wheelers for two decades.

Woolridge first called for the Truck-Out protest in a column at the end of March, asking truckers in the border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to participate.

The idea expanded to a national boycott when Wanda Piety, a California independent business owner, joined Wooldridge in planning "Truck-Out".

"Every American truck driver's job is at risk," Woolridge said. "American drivers are going to see their wages undermined or they will lose their jobs altogether to Mexican drivers and Mexican trucking companies."

As WND reported, despite congressional opposition, the Bush administration expects to begin within weeks a pilot test that will allow Mexican trucks to operate freely across the U.S.

A spokesman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Ian Grossman, told WND the agency plans to grant the first authority as early as the end of this month.

WND previously reported an amendment introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., into the Fiscal Year 2007 Supplemental Appropriations Bill is designed to block the pilot test until the Mexican government authorizes U.S. trucking companies to operate in Mexico.

'Jobs will vanish'

Wooldridge told WND he expects Mexican truck drivers to haul loads for considerably less than half the cost of U.S. truck drivers.

"Jobs will vanish for American truckers," he contended. "The independents are going to be run right out of the business."

Working together, Piety and Wooldridge have created a website, SaveAmericaFund.org as the home of the boycott.

"The reaction we are getting to 'Truck-Out' has been overwhelmingly successful," Piety told WND. "We have thousands of truckers contacting us saying they will participate."

The plan calls for drivers to form a slow-moving line across major highways outlying Washington, D.C. and the state capitals of the lower 48 states.

"We want to circle the White House and the state capitals in a slow-rolling boycott," Piety explained. "As long as we keep moving, the trucks won't be ticketed. The truckers plan to drive the slowest minimum speed allowed by the law, running bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side across the highways to block up and jam up traffic."

Piety said the goal is to back up traffic behind the protest "as far as we can back it up."

"There's no law against anything we're doing," she said. "Even on the freeways, for trucks to go all the way across the freeway and back up traffic, there's no law that says that's illegal."

If police come and break up the protest, the truckers "will just go on down the road a ways and start up the protest up once again."

"We just want to continually have a cohesive flow of truckers boycotting going on, all across the nation, wherever we can get it to happen," Piety explained. "We want to let as many people to know as possible."

Piety told WND she sees the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck pilot test as part of a broader Bush administration plan to open the border.

"There's a problem in this country, and it revolves around George Bush's plans with Mexico," she said. "The plan to allow Mexican trucks into the U.S. is part of [the North America Free Trade Agreement] and we are opposed to that plan, just like we are opposed to NAFTA."

Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the OOIDA, told WND his group shares "in the outrage that is being felt by the folks who are organizing and participating in the 'Truck-Out.'"

While OOIDA is not sponsoring or endorsing the protest, Spencer said the group is "encouraging our members to fully exercise their rights and responsibilities as American citizens to work within the system and convey their indignation to their elected officials."

"It is simply outrageous that our government plans to allow Mexican trucks full reign of U.S. highways before all safety, economic and homeland security concerns are completely and appropriately addressed," he said.

A Teamsters Union spokesman told WND the union was aware of "Truck-Out" but not involved.

"The union is concentrating on using its political clout to block the pilot program through the legislative process," Galen Munroe told WND.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., whose NAFTA Trucking Safety Act is now working its way through House committees, commented to WND on the "Truck-Out" boycott.

"The growing opposition to the pilot program and the overall effort to grant cross-border truckers immediate and direct access into the United States should not be ignored," he said.

"People have a right to be concerned with the Mexican truck pilot program," said Hunter, "especially when it could potentially compromise their safety and our nation's security."

Hunter stressed the reasons he has introduced the NAFTA Trucking Safety Act, noting it's "important that the implementing authority listen to and thoroughly address these concerns before moving forward with the program."

Wooldridge was a math-science teacher in Denver in the 1970s when he decided to supplement his salary by driving trucks in the summer.

For 21 summers, he was a long-haul driver for United Van Lines. For the last three years of his trucking career, Wooldridge was the head trainer and safety officer for Johnston Storage & Moving in Denver, a United Van Lines agency.

Wooldridge drove 18-wheel long-haul rigs in all 48 states of the lower U.S. and in Canada. He ran 48- and 53-foot freight boxes, with extensive experience on the Interstate highways.

Today, Wooldridge is a professional writer who specializes in non-fiction adventure books. He writes two columns a week on the Internet and hosts a radio show on the Republic Broadcasting Network twice a week.

Piety owns a private business in Los Angeles. She declined to name it because of her concern local pro-illegal immigration groups would harass her in response to organizing "Truck-Out."

[Faithin1]

I wish them the best.  However, as a resident of the DC area, I can tell you that the areas surrounding the White House are heavily 'fortified.'  They have closed all adjacent streets to traffic in response to 9/11.  Sections of Pennsylvania Ave., as well as streets surrounding many key government buildings, all have barricades and police presence, and permit very limited traffic access.  I routinely see trucks in those areas being stopped and searched.  I totally understand the necessity for such measures, but it is also a sad reminder of the threats our country must confront on a daily basis. 

If nothing else, the 'threat' factor should be enough reason not to permit trucks from another country to have unlimited access to our country.  I just don't understand the logic behind this. 

[Soldier4Christ]

NAFTA Superhighway hits bump in road 
Given severe blow as Texas Legislature voting to block program

The Texas legislature moved closer to blocking the Trans-Texas Corridor last week with a bill that would place a two-year moratorium all public-private partnerships that would involve the construction of new toll roads financed and operated by private foreign investment groups.

Last Thursday, the Texas Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 1267, requiring the study of long-term partnerships such as the Texas Department of Transportation recommended in the construction of TTC-35, a four-football-fields-wide NAFTA superhighway financed and operated for 50 years by the Cintra investment consortium in Spain.

The Texas Senate action takes place less than two weeks after the Texas House passed by a 137-2 margin House Bill 1892 that includes virtually identical language to the anti-TTC bill passed by the Senate.

The wide margins by which both measures passed assured seasoned observers of Texas politics that the anti-superhighway, two-year moratorium will likely pass both houses of the Texas legislature with more than enough votes to override a likely veto by Governor Rick Perry, a stalwart supporter of the Trans-Texas Corridor concept.

This measure follows a hotly contested Texas gubernatorial race in which Governor Perry faced anti-TTC competition from all three rivals – Carole Keaton Strayhorn, a Republican-turned-independent, a former comptroller of the state who fashioned herself as "One Tough Grandma"; Kinky Friedman, an outspoken independent with a characteristic mustache and limited goatee known for his country-and-western troubadour style and his ever present cowboy hat and cigar; and Democratic candidate Chris Bell.

Perry won re-election with 41 percent of the vote, which was widely interpreted by superhighway opponents as a 3-2 vote against the foreign-financed toll road concept.

In the hotly contested summer round of public hearings throughout Texas, strong local opposition was voiced to Perry's plan to build a 4,000-mile system throughout Texas over a 50-year period, removing in the process some 580,000 acres of land from public tax rolls and displacing an estimated 1 million Texans from their ranches, farms, businesses, and homes through eminent domain.

The moratorium vote by the Texas legislature also comes as a strong rebuke of the Bush administration, under which the Federal Highway Administration has devoted a section of the agency's website devoted to teaching state governments how to implement "PPP" projects designed to lease public highways to investment consortia desiring to run the roads a toll roads under long-term leases.

In March 2004, the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to an investment syndicate that included Cintra of Spain and Macquarie, an Australian private investment group.

In September 2005, Cintra and Macquarie finalized a long-term lease to operate the Indiana Toll Road.

In June 2006, negotiations were completed by the Virginia Department of Transportation with Macquarie to operate the Pocahontas Parkway under a similar long-term PPP lease.

[Soldier4Christ]

Feds threaten Texas over superhighway funds 
Transportation Department opposes bills delaying NAFTA project

The Federal Highway Administration has threatened Texas with the loss of federal highway funds if the state continues with its legislative plan for a two-year funding moratorium on construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

In the 4-page letter, FHWA Chief Counsel James D. Ray advises Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, some of the pending legislative proposals, if signed into law, "could affect the State’s eligibility for receiving Federal-aid highway funds."

Ray praises Texas for being "the nation's leader in developing new transportation facilities through public private partnerships."

But the letter expresses concern that the Texas Legislature is nearing passage of a two-year moratorium blocking planned Trans-Texas Corridor toll-road projects.

"We do not see the benefit of a moratorium if the State has already committed to legislation for a continuation of the program," Ray wrote, adding, "If Texas looses (sic) the initiative it now has, private funds now flowing to Texas will go elsewhere."

"We stand ready to work with Texas officials to ensure continued compliance with all of the applicable Federal laws and regulations. We wish to make sure that Texas can continue to receive the full benefits available under the Federal-aid Highway Program," he concluded.

David Stall, co-founder of the website CorridorWatch.org, alerted WND the federal agency was preparing the letter.

During a Wednesday morning teleconference, James Ray, chief counsel and acting deputy director of the FHWA, reportedly told the Trans-Texas Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee that the federal agency was preparing a letter to place the Texas Department of Transportation on notice that the proposed action by the Texas Legislature would jeopardize access to federal highway funds.

The Trans-Texas Corridor Citizens Advisory Committee is a group of citizens organized by the state transportation department to offer advice on projects concerning the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The federal agency did not respond to WND requests for comment, but Stall had an opinion.

"As you might guess, we greatly object to federal interference in state affairs and the attempt to influence public policy at the state level," Stall told WND via e-mail.

Stall told WND that Ray's letter was prompted by a request from Texas Rep. Mike Krusee, Williamson County, who sent a note to the FHWA asking for an opinion specifically on HB1892, the House version of the moratorium.

Krusee, a Republican, is a long-time supporter of the TTC toll-road project. In November 2006, he was re-elected with barely 50 percent of the vote in a campaign in which his TTC support was contested.

WND has reported previously that two different bills have passed the Texas House and Senate, and both are aimed at imposing a two-year moratorium on all public-private partnerships that would involve construction of new toll roads financed and operated by private foreign investment groups.

The large margins by which the moratorium bills have been approved suggest the legislature has the votes to override an anticipated veto by Gov. Rick Perry.

[Soldier4Christ]

Battle with feds brewing over 'superhighway' 
Texas legislators overwhelmingly pass bill blocking construction

A battle between Texas and the Bush administration is brewing over construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor after the state legislature passed a two-year moratorium.

The Texas House passed HB1892 Wednesday after the Senate last week approved an earlier version of the moratorium on a project some critics see as part of a "NAFTA superhighway" system and ties with Canada and Mexico that threaten U.S. sovereignty. The bill has been sent to Gov. Rick Perry for signature by May 14, but it passed with veto-proof margins of 27-4 in the Senate and 139-1 in the House.

The Bush administration appears determined to fight the moratorium.

WND reported last week FHWA Chief Counsel James D. Ray wrote a four-page letter to Michael Behrens, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, threatening the loss of federal highway funds if the legislature were to pass a two-year moratorium of the public-private partnership financed by Cintra, an investment consortium in Spain.

WND previously has reported TTC-35, the nation's first NAFTA superhighway, is a four-football-field wide car-truck-train-pipeline toll road the Texas Department of Transportation plans to build parallel to Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas, to the Texas-Oklahoma border south of Oklahoma City.

TTC is a public-private-partnership heavily promoted on the FHWA website, largely because the corridor will be financed by Cintra, an investment consortium in Spain that will manage the toll road under a 50-year lease.

On Tuesday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R–Texas, wrote to the Federal Highway Administration objecting to a threatening letter the agency recently wrote the Texas Department of Transportation.

Hutchinson wrote J.Richard Capka, the FHWA administrator, charging that Ray's letter "placed a cloud over current actions being taken in the Texas Legislature."

Hutchinson further wrote that as "someone who has worked to increase Texas' share of federal transportation dollars, I understand the need to make sure that Texas has all options to leverage funds."

Hutchinson cautioned, "While the administration plays a valuable role in providing technical guidance and assistance for states considering legislation which may impact federal funds, there is a fine line between analysis and advocacy in those deliberations."

Hutchinson invited Capka to take steps to remove the threatening impression caused by Ray's letter.

In the looming battle, the Bush administration can expect to find an ally in Rep. Mike Krusee of Williamson County, Texas.

WND has confirmed a previous report that Ray's letter was prompted by a request Krusee sent to FHWA asking for an opinion specifically on HB1892, the version of the moratorium that passed the Texas House.

WND also previously reported Krusee was a prime mover of the enabling legislation the Texas legislature passed paving the way for the TTC project. In November 2006, Krusee barely won re-election to the Texas legislature, after a campaign in which his support of TTC development was hotly contested.

In a scathing attack on Krusee, the Texas blog EyeonWilliamson.org posted charges that Krusee has pursued a private consulting contract to help consultant Wilbur Smith Associates, a transportation infrastructure consulting firm, shepherd a proposal through the Department of Transportation's "Corridor of the Future" grant competition.

Wilbur Smith Associates proposes to build a new cross-country toll road along the Interstate 10. The Wilbur Smith proposal was designed to meet the "Corridor of the Future" emphasis on public-private partnerships of the type Krusee has pushed for years through the Texas legislature.

On Feb. 1, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters announced that the Interstate-10 proposal was among the eight "Corridor of the Future" finalists.

Krusee was also invited Feb. 9 to speak at an invitation-only White House "Transportation Leadership Summit," which EyeonWilliamson.org took to be "evidence of Krusee's ever-increasing favor with the Bush administration.

WND contacted Krusee's office and asked a series of specific questions, including whether Krusee had a business relationship with Wilbur Smith Associates, as charged by EyeonWilliamson.org.

Instead of answering the specific questions, James Walpole, a spokesman for Krusee, e-mailed to WND a press release.

The statement affirmed Krusee had asked FHWA for an opinion on the moratorium bill

"Since I had questions about whether the tollway moratorium now passed by the Senate would jeopardize precious federal highway funding," the press release read, "I asked the federal highway administration to give its opinion."

WND also has reported the Texas ports of Houston and Corpus Christi are planning to accommodate megaships from China that will pass through an expanded Panama Canal. Both ports are working with the Texas Department of Transportation to connect with TTC projects for the Chinese containers to be transported inland.

[Soldier4Christ]

Anti-'superhighway' bill prompts backlash 
Head of group promoting 'SuperCorridor' fires back at critics

The director of North America's SuperCorridor Coalition has gone to war against an Oklahoma state legislator, trying to distance the tri-national group from any identification with a new "NAFTA Superhighway" or any movement to evolve NAFTA into a North American Union.

The conflict began when Republican Oklahoma state Sen. Randy Brogdon entered an amendment to an Oklahoma bill (HB 1819) requiring the state's Department of Transportation "shall be prohibited from participating or entering any negotiations or agreement with NASCO."

Brogdon's amendment further specified, "No state funds or federal funds dedicated for state use, shall be used for any international, integrated, or multi-modal transportation system."

Brogdon also has sponsored Senate Concurrent Resolution 10, an Oklahoma legislature resolution urging the U.S. to withdraw from the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America and any other activity that seeks to create a North American Union, and to oppose any NAFTA superhighways.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 10 has passed the Oklahoma Senate and is now before the Oklahoma House.

Industry sources tell WND that NASCO Executive Director Tiffany Melvin is traveling to Oklahoma to argue her case directly with Oklahoma legislators, opposing both Brogdon-introduced measures.

HB 1819 appears designed to promote ODOT's increased involvement in the "Ports-to-Plains Corridor," a four-state NAFTA superhighway corridor stretching from Laredo, Texas, across Oklahoma and New Mexico to Denver.

Yet HB1819 is loosely written, suggesting ODOT will enter one or more memoranda of understanding with the U.S. Department of Transportation to implement a pilot project under the auspices of the Federal Highway Administration.

The Ports-to-Plains Corridor Coalition, a trade association headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, describes the project 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."

According to a Ports-to-Plains Corridor website maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation, the current goal is to obtain federal funding for development of the corridor.

A press release on the Texas Department of Transportation website confirms the agency is looking for a public-private-partnership to help finance the construction of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.

NASCO attacks critics

Prior to her trip to Oklahoma, Melvin sent sympathetic state legislatures position papers attacking NASCO critics.

One such NASCO position paper, entitled "NASCO and Oklahoma" charged:

    In recent months a few poorly informed and conspiracy-minded groups have falsely alleged NASCO's efforts to enhance business and trade in North America include such aims as the promotion and/or construction of 'a NAFTA superhighway,' that would undermine U.S. national sovereignty, promote illegal immigration and harm the U.S. economy. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The position paper continued to name the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and the "ultra-right-wing" John Birch Society as attempting to convince the public that "there exists a genuine, active governmental conspiracy to merge the sovereign nations of Mexico, the United States and Canada into a North American Union."

A NASCO position paper entitled, "Who we are, what we stand for, and why the fervent devotion to transportation efficiency," claims: "In actual fact, there are no plans to build a 'new NAFTA Superhighway.' It already exists today as I-35 and branches."

WND has obtained a copy of an internal memo written by Melvin July 21, 2006. The document was obtained as part of an Oklahoma open records request.

In the memo, Melvin advises repositioning of NASCO's "talking points," suggesting they support only existing transportation systems.

Melvin stressed: "We have to stay away from 'Super-Corridor' because it is a very bad, hot button right now."

'Corridor of the Future'

In an internal memo written Sept. 21, 2006, Melvin announced NASCO's intention of submitting a proposal to the "Corridors of the Future" grant competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Here Melvin wrote: "We are THE Corridor of the Future. With all that is going on along this corridor (I-35), we MUST receive this designation."

The final proposal NASCO submitted in the DOT "Corridor of the Future" competition focused on NAFTRACS, a NASCO project to further develop the I-35 corridor with a new system of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) sensors designed to monitor and track international trade containers.

As WND previously reported, Lockheed Martin has engaged with NASCO in the NAFTRACS (North American Facilitation of Transportation, Trade, Reduced Congestion and Security) project to place cargo monitoring sensors along the NAFTA superhighway from Mexico to Canada.

WND also reported the Chinese firm Hutchison Port Holdings was involved as a joint venture partner with Savi Technology, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary contracted to implement NAFTRACS for NASCO.

NASCO's application was not accepted as a semi-finalist in the DOT "Corridor of the Future" competition.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

DOT spokesmen consistently have refused to provide WND any explanation why NASCO's application was denied.

Also documenting NASCO's determination to expand the I-35 corridor is an internal e-mail from Dawn Sullivan at ODOT to Melvin, dated Nov. 25, 2006.

In the e-mail, Sullivan asks Melvin the following question: "Have you guys sent out an RFP (Request for Proposal) for a study to look at expanding the Trans Texas Corridor into OK?"

WND repeatedly has reported the Federal Highway Administration is promoting public-private partnership projects to bring private capital to expanding superhighway projects, consistent with extending TTC-35 north into Oklahoma.

NASCO consistently has refused to accept repeated challenges to repudiate plans by the Texas Department of Transportation, a NASCO member, to build parallel to Interstate 35 a new Trans-Texas Corridor project, TTC-35, expected to be a four-football-fields-wide automobile-truck-train-pipeline corridor stretching from Laredo, Texas, to the Oklahoma border.

The Ports-to-Plains Corridor was identified as one of 43 "High Priority Corridors" in the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century.

According to AARoads.com, the route of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor was defined by two subsequent bills. The 2001 Transportation Department Appropriations Act authorized the routing of the corridor through Texas. A separate bill relating solely to the routing of this corridor was signed October 30, 2002. The second law provided the precise routing of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor through Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado.

In June 2001, Wilbur Smith Associates, a long-term consultant to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, prepared a Ports-to-Plains Corridor "Feasibility Study," for the Departments of Transportation in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado.

WND reported the ties between Texas representative Michael Krusee, a prime mover of the TTC projects in the Texas legislature, and Wilbur Smith Associates.

WND also reported Wilbur Smith Associates successfully shepherded a proposal to the Phase 2 level in the U.S. DOT Corridors of the Future competition. The Wilbur Smith proposal involves building a new cross-country toll road along the Interstate 10 right-of-way.

WND has identified NASCO as promoting a NAFTA Superhighway extending from Mexico to Canada, primarily along the Interstate 10 route, maintaining NASCO actively seeks to develop this route with new projects, including the Trans-Texas Corridor.

"NASCO News" reported on the National RFID Center website in July 2006 that NASCO President George Blackwood and Melvin traveled to the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, for the first meeting of the NASCO Mexico committee.

NASCO background

NASCO's meeting in Mexico included more than 25 representatives from the public and private sectors and "inland ports" in Mexico, representing the states of Colima, Michoacán, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Hidalgo and Aguas Calientes.

The goal of NASCO's July 2006 meeting in Mexico was "to promote multimodal infrastructure in Mexico and strengthen North American competitiveness in Mexico."

WND reported U.S. DOT Undersecretary Jeffrey Shane was severely criticized when he testified to Congress recently that NAFTA Superhighways were an "urban legend."

Also, DOT Secretary Norman Y. Mineta gave a April 30, 2004, speech at a NASCO forum in Fort Worth, Texas, in which he referred to Interstate Highways 35, 29, and 94 – the core highways supported by NASCO – as a "vital artery in our national transportation through which so much of our NAFTA traffic flows."

WND has reported 12 state legislatures already have passed anti-SPP, anti-NAU, anti-NAFTA Superhighway resolutions, with the number expected to grow.

The NASCO website confirms the State of Oklahoma is a member of the trade association.

[Soldier4Christ]

Students join 'North American Parliament'
Youth come from U.S., Canada, Mexico to train

A group supporting North American integration is preparing to hold its annual "North American Model Parliament" for students from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, is scheduled to hold "Triumvirate," in Washington, D.C., May 20–25.

NAFI, according to the group's website, is as a non-profit organization based in Montreal, dedicated to "address the issues raised by North American integration as well as identify new ideas and strategies to reinforce the North American region."

The group's support of North American integration is documented by an objective listed to "identify the elements of the North American agenda which would allow the consolidation and reinforcement of the North American region."

Qualifying students are undergraduates or graduate students who have "an interest in North American integration" and are bilingual among English, French and Spanish.

Students will pay $845 in fees to attend if registered after Dec. 16, 2006.

Rotated each year between the three countries, NAFI bills the mock parliament as "Triumvirate – the only North American model parliament."

The participating students get to role play as parliamentary legislators, newspaper and television journalists.

A variety of issues pertinent to the formation and operation of a North American Community are debated by the mock parliament, including expanding immigration, stimulating investment in Mexico and revising NAFTA to move in the direction of becoming a regional government.

This year's Triumvirate themes are listed as the creations of a customs union, water management, human trafficking and telecommunications in North America.

Last year's Triumvirate 2006 was held in the Mexican Senate.

Triumvirate 2005, the first NAFI mock North American Parliament, was held in Ottawa, Canada.

As WND reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," he told WND.

On the NAFI board of director are M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., director of the Center for North American Studies at American University.

Stephan Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo, Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss "North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

A summer institute brochure on the website of the Center for North American Studies includes a photograph of Pastor and the students posed before a lawn marker with the words "The American University" inscribed in the stone.

Above the stone marker, the students held up a printed sign that said "North," such that the inscription read "The North American University."

As WND reported, Pastor's 2001 book, Toward a North American Community, argued North American integration should advance through development of a "North American consciousness" by creating various institutions which include a North American Customs Union and a North American Development Fund for the economic advance of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, Building a North American Community, that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral "working groups" constituted within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.

[Soldier4Christ]

Goodbye U.S. dollar, hello global currency
CFR chief: Monetary nationalism, sovereignty should be abandoned

The director of international economics at the Council of Foreign Relations has launched a scathing attack on sovereignty and national currencies.

Benn Steil, writing in the current issue of CFR's influential Foreign Affairs magazine, says "the world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn."

In the article, "The End of National Currency," Steil clearly asserts the dollar and the euro are temporary currencies, perhaps necessary today. He argues "economic development outside the process of globalization is no longer possible."

His inevitable conclusion is "countries should abandon monetary nationalism."

Steil tempers his embrace of one world currency, writing, "Governments should replace national currencies with the dollar or the euro or, in the case of Asia, collaborate to produce a new multinational currency over a comparably large and economically diversified area."

He concludes: "It is the market that made the dollar into global money – and what the market giveth, the market can taketh away. If the tailors balk and the dollar falls, the market may privatize money on its own."

The "tailors" Steil has in mind are the world's central bankers. He advises that the U.S. needs "to perpetuate the sound money policies of former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan and return to long-term fiscal discipline." In our current era of large and growing trade imbalances and over $35 trillion in GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounted federal deficits, these targets appear unlikely.

Steil concludes "the foreign tailors, with their massive and growing holdings of dollar debt" no longer feel "wealthy and secure" in the economic environment of a resultant falling dollar. The inevitable conclusion is that the dollar, too, may be on the way out.

Steil's essay is antagonistic to the ideas of sovereignty and national currencies.

He writes, "The right course is not to return to a mythical past of monetary sovereignty, with governments controlling local interest and exchange rates in blissful ignorance of the rest of the world. Governments must let go of the fatal notion that nationhood requires them to make and control the money used in their territory."

Steil has ultimate confidence that economic globalism is irreversible, with national currencies doomed to the dustbin of history.

"In order to globalize safely," he advises, "countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability."

Steil believes continued economic growth demands a global flow of capital unimpeded by the barriers inherent to "monetary nationalism." He asserts barriers created by monetary nationalism, such as national exchange rates or national monetary policy regimes, inevitably impede capital flow and cause currency crises as a consequence.

Steil fundamentally argues, "Monetary nationalism is simply incompatible with globalism."

Since Steil believes that only globalism offers the unrestrained flow of capital needed for worldwide economic development, he contends even re-establishing a gold standard would be counter-productive when the only real solution is to abandon the idea that nations have any reason to create currencies at all.

Throughout his analysis, Steil cautions that dependence upon the dollar or the euro as global currencies is not fundamental to his argument.

He stresses that "the dollar's privileged status as today's global money is not heaven-bestowed. The dollar is ultimately just another money supported only by faith that others will willingly accept it in the future in return for the same sort of valuable things it bought in the past."

In other words, if the institutions of the U.S. government fail to validate that faith, the dollar, too, merits being abandoned.

"Reckless U.S. fiscal policy is undermining the dollar's position even as the currency's role as a global money is expanding," he notes.

Steil imagines the ultimate solution is to privatize a global currency through a gold-based international monetary system.

"A new gold-based international monetary system surely sounds far-fetched," he concludes. "But so, in 1900 did a monetary system without gold. Modern technology makes a revival of gold money, through private gold banks, possible even without government support."

WND previously reported Steve Previs, a vice president at Jeffries International Ltd., in London, told CNBC Nov. 27, 2006, the amero "is the proposed new currency for the North American Community which is being developed right now between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico."

A video clip of the CNBC interview with Jeffries is now available for viewing at YouTube.com.

WND also has reported a continued slide in the value of the dollar on world currency markets could set up conditions in which the adoption of the amero as a North American currency gains momentum.

The amero was first proposed as a North American unitary currency by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel of the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In a publication entitled "The Case for the Amero," Grubel argued that a North American monetary union would eliminate the costs of currency trading and risk, furthering the development of a North American common market along the model of the European Common Market.

Robert Pastor, director of the Center for North American Studies at American University, supported Grubel's arguments for the amero.

In his 2001 book entitled Toward a North American Community, Pastor supported Grubel's suggestion that the creation of the amero would be accompanied by the creation of a Central Bank of North America, similar to the European Central Bank.

Grubel's argument on the amero has also been published as a book in Spanish, entitled El Amero: Una Moneda Comun para Améica del Norte, published by CIDAC (Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo), the Center for Research for Development in Mexico.

[Shammu]

Students join 'North American Parliament'
Youth come from U.S., Canada, Mexico to train
Posted: May 9, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A group supporting North American integration is preparing to hold its annual "North American Model Parliament" for students from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The North American Forum on Integration, or NAFI, is scheduled to hold "Triumvirate," in Washington, D.C., May 20–25.

NAFI, according to the group's website, is as a non-profit organization based in Montreal, dedicated to "address the issues raised by North American integration as well as identify new ideas and strategies to reinforce the North American region."

The group's support of North American integration is documented by an objective listed to "identify the elements of the North American agenda which would allow the consolidation and reinforcement of the North American region."

Qualifying students are undergraduates or graduate students who have "an interest in North American integration" and are bilingual among English, French and Spanish.

Students will pay $845 in fees to attend if registered after Dec. 16, 2006.

Rotated each year between the three countries, NAFI bills the mock parliament as "Triumvirate – the only North American model parliament."

The participating students get to role play as parliamentary legislators, newspaper and television journalists.

A variety of issues pertinent to the formation and operation of a North American Community are debated by the mock parliament, including expanding immigration, stimulating investment in Mexico and revising NAFTA to move in the direction of becoming a regional government.

This year's Triumvirate themes are listed as the creations of a customs union, water management, human trafficking and telecommunications in North America.

Last year's Triumvirate 2006 was held in the Mexican Senate.

Triumvirate 2005, the first NAFI mock North American Parliament, was held in Ottawa, Canada.

As WND reported, Raymond Chretien, the president of the Triumvirate and the former Canadian ambassador to both Mexico and the U.S., was quoted as claiming the exercise was intended to be more than academic.

"The creation of a North American parliament, such as the one being simulated by these young people, should be considered," he told WND.

On the NAFI board of director are M. Stephen Blank, Ph.D., director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University and Robert A. Pastor, Ph.D., director of the Center for North American Studies at American University.

Stephan Blank is the driving force behind the North America Works conference.

North America Works II, held in Kansas City, Mo, Dec. 1-2, 2006, was organized by the David Rockefeller-created Council of the Americas to discuss "North American Competitiveness and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)."

A summer institute brochure on the website of the Center for North American Studies includes a photograph of Pastor and the students posed before a lawn marker with the words "The American University" inscribed in the stone.

Above the stone marker, the students held up a printed sign that said "North," such that the inscription read "The North American University."

The "North" American University

As WND reported, Pastor's 2001 book, Toward a North American Community, argued North American integration should advance through development of a "North American consciousness" by creating various institutions which include a North American Customs Union and a North American Development Fund for the economic advance of Mexico.

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force report, Building a North American Community, that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action though trilateral "working groups" constituted within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to advance the North American integration agenda.