Posted on 09/20/2007 6:51:58 AM PDT by NapkinUser
The U.S. is known for its "paranoid style" of politics, so brace yourself for the next Big Scare coming down the pike (literally) -- the Trans-Texas Corridor. Isolationist conservatives, emboldened by their jihad last year against the Dubai Ports World deal, have identified this road project as the spearhead of a conspiracy to dissolve the United States of America.
Texas awarded a planning contract in 2005 for the first phase of the corridor to Cintra, a Spanish multinational company, and its San Antonio partner, Zachry Construction. (Cintra also won a $1.3-billion contract last year to build a 40-mile extension of Highway 130, a state toll road connecting Austin to San Antonio that was conceived separately from the corridor, although conspiracy activists claim otherwise.) The first 600-mile section, planned to include such features as tollways, freight-rail and truck-only lanes, will run parallel to the cramped, north-south Interstate 35 from the border town of Laredo to Oklahoma. Construction contracts for that portion haven't been awarded.
The second phase of the corridor, whose planning contract has yet to be handed out, would build a similar highway from the western edge of the Mexico border to east Texas. This might one day link to a separate, federally initiated eight-state expansion of Interstate 69, which currently runs between Port Huron, Mich., and Indianapolis.
This is all too sinister for Jerome Corsi, the Vietnam War veteran who helped lead the Swift Boat charge against John Kerry. Corsi has knitted disparate strands of each of these separate road projects to help convince fellow xenophobes such as Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafly, Lou Dobbs and the John Birch Society that the corridor is the first leg of a secret federal project called the NAFTA Superhighway, a four-football-field wide monstrosity that would run from Mexico's Yucatan to Canada's Yukon.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The Trans-Texas corridor should be defeated simply because it's a government land grab, using eminent domain to forcibly steal peoples' private property for a toll road who's profits would benefit a foreign company.
...in the name of protecting its sovereignty.
Gasp! Wouldn't want that!
The use of "xenophobes" is really weak too. What's with liberals and labels? Oppose affirmative action? Racist. Gay marriage? Homophobe.
Just because we’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they are NOT out to get us.
Shikha Dalmia ... is a libertarian. She is the author of this article
Well, there you go. The libertarian party advocates open borders and letting illegals in (at least on their official national party website), so I guess that explains this editorial...at least somewhat.
Thank goodness!!! That is the only thing that has protected us from the Eurotype of bondage. If they can just import some more peons who don't have that pesky independence, they may destroy our paranoia and put the US back under the Royals thumb.
She is from India. She loves “free markets” more than America. Libertarian in La La Land
The writers could have come up with reasoned explanation of why Jerome Corsi and company are incorrect on the whole TTC project, NAFTA and the SPP, but instead they took a bunch of cheap shots.
There are reasons why those projects are not what their opponents claim they are, but this article does not even bother to explain what is really going on.
But it’s the LA Times, what do you expect.
(BTW, I’m not talking about the wisdom of the TTC, I don’t have a dog in that fight. But it is not in any great detail any different than any other road in that it will be owned and policed by Texas and is not in any way shape or form a threat to the sovereignty of the State of Texas or the United States.)
Maybe I'm a close-minded nationalist/nativist, but I have had my fill of foreigners bad-mouthing my country.
Perhaps the authress would be happier back in her homeland.
I strongly yet respectfully disagree, FRiend.
I’m all for highways. Just not ones designed to facilitate mexican truckers on our roads.
Relevant:
Hunter Aims to Blow Up a Toll Road Before It’s Turned Into a Superhighway
Author: Kathryn A. Wolfe, CQ Staff
Article Text:
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California , who has spent much of his Republican presidential campaign thus far stumping to security-conscious conservatives, threw his constituency a bone July 24.
As House consideration of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill (HR 3074) ground to a close around midnight, Hunter added language that would partially block funding for a White House-led group — the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, in which the United States , Mexico and Canada participate.
Sounds like bland stuff, except that some conservatives believe the group is secretly pushing for the construction of a “NAFTA superhighway” from Canada to Mexico , via a private toll road planned across Texas .
“It’s time, before they facilitate this multimodal operation, for the administration to consult Congress,” Hunter said, adding that he is concerned about national security risks.
Some conservatives, such as political activist Phyllis Schlafly, see such a cross-border highway as the first step to establishing a mini-European Union for North America .
The White House-led group could not be reached for comment, but its Web site dismisses as myth the idea that it has plans for a NAFTA superhighway or that it’s working toward an economic merger of the three countries.
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP advised Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a Spanish transportation company, in its successful bid to develop State Highway 121 into a toll road through Collin and Denton�counties. The award to Cintra, approved by the Texas Transportation Commission, is the first privatization of a Texas toll road.
Bracewell is acting as project counsel to Cintra with respect to the 50-year concession from the Texas Department of Transportation. Cintra will pay a $2.1 billion upfront and annual lease payments totaling $700 million.
"Cintra was awarded this project because of its proven expertise and competitive proposal," said�Thomas O. Moore, partner with Bracewell & Giuliani. "This is the largest transportation deal of 2007. This is one of only five deals in the country."
Three firms have competed for the Comprehensive Development Agreement for State Highway 121 since last summer. The proposals were reviewed and scored based on selection criteria set forth by the Regional Transportation Council, the metropolitan planning agency for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
This CDA is a public-private partnership that allows the provider to handle all facets of developing the toll road, including completing construction and operating and maintaining the corridor.
Cintra, a subsidiary of Grupo Ferrovial specialized in toll roads and car parks, is one of the world's leading private-sector developers of transport infrastructure.
If you would like some more information on this proposed NAFTA highway there is an excellent 6 page article on the highway, all of the players involved, and a map of the proposed route in the Spring issue of “Range Magazine”. The article is written by Tim Finley. One of the families that will be impacted is the family of Analiese Kunert. Kunert’s family has been on land that maybe seized since 1798. Someone should contact these folks and tell them not to worry it’s just a “fantasy”.
The road is not a fantasy. What is a fantasy is that it is fundamentally different from any other highway project and that it is an attack on the sovereignty of the United States.
As far as eminent domain is concerned, take a look at a map of the United States. Taking land for public roads is a long established and constitutional practice. Most of the Interstate Highway System has been built on land taken by eminent domain. The same applies to the US Highway and state highway systems.
I’m not arguing about the wisdom of this road or it’s particular routing. That is a separate issue. I’m simply saying it is not fundamentally different from any other public road.
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