Free Republic

John Hawkins apparently has taken on a mission to prove that the Bush Administration is not creating a North American Union to replace the United States, or a new currency -- the Amero -- to replace the U.S. dollar. Recently, in a blog debate on this website, I exchanged views with Mr. Hawkins. When Mr. Hawkins declined to respond in what the editors termed “Round 4” of that debate, I concluded Mr. Hawkins allowed me to have the final word because he lacked a convincing rejoinder. Now, we see Mr. Hawkins wants to carry on the debate but this time...

UPDATE, July 19, 2006. The House is expected to vote on the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA) very soon.   The Senate has already approved this trade pact by 60-34 in June. This could be another CAFTA-type cliff hanger in the House, so please contact your representative immediately via phone, fax, or email, in strong opposition to the U.S.-Oman FTA. Phone is preferable due to the shortness of time and the bigger impact. Help Preserve Jobs and National Security & Independence: Defeat the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement What's it all mean?We have a golden opportunity to derail the NAFTA/CAFTA series of...

G-8 agrees to subsidy cuts for WTO's success The world's top eight industrial nations on Monday appeared to have climbed down from a tough position on farm subsidies, reviving hopes of resumption of the collasped WTO talks. "The Doha Round should deliver real cuts in tariffs, effective cuts in subsidies and real new trade flows," a statement issued at the G-8 Summit in St Petersburg said emphasising, it is "fully committed to the development dimension of ongoing WTO talks." Regretting that the talks in Geneva failed early this month, the heads of government of US, UK, France, Japan, Canada, Italy,...

GUATEMALA CITY - While the machines on the factory floor whirred rat-a-tat-tat, textile maker Sergio de la Torre sat in his office and extolled what CAFTA will bring in the future: attention and foreign investment. But up to now, the Central American Free Trade Agreement has hurt more than helped his business. ''The plant is half-empty because the treaty has not started for Guatemala,'' said de la Torre as he conducted a tour of his factory, Accesorios Textiles. Until today -- when Guatemala officially joins CAFTA -- he couldn't sell his labels in countries that had previously joined -- El...

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn. Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman’s Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation’s most modern highway straight into the heart of...

The Bush Administration is pushing to create a North American Union out of the work on-going in the Department of Commerce under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in the NAFTA office headed by Geri Word. A key part of the plan is to expand the NAFTA tribunals into a North American Union court system that would have supremacy over all U.S. law, even over the U.S. Supreme Court, in any matter related to the trilateral political and economic integration of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Right now, Chapter 11 of the NAFTA agreement allows a private...

Back in 2004, I published The Real Matrix, in seven parts (read them here). I had little idea how the process outlined there would accelerate in 2005 and 2006. Indeed, even those still "plugged in" ought to be wondering why the U.S. Senate just gave thumbs-up (62 yeas vs. 26 nays) to an immigration bill that most of the public does not want, and that would clearly be destructive of this country's long-term best interests – educationally, culturally, and economically. Those of us out here in the Desert of the Real are aware that the Senate just took us one...

Sweeping changes in America’s immigration policy may be directed by hidden hands. Although free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA have softened America’s borders considerably, the latest Congressional immigration revamp comes about one year after the Council on Foreign Relations released a 59-page document titled, “Building a North American Community.” Founded in 1921, the CFR is an independent, membership organization “dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas … on world and foreign policy choices affecting the United States and other governments. In an overview of the 2005 CFR document, Illinois watchdog group Eagle Forum, reported a March 2005 meeting held in...

Presidents George W. Bush and Michelle Bachelet underscored the increasingly strong and close ties that Chile and the United States enjoy, based on common values and objectives, including the promotion of democracy, development, economic growth, hemispheric integration, trade liberalization, international security, and combating terrorism. They recognized the link among development, peace, security, human rights, and social justice. They reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthen the bilateral relationship based on these principles and to deepen the two nations' ongoing strategic dialogue on democracy and regional development, and other key shared priorities. They agreed that Chile and the United States, like all...

It seems our government has decided to take down the SPP Website in recent days. Is it a coincidence that it was taken down around the time Jerome Corsi published this article titled North American Union to Replace USA? on the Human Events Online website??

For years, economists and politicians have said the solution to surging emigration is prosperity at home. If Mexico and other Latin American nations that send millions of migrants to the U.S. could grow fast enough, the theory goes, their residents wouldn't head north for work. Last month, Mexican President Vicente Fox, looking to influence the U.S. Congress's latest efforts at an immigration overhaul, pledged his country would do its part, creating good manufacturing jobs for Mexican workers on their home soil. He pointed to more than 100,000 job openings in assembly plants established within a few miles of the U.S....

Immigration issues are always ripe for demagoguery, particularly in an election year. But the solution to the very real problems along the U.S.-Mexican border can be found, ironically, in that other part of the world that American demagogues love to ridicule: old Europe. Two years ago, the European Union admitted 10 new nations into their backyard. Like Mexico, all of these nations were poor, some of them fairly backward, corrupt and recently ravaged by war and communist dictatorship. But the leaders of the European Union wisely created policies for fostering regional economic and political integration that make efforts like the...

AUSTIN — The southernmost stretch of the proposed Canada-to-Mexico interstate could come to the Rio Grande Valley as a brand new toll road cutting through untouched ranchland rather than an upgrade to highways 77 or 281. The proposal by the Texas Department of Transportation for the road known as Trans-Texas Corridor 69 is drawing sharp criticism from South Texas landowners and elected officials who say the state should instead spend its money turning one or both existing highways into interstates. Three options are on the table for building the first interstate to the Valley: expansion of Highway 281, expansion of...

E-mail Author Author Archive Send to a Friend Version April 11, 2006, 7:51 a.m. Liberal Sellout Dems are in the grip of a grievance-based ethnic politics. Democrats opposed the ratification of the Central America Free Trade Agreement last year for fear that it would undercut American workers made to compete with cheap Latin American labor. The problem the Democrats must have had with this effect on American workers was that it was too indirect. The party now favors importing lots of that same cheap Latin American labor directly into the United States. Bizarrely, it is the Democrats who most...

The Atlanta Roundtable held its second session on October 17, 2001 to discuss the future of North American integration in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Gordon D. Giffin, Vice Chairman of Long, Aldridge & Norman and former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, and Robert A. Pastor, Professor of Political Science at Emory University, led the discussion. [SNIP] A transformation occurred in Mexico with the election of Vicente Fox. He met with President Bush on September 4 and proposed a very broad agenda: legalizing anywhere from three to seven million illegal immigrants, expanding temporary migration from Mexico, increasing cooperation in law...

SACRAMENTO -- An anticipated surge in long-haul truck traffic from Mexico will deliver more than loads of produce, electronics and clothing to Southern California. It will also bring a lot of smog. California's air-quality regulators say the imminent opening of the state's freeways and ports to older, diesel-fueled Mexican trucks could produce a dramatic increase in toxic pollutants, a new source of smog equal to another 2.2 million cars on the road. "This would have a serious impact on the region's health and particularly on the health of those community members living adjacent to any heavily traveled routes," warns a...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Dubai Ports World's decision — after overwhelming public and Congressional pressure — to sell off its new U.S. terminal operations to a U.S. owner is a huge victory for American national security, economic realism, and plain old common sense. The obvious follow-up is overhauling the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and turning it from a rubberstamp into a serious analytical and investigative body for screening proposed foreign takeovers of U.S. assets. (Readers can find a detailed USBIC proposal for CFIUS reform in the Washington Times piece posted...

President Bush will travel to Cancun, Mexico to meet with President Vicente Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada on March 30-31, 2006. The leaders will discuss the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), begun by the three countries in March 2005 as a new framework for cooperation aimed at strengthening continental security and our common prosperity. They also will discuss progress since the SPP was founded and the future agenda of the initiative. The leaders will meet bilaterally as well.

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Little Rock - Hundreds of people are out of work Tuesday night after a major announcement at the Levi Strauss company. The company's Little Rock distribution plant will be closing its doors as early as August. The move will put 340 people out of work. The plant is located just south of Little Rock off Interstate 530 along the Pratt Road Exit. Levi Strauss closed down the plant because company officials said it already has three major distribution plants in North America and this one was no longer necessary. Little rock...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. (AP) — Apparel company Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. said Tuesday that it will close its last sewing plant in Ozark, Ala., by May 15, resulting in about 500 job cuts. The Manhattan company, which owns and markets the Calvin Klein brand as well as other brands, said the plant makes about 5% its dress shirts, with the rest outsourced to international factories. ''This was a difficult but inevitable decision based on the competitive environment in the apparel industry and the expiration of import quotas in 2005,'' said Emanuel Chirico, chief executive, in...

Surprise! Last week's completion of U.S. free trade talks with Colombia - and the likely signing of similar deals with Ecuador and Panama in coming weeks - may mean that U.S. plans to create a hemisphere-wide free-trade area may not be dead after all.     Four months after the disastrous 34-country Summit of the Americas last November in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in which Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made big headlines by proclaiming that the U.S.-backed free-trade plan would be "buried for good" at the meeting, U.S. officials are boasting that the free-trade agenda is enjoying new momentum.     In...

One Jackson area man who's losing his factory job to outsourcing says that shipping jobs overseas is the latest form of terrorism. On the last day of his holiday, Robert McNitt is gathering his bags and heading back home to Jackson. Once he gets back from this break, he says thanks to his employer, autoparts maker TRW, plant workers are all looking forward to another big break this summer. Robert McNitt, threatened by outsourcing: "The work, a majority of it, is going to be sent to Mexico." He says shipping American jobs oversees is an attack on the country. Robert...

Everybody talks about globalization; nobody ever does anything about it. The world labor market looms over every horizon with its promise of cheaper goods and lower pay. The public is skeptical, rightly, about the benefits of globalization, but the process of harnessing it, of writing enforceable rules that would benefit not just investors but most of our citizens, is hard to even conceive. And so globalization is experienced by many Americans as a loss of control. Manufacturing moves to China, engineering to India; que sera, sera . Except on our borders. With the number of immigrants illegally in the United...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - A U.S. free trade pact with Central America, already delayed by a legal wrangle, has run into further trouble at presidential elections in Costa Rica where voters punished the main pro-trade candidate. Costa Rica's electoral board began a recount on Tuesday of the vote from the weekend, which ended with a near dead heat despite opinion polls showing free trade advocate Oscar Arias would win easily. Arias, a former president who strongly backs the U.S.-Central American Free Agreement, or CAFTA, won just over 40 percent of votes on Sunday, on a par with main...

Rep. John Boehner’s rise to the second highest post in the House could benefit a number of business interests he has supported in Congress. Backers of for-profit education, free-market farm policies, immigration guest-worker programs and pension reforms could all benefit from Boehner’s victory, lobbyists say. As majority leader, Boehner will have broad, but not absolute, power to set the House Republicans’ agenda. Some things are unlikely to change under his leadership. Committee chairmen will maintain discretion to craft bills under their purview, and Boehner’s conservative political philosophy — lower taxes, fewer regulations — is in line with that of both...

Rep. Reynolds warns against chickens from China WASHINGTON (AP) _ Rep. Thomas Reynolds urged the government Thursday to abandon a plan to allow China to ship processed chicken to the United States, saying the danger of spreading bird flu is too great. The Agriculture Department wants to allow shipments of processed chicken from China, where thousands of birds and several people have died from bird flu. The United States does not accept live poultry imports from countries where the virulent bird flu strain is present, and it still would not under the proposed policy. Instead, China would be allowed to...

NATIONAL HEALTH FEDERATION A NOT-FOR-PROFIT HEALTH ORGANIZATION                                                            PRESS RELEASE   ALERT America As You Know It May Soon Be Over   OPPOSE The North American Cooperative Security Act (NACSA) (S.853 & H.R.2672) by Cheri Tips January 19, 2006   This urgent alert is being sent to all Congress Members.     Even I, as a hardened health-freedom fighter, became physically ill putting this information together to alert you, the reader, to one of the most damning acts against America and its citizens. If you are a true American, the information that I will convey, should make your blood...

 A Message from the Ambassador of the United States of America     January 31, 2006 Dear Friends and Colleagues:  As recent weeks have demonstrated, border security and immigration are two of the most complicated and difficult issues in the great diversity of questions that arise in the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States. Today, in President Bush’s annual State of the Union address, the President spoke directly about issues that affect Mexico and gave his thoughts on ways to improve the lives of people in both our countries.  Click here to see the full text of the President’s...

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama's agriculture minister resigned on Tuesday, alleging that a proposed free trade deal with the United States could expose the country to bird flu, foot and mouth disease and mad cow disease. Laurentino Cortizo told President Martin Torrijos he feared Panama could be forced to ignore its own food health standards in a free trade deal with Washington. "It worries me enormously that a relaxing of the sanitary measures could put the health and lives of Panamanians at risk," he said in his resignation letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. "Have you analyzed...

WATSONVILLE — The city's food-processing industry has wilted to a shadow of its former self. Only a trio of independent food-processing and cold-storage businesses remains. Ray Rodriguez, 59, owner of Farmers Processing & Cold Storage, a Castroville native and son of field workers, is one. Del Mar Food Products Corp. and BirdsEye are the others. There was a time when the city was so overrun with the likes of Rodriguez that it was nicknamed the "Frozen Food Capital of the World." That was the 1930s and '40s, well before the North American Free Trade Agreement appeared in the early 1990s,...

North American Cooperative Security Act, H.R.2672 and S. 853, seems to be a grand move toward effectively removing our borders with Canada and Mexico. It also forms security teams containing officers from both U. S. and Mexico, together. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.00853: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR02672: Comments?

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. President Bush went overseas recently to attend a meeting to promote FTAA, Free Trade Areas of the Americas. FTAA is a trade agreement to strengthen and extend NAFTA and parts of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to the entire Western Hemisphere, excepting Cuba. It will hand over control to corporate elites, threaten nations' abilities to govern democratically and the people's control over their own communities and land. It is being negotiated in secret. A massive protest occurred wherever President Bush appeared. Some, no doubt, hate the president and the U.S. in...

Just as markets tend to overshoot, so does political analysis, and recent commentary on Latin America is exhibit A. Conventional wisdom is that the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and the recent elections in Bolivia late last year indicate that the United States and Latin America have parted company, definitively reversing the positive trends of the 1990s. Some have even accused Washington of "losing" Latin America, as if the region were ours to lose. Certainly, challenges do exist in the hemisphere, some of great consequence, but before we either overreact or, just as harmful, turn our...

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Guatemala's government -- annoyed by the delay in CAFTA's implementation and the U.S. House of Representative's approval of a wall to keep out illegal immigrants -- announced Tuesday it would seek to strengthen its relations with the Mercosur trading bloc. "The decision to approach Mercosur has been made," Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, referring to bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Guatemalan officials will seek to establish contacts with Mercosur leaders at the upcoming inauguration of Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, Stein said. Seeking ties with the South...

The Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic is struggling to get on its feet after six Central American countries, including the Dominican Republic, failed to meet a Jan. 1 preliminary start-up date. All CAFTA countries have ratified the agreement with the exception of Costa Rica, El Salvador being the first in December 2004 and Nicaragua the most recent in September 2005. "All countries recognized the Jan.1 date was an ambitious goal and that they might not have completed their implementation process by that time," said Stephen Norton, spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative office. At issue are the "technical changes"...

Morales signals growing ties with Venezuelan leader as well as Castro CARACAS, VENEZUELA - Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, fresh from a visit with Fidel Castro, launched a world tour Tuesday by joining with Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez in a denunciation of free-market economics — a sign of the growing relationship among the three leftist leaders. Notably, the tour includes stops in Spain, France, Belgium, South Africa, China and Brazil — but not Washington. Morales' spokesman says he was not invited.Arriving in Caracas aboard a Cuban jetliner, Morales said he and Chávez were uniting in a "fight against neoliberalism and...

Six Latin American governments had hoped to start 2006 with a free trade zone that would open the U.S. market to their fledgling industries. Instead, they bogged down in making legal and regulatory reforms, delaying the trade union that was supposed to take effect Sunday. Proponents of the Central America Free Trade Agreement — CAFTA — fear the delay will mean painful business and trade losses in a region of widespread poverty. Countries that made extra investments in their products say the holdup postpones the long-anticipated payoff of access to U.S. markets for sectors such as the struggling textile and...

Several of Rep. Ed Towns’s (D-N.Y.) colleagues yesterday expressed displeasure that House Democratic leaders may seek to remove the 12-term congressman from his seat on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee following Towns’s absence at several important budget votes this spring and fall and his pivotal support of the Central America Free Trade Agreement in July. “I think it’s outrageous,” said Rep. Al Wynn (D-Md.), a colleague of Towns in both the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the Energy and Commerce Committee. Towns is the fourth-ranking Democrat on the panel. “He’s not the first member to miss important votes. I...

Regarding Congressman Jim Kolbe's decision not to run for reelection, in a word, "Hallelujah." When someone retires or passes away, we try to say something nice about that person, we downplay his negatives and point out his positives. I would like to do the same for Congressman Jim Kolbe, but I really don't have the time to do that much research, other then to say, I wholeheartedly approve of his decision to leave Congress. I'm sure Kolbe will be missed by Mexican President Vincente Fox, he is one of the best members of Congress Mexico has ever had in the...

In the aftermath of the 2005 Summit of the Americas, the clash between two giants has reached full swing. Mexico and Venezuela, both within the top five economies in Latin America, are in the midst of an escalating diplomatic conflict in which they have recalled their ambassadors—a rare diplomatic move for Latin-American countries. It’s the resounding clash between two competing visions for Latin America, and this time, it’s not Venezuela vs. the U.S. Rather, it’s Venezuela vs. Mexico—or, more precisely, Chavez against those in Latin America who favor free trade. The dispute climaxed when the Venezuelan president called Mexican president...

‘I-69 is dead’ State, federal officials disagree on status of road By Matt Whittaker The Monitor WESLACO, November 9, 2005 — There are not enough federal dollars for an Interstate highway to the Rio Grande Valley, state officials said Tuesday “I-69 is dead in the state of Texas,” Texas Transportation Commissioner Ted Houghton told about 75 area city officials and business leaders at a lunch discussion about transportation issues. “The road fairy has been shot.” But federal lawmakers said the project to create an Interstate linking major commercial centers in Mexico, the United States and Canada is still alive and...

Over the weekend the President and the First Lady continued their visit to South America visiting Argentina and Brazil and travelling to Panama on Sunday evening. Today the President and First Lady attended various sites and events in Panama. British Defence Secretary John Reid visited with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. Today Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House of Representatives, spoke at the Bank of America Program on Volunteerism Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island

On November 4-5, the fourth Summit of the Americas took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The heads of state of the hemisphere’s democratic countries met to discuss economic, political, and social issues – and to lose another opportunity to create a new and healthier relationship between the United States and its Latin American neighbors.Indeed, the Summit amounted to nothing more than an outsized photo opportunity. No important issues were resolved, and no progress was made on the many topics that increasingly divide the countries of Latin America and the US. In particular, no progress was made on the creation...

Florida FTAA, Inc. is leading a delegation to the Private Sector Forum taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina and preceding the IV Summit of the Americas "Creating Jobs to Address Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance" taking place in Mar del Plata November 4 and 5. The Private Sector Forum is endorsed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the OAS General Secretariat. About 200 executives from the hemisphere will discuss the role of the private sector in the creation of jobs to fight poverty, the promotion of democratic governance and transparency, education and technological innovation as well as trade, infrastructure...

Because of its location, Texas is integral to the creation of the FTAA and the eventual merger of North and South America under a single regional government like the EU. A little more than two years ago, political allies of Texas Governor Rick Perry quietly passed legislation creating the "Trans-Texas Corridor" (TTC). With the connivance of a largely silent press, the most expensive project in the state's history became law with scant public notice. It's bad enough that the TTC will cost at least $185 billion, much of it derived from new toll taxes imposed on existing free roads. It's...

Costa Rican trade unions called on Monday for a one-day general strike next month to oppose ratification of a regional free-trade pact with the United States, which they fear could hurt standards of living. More than 200 unions and civic groups are expected to take part in the stoppage on Nov. 17, which seeks to pressure the Costa Rican Congress to reject the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, union leaders said. Costa Rica is the only Central American nation yet to ratify the agreement. It has been approved by the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and...

Latin America: A weekend march by 5,000 Bolivians in favor of a free trade pact with the U.S. got little attention. But it was a clear signal to step up commerce in a troubled region we often don't know what to do about. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. The prospect of a growing free-trade movement, coming from humble factory workers, is startling. It surprised even other Bolivians who often hear anti-free trade rhetoric. After all, just about the only thing we ever hear about Bolivia is that a far-leftist, Evo Morales, leads in the presidential polls for...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Tired of lipservice, new leaders are taking matters into their own hands. At just the time when the U.S. manufacturing sector needs strong leadership to help it navigate what many agree are historic structural changes, those from whom we'd expect such guidance are missing in action. Worse, they are failing to acknowledge, except at the most cursory level, the legitimate concerns of increasing numbers of manufacturing executives. Their actions -- or rather inaction -- are deepening the rift between competing manufacturing interests and needlessly weakening entire strands of the complex tapestry...

<p>During the election campaign and again this summer as the Bush administration fought for a free-trade agreement with Caribbean countries, the White House regularly extolled its efforts on behalf of American workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition.</p> <p>Two weeks before last fall's election, at an aircraft hangar in Rochester, Minn., President Bush shared the stage with Michelle Clements, an electronics worker whose factory was shut. He cited the federal aid she received to study law enforcement as an example of government help for dislocated workers.</p>

MAR DEL PLATA/BARILOCHE, ARGENTINA. 4-5 Nov 2005. The theme for the heads of state and government of the Western Hemisphere’s democracies at the Sixth Summit of the Americas is, "Creating Employment to Confront Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance." It sounds new, but it restates the aims of the Free Trade Area of the Americas – to create greater prosperity for nearly 800 million people in 34 countries of the hemisphere – a pact that has missed its Jan 1 2005 target date.The choice of the theme suggests that the summit will tackle issues that are holding up talks about the...