Posted on 06/12/2006 6:23:16 AM PDT by conservativecorner
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 America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new “SENTRI” system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.
As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming “North American Union” that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.
Just examine the following websites to get a feel for the magnitude of NAFTA Super Highway planning that has been going on without any new congressional legislation directly authorizing the construction of the planned international corridor through the center of the country.
NASCO, the North America SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., is a “non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America.” Where does that sentence say anything about the USA? Still, NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. One glance at the map of the NAFTA Super Highway on the front page of the NASCO website will make clear that the design is to connect Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. into one transportation system.
Kansas City SmartPort Inc. is an “investor based organization supported by the public and private sector” to create the key hub on the NAFTA Super Highway. At the Kansas City SmartPort, the containers from the Far East can be transferred to trucks going east and west, dramatically reducing the ground transportation time dropping the containers off in Los Angeles or Long Beach involves for most of the country. A brochure on the SmartPort website describes the plan in glowing terms: “For those who live in Kansas City, the idea of receiving containers nonstop from the Far East by way of Mexico may sound unlikely, but later this month that seemingly far-fetched notion will become a reality.”
The U.S. government has housed within the Department of Commerce (DOC) an “SPP office” that is dedicated to organizing the many working groups laboring within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada to create the regulatory reality for the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP agreement was signed by Bush, President Vicente Fox, and then-Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005. According to the DOC website, a U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee on Transportation Planning has finalized a plan such that “(m)ethods for detecting bottlenecks on the U.S.-Mexico border will be developed and low cost/high impact projects identified in bottleneck studies will be constructed or implemented.” The report notes that new SENTRI travel lanes on the Mexican border will be constructed this year. The border at Laredo should be reduced to an electronic speed bump for the Mexican trucks containing goods from the Far East to enter the U.S. on their way to the Kansas City SmartPort.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is overseeing the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as the first leg of the NAFTA Super Highway. A 4,000-page environmental impact statement has already been completed and public hearings are scheduled for five weeks, beginning next month, in July 2006. The billions involved will be provided by a foreign company, Cintra Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Spain. As a consequence, the TTC will be privately operated, leased to the Cintra consortium to be operated as a toll-road. The details of the NAFTA Super Highway are hidden in plan view. Still, Bush has not given speeches to bring the NAFTA Super Highway plans to the full attention of the American public. Missing in the move toward creating a North American Union is the robust public debate that preceded the decision to form the European Union. All this may be for calculated political reasons on the part of the Bush Administration.
A good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.
I am just trying to get you to give me some facts. You said I would ignore them but you won't or can't give them to me. Just remember that facts are not opinions or interpretations, they are absolute truths.
Gawd, that's weak. You are so busted.
In this scheme, there can only be one alternative to party loyalty pushing the agenda, and that is personal interest of some kind, like money.
The course upon which America is headed is loss of sovereignty. My disappointment is much greater than yours could ever be, because my disappointment is not based on greed or party partisanship, it's based on the reality that America's sovereignty will be lost.
God you are bad at this.
I could even here you say "DOH" when you read that.
I guess this means we're doomed, huh?
You've read "the source".
What source? The one article at the SPP.gov site? That's ONE article. The other articles, had you read them, have NOTHING to do with dependency on the one article at the SPP.gov site.
agh. Why bother. You won't read anything.
Yep, we might build a ROAD, and that is the end of the Republic.
Headed for bed. You guys save America while I'm cutting some Zs.
It is the plain words of the government position on the issue. Sorry.
As I said before, you are more interested in mocking those who have actually read all the documents than reading all of the documents for yourself.
Juvenile, utterly juvenile.
Yep and with that name comes identical political positions and conspiracy affinities. Yep.
LOL.
Bump for later
Officials Attend NASCO Conference
Posted Tuesday, June 06, 2006 :: infoZine Staff
City of Kansas City, Mo., officials attended the North America SuperCorridor Coalition conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from May 31 to June 2.
Kansas City, Mo. - infoZine - This conference brought together senior government and business leaders from Canada, the United States and Mexico. The conference focused on building a sustainable and secure trade and transportation corridor for North America. The City's delegation met with Manitoba Premier Gary Doer, Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz, Winnipeg Councillor Franco Magnifico, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, and Manitoba trade representatives.
"Kansas City was recognized everywhere. During his presentation, even Premier Doer spoke of Kansas City's active work in developing business along the corridor," City Manager Wayne A. Cauthen said.
Councilman George Blackwood Jr., 4th District, who also serves as president of the North America SuperCorridor Coalition, was the master of ceremonies of the three-day conference. Ron Lemieux, Minister, Manitoba Transportation and Government Services served as conference chair.
Long-term benefits of building relationships at conferences like these are more jobs in Kansas City and with partners in Canada and in Mexico. Immediate results of the conference include a session that is slated to take place in Manzanillo, Mexico, in June. Leaders from Kansas City, Mexico and Canada will be a part of the gathering slated to take action on trade and transportation issues affecting all three areas. Kansas City established a trade agreement with officials at Manzanillo's deepwater port in 2005.
"I started working on our North American relationships and partnerships when I was mayor pro tem, and Mayor Barnes has continued supporting me in that work. Councilwoman Bonnie Sue Cooper and I have worked on this issue together. Now it's paying off," Blackwood said.
Councilwoman Bonnie Sue Cooper, 2nd District at large, was the keynote presenter at the tri-lateral luncheon and her topic was the role of cities in enhancing trade and transportation along the mid-continent corridor.
"Without a doubt, the response was wonderful when I told the story of how Kansas City established its trade and transportation routes and took a lead role in becoming an inland port," Cooper said.
Cooper took the lead with the City in establishing the Mexiplex, which currently houses the Kansas City-Mexico Business Development Office, the Hispanic Chamber, the Mexican Consulate and other offices related to Latino trade. Canada has been invited to join the City and Mexico in that center and establish a trade office.
As a result, Kansas City companies seeking local market exposure, agents, distributors or strategic alliance partners in central Canada will have an opportunity to take part in a trade mission to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in September.
Companies that participate in the mission will have one-on-one prescheduled appointments with Canadian businesses in the greater Winnipeg area and the Province of Manitoba.
For more information about this trade mission to Canada, contact Stephan Bras, Office of International Affairs and Trade, (816) 513-3521, or stephan_bras@kcmo.org.
Article link: http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/15555/
There should likely be a press release at some point in time after this conference, I would think, making some kind of announcement of the Rail merger and plans, etc.
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