[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

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Corrections and Clarifications (Victoria Advocate)

The Advocate wants to correct promptly any error in fact or clarify any misleading information we publish. To report any error or need for clarification, please call 361-574-1222. Harris County Commissioners Court voted in early May to pull out of the I-69 Alliance because the portion of the highway that was to be I-69 has become part of the Trans-Texas Corridor and no longer would go through Harris County, said Kathy Luhn, policy director for the Harris County judge's office. Also, the toll road bill would take away Harris County's right to build its own toll road, which the court didn't agree with while the I-69 Alliance supported the bill, Luhn said. A story on Page A1 on Monday, May 28, said the court withdrew from the project because too much was spent on membership fees. Luhn said that was a secondary reason for withdrawing.

Copyright, (c) 2007, The Victoria Advocate

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Trans-Texas Corridor PING!

[pnh102]

Another huge waste of taxpayer money. Instead of building highways where we do not need them, why not invest in improving highways where people in this country actually live and work.

[PissAndVinegar]

and the push for SPP continues:

http://www.spp.gov/

[SittinYonder]

Here it comes!

This is the next step in the loss of our sovereignty!

It's almost like they've planned it.

[cripplecreek]

They’ll face heavy opposition in this area.

[SittinYonder]

The project has drawn heavy criticism, including claims that it threatens U.S. control of its own borders.

ROFLOL! What control?

[rawhide]

My big question here is, Why do they not build some new railroad lines? The railroads can haul more at any given time, and it would create thousands of American jobs. It would also keep the Mexican trucks off our highways. Solves many problems and answers many questions.

[Apple Blossom]

Here is comes...

[PAR35]

U.S. Interstate Highway System, completed in 1970

If they'd print junk that, what else in the story is false? (Hint for writers - the orginal plan called for completion in 1975; as with many governmental programs, that deadline wasn't met. )

According to this source, the system was only 70 per cent complete by 1970. "By 1970, Wisconsin had completed its initial rural Interstate system at a time when only 70% of the country's system was complete."
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/library/history/50/facts.htm

And we aren't just talking about minor interstates:

Meanwhile, down in Georgia, the state's segment of Interstate 95 was completed in January 1980.

http://acppubs.com/article/CA6379220.html

[Just another Joe]

Lets make it an American Autobahn.
You drive on it at your own risk, you can go as fast as you want, if you cause an accident you, or the company you work for, not your insurance company, pays for all medical - life - property damage that occurs.

Think very many people would use it?

[Smokin' Joe]

North Dakota and western Minnesota have less immediate need for the super corridor than the southern Great Plains does, said Jerry Nagel, president of Fargo-based Northern Great Plains, which seeks to maximize the area’s potential through regional collaboration.

"Less immediate need" is an understatement.

Unfortunately, the "economic development" types only look at the bottom line, not at the crap that can come in on something like this.

Can we give Fargo to Minnesota yet?

[Smokin' Joe]

From 2001 to 2006, North Dakota increased its exports to Mexico from $38 million to $55 million and its exports to Canada from $394 million to $727 million. In the same period, Minnesota exports to Mexico rose from $435 million to $595 million, with exports to Canada rising from $2.6 billion to $4.1 billion.

Had the Missouri River Dam System been built as originaly proposed, with locks for ship travel, then freighters or barges could have been loaded with grain and the grain shipped south.

That was not done.

[Valin]

An open letter to a worried patriot: Why you needn’t lose sleep over a “North American Union”
By Michael Medved
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=an_open_letter_to_a_worried_patriot_why_you_neednt_lose_sleep_over_a_north_american_union&ns=MichaelMedved&dt=05/09/2007&page=full&comments=true

Over the last few weeks, I’ve received several letters, e-mails and even phone messages from listeners to my radio show who feel desperately worried or bitterly offended because I dismiss their fears that the Bush administrations and “corporate America” have devised a secret plan to destroy our national independence by merging the United States, Mexico and Canada into a “North American Union.” This dreaded outcome would feature the end of the Yankee dollar as we know it and the substitution of a worthless new currency called “The Amero.” (a Western Hemisphere counterpart to the Euro, obviously). I wrote back directly to one patriotic Navy veteran who shares these concerns and who lives in the Seattle area, as I do, in order to put his agitated mind at ease. I reproduce my letter below, in the belief that it might also help others come to terms with the exploitative scam by which agitators, fundraisers and a few sincere paranoids have tried to frighten people over a fictitious scheme that’s never been a serious consideration for our government or politicians.

Howdy, Neighbor-—

Thanks for your letter and I’m grateful that you care enough about my work to take the time to write to me. I also regret that you felt personally insulted when I used my radio platform to deride and mock the demagogues who are trying to frighten gullible people about the innocuous Security and Prosperity Partnership and the non-existent plans for a “North American Union.”

You felt that I insulted you “for strongly opposing the ludicrous ‘Security and Prosperity partnership/North American Union’ proposition being drafted.” No, I wasn’t insulting you for opposing any such scheme. All patriotic people would- and should -oppose any attempt to merge the U.S. with Mexico and Canada, and to terminate our national sovereignty. My scorn wasn’t aimed at opposition to such plans, but rather focused on those shameless scare-mongers who’ve tried to advance their own pathetic careers by getting you to believe that such plots even exist.

Doesn’t it tell you something that every time anyone in the administration or Congress is asked about the notion of a “North American Union” he denounces and rejects and ridicules the idea?

The demagogues and charlatans who promote this nonsense focus on Professor Robert Pastor of American University as the “Father of the North American Union.” But even Professor Pastor (who’s a liberal Democrat who advised Kerry and bears no connection whatever to President Bush) denied (to Jerome Corsi) that he believes that a “North American Union” is a good idea!

If you can find one official in any federal department, or one prominent politician of either party, who has ever, in any way, promoted submerging our national sovereignty into a new nation of North America, would you please give me the name? This is an urgent matter: don’t send a letter, call me with the name on Disagreement Day on our radio show, between 2:00 and 3:00 PM, any Thursday. (The number is 800-955-1776).

Ah, but the paranoid alarmists and sicko fear-peddlers suggest that the plans are secret, so naturally no one will acknowledge them. Never mind that when you go to the website of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (spp.gov) there is nothing in the least bit menacing or worrisome (unless you object to cooperation on securing the border and dealing with flu epidemics), and you will find extensive, well-documented and specific denials of grand plots that would damage sovereignty. The hypesters and hysterics tell you that it’s all part of the master plan to hide diabolical intentions until it’s too late, and the conspirators have already managed to terminate our independence and destroy our currency.

But surely you know that any “North American Union” would require a big, big fight in Congress before winning approval.

Even NAFTA – a much less significant change in economic policy – generated years of controversy and a ferocious pitched battle in Congress (remember the big televised debate between Ross Perot and Al Gore?). How do you think the purported conspirators would be able to impose their nefarious plans (including the non-existent plans for a new currency, the “Amero”) without going through months or years of argument and agitation, and somehow winning majorities in both houses of Congress? And if they’re really planning to go forward in this huge public fight, what sense does it make for them to keep their plans secret? Why aren’t they already working to soften up public opinion for their final victory?

May I also remind you that the main source of all the alarmism on this non-existent threat is a struggling website known as WorldNutDaily that also promoted an “authoritative” report that consumption of soy milk caused the current epidemic of homosexuality. When I ridiculed that story on the air, and invited its author and researcher to defend his crapola in public, he quickly scurried away to the dank and dingy under-the-rock quarters from which his “science” originated.

And please note that the same flamers and losers who promote the “North American Union” nonsense also warned the world that Y2K would bring the end of civilization as we know it. I scoffed at that paranoia at the time, and of course I was completely right. Where are the apologies from the demagogues who scared millions with tales that the “Millenium Bug” would cause our economy to collapse and democracy to end?

Neighbor, you sound like a good egg -— and a real patriot (and I salute your service as an officer in the WWII Navy, where my dad also served, but as a humble enlisted man). But as a proud nationalist, veteran and America-booster, you should join me in focusing on the real threats to our country: Islamo-Nazi terror, socialist militants who want to nationalize healthcare and kill the free market system, blame-America leftists who seek to cripple the country because they think that our current power and prosperity somehow threaten the world.

These are real threats. They are reflected in open and highly-publicized debate, with leading politicians (even Democratic Presidential candidates) rallying support for disastrous changes (like nationalized health care, higher taxes, more bureaucracy and less freedom) that would imperil the Republic.

The “North American Union” isn’t a real threat – in the political mainstream, no one favors it, no one advocates it, no one is planning it. With all the billions of words written against the North American Union, where are the corresponding speeches, articles, columns, or manifestos that actually favor it?

At the moment, the agitation and paranoia about this non-existent “scheme” (who are the schemers, anyway?) serves as a Weapon of Mass Distraction – taking good people (like you) out of the real battles where we need you.

I hope you’ll refocus your passion and admirable fighting spirit on the significant issues that menace our beloved country, and disentangle yourself from this delusional dreck.

With respect and sympathy —— Michael Medved

[dforest]

I am sure to build this traitorus monstrosity, they will go through many states and seize peoples land.

I wonder when we will just be too fed up with it all.

[zerosix]

"But others wonder whether the proposal might bring in cheap exports and put unsafe Mexican trucks on U.S. roads."
Absolute no "wondering" about it --IT WILL HAPPEN!

[gcruse]

” the proposal might bring in cheap exports “

...which would hold down inflation and take some of the pressure off our extremely low unemployment. That’s why the unions and Pat Buchanan hate it.

[AmishDude]

Yes! No NAU thread is complete without a fancy color picture.

I’m not sure what the Yellow arrows are supposed to represent, but this is awesome.

And I’m really not sure what purpose it serve to have Churchill, Canada on the map, but it’s a nice touch.

[timer]

Maglev trains on raised pylons would be a better, futuristic concept than just paving over more of the world with freeways and their roadside litter/noise. But that in turn requires advanced thinking, not something bureaucrats are known for.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I think this is the passage that is driving the argument:

Texas lawmakers for months have wrangled over construction of what is known as the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Plans call for a transportation network across Texas, including a 10-lane highway with six lanes for automobiles and four lanes for trucks. Freight and commuter railways and a utilities corridor are also part of the proposal, which would stretch the system from Laredo, Texas, to Canada.

I don't know out of what orifice the Canada part was pulled. The first component, TTC-35, will stretch from Laredo, TX to the Texas-Oklahoma border.

[Colorado Buckeye]

This will be the greatest smuggling corridor in the history of man.