The NAFTA Superhighway

The Nation ^ | August 9, 2007 | Christopher Hayes

[yorkie]

When completed, the highway will run from Mexico City to Toronto, slicing through the heartland like a dagger sunk into a heifer at the loins and pulled clean to the throat. It will be four football fields wide, an expansive gully of concrete, noise and exhaust, swelled with cars, trucks, trains and pipelines carrying water, wires and God knows what else. Through towns large and small it will run, plowing under family farms, subdevelopments, acres of wilderness. Equipped with high-tech electronic customs monitors, freight from China, offloaded into nonunionized Mexican ports, will travel north, crossing the border with nary a speed bump, bound for Kansas City, where the cheap goods manufactured in booming Far East factories will embark on the final leg of their journey into the nation's Wal-Marts.

And this NAFTA Superhighway, as it is called, is just the beginning, the first stage of a long, silent coup aimed at supplanting the sovereign United States with a multinational North American Union.

Even as this plot unfolds in slow motion, the mainstream media are silent; politicians are in denial. Yet word is getting out. [SNIP}

Grassroots movement exposes elite conspiracy and forces politicians to respond: It would be a heartening story but for one small detail.

There's no such thing as a proposed NAFTA Superhighway.

[Constantine XIII]

No friggin kidding. *grumble grumble*

[Califreak]

Thank you very much! Everyday, I learn yet another reason to vote for Duncan Hunter.

[Proud2BAmerican]

You know what’s ironic — I read the entire article, and it didn’t support the author’s thesis! He starts off by claiming it’s all a hoax -— and then goes on to detail the various cogs that are currently in play that will eventually, if unstopped, form the very thing he says is not real!

[proxy_user]

Actually, this is a very good article.

They explain why, although the NAFTA superhighway does not exist, the issues this dispute represents are important to our nation, and are leading to some odd alliances between the non-business right and non-moonbat left.

They may be socialists, but they are intelligent and not blind to what is going on.

[proxy_user]

Yes, it is very interesting that he does not say that the conspiracy theorists are kooks who are blind to reality, but rather are clear-sighted individuals who can see where all this is leading.

[Flavius]

no nations only corporations

[yorkie]

>>no nations only corporations<<

With all due respect -

Yes, nations. The United States of America, Canada and Mexico.

[Flavius]

yes there is beauty in pay distribution

[Proud2BAmerican]

Did you get that impression from the writer? I didn’t get the impression that he was going so far as to suggest that maybe all these people are connecting the dots and coming to a real, and presently dangerous conclusion, but maybe I just read it too quickly.

[winodog]

The vast majority of the people live near both coasts so everything would have to be shipped from the heartland to the coasts. I cant imagine the American people putting up with this sorta crap much longer.

[Ditter]

Maybe this will just fade away like the Super Collider did, ya think?

[1rudeboy]

I understood the article to mean 1. the TTC exists, 2. there are plans being considered to make it easier to ship NAFTA goods north and south on existing expressways (including the TTC), 3. those plans may (rightly or wrongly) be called plans for a NAFTA Superhighwy, and 4. the NAFTA Superhighway does not exist in the sense that Jerome Corsi and the John Birch Society believe it does.

[yorkie]

>> I cant imagine the American people putting up with this sorta crap much longer. <<

“August 20-21, 2007 the leaders of Canada, the United States, and Mexico will meet in Montebello, Quebec to attend their semi-secret third Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America summit meeting to advance the North American Union that is already rapidly being established without the involvement of congress or the knowledge of citizens.”

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/363036.shtml

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I beleive that Cintra (Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A) is part of Groupo Ferrovial of Madrid, Spain

Cintra/JP Morgan in $2,660m concession deal for Highway 121 in north Texas

Is the above just part of "the largest infrastructure project ever in the US." Bigger than the interstate highway system started in the Eisenhower Administration?

March [2005] - Signature of the Trans-Texas Corridor contract. The consortium headed by Cintra will design and plan the largest infrastructure project ever in the US.

December [2004] - Cintra lands contract as strategic partner for the next 50 years in the design and planning of the Trans-Texas Corridor, tin the US. Cintra will develop a Master Plan to define the infrastructures to be built in the corridor and the optimal financing formulas or systems for each project. The multi-use transport corridor is 800 miles (1,300 km) long and will include toll roads with separate lanes for light and heavy vehicles, plus freight and high-speed train lines and utility lines (gas, power, telecommunications, drinking and irrigation water, etc.). The contract gives Cintra a number of preferential rights to obtain these toll road concession projects directly. In the initial phase, Cintra will directly develop five projects in the next five years (all toll roads´concessions), at an estimated cost of US$ 6,000 million.

They keep saying that there is no NAFTA superhighway, is there another name for it? You can build a hell of a lot of highway in 50 years. The interstate took less time. The description matches but it's only 800 miles long as of 2004.

[yorkie]

From what I am able to comprehend (with limited mental capabilities), the Trans Texas Corridor is merely the first leg of the entire ‘Superhighway’. And, yes, I have heard that Spain will collect all the tolls, once the TTC is completed.

[ran20]

I’m torn on this issue. On the one hand I love big infrastructure projects and think great wealth comes from them. If you are going to build new highways, why not go all the way and have a gigantic interlocking system designed for national efficiency in shipping. And nothing wrong with harmonizing that system with our neighbors which we heavily trade with. Lower shipping costs for us are a good thing.

On the other hand we all know deep down our leaders are pushing for a north american union(on the way to a ‘world union’) and to them this is a step in that direction.

[yorkie]

I agree, totally, ran. But there are so many ‘red lights’ that I am having trouble seeing a positive outcome. Family farms divided in half for thousands of miles; Mexican trucks with no regulations coming into our country with who knows what in their trailers; the danger to our citizens with unregulated trucks and drivers on the highways; our highways being constructed by another country and tolls collected by another country; and mainly the one thing that bothers me the most: the loss of our sovereignty.

The Canadians are really upset, also. Here is an article that may be biased, but could be worth the read: (looks like 10,000+ may be marching in protest, August 20 and 21 in Montreal)

Canadians plan large protests against New American Union Summit Agenda

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/08/06/01679.html

[WilliamofCarmichael]

My links belong to Madrid-based Grupo Ferrovial. They clearly document the signing of the contract to build the very road that the Nation, et al seem to be denying; except it's only 800 miles long at this time. But they're talking 50 years and you can build a hell of a lot of highway in 50 years.

Grupo Ferrovial clearly states that it is "the largest infrastructure project ever in the US."

Can the Nation, et al explain that given the Eisenhower interstate highway project? Bigger than that? I wonder who knows.

[ran20]

Theoretically they would harmonize our shipping regulations with Mexico, but we know we can’t trust Mexico to carry that out. And we don’t really want non-English speakers navigating our english language road system. I *might* agree to it if the Mexican trucks had gps on them,a nd could only drive on that highway. Before handing it off.. but we know our leaders would give them full reign to travel anywhere.

One sort of cool thing is if this project takes another 15 years I bet computers could drive the trucks from the Mexican port to the ‘inland’ ports, as long as they were staying on the superhighway:).

I can understand Canadians are upset.. their economy is doing great, and they have a high quality of life...lots of wilderness for each canadian and not many poor people. And their dollar isn’t even plummeting in value like ours and Mexico’s.

[yorkie]

I would feel threatened by the big rigs from Mexico because of:

1. The safety of the trucks (i.e. tires, engines, lights, breaks, parts)
2. The driver’s safety records, previous training and understanding English signs and laws (not to mention their drug or alcohol use behind the wheel that will not be checked or monitored before entering our country)
3. The trucks won’t be checked until they get to Kansas City - I question the possibility of major drug cartel importing even more (than the already 80%)of meth, marijuana, cocaine and heroine
4. The possibity of thousands more illegals being smuggled into our country.

You are right to say we can’t trust Mexico. We have nothing to base trust on.