Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway

Human Events ^ | June 12, 2006 | Jerome Corsi

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping for future.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping for future.

[streetpreacher]

Jim, what is your opinion of this? Are you on board for this "North American Union" thing or do you just not believe it? Do you think Corsi and other informed conservatives are lying and/or paranoid?

[Jim Robinson]

You gotta be kidding me. Have no idea of the state of Corsi's mind, but this NWO, North American Union thing is nothing but one huge conspiracy theory. Sure, the CFR, Trilateral Commission, Build er burgers, Free Masons, Illuminatti, et al, will one day rule the whole world. They've been working on it secretly for centuries. Even before America was discovered. These are some pretty smart people. Effective too.

[nicmarlo]

I hope we are wrong; but I fear we are not. I agree -- as you quipped -- "There is a problem, Houston"

My assessment completely. By the time people take their blinders off, it'll be too late for them.

[Indy Pendance]

It's all connected with the masons.

[calcowgirl]

The LA Times had an article today. The port traffic statistics were interesting.

Mexican Port Gets American Connection
A U.S. railway is linking with a Pacific coast harbor to move freight faster to the Midwest.
Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2006

(snip)

Moving cargo

The harbor of Lazaro Cardenas on Mexico's Pacific coast ranks 34th among North American cargo container ports (2005 ranking*):

1. Los Angeles, 7.5 million
2. Long Beach, 6.7 million
3. New York/New Jersey, 4.8 million
4. Oakland, 2.3 million
5. Seattle, 2.1 million
6. Tacoma, Wash., 2.1 million
7. Charleston, S.C., 2.0 million
8. Hampton Roads, Va., 2.0 million
9. Savannah, Ga., 1.9 million
10. Vancouver, Canada, 1.8 million

34. Lazaro Cardenas, 0.1 million

*in 20-foot-equivalent containers
Source: American Assn.of Port Authorities

It has also been reported that the new port at Punta Colonet (150 miles south of Tijuana) "would initially attract one million containers a year, with capacity to handle as many as five million after just five years of operation".

[hedgetrimmer]

Here's some more information for you. Its interesting in the fact that says executive agreements are being used to set up the SPP and working groups with NGOs to make it happen.

The U.S. Constitution imposes various formal requirements on treaties47 that ensure Senate participation in the formation of international obligations. Furthermore, the Constitution explicitly recognizes treaties as the "supreme Law of the Land."48

Executive agreements lack this explicit constitutional formality and authority. Executive agreements are compacts that obligate the United States to foreign states but that, unlike treaties, are not presented to the Senate as directed in Article II of the Constitution.49 These agreements may be congressional-executive agreements,50 treaty-executive agreements,51 or presidential-executive agreements.52 Whereas treaty-making was debated vigorously in the Constitutional Congress53 and is authorized explicitly in the Constitution,54 the origins,55 authority,56 and legal status57 of executive agreements are less clear. Nonetheless, the number of executive agreements continues to increase, especially as compared to the number of treaties.58 Some warn that this trend evidences a growing concentration of power in the executive branch;59 others flatly declare certain aspects of executive agreements unconstitutional;60 still others applaud the practicality and ingenuity of these instruments.61 For purposes of this Comment, these debates are less important than the fact that courts have granted executive agreements authority equal to treaties under federal law.62

http://www.wcl.american.edu/journal/lawrev/46/faire.html

[nicmarlo]

Five million containers. Just grand.

[calcowgirl]

Another article I just read said 7 million. :-)

Regardless, those statistics kind of put it in perspective for me: BIG!

[nicmarlo]

Well, that's what the other articles projected it would be, a very large deal with huge capacity, equalling current LA/Long Beach load.

[hedgetrimmer]

I dunno if you all have seen this yet,



Following the implementation of NAFTA, coalitions of interest have been formed in order to promote specific transport channels, to develop the infrastructures of these channels and to propose jurisdictional amendments to facilitate the crossing of borders. These coalitions include businesses, government agencies, civil organizations, metropolitan areas, rural communities and also individuals, wishing to strengthen the commercial hubs of their regions.

The North American trade corridors are bi- or tri-national channels for which various cross-border interests have grouped together in order to develop or consolidate the infrastructures. The North American corridors are considered multimodal in the sense that they bring into play different modes of transport in succession.

The infrastructures may include roads, highways, transit routes, airports, pipelines, railways and train stations, river canal systems and port facilities, telecommunications networks and teleports.

[hedgetrimmer]

And then this:

The First parliamentary simulation of North America

The North American Forum on Integration (NAFI) organized the first North-American Model Parliament, in the Canadian Senate, Ottawa, from the 23rd to the 27th of May, 2005. Seventy university students participated in this innovative and challenging initiative.

PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVES

• To bring together future leaders from Canada, the United States and Mexico in order to sensitize them to the challenges of North American integration and to develop their sense of North American identity.
• To inform the current decision makers of the priorities and the concerns of North American youth.
• To encourage intercultural exchanges and to create networks of interests between North American academics.

[nicmarlo]

No, I hadn't. I'll read it more thoroughly later. Thanks for your post.

[hedgetrimmer]

New Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Mexican president Vicente Fox, and U.S. president George W. Bush met on March 31 in Cancún, Quintana Roo. This summit followed the leaders’ March 2005 meeting in Waco, Texas, where the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (NASPP) was launched. The NASPP involves officials in all three federal governments in working groups with their counterparts to facilitate integration by reconciling standards and procedures wherever prudent. The result is a process of bureaucratically led integration, currently underway.

CSIS Integration Monitor

Note: CSIS is one of the groups that created and now help to run the Department of Homeland Security.

[hedgetrimmer]

Remember the NADBank?

NAID

The North American Integration and Development (NAID) Center was created to conduct ongoing research concerning North American integration and to assist communities and governments with policies and investment projects for sustainable and equitable development across borders. Towards this goal, the NAID Center seeks to build linkages among a wide variety of institutions and organizations in North America, including the North American Development Bank (NADBank).

The NAID Center is a founding member of the NADBank Community Adjustment and Investment Technical Assistance Consortium, which includes two important national Latino organizations: the Southwest Voter Research Institute and the National Council of La Raza. NAID Center staff and other Consortium members worked with Congressman Esteban Torres to create the NADBank in 1993 as a part of the NAFTA implementing legislation. The NAID Center and the NADBank Consortium are working to create partnerships and computer-aided linkages with other universities, non-governmental organizations, labor unions, private sector firms, local governments, and other agents of community economic empowerment. Our goal is to assist localities which suffer NAFTA-related job displacement to identify alternative strategies for sustainable economic development and to apply for financing from NADBank and other sources.

NAID Partners

The NAID Center is a founding member of the NADBank Community Adjustment and Investment Technical Assistance Consortium, which includes two important national Latino organizations: the Southwest Voter Research Institute and the National Council of La Raza. NAID Center staff and other Consortium members worked with Congressman Esteben Torres to create the NADBank in 1993 as a part of the NAFTA implementing legislation. The NAID Center and the NADBank Consortium are working to create partnerships and computer-aided linkages with other universities, non-governmental organizations, labor unions, private sector firms, local governments, and other agents of community economic empowerment. Our goal is to assist localities which suffer NAFTA-related job displacement to identify alternative strategies for sustainable economic development and to apply for financing from NADBank and other sources.

[Fawn]

Is that a real sign?