Link to article here.

The NAFTA superhighway: Coming soon
Commentary By Pat Buchanan
World Net Daily
August 29, 2006

This is a “mind-boggling concept,” exploded Lou Dobbs. It must cause Americans to think our political and academic elites have “gone utterly mad.” What had detonated the mild-mannered CNN anchor?

Robert Pastor, vice chair of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on North America, had just appeared before a panel of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to call for erasing all U.S. borders and a merger of the United States, Mexico and Canada in a North American union stretching from Prudhoe Bay to Guatemala. Under the Pastor-CFR plan, the illegal alien invasion would be solved by eliminating America’s borders and legalizing the invasion. We would no longer defend the Rio Grande.

“What we need to do,” Pastor instructed, “is forge a new North American Community. … Instead of stopping North Americans on the borders, we ought to provide them with a secure, biometric border pass that would ease transit across the border like an E-Z pass permits our cars to speed through tolls.”

The Pastor-CFR project for “economic integration” of Mexamerica is on the drawing board. North-south highways and railways would be built to weld us together as the American Union was welded together by the Northern Pacific, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, and Ike’s Interstate Highway System.

Speaking in Madrid in 2002, Mexican President Vicente Fox declared: “Our long-range objective is to establish with the United States … an ensemble of connections and institutions similar to those created by the European Union, with the goal of attending to future themes as important as … the freedom of movement of capital, goods, services and persons. The new framework we wish to construct is inspired in the example of the European Union.”

Critical element of the Fox post-NAFTA agenda: absolute freedom of movement for persons between Mexico and the United States – a merger of the nations. Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Debrez put it succinctly in April 2005. What Mexico is about is “complete integration” of the two nations.

To appreciate what Fox, Debrez, Pastor and the CFR wish America to merge with, consider a few excerpts from the State Department information sheet on Mexico.

While hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens marched beneath Mexican flags in U.S. cities on May Day to demand amnesty, Mexico’s constitution “prohibits political activities by foreigners, and such actions may result in detentions and deportations.”

“Crime in Mexico continues at high levels, and it is often violent, especially in Mexico City, Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo (and) Acapulco,” State warns U.S. travelers. “Low apprehension rates and conviction rates of criminals contribute to the high crime rate.”

“Women traveling alone are especially vulnerable. … Victims … have been raped, robbed of personal property or abducted and then held while their credit cards are used at various businesses and automatic teller machines. … Kidnapping, including the kidnapping of non-Mexicans, continues at alarming rates.”

When Fox proposed his merger of America and Mexico in a North American Union, Robert Bartley, for 30 years editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, declared him a “visionary” and pledged solidarity: “He (Fox) can rest assured that there is one voice north of the Rio Grande that supports his vision … this newspaper.”

The American people never supported NAFTA, and they are angry over Bush’s failure to secure the border – but a shotgun marriage between our two nations appears prearranged. Central feature: a ten-lane, 400-yard-wide NAFTA superhighway from the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, up to and across the U.S. border, all the way to Canada. Within the median strip dividing the north and south car and truck lanes would be rail lines for both passengers and freight traffic, and oil and gas pipelines.

As author Jerome Corsi describes this Fox-Bush autobahn, container ships from China would unload at Lazaro Cardenas, a port named for the Mexican president who nationalized all U.S. oil companies in 1938. From there, trucks with Mexican drivers would run fast lines into the United States, hauling their cargo to a U.S. customs inspection terminal – in Kansas City, Mo. From there, the trucks would fan out across America or roll on into Canada. Similar superhighways from Mexico through the United States into Canada are planned.

According to Corsi, construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor, the first leg of the NAFTA superhighway, is to begin next year.

The beneficiaries of this NAFTA superhighway project would be the contractors who build it and the importers and outlet stores for the Chinese-manufactured goods that would come flooding in. The losers would be U.S. longshoremen, truckers, manufacturers and taxpayers.

The latter would pay the cost of building the highway in Mexico and the United States, both in dollars and in the lost sovereignty of our once-independent American republic.

Link to article here.

How NAFTA superhighway is built under radar screen
Officials say they see no budget ‘earmarks,’ because they don’t know where to look
World Net Daily
August 29, 2006

WASHINGTON – Ask some members of Congress about plans to build a “NAFTA superhighway” connecting Mexico and Canada via the U.S. and you might hear snickers. Some officials will tell you they have seen no “earmarks” for such a plan and question whether it even exists.

But the plan does exist and the NAFTA superhighway is being built – under the radar screen. One need look no further than the $286 billion highway bill signed into law earlier this month by President Bush for some of the “earmarks.” The measure gave the state of Tennessee more than $111 million to help plan and build Interstate 69, called “one of the most significant transportation projects in the region’s history” by the Commercial Appeal.

No one in Tennessee has any doubts about plans for the NAFTA superhighway. It is being built now with federal taxpayer dollars. And the plan calls for I-69 to extend from Michigan to Texas, linking the Canadian and Mexican borders. Those supporting the plan, like Transportation Secretary Mario Cino, say it will bring an unprecedented windfall not only to the regions it traverses but for all Americans, Mexicans and Canadians.

Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald Nicely said I-69 “could help position the western part of the state as one of the world’s new economic centers of power in the global marketplace.”

The entire I-69 project is expected to cost $8.8 billion in current dollars, with states picking up 10 percent of the tab. So where is the money hidden? It’s not really. But nowhere in any highway bill is the project referred to as the “NAFTA superhighway.” Since the money is doled out to states to spend on their portion of the project, the allocations look like any other highway spending.

Ultimately, the Tennessee portion of the I-69 project is expected to cost $1 billion. It will shadow the present route of U.S. 51, connecting towns like Union City, Troy, Dyersburg, Ripley, Covington and Millington before following what is now I-40/240 through Midtown, according to the Commercial Appeal. The new highway bill focuses on the portion of I-69 through Northwest Tennessee about 80-110 miles north of Memphis. A 20-mile section of that segment – a four-lane stretch of U.S. 51 between Dyersburg and Troy – already is completed. Signs label it as part of the “Future I-69 Corridor.” That leaves a 19-mile section to be built from Troy to the Kentucky line before one-third of the I-69 route through Tennessee is completed.

“The route’s already been laid out, with survey markers planted in fields and cryptic benchmarks painted on the pavement of country roads,” reports the Commercial Appeal. Detailed drawings are expected to be finished next February. Right-of-way acquisition could begin early next year. Crews could start moving earth as early as 2008. So why are some officials still questioning whether the project is real? Last week, in Kansas, Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, seemed like he was short on domestic, backyard intelligence when he was asked in Saline about the NAFTA superhighway project – again, prompted by reports in WND.

“There’s nothing I’m aware of in any authorization bill,” Roberts said with derision. “I don’t know where these things get started. This is one of those blogosphere things that makes you wonder what’s going on.”

When the Duluth News Tribune followed up WND reports about the project by turning to a local congressman for help, Mary Kerr, an aide to Rep.Jim Oberstar, said: “There are no earmarks for a superhighway like that.”

But you can’t hide for long a superhighway, in some places, according to plans, four football fields wide.

High gas prices and consumer resistance to toll increase nets Denver toll road $10 million loss

Colorado government seeks private investors for ailing toll road

Financially troubled toll road exploring private lease as bail-out

Toll road looks for debt help

Editorial on how to bail out failed toll road; answer – private firm to take on longer debt term

Grammatical errors left in for effect.

The Texas Department of Transportation is hosting a open house for all small business September 20-21st at the Omni South Hotel . TxDOT offers a wide array of contracting opportunities for which we need businesses such as yours to fulfill ours needs. We are looking for business to contract in:

1. Engineering
(civil/concrete/drainage//geological/environmental/surveyor services/traffic & transportation)
2. Real Estate Professionals
3. Printing
4. Construction (airport runway/curb & gutter/highway and road/parking lots/sidewalk and driveway/utility & underground
projects/bridge
5. Maintenance (mowing/guardrail repair/lighting/excavation service/demolition/tree trimming/flooring maintenance/glass replacement/carpet cleaning/roofing/pest control)
6. All good/services (office supplies/staffing/personnel firms/HVAC/Plumbing/builders/painting/signs/material suppliers/safety equipment/fencing/janitorial supplies & services/office furniture/office equipment/radio and telecommunication equipment

TxDOT spends annually upwards of 5 billion dollars and consist of 25 districts, 20 divisions and 15,000 employees. These districts, divisions and employees are supported by your business to help sustain our operations in fulfilling our contract needs. Several major reasons we are having this small business briefing is to introduce you to our purchasing department, engineers and all of our areas of contract opportunities. By personally introducing you to these personnel, it is our intention for you to understand everything we contact for and the processes by which we contract. So that you may have a greater opportunity to be awarded business with us.

Also, as a bonus feature we will be introducing the 50 billion dollar toll project with the Cintra-Zachary team. You will meet there representative and they will make a presentation of the 5 billion dollars of sub contracting opportunities that will be available for all types do businesses.

We look forward to you joining us Austin at the Omni South Hotel.

For more information call TxDOT’s, Business Opportunity Programs Office
at 1-866-480-2518

We look forward to doing business with you.

TxDOT will host Small Business Briefings around the state: Houston – July 25-26, Dallas – August 2-3, Lubbock – August 16-17 , El Paso – September 13-14, Austin – September 20-21. For more information and registration call: 1-866-480-2518 or 512-486-5500.

Link to article here.
America’s infrastructure for sale
By Henry Lamb
World Net Daily
August 26, 2006

The Chicago Skyway Bridge is a 7.8-mile toll road built in 1958 to connect the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Tollway. In 2004, the facility was leased for 99 years, for a one-time payment of $1.83 billion, to the Skyway Concession Company, LLC, owned by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A., and Macquarie Infrastructure Group. This same consortium won a 75-year lease for the 157-mile Indiana Tollway for $3.85 billion.Cintra is a Spanish company that has 21 similar highway projects in six countries. Macquarie Infrastructure Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Bank, an Australian corporation with assets in excess of $100 billion.

Cintra has also formed a consortium with Zachry Construction Company in San Antonio, Texas.

In December 2004, the Texas Transportation Commission selected this consortium to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor. The proposal included a bid of $1.2 billion to build and operate the first segment of this facility as a toll road. Zachry Construction Company has invested heavily in political campaigns of key Texas officials.

The Trans-Texas Corridor is a member of the North American SuperCorridor Coalition.

Greg Carey, managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Company told the Texas Transportation Forum last June, that this method of financing should not be limited to highways, but should include airports, bridges, tunnels, parking facilities, ports, rail, water and sewer systems, power facilities, hospitals, government-controlled liquor stores and “… anything else that produces revenue.”

The American Water Works Company, a subsidiary of Germany’s utility mega-corporation RWE, already provides water to 18 million Americans in 29 states.

Carey also told the group that all but 14 states had already changed their laws, or were now considering legislation, to allow this “international” financing of public infrastructure.

This relatively new method of financing infrastructure has excited government officials who see these public/private partnerships as win/win solutions. Government gets an infusion of cash and is relieved of the burden of daily operations. The private sector is eager to invest in long-term projects that promise a payback of as much as 61 times the investment.

But the users don’t win. They get to pay a new tax in the form of tolls, in addition to the gasoline tax that is supposed to provide highways.

The devil, of course, is in the details. Each deal is governed by a contract between appointed government officials and corporate big wheels. There is little or no oversight by elected officials. Each contract determines such things as maintenance, minimum services, prices charged for services, concessions offered along the tollway and every other aspect of the venture. If the public that depends upon the infrastructure facility doesn’t like the performance of the contractor, to whom do they turn for recourse? Elected officials are out of the picture; appointed officials are bound by contract.

The users of the facility are left with whatever they get from the contractor, which inevitably includes gasoline and concession prices that are much higher than those found along non-toll highways, where competition governs prices.

In anticipation of the Trans-Texas Corridor, the Kansas City Southern Lines set up a Mexican subsidiary to purchase the National Railways of Mexico, with 2,600 miles of track that reaches to Mexico’s ports in Veracruz and Lazaro Cardenas.

These ports are owned by another international mega-corporation: the Chinese Hutchison Whampoa Limited. This company has globally strategic locations in 21 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas, and operates a total of 251 berths in 43 ports, including the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.

The so-called “free trade” enthusiasts have no problems with this international ownership of strategic infrastructure. In fact, it is the essence of “globalization” through public/private partnerships. Enthusiasts claim that this transfer of public infrastructure to private partners is the free market at work.

But it is a process that is rapidly erasing the concept of national sovereignty. Is it smart to allow America’s crucial infrastructure to be controlled, if not owned, by foreign companies? Kenneth Orski reports that one of these toll projects in Stockholm has been used as a demonstration project to show that pricing can be an effective way to decrease automobile use and force public transit use.

Are we empowering these public/private partnerships to make and enforce public policy? Are we removing elected officials from responsibility and accountability for infrastructure? Are we building a trap that will ultimately subject American citizens to the whims of the global elite? Are we making a big mistake, selling American infrastructure to the highest international bidder?

In June, TxDOT held it’s own seminar of this type announcing “Texas is open for business.” Now it’s a national seminar that we could appropriately call: “America is for sale: come git your piece of the taxpayer fleecing.” It’s all about selling off American infrastructure using these public-private parnerships like the still SECRET deal Rick Perry signed with Spanish-based Cintra and minority partner Zachry Construction in San Antonio.
See the event information, speaker list, and sponsor list here. You’ll see a lot of familiar culprits who make their living feeding at the public trough like Parsons Brinckerhoff (where the former Executive Director of our MPO now works), Transurban (one of the few international toll road infrastructure companies based in Australia), and of course, Cintra. Angry? Vote out every last toller on November 7!

Link to article here.

Who does the Bush Administration think it’s kidding? On the one hand, China and its cozy relationship with our enemies around the world not just in Venezuela, but Somalia, North Korea, and Iran is a security threat, and on the other hand, we’re willing to accept their money, exploit their cheap labor, and take private Texans’ land to build multi-modal transportation corridors to import their cheap goods to the detriment of Americans and American prosperity (which is based on the production of our own goods, not merely transporting another country’s goods, read more here.). A U.S. official even admits in the article that, “China does not believe in free markets and wants to lock up access to them,” and yet our government is doing back door trade agreements (exploiting Mexico’s favorable nation trade status) and building a massive 4,000 mile network of toll roads in the largest land grab in Texas history to benefit a country who “doesn’t believe in free markets and wants to block access to them”?

This is beyond hypocrisy…it’s schizophrenic and dangerous. Like Pat Buchanan said this week it demonstrates that: “The Republican Party, a wholly owned subsidiary of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is in the grip of a cult called ‘Economism.’ It is all about money now. The GOP worships at the ‘Church of GDP’…Powerful Mexican and U.S. elites seek to erase America’s borders and merge the United States and Mexico into a ‘North American Union'” at the risk of our national security, prosperity, and sovereignty!

U.S. eyes Chavez ties to China
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 25, 2006

The visit to China by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this week is being watched closely by U.S. national security officials who are concerned that Beijing is increasing its backing for the leftist leader.

A defense official involved in Asian affairs said the visit to Beijing by Mr. Chavez is part of China’s strategy of forming coalitions aimed at controlling resource markets — in Venezuela’s case, access to oil.

“China does not believe in free markets and wants to lock up access to them,” the official said. He noted that Beijing thinks the United States is trying to block access to international energy and other resources as part of a containment strategy designed to prevent the emergence of a threatening China.

In Beijing yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao warmly welcomed Mr. Chavez, who has proposed an ambitious plan for his country to almost quadruple sales to China to 1 million barrels per day in the next decade.

“I believe that, through your visit, the two countries’ cooperation in all aspects can be promoted,” Mr. Hu told the Venezuelan leader at the Great Hall of the People, the Associated Press reported from Beijing.

Mr. Chavez responded by saying that “mutual trust between our two countries has been deepening, and the economic and cultural exchanges have been strengthening.”

Mr. Chavez told reporters that he hoped to be exporting 500,000 barrels of oil per day to China by 2009.
“And in the next decade, we will aim for a million barrels,” he said.

Mr. Chavez also sought and won Beijing’s backing for Venezuela’s bid for a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council next year, something the Bush administration opposes.

China views souring relations between Washington and Caracas as a strategic opportunity and is cautiously coaxing Mr. Chavez into reducing Venezuela’s current large exports to the United States, the defense official said.

Currently, Venezuela ships about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to the United States, accounting for about 10 percent of all U.S. oil imports.

The Chavez government earlier this year threatened to curtail oil exports to the United States over concerns that the Bush administration was planning to invade Venezuela or otherwise oust the leftist government.

Mr. Chavez has embarked on a major arms buildup that includes purchases of Russian, European and Chinese weapons.

Richard Fisher, a specialist on the Chinese military with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, noted that Mr. Chavez said earlier this year that he would consider buying Chinese jet fighters in addition to 24 Su-30 fighter bombers purchased as part of a $3 billion deal with Russia.

The first of three advanced long-range air defense radar purchased from China last year are expected to arrive in Venezuela next month, and the Venezuelan military plans to buy as many as seven more JYL-1 radar by next year, U.S. officials said.

Additional weapons purchases likely will be discussed during Mr. Chavez’s meetings with Chinese leaders, including Mr. Hu.

The purchases followed a Bush administration decision to block sales of spare parts from the United States for Venezuela’s F-16 jets.

“Within the next two to three years, China will be able to offer integrated air defense systems, from satellites to [airborne warning and controls systems], to fighters and [surface-to-air missiles], and naval weapons,” Mr. Fisher said.

China’s sale of military equipment to Venezuela appears to contradict a pledge made by Beijing officials to the U.S. government earlier this year.

Thomas A. Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told The Washington Times recently that China informed the United States it is “not interested in political or military adventures” in Latin America and other developing areas of the world.

Recent efforts to entice China’s government into joining the United States in helping promote global stability have failed, U.S. officials said. High-level U.S.-China talks aimed at promoting the concept of China joining the United States as a “stakeholder” in world affairs were rebuffed by the Chinese during recent talks with Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoelleck.

There are also concerns that the close ties between Venezuela and Cuba will lead to covert arms supplies from China to Cuba through Venezuela.

China has delivered some military goods to Cuba since the 1990s, according to U.S. officials.

siemens free ringtone a52ringtone alert free textringtones download aliantringtone 3587iringtone 8610 mobile free virginphone 911 ringtone porsche mobile turboairtel ringtones coderingtones free wallpaper alltel and Map

Link to NPR Audio. Note how former Bush Administration official now Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, claims he has no regrets for handing over the Indiana Toll Road to Cintra-Macquarie (same two biudders for 281/1604 here in SA). What they don’t tell you is his approval ratings have been in the tank ever since, that Indianans are against it by more than 2 to 1, AND they tried to stop in court!

Read more here, here, and here.

Strayhorn Camp Says Texas Needs Leadership And New Direction

Despite his assertion to the contrary, Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas Department of Transportation has more than enough money to address transportation needs without giving hundreds of thousands of acres of the state to a foreign company and charging drivers tolls, his principle opponent’s campaign said today.

“Perry says the billions and billions and billions of dollars he has to build new roads are not enough,” said Mark Sanders, spokesman for Independent Candidate for Governor Carole Keeton Strayhorn. “It may sound like chump change to him, but Carole knows with real leadership that sets clear priorities we have ample resources to fix our roads. Perry needs to tell Texans the truth.

“This biennium, TxDOT has $15.2 BILLION to spend – up from $7 billion before Perry was promoted to Governor,” Sanders said. “That is a whopping $8.2 billion more – a 117 percent increase. If the Governor can’t figure out how to build freeways with that kind of cash, we need a new governor.

Strayhorn has pointed to $4 BILLION in Texas Mobility Bonds, $3 BILLION in revenue bonds, increased federal dollars and increased tax collection at the state level to build freeways.
“With Carole’s leadership, that money will be spent on common sense projects like expanding IH 35 using existing right of ways, implementing the Ports to Plains plan to ease congestion, and increasing telecommuting,” Sanders said. “Two of those real-world solutions were vetted by TxDOT in 1999 and 2001. Those are realistic solutions to a real problem, not pie-in-the-sky plans that give half-a-million acres of Texas away to a foreign company to builds toll roads and reap profits from hard-earned dollars of Texans.”

“Rick seems to be more interested in taking care of the special interests than listening to the people of Texas,” Sanders said. “He is ignoring Texans, particularly the farmers and ranchers who overwhelmingly oppose his Trans Texas Corridor.”

Sanders said Strayhorn’s plan to appoint an inspector general and ombudsman to oversee TxDOT will help the agency spend the billions it has wisely and get the agency back in touch with the people it is supposed to be serving

“It’s time to change the status quo at the Texas Department of Transportation and put the people back in charge, not the special interests. Under Carole’s leadership, that is exactly what will happen,” Sanders said.

TAKE THE POLL:
“Why do you believe, as Carole Keeton Strayhorn does, that Rick Perry’s Trans Texas Corridor must be stopped?”
Click: www.carolestrayhorn.com/poll

Note: Our comments in italics to enhance accuracy

Globalism’s toll mounting for U.S. citizens
By Phyllis Schlafly
Eagle Forum
Monday, August 21, 2006

It’s not just U.S. ports that are fast slipping into foreign ownership; it’s highways, too. A Spanish company, Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., has bought the right to operate a toll road through Texas and collect tolls for the next 50 years.

Hearings held by the Texas Department of Transportation this summer attracted hundreds (actually thousands) of angry Texans.

Called the Trans-Texas Corridor, TTC, on which construction is planned to begin next year, this highway would bisect Texas from Oklahoma to its border with Mexico. Plans call for a 10-lane limited-access highway to parallel Interstate 35. It would have three lanes each way for passenger cars, two express lanes each way for trucks, rail lines both ways for people and freight, plus a utility corridor for oil and natural gas pipelines, electric towers, cables for communication, and telephone lines.

Central to this plan is a massive taking of 584,000 acres of farm and ranch land at an estimated cost of $11 billion to $30 billion – property then lost from the tax rolls of counties and school districts. After the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., no one need wonder about the power of eminent domain to take private property.

The Trans-Texas Corridor will be the first leg of what has been dubbed the NAFTA Super Highway to go through heartland America all the way to Canada. This would be a major lifeline of the plan to merge the United States into a North American Community.

Plans are already locked in for Kansas City Southern de Mexico Railroad to bring Chinese goods in sealed cargo containers from the southern Mexican port of Lazaro Cardinas direct to Kansas City, Mo. (and the Port of San Antonio) Mexican trucks will be able to drive more sealed containers up the fast lanes of the NAFTA Super Highway, inspected only electronically if at all, and making their first customs stop in Kansas City.

In response to recent articles in conservative publications about the sovereignty, freedom and economic dangers that will result from President George W. Bush’s creating the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America in Waco, Texas, in March 2005, the partnership has issued an unconvincing rebuttal.

This Security and Prosperity Partnership document starts by declaring, “Our three great nations share a belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions.” That’s false; Mexico is a corrupt country where a few families control all the wealth while the rest of the people are kept in abject poverty with no hope of economic opportunity.

The rebuttal states that partnership’s mission is to make “our businesses more competitive in the global marketplace.” That’s globalist doubletalk that means producing U.S. goods with cheap foreign labor, thereby destroying the U.S. middle class.

The rebuttal states that the project wasn’t “signed” by Bush at Waco. But when Bush went to Cancun, Mexico, in March 2006, he proclaimed the first anniversary of whatever he had agreed to in Waco in 2005, and he sent Michael Chertoff to Ottawa to take “an important first step” toward whatever Bush did or didn’t sign in Waco.

The rebuttal denies that the partnership’s working groups are secret, but the Security and Prosperity Partnership won’t release the names of who is serving on them. The rebuttal denies that the partnership will “cost U.S. taxpayer money” because it is using “existing budget resources” (no doubt coming from the fairy godmother.

Thanks to the Internet, we can often find out more about the doings of the Bush administration from the foreign press than from U.S. media. A Spanish-language article written from a Mexican perspective one year ago fully described the plan for the “deep integration” of the three North American countries.

Economist and researcher Miguel Pickard explained that although the plan is sometimes called NAFTA Plus, there will be no single treaty text and nothing will be submitted to the legislatures of the three countries. The elites plan to implement their shared vision of “a merged future” through “the signing of ‘regulations’ free of citizen review.” Pickard revealed a series of three meetings of a new entity called the Independent Task Force on the Future of North America. After secretly conniving in Toronto, New York and Monterrey, Mexico, the task force called for a unified North American Border Action Plan (i.e., open borders among the three countries), and the three countries then signed “close to 300 regulations.”

The United States was represented at the meeting by Robert Pastor, who has been working for years to promote North American integration. Pickard revealed that Pastor is in “constant dialogue” with Jorge G. Castaneda, Vicente Fox’s foreign relations adviser. Pickard is convinced that George W. Bush is “vigorously pushing” the idea of a “North American community.” Pickard concluded that the schedule calls for beginning with a customs union, then a common market, then a monetary and economic union, and finally the adoption of a single currency (already baptized as the “amero” by Pastor).