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Mexicans Banned from the NAFTA Superhighway?
Remember the whole NAFTA
superhighway conspiracy theory? The giant highway that was
going to rip apart North America, a "ten-lane colossus the width of
several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic
cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside"?
Die hard believers still fear it, but they can take cold comfort in
this: When it does come, there
won't be any Mexicans driving on it:
Buried in the $410 billion catch-all appropriations bill now before the U.S. Senate is a provision that would end a program that has allowed Mexican truck drivers to deliver goods to destinations inside the United States.
A provision in the original North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 was supposed to allow U.S. and Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods in each other’s country. But opposition from the Teamsters union and old-fashioned prejudice against Mexicans has derailed implementation of the provision.
Maybe there's are safety justification for the ban. Perhaps we just don't want those crazy Mexicans going all loco ¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! on our roads, right? Nope, Cato's Daniel Griswold writes that Mexican drivers on a pilot program in the U.S. actually have better safety records than American drivers.
Ah well, it won't matter anyway when we're all paid in Ameros.
More on the mythical superhighway here and here.
More on hilarious Mexicans in the American imagination here:
SIV|3.4.09 @ 5:34PM|#
FUCK!
I have been a firm supporter of Mexican trucks.
I figured they would bring more lower-priced contraband products
into the country fostering free trade and property rights
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 5:42PM|#
Here's an interesting article from way back in 1993 about
the "Kochtopus"
pushing NAFTA. Interesting, and oh so relevant.
As for the "conspiracy theory", the intellectually honest reader
will note that Katherine Mangu-Ward is engaging in the standard
trick of trying to claim that if it isn't four football fields
wide, it isn't being planned. What the intellectually honest reader
should note is that it doesn't have to be four football fields wide
in order to fulfill its purpose of allowing China to "mainline"
cheap goods into the central U.S., bypassing U.S. (i.e., union)
ports along the way.
Not only that, but the NAFTA
Superhighway has been confirmed, and by Reason's choice to be
president no less.
Fail.
SIV|3.4.09 @ 5:44PM|#
Not only that, but the NAFTA Superhighway has been
confirmed, and by Reason's choice to be president no
less.
Obama confirmed the NAFTA superhighway chris?
|3.4.09 @ 5:47PM|#
I'm reposting my comment from one of the links.
We're calling it a Superhighway. Eight lanes of shimmering cement
running from Mexico to Canada. Smooth, safe, fast. Border traffic
jams will be a thing of the past.
I see a place where people get on and off the highway. On and off,
off and on, all day, all night! Soon there will be a string of gas
stations, inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly
prepared food! Tire salons, automobile dealerships, and wonderful
wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see! My God...
It'll be beautiful.
|3.4.09 @ 5:48PM|#
What Warty said.
_____________________
It's not that we're against Free Trade. We're for Fair
Trade.
Fuck the Teamsters. Fuck them very much.
Kyle Jordan|3.4.09 @ 5:51PM|#
Warren,
I just watched that movie the other day. Forgot how awesome it
was.
..|3.4.09 @ 5:54PM|#
Fuck the Teamsters. Fuck them very much.
If only libertarians will say "fuck" enough times, people will
start to take them seriously.
|3.4.09 @ 5:56PM|#
Nope, Cato's Daniel Griswold writes that Mexican drivers on
a pilot program in the U.S. actually have better
safety records than American drivers.
That's because anybody that has driven through Mexico's highways
and survives after a couple of years becomes an expert. American
highways are just too easy. Also, Mexican drivers require very
little in the way of amenities - just a good lunch, a few Cokes, an
overweight prostitute with dyed hair, and they're all set!
But opposition from the Teamsters union and old-fashioned
prejudice against Mexicans has derailed implementation of the
provision.
It's mainly the Democrats. And Republicans. But mostly, the
Democrats. Well, sometimes more the Republicans than the Democrats
. . . Ok, ok, it's Michael Savage's fault.
Perhaps we just don't want those crazy Mexicans going all
loco ¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba!
¡Arriba!
Actually, no Mexican speaks like that.
|3.4.09 @ 5:56PM|#
>Shut the fuck up, Lonewacko.
That's muy original.
Running jokes are funny because they are unoriginal.
"Would you believe" your criticism "missed it by that much"?
|3.4.09 @ 6:11PM|#
Fuck the Teamsters. Fuck them very much.
If only libertarians will say "fuck" enough times, people will start to take them seriously.
Golly gee, Beaver -
You
ain't seen nothin' yet.
|3.4.09 @ 6:31PM|#
Not a surprise, since the Democrats and President Obama vowed to
end this. Obama previously introduced a bill to do this when a
Senator. (He sponsored a bill to block funding for the pilot
program, and for the program in general.)
Of course, there were lots of people who were hoping that he was
lying, I guess.
Xander Crews|3.4.09 @ 6:33PM|#
We're calling it a Superhighway. Eight lanes of shimmering
cement running from Mexico to Canada. Smooth, safe, fast. Border
traffic jams will be a thing of the past.
A pedestrian overpass to Canada? That was my idea! I was gonna call
it the spic span.
¢|3.4.09 @ 6:34PM|#
The post's insistence that this has anything to do with the crap
LoneWhacko goes on and on about has made the ensuing discussion
very fruitful.
Heckuva job, hypheny.
..|3.4.09 @ 6:37PM|#
Come on. One of you bathrobe intellectuals must have a
good pun.
Bring it. If it's good, it might get repeated here for years!
Who's up to the task?
|3.4.09 @ 6:49PM|#
The video reminds me of an old joke:
A Mexican and an Irishman are having a conversation, and the
Mexican describes the sentiment behind the world "mañana". He asks
the Irishman if there's a similar word in Irish, and the Irishman
says "to be sure, we haven't any word to convey such a sense of
urgency."
-jcr
Windypundit|3.4.09 @ 6:59PM|#
Shhh. Don't anybody tell Lonewacko that there are already several highway routes from Mexico to Canada, which those bastards in D.C. have hidden from us by giving them deceptive names like "Interstate 15". Some of the routes even change numbers on the way from Mexico to Canada!
|3.4.09 @ 7:03PM|#
Just the other day I was listening to a 1991 speech by Hans
Hermann Hoppe when he said that a North American union was
imminent. It's eighteen years later, where is it?
At the beginning of the Paul campaign, some Troofers invaded our
meetup and screamed (literally) that the Amero would be rolled out
December 2007. It's two years later, where is it?
EJM|3.4.09 @ 7:03PM|#
Also, Mexican drivers require very little in the way of
amenities - just a good lunch, a few Cokes, an overweight
prostitute with dyed hair, and they're all set!
But, only if their Cokes aren't sweetened with corn syrup!
(Does the whole sugar-vs.-corn-syrup thing now qualify as a Reason
running joke?)
Gimme Back My Dog|3.4.09 @ 7:05PM|#
Actually, no Mexican speaks like that.
No shit? Wow, next thing you are going to tell me is that Mexican
mice aren't any faster than American mice.
|3.4.09 @ 7:06PM|#
A Mexican walks into a restroom and sees and Irishman staring
down into a toilet. His curiosity gets the better of him, so he
walks over and looks down into the toilet too. At the bottom of the
bowl is a nickel. As they both stare down at the nickel, the
Irishmen reaches into his pocket, pulls out a quarter, and drops it
in the toilet too.
"What did you do that for?" asks the Mexican.
The Irishman says, "You don't think I'm going to reach in there for
just five cents do you?!?!"
Kolohe|3.4.09 @ 7:15PM|#
its purpose of allowing China to "mainline" cheap goods into
the central U.S., bypassing U.S. (i.e., union) ports along the
way.
If Mexico could get its act together enough for its west coast
ports to be a viable alternative to Long Beach, it would be a sign
that its most intractable problems are on a path to being
solved.
Paul|3.4.09 @ 7:22PM|#
China to "mainline" cheap goods into the central U.S.,
bypassing U.S. (i.e., union) ports along the way.
AKA sell superior stuff to U.S. consumers without the sinister
Unions getting their grubby mitts all over it and jacking the price
up.
Warty|3.4.09 @ 7:23PM|#
A skeleton walks into a bar. He says to the bartender, "Give me a beer and a mop."
|3.4.09 @ 7:28PM|#
No shit? Wow, next thing you are going to tell me is that
Mexican mice aren't any faster than American mice.
They should be faster than the American mice, if you take into
account the fact that American mice are overweight . . .
|3.4.09 @ 7:30PM|#
Just the other day I was listening to a 1991 speech by Hans
Hermann Hoppe when he said that a North American union was
imminent. It's eighteen years later, where is it?
Hey, I just stepped out my house in Mexico to go to work and I
ended up in Santa Cruz, CA. So the union MUST be here - you just
have not seen it yet.
|3.4.09 @ 7:34PM|#
What the intellectually honest reader should note is that it
doesn't have to be four football fields wide in order to fulfill
its purpose of allowing China to "mainline" cheap goods into the
central U.S., bypassing U.S. (i.e., union) ports
along the way.
So that's why my family has not starved - because cheap goods
bypass union-controlled ports.
It's a good thing, too, because if goods do not flow, armies will .
. . armies of union goons.
|3.4.09 @ 7:48PM|#
Running jokes are funny
"That's a myth! A myth!"
"Yeah, well, she's my 'myth'!"
"Yeth?"
"Good grief it's a running gag."
|3.4.09 @ 7:50PM|#
Let me, like Warren, also repost my comment from one of the
links...
Given that the free trade strategy Mexico is using to capture
automobile assembly factories works best only if the US maintains
trade barriers with other nations, I expect that agents of the
Mexican government have infiltrated the US in order to keep those
barriers going.
Even Lou Dobbs and his anti-trade tirade might be in the employ of
the Mexican government. Look for him to expand on his "War on the
Middle Class" theme by calling the NAFTA Superhighway "Bypass of
the Middle Class".
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 8:38PM|#
What's hilarious about this is the Trans-Texas Corridor
angle (use the third search box for much more). It was a huge
example of corrupt politicians attempting to fool people and take
their land while helping major companies get a huge subsidy. For an
example
see how it was sold.
It's hardly a libertarian idea in either implementation or spirit,
yet here we find the "libertarians" at Reason mocking all those
Texans - including those on the libertarian side of things - who
opposed it. At the same time, they're parroting those on the
far-left who also mocked those Texans.
Maybe Reason could make the circle complete and bring in Dave
Weigel to see if the TTC was mentioned in any of RonPaul's
newsletters.
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 8:44PM|#
I'm extremely angry because my girlfriend recently dumped me for
an IllegalMexican. She claimed he had a BiggerCock, but I know this
is only due to BHO.
Maybe Reason could ask ToughQuestions about why this happened, and
place them on YouTube.
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 8:45PM|#
The comment at 8:44 is not me and potentially libelous.
By the way I have a very SmallDick. About ThreeInches when
hard.
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 8:53PM|#
Canada is a bigger threat.
FrenchCanadians and PissBear may pose a MinorThreat to our
AngloSaxon women.
But SwarthyLatinos are a MajorThreat.
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 9:04PM|#
Who would my current CheapDate be more likely to dump me
for?
A BlondeNord or a SwarthyLatino?
|3.4.09 @ 9:09PM|#
Well, now, that's a toughie. I know that Icelandic women are
very attractive, but I'm not sure that extends to Greenland. Which,
after all, is populated by Danes and Inuits.
On the other hand, my wife is half-Colombian, and she's
babe-a-licious.
Orangle Line Special|3.4.09 @ 9:15PM|#
"Pro Liberate" doesn't realize he is committing RacialSuicide.
|3.4.09 @ 9:20PM|#
I know, it's bad. In fact, it's worse because I'm pretty much
all Northern European.
Sob--I've betrayed the race! Again! I'm so ashamed.
7|3.4.09 @ 9:21PM|#
"A provision in the original North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 was supposed to allow U.S. and Mexican trucking companies to deliver goods in each other's country."
Are Mexican trucking companies disallowed from delivering products
in the US? Or visa-versa?
"But opposition from the Teamsters union and old-fashioned prejudice against Mexicans has derailed implementation of the provision."
Please, explain in detail, how Teamster Unions prevented Mexican
trucking companies from entering the US.
You can do that, right?
Orangle Line Special|3.4.09 @ 9:21PM|#
Come on "Pro Liberate".
You must understand your wife is corrupting your AngloSaxon blood
through MongrelMiscegenation.
|3.4.09 @ 9:24PM|#
Is it okay if her Colombian family is really all Spanish? That's Europeany enough, right? Oh, please absolve me!
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 9:25PM|#
ProLiberate, you should understand that in the TropicalSouth
they all committed MongrelMiscegenation with BrownNatives at some
point.
Therefore, your children will not be TrueAmericans, aka, they will
always be "illegals" to me!
What do you have to say for yourself?
|3.4.09 @ 9:28PM|#
You're right. I'll gather the Libertate clan and move to a villa
in Tuscany.
Sorry for all the trouble.
Kolohe|3.4.09 @ 9:49PM|#
For an example see how it was sold.
What's ironic about this is the entire point of being against 'the
NAFTA superhighway' is because on how it's sold.
Being against a 'Trans Texas Cooridor' is fine; if texans don't
want to pave over their state, more power to them. The problem was
painting this project as some sort of NefariousPlot.
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 10:31PM|#
Kolohoe obviously doesn't understand the issues invovled. It
goes well beyond
Texas.
Also a question I asked GovernorPerry can be viewed
Orange Line Special|3.4.09 @ 10:32PM|#
Can be viewed here.
Now Jessie Walker can't use his LogialFallacies.
I asked an extremely difficult question in that link and put it on
YouTube.
roystgnr|3.4.09 @ 11:11PM|#
Ha, ha, those wacky conspiracy theorists! With their obscure
mailing lists, their fantasies about ten-lane supercorridors, their
Texas
Government Press Releases about ten-lane
supercorridors...
Wait, what?
Oh, yeah, that's right, the plain facts didn't get turned into
"conspiracy theories" until CNN needed something with which to
smear Ron Paul. "Figment of his imagination", my ass.
I'm not expecting to see any retractions from CNN; but I am curious
to find out if Mangu-Ward and Reason are any better. Well?
I'm not a fan of Paul's protectionist leanings, but the right thing
to do there is to argue philosophy, not to laugh at "mythical"
facts that anyone competent can check out with five minutes on
Google. You're just embarrassing yourself.
|3.4.09 @ 11:14PM|#
ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with
freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and
natural gas pipelines running alongside
To be honest this sounds pretty cool.
|3.4.09 @ 11:59PM|#
OK, OLS, it's all a conspiracy.
Go ahead. Tear up NAFTA.
The next morning, Canada and Mexico will turn off the oil and
natural gas pipelines and the electric power lines.
|3.5.09 @ 12:18AM|#
It's pruf! Pruf I tell you! Pruf that Mexican Canadians have an
anti-sovereignty pact to assimilate us! There's a highway going
through Texas! Texas! What more pruf do you need? A freeway from
one end of Texas to the other is unassaulted pruf that the CFR and
Bilderbergers are going to build a special ten lane road without
stopsigns from Mexico to Canada so the Chinese can drown us in
cheap kitsch!
And all those state quarters we have been seeing? They're really
Ameros! Ameroooooooos!
|3.5.09 @ 1:31AM|#
Actually valid reasons that can be constructed to argue against
a NAFTA Superhighway in its many hydra headed manifestations:
1. If it really is so useful, it can be paid for by its
beneficiaries. It should be a pure toll road requiring precious
little use of eminent domain. There should be no need to use public
funds or force to supply the private good of transport.
2. Having politically connected businesses use the power of the
state to collect taxes and acquire land to provide them a free road
in order to break longshoreman unions is pitting the state against
the populace in a most unpleasant way.
Reasons actually chosen to argue against a NAFTA Superhighway in
its many hydra headed manifestations:
1. Teh Mexican drivers.
2. Teh Mexican trucks.
3. Teh Sovereignty.
4. Teh North American Union.
|3.5.09 @ 1:50AM|#
their Texas Government Press Releases about ten-lane supercorridors...
Ten, six, who's counting?
"The corridors will consist of six highway vehicle lanes - three in each direction - and six rail lines - three in each direction. One rail line will be dedicated to high speed commuter rail, one to high speed freight rail and one dedicated to short haul regional rail, which could serve as the backbone of a local commuter rail system serving all Texans."
Does Canada border Texas? When did this happen?
|3.5.09 @ 1:54AM|#
Are Mexican trucking companies disallowed from delivering products in the US? Or visa-versa?
Yes, both are disallowed. We have an agreement with the Mexican
government to allow US trucking companies to deliver in Mexico, so
long as there is reciprocity. Now that we're not letting Mexican
trucking companies in, US trucking companies will be banned from
Mexico.
Please, explain in detail, how Teamster Unions prevented Mexican trucking companies from entering the US.
They politically opposed it and have lobbied to prevent Mexican
trucking companies from entering the US. Eg,
"Hoffa praises proposal to ban unsafe Mexican trucks.
Of course, it's not just the Teamsters. Obama wanted to do this for
a long time.
|3.5.09 @ 2:09AM|#
1. Teh Mexican drivers.
2. Teh Mexican trucks.
3. Teh Sovereignty.
4. Teh North American Union.
Yup. Many conspiracists call themselves "libertarians", but they do
significant harm to the movement. In their own words they have no
problem with big government, only with the "conspirators" behind
government. Obama is bad not because of any of his policies, but
because he's a Kenyan citizen. The Fed is bad not because it's a
central bank monopoly, but because of Jekyll island. Bush and
Cheney weren't evil because of the war and occupation and torture
and the destruction of civil rights, but because they masterminded
9/11. In the words of one famous tax denier, "I would gladly pay my
taxes if it could be demonstrated that they were legal." Someone
who calls himself a libertarian says he would gladly pay
taxes!
If the Trans-Texas Corridor didn't go all the way to Oklahoma, most
NAUfers wouldn't be able find one thing wrong with it...
Texan farmer|3.5.09 @ 5:20AM|#
"If the Trans-Texas Corridor didn't go all the way to Oklahoma,
most NAUfers wouldn't be able find one thing wrong with
it..."
Personally don't give a shit about how long the road is, if it
reaches to Canada, Atlantis or the Moon... however i do care about
eminent domain quite a bit...
|3.5.09 @ 11:22AM|#
a "ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields,
with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and
natural gas pipelines running alongside"?
Sounds good to me.
J sub D, it is a contradiction to say both:
It's not that we're against Free Trade.
and
We're for Fair Trade.
The "Fair Trade" requirements being regulations and limits on
trade, it is indeed antithetical to Free Trade.
Orange Line Special|3.5.09 @ 1:00PM|#
Needless to say, only this and the first two comments on this
thread are ones I posted; the others posted using the same name are
yet another example of "libertarians" being unable to counter my
arguments and instead resorting to sub-kindergarten games.
Also, I have a question for "Pro Libertate", who appears to be J.
Keith Harmon, Esq. Were you having a conversation with yourself
above? Do you still work for the Ohio Supercomputer Center? Who do
you work for now?
roystgnr|3.5.09 @ 2:49PM|#
Six rail lanes plus six highway lanes equals twelve lanes, which is larger than ten. I know, math is harder than snarking on the internet; that may just mean you need to practice the former more and the latter less. If doing math that someone else has walked you through works out for you, it's just the first step towards Thinking For Yourself, which in this case would have enabled you to not only count all twelve lanes in the plan I linked you, but all sixteen lanes (six car, four truck, six rail) in the original plans. http://ttc69.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/ttc_report_full.pdf
oat willie|3.5.09 @ 3:35PM|#
"I'm for Flair Trade. Free trade with a certain
panache."
PL
Perhaps it is because you've chosen to wear only 15 pieces of
flair. If you don't want to express yourself more, then I'm afraid
we're going to have to talk about this, incessantly and in shifts,
for eternity...
|3.5.09 @ 5:28PM|#
Six rail lanes plus six highway lanes equals twelve lanes, which is larger than ten. I know, math is harder than snarking on the internet; that may just mean you need to practice the former more and the latter less.
Rail lanes? Who calls them "rail lanes?" Who refers to a six lane
highway with rail lines running parallel as a "ten lane highway"
anyway? If I asked you how many lanes there were on the corridor
from Washington to Richmond, would you add three extra lanes for
the triple-tracked rail lines that parallel it?
And who counts rail lines dedicated to short-range commuter rail as
somehow bringing Mexicans in?
Math is indeed hard; for you, logic and reason is even
harder.
There are plenty of reasons to oppose the proposal; you've just
centered on untrue and ridiculous ones.
roystgnr|3.6.09 @ 5:24PM|#
So suppose I stipulate, for the sake of argument, that a rail
line is less significant than a car lane, presumably because in
your head trains are tiny and cars are huge, or some such. Why
didn't you comment on the original proposal I went to the trouble
of linking for you, the one with ten traffic lanes plus additional
rail lines? Didn't read it? Illiteracy on top of innumeracy?
And like I said: I'm not even talking about the philosophy of the
proposal! Eminent domain is often bad, but for transportation often
necessary, and free trade is usually good. So pick either side of
that debate. But whichever you pick, is it too much to ask that you
not deride your opponents for being more aware of the basic facts
under discussion?
Editor in chief|3.6.09 @ 9:43PM|#
But XXXXXXXXXX XXXX XXX Teamsters union XXX old-fashioned prejudice against Mexicans has derailed implementation of the provision.
Gary|3.9.09 @ 11:19PM|#
Ummm...I've got some news for you. The first Mexican trucks began rolling deep into the U.S. on I-35 (the principle trunk of the NAFTA Superhighway) in 2007. They're already doing it, using existing roads. Similarly, the North American Union already exists, administratively and has been already merged with the European Union, in 2008 (by Bush and the EU's president). The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), created by Bush, Vincente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005 is the bedrock of the NAU. It is comprised of hundreds of bureaucrats, formed into "working groups" to re-write U.S. laws and regulations in order to "harmonize" them with those of Canada and Mexico. Meanwhile, in 2008, NORTCHOM signed illegal agreements with Canadian military forces to provide mutual support during martial law. You guys call yourselves "libertarians?" You really need to wake up and smell the coffee.
|11.20.09 @ 4:05PM|#
"COSPIRACY" What the largest trade block in the world,More affordable goods in north america. ect
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