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WASHINGTON - If the government really has a secret plan to build a 12-lane road-and-rail NAFTA Superhighway that will split the heartland from Mexico to Canada, it's playing with a great poker face.

"There is absolutely no U.S. government plan for a NAFTA Superhighway of any sort," said David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., a powerful member of committees that would authorize and pay for a NAFTA Superhighway, if one were being planned, dismissed the notion as "unfounded theories" with "no credence."

And yet: A pending congressional resolution condemns it. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks darkly of "secret funding" for it. Nativist commentators fulminate against the four-football-field-wide behemoth as a threat to private property, national security and "a major lifeline of the plan to merge the United States into a North American Community," as conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly wrote.

Responding to denials, Rep Virgil Goode, R-Va., the chief sponsor of the House of Representatives resolution opposing the NAFTA Superhighway, scoffed: "I've heard that line before. They're just calling it something else. ... It's a decrease in our security and an erasing of our borders."

Goode is hardly alone: His resolution has attracted 21 co-sponsors, from both parties.

The authorities say that the whole idea, inspired by the free-trade agreement signed by the U.S., Mexico and Canada, is an Internet-based urban myth fueled by fear and suspicion. Those accused of selling out U.S. sovereignty by shilling for a superhighway say that legitimate efforts to increase trade efficiencies through international cooperation, technological enhancements and infrastructure improvements have been turned into something sinister.

For example, conspiracy theorists see Kansas City, Mo., as a pivotal point for the superhighway because of Kansas City SmartPort, an effort to turn the region into a transportation and logistics center. Officials are working with Mexico to establish an inland customs facility - for exports of U.S.-made goods only, not, as some fear, as a security-reducing inland port for imports from Mexico and Asia, said Chris Gutierrez, president of SmartPort.

But that explanation doesn't satisfy the suspicious.

"We get hit with it all the time," said Danny Rotert, a spokesman for Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. "It's on some weird set of talking points. They say we'll actually cede sovereign U.S. land to Mexico. People call and complain about it all the time. We try to explain that's not the case."

Here's what Paul, a GOP presidential candidate, told a New Hampshire audience: "They already have a plan for a highway running from Mexico up to Canada, a 12-lane highway with trains running in the middle. It's going to be an international highway. And there's been some secret funding already into our budgets to start this program moving. There's going to be eminent domain powers used to confiscate tens of thousands of acres to build this."

Variations on the theme abound.

Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan says it will be a 10-lane highway, not 12, but adds that it will include oil and gas pipelines.

Running for Congress last year in Kansas, Democrat Nancy Boyda, who campaigned against the superhighway, warned that 30,000 acres of private land in Kansas would be taken to build it. (Boyda defeated a five-term incumbent who called the superhighway a myth.)

Others see it as a first step in an effort to erase national borders and sovereignty and unite all of North America into a single union, with one currency.

"It's a drift toward a European Union," Goode said. "I don't want to have one currency for all North America. I support our country being our country."

Even the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has listed opposition to a NAFTA Superhighway as among its legislative priorities, although a spokeswoman said the union doesn't necessarily buy some of the more conspiratorial notions of how it will look.

"There's not much question that corporate America is looking for a low-wage, low-cost haven in Mexico," said Leslie Miller, a Teamsters spokeswoman. "A NAFTA Superhighway would enable that."

Those convinced that the full-bore NAFTA Superhighway is coming point to several disparate efforts that they say prove that the government isn't telling the whole truth:

-The controversial effort to build the "Trans-Texas Corridor," which would largely parallel existing highways, primarily moving freight. The suspicious see it as the NAFTA Superhighway's first leg.

-A Bush administration proposal to allow some Mexican trucks to drive deeper into the U.S. heartland than previously allowed. Boyda's bill to limit the program passed the House this week, 411-3.

-North America's SuperCorridor Project, or NASCO. The Texas-based nonprofit coalition advocates for improvements along major trade corridors, such as Interstates 35, 29 and 94.

-The Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP. It's a collaborative effort on several fronts, including trade and security, by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Critics call it ground zero for the push for a North American Union.

Bohigian, the trade official whose portfolio includes the SPP, said the effort is intended only to "reduce the cost of trade and improve the quality of life" through efforts such as decreasing the wait time for trucks idling at international borders. Reducing the average wait time from 35 minutes to six minutes has saved more than $1 billion, Bohigian said.

Even so, the SPP had to put a "myth vs. fact" section on its Web site that insists, among other things: "Myth: The U.S. Government, working though the SPP, has a secret plan to build a `NAFTA Super Highway.'"

NASCO's Web site also has a disclaimer: "NASCO is not building or encouraging the creation of a `NAFTA superhighway.'" It emphasizes that NASCO only wants to ensure that the existing transportation system is efficient and seamless.

U.S. trade with Mexico has increased from $79 billion in 1993, when NAFTA was approved, to $332 billion in 2006, so it only makes sense to ensure that the existing system can handle the load, said Frank Conde, a NASCO spokesman.

The frustration of having to deal with "this mishmash of accusations" was clear in Conde's voice.

"They're not an authority," Conde said of critics, both online and in Congress. "They're not listened to on any level as a serious source of information. It discredits them to advance these sorts of things."

But Boyda, the Kansas congresswoman who campaigned against the NAFTA Superhighway, said, "These are legitimate questions.

"This is an issue about trade, jobs and security," Boyda said. "When they want to build something like this in Texas, why do people say, `It's just a myth'? I'd suggest they take a closer look. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then maybe it's a duck."

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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.

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zappaisgod said:And to reply to the socialist snark regarding conservatives:

Goode is hardly alone: His resolution has attracted 21 co-sponsors, from both parties.

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Redstorm said:

I agree. God forbid we have people with actual knowledge about the consequences of their actions making policy.

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zappaisgod said:

Oh Brave New World that has such people in it.

Although academics may be highly trained within the confines of their specific discipline, they are rather specialized creatures. Move then to another island and they will surely become extinct. "How many academics does it take to change a light bulb? I dunno, who's going to write the grant application."

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30 November 2004, Washington) Twenty-four year old Philip was found dead in the bedroom of his trailer home, with burnt remains of a Lava Lamp strewn over his kitchen. Puzzled investigators eventually pieced together a likely scenario for Philip's last moments.

Lava lamps are a mesmerizing distraction. Philip couldn't wait to fire up his new Lava Lamp. He plugged it in and waited for the pretty globs to begin their surreal dance. But after several frustrating minutes, nothing happened. Then a bright idea hit him: "Why not accelerate this painfully slow process?" He took the lamp to the kitchen, placed it on the stove, and turned up the heat.

In short order, the wax melted and began its sinuous dance. But the liquid was designed to be warmed by a 40-watt bulb. It was over-heated. Entranced by the display, Philip forgot that "heat expands". Whereas there was no room for expansion in the glass bottle, the Lava Lamp resorted to a violent explosion to relieve the pressure.*

One thick shard of glass blew straight through Philips's chest and into his heart. Philip stumbled into his bedroom, perhaps uttering "Aeternum vale!" (latin: farewell forever) as he collapsed and died.

Police found no evidence of alcohol or drug use, so it is safely presumed that Philip was in full possession of his senses when he went out with a bang.

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FrenchSocialist said:
Generally I don't support Democrats over Republicans because I think that Democrats are intelligent, so much as I think they are on average less stupid--mainly due to the fact that their policies are generally more determined by academics. That's not to say that I think academics are always very intelligent, however they are trained and paid over several years to follow a proven methodology while researching a specific field. This reduces their chance of error i.e. they get less wiggle room to make stuff up/present their own opinions, and receive more time and incentive to correct their ignorance then the average citizen.

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FrenchSocialist said:

Anyone who says they don't trust academics is a hypocrite, because I know damn well when you need surgery you go straight to the doctor, not your UPS driver.

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