Article;
Don't hold breath for the
'amero'
By: Jon Adams
At this very moment, as you read my column,
our government is quietly plotting to
subvert American sovereignty.

Without any public approval or
congressional oversight, the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America (an
unholy alliance of foreign consortiums,
government officials and powerful elites) is
building a "North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway" that
would connect Mexico, the United States
and Canada. Its ultimate goal: an integrated
North American Union with its own currency,
cross-national government, and virtually
borderless travel-just like the European
Union.

No, the above wasn't the latest cover story
in The National Inquirer-most of it came
straight from Ron Paul's campaign Web site.
But if this story sounds like sensationalistic
drivel, that's because it is.

The North American Union is the creation of
Jerome Corsi, a man with a history of
making stuff up. In 2004, for example, Corsi
coauthored "Unfit for Command," a libelous
attack on John Kerry's decorated military
service that may have cost Kerry the
presidency.

Since Corsi first "exposed" plans for a NAU
a couple years ago, the story has spread
like wildfire across the blogosphere, right-
wing Web sites and talk radio. The myth has
also been central to Ron Paul's message-he
has even introduced the issue before
national audiences at presidential debates.
It has resonated with millions of Americans
because it preys on their nativistic
prejudices and (often legitimate) concerns
about globalization.

To be fair, the NAU theory (like any good
conspiracy theory) has some basis in fact.
The facts have been so distorted by the
paranoiac fringe, however, that the NAU
theory bears little resemblance to reality.

There is a substantial road in the works. In
2002, Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas
unveiled a proposal for the "Trans-Texas
Corridor." The road, while highly unpopular
with some Texans, was approved by the
state legislature and the governor. But it is
a state initiative, not a covert and
concerted effort to build a "NAFTA
Superhighway."

n fact, the "NAFTA Superhighway" that Paul,
Corsi, and others bemoan, already exists.
The Federal Highway Administration has
noted that it sometimes describes
Interstate 35 as the "NAFTA Superhighway"
because it carries a substantial amount of
international trade with Mexico, the United
States and Canada. Interstate 35 is a rather
ordinary highway-nothing that imperils our
sovereignty.

There are no secret plans to construct a
new road-at least not one on the scale that
the conspiracy theorists claim. At most,
there are improvements being planned to
the existing highway system. These
improvements are being considered by
several states, independently, and are
meant to facilitate trade, not dismantle the
United States of America.

As for the Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America, the "unholy
alliance": It exists. But it's little more than a
boring bureaucracy. It is not an agreement
or treaty, but merely a dialogue among
countries. The only government mandate
that the SPP has is to increase security
cooperation against terror threats and
improve trade across North America.

For conspiracy theorists, the "smoking gun"
is a report by the Council on Foreign
Relations, titled "Building a North American
Community." Despite its somewhat ominous
title, though, the report never even hints at
a NAU. Instead, like the SPP, it proposes
fairly sensible policies regarding areas of
common concern among Mexico, the U.S.
and Canada. And because the CFR is not
itself a government entity, its
recommendations would have to be
enacted into law.

What about the "amero," the rumored
currency of the NAU? Some political
scientists have entertained the idea, but
there is currently no evidence the federal
government plans to ditch the dollar.
Absent a constitutional amendment, the
"amero" isn't remotely possible. Article I,
Section 8 of the Constitution gives
Congress the power "to coin money,
regulate the value thereof … and fix the
standard of weights and measure."

The most absurd claim made by the NAU
faithful is that the Bush administration is
complicit in the scheme to undermine
America's sovereignty. What interest would
this administration have to merge the U.S.
with Mexico and Canada, thereby forfeiting
their power? This is the same
administration, mind you, that refuses to
sign onto the International Criminal Court
and the Kyoto Protocol in the name of
sovereignty.

So this conspiracy theory is bunk. But don't
take this liberal's word for it. The NAU
theory has come under heavy friendly fire,
too.

Jed Babbin, editor of the conservative
newspaper Human Events, for which Corsi
writes, compared people who believe in an
impending NAU to those who believe in
Bigfoot.

Michael Medved, a far-right talk show host,
has called the theory "ludicrous,"
"childish," "ill-informed," "manipulative"
and "brain dead."

Charles Krauthammer, a prominent
conservative thinker and writer, said, "I
love (the NAU theory) because if you ever
doubt your own sanity, all you have to do is
read this stuff and realize that you're OK."

And if your theory is too crazy for
Krauthammer, then perhaps it's time you do
doubt your own sanity.  Story source The
Utah Statsman.com
Article;
Inside the world of war
profiteers
From prostitutes to Super bowl tickets, a
federal probe reveals how contractors in
Iraq cheated the U.S.
By David Jackson and Jason Grotto |  Tribune reporters

ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal
courthouse of this  Mississippi River town,
the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering
keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed
court records detail how kickbacks shaped
the war's largest troop support contract
months before the first wave of U.S.
soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004
congressional hearings that first called
attention to it. And the massive fraud
endangered the health of American soldiers
even as it lined contractors' pockets,
records show.Federal prosecutors in Rock
Island have indicted four former
supervisors from KBR, the giant defense
firm that holds the contract, along with a
decorated Army officer and five executives
from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S.
or the Middle East. Those defendants, along
with two other KBR employees who have
pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third
of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq
war-contract crimes, Justice Department
records show.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock
Island sentenced the Army official, Chief
Warrant Officer Peleti "Pete" Peleti Jr., to 28
months in prison for taking bribes. One
Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him
to a trip to the 2006  Super Bowl, a defense
investigator said.

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny
ongoing grand jury activity. But court
records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and
military investigative agents who have been
assigned to the case. Interviews as well as
testimony at the sentencing for Peleti, who
has cooperated with authorities, suggest an
active probe.

Rock Island serves as a center for the
probe of war profiteering because Army
brass at the arsenal here administer KBR's
so-called LOGCAP III contract to feed,
shelter and support U.S. soldiers, and to
help restore Iraq's oil infrastructure.

In one case, a freight-shipping
subcontractor confessed to giving $25,000
in illegal gratuities to five unnamed KBR
employees "to build relationships to get
additional business," according to the
man's December 2007 statement to a federal
judge in the Rock Island court. Separately,
Peleti named five military colleagues who
allegedly accepted bribes. Prosecutors also
have identified three senior KBR
executives who allegedly approved inflated
bids. None of those 13 people has been
charged.

A common thread runs through these cases
and other KBR scandals in Iraq, from
allegations the firm failed to protect
employees sexually assaulted by co-
workers to findings that it charged $45 per
can of soda: The Pentagon has outsourced
crucial troop support jobs while slashing
the number of government contract
watchdogs.

The dollar value of Army contracts
quadrupled from $23.3 billion in 1992 to
$100.6 billion in 2006, according to a recent
report by a Pentagon panel. But the number
of Army contract supervisors was cut from
10,000 in 1990 to 5,500 currently.

Last week, the Army pledged to add 1,400
positions to its contracting command. But
even those embroiled in the frauds
acknowledge the impact of so much war
privatization.

"I think we downsized past the point of
general competency," said subcontractor
Christopher Cahill, who for a decade
prepared military supply depots under
LOGCAP. Now serving 30 months in federal
prison for fraud, Cahill added: "The point of
a standing army is to have them equipped."

KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co.,
says it has been paid $28 billion under
LOGCAP III. The firm says it quickly reports
all instances of suspected fraud and has
repaid the Defense Department more than
$1 million for questionable invoices.

In a statement, KBR said its roughly 20,000
employees and 40,000 subcontractors have
performed laudably in a war zone where
Army demands shift rapidly and local
suppliers don't always maintain ledger
books. Spokeswoman Heather Browne
wrote: "Ethics and integrity are core values
for KBR."

But a wiretapped transcript recently
released in Rock Island underscores the
brazen nature of the exceptions.

In October 2005, with federal agents tailing
them, three war contractors slipped
through London's posh Cumberland hotel
before meeting in a quiet lounge. For the
rest of that afternoon, the men sipped
cognac and whiskey and discussed the
bribes that had greased contracts to supply
U.S. troops in Iraq.

Former KBR procurement manager Stephen
Seamans, who was wearing a wire strapped
on by a Rock Island agent, wondered aloud
whether to return $65,000 in kickbacks he
got from his two companions, executives
from the Saudi conglomerate Tamimi Global
Co.

One of the men, Tamimi operations director
Shabbir Khan, urged him to hide the money
by concocting phony business records.

"Just do the paperwork," Khan said.

Party houses, prostitutes
In October 2002, five months before the U.S.
-led invasion of Iraq, Khan threw a birthday
party for Seamans at a Tamimi "party house"
near the Kuwait base known as Camp
Arifjan. Khan "provided Seamans with a
prostitute as a present," Rock Island
prosecutors wrote in court papers. Driving
Seamans back to his quarters, Khan offered
kickbacks that would total $130,000.
Story contiues here!

more on this subject
Archive page Spring 2008  /   back to Page 1 - Front Page
Article:
The Corporate Climate Coup
David F. Noble

Don't breathe. There's a total war on against
CO2 emissions, and you are releasing CO2
with every breath. The multi-media
campaign against global warming now
saturating our senses, which insists that an
increasing CO2 component of greenhouse
gases is the enemy, takes no prisoners: you
are either with us or you are with the
"deniers." No one can question the new
orthodoxy or dare risk the sin of emission. If
Bill Clinton were running for president
today he would swear he didn't exhale.

How did we get here? How did such an
arcane subject only yesterday of interest
merely to a handful of scientific specialists
so suddenly come to dominate our
discourse?  Read the full article click here!
Article:
Power line moves ahead
Approval of a billion-dollar electric
transmission line that would cut across
Delaware took a major step forward
Wednesday.

The Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway could be
one answer to heat waves that have
threatened to overwhelm the region's
electrical system, said William Gausman, a
vice president of Pepco Holdings Inc.,
which proposed the project.

But the project is likely to spark questions
about the environment   Story Continues.....
Article:        
Proposed New Transmission
Lines
If there was ever a place to draw a line in
the sand this is it. The proposed southern
transmission corridor.
The acreage in Dummerston is only the
tiniest part of the issue. In fact all the
acreage that will be cleared in all the towns
isn't a much bigger part.
It is growth vs. stability.
I propose that there should be no additional
power lines at all. Anywhere. When we
reach the capacity of what we have now
which may be, as they say, in a few years,
that should be the end of it until we prove
to our complete satisfaction that we cannot
survive better without it.
It is time to stop. To force conservation and
efficiency. To force creation of local energy
sources. To force us to rethink our
economy and how we live.
To me a new transmission line is like adding
four more lanes to the highway. What would
be the consequences?
The power company is not and should not
be a part of this discussion. They have one
single interest. Increase profits for
themselves. That does not reconcile with
adding power capacity for a quarter million
more people in southern Vermont.
This is not Armageddon. But it will have
greater impact on the region than Yankee.
Far greater. Primary, secondary,
tertiary...long term, short term
consequences will be almost incalculable.
iBrattleboro.com
Article;
On Five Years in Iraq

by Ron Paul | March 23, 2008

Five years ago last week, the US military's
"shock and awe" campaign lit up the
Baghdad sky. Five years later, with
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and nearly
four thousand Americans dead, we should
pause and reflect on just what has been
gained and what has been lost.

From the beginning, the march to war was
paved with false assumptions and lies.
Senior administration officials claimed
repeatedly that Iraq was somehow
responsible for the attacks of September
11, 2001. They claimed that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction. They
manipulated the fear of the American
people after 9/11 to further a war agenda
that they had been planning years before
that attack. The mainstream media was
complicit in this war propaganda.

Nearly ten years ago, long before 9/11, I
requested the time in opposition to the
fateful Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, where I
then stated on the Floor of the House of
Representatives, "I see this piece of
legislation as essentially being a
declaration of virtual war. It is giving the
President tremendous powers to pursue
war efforts against a sovereign Nation."
Less than five years later we were invading
Iraq.

Five years into the invasion and occupation
of Iraq , untold hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis are dead; some two million Iraqis
have fled the country as refugees; and the
Iraqi Christian community – one of the
oldest in the world – has been decimated
more completely than even under the
Ottoman occupation or the rule of Saddam
Hussein.

On the US side, nearly four thousand
Americans have lost their lives fighting in
Iraq and many thousands more are horribly
wounded. Our own senior military officers
warn that our military is nearly broken by
the strain of the Iraq occupation. The
Veterans Administration is overwhelmed by
the volume of disability claims from Iraq war
veterans.

A study by Nobel Prize economist Joseph
Stiglitz concludes that the cost of the war in
Iraq could be at least $3 trillion. The
economic consequences of our enormous
expenditure in Iraq are beginning to make
themselves known as we fall into recession
and possibly worse.

Iraq war supporters claim that the "surge"
of additional US troops into Iraq has been a
resounding success. I am not so confident.
Under the "surge" policy the United States
military has trained and equipped with
deadly weapons those Iraqi militia members
against whom they were fighting just
months ago. I fear by arming and equipping
opposing militias we are just setting the
stage for a more tragic and dangerous
explosion of violence, possibly aimed at US
troops in Iraq . There is no indication that
the Iraqi government has made any political
progress whatsoever.

The sooner we withdraw the better. The
invasion and continued US occupation has
strengthened both Iran and Al-Qaeda in the
region. Continuing down the road of a failed
policy will only cost more money we do not
have and more lives that should not be
sacrificed. Interventionism has produced
one disaster after another. It is time we
return to a non-interventionist foreign
policy that emphasizes peaceful trade and
travel and no entangling alliances. We can
begin by withdrawing from Iraq
immediately.   www.dailypaul.com
Article;
Truck Drivers Threaten to
Strike April 3
CHATHAM COUNTY, GA (WTOC) - Rising gas
prices are something we're all dealing with,
but if you think filling your gas tank is hard,
try paying more around $4 a gallon to a fill a
100-plus gallon tank.

That's what many truck drivers are shelling
out for diesel fuel. They said it's too much
and it's time they take a stand. Some drivers
say they'll park their trucks on April 3. They
want lawmakers to temporarily remove the
federal and state taxes on diesel fuel until
shipping rates can catch up to the cost of
fuel.

Today, their trucks are rolling down the
highway, but soon they may not be and we
could all be feeling the effects.

"For the first couple of days, they may be
going to the supermarket and getting the
things they need, but after three to four
days of striking, it's going to be like when a
hurricane or a tornado comes through
town," said truck driver Jimmy Evans from
Washington, Georgia. "Everything leaves
the shelves."

With diesel prices hovering at $4 a gallon,
Evans said it's time for drastic measures. "It
should have never reached this point," he
said. "No. It's bad."

Rising prices put Evans out of business.
Instead of working for himself, he's now a
driver for a trucking company. "Up until the
last three months, I fought it for a while but
it was too much for me," he said. "It was just
overwhelming."

"To get 135 gallons, it cost me over $500,"
said Al Turner from Atlanta. Turner will be
another driver supporting the strike. "I
think the strike is going to be instrumental
and I hope we can get the fuel prices down."

Why should consumers care? High diesel
prices don't just affect truck drivers. If truck
drivers strike, you can expect the prices
you pay for goods and services and
especially food at the supermarket to go
even higher.

"I'll probably have to cut back even more,"
said Ruth Henley of Savannah. "I can eat
less, I guess."

"You have to pay it for food and milk and
cheese," added Carla Salvatore of Pooler. "I
have a child and you need milk. If the prices
go up, I don't know what we're going to do
about it."

"If they strike, they have to do what they
have to do," said Ted Tomlin of Savannah. "I
think it's going to affect the fuel costs even
more."

Many truck drivers said the companies that
deliver to the Georgia Ports Authority will
also shut down on April 3. Drivers in
Georgia are not the only ones talking about
the strike. Strike organizers in Dublin,
Georgia said they're hearing from drivers
around the country who plan to take part.

Reported by: Liz Flynn, lflynn@wtoc.com
Article;
Lawsuit: Chevron Owes
Billions For Polluting Amazon

court-appointed expert says Chevron
should pay up to $16 billion for allegedly
polluting the Ecuadorean Amazon.

A class-action lawsuit by 30,000 jungle
settlers and Indians alleges the San Ramon,
California-based company failed to clean up
billions of gallons of toxic wastewater
produced by Texaco Petroleum Co., which
Chevron acquired in 2001.

The court in the jungle town of Lago Agrio
confirmed the multibillion-dollar damage
total to The Associated Press on
Wednesday. It was tallied by geological
engineer Richard Cabrera, but has yet to be
approved by a judge.

Plaintiffs lawyer Pablo Fajardo told the AP
that Cabrera recommends Chevron pay at
least $8 billion in damages, and possibly
another $8 billion representing company
savings by operating recklessly.

"This is a significant advance because it
gets us closer to the end of the trial,"
Fajardo said.

Chevron denies the allegations and says
Texaco, which ended its Ecuador
operations in 1992 after three decades,
followed Ecuadorean environmental laws in
a $40 million cleanup, which the
government approved in 1998.

The oil company has repeatedly complained
that Cabrera is not qualified to make the
analysis and has questioned his impartiality.

"This trial is a farce," said Ricardo Reis
Viega, Chevron's vice president for Latin
America.

"We didn't know anything about this," he
said of the report. "We found out because
the press called."
Article;
North American Union - It's
Coming
By William H. Calhoun

If you have not read the news in a few
months, you may be unaware: there are
plans to create a North American Union,
whereby Mexico, the United States and
Canada will eventually become a single
country, with a single currency and a
single superhighway system.

Construction on the NAFTA
Superhighway, encompassing I-69 and
directed by NASCO, has already begun in
two states. It will run from central Mexico,
through the middle of the United States,
through Kansas City, and up into Canada.
It will be four football fields wide, off
limits to most Americans, and run by
foreign companies.

The mechanism to implement the NAU is
the SPP (Strategic and Prosperity
Partnership of North America), which was
settled between President Bush,
President Vicente Fox and Canadian
Prime Minister Paul Martin during their
March 2005 summit meeting in Waco,
Texas. Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice
has been instrumental in setting the SPP
plans in motion. The North American
Union will modeled after ultra-liberal
European Union, and put in place by
administrative regulations under the SPP
umbrella.

Outraged by this plan, four patriotic
Congressmen (Reps. Virgil H. Good,
Walter B. Jones, Ron Paul, and Tom
Tancredo) have introduced H. Con. Res.
487, which states that "the United States
should not engage in the construction of
a North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) Superhighway System or enter
into a North American Union with Mexico
and Canada." In the last few weeks,
patriot Americans from all over the
United States have been telephoning
their Congressmen demanding that H.
Con. Res. 487 be put to a vote and
passed in 2007.

Nevertheless, cheerleaders for the Bush
Administration deny that any plans for a
North American Union exist. Neocon
Michael Medved says that "there's no
reason at all to believe in the ludicrous,
childish, ill-informed, manipulative, brain
dead fantasies about a North American
Union. The entire chimera has been
conjured up to scare people over
nothing...."

If there are no plans for a North American
Union, then why did four of the most
patriotic Congressmen see it necessary
to introduce H. Con. Res. 487? And if it is
not real, then what would H. Con. Res.
487 harm? Legislation preventing a
"chimera" certainly cannot present any
danger. Why are neocon Trotskyites like
Medved becoming so emotionally
unstable over a bill to prevent a
"chimera"?

To any discerning mind, plans for a North
American Union do exist. One only need
to look at the wording of SPP documents,
or look at the NASCO website. It has been
set in motion. As Cicero famously said,
"patere tua consilia non sentis,
constrictam iam horum omnium scientia
teneri coniurationem tuam non vides?"

How have we come to this place? The
NAFTA agreement can be seen as the
beginning, which the wisest recognized
as a disaster from day one. Historically,
conservatives have opposed free trade,
and they should. It is destroying our
economy, it is undermining our
sovereignty, and it is national suicide.
Many in the GOP, however, have been
"neoconned" on this issue.

To see the connection between free
trade the dissolution of the USA under
the North American Union, only need to
read Karl Marx. On Jan. 9, 1848, in "On
the Question of Free Trade," Marx said,
"...in general, the protective system of
our day is conservative, while the free
trade system is destructive. It breaks up
old nationalities and pushes the
antagonism of the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a
word, the free trade system hastens the
social revolution. It is in this
revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen,
that I vote in favor of free trade."

Notice, Marx's celebration of the
breaking up of "old nationalities." Such a
statement is similar to GW Bush's claim
that the USA is not an "actual place," but
an "idea." Neocons celebrate this Marxist
notion of a "propositional nation,"
because it removes the historic
prerequisites of nationhood: borders; a
common language, history and
genealogy; blood and soil; kith and kin;
and genophilia (instinctive attachment to
family and tribe).

It is thus that GW Bush and others have
so adamantly supported the third-world
invasion of American, and why many
predict that the 700-mile fence will not be
built. The U.S.-Mexico border must be
abolished for the implementation of the
North American Union.

It is all about profit and cheap labor, and
big business adamantly supports the
prerequisite of the North American
Union: the third-world invasion of
America. During the Cold War, big
business sided with many conservatives
to oppose Marxism. Now, however, most
large corporations side with the
internationalist Left.

In the 1950s, when our country was
invaded, President Eisenhower
responded with "Operation Wetback" and
deported around a million invaders in a
single year. Today, however, politicians
say they are unable. Rather, they are
unwilling.

Some of the greatest traitors in American
history are right before our eyes: GW
Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice,
John McCain, Arlen Specter, Lindsey
Graham, Mike Huckabee, Sam
Brownback, Linda Chavez, Alberto
Gonzales, Carlos Gutierrez, Ted Kennedy,
Barack Obama, John Kerry, Hillary
Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, John Edwards,
Harry Reid, Linda Sanchez, Robert
Menendez, Luis Gutierrez, Solomon Ortiz,
and the list goes on and on. These
miscreants have chosen Mexico,
multicultural political correctness, and
big business over hard-working
Americans. They have betrayed Middle
America.

And what can be done to stop this North
American Union (aka, treason)?

Call and write your Congressmen, and
demand a real patriotic President in 2008,
like Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo.

We are under attack - both from within
and without. Prepare for the oncoming
madness! Stop the North American Union!
Stop the third-world invasion!

William H. Calhoun is a writer,
paleoconservative, poet-warrior in the
classical sense, farmer on his ancestral
estate, and graduate of the University of
Chicago. He can be reached at
williamhcalhoun@yahoo.com

alan@newsblaze.com
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