Stop Security and Prosperity Partnership
First, the partnership is unconstitutional as a treaty has not been ratified by U.S. Senate
Second, it doesn't comport with the U.S. Constitution so it is null and void
Lastly, it is unAmerican

Support legislation to stop the North American Union

HCON Resolution 487 - No NAFTA Super Highway and No North American Union
October 27, 2006

http://stopspp.com/stopspp/?p=44

North American Union threat gets attention of congressmen
Resolution aimed at blocking merger, funding of 'NAFTA superhighways'
October 1, 2006

While several members of Congress have denied any knowledge of efforts to build "NAFTA superhighways" or move America closer to a union with Mexico and Canada, four members of the House have stepped up to sponsor a resolution opposing both initiatives.

Rep. Virgil Goode Jr., R-Va., has introduced a resolution – H.C.R. 487 – designed to express "the sense of Congress 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 (NAU) with Mexico and Canada."

"Now that Congress is preparing to take up the issues of the North American Union and NAFTA superhighways, we are moving out of the realm where critics can attempt to disparage the discussion as 'Internet conspiracy theory,'" explained Jerome Corsi, author and WND columnist who has written extensively on the Security and Prosperity Partnership – the semisecret plan many suspect is behind the efforts to create a European Union-style North American confederation and link Mexico and Canada with more transcontinental highways and rail lines. "This bill represents a good first step."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52230

Sites mention Nafta super-highway, super-corridor, etc. FYI only

http://www.nascocorridor.com/

Difficult to read all in caps

What every U.S. Citizen should know

http://www.rhonie.com/

Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:57 am
A good summary and links can be found HERE.

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15497

via http://pokerface.org/fx/viewtopic.php?t=4386

Read Snopes, completely. (The site doesn't permit for copying key portions) Read world net daily with attention to wnd's own bias...

Snopes snookered by 10 Commandments hoax
Pastor ID's Supreme Court lies rerun by Internet watchdogs
Posted: November 24, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


The California pastor whose research revealed a strategy by the U.S. Supreme Court to eliminate references to the Ten Commandments in its own artwork now is asking Internet watchdogs Snopes.com and TruthOrFiction.com to fix their mistakes on the issue.

Todd DuBord's work was profiled by WND in an article about the Supreme Court and a second story about the Monticello and Jamestown historic sites.

There also was a followup showing how one state Supreme Court was following suit, and in a photograph of its team of justices, blurred part of the photograph because it would have shown the Ten Commandments on the wall behind them.

DuBord, whose work resulted in his formal requests to those national treasures that they correct the information being distributed, now is asking the two accuracy-focused websites to correct similar mistakes in their materials.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53079

10 Commandments Changed to 10 Amendments
at U.S. Supreme Court

http://www.lacconline.org/supremecourt.asp

Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/capital.asp

Truth or Fiction

Evidences of Faith in the Buildings, Memorials, and Forefathers of the United States-Truth!, Fiction! & Unproven!


Summary of the eRumor
In a time of controversy over separation of church and state, this eRumor lists what it says are examples of the role of religion in the foundation and institutions of the United States.
Some versions say it's from Andy Rooney.

Let's take each statement one at a time:

As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S.
Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the
world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is
facing forward with a full frontal view - it is Moses and he is holding
the Ten Commandments!-Truth! But Inaccurate!
Above the east entrance to the Supreme Court building (which is the back entrance, not the front entrance), Moses is one of three Eastern law givers along with Confucius and Solon.
Although he's in the middle, Confucius and Salon are facing the front as well, not facing Moses.
There are figures on each side of the three men facing them.
The tablets in the sculpture are blank and although inspired by the Ten Commandments, the office of the curator of the U.S. Supreme Court says they have come to symbolically represent the "tablets of the law."
The artist, Herman MacNeil, said "The 'Eastern Pediment' of the Supreme Court Building suggests...the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East. Moses, Confucius and Solon."

As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak
doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each
door-Unproven!
As stated above, the tablets are used in the Supreme Court building as symbolic representations of law.
In some places they also represent not the Ten Commandments but the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/r/religious-depictions.htm

Electoral College vs. Popular Election

Few unfortunately know the reasons the Founding Fathers and drafters of the federal Constitution of the U.S. gave to support the electoral college.

Another populist movement is afoot to choose the President/Vice President by popular, direct-democracy, majority vote.

If that happens, people who want to effect the outcome of an election in a key state, let's say Al Gore's own state (which he lost in 2000), would establish residency in order to vote. As well, there would be coordination for voters to establish residency in 11 largest states. The smaller population states would be "left behind" in the populist dust. There will also be more attempts than we've ever seen to register questionable voters (let's say illegal aliens and the underaged)(and the deceased see ACORN).

Note: some articles reference Birch, others Evan Bayh

Q: Why do you think we should abolish the Electoral College?

A: "I think our president should be chosen by the majority of the American people. That is ordinarily the case. But in 2000, as we all recall, we elected this president with fewer votes than the other candidate got. I just don't think in the modern era that is appropriate."

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/434527.html

http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2006/05/evan_bayh_aboli.html

Check status:

29 states 29 STATES NOW HAVE SPONSORS FOR BILL FOR NATIONWIDE POPULAR ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT FOR UPCOMING 2007 LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS (AL, AZ, CA, CO, DE, GA, HI, IA, IL, KY, LA, MD, ME, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NH, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, VA, VT, WA, WI, WY)

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/npv/index.php

free republic

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;s=Electoral%20College

CA: Schwarzenegger vetoes national presidential vote bill (Electoral College)
Contra Costa Times ^ | Sep. 30, 2006 | SAMANTHA YOUNG

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1711415/posts

Popular Nonsense. An unfair and ill-conceived attempt to ditch the Electoral College.
NRO ^ | April 19, 2006, 6:02 a.m. | Tara Ross


Posted on 04/19/2006 5:32:15 AM PDT by .cnI redruM

Opponents of the Electoral College have conjured up yet another scheme by which they hope to undermine America's unique system of electing presidents. If they are successful, the Electoral College could essentially be eliminated at the behest of a handful of states, without the bother of a constitutional amendment.

As Ronald Reagan might say, "There they go again!"

This latest anti-Electoral College effort, the Campaign for the National Popular Vote, was announced on February 23. Five states are currently considering the NPV plan: Illinois, Colorado, Missouri, California, and Louisiana. The Colorado state senate acted on the bill quickly, approving it on April 14.

If enacted, the NPV bill would create an interstate compact among consenting states. Each participating state would agree to allocate its entire slate of electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The compact would go into effect when states representing 270 electoral votes (enough to win the presidency) have agreed to the compact. The eleven most populous states have 271 electoral votes among them, and could thus make this change on their own. If one populous state failed to enact the plan, it could easily be replaced by a handful of medium-sized states.

NPV touts the ease of this change as one of the plan's best features. Electoral College opponents have tried and failed many times in their efforts to obtain a constitutional amendment. Such a process requires the consent of two thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. It's much easier to obtain the consent of a mere eleven states. And if eleven states get to change the rules of the presidential-election game, without so much as a nod to the remaining thirty-nine states, then why should NPV supporters care? After all, presidential elections can already be won with the votes of only eleven states. So any unfairness in the NPV plan merely reflects the inherent unfairness of the Electoral College system.

It is true that America's presidential-election system technically could allow the eleven largest states to pick the president. But the incentives inherent in the Electoral College work in the opposite direction, making such an outcome extremely unlikely. The Electoral College encourages presidential candidates to build national coalitions of voters. The compromises that a presidential candidate would have to make to obtain the votes of, say, California and Texas, guarantee that any candidate who manages to obtain the votes of the eleven largest states will also obtain the votes of a majority of states. The last presidential candidate to accomplish this feat was Reagan in 1984, and he obtained the votes of every state except Minnesota. (He also lost the District of Columbia.)

NPV's legislation, on the other hand, does not ensure national coalition building. To the contrary, the proposal gives the eleven largest states incentives to work against the remaining states: Getting rid of the Electoral College would allow presidential candidates to win with positions that are not at all in the interest of less populous states. To be sure, and as NPV points out, candidates now focus largely on battleground states, but the only reason other states aren't battlegrounds is because they are, by and large, happy with one of the candidates positions. Moreover, so-called "safe" and "swing" states change constantly. As recently as 1988, California voted consistently Republican. Texas was a safe Democrat state until it began voting Republican in 1980.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1617569/posts

The subversive plan to ditch the Electoral College
Townhall ^ | May 8, 2006 | Phyllis Schlafly
Posted on 05/08/2006 9:04:56 PM PDT by okiecon

A plot is afoot to change the constitutional form of government in the United States by ditching the Electoral College. John Anderson, Birch Bayh and John Buchanan, three losers who were defeated in the 1980 Reagan landslide, are scheming to change the U.S. Constitution without complying with the amendment process.

The Constitution requires that a president be elected by a majority of votes in the Electoral College, with each state's vote weighted based on its population. But some who took an oath to defend our Constitution are plotting to undermine its essential structure by a compact among as few as 11 of the most populous states.

The plan of this Campaign for the National Popular Vote is to get states with at least 270 votes in the Electoral College to enact identical bills requiring their own electors to ignore the winner of their state's election and cast all their state's ballots for the candidate who the state believes received more popular votes than the other candidates nationwide, even if he fails to win a majority of the popular vote.

The campaign gang of frustrated liberals has lined up sponsors for bills in California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana and Missouri. They have already persuaded the Colorado Senate to approve their proposal.

It's ridiculous and un-American to try to force electors to vote against their constituents. Yet the campaign proposes requiring a state like Louisiana to vote for the candidate who won in other states such as New York.

The U.S. Constitution established the method of electing presidents and it has served us well for more than two centuries. It isn't broke and doesn't need fixing.

The Electoral College represents the inspired genius of our Founding Fathers. It was part of the great compromise the transformed the country from 13 rival colonies into a constitutional republic.

This great compromise gave the United States a Congress consisting of the Senate based on equal representation of the states and a House of Representatives based on population. The Electoral College is the mirror image of this brilliant compromise and allows all states to be players in the process of electing the president.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1629003/posts
wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Electoral_College

Commentaries: Graduating from the Electoral College?
Posted by: Admin on Friday, September 01, 2006 - 07:48 PM PST

by Norman M. Olney

As we slowly but inexorably head towards Presidential Election Day, Tuesday, November 4, 2008, it is prudent to remind ourselves of certain civics and history lessons from our nation's past that we have, perhaps, forgotten in the fast and hectic pace of the present.

Our nation is not a true democracy in the literal sense, but, instead, a Federal Republic that grants limited self-rule to its separate states. One of the best examples of this is the way we elect our presidents. Your individual vote on Election Day is not cast directly for a particular presidential candidate, but, instead, for the slate of Electors chosen to represent that candidate in your state. In all but two states at present, the entire slate of Electors whose presidential candidate wins the largest popular vote in their state solely represents that state in the Electoral College.

Each state has as many Electors as it has United States Senators and Representatives. The Electoral College presently totals 538 Electors based on 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, plus 3 electoral votes from our nation's capitol, the District of Columbia, as a result of the 23rd Amendment to the United States Constitution.

On December 15, 2008, the winning slates of Electors will cast their votes in their respective state capitols. There is no constitutional requirement that an Elector vote for the candidate that the Elector is pledged to. This has given rise, in our nation's past, to situations where a few Electors have ignored their pledge and have voted for someone else, or were otherwise independent or uncommitted. The most significant recent example of this occurred in 1960, when 14 Southern Democratic Electors voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia instead of for John F. Kennedy. One Oklahoma Republican Elector also cast his ballot for Senator Byrd instead of for Richard M. Nixon.

The votes of the Electors, as certified by the states, will then be sent to Congress. Vice-President Richard Cheney, as President of the Senate, will open the certificates and have them counted in the presence of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in joint session on January 6, 2009. It is only at that time that the next President and Vice-President of the United States will be officially elected. However, in the event that neither major party ticket obtains a majority of at least 270 electoral votes, the matter would then be thrown to the new Congress to decide.

The latter outcome is very unlikely to occur in 2008, unless a significant threat arises from a major third party candidate, or the electoral vote is a 269 tie, or, alternatively, could be so close that the trustworthiness of pledges by individual Electors becomes a question of conjecture. These possibilities will be dealt with later in this analysis.

http://www.usjf.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=284


Count 'Em


By Hendrik Hertzberg
Published February 27th 2006 in The New Yorker


Last Thursday morning, in one of the smaller function rooms at the National Press Club, in Washington, an ad-hoc bunch of amateurs, once-weres, might-bes, and goo-goos floated an initiative that, with a little luck, could enable our ramshackle republic to take a long, and long overdue, step toward a more perfect union. The idea behind their initiative is this: that the President of the United States should be elected by the people of the United States.

This idea is neither new nor outlandish, but for most of the past couple of centuries it has been dismissed as unachievable. The Electoral College is enshrined in the Constitution itself, so getting rid of it would require the concurrence of two-thirds of both houses of Congress plus three-quarters of the state legislatures. That’s not going to happen.

But maybe it doesn’t have to. The promoters of the Campaign for a National Popular Vote, as they’re calling themselves, have come up with an elegant finesse. Instead of trying to change the Constitution, they propose to apply it, one bit in particular: Article II, Section 1, which instructs each state to “appoint” its Presidential electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” Here’s how the plan would work. One by one, legislature by legislature, state law by state law, individual states would pledge themselves to an interstate compact under which they would agree to award their electoral votes to the nationwide winner of the popular vote. The compact would take effect only when enough states had joined it to elect a President—that is, enough to cast a majority of the five hundred and thirty-eight electoral votes. (Theoretically, as few as eleven states could do the trick.) And then, presto! All of a sudden, the people of all fifty states plus the District of Columbia are empowered to elect their President the same way they elect their governors, mayors, senators, and congressmen. We still have the Electoral College, with its colorful eighteenth-century rituals, but it can no longer do any damage. It becomes a tourist attraction, like the British monarchy.

There is very little doubt about the constitutional and legal feasibility of this plan. The power of state legislatures to direct the choice of their states’ electors, the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled, is essentially unlimited. As the Court pointed out in one well-known case,

the State legislature’s power to select the manner for appointing electors is plenary; it may, if it so chooses, select the electors itself, which indeed was the manner used by State legislatures in several States for many years after the Framing of our Constitution. (Bush v. Gore, 2000)

The political feasibility of the plan is another matter. Its initial backers are middleweights at best. Its originator is a scientist—John R. Koza, a Stanford professor who teaches courses in genetic algorithms and made a small fortune by co-inventing the rub-off instant lottery ticket...

http://www.fairvote.org/?page=1004&articlemode=showspecific&showarticle=1245

Beware PA Floater Idea Outsource Road Construction

Read Nafta Superhighway

Don't be fooled by the illusion of talk of raising the gas tax to fund PA highways. We already have a double taxation system implemented by converting state highways into toll roads with a fee that continuously increases. The monies supposed to go to the toll roads are diverted to make the politicians look as if they didn't increase taxes in other areas, so they escape criticism. Consider that PA roads remain pothole black holes.

Readers talk turkey about transportation woes
Friday, November 24, 2006

By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's a good thing you didn't have to read today's "Getting Around" column just after Thanksgiving dinner.

The subject is the recently released final report of the Pennsylvania Transportation Funding and Reform Commission.

As part of its unenviable task, the special panel appointed by Gov. Ed Rendell gave the public a lot to swallow. It recommended a first-of-its-kind, 0.9 percent increase in the state's 1 percent realty transfer tax to help public transit; a local sales, income or realty transfer tax to match state transit funding; a 12.5-cents-a-gallon increase in the gas tax for roads and bridges; and a $15 increase in driver's license or motor vehicle registration fees...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06328/740882-147.stm

Pennsylvania toll collectors are paid $18.50 an hour, or more than $38,000 a year.


March/April 2006
The Return of Private Toll Roads
by Robert Poole and Peter Samuel
Private concessions offer an alternative to managing American highways.

In little more than 12 months, beginning in late 2004, the following events occurred: A Spanish toll road company proposed to invest $7.2 billion to build the first leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a major highway, rail, and utility corridor running north-south from Oklahoma to Mexico. A global consortium agreed to pay $1.8 billion to lease, toll, operate, and maintain the Chicago Skyway for 99 years. And an Australian toll road operator bought out a struggling public-private toll road in Virginia.

These events illustrate a growing trend in highway investment. The reality today is that increasingly the public and private sectors are looking toward partnerships to build, operate, and maintain highway infrastructure in the United States.

http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/06mar/06.htm


Coming Through! The NAFTA Super Highway (by Kelly Taylor)
by Kelly Taylor
August 7, 2006
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The planned NAFTA Super Highway would radically reconfigure not only the physical landscape of these United States, but our political and economic landscapes as well. (Click here to tell your representative and senators to "Stop the NAFTA Super Highway Steppingstone to a North American Union.")
Kelly Taylor is an Austin-based writer and filmmaker, and the producer of a politically based TV talk show.


All across America, mammoth construction projects are preparing to launch. The NAFTA Super Highway is on a fast track and it's headed your way. If you don't help derail it, you may soon be run over by it - both figuratively and literally.

The NAFTA Super Highway is a venture unlike any previous highway construction project. It is actually a daisy chain of dozens of corridors and coordinated projects that are expected to stretch out for several decades, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and end up radically reconfiguring not only the physical landscape of these United States, but our political and economic landscapes as well.

In Texas, the NAFTA Super Highway is being sold as the Trans Texas Corridor. In simplest terms, the TTC is a superhighway system including tollways for passenger vehicles and trucks; lanes for commercial and freight trucks; tracks for commuter rail and high-speed freight rail; depots for all rail lines; pipelines for oil, water, and natural gas; and electrical towers and cabling for communication and telephone lines. One of the proposed corridor routes, TTC-35, is parallel to the present Interstate Highway 35 (I-35), slightly to the east, running north from Mexico to Canada. Its present scope is 4,000 miles long, 1,200 feet wide, with an estimated cost of $183 billion of taxpayer funds. It runs through Kansas City...


Excerpt continued

Under the Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005 - A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) (whew!), U.S. funds apportioned to a border state may be used to construct a highway project in Canada or Mexico, if that project directly facilitates cross-border vehicle and cargo movement! Just think - your tax dollars may now be sent to Canada or Mexico to aid the entry of illegal aliens into the United States, like it or not.

Additionally, SAFETEA-LU allows U.S. states to use tolling on a pilot basis to finance Interstate construction and reconstruction, and to establish tolls for existing Interstate highways to fund the new Super Highway corridors. Austin, Texas, is already experiencing fierce struggles over converting its already-paid-for Interstate and state highways to toll roads, but few Texans understand that this new tolling is to be the mechanism for funding the leviathan Trans Texas Corridor. Since Austin has been identified as the pilot city in the nation for testing the new toll policies, you can assume that what passes here is coming your way.

This planned wedding of Mexico's cheap labor force with brand new infrastructure would make Mexico an irresistible magnet for all manufacturers now remaining in the United States. Even those companies who wanted to keep their operations here would likely be forced by cheaper competitors to join the exodus. The United States, until very recently the manufacturing capital of the world, will continue its downward spiral into increasingly dangerous dependence on foreign manufacturers for almost everything, even as burgeoning inflation makes everything more expensive, devastating much of our middle class.

Scores of Corridors

An additional Super Highway route known as the Interstate 69 corridor (TTC-69) would enter Texas from Mexico as three spur lines at Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville, which then will join together to head north through Houston, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Port Huron, Michigan, to Toronto, Canada...

http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_4114.shtml

Truckers call for boycott of foreign-owned road
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52882

Truckers are being called on to boycott a decision by Indiana to lease a
highway to foreign investment groups.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/misc.consumers/browse_thread/thread/3dd2a74ccee7559e

Coming Through! The NAFTA Super Highway (by Kelly Taylor)
by Kelly Taylor August 7, 2006


The planned NAFTA Super Highway would radically reconfigure not only the physical landscape of these United States, but our political and economic landscapes as well. (Click here to tell your representative and senators to "Stop the NAFTA Super Highway Steppingstone to a North American Union.")
Kelly Taylor is an Austin-based writer and filmmaker, and the producer of a politically based TV talk show.


All across America, mammoth construction projects are preparing to launch. The NAFTA Super Highway is on a fast track and it's headed your way. If you don't help derail it, you may soon be run over by it - both figuratively and literally.

The NAFTA Super Highway is a venture unlike any previous highway construction project. It is actually a daisy chain of dozens of corridors and coordinated projects that are expected to stretch out for several decades, cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and end up radically reconfiguring not only the physical landscape of these United States, but our political and economic landscapes as well.

In Texas, the NAFTA Super Highway is being sold as the Trans Texas Corridor. In simplest terms, the TTC is a superhighway system including tollways for passenger vehicles and trucks; lanes for commercial and freight trucks; tracks for commuter rail and high-speed freight rail; depots for all rail lines; pipelines for oil, water, and natural gas; and electrical towers and cabling for communication and telephone lines. One of the proposed corridor routes, TTC-35, is parallel to the present Interstate Highway 35 (I-35), slightly to the east, running north from Mexico to Canada. Its present scope is 4,000 miles long, 1,200 feet wide, with an estimated cost of $183 billion of taxpayer funds. It runs through Kansas City.

Integration vs. Independence

How would all of this affect you, your family, and your community? Let us count the ways. One of the most striking features of the proposed Super Highway is the plan to do away with our borders, as evidenced by the joint U.S.-Mexico Customs facility already under construction in Kansas City, Missouri. A U.S. Customs checkpoint in Kansas City? But that's a thousand miles inside America's heartland; isn't the purpose of U.S. Customs to check people and cargo at our borders?

Ah, but the mere asking of that question shows that you're still operating under the old paradigm that sees the United States as an independent, sovereign nation. However, that paradigm began to change following passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. NAFTA, which was sold to the American public as a simple trade agreement, was actually far more than that, setting in motion a process for the gradual social, economic, and political "integration," or merger, of the three NAFTA countries - Canada, the United States, and Mexico - into a North American Union.

In 2005, this merger process became more explicit and aggressive when President Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox, and Canada's Prime Minister Martin launched what they call the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). Any serious study of the SPP will clearly reveal that its ultimate aim is the dissolution of the United States into a North American Union patterned after the increasingly dictatorial regional government now running the European Union. Henceforth, under this plan, the borders between our nations will be incrementally erased in favor of a joint "perimeter" around all three countries.

One part of this plan calls for streamlining the flow of traffic from Mexico, including a massive increase in containers from China and the Far East offloading at Mexican seaports and then being transported by truck and rail into the United States via the new NAFTA Super Highway. These new cargo streams would cross the border in supposedly secure FAST lanes, checked only electronically until the first Customs stop in Kansas City!

What about all the repeated promises by the White House and Congress to make border security America's "top priority"? Moving Customs inspections hundreds of miles inland obviously contradicts those promises and incalculably increases the opportunities for smugglers (of drugs, illegal aliens, terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, and other contraband) to enter the country. Our borders are already incredibly porous and undermanned; securing the entire route from the Mexico-Texas border to Kansas City would require thousands more Border Patrol and Customs officers. Would these agents be provided? Could this route be made any more secure than our southern border? Does it make sense to effectively extend the border via this route when we are now doing such a poor job securing our existing border?

Under the Radar...

Excerpt continued

And that's not all. There's also CANAMEX, another super corridor like the TTC, which spans the West from Mexico to Canada going through Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. And we learn from the CANAMEX Corridor Coalition website that the number of congressionally designated high priority corridors in the United States has been expanded from 43 to 80! Yes, 80 corridor routes have been designated across the United States in an effort to speed the construction of infrastructure necessary for what the SPP calls "the streamlined movement of legitimate travelers and cargo across our shared borders."

Research on any High Priority Corridor will lead the reader into a hairball of studies, alliances, pricing programs, transportation acts, administration agencies, reports, committees, partnerships, and on and on, all designed, we believe, to obscure the real agenda. The idea for these 80 super corridors was not conceived to promote trade and better the economic development of all participating communities. When viewed in the aggregate, they can only be seen as a means to so thoroughly restructure and integrate the three countries so as to permanently blur the distinctions, and to make their merger into a regional government seamless and even appealing.

The NAFTA Super Highway is such an integral part of the continental merger plan that the entire scheme could be at least temporarily road-blocked if it does not proceed. If it does proceed, American government will no longer provide its time-tested protections against tyranny and socialism, as huge chunks of American law will be rendered void, and replaced by an incomprehensible mess of "trade" law. All rowers are needed at the oars, and immediately. If you've asked yourself why you did not know about a project of this magnitude, or where Congress got the authority to designate High Priority Corridors in the first place, your first job is to contact your representative and howl. Wake the town and tell the people, or the town will be paved over.

Tell your representative and senators to "Stop the NAFTA Super Highway Steppingstone to a North American Union" by phone, fax, or e-mail. Go to http://capwiz.com/jbs/home/ for contact information and a sample letter.


http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_4114.shtml

'Bush doesn't think America should be an actual place'
Tancredo says president believes nation should be merely 'idea' without borders
Posted: November 19, 2006
4:19 p.m. EasternBy Joe Kovacs
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.

PALM BEACH, Fla. – President Bush believes America should be more of an idea than an actual place, a Republican congressman told WND in an exclusive interview.

"People have to understand what we're talking about here. The president of the United States is an internationalist," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that – it's an idea. It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this guy is really going."

Tancredo lashed out at the White House's lack of action in securing U.S. borders, and said efforts to merge the U.S. with both Mexico and Canada is not a fantasy.

"I know this is dramatic – or maybe somebody would say overly dramatic – but I'm telling you, that everything I see leads me to believe that this whole idea of the North American Union, it's not something that just is written about by right-wing fringe kooks. It is something in the head of the president of the United States, the president of Mexico, I think the prime minister of Canada buys into it. ...

"And they would just tell you, 'Well, sure, it's a natural thing. It's part of the great globalization ... of the economy.' They assume it's a natural, evolutionary event that's going to occur here. I hope they're wrong and I'm going to try my best to make sure they're wrong. But I'm telling you the tide is great. The tide is moving in their direction. We have to say that."

Tancredo was in South Florida joining the likes of media giants Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter at a four-day event called "Restoration Weekend" which concluded today. The gathering was hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Tancredo pointed to Florida's largest city as an example of how the nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration.

"Look at what has happened to Miami. It has become a Third World country," he said. "You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."

He said quickly changing demographics can cause big problems, and specifically cited the "Islamization of Europe" in recent years which has led to conflict across the continent.

Tancredo isn't the only congressman warning about plans to integrate the three nations of this continent.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, denounced plans for the proposed "NAFTA superhighway" in his state as part of a larger plot for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union.

As WND reported this month, Enrique Berruga, Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, came right out and said a North American Union is needed – and even provided a deadline.

Berruga said the merger must be complete in the next eight years before the U.S. baby boomer retirement wave hits full force...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53023

Congressman: Superhighway about North American Union
Paul says goal is common currency,
borderless travel, bigger bureaucracy
Posted: October 30, 2006
12:41 p.m. Eastern
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas
WASHINGTON – Rep. Ron Paul, a maverick Republican from Texas, today denounced plans for the proposed "NAFTA superhighway" in his state as part of a larger plot for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico into a North American Union.

"By now many Texans have heard about the proposed 'NAFTA Superhighway,' which is also referred to as the trans-Texas corridor," he said in a statement. "What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention."

Paul explained that most members of Congress are unaware of the plans because only relatively small amounts of money have been spent studying the plans and those allocations were included in "enormous transportation appropriations bills."

"The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced by a quasi-government organization called the 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,' or SPP," he explains. "The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in Waco."

No treaties were involved, and Congress was not included in discussions or plans, he says.

"Instead, the SPP is an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments," according to Paul. "One principal player is a Spanish construction company, which plans to build the highway and operate it as a toll road. But don't be fooled: The superhighway proposal is not the result of free market demand, but rather an extension of government-managed trade schemes like NAFTA that benefit politically connected interests."

Paul says, however, the real issue raised by the superhighway plan and the SPP is national sovereignty.

"Once again, decisions that affect millions of Americans are not being made by those Americans themselves, or even by their elected representatives in Congress," says Paul. "Instead, a handful of elites use their government connections to bypass national legislatures and ignore our Constitution – which expressly grants Congress the sole authority to regulate international trade."

The ultimate goal, he says, is not simply a superhighway "but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy and virtually borderless travel within the union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether."

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the U.S. should not engage in the construction of a NAFTA superhighway, or enter into any agreement that advances the concept of a North American Union...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52684

Expressing the sense of Congress 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... (Introduced in House)

Tancredo warns of unity plot by President George Bush

U.S. legislator warns of Bush plot to merge Canada, the U.S. and Mexico
Beth Gorham, The Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Article tools
Printer friendly

E-mail
Font: * * * * WASHINGTON -- A U.S. legislator who backs tough anti-immigrant measures and more security at the Canada-U.S. border is warning Americans that President George W. Bush is plotting to integrate the continent.

And he says Prime Minister Stephen Harper “buys into it.”

Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, revered by some U.S. conservatives for his efforts to staunch the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico, said this week that Bush is a dangerous internationalist.

“He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that, it’s an idea. It’s not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where the guy is really going,” he told WorldNetDaily, a controversial conservative website.

“I know this is dramatic, or maybe somebody would say overly dramatic. But I’m telling you that everything I see leads me to believe that this whole idea of the North American union, it’s not something that’s just written about by right-wing fringe kooks,” said Tancredo, who is considering a run at the presidency.

“It is something in the head of the president of the United States, the president of Mexico, I think the prime minister of Canada buys into it...”

Tancredo followed up with an interview on the conservative Fox News network, where he said the borders will lose all their significance, serving merely as “speed bumps” in the flow of goods, services and people.

In October, Tancredo demanded the United States suspend work on the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) signed last year by Canada, Mexico and The United States until Congress examines its goals and agreements, which include standardizing regulations and dismantling other barriers to trade.

The deal to collaborate on a wide range of trade and security issues is part of a larger plot to merge the countries in a European Union-like arrangement using a common currency, he said, with no oversight from legislators.

The congressman, who wrote a book on the border security issue called “In Mortal Danger,” is one of four members of Congress who’ve signed a resolution opposed to a union or a free trade “superhighway system.”

They’re not the only ones worried about closer ties between the three countries.

A coalition of American conservatives is organizing a grassroots effort to make it an issue in the 2008 presidential race and vow to campaign against any candidate, Republican or Democrat, who won’t side with them.

The movement was spearheaded in October by Howard Phillips, chairman of the public policy group Conservative Caucus, anti-feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly and author Jerome Corsi.

The group is calling for a congressional investigation into the SPP and full disclosure of all documents when the new Congress run by Democrats begins in January. They’re getting support from the Minuteman Project that monitors the borders to deter illegal crossings, a group Bush has called vigilantes.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=9aefb030-4529-475e-84f0-0aa36c75a2d0&k=13644http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=9aefb030-4529-475e-84f0-0aa36c75a2d0&k=13644

Infant Mental Health Funding Read More Drugged Kids

Urgent Action Alert:
From EdAction:
The media has stepped up its propaganda promoting "infant mental health" just prior to upcoming votes in the "lame duck" Congress to fund universal psychological testing of babies, preschoolers and K-12 students, including dangerous drugging to treat them. Please re-read last June's EdWatch summary of those funding proposals and recommendations for cuts: " Federal Funding for Universal Mental Health Screening."

http://www.libertycoalition.net/no_to_money_for_infant_mental_health_testing_in_lame_duck_congress

Still related to some kind of monkey

So says another study and more but who knows really. For all we know, we could be the creation of an alien civilization that experimented on creating the perfect live and everlasting entertainment...

Genetic breakthrough that reveals the differences between humans
Scientists hail genetic discovery that will change human understanding
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 23 November 2006
Scientists have discovered a dramatic variation in the genetic make-up of humans that could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of what causes incurable diseases and could provide a greater understanding of mankind.

The discovery has astonished scientists studying the human genome - the genetic recipe of man. Until now it was believed the variation between people was due largely to differences in the sequences of the individual " letters" of the genome.

It now appears much of the variation is explained instead by people having multiple copies of some key genes that make up the human genome.

Until now it was assumed that the human genome, or "book of life", is largely the same for everyone, save for a few spelling differences in some of the words. Instead, the findings suggest that the book contains entire sentences, paragraphs or even whole pages that are repeated any number of times.

The findings mean that instead of humanity being 99.9 per cent identical, as previously believed, we are at least 10 times more different between one another than once thought - which could explain why some people are prone to serious diseases.

The studies published today have found that instead of having just two copies of each gene - one from each parent - people can carry many copies, but just how many can vary between one person and the next.

The studies suggest variations in the number of copies of genes is normal and healthy. But the scientists also believe many diseases may be triggered by an abnormal loss or gain in the copies of some key genes.

Another implication of the finding is that we are more different to our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, than previously assumed from earlier studies. Instead of being 99 per cent similar, we are more likely to be about 96 per cent similar.

The findings, published simultaneously in three leading science journals by scientists from 13 different research centres in Britain and America, were described as ground-breaking by leading scientists.

"I believe this research will change for ever the field of human genetics," said Professor James Lupski, a world authority on medical genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Professor Lupski said the findings superseded the basic principles of human genetics that have been built up since the days of Gregor Mendel, the 19th century "father" of Mendelian genetics, and of Jim Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered the DNA double helix in 1953.

"One can no longer consider human traits as resulting primarily from [simple DNA] changes... With all respect to Watson and Crick, many Mendelian and complex traits, as well as sporadic diseases, may indeed result from structural variation of the genome," Professor Lupski said.

Deciphering the three billion letters in the sequence of the human genome was once likened to landing on the Moon. Having now arrived, scientists have found the "lunar landscape" of the genome is very different from what they expected.

Matthew Hurles, one of the project's leaders at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, said the findings show each one of us has a unique pattern of gains and losses of entire sections of our DNA.

"One of the real surprises of these results was just how much of our DNA varies in copy number. We estimate this to be at least 12 per cent of the genome - that has never been shown before," Dr Hurles said.

Scientists have detected variation in the "copy number" of genes in some individuals before but the sheer scale of the variation now being discovered is dramatic.

"The copy number variation that researchers had seen before was simply the tip of the iceberg, while the bulk lay submerged, undetected," Dr Hurles said.

"We now appreciate the immense contribution of this phenomenon to genetic differences between individuals," he said.

The studies involved a detailed and sophisticated analysis of the genomes of 270 people with Asian, African or European ancestry. It was important to include as wide a sample of the human gene pool as possible.

They found that 2,900 genes could vary in the number of copies possessed by the individuals. The genes involved multiple copies of stretches of DNA up to a million letters of the genetic code long.

"We used to think that if you had big changes like this, then they must be involved in disease. But we are showing that we can all have these changes," said Stephen Scherer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

But it is also becoming apparent that many diseases appear to be influenced by the number of copies of certain key genes, said Charles Lee, another of the project's leaders at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

"Many examples of diseases resulting from changes in copy number are emerging. A recent review lists 17 conditions of the nervous system alone, including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's, that can result from such copy number changes," Professor Lee said.

"Indeed, medical research will benefit enormously from this map, which provides new ways for identifying genes involved in common diseases," he said.

Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, the medical charity that funded much of the research, said: "This important work will help to identify genetic causes of many diseases."

The key questions answered

What have scientists discovered today?

They have found that each of us is more different genetically than we previously believed. Instead of being 99.9 per cent identical, it may turn out to be more like 99 per cent identical - enough of a difference to explain many variations in human traits. Instead of having just two copies of every gene - one from each parent - we have some genes that are multiplied several times. Furthermore these "multiple copy numbers" differ from one person to another, which could explain human physical and even mental variation.

Why does this matter?

One practical benefit is that it could lead to a new understanding of some of the most difficult, incurable diseases. Although it adds an extra layer of complexity to our understanding of the human genome, the discovery could lead eventually to new insights and medical treatments of conditions ranging from childhood disorders to senile dementia. Scientists are predicting for instance that the knowledge could lead to new diagnostic tests for such diseases as cancer.

How was this discovery made?

Scientists have developed sophisticated methods of analysing large segments of DNA over recent years. "In some ways the methods we have used are 'molecular microscopes', which have transformed the techniques used since the foundation of clinical genetics where researchers used microscopes to look for visible deletions and rearrangements in chromosomes," explained Nigel Carter of the Sanger Institute in Cambridge.

What genes are copied many times and why?

There are just under 30,000 genes in the human genome, which consists of about 3 billion "letters" of the DNA code. The scientists found that more than 10 per cent of these genes appear to be multiplied in the 270 people who took part in the study. They do not know why some genes are copied and some are not. One gene, called CCL3L1, which is copied many times in people of African descent, appears to confer resistance to HIV. Another gene involved in making a blood protein is copied many times in people from south-east Asia and seems to help against malaria. Other research has shown that variation in the number of copies of some genes is involved in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Are there any other practical applications?

The scientists looked at people from three broad racial groups - African, Asian and European. Although there was an underlying similarity in terms of how common it was for genes to be copied, there were enough racial differences to assign every person bar one to their correct ethnic origin. This might help forensic scientists wishing to know more about the race of a suspect.

Who made the discovery and where can we read more about it?

Scientists from 13 research centres were involved, including Britain's Sanger Institute in Cambridge, which also took a lead role in deciphering the human genome. The research is published in Nature, Nature Genetics and Genome Research.

Scientists have discovered a dramatic variation in the genetic make-up of humans that could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of what causes incurable diseases and could provide a greater understanding of mankind.

The discovery has astonished scientists studying the human genome - the genetic recipe of man. Until now it was believed the variation between people was due largely to differences in the sequences of the individual " letters" of the genome.

It now appears much of the variation is explained instead by people having multiple copies of some key genes that make up the human genome.

Until now it was assumed that the human genome, or "book of life", is largely the same for everyone, save for a few spelling differences in some of the words. Instead, the findings suggest that the book contains entire sentences, paragraphs or even whole pages that are repeated any number of times.

The findings mean that instead of humanity being 99.9 per cent identical, as previously believed, we are at least 10 times more different between one another than once thought - which could explain why some people are prone to serious diseases.

The studies published today have found that instead of having just two copies of each gene - one from each parent - people can carry many copies, but just how many can vary between one person and the next.

The studies suggest variations in the number of copies of genes is normal and healthy. But the scientists also believe many diseases may be triggered by an abnormal loss or gain in the copies of some key genes.

Another implication of the finding is that we are more different to our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, than previously assumed from earlier studies. Instead of being 99 per cent similar, we are more likely to be about 96 per cent similar.

The findings, published simultaneously in three leading science journals by scientists from 13 different research centres in Britain and America, were described as ground-breaking by leading scientists...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2007490.ece

Who's OK with biometric Citizenship ID Card

Few and far-between discussions on networks about the Real ID Card program soon to be imposed on citizens of the United States of America by a traitorous Congress. we'll have to see if the new Congress with a Democrat majority rescinds this travesty on American values since the nation was founded on individual freedom, limited government, and the rule of law, constitutional law. The Real ID/Pass Card infringes on guaranteed rights of U.S. citizens. The measure is part of a North American "agreement" with Mexico and Canada which was not ratified as a treaty by the Senate.

Today, C-Span featured a rebroadcast of a panel that discussed the Real ID Card. I didn't catch everyone's name. Members of the panel included a male assistant to Rep. Louise Slaughter and others who appeared to be company representatives.

It was unclear whether Rep. Slaughter is OK with some sort of Pass card ID system for re-entry to their own country by U.S. citizens.

So searching for what the heck is going on... According to this list H.R. 417 - REAL ID Act Slaughter (D-28): Nay

H.R. 417 - REAL ID Act
Passed: February 10, 2005
House

http://www.bordc.org/involved/concerned/votingrecords_detail.php?bill=9

A chronology of Rep. Slaughter's actions on behalf of border communities

This is the accessible text file for GAO report number GAO-06-741R
entitled 'Observations on Efforts to Implement the Western Hemisphere
Travel Initiative on the U.S. Border with Canada' which was released on
June 1, 2006.

http://www.gao.gov/htext/d06741r.html

SLAUGHTER, McHUGH UNVEIL NEW BI-PARTISAN LEGISLATION ADDRESSING WHTI CONCERNS RAISED BY GAO
PACT Act Will Delay Implementation, Help Fix Major WHTI Problems

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-Fairport) and Rep. John M. McHugh (R-Pierrepont Manor) today announced new bi-partisan legislation that will delay implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) and correct many of its inherent flaws. The legislation is known as the Protecting American Commerce and Travel Act, or PACT Act...

http://mchugh.house.gov/pr2006/060106_WHTILegislation.html

GAO

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06741r.pdf

Members of Congress Forced to Swallow Poison Pill

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules, today led debate on the rule concerning the supplemental Iraqi War Appropriations Bill. Citing the Republican Majority’s decision to include the unrelated and controversial “Real I.D.” immigration legislation in a bill intended to help our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Rep. Slaughter delivered the following remarks focusing attention on yet another Republican abuse of power

http://www.votelouise.com/news/63/rep-slaughter-addresses-republican-abuse-of-power-in-iraq-spending-bill

From the Liberty Coalition piece, Are You Ready for Your North American Union ID Card?... The PACT Act, introduced by Reps. Louise Slaughter and John McHugh would also require the U.S. and Canada to develop identical documents for use under WHTI.

What all this means is that we are facing a situation where U.S. and Canadian drivers’ licenses, which Americans need to drive to work, go to a tavern, and generally navigate day-to-day life, will contain sensitive personal biometric information, interlinked and readable by the governments of Canada and Mexico. And depending on the standards decided upon by Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff, our drivers’ licenses could contain more information than the documents Mexicans use to cross into the U.S. legally; nevermind those who cross our insecure southern border without permission...

http://libertycoalition.net/nau-id

Group warns bill contains national ID

While a section of the bill says no provision in it "shall be construed to authorize, directly or indirectly, the issuance or use of national identification cards," Liberty Coalition officials point out another section requires Social Security Administration, the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice to submit a report to Congress about creating a machine-readable photo ID based on social security numbers.

"This action is a clear move towards constructing a National ID program, a concept rejected by most Americans," said the group, in a statement.
James Plummer, the coalition's policy director, described the bill's language about a national ID as "Orwellian doublespeak."

"A real border security law would secure the borders, making this kind of police-state 'Big Brother' tracking of Americans unnecessary," he said.
Liberty Coalition includes such politically

Group warns bill contains national ID

Slaughter Says Alternative Travel Card is a Step in the Right Direction

Also States that More Work Must be Done for Card to Work for Western New York

Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-Fairport), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, today responded to the announcement by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that their departments will produce an alternative passport card for travel to and from Canada.

"Today's announcement is a step in the right direction, but DHS and State have a lot of work to do if they are going to make this alternative travel card work for border communities," Rep. Slaughter said. "We need to know how much this travel card will cost, how long it will take to process an application, and where people can apply and receive this document," she added.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004 will require all individuals to present a passport or comparable documentation when entering the United States from Canada. This requirement, referred to as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), is set to go into effect on December 31, 2007. The announcement made today by Secretaries Rice and Chertoff states that they will be creating a secure alternative passport card that will meet the security requirements of the IRTPA, but provided few details on the program.

"I am afraid that the current vision for this card does not address the spontaneous travelers who pump millions of dollars into the Western New York economy," Rep. Slaughter said. "If these individuals are unable to easily acquire this travel card, or if the card is prohibitively expensive, then spontaneous trips to and from Canada will dry-up," she added.

Rep. Slaughter also commented that drivers' licenses should not at this time be eliminated as an acceptable border-crossing document.

"Drivers licenses pose the least burden on cross-border travelers, and so they shouldn't be prematurely excluded from consideration," she said.

http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=379

Are You Ready for Your North American Union ID Card?
Human Events Online has been leading the coverage of the so-called “Security and Prosperity Partnership,” a unilateral program implemented by the Bush Administration designed to set the course for a North American Union that would subsume our national sovereignty. A de facto treaty signed by the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., the agreement was never submitted to the Senate for ratification. Now it can be revealed that plans for the North American Union include a tri-national “North American Union” ID card.

Recent testimony to Congress by a Homeland Security official reinforces the point. At a June 8 hearing before an immigration subcommittee, DHS counselor and acting assistant secretary Paul Rosenzweig touted something called the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). In doing so, he cited the SPP and bragged that under the SPP, “Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers convened trilateral working groups to develop concrete work plans and specific timetables for securing North America and ensuring legitimate travelers and cargo efficiently cross our shared borders.”

The WHTI was established to implement legislation passed as part of the 2004 intelligence reform bill, which was in turn spurred on by the findings of the federal government’s ad hoc 9/11 Commission. A provision in that legislation required that everyone entering the United States, including Americans, present identity documents -- but all of the details were left to the Department of Homeland Security. The result was the WHTI, which aims to require that people entering the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, or Bermuda present either a new document called a “Passport Card” or other documents to be named which will meet certain standards to be determined. This requirement would also apply to Americans, who currently do not need a passport to travel to those countries but would need a document compliant with WHTI to return home.

By folding the WHTI into the SPP’s agenda for a North American Union, the Bush Administration is brazenly laying the foundation to turn WHTI into a backdoor tri-national ID system. And Americans may have little choice but to be integrated into it...

http://libertycoalition.net/nau-id

UK TOO

CNET News.com reports what we have knowns for some time...

Microsoft has warned that the U.K.'s national identity card plans pose a security risk that could increase the likelihood of confidential data falling into the hands of criminals.

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+exec+ID+cards+pose+security+risk/2100-7348-5900411.html?part=dht&tag=ntop&tag=nl.e433

http://whiterose.samizdata.net/archives/identity_cards/

UK Say NO to ID cards and the database state!

http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse?showall=1

U.S. opposition

http://www.google.com/search?q=real+id+card+OPPOSE&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=

state groups oppose

http://www.ncsl.org/statefed/GRPLtrRealID.htm

Living the outlaw life: National ID — Our Line in the Sand
By Claire Wolfe Backwoods Home

Excerpt

Where did the government acquire the authority to freely inspect your life? What legitimate law enforcement or security purpose is served by surveiling the innocent?

The question isn’t what do you have to hide but why is the government so persistently determined to find out everything about you.

The third big deal is that national ID violates your rights

When you have to prove your identity to government agents on demand, you’re being treated as a criminal -- and your Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights are being trashed.

When you have to produce identity papers on demand, you’re being searched illegally. If you’re “detained” until you prove your identity, you’re being seized illegally. Both are violations of the Fourth Amendment.

If you must give information that could get you prosecuted (for instance, the information that you’re not carrying your national ID), you’re being forced to provide evidence against yourself -- a Fifth Amendment violation.

If your religion forbids universal numbering, your First Amendment rights are being broken by national ID.

And by extending its authority into areas forbidden to it by the Constitution, the federal government violates the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.

Is it worth it to you, to gain national ID and lose all these historic protections?

Worse. Your loss of freedom won’t do anything to make you safe

http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/wolfe0111.html





Resources:
Senate approves electronic ID card bill
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: May 10, 2005

http://news.com.com/Senate+approves+electronic+ID+card+bill/2100-1028_3-5702505.html

Scorecard

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgradescategory.php3?District=NY28&Category=1&Status=Career&VIPID=611

110 Congress United States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/110th_United_States_Congress

Aaron Russo's America: from freedom to facism

Are you aware by May of 2008 the law will require you to carry a national identification card? ...

Includes trailer of movie

http://www.freedomtofascism.com/

House control hinges on Chester County race
MARK SCOLFORO The Associated Press
Article Last Updated:11/09/2006 10:56:30 AM EST


HARRISBURG -- Control of the state House of Representatives has come down to a single race -- the contest for a Chester County seat left open by the retirement of a 15-term Republican.
Republican Shannon Royer was clinging to an unofficial 19-vote lead over Democrat Barbara McIlvaine Smith, but county elections officials said poll workers mistakenly failed to count about 250 absentee ballots on election night and that about 40 provisional ballots also were uncounted.

It could be more than a week before all the votes -- along with overseas and military ballots -- are included in the results, Chester County officials said yesterday. The seat had been held by Rep. Elinor Z. Taylor for three decades.

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/pennsylvania/ci_4630332

This is important... fraud is committed using absentee ballots - everything must be checked out, including the location of residence of absentee ballot electors. Does West Chester have its database of registered voters online?

See Allegheny County database (FYI)

Allegheny County Department of Administrative Services, Division of Elections, has developed the Polling Place and Voter Registration Database (“Database”) as a public service to the citizens of Allegheny County. The Database provides a quick and easy method of determining where the polling place for any particular address within Allegheny County is located. Also, by inserting a voter’s last name and birthdate, users will be able to receive unofficial confirmation of voter registration at the particular address. While all of the information contained in the Database is believed to be accurate, the Database is not the official registry of voter registration in Allegheny County.

http://www.county.allegheny.pa.us/votedistricts/

Control of state House may hinge on technicalities
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

By Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- Control of the state House could hinge on whether a handful of Chester County voters used their middle initials when they signed their absentee ballots.

That's the kind of technicality being argued in the county over 20 ballots in two elections that are too close to call.

Republicans, who have an edge in both races after unofficial Election Night returns, want to exclude some provisional and absentee ballots from the final vote total, while Democrats want them counted.

Both sides made their cases yesterday during six hours of testimony before the county commissioners, who are acting as the Board of Elections. Testimony was expected to continue today and a decision on whether to include those ballots could come as soon as Tuesday.

Then, the challenged ballots that are deemed admissible, along with 529 other sealed absentee ballots in the two races, will be opened and counted.

Not including the ballots being challenged, Republican Shannon Royer has a 19-vote lead over Democrat Barbara McIlvaine Smith out of 23,018 ballots cast in the 156th District.

In the 167th, Republican Duane Milne leads Democrat Anne Crowley by 136 votes, according to unofficial totals of 26,545 ballots.

Both parties are intensely interested in both races because the outcome will determine who controls the state House. Not including the two races, there are 101 Democrats and 100 Republicans in the House.

GOP attorneys yesterday argued that, for example, James D. Muhly's absentee ballot should not count because he signed it "J.D. Muhly" and that another ballot should be disqualified because election workers failed to stamp the date on it when it arrived in the mail.

In another case, Republicans allege a ballot may have been tampered with because part of the envelope was torn when it arrived in the mail.

"At the end of the day, no matter who wins or loses, we want to make sure it's based on valid votes," Lawrence Tabas, attorney for the Republicans, said during a break in yesterday's proceedings. "The requirements for absentee voting are not onerous. We want to make sure they're followed."

Otherwise, he said, improper ballots dilute those that were properly cast.

At issue were nine overseas absentee ballots, most of which were questioned because forms had not been filled out completely or because signatures on them were not exact matches for those on voter registration cards, and 11 provisional ballots cast by people whose registration could not be verified on Election Day.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06326/740375-179.stm

Ballot-counting leaves control of state House unresolved

By MARK SCOLFORO
The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. - With control of the state House of Representatives hanging in the balance, Chester County elections officials do not expect to announce the results of two close legislative races until after Thanksgiving.

In a third state House contest, for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Rep. John Fichter, the final numbers should be out next week, said Patti Allen with Montgomery County Voter Services.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/103-11162006-742380.html

West Chester Key

Pa. House is still up for grabs A final count of 2 Chesco races has been postponed, leaving in doubt which party will have control.
By Nancy Petersen and Mario Cattabiani
Inquirer Staff Writers
Political control of the state House of Representatives will remain in doubt until at least next week after Chester County officials postponed a final tally of absentee and provisional ballots.

The outcome of the two Chester County state House races could depend on the several hundred uncounted ballots. They will not be tabulated until after Nov. 14, the deadline for receiving military votes, the Chester County Board of Elections ruled.

In one race, only 19 votes separate the winner and loser out of 23,018 cast.

"On or after November 14, we will know the unofficial count," said Lawrence Tabas, who is representing the Republican side of the contest. "If someone asks for a recount, it could go into December."

Hundreds of absentee ballots were mistakenly left out of the unofficial results from Tuesday's election.

In the contest for the West Chester-area 156th seat, Republican Shannon Royer is 19 votes ahead of Democrat Barbara McIlvaine Smith, according to the unofficial returns from Tuesday.

Smith said that her campaign's review shows that there are 252 absentee and provisional ballots still uncounted from precincts that she won.

A bookkeeper with 30 years of experience, Smith said she understands how human error could have crept into the counting.

"When you have humans involved, there is always going to be some errors," she said.

"The majority is hanging in the balance," she said. "This election now will not only impact on Chester County, but it will also impact on all of Pennsylvania. There is a lot at stake here."

Al Bowman, spokesman for the House Republican Campaign Committee, disputed Smith's assertion that she carried the precincts from which the uncounted ballots were cast.

Bowman said he expects that, in the end, the 19-vote lead will hold up for the GOP.

"I am confident 102 will stand," he said, referring to the number of seats needed to keep the majority. Bowman predicted that whatever the outcome, the result will likely lead to court challenges given the importance of the race.

"Nineteen votes is the difference between higher taxes and lower taxes," he said.

In the Malvern-Exton-area 167th race between Republican Duane Milne and Democrat Anne Crowley, as many as 340 absentee ballots are yet to be counted. Milne won that race by 136 votes, according to the unofficial returns.

The order signed yesterday states that neither validated provisional ballots or the absentee ballots, or any other emergency ballot, will be counted until both sides have their representatives and legal counsel present.

A date when the assorted candidates and their lawyers will all be gathered together has not yet been determined.

County election officials agreed to keep the disputed ballots under lock and key at the office of Voter Services in the county's Government Services Center.

"We are convinced the security of the ballots has been maintained," said John Carnes, who is representing the House Democratic Campaign Committee.

Chester County uses optical scan paper ballots where voters fill in ovals similar to taking a standardized test. Once a voter is finished, the ballot is fed into a scanner that records the vote. When the polls close, workers print out a tape from the scanner showing the unofficial results.

Lani Frank, campaign chairwoman for Smith, said poll workers were dealing with a new system Tuesday night and many shut down their scanners before they processed the absentee ballots at the end of the day. "It was just human error," she said.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15974846.htm

GOP clings to 1-vote lead in state House
Brad Bumsted
STATE CAPITOL REPORTER
Thursday, November 9, 2006


HARRISBURG -- Republicans appeared to retain control of the state House by a narrow margin, despite Democratic victories at the top of the ticket.
The Democrats might have fallen one vote short in their bid to reclaim power in the House for the first time since 1994, officials said. It appears the Republicans won a 102-101 majority in Tuesday's election, although several contests remained close. One GOP victory in Chester County hinges on a 19-vote margin.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_478931.html

From the comments of both parties of what should or should not count, it seems to me that the majority of the provisional ballots are from Democrats. I also believe if the result goes to court, the provisional ballots that were rejected
because the ChesCo board of elections did nothing with the voters' DMV
change of address registrations will be reinstated. It's not the voters' fault
ChesCo didn't have a plan to handle or contact voters whose registrations had
been removed from their rolls, but who also submitted change of address
voter forms through the DMV...

http://www.keystonepolitics.com/Topic31.html

Recount, schmecount, it seems.

While Linda Cummings, the Chester County Voting honcho, works surprisingly hard to turn herself into the second coming of Katharine Harris — and seemingly shoots down every Democratic voter challenge, while welcoming all Republican voter challenges like they were long, lost relatives, I have learned that the contested races in the 156th and 167th districts may not decide which party will control the Pennsylvania State House.

http://www.mikemcgann.org/
Federal Election Commission Publication on statewide voter registration databases

http://www.infosentry.com/newsrele.html

Illegal Immigration roundup of facts

Portions of letter without cited resources need substantiation...

otherwise, decent attempt to provide informative opinion...

Illegal immigrants cost nation, create problems
By Jack Kruell, Guest commentary
11/21/2006

Our republic/nation is being invaded, our national security is being compromised. The U.S. population is almost 300 million now. Since the announcement of the plan to grant amnesty to the estimated 7 million undocumented, primarily Mexican aliens illegally in the U.S., the numbers have swelled. Estimates of the number of illegals range from 11 million to 40 million. In some cases, these illegals run down our flag and run up foreign flag, and demand amnesty as they break our laws.


The cost of immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997, after subtracting taxes immigrants pay, was a net $70 billion a year. (Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University) Can you imagine what it must be in 2006? Taxes paid minus services used, for the average adult immigrant, is a negative number.

The estimated profit to U.S. corporations and businesses employing illegal aliens in 2005 was more than $2.36 trillion dollars.

The estimated cost to the average American taxpayer is $55,000 over a five-year span. You are personally giving $11,000 every year to illegal aliens. (http:/USABorderALERT.Com/)

More than 390,000 anchor babies born in the U.S. in 2005 were to parents who are illegal aliens; making those 380,000 babies automatically U.S. citizens. A huge 97.2 percent of all the incurred costs from those births are paid for by taxpayers.

More than 66 percent of all births in California are to illegal alien Mexicans on Med-Cal, whose births were paid by taxpayers.

Sixty-two percent of all undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are working for cash and not paying taxes; they are predominantly illegal aliens, working without a green card.

Less than 2 percent of illegal aliens in the U.S. are picking crops, but 41 percent are on welfare. Over 70 percent of the U.S. annual population growth (and over 90 percent of California, Florida and New York) results from immigration.

Twenty-nine percent (630,000) of convicted illegal aliens are in state and federal prisons, at a cost of $1.6 billion annually. The FBI reports over half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border. More than 43 percent of all food stamps issued in the U.S. are to illegal aliens. Thirty-nine percent of California students in grades 1-12 are illegal aliens.

Evidence of policy: Texas border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were prosecuted and convicted for a variety of offenses linked to their role in attempting to apprehend a Mexican drug smuggler.

They could go to prison, while the drug smuggler received immunity from prosecution for bringing 800 pounds of marijuana across the border.

While we must show compassion for many of those attempting to flee the country of their birth for better lives, we must realize the present immigration policy will play a huge bole in whatever horrible scenario is planned for all of us.

The evidence shows that politicians on both sides of the border have created this problem because they know the inevitable outcome of resultant cultural tensions is violence; our strings are being pulled, and both Mexicans and Americans are being used.

Why and how could it ever come to this? The elitist transnational conglomerates promote a borderless world, one they can take advantage of with impunity; while almost all others have roots and pride in country, state, city, towns and neighborhoods.

These are the same internationalists who promote open borders, legal or not, resulting in allowing our borders to be overwhelmed by illegal aliens in order to increase profits from cheap, uneducated labor.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17494335&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=468562&rfi=6

PA tax relief take an anti-gas pill

It's that bad... the property tax study commissions mandated to be appointed by local school districts were designed to make recommendations concerning what type of tax would be instituted to dollar for dollar ? reduce local property taxes.

The issue is not uncomplicated:

Act 72 Complicates an Already Complicated System – Local Taxation and Tax Collection

revenues from slot machines for local property tax relief in Pennsylvania. However, this new law impacts more than homeowners’ tax bills. IssuesPA investigated the impact on local tax collection.

(April 2005) Act 72 authorizes using receipts from slot machines to pay for local tax relief in communities throughout Pennsylvania. Yet in addition to the headline-making issues of property tax relief and the back-end referendum, Act 72 could further complicate Pennsylvania's fragmented tax system, making it even more difficult and costly to collect local taxes.

Three key factors make tax collection difficult: multiple tax rates, multiple tax collectors, and multiple tax bases. The dilemma begins with the collection of state and local income taxes. Currently, businesses must collect and remit local earned income taxes to local tax collectors and the state income tax to state government. The state income tax is the easy part - one taxing authority, one rate, one tax base. However, in Pennsylvania, calculating local taxes is much more complicated and often creates added costs for the initial tax collector - employers.

What's the impact on local income taxes?

State law allows local governments, including municipalities and school districts, to use a variety of earned income tax (EIT) rates. Current state law permits most communities to impose a rate up to 1% on residents or non-residents who work within the local government boundaries, and that 1% often - but not always - is shared by the school district and the municipality. Other municipalities and school districts can have higher rates for a number of reasons, such as:

Separately legislated limits in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton;
Special provisions for financially distressed communities;
Municipalities that purchase and preserve open space;
Home rule municipalities; and
School districts that have elected to trade higher earned income taxes for lower property and occupational assessment taxes.
Earned income tax? Personal income tax?

Buried in Act 72, either explicitly or implicitly, are provisions that will add significantly to the number of tax rates. First, rate changes will be numerous. To qualify for gambling dollars, school districts must increase their EIT rate by at least 0.1% - whether or not they levy an EIT currently. School districts could adopt - or may be required by referendum to adopt - a greater EIT rate to provide additional property tax relief. The only limit on that rate is the ceiling for meeting the full homestead exemption.

Act 72 also permits school districts to impose an income tax using the state personal income tax (PIT) base instead of a wage tax base. A PIT would have yet another different rate to raise the same revenue as an EIT - and would tax more kinds of income than the EIT. For districts selecting this option, there will be a PIT rate for the school district and an EIT rate for the municipality.

What's the impact of all these potential new taxes and rates? The potential for thousands of municipal and school district income tax rate combinations across Pennsylvania's communities.

Currently, there are more than 550 earned income tax collectors; 99 school districts use more than one. About 80% collect taxes for only one or two taxing jurisdictions. There's no consistency statewide in who collects the tax: it ranges from individuals collecting for a handful of jurisdictions to contracted private companies collecting under individual contracts or under contract with multiple taxing authorities, consolidating their efforts and spreading collection costs. The result is a lack of consistency. Employers with multiple locations and with employees living in different municipalities may have to deal with hundreds of tax collectors, a situation almost unique to Pennsylvania.

Adopting the provisions of Act 72 won't change the current complicated system. In fact, it's possible yet another tax collector could be involved. Some EIT tax collectors may not be prepared to take on a new local PIT tax.

Further, the current tax base isn't defined consistently across boundaries. The definition of "income" effectively depends on where you live. For example, an employer with employees in different school districts, some of which levy the EIT and others that levy the PIT, would have to decipher different withholding rules for multiple employees...

http://www.issuespa.net/articles/13003/;jsessionid=85FCFD1AD13416B81AA3B275F3BB3E99

a number of the study commissions just throw the ball back in the court of the local school district...

(Note; will have to look into whether the referendum question would contain a choice between earned income tax and personal income tax)(Net the Truth Online)

Uniontown panel: No tax change

Judy Kroeger
DAILY COURIER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The tax study commission appointed by Uniontown Area School District recommended no change to the tax structure.
At a school board meeting Monday, commission spokeswoman Dee John told directors the group does not favor increasing the earned income tax to provide property tax relief.

"You would have to raise income taxes by 0.4 percent to provide tax relief, an 80 percent increase," she said. "Households that earn $46,500 or more would pay more in earned income tax than they would save in property tax. Act 1 is tax shifting rather than tax relief."

The earned income tax is 1 percent, with the district receiving half and the municipality of the taxpayer receiving half.

Business Manager Floyd Geho said the district still has to put the question of an increase in earned income tax on the primary ballot in May.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/fayette/s_480779.html

Commission recommends no changes in tax structure
By Angie Oravec, Herald-Standard
11/21/2006
The local tax study commission of the Uniontown Area School District recommended no change to the school district's current taxing structure Monday, refusing to suggest an increased earned income or personal income tax.


The commission made the recommendation, as required by the state law called Act 1 or the Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act, after holding eight meetings since September to weigh options outlined by the state...

... Even without the tax study commission recommending a way to offset property taxes, the school board must still by law place a referendum question on the primary election ballot asking voters to approve increasing either the earned income or personal income tax to offset property taxes.

The voters will then accept or reject an increased tax in exchange for the possibility of lower property taxes, depending on a household's situation.

The Brownsville Area and Laurel Highlands school district local tax study commissions also recommended no change to their district's current tax structure...

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17492662&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=468520&rfi=6

November 14, 2006 Brownsville tax commission recommends no change
Amanda clegg Herald-Standard

Members of the Brownsville Area School District's tax study commission agreed to recommend no change in the district's tax configuration to the school board in December...

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17461393&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

Residents confused about new tax law
By Angie Oravec, Herald-Standard
11/23/2006

Excerpt

Howard said the commission did not reach a decision on which recommendation they will present to the school board by Dec. 13 because its work is incomplete at this point.

Under Act 1 or the Pennsylvania Taxpayer Relief Act, local tax study commissions appointed by the 501 school boards across the state are analyzing school district tax structures to determine the most feasible way to offset homeowners' property taxes. The purpose of the commissions is to make a recommendation to their respective school boards.

The majority of commissions across the state are recommending raising the earned income tax, rather than the personal income tax or advising the board to keep the district's existing tax structure, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

Locally, the trend seems to be either recommending no change or the raising the earned income tax wage earners pay annually. Recommendations are non-binding, meaning the school board could choose a different route than that suggested by their commission.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17503277&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=468520&rfi=6
PA Laws - Part 1-3 Act 72 Homestead Tax Relief Act

http://palaws.blogspot.com/2005/06/act-72-homestead-tax-relief-part-1-of.html

Will implement something else

Jeff-Morgan votes to raise earned income taxes
By Rebekah Sungala, Herald-Standard
11/21/2006
The Jefferson-Morgan School Board voted Monday to raise earned income taxes by .6 percent after reviewing a recommendation from the district's tax study commission.


The increase will raise the earned income tax to 1.6 percent. However, the school district will receive only receive 1.1 percent of the revenue, with .5 percent of the earned income tax going to the municipality.

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17492663&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=468520&rfi=6

April 2005 report (Fumo)

http://www.fumo.com/Fiscal_Reports/REPORT_April_2005.pdf

Opted to not participate

Lampeter-Strasburg school district

http://www.lampstras.k12.pa.us/distinfo/act72/Act72_Resolution.pdf

Does the homeowner or farmstead owner have to apply or forego the so-called property tax relief?

Summary of Referendum/Property Tax Relief Legislation
Major provisions of Act 72 of 2004
Updated Sept. 21, 2004

For your convenience, PSBA presents this detailed summary of Act 72 of 2004, the Homeowners Property Tax Relief Act. This act contains numerous provisions that could have a major effect on how school districts operate. It requires school districts to reduce property taxes using state revenues from gaming allocations and local revenues using newly authorized income taxes. The bill also requires school districts to obtain the approval of its voters for certain increases in taxes for schools and mandates that districts adopt their preliminary budget far earlier than they do currently. For ease of understanding, the provisions of the act are presented in chronological order...

http://www.psba.org/issues-research/act72-summary.asp