Wrong Paul
Paul: If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent. It will not end at the Republican convention. It will not end in November. It will not end until we have won the great battle on which we have embarked.
So, given the ardency of Paul's supporters and the scores of e-mails requesting that we write about him, we decided to take a look at Paul's claims. Here's some of what we found.
Paging Fox Mulder
The NAFTA Superhighway According to Paul, a secret organization run by unaccountable government figures is in league with foreign corporations who are all bent on usurping American sovereignty. That's not from the script for a new X-Files movie. (Or not that we know of.) It's the gist of Paul's description of a supposed "NAFTA Superhighway." Paul describes it on his Web site as "a ten-lane colossus the width of several football fields, with freight and rail lines, fiber-optic cable lines, and oil and natural gas pipelines running alongside." And that's not all. According to Paul, the ultimate plan is to form a North American Union with a single currency and unlimited travel within its borders, all headed up by "an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments" that together form the shadowy "quasi-government organization called the 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,' or SPP."
The problem with Paul's claim is that there are no plans to build a NAFTA Superhighway. Or a North American Union, for that matter. And while the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America does exist, it's just a boring bureaucracy.
Like many conspiracy theories, this one is a mixture of fact and fiction. That scary-looking map, with lines that rumor suggested were drawn to scale, is the product of an actual group called North America's SuperCorridor Organization (NASCO), which is a consortium of public and private entities. But contrary to conspiracy theorists, the map does not show a new highway. Those bright blue lines show only I-35 and I-29 – interstates that already exist. On its Web site, NASCO says it and some of the local governments along I-35 have been referring to that route as the "NAFTA Superhighway" for years. NASCO advocates improvements to existing roads, but is not lobbying for, or planning to build, any new thoroughfares. From the NASCO Web site:
NASCO: "NAFTA Superhighway" - As of late, there has been much media attention given to the "new, proposed NAFTA Superhighway". NASCO and the cities, counties, states and provinces along our existing Interstate Highways 35/29/94 (the NASCO Corridor) have been referring to I-35 as the 'NAFTA Superhighway' for many years, as I-35 already carries a substantial amount of international trade with Mexico, the United States and Canada. There are no plans to build a new NAFTA Superhighway - it exists today as I-35.
In terms of new roads, there are, in fact, plans for a Trans-Texas Corridor, a road that would be (in spots) several football fields wide. And the road would be financed by a private company (which is partially Spanish-owned) that would then charge tolls to recoup its investment. But the TTC was approved by the Texas Legislature and the governor of Texas. It is a state initiative, but it is not part of a NAFTA Superhighway, nor is it the product of a shadowy federal conspiracy.
Indeed, Ian Grossman, a spokesman with the Federal Highway Administration told the Los Angeles Times, "There is no such superhighway like the one [Paul is] talking about. It doesn't exist, in plans or anywhere else."
The other parts of the conspiracy are much the same. The SPP – that "quasi-government organization" – is really an actual government organization, organized through the White House. According to David Bohigian, an assistant secretary of commerce, the SPP is a bureaucratic dialog staffed by mid-level officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico who work to synchronize customs, security and regulations. "Simple stuff," Bohigian told The Nation last August, "like, for instance, in the U.S. we sell baby food in several different sizes; in Canada, it's just two different sizes." Not exactly cloak-and-dagger stuff.
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Member Comments
Posted By: Nins @ 03/13/2008 9:23:14 PM
Comment: A blogger named Edson writes "Did the word Democrat really come from democracy?"
Here is a derivation of the words "Democrat" and "Republican."
The United States of America is a republic, that is to say, a Federal government in which the people are represented by elected officials from the various states. Before we were a republic, we were a democracy made up of 13 individual states that were not united. A democracy is a form of government where the individual citizens have the right to speak their minds and influence the political discourse. Democracy was named after Demosthenes, a citizen of ancient Greece with a speech impediment who practiced talking with his mouth full of pebbles to overcome his disability. Demosthenes later became a great political orator. This is where the Democrats derive their name.
The original Republicans were in favor of the states joining to form a republic (which is how that party got it's name). The original Democrats were opposed to this idea, they represented the individual states and were worried that the republic could gain too much power over the states, and through the exercise of tyranny, deny individuals their freedom. Trust me, people were pretty passionate about their liberty in those days, having just fought for independence from England. The Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were all hammered out by serious-minded men who sought to balance the need for individual freedom with our shared common cause, the needs for united strength and social order. Balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of the whole society is what America is all about. This is not only a great achievement for our nation, it is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. And we have, by and large, been true to our ideals over the past 227 years. The system of government we initially established, although needing occasional revisions, has stood the test of time.
Let's not forget where we started from, that impulse towards equality and freedom.
America is, with all it's faults, a meritocracy. Most of our founding fathers would never have had a voice in the 18th century English government they rebelled against, a monarchy where you had to be born into power. In America it was different. If you had intelligence, passion, ambition, drive, talent and a little luck, you could change the world.
This is the real secret to Obama's popularity, his ability to touch this archetype in our souls. This is why a white, conservative middle-aged female Republican like me wants to vote for him. He's got that blend of intelligence, passion, ambition, drive and talent. I'm giving him my vote to proffer him the last ingredient, a little luck, so I can watch our Republican Democracy in action, and once again change the world.
IN GOD WE TRUST
Posted By: johnsmith123456 @ 03/03/2008 5:47:20 PM
Comment: No matter what these so called "reliable sources" say, the American People will not go down without a fight!! Even if Ron Paul does not get nomination, more and more people are becoming aware of the ever growing control of the federal government and I for one will not be a part of a nation where its citizens are enslaved. People of the United States it is time to take hold of our Second Amendment and take back our nation by force. I will not fight for a war of OIL but I will give my life in defending this nation from the real terrorists "THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT".
Posted By: GuitarFreakStyle @ 02/26/2008 2:29:59 AM
Comment: Goto SPP.gov see for yourself. The Government's own website with the layed out details of the North American Union. The CFR Counsel of Foreign Relations are negotiating the merge. Secondly last year at the Canada Builderberg meeting it was the main discussion. The NAFTA superhighway is real Mr Miller. and Last but not least get this through your head.. RON PAUL IS NOT DROPPING OUT OF THE RACE. You are Posting false information. Newsweek is just as bad at posting fake Ron Paul info just Like Fox, and MSNBC cause you don't want people to know Dr. Ron Paul is the only true Candidate who's never flip flopped.