“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into”

Jonathan Swift
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"The Democrats have moved to the right, and the right has moved into a mental hospital." - Bill Maher
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"The city is crowded my friends are away and I'm on my own
It's too hot to handle so I gotta get up and go

It's a cruel ... cruel summer"

Thursday, June 15, 2006

NAFTA Superhighway coming to a state near you! (Pssst: It Starts With The Letter 'T')



Found this interesting, what do you think?

The Bushistas have secretly (How else!) been pushing funding for a transamerican highway running through Texas from Laredo to San Antonio, Dallas, Denton and then through Okieland and up.

TXDOT is running the local show, they even have a $10 web page up that prob costed $100k. The billions for the Texas corridor will be paid out by an International consortium called Cintra Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte. A Spanish headquartered conglom. That prob means it is a toll road, but Texas won't get a dime that I can find out.

Some thoughts:
At first glance I am a BIG proponent of infrastructure. I am NOT a big proponent of wasted tax money. I know the bennies for this, but;

1. Who builds and maintains this thing? Does Canada and Mexico chip in?
2. How about security? Apparently the trucks just get on the highway with a 'fast pass' magnetic strip. First customs stop is in Kansas City.
3. This is definately an end run around American ports who have good paying union jobs. You can dock your container ship at Manzanillo, Mexico cheap.
4. This is a massive project. The way the Bushies have fubared up EVERYTHING they have touched, makes me want to know more.
5. What companies donating to which Republican campaigns will get the big payday?

The wingnuts are going crazy over this, with Jerome Corsi, the filthy POS swift boat liar for Bush author leading the charge. (No link. He is scum. Google if you must)

Since this thing runs through our state, you just know we will be left holding the bag for maintaining this. Hearings in Austin are next month. Anyone downstate going?

-Prodigal Son

UPDATE: Huffpost has more