Do not attempt to adjust the dial;
we are in control.
Sit back,
watch American Idol
while we make deals in secret
to take your homes,
your land,
your churches,
your schools
and your towns.
The Trans Texas Corridor is the Texas leg of the NAFTA Superhighway/Corridor
I know that some of you STILL don’t believe this and others will find it hard to believe.
BELIEVE IT!
RECOMMEND on Daily Kos NOW! America needs to know what’s coming!
“This one issue is driving a huge stake into the heart of the Republican party and creating a new populist revolt that crosses party lines.”
David Van Os, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General 2006
The following article is from a conservative news source. I include it here to illustrate that Republicans and Democrats are joining forces on this issue. Some of the information presented in the extended article is skewed/inaccurate with my findings.
From Human Events Online: The National CONSERVATIVE Weekly
Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway…
Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman’s Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation’s most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new “SENTRI” system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex…
…The American public is largely asleep…
W A K E U P A M E R I C A N P U B L I C!
As you can see, they don’t plan to stop this monstrosity in Texas. They plan to come straight to YOUR front door! It’s NOT TOO LATE to STOP it! The way to stop the NAFTA Super Highway, the only way, is to stop the Texas leg that is called the Trans Texas Corridor(TTC) ! The way to stop the TTC, the only way, is to elect Democrats who will fight it to Texas statewide offices.
A few facts:
- The TTC Texas land grab (584,000 acres) is the single biggest eminent domain land grab in the history of the United States.
- Every incumbent Republican who holds a statewide office took what appears to be TTC bribe money. (Independent candidate for governor, Carol Strayhorn also took money.*)
- 9.5 Million or about 45% of all Texans live within 50 miles of I-35 which is in the path of the TTC!
- I-35 is the backbone of the broader, international NASCO Corridor
- Tolls for 50 years estimated at $.44 to $.64 per mile
- The point of entry into the United States will be in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico
- The drop off point will be in Kansas City
- For additional information see my previous diary, Shhhh! Don’t Tell The Media!
- TTC Fact Sheet
* Independent candidate for governor, Carol Strayhorn took over $13,000.00 from Zachry when she ran for Comptroller of Public Accounts four years ago. Chris Bell, Democratic candidate for governor, has urged her to return nearly $30,000.00 she’s accepted in campaign contributions since 2000 from the Zachry family. Zachry Construction Corp. is partnered with Cintra, a corporation based in Madrid, Spain, to develop the Trans Texas Corridor.
There has been scant reporting on this issue by, what David Van Os calls, “The Corporate Embedded Media.” Most of Texas is unaware. Most of America is unaware. The deals are made in secret meetings behind closed doors. Secret enabling clauses are buried throughout different legislative bills.
Faith Chatham wrote A Trans Texas Corridor/NAFTA Parable and in one of her comments she describes some of the sneaky language:
Some of the language of the legislation in Texas
- exempts TDoT from compliance with Historical Significance Landmark regulation
- allows TDoT to perform their own ENVIRONMENTAL /ECOLOGICAL IMPACT STUDIES!
- prevents the release of proposals or research acquired by TDoT or their agents/consultants while researching the TTC until after a final contract is let unless the private entity approves the release EVEN IF ORDERED BY SUBPOENA OR COURT ORDER!
- exempts TTC negotiations by TDoT from open meetings laws
- permits TDoT to transfer a PUBLIC ROAD which is currently under public usage to at toll authority without public hearing or vote
This language is in a number of bills “authored” by various members of both houses. They are determined if it gets shot down once or twice to have it snaking its way through another path.
Oh, and the private backers who are given the 50 year concessions “to recoup” their investment get to set their own rates without legislative or commission oversight!
This TTC boondoggle exposes the hypocrisy of the Republican hype about securing our boarders. How do you secure an area ¼ mile wide with trucks from Mexico driving 80 mph all the way to Kansas City? Who inspects those trucks and the freight? Who watches them along their journey up the corridor?
THE NEW WORLD DISORDER
Trans-Texas Corridor paved
with campaign contributions?
San Antonio construction company, capital consortium from Spain stand to gainPosted: July 12, 2006
1:00 a.m. EasternBy Jerome R. Corsi
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.comThe contractors building the Trans-Texas Corridor – a massive statewide transportation network critics claim is an important part of the controversial proposed integration of the U.S. and Mexico – have made large contributions to the campaigns of Texas politicians, including Republican Gov. Rick Perry.
As WND has reported, opposition is mounting to the little-publicized efforts by the Bush administration, aided by corporate and political elites of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, including the Council on Foreign Relations, to push North America into a European Union-style merger. Critics of the Trans-Texas Corridor see the massive project – ironically funded by Spain – as part of this movement to integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Since 2000, Zachry has contributed heavily in Texas Supreme Court campaigns. House and Senate members and Supreme Court Justices have also received significant contributions from Zachary. Lt. Governor David Dewhurst accepted $51,000.00 in “campaign contributions” from the Zachry family last year as he helped push through more pieces of TTC enabling legislation, with more changes to the Transportation Code in one session than have been enacted in the past 100 years!
Closed door meetings between TxDot and toll road proponents and sealed records are hot topics in the Attorney General’s and Lt. Governor’s races. Attorney General Gregg Abbot has not filed one legal action to protect the public from collusion between toll proponents and elected state officials and bureaucrats. Democrat Lt. Governor Candidate Maria Luisa Alvarado and Attorney General Candidate David Van Os are not accepting any campaign contributions from Zachry or other known participants in the TTC project.
I have lived in Texas all my life and I can assure you that there will be blood shed if the government attempts to take land where families have lived for generations. Below is a statement from a land owner printed in The Victoria Advocate
Local resident Rhonda Kutschur also spoke during the hearing.
“I am one of those Texans that lives on property that has been in the family for five generations. Our great-great grandfather is buried there. His log cabin is there. And you want to come right through the middle of it,” said Kutschur. “I do not have a problem with progress, and I do not have a problem with spending my tax dollars as long as I know what it’s being spent on. TxDOT works for me, so why don’t you tell me what you’re spending my money on. I want to know. If I had the power to, I’d fire every one of you. I don’t want to spend my tax dollars to build something, have someone else run it and reap all the benefits. I am an American Indian. You stole from me once. Please don’t steal from me again.”
After the hearing, Rhonda Kutschur, a Republican precinct chairman, took David’s information and flyers and promised to campaign for him.
From the same article, here is what David Van Os had to say and a description of what his wife, Rachel, did:
The candidate for attorney general commended the TxDOT staff for the professional and courteous way they handled their responsibilities during the meeting knowing they are dealing with something very unpopular with the public.
Then he blasted the project itself.
“This project, if followed through and completed as planned, will be one of the biggest single exercises of forcible eminent domain in the history of the entire United States,” said Van Os. “We are talking about 1/2 million acres of private property, mostly good farm and ranch land. If this huge thing goes through, no eminent domain project will be off limits. It will be a big green light. Private property will lose its sovereignty. This forcible eminent domain will destroy the proper balance between the individual and government with respect to the individual’s ability to control his or her own property.” Van Os urged those in attendance to fight against the proposal, which he called the “first leg of a NAFTA highway.”
“There is no legislation that can’t be repealed, and no politician that can’t be fired at election time,” said Van Os. “This thing has got to be stopped. It will destroy many things that are precious to us. We’re going to stop this. I know we’re going to stop it. I urge you my fellow citizens to fight this dad gum thing till hell freezes over if you have to. Fight it and beat it.”
Van Os’ wife, Rachel, gave perhaps the most dramatic display of the possible affect of the proposed corridor as she ripped a Texas map along the proposed route.
“I urge y’all to stand and fight for your rights and save beautiful Texas,” she said.
“Fire the out-of-touch, silk-stocking crowd in Austin who think public office is an invitation for the hogs to come to the trough.”
David Van Os says, “NO to the Trans Texas Corridor!”
The TTC can still be derailed but it won’t be easy. David Van Os and all the other Texas Statewide Candidates are strongly opposed to the TTC.
The Texas Department of Transportation has hosted hearings in each county in the path of the TTC. Their slick power point presentation is long on razzle-dazzle and short on some critical information. They offer the public an opportunity to voice opinions. Click the picture to hear David’s fire breathing speech. Hundreds of angry Texans have attended each hearing and they have spoken out vehemently against the TTC. Republicans are just as angry about it as the Democrats.
HELP US Stop it now before it comes to your door!
In addition to attending the TTC hearings, David is traveling to every county in Texas on his Whistle Stop Tour. He is raising awareness of this issue and of the corrupt take over of our government by the “corporate robber barons.” He has vowed to “Fight them until hell freezes over then fight them on the ice!”
By driving to all 254 counties in this HUGE state, David is taking his message to the people and letting them know that every person counts, every county counts. He is talking to all the people, not just pre selected audiences. He tells Texans the truth using plain language and not the focus group tested words that most political consultants might prefer. He trusts the people to show up and to see his message. As you can see, the Whistlestop tour is turning Texas blue!
Texas is a BIG state! It takes a lot of driving and a lot of gas. David’s wife Rachel does the driving. The people, who will benefit from having a “People’s Lawyer” in the Office of Attorney General, should provide the gas.
David’s message is bold as you can see by his Notice to Big Oil Billboard. He put this billboard right in Big Oil’s back yard! That’s downtown Dallas, Texas you see in the background. We call this the Blogger’s Notice to Big Oil because, last month, the rent on this board was completely paid for by donations from the bloggosphere.
If 160 people give $10.01 today we can pay the rent for another month.
LISTEN!!!
David’s challenge to the Big Oil Monopolies
part one
part two
The Trans Texas and NAFTA Corridors are not the answer to our transportation problems. Surely we can develop a smarter plan that will solve our ever growing transportation needs, keep our country secure, be environmentally friendly and have a minimal impact on our precious resources. We need to start thinking smaller not bigger, less vehicles not more, when it comes to building roads.
Like most issues, this one is not black and white. A direct route to transport goods will cut down on the cost of those goods at the store. However, the lower the prices of the goods, the more America imports. The more America imports the less we manufacture. The less we manufacture, the fewer jobs for Americans.
America needs to start manufacturing our own products again! Bring jobs back to America! We need our farmland to feed our expanding population. We need different, better, progressive ways to transport people and goods.
Texas needs your help today! If you help us now, you won’t have to face this fight!
Thank you to Faith Chatham for her contributions to this diary.
Cross posted and front paged at ePluribus Media
Cross posted at Texas Kaos
Cross posted at Daily Kos
not only a Texas issue. When they are done with Texas, they are coming for you!
We need NATIONAL media coverage of these issues.
this is a great diary, but it leaves me wondering who this Zachry person is and whether they have a first name.
H.B. “Bartell” Zachry Jr. They contribute under many different Zachry alises.
The Spanish company, Cintra, brought in Zachary, a San Antonio based international construction company to help ease the outcry against foreign control. Cintra is paying for the propaganda sessions, er hearings through Zachry. Cintra get all the concessions on the corridor for 50 to 70 years.
I suspect that KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN RAIL ROAD is the major player pushing the TTC. Zachry was probably brought in because they have a many decade long relationship with TxDOT who controls the contracts and have many of the elected officials in their back pockets through a long history of generous political contributions to their friends. TxDOT “vetted” the potential partners in private, closed door sessions and selected those companies they considered appropriate to be on the “Short list.” Their criteria and all the records submitted in the contractors’ proposals are sealed under law passed in last years “TTC enabling” legislation which protects them from being disclosed even by court order or subpoena!
What I think really drove this scheme is Kansas City Southern RR’s aggressive business plan and thirst to be the dominant transportation tycoon in this hemisphere. Since 1992 KSC has acquired a substantial amount of rail, invested in foreign rail, and forged cartage agreements with trucking and international rail lines. They now own 100% interest in Mexico’s largest rail company (TFM) and changed their name to Kansas City de Mexico RR last year. They invested in Tex-Mex rail giving them a link from Laredo, Texas on the Mexican border and the port of Corpus Christi. They service all of the ports in Texas, several in Mexico, and most of the other Gulf of Mexico ports. They already have the shortest route from Mexico to the heartland of the mid west USA but want to cut more rail miles off. They want a direct shot from Laredo to the Oklahoma border. That would be shorter than going to Dallas and to Marshall in East Texas (near the Shreveport, LA border and up in through Arkansas to Kansas City, Mo their hub city.
They want to cut rail miles off of their service and they want someone else to pay for the investment in the infrastructure.
The TTC does not meet the major transportation needs of Texas. If it were a design to meet rail needs in Texas they would be looking at building a 440 mile link that would form a triangle with existing rail lines giving service between Dallas and Houston. Currently you have to go to Austin and San Antonio and then to Houston from Dallas. Instead of pushing for them to construct that 440 mile link they are pushing to build 4000 miles of rail straight from Mexico to Oklahoma by passing most of the major urban centers of the state.
H.B. Zachry, Sr. established a construction company and has dominated public works projects in the south for decades. With his sons, he has created a dynasty. He donated $10 million dollars to his alma mater, Texas A&M University’s Engineering Department last year. He’s been a very generous contributor to that institution for years. What concerns me the most is the number of elected officials in Texas who have accepted BIG campaign contributions from H.B. Jr., H.B. Sr. his brothers and other members of his family and from the Zachry Construction Co. PAC. In Texas the most powerful office is the Lt. Governor. The Lt. Governor presides over the senate, appoints many members of important committees and sets the calendar for legislation. The current Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst took $51,000 in Zachry money last year and helped MANY bills which changed more of the Texas Transportation code in one session through the Senate than have been created or modified in over 100 years! When you look at those who received Zachry money and those who supported, authored, sponsored or voted for TTC enabling legislation, there is a FRIGHTENING parallel.
An acquaintance of mine, Adrienne Eisenberg, is embroiled in a battle to save her home in rural Pennsylvania. She writes:
The Delaware River Corridor and Central NY State are about to become the first battle ground for environmental and property rights in the wake of 2 recent legislative developments. The energy bill passed in 2005 allows the Dept. of Energy to designate large areas (there is no actual definiton of the size or scope) as National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors; the [definition of] EMINENT DOMAIN [has] been radically broadened. Here’s the scenario: New York Regional Interconnection (NYRI), a private company of anonymous investors, has applied to the Dept. of Energy for early designation of a huge swath of Central New York State and the Delaware River Corridor to be a National Interest Energy Transfer Corridor (NIETC).
NYRI plans to run 200 miles of uninsulated high-voltage power lines and towers, through pristine farmlands, forests, wetlands, and, the Delaware River (which is supposed to be federally protected under The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act), as well as numerous (about 70) small rural towns that depend upon the natural beauty of the area for their economic base.
If NYRI is permitted to proceed with their proposed project, it would put the power in the hands of, and, at the sole discretion of a privately owned, privately funded company whose only concern is to maximize its own profits. In fact NYRI has ruled out burying power lines or choosing a more appropriate route because it deemed those alternatives too costly.
What happens here will be the test case for the rest of the country. Time is of the essence; The Dept. of Energy is now considering granting NYRI’s request. If this region is declared a NIETC it will be scarred forever and many, many hard-working people will lose their homes!
Please read more about this heinous project at http://www.udpc.net and also at http://www.NYRI.info. The http://www.NYRI.info site forum has some very interesting comments in regard to NYRI’s corporate/political relationships. They are poltically well-connected to Pataki, Bush, and even to Guiliani’s law firm. They have some big guns. We need to bring broad support and media attention to this.
I’ll read about this when I get a chance.
I read your diary at DKos, and it blew me away. My jaw dropped to the basement, and I haven’t retrieved it yet.
My heartfelt thanks to all the TX people who worked so hard on this.
Does anyone know the names of the poohbahs at Kansas City Southern Railroad, and Cintra (of Spain)? How are the people in these corporations related?
Has Ed Schultz of Air America Radio heard about this? Do U.S Senators Tom Harkin (IA) and Russ Feingold (WI) know about this? Since Paul Wellstone died, they are our adopted Senators.
Greetings from the northern end of I-35 — Minnesota, the North Star State.
The players are all linked in NASCO Board members, Texas High Speed Rail Corp., local government and institutions have a high number of the same players.
TTI (Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M)… got a $10 Million endowment from Zachry. There are some strange connections there too.
It is exceedingly complicated and much bigger then what I have presented here.
I hope David Van Os makes it!
Could you rename this diary “NAFTA super highway along entire I-35”? Then it may get more attention from BoomanTrib readers. The current title sounds like an ordinary diary on eminent domain, instead of this gigantic national land grab.
Thanks again.
but we will have future diaries on this. This issue is similar to the oil business in that the players in NASCO are on the board of many transportation organizations and they are EVERYWHERE.
They are changing they way legislative decisions are made. What they have done is transfer much of the POLICY SETTING and DEBATE into private quasi governmental bodies where open meeting laws don’t apply.
And then there is ALEC. Same players.
Excellent diary! Beyond excellent! I wish you had posted it this morning instead of Sunday. I wish you could repost it. I wish it could be front paged. I wish I was the Queen. (Oops, that one slipped out)
If I can’t be Queen, they I wish you were. : )