Liberty
Matters News Service
November 8, 2006
Unite to Fight in Two Days
The Unite to Fight conference begins Friday, November 10th in Salt Lake City, Utah. Conference organizers have brought in people from all over to share strategies of how they are winning the anti-private property war in their back yard. Day one, of the conference covers the emerging issues of our time, such as the North American Union, NAFTA Superhighway, and Conservation Easements. Day two is a workshop style session conducted by Fred Grant, one of the best local strategists in the movement. The session is designed to teach people how to move beyond just organizing rallies, and employ strategies that will stop federal, state and local policies that destroy the local economy and private property rights. "Where we have been able to teach these strategies, we are winning," commented Margaret Byfield, one of the conference organizers. "We expect that by the end of the session Saturday, we will have a new class of warriors ready to stop these policies in their community." To register go to www.stewards.us or call 1-800-700-5922.
Judicial Watch Uncovers Sensitive Documents
Judicial Watch has obtained records from the International Trade Administration of the U. S. Department of Commerce that details plans to form a partnership with Mexico and Canada to control movement of goods between the countries, traveler security, energy, environment and health. The Commerce Department documents contain substantial information about the North American Competitiveness Council, made up of 10 members each from the United States, Mexico and Canada. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provide details on the council's recommendations to the North American "partnership" on how to handle an international disease outbreak: "It is essential that throughout a pandemic all borders and major roads remain open ..." The council obviously does not favor enforcement of U. S. immigration laws. "A reasonable grace period should be established at border crossings, during which time people lacking documents are educated about their options and allowed to pass." Another council recommendation advocates taxing Americans to pay for Mexico's electricity such as the "...enhanced integration of the Mexican [electricity grid] with that of the United States." "Given all that is at stake, the federal government has a responsibility to make sure this process is transparent and open to public scrutiny…," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Newly Uncovered Commerce Department
Documents Detail "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America"
Builders Beware
San Joaquin County, California has imposed a restrictive new law on developers seeking to build on farmland. The County Board of Supervisors will require builders to protect one acre of land for every one they develop on tracts of more than 40 acres. Developers will have to pony up $8,700 per developed acre on projects under the magic 40-acre formula. The money is supposed to be used to buy conservation easements on other farmland. John Beckman, director of government affairs for the Building Association of the Delta, says the fees are too high and the county's demands are unrealistic. "There aren't a lot of people out there who want to sell easements. They're forcing us to go buy something that is currently not for sale," Beckman said. The San Joaquin Farm Bureau is against the law, too, but for different reasons. Tom Orvis, farm bureau program director says the county is too easy on developers and the law won't protect much land. "We don't want the fee, period," Orvis said. "We want them to preserve an acre of land for every one they pave - we'd even prefer two acres." District 5 Supervisor Leroy Ornellas wonders why the law is needed. "In the past 10 years there have only been 215 acres of county land that have been developed…you have to ask yourself, what does this plan hope to accomplish?"
Coalition Formed to Fight NAU
A coalition, headed by Conservative Caucus Chairman Howard Phillips, author Jerome Corsi, and activist Phyllis Schlafly, will join a group of Congressional Republicans to fight the Bush administration's attempt to forge a North American Union with Mexico and Canada. The congressmen, Virgil Goode Jr., Virginia, Tom Tancredo, Colorado, Walter Jones, North Carolina and Ron Paul, Texas, have authored a resolution that expresses "the sense of the 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." Corsi said the coalition is calling for a congressional investigation. "We'd like to see both the House and the Senate in the 110th Congress conduct a serious investigation and get full disclosure from SPP of all documents." If the administration doesn't come clean, Corsi said, "I'm charging they are secretly on the path to create a North American Union, a new currency - the amero - along the same stealth path that was used in Europe…before the American people finally realize what's going on." "We need congressional hearings, not just congressional resolutions," he said.