APC
NewsWire
Publication of American Policy Center
Tom DeWeese -
President
Kathy Lehman - Editor
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Trans Texas Corridor
Moratorium Bill Passes Texas Legislature in a
Landslide!
The juggernaut behind
construction of the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) suffered a major blow on May 2,
as the Texas House joined the Senate in overwhelmingly voting to impose a
moratorium on construction. God Bless Texas!
The TTC is only the first
of many NAFTA Superhighways planned to expedite the movement of goods and labor
throughout the gestating bastard child of three sovereign nations,
Mexamericanada, better known as the North American Union.
The TTC is the
brainchild of Texas' Governor, Rick Perry. He announced his Corridor "vision"
in 2002. Within months TxDOT completed an action plan, presented it to the
Transportation Commission. The Commission approved the plan almost immediately,
without any substantive debate or public comment. Transportation Commissioner
Ric Williamson admitted the Governor's stealth maneuverings, stating "Once
the Governor decided that this is where we needed to head, he wanted to
remove it from the political flow of the state, he wanted it to become
policy as opposed to politics, and that was one of the reasons he asked us to
move so fast, and we've done an admirable job...."
If completed, the
TTC will completely transform the state's highways over the next 50 years,
constructing an 8,000 mile spider-bungee of multimodal toll roads. It will
throw a government net over some 9,000 square miles of private land just for
the 4,000 miles of priority routes. The projected cost (at least $183 billion)
is more than the original price tag for the entire U.S. interstate system. You
can access a map of the planned routes by county here:
www.corridorwatch.org/ttc_2007/CW00010000.htm
Recent
state laws, rammed through the legislature, gave the Commission unprecedented
authority and power. HB 3588, for instance, says the Commission may acquire, in
the name of the state, public or private real property as they
determine to be necessary or convenient for the construction, enlargement or
operation of the Trans Texas Corridor. Also, the Commission can lease or
sell part of the property, for any purpose, including placing on the
adjoining right-of-way a gas station, garage, store, hotel, restaurant, parking
facility, railroad track, or billboard under terms they set. They can
even lease it back to the original owner or any other public or
private entity for unrelated commercial or industrial
purposes.
Perry claimed the TTC is an innovative solution to
Texas' traffic congestion. Nothing could be further from the truth. These NAFTA
highways will divert road and rail traffic from congested urban centers, bypass
rural communities and bisect private land, with on-and-off ramps many miles
apart. With the TTC's non-compete clause, the state will be contractually
obligated to allow nearby roads to fall into disrepair, slowly cutting off all
access to rural communities and small businesses.
This highway project
will be the first time anywhere in the country that freeways,
already paid for with public tax dollars, convert into toll roads. The existing
alternative highways will be abandoned by the state. As they fall into
disrepair and become impassable, highway users will be forced to pay tolls on
roadbeds they already bought and paid for.
The toll monies receive
won't go to local or state governments with a responsibility to fold that money
back into road maintenance. For at least the next 50 years, those monies will
go to foreign companies. This is an outrageous and dangerous precedent that
must be stopped in Texas before it can spread throughout the nation.
The
legislation imposing the moratorium now sits on Governor Perry's desk. He has
two weeks to sign or veto. He has promised a veto.
ACTION TO
TAKE:
This moratorium has been a long time coming, and took a
tremendous amount of work to accomplish. Everyone involved with its passage
deserves a huge Thank You! from the entire nation. But we dare not rest and
applaud from a distance. Too much is at stake!
Pound Governor
Perry! Write, call or fax him as below.
Tell him to sign HB 1892, the
moratorium bill.
- Let him know you're watching House
Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee, who just moved his Trojan
Horse bill, SB1267, out of committee.
- Tell him you want HB 1892 because it does far
more to limit and restrict Comprehensive Development Agreements contracts
than SB 1267, to increase public disclosure, to add more opportunities for
public input, and it can overcome a veto!
Shifting focus now to SB 1267 would
distract and confuse the Texas Legislature, giving TTC supporters time to delay
and ultimately kill the moratorium. Act now to keep that from
happening!
Write Governor Perry here:
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Call
him here:
Opinion Hotline (out-of-state callers): (512)
463-1782
Main Switchboard: (512)
463-2000
Or fax the Governor here:
(512) 463-1849
SEND THIS
MESSAGE TO AT LEAST TEN MORE PEOPLE! APC is now offering you a quick and easy
way to multiply your efforts and help win more battles! Simply click
here to send
this APC Action Alert to up to TEN of your friends! It's fast, it's easy and
most of all, it's extremely effective in KILLING OPPRESSIVE
POLICIES!
Update on State Opposition
to NAU - Press the Fight!
17 state legislatures
are working on resolutions to oppose formation of the North American Union.
Despite official denials from President Bush, members of Congress, and many
administration officials, more and more individual state legislatures are
taking no chances, and taking action.
Most of the resolutions are worded
to cover all potential bases by opposing the North American Union, the Security
& Prosperity Partnership, construction of NAFTA Superhighways, and the idea
of a new, continental currency known as the Amero.
Why, you might well
ask, aren't all 50 states working on such resolutions? Well, most contemporary
legislators are politicians, rather than statesmen; they blow in the wind.
Unfortunately, a great many Americans have not yet awakened to this threat, so
they have not contacted their legislators. But you can have a very real and
very positive impact by educating them all.
If you are fortunate enough
to live in one of the 17 states already in gear - Alabama, Arizona, Colorado,
Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington - you should
immediately send your legislator AND your governor a letter fervently thanking
and strongly supporting their efforts to protect you and your family from this
insanity.
If you live in the other states YOU must take immediate, and
unrelenting, action to push your legislature into opposition to the madness of
the globalists. We cannot afford denial; any delay may well mean the
destruction of what has been the finest nation in the history of the
world.
We must ramp up our efforts. No matter what you've already done,
PLEASE do it again, or find further action you can take. We must support those
states already acting, and pressure those which have not. We must take
advantage of the building momentum, or it will subside, and we will have lost
the most important political battle not only in our personal lives, but in our
nation's history.
ACTION TO TAKE
1. If you live in
one of the 17 proactive states, write your legislators AND your governor. Thank
them for taking action to protect your civil liberties and our national
sovereignty. You can find info for your state legislature here
www.statelocalgov.net
2. If
you live in one of the done-nothing (yet) states, pressure them to take action.
Contact your legislators AND your governor. Phone calls and letters are the
most effective way to contact your elected representatives; in this case, do
both, as it will multiply your personal impact. And don't stop until you get
the response you want.
If you need a Model Repeal NAFTA Resolution, look
here
3.
Whatever state you live in, write Letters to the Editor to your local and
statewide newspapers. Call into radio talk show programs. Bring the subject up
to those you interact with every day. These are the surest ways to create
awareness of the general populace, AND an excellent way to impact your
legislature, as they monitor the media.
4. Join the effort to Repeal
NAFTA! Since NAFTA is the foundation on which the SPP/NAU is being built,
U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would cripple efforts to establish the North
American Union. Help us drive a stake through this monster's
heart!
A. Contact your Congressman and ask they pressure House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rangel and House Energy, Commerce and Trade
Committee Chairman Rush to release H. CON. RES. 22 to the full House for a
vote. H. CON. RES. 22 expresses "the sense of Congress that the President
should provide notice of withdrawal of the United States from the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)."
Phone calls and letters are the
most effective way to contact your elected representatives.
E-mails and
faxes are many times ignored. Members of Congress have been changing their
e-mail addresses and fax numbers when we send out alerts. If you prefer,
though, you can send an e-mail by going to each member's website at
www.thomas.gov
Alternatively, you
may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A
switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate or House office
you request.
If you choose to write, and do not know your Congressman's
mailing addresses, you may simply address your letters as follows:
Office of Congressman (Name)
United States House of
Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
B.
Contact the House Minority Leader, Rep. John Boehner. The Minority Leader
office number is (202) 225-4000; Rep. Boehner's regular office number is (202)
225-6205. Tell Rep. Boehner you oppose NAFTA requiring America to conform all
of its domestic laws with those of Mexico and Canada - regardless of whether
voters and their duly-elected representatives had previously rejected those
policies.
SEND THIS MESSAGE TO AT LEAST TEN MORE PEOPLE! APC is now
offering you a quick and easy way to multiply your efforts and help win more
battles! Simply click
here to send
this APC Action Alert to up to TEN of your friends! It's fast, it's easy and
most of all, it's extremely effective in KILLING OPPRESSIVE POLICIES!
Update on JTHG National
Heritage Area
The House Committee on Resources
has passed H.R. 319, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area
Act, out of committee. They've recommended the House approve the legislation
and send it to the Senate, where it would likely be a done deal.
The
Committee added language to the bill (Background and Need for Legislation)
asserting "National Heritage Areas are locally-driven projects." This makes it
sound like the local folks "spanning parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West
Virginia and Virginia" got together and petitioned Congress to "save" their
local heritage, before......what?
In the doublespeak of the opponents of
freedom, "locally-driven" translates to Gang Green driving a campaign to
convince local residents of the desirability of government "preservation" of
parts of four states. These residents do not understand the National Park
Service's and the enviros "vision" for managing other peoples' lands.
A
recent Heritage Foundation report
(www.heritage.org/Research/SmartGrowth/bg2025.cfm)
states this bill will "give a handful of Virginia environmentalists and wealthy
landowners extraordinary powers over how private property can be used in a
broad swath of land stretching from southern Pennsylvania through western
Maryland (looping through West Virginia) south to Charlottesville in central
Virginia."
Further, "this group has organized itself as the
Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. H.R. 319 would provide the
partnership $1 million of federal (YOUR) money per year to operate this
multistate (sic) land use ...exercise." This "exercise", managed in partnership
with an unelected and unaccountable entity, would control eight homes of former
U.S. Presidents, the largest concentration of Civil War battlefields in the
country, 13 National Historic Landmarks and 2 World Heritage Sites, among other
resources (read other private property, water, roads, etc.).
Such
control would indeed be a "vision" for power-hungry megalomaniacs. And YOU
would pay them for the privilege; such a deal!
The original bill
contained some cosmetic "property rights" assurances. These property rights
protections were included in the last twelve NHA designations, but the
Committee removed most of them in H.R. 319, as you read in our earlier
alert.
Additionally in previous sessions of Congress, this Committee had
ensured that private property owners within a heritage area could remove their
land from the boundary of the designation and prohibited the management entity
from preserving, conserving, or promoting one's property without the written
consent of the owner. Those safeguards are also gone, deleted by the Grijalva
Substitute purportedly because they could create problems for the management
entity. Wouldn't THAT be unfortunate, to have private landowners'
constitutionally-protected civil liberties get in the way of someone else's
"vision!"
Many problems with the NPS must be considered by Congress. NPS
has failed its basic stewardship responsibilities for the land already under
its jurisdiction. Expanding the agency's responsibilities under H.R. 319 would
add fuel to the fire - literally. Also, NPS's hostility toward private property
rights, improved mobility and access, and economic development make it a very
poor choice.
In central Virginia, the NPS has recently objected to urban
bypasses to relieve serious interstate traffic congestion, a communications
tower on private land, and infrastructure improvements at a power plant in
Maryland that could be seen from NPS sites on both sides of the Potomac River.
NPS Park Superintendent Vidal Martinez was especially troubled by the fact that
a "steam cloud will be a visual adverse effect from both parks." If NPS leaders
are troubled by vapor clouds created by federal mandates for pollution control,
one can only imagine the aesthetic restrictions that they might impose on the
hapless people living in the proposed JTHG.
This bill is badly flawed.
It would significantly threaten the rights of private property owners within
the NHA boundary while providing a financial windfall to a select group who
have already developed their properties. Members of this group have already
acted to prevent all but the most expensive of homes and worked to prohibit the
development of moderate-income and middle-income housing that might take away
from the "rustic charm" of the area. They have even aggressively opposed new
home construction in the vicinity of the NHA.
Further, according
to the Heritage report, "the private organizers of the partnership have also
acknowledged that they are contemplating additional wealth-enhancing
opportunities through the creation of a privately owned, for-profit real estate
investment trust (REIT) to acquire properties in the heritage area and
presumably develop them for the benefit of the REIT's shareholders in a way
that shelters their profits from the state and federal corporate income tax."
So OUR tax dollars will be used to not only wrestle control of privately owned
land in four states, but also to set up the perpetrators of this travesty in
what could be a very profitable business!
Now for the Good
News
We're told the other side is going nuts in frustration because
they haven't been able to get this bill passed through the House. Sounds like
it's time to hit them again, just to let them know we are still here and not
going away. We have a great chance to kill this thing and stop future efforts;
let's jump on it!
ACTION TO TAKE
Squeaky wheels,
Unite! Let Congress know you're still watching, you're not going away, and
you're not going to put up with their mischief!
Property rights should
never be dismissed merely because they could be an inconvenience. At a minimum,
affected landowners should receive notification of what restrictions the
federal government will place over them.
1. Contact your Congressmen.
Tell them you oppose H.R. 319, and the companion Senate bill S. 278.
These bills represent more federal grabs of
private property and will only serve to fill the pockets of special interest
groups with federal (YOUR) tax dollars.
- Then tell them a better bill is Roscoe Bartlett's
H.R. 1270 because it better protects private property while honoring the
historic events that occurred there.
Phone calls and letters are the most effective
way to contact Congress. E-mails and faxes are many times ignored. Members of
Congress have been changing their e-mail addresses and fax numbers when we send
out alerts. If you prefer, though, you can send an e-mail by going to each
member's website at www.thomas.gov
2. Contact Rep. John
Boehner, House Minority Leader. His office number is (202) 225-4000; Rep.
Boehner's regular office number is (202) 225-6205. Sen. Mitch McConnell is the
Senate Minority Leader. His office number is (202) 224-2541.
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