← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · weisbrot
Thread ID: 14097 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2004-06-08
2004-06-08 16:02 | User Profile
*Pollution is one thing, but what about the pissed-off jihadists and black-flag Mossad agents who will be hitching a ride? Not one mention about security in this article or many others. But don't fail to note the hard-workin' Messican trucker who's quoted by the dispassionate Moreno at the end. We all know those nice border folk just want drive the routes that American truckers won't take on; what would we do without them...?
In this area, uninsured low-riders regularly crash into minivans and SUV's; the drivers usually take off and tape up another "temporary" license in the back window of their now-dented El Camino. Having this kind of skill and mentality piloting 40 tons on the open highway is a chilling thought.*
[url]http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2614910[/url]
June 8, 2004, 6:52AM
Court clears way for Mexico's trucks Concerns about polluting of U.S. cities rejected By PATTY REINERT and JENALIA MORENO Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle RESOURCES ÷ January 1994: U.S.-Mexico trade barriers lifted under the North American Free Trade Agreement, but moratorium on cross-border trucking remains in place. ÷ February 2001: International arbitration panel rules the United States violates NAFTA agreements because Mexican trucks are not allowed to travel freely inside this country.
÷ May 2002: Environmentalists and labor unions file lawsuit claiming the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is violating federal environmental laws by not assessing the environmental impact of cross-border trucking before allowing it.
÷ November 2002: President Bush announces he will lift the trucking moratorium.
÷ January 2003: U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decides in favor of environmentalists and labor activists.
÷ June 2004: Supreme Court gives President Bush authority to let Mexican trucks on U.S. highways.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush can let Mexican truckers roll on U.S. highways without waiting for a study on how much their big rigs would pollute cities like Houston, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The unanimous ruling erased a 22-year-old moratorium on cross-border truck traffic and handed a loss to opponents who claim Mexico's older trucks will make air dirtier and roads less safe.
Bush wants to open roads as soon as possible to comply with the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which erased most trade barriers between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said a date has not been set for opening the roads. Transportation Department officials are still working out the details.
Environmental, consumer and labor groups, led by Public Citizen and the Teamsters, claim allowing Mexican trucks in will cost American jobs, decrease road safety and increase pollution because Mexican trucks don't have adequate emission controls.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he's committed to making sure trucks operating in the United States "are in compliance with all applicable safety and environmental standards."
But in a ruling written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the justices said the president, not the federal agency responsible for truck safety, decides when to open borders to foreign truckers.
The court said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco erred last year when it ordered transportation officials to study the potential environmental effects of that decision. The 9th circuit had said the study was necessary to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Clean Air Act.
While the Bush administration had started the study, Monday's ruling means Bush could simply skip it or ignore its eventual findings and open the border at will.
Outraged environmentalists vowed to take their fight to Congress.
"The Bush administration has basically told these old, polluting trucks they can go ahead and mess with Texas -- and New Mexico and Arizona and the rest of the country for that matter," said Stephen Mills, director of the Sierra Club's international program. "The bottom line is that a lot of places that already have bad air are going to experience even dirtier air if these trucks are allowed in."
Tom "Smitty" Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen, called the ruling "a slap in the face" and predicted the extra pollution problems represented by Mexican trucks could be enough to keep Houston from meeting its Clean Air obligations.
Though stronger federal guidelines mean U.S. truckers in the next few years will have to switch to ultra low-sulfur diesel, that fuel isn't available in Mexico.
Plus, according to Smith, Mexican trucks would spew more pollutants as they idle while unloading cargo at the Port of Houston, likely a major destination.
Nine state attorneys general -- from California, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin -- sided with the environmentalists in the case. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott declined to join the case.
On the border, experts said Monday's ruling will not change things anytime soon.
"I honestly don't believe this is going to have a very big impact," said Bill Webb, president of the Austin-based Texas Motor Transportation Association. "The day the border opens, I just don't see anyone standing there with a green flag with all these Mexican trucks coming in."
One reason is that Mexican truckers can haul only international cargo. A Mexican trucker who unloads cargo in a U.S. city must immediately head back, either with goods bound for Mexico or empty-handed, which would cut profits.
Officials with Mexico's trucking association said they're waiting to see if the Bush administration will relax any of the rules for Mexican truck inspections, which they called exhaustive and more harsh than reviews of U.S. trucks.
"Those revisions are done with the purpose of not letting us enter," said Leon Flores, president of the National Chamber of Cargo Transportation known by the Spanish acronym CANACAR. "If the rules are not equitable, they're not fair."
But Benito Javier Barbosa, who owns Monterrey, Mexico-based Transportes Barbosa, a four-truck operation he runs with the help of two sons, said he's ready to drive north of the border, if given the opportunity.
"Orale, let's go to work," he said.
Jenalia Moreno reported from Houston. Clay Robison contributed to this story from Austin
2004-06-08 17:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE=AntiYuppie] Expect a lot more 18-wheeler jacknifes and other potentially deadly accidents when we allow trucks and drivers held to virtually nonexistent third-world safety standards to use our highways. And a great hearty thanks to both "opposing" parties for unanymously bringing us this and the other joys of NAFTA.[/QUOTE] Not to mention plummeting wages for American truckers as they are forced to compete with Mexicans who earn third-world wages.
2004-06-08 17:45 | User Profile
Forest Gump himself couldn't have done it better, I'd say.
WTF?? If it ain't the pollution from the human stink from Mexico that's already hurting us, then sub-standard trucks spewing noxious fumes will certainly do us in...that is, if one doesn't already find his or herself in a 20 car pileup because Hector the driver had one too many Cuervo shots with his taco at lunch time.
Anyway, this sh*t was bound to happen. The USA is a rotting carcass and the vultures want all the rest of the meat.
2004-06-09 06:33 | User Profile
The only question is just how many Americans will die horrible deaths on our highways due to these incompetant greasers.
Sooner or later, the traitorous "elite" scum responsible for this sell-out and so many others must be made to pay the price. Justice demands it.
2004-06-09 09:04 | User Profile
Private airplane use, both prop and jet service is up, especially the air Charter/taxi service. With this elite money type of flying there is no insulting or demeaning security checks either. For the rest of U.S.taking off will first mean taking off our shoes, and being felt up, will be the routine, haa.
We don't want to offend the elite invited invaders who need checking, and deporting, now do we?.......
2004-06-09 12:28 | User Profile
just one more segment of the american working class being replaced by foriegn labor. i suspect a few american truckers might have a surprise for these beaners once they cross the border.
this is just the beginning
2004-06-09 15:47 | User Profile
If Mexican's can drive trucks here, then the closed shop of Lawyer's has to be opened up to Mexican Lawyer's and new standards set to accomodate them, if N.A.F.T.A. is good for us, then it should be good for lawyers too...
2004-06-09 16:00 | User Profile
So, now you want to beat up the Mexican drivers and blow up their trucks,,,,,,
Once again you are going after the wrong people and that's why the Zionists controlling the US government are getting away with something.
I don't see the eighteen wheelers breaking across the border, they were given permission by Uncle Sam, therefore rethink accordingly and go after the real guilty ones.
2004-06-09 17:29 | User Profile
You know, we haven't got any business in those faraway wars. Seven thousand miles is a long way to go to shoot somebody, especially if you are not right sure they need shooting, and you are not sure whether you are shooting the right side or not. You see, it's their war and they have a right to fight it as they see fit, without any advice from us. Will Rogers.