"I've never heard of a North American Union."
Notes from Conspiracy HQ
7/19/06
By Bud Kennedy
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2006
Some words just don't go together. For example, county commissioner and global conspiracy.
If I heard that some dirty commies were plotting to overthrow our government, the first place I'd check would not be under the Tarrant County Courthouse dome. Most of our county officials would be lucky to overthrow a domino table.
But there on the Web is Commissioner Glen Whitley's name in black and white, on loony extremist political pages from both the right and left wings, blaming him for promoting a Texas tollway that is portrayed as part of a sinister plot to merge Canada, Mexico and the United States into a "North American Union."
Now, Whitley is not exactly your rebel-leader type. He's a Hurst Republican and an accountant. Because he does not have a Democratic opponent on the November ballot, Whitley is the Tarrant County judge-in-waiting to succeed Tom Vandergriff in the courthouse's highest office.
Because he doesn't have to campaign, Whitley took the time this month to go on a 10-day vacation to England and Scotland.
He left America with a Methodist church choir. He came home to hear Dallas talk-radio donkeys describing a new, wider version of Interstate 35 as a "secret plot."
"I've never seen anything like this," Whitley said Tuesday over lunch among the workaday crowd in a Watauga gas station-cafe.
"We're trying to figure how to keep traffic moving, keep the economy growing and keep Texas' quality of life," he said. "I don't know how people can turn that into a plot to tear down the border."
Whitley supports the Trans Texas Corridor, a proposed tollway from Laredo to Gainesville, both as a county official and as a board member of a Dallas group lobbying for a north-south superhighway.
That group is called North America's SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO). It landed in the spotlight June 21 when CNN entertainment host Lou Dobbs displayed a borderless NASCO map that shows a highway running from Mexico City to Canada.
Moving from his usual anti-immigration tirade into conspiracy-theory territory, Dobbs asked whether a U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement signed last year might lead to a common currency, a North American Union and the "end of the United States as we know it."
"People should look at the maps that show the congestion on Texas highways in the next 25-30 years," Whitley said. "A lot of the congestion is trucks delivering goods from Mexico or Pacific ports.
"We as a nation have decided that we want to shop at Wal-Mart. We want the cheapest goods we can buy. Those goods are going to come from outside the U.S. and maybe through Mexico -- and to keep the economy growing, we've got to keep the I-35 corridor open."
The idea of a superhighway from Mexico doesn't threaten America, Whitley said.
The idea of a Pan American Highway for tourists and trade dates to at least 1923. Both old U.S. 81 (now Hemphill Street and Main Street) and I-35 were promoted as international trade corridors.
"We're not going to sacrifice any critical national security concerns," Whitley said. "I've never heard of a North American Union."
The free-trade flap caught Whitley by surprise. On his third day back from vacation -- he toured London, Inverness and Edinburgh with the First United Methodist Church of Hurst choir -- a woman with a plain Texas accent asked him about the Trans Texas Corridor at a forum hosted by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a Lewisville Republican.
She said something about the Trans Texas Corridor "tearing down the border," Whitey remembered. "I told her we're not trying to tear down any border. We're just trying to get trucks off I-35."
The fantasy of the TTC and a "secret plot" has been heavily promoted by anti-immigration Web sites, mostly in articles by a writer who is -- maybe not coincidentally -- also peddling a new book supporting the anti-immigration Minuteman Project.
But the same fantasy has now spread to fringe liberal Web sites, including one Austin-area blog devoted to Democrats. Tollway opponents are turning to anyone who'll criticize Republican Gov. Rick Perry, including not only anti-immigration groups but also anti-eminent domain, pro-organized labor and anti-free-trade groups.
On one Democratic Web site, Whitley and other corridor backers are criticized by name. One blogger writes: "This goes to the heart of what Republicans do now. Sell out the interests of the US for 'fun' and profit."
Whitley, commissioner for nine years and a former school trustee, has worked quietly for years to watch public budgets and promote better highways and mass transportation. He seemed almost stung that anyone would criticize a highway.
"I wish we could just have a open discussion without everyone trying to vilify the other side," he said.
Commissioner, welcome to the fringe political blogosphere.
It's full of wild rumors. Just like the county courthouse.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 817-390-7538 bud@budkennedy.com
© 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram : www.dfw.com
7/19/06
By Bud Kennedy
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2006
Some words just don't go together. For example, county commissioner and global conspiracy.
If I heard that some dirty commies were plotting to overthrow our government, the first place I'd check would not be under the Tarrant County Courthouse dome. Most of our county officials would be lucky to overthrow a domino table.
But there on the Web is Commissioner Glen Whitley's name in black and white, on loony extremist political pages from both the right and left wings, blaming him for promoting a Texas tollway that is portrayed as part of a sinister plot to merge Canada, Mexico and the United States into a "North American Union."
Now, Whitley is not exactly your rebel-leader type. He's a Hurst Republican and an accountant. Because he does not have a Democratic opponent on the November ballot, Whitley is the Tarrant County judge-in-waiting to succeed Tom Vandergriff in the courthouse's highest office.
Because he doesn't have to campaign, Whitley took the time this month to go on a 10-day vacation to England and Scotland.
He left America with a Methodist church choir. He came home to hear Dallas talk-radio donkeys describing a new, wider version of Interstate 35 as a "secret plot."
"I've never seen anything like this," Whitley said Tuesday over lunch among the workaday crowd in a Watauga gas station-cafe.
"We're trying to figure how to keep traffic moving, keep the economy growing and keep Texas' quality of life," he said. "I don't know how people can turn that into a plot to tear down the border."
Whitley supports the Trans Texas Corridor, a proposed tollway from Laredo to Gainesville, both as a county official and as a board member of a Dallas group lobbying for a north-south superhighway.
That group is called North America's SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO). It landed in the spotlight June 21 when CNN entertainment host Lou Dobbs displayed a borderless NASCO map that shows a highway running from Mexico City to Canada.
Moving from his usual anti-immigration tirade into conspiracy-theory territory, Dobbs asked whether a U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement signed last year might lead to a common currency, a North American Union and the "end of the United States as we know it."
"People should look at the maps that show the congestion on Texas highways in the next 25-30 years," Whitley said. "A lot of the congestion is trucks delivering goods from Mexico or Pacific ports.
"We as a nation have decided that we want to shop at Wal-Mart. We want the cheapest goods we can buy. Those goods are going to come from outside the U.S. and maybe through Mexico -- and to keep the economy growing, we've got to keep the I-35 corridor open."
The idea of a superhighway from Mexico doesn't threaten America, Whitley said.
The idea of a Pan American Highway for tourists and trade dates to at least 1923. Both old U.S. 81 (now Hemphill Street and Main Street) and I-35 were promoted as international trade corridors.
"We're not going to sacrifice any critical national security concerns," Whitley said. "I've never heard of a North American Union."
The free-trade flap caught Whitley by surprise. On his third day back from vacation -- he toured London, Inverness and Edinburgh with the First United Methodist Church of Hurst choir -- a woman with a plain Texas accent asked him about the Trans Texas Corridor at a forum hosted by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a Lewisville Republican.
She said something about the Trans Texas Corridor "tearing down the border," Whitey remembered. "I told her we're not trying to tear down any border. We're just trying to get trucks off I-35."
The fantasy of the TTC and a "secret plot" has been heavily promoted by anti-immigration Web sites, mostly in articles by a writer who is -- maybe not coincidentally -- also peddling a new book supporting the anti-immigration Minuteman Project.
But the same fantasy has now spread to fringe liberal Web sites, including one Austin-area blog devoted to Democrats. Tollway opponents are turning to anyone who'll criticize Republican Gov. Rick Perry, including not only anti-immigration groups but also anti-eminent domain, pro-organized labor and anti-free-trade groups.
On one Democratic Web site, Whitley and other corridor backers are criticized by name. One blogger writes: "This goes to the heart of what Republicans do now. Sell out the interests of the US for 'fun' and profit."
Whitley, commissioner for nine years and a former school trustee, has worked quietly for years to watch public budgets and promote better highways and mass transportation. He seemed almost stung that anyone would criticize a highway.
"I wish we could just have a open discussion without everyone trying to vilify the other side," he said.
Commissioner, welcome to the fringe political blogosphere.
It's full of wild rumors. Just like the county courthouse.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. 817-390-7538 bud@budkennedy.com
© 2006 Fort Worth Star-Telegram :
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Wednesday, July 19, 2006
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