Actualizing the metaphoric

When Bush isn’t busy dividing America, he spends his idle hours … dividing America [1]:

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

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, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.

Although you may not have heard anything about this yet, the first trans-Texas corridor is slated for construction in 2007.

So now not only is Bush systematically failing to check containers coming into our sea ports, but he is making plans to further weaken security by allowing transborder travel without even the benifit of a manned patrol. While Wal-Mart may rejoice in this plan, it is patently irresponsible and flies directly in the face of rhetorical proclamations on securing our borders.

[2]