Mary Had A Little Lamb, This Inspection is a Scam
Mary Peters, who pushes tirelessly to let dangerous Mexican trucks use U.S. highways, for the first time publicly stood near a Mexican truck on Wednesday.
Peters is the little-known Arizonan who now runs the U.S. Department of Transportation. She usually avoids the news media like a bad rash whenever the subject of Mexican trucks comes up. Perhaps she's planning on running for governor of Arizona and knows how much the public hates her pilot project to open our highways to Mexican trucks.
She must also know the program is illegal. The law says Mexican trucks have to meet specific U.S. safety standards. They don't. No drug tests for drivers, no restrictions on hours behind the wheel, no ability to inspect every truck at the border, no accurate records of valid drivers licenses.
How do I know? Peters' own inspector general says so.
That's why she went all the way to El Paso in February to announce plans to let some Mexican trucks use U.S. highways - even though she was a large, pleasant office in the middle of a city crawling with journalists.
In August, when she decided to allow the first trucks to cross the border over Labor Day weekend, not a peep came out of her well-staffed public affairs department.
It was the Teamsters who learned of the secret plan and put the word out. After two days of "no comment" from DOT, Peters finally had someone else admit to a handful of reporters that yes, they were going ahead with it. (For the record, that someone else was an even lesser known bureaucrat, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief John Hill.)
So why did Peters finally come out of hiding on Wednesday and allow news photographers to take her picture next to a Mexican truck in front of DOT headquarters?
She claimed the dog-and-truck show would "prove" that Mexican trucks are as safe as U.S. trucks.
Does the Bush administration think we're stupid? It's insulting to the intelligence of the American people to suggest that a staged truck inspection before the news media proves anything.
Peters' real purpose was to convince Congress to back off its own plan to kill the program.
The House voted to block it 411-3 in May, and the Senate cast a similar vote - 75-23 - in September.
More than 50 sign-carrying Teamsters showed up on short notice at Peters' newser to express their views of her Mexican truck program. One of her flacks asked the police officer who we were.
"The Teamsters," he replied.
"We didn't expect them to show up," she said, and walked away.
The police officer asked one of the protesters why we were there, standing on the pavement waving signs. He told him we didn't want to open the border to Mexican trucks.
The officer shrugged. "I would have expected you to show up," he said.
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American jobs for American people!
It's good to see a Labor leader take the battle to the streets. Hopefully we'll see more of this. I was really disappointed about how little Main Stream Media (MSM) coverage there was on Labor Day, with very few appearances by top echelon labor leaders. The AFL-CIO and Change to Win leadership needs to agressively push the media to cover Labor's side of the issues. People like Rich Trumka, Leo Gerard and Andy Stern are much better at presenting Labor's side on issues than any of the pro-labor and anti-labor "analysts" and "experts" the MSM uses to dilute and distort Labor's message.
Good Job President Hoffa.
ALL THIS STARTED WITH BILL CLINTON WHEN HE
SIGNED THE "NAFTA TREATY."
REMEMBER ROSS PEROT SAID, "I HEAR THE SOUND OF
JOBS BEING SUCKED OUT OF AMERICA IF THIS
TREATY IS SIGNED."
There is a sustained conspiricy of union busting. This is but a part of it. We need to rise up and speak up and act up against it. We can start by demanding news coverage.
Teamsters I'm with you.
Pastor Ron Wanless
New Castle, PA
How come this is at the bottom of the Huffpost?
It should be right up there with the top stories.
This affects millions of Americans and it is nothing to look away from. AS WELL it's not just the Mexicans doing this it's the Chinese who have poured BILLIONS into two ports in Mexico with the express purpose of moving anything they want into America with having to bother with such niceties as customs, unions, Americans who give a damn about what they get and of course smuggling thousands of Chinese into the country.
WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH OUR PRESIDENT AND OUR CONGRESS!?
The answer to your question is the same as it is for every other case. This is an diversion-inversion strategy. This is what happens when entertainers pose as journalists and intellectuals. Their opposition actually uses the diversion-inversion technique and the willing 'Journaltainers' fall for the gag every single time. We shouldn't trust them - ever.
We talk about the Frost's, Rush Limbaugh attacks the kid - Hannity blathers about Cindy - Michelle Malkin stalks sick kids - screaming nut-jobs posing as financial wizards are making everyone rich - and our Country is being sold out from under by the illuminati.
That's why this article is down here. We're very busy getting the dry heaves discussing scatological dalliances in a Minneapolis men's room. And the former majority (who apparently have not relinquished control) are very happy about Larry, Rush, Denny Hastert resignations, and every other diversion that will keep the focus of more undermining of our civil rights and the group that's building an an legal obstacle course to divert attention to our continuous erosion of civil liberties and the conversion of our government to a monarchy.
Don't be so disappointed - Instead, shudder in fear that it isn't on the cover of the NY Times??? or Washington Post ???
Huffpost is just our play house and primal screaming therapy. Don't look here for altruism. This isn't an intellectual gathering. I like it because I come here for the food fights.
Good post. Of course the Bush regime is pushing to allow Mexican truckers into the U.S. They plan to shut down the west coast ports, have products shipped to Mexico and off-loaded by non-union slave labor, thus destroying the U.S. longshoremen's union. Then everything will be trucked throughout the U.S. by Mexican truckers, to destroy the teamsters.
Then the Mexican truckers will just stay here to take the short-haul work also. And since we have Mr. Romero of the MCLU (Mexican Civil Liberties Union, formerly known as the American Civil Liberties Union) fighting on behalf of the rights of Mexican workers to take American jobs, the Mexican truckers will be hired without papers (checking papers would be 'racist' according to Mr. Romero), and they will work for $8/hour, no benefits, no insurance, in unsafe and often decrepit trucks, further endangering the public and enriching the wealthy business owners.
I say not one truck. I don't care if they all get state of the art best-in-show trucks donated by some business, not one Mexican truck should be allowed to come into the U.S. to take more American jobs.
It should stop now. And this is as good a place as any to stop it.
Why wouldn't the Bush administration think we're stupid? So far we haven't done anything to prove them wrong in this assumption.
Haven't we already proven over and over again that there's no lie too big that we won't swallow, over and over again- and then reelect the very same people who knowingly lied to our face?
USA,USA,USA!!!
Yes, all those Mexican trucks will bring the goods up from Mexican Pacific ports, circumventing the West Coast Longshoremen's union.
This whole thing is about busting unions so corporate goons can take home bigger profits.
What I don't understand is how they plan to sell all these cheap goods when Americans are no longer able to afford them.
http://www
["What I don't understand is how they plan to sell all these cheap goods when Americans are no longer able to afford them."]
George W. Bush:
Stop asking reasonable questions. La,la,la,la. I can't hear you.
Bush invited Mexico in, it's called the North American Union, the US Border Patrol is just
a jobs program, now...
it's not just about economic protectionism for american workers. it's about leveling the playing field for all foreign workers. it's BEYOND time that we institute some basic labor and environmental standards to which ALL our trading partners must adhere.
it's chinese poisons, it's child sweatshops in latin america, it's indian healthcare, it's coal miners and farmworkers and soot and carbon and chemicals and nuclear wast. it's all of it.
we are a ridiculously wealthy nation. the best way to make sure our goods and services cost the "real" cost of their manufacture and distribution is to set minimum wage, working conditions and environmental standards here in the US, and with all our partners. we can afford it and we can't afford not to.
illegal immigration averted. worldwide disease and poverty diminished. waste and preventable poisonings curbed. global warming over.
so what's the downside?
I like this. It would cut down the difference, and hence the economic advantage for the big corporate goons (as someone aptly stated above) to exploit foreign wage/safety differences and ensure these elements don't undercut own union employees at home. It is a form of job protection or economic protection. I hope the Teamsters employ this as part of their approach. Sure, keep 'em out IF THEY ARE NOT TO "CODE." Otherwise, no entry.
Mexican trucking is absolutely necessary. As the fence goes up,another way must be found to transport the product of the hydroponic grow factories south of the border. (October "High Times"). My guess it will filter thru Texas where the rule of law is a flexible concept controlled by the powerful.
The "Fence" is a total farce even as just a suggestion in the initial brainstorming sessions seeking possible solutions to securing our borders. No stone wall, fortified line, electric fence, steel or bamboo curtain has ever been a success. And, yes, the Bush administration does think we are stupid because most of us are. Stupid and apathetic. If we weren't, then there is no way that we would have allowed an idiot to become our big "decider," "head cheerleader," and "commander
Old, regarding the fence, How do the Israelis seem to make theirs work? Maybe they can build ours for us. We can't seem to do anything anymore.
Does the Bush administration think we're stupid? It's insulting to the intelligence of the American people to suggest that a staged truck inspection before the news media proves anything.
To answer your question: YES.
And why should a staged photo-op and staged information NOT work? It sure as hell worked for Iraq. It seems to be working for Iran. A few well-repeated talking points bouncing around FOX NOISE to be picked up by the other "liberal" media outlets, and the sheeple will believe anything at all.
Too true. I hope the Teamsters fight back. I sure would pray they aren't weenies like the Congressional Dems.
Bush doesn't think we're stupid but he knows his supporters are.
I don't think our government thinks Americans are stupid. They just don't give a damned what Americans think and the photo op is to please Mexico.
A North American Union isn't a fantasy. Vicente Fox pretty well said so on Larry King. Who should know better? He and Bush had planned the implementation to begin even sooner but the pesky 9/11 event got in their way. It's back to business now and the push is on like never before.
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