Teamsters continue to battle Mexican trucks

The plan to let Mexican trucks operate throughout the United States has prompted a war of words and legal papers between the Bush administration and Jim Hoffa, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Hoffa and his allies at the Sierra Club and Public Citizen have sued in federal court to stop the government from issuing permits to Mexican freight haulers. Their lawyers argued in court that Mexican trucks pose a danger on the roads and threaten increased human and drug smuggling. “Dangerous trucks should not be driving all the way from Mexico to Maine and Minnesota,” said Hoffa in a prepared statement. “What is it about safety and national security that George Bush doesn’t understand?”

The Chief has some more or less direct interest in this, since he lives 2.75 miles from an officially designated North American international trade route (I-29).

The government argued that stopping the trucks would unsettle a key trading partner in Mexico and delay U.S.trucks from operating south of the border.

So, the Mexicans could become unsettled. The point is…?

This goes right along with another item:

Calderon blasts U.S. immigration policies

President Felipe Calderon blasted U.S. immigration policies on Sunday and promised to fight harder to protect the rights of Mexicans in the U.S., saying “Mexico does not end at its borders.”

This reminds the Chief of the sort of things that Germany was saying in the 1930’s as it moved to implement “das Grossdeutches Reich“, or Greater Germany, incorporating large parts of Czechoslovakia, the entire nation of Austria, most of Poland, and targets on the then USSR up to the Urals. Indeed, Germany did NOT end at its borders…it kept marching as long as it could get away from it. One fears Mexico is moving in the direction of going for anything it can get, as long as we continue to “assume the position”. BOHICA!

Admittedly Calderon is no Hitler (yet), but imperialism is imperialism…and asserting claims of extraterritorial rights historically is one of the tried and true arrows in the imperialistic quiver.

He also reached out to the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, many illegally, saying: “Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico.”

This is the Mexican version of the doctrine of “Once a German, always a German.”

“We strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government that have only persecuted and exacerbated the mistreatment of Mexican undocumented workers,” he said. “The insensitivity toward those who support the U.S. economy and society has only served as an impetus to reinforce the battle … for their rights.”

Frankly, as far as the Chief is concerned the only right that ILLEGAL immigrants have, is to not let the door hit them in the ass on their way out.