The One, Two Punch: Punch Number One

"Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves."
Jesus (Matthew 10:16)

We Americans are a generally trusting lot. Perhaps too trusting these days.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2004, American citizens of voting age numbered 215 million. Of that 215 million, only 147 million, or 68 percent, were registered to vote. And of the 147 million registered to vote, only 126 million actually voted. That's 86% of registered voters, but only 59% of those eligible to vote, actually voting.

Less than 60 percent of us care enough about what's going on to even participate. And for those of us who do, we often vote and then pay little attention until the next election.

There are at least three reasons for this non-participation:

• we frankly just don't care
• we are so disgusted we have simply given up
• we are too trusting of the people that we elect to run our country

For years now, most of us have not really been watching what goes on in Washington. And while we have been going about our business, trusting others to run our country, some seriously questionable things have been happening. More questionable than usual.

These last few years, the American people have been hit hard with an unexpected one, two, sucker punch. Sucker punches characteristically come without warning, while one is not prepared.

Here are some questions I have been asking myself:

• Why does our president refuse to secure our border with Mexico?
• Why does he seem so disinterested in enforcing the immigration laws?
• What is really behind the arrests and convictions of Border Agents Ramos and Compean and their unspeakable treatment by U.S. District Attorney Johnny Sutton and his cohorts?
• Why was our president so anxious for Congress to pass the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill and do it quickly, with little debate, and under such a cloud of secrecy?

I must be honest and say that these unexplainable actions and non-actions cause me to seriously question our president's commitment to the Constitution.

Have you by chance heard of the North American Union (NAU)? The phrase is being kicked around more and more these days.

What is it, you ask? Well, many believe that there is a secret conspiracy to merge our country with Mexico and Canada, much like the European Union. Here are some things I have read and heard are happening in the shadows:

• the elimination of borders between these three nations
• a massive superhighway (the NAFTA Highway) running from from the Texas/Mexican border to the American/Canadian border
• the setting up of an inland port in Kansas City (under the sovereign governance of Mexico) which will, in essence, serve as the North American Union (NAU) customs center
• the opening up of American roads to Mexican freight haulers (already happening)
• the delivery of Chinese goods to Mexican ports, and their subsequent transport via the NAFTA Highway, eliminating the need for West Coast, American longshormen
• the issuance of NAU ID cards which will replace American passports
• the merging of our three, national currencies into a common currency known as the "Amero"

These are certainly outlandish claims. But there is so much noise about them, that one seriously wonders if they are true. Is this a sucker punch to trusting Americans? Does it originate with our own president? Could these radical conspiratorial ideas explain why the man many of us worked hard to elect, and then re-elect, refuses to secure our border with Mexico? The more I read of the NAU and the NAFTA Highway, and another mysterious agreement called the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), the more I think I maybe understand the twisted logic behind the strange policies of the man in our Whitehouse.

Many believe that the push for these radical changes in national policy has been spearheaded by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), an organization in which our president's father, Bush 41, has played a significant role. Many are saying that the CFR, along with the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Society, have been quietly building a "shadow government" behind the scenes, and under the cover of darkness.

I do remember hearing about the CFR way back in 1980. Ronald Reagan had just accepted the Republican nomination for his party's candidacy. And his chief opponent in that race was George H.W. Bush (41). Reagan had stated that he would not create a role for the vanquished Bush in his adminstration. But then, without explanation, Bush suddenly became the vice presidential candidate on the Reagan ticket.

A year or two later, in the early 1980's, I read a book titled The Unseen Hand, by Ralph Epperson. Epperson's claims, though well documented, seemed too fantastic to believe. He essentially reported that a consipracy had been set into motion with the goal of bringing together a one-world order, built around an economic model, and controlled by elites through business, trade, and banking.

Shocked and stunned, I could not quite bring myself to embrace Epperson's theories. I set the book, and my thoughts about it, aside, and went on about my business.

Though entertaining a teeny, tiny question in my mind about the Bushes' role in this fantastic story, I voted for both candidates in all four elections, the only loss coming to Bush 41 with his defeat at the hand of Bill Clinton. But now, as I am seeing first hand, right here in my own community, the direct impact of these illogical policies of the man I supported, this conspiracy theory actually seems to have some real legs to it. Within the past six months, more and more of this story is coming into the public eye, and as it does, the dots are beginning to get connected.

If this is true, if our sovereign, self-governing nation is about to be taken over by power hungry, money grubbing elitists, America will soon cease to be the world's singular beacon of freedom. Instead, we will be reduced to a bland, run-of-the-mill country that places us on par with many of the world's other nations.

The love of money, or mammon as the Scriptures label it, has been the corrupting power in so many fallen nations. Has the love of mammon, the pursuit of wealth, and consumerism itself replaced the once treasured American ideal of liberty?

America's greatness emerged in large part from the individual entrepreneur, set free to dream and tinker with ideas and possibilities. Think of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, both untethered from from big-brother government regulators nosing around in their laboratories. Consider George Washington Carver, born a slave yet liberated to explore the world of the peanut, eventually uncovering nearly three-hundred uses for that dwarfling of shelled, dry fruit. Ponder Benjamin Franklin flying his key-laden kite string into an electrical storm, an experiment that led to his invention of the lightning rod. Or what about Elisha Graves Otis, the inventor of the modern elevator?

Those named above are but a smattering of American individuals operating in an environment of freedom and self-government that liberated and set into motion ideas that represent the best of the human race. America leapt way out in front of all other nations of the world only because of our unique culture of freedom, personal responsibility, individuality, and opportunity for success. In America, everyday people have been free to pursue their own dreams.

If what I have noted above is true, and if those purportedly behind it are not soon stopped, the fires of freedom which once burned so brightly in this land will be extinguished. Our exceptional country, made great by the idea of "government by the people," will be subsumed into a larger conglomerate where "government by the corporate and bureaucratically elite" will rob us of freedom's gifts. Are we now on the threshold of trading in our treasured freedoms for a tame, tasteless, and tedious system which will sap us of our national vigor?

Part of me wants to believe that this story is true. Another part of me does not want to believe it.

Don't take my word for this, investigate this story for yourself. Buy Epperson's The Unseen Hand, and read it for yourself. Read Jerome Corsi's book, The Late Great USA.

And here are some online resources and places to start your pursuit of this troubling topic right now:

1) Videos from Lou Dobbs of CNN (who would have thought that I would be promoting something produced by CNN?)

Lou Dobbs Slams CFR & North American Union
North American Union Orwellian Brave New World
Lou Dobbs CFR Treason, NAU
Lou Dobbs Interviews Elitist Robert Pastor
CNN Lou Dobbs NAU Means Paying for Mexico

2) Christian activist Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum, has been vigorously researching and writing about this "shadow government" for quite a while now. Here are links to a couple of audio interviews with Ms. Schlafly:

Crosstalk Interviews Phyllis Schlafly on the North American Union
Worldview Weekend Interviews Phyllis Schlafly on the North American Union

3) Journalist Jerome Corsi has been doggedly pursuing this topic for a good while. Here are links to several of his articles on World Net Daily:

World Net Daily reviews Corsi's new book The Late Great USA
A Seamless "North American" Air Traffic Control System?
Local Leaders Plotting in Secret to Undermine US Sovereignty

Also, read these provocative articles on how businesses are taking over the role of government in international relations:

Businesses to Run the North American Union for Profit?
Dark Moon Rising: Surrendering Sovereignty
The Nafta Highway

And I strongly urge every reader of this blog to listen to at least one of these audio presentations:
Worldview Weekend Interviews John Loeffler on the North American Union
Chuck Baldwin interview with Jerome Corsi

Oh yeah, Canadians are up in arms about this, too: ViveleCanada

Here's a photo of Mexico's former president, Vincente Fox, our president, George W. Bush, and Canada's former Prime Minister, Paul Martin (l to r), shaking hands in Waco, Texas on March 23, 2005. Note the SPP logo on the wall behind them. Are they secretly plotting to destroy their nations' respective sovereignties?

Check out the Fire Society column on the Security and Prosperity Partnership.

I cannot say for certain that this story is true. I don't want to be a conspiracy theorist. And yet, so much seems to be pointing to its validity, that it is hard for me to ignore.

Is any of this (or all of it) true? Has America been sucker punched?

I am just asking ...

"Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves."

Go to Punch Number Two