Paranoia, Paranoia, The Mexicans are Coming to Get Me...

Funny how the very same critics of the 9/11 conspiracy theory, however kooky it all is, seem just as apt to bake up their own crazy stories. Kookiness, it seems, is perfectly capable of emanating from both sides of the political fence.

~From Mother Jones, May/June 2007:

The Conspiracy: Secret plans are afoot to merge the United States into an E.U.-like union with Canada and Mexico. The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, a trade agreement being discussed between George W. Bush and our neighbors, is actually a cover for a soon-to-be-formed single North American Union. Dollars and pesos will be replaced with a new North American currency called the "Amero." The new "superstate" would erase the current borders, leading to a flood of former Mexicans into the region once known as the United States.

The Conspiracy Theorists: Jerome Corsi, coauthor of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, who's managed to enlist the sympathies of Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist, anti-immigration Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado), and Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Virginia) -- who introduced a bill last September stating the United States should not enter into said North American Union.

Meanwhile, back on earth: The SPP is real, but it's a run-of-the-mill free-trade program along the lines of NAFTA. The idea for a single North American currency has been floated by academics, but that's it. Kookiness Rating (1 = maybe they're onto something; 5 = break out the tinfoil hat): 4~~

I've been thinking lately about the concept of walls. Projects are obviously underway to fence off the southern border. (Forget about the much wealthier and non-threatening whites residing behind the northern one). The sense of impending doom that would trigger such an effort is what I cannot understand. But the very same ethos of irrational fear that is erecting walls between nations is what is fueling theories such as this. Irrational fear leads to paranoia, and once mixed with policy and implemented, can bring unnecessary economic and social strife on both ourselves and on our neighbors. Seeing the work of the Border Patrol, the National Guard members assisting them and the Minutemen who think neither are doing a sufficient job, I think there's plenty enough reason to think that concerns like these might well fall under the category of biggest crock of shit we've ever seen or heard.