How many Americans knew that Obama was in Canada yesterday?

Very interesting to see hardly any US media coverage of Obama's historic
first foreign visit as president. Normally the media covers everything
Obama does, every door knob he reaches for that's really a window, etc.

Also very interesting to see not one mention of the trip to Ottawa on
Drudgereport.

I have to wonder what was really the point of the 7 hour visit. I
think, again, as usual, that the EXTREME preoccupation with energy,
particularly oil, is at the center of what most presidents do for the
past 30 years.

While most of the coverage is slanted towards "green" energy development
and usage, I think Obama's brief mention of "energy security" is key to
understanding why the trip was made, and what was discussed in private
with PM Harper.

While Bush and Cheney were quite ignorant of Canada and for the past 8
years were quite content with spending billions and expending thousands
of lives to keep mid-east oil flowing west, I think what we're seeing
here is a huge policy shift where the Obama whitehouse will focus more
on insuring that the US has ample access to Canadian oil and natural
gas, possibly to the point of *preventing* environmental and climate
concerns from impeding the extraction of tar-sands oil.

And while all this is going on, feel-good TV commercials during the
evening network news (put out by the US energy cabal) continue to extol
the virtues of extracting every last ounce of "American energy" from
"American sources". Such advertizing is, naturally, designed to soften
US opposition to energy extraction in environmentally sensitive areas.
Look for more "clean coal" PR coming soon to a TV and newspaper near
you.

So to re-cap: The message that Canada is getting from the Obama white
house is this: Keep the oil, the natural gas, the hydro-electricity
flowing south to the US, and we'll take out some of the "Buy American"
clauses in the stimulus package and maybe keep the US/Canada border from
"thickening up" too much in the (false) name of security.

 

The trip and Harper's and Obama's remarks were reported word for word in
French and English on Bloomberg, among other media.

Step outside the bubble lately?

 

Canada isn't "a foreign visist"...

....he says and ducks out of the way of flying brick-bats...


DAS

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You know, we (Canadians) know that.

American's (generally) don't.

 

Perhaps these were some kickoff meetings towards dissolving borders and
establishing the North American Union.

 

Horrors.
We know what it was about- OIL and other energy!

 

What?

What about NAFTA?

Or do you mean the assimilation of Canada within the USA...?...

DAS

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Well, you know, if a bail-out package of sufficient size could be
split among a portion of 30 million (plus) Canadians, maybe certain
parts could be purchased..................)

 

I mean establishing a N.A. equivalent of the E.U., which is on the
agenda of certain people.

--
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Union

http://tinyurl.com/ddgzww

 

I should add that there have been, somewhat recently, some agreements
signed between the US and Canada that pertain to the use of each-others
military on each-other's soil in the event of extraordinary events
(natural disaster, civil unrest or some other caos, terrorism, etc).
Naturally, it got very little press.

 

I would be happy to collect my portion in person if Washington will
spot me the gas money for my jet.

 

If Jack Layton ends up as Prime Minister, would this qualify as a
natural disaster? Send in the Marines...

 

Is this a conspiracy?

DAS

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I don't know if I should be embarrassed to admit that I had not heard of
this beast, the NAU, so the Wikipedia link MoPar Man supplied led to
interesting reading (even though I don't reply on Wikipeadia for facts).

There are some erroneous comments/conclusions (about the EU) in there,
especially in this quote "...analogous to the European Union (EU), with open
borders and a common currency among other features, was being made by the
fall of 2006, when conservative commentators Phyllis Schlafly, Jerome Corsi
and Howard Phillips started a website dedicated to quashing what they
perceived as the coming North American "Socialist mega-state."[6]"

Although it's an aim, we don't have open borders everywhere, and even where
there have been, they have been restricted again, for a while at least, when
a govt has felt the need, such as to control drugs smuggling from The
Netherlands.

It is the Schengen agreement that deals with it and notably Britain is not
party to it, yet Switzerland, NOT an EU member, is.

The fact is that one could never physically control all the byways that run
across borders, unless one stuck a barbed-wire barrier manned by armed
guards, as we had down the middle of Europe till 1989. We must also not
forget that 'modern' border controls were only introduced post-WW1.

Long before 'Schengen' I have driven across border without controls, and on
motorways with only defunctory ones.

Did Canada and USA not have, in effect, open borders until the measures
post-Sep 11, 2001?

Furthermore, the eurozone does not encompass all the EU members.
Scandinavian countries and Britain are notable absentees.

Furthermore, there has been criticism of the euro -- mainly from British
commentators -- that it will ultimately fail because

i) it covers a region that is too great in economic variation

ii) of barriers to free movement of labour from depressed to growing areas
(language, national controls, mutual recognition of qualifications where
relevant)

iii) there is no central political control with a commensurate single
economic policy.


However, I think these commentators indulge in wishful thinking because they
want to shout "I told you so", but so far it has been largely very
successful. Of course, we have to see how it survives the recession.

The factors that led to the Treaty/Treaties of Rome signed in 1957 do not
exist in
North America, The drivers for the creation of the European Community and
later the EU do not, I believe exist in NA either, so if the countries in NA
(it seems only 3 are under discussion, or would the Caribbean region be
included?) choose to integrate aspects of econonomic and political life to a
greater or lesser extent, the factors would be quite different, even if the
EU model were taken as a template.

Thinking about it, the USA is itself an integrated country, given the
previous separate colonies and territories belonging to various countries
(Britain, France, Mexico...). The foundation is conflict and war. It just
happened in the 19th century or thereabouts...

DAS
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I believe that prior to 9/11/2001, US/Canada border crossings required
passing through designated customs checkpoints. Prior to rules for 9/11,
passenger vehicles did not receive a whole lot of scrutiny. (Unless you
were a teenager traveling with other young companions, in which case the
customs agents might well nearly dissemble the vehicle to search for drugs
and paraphernalia.)

When I crossed the border several times in the 1970's and 1980's, entry into
Canada did not require stopping, but on the return to the US, the vehicle's
driver was required to show a US driver's license. I believe after 9/11,
there was a grace period when the DL was still an approved form of ID, but
at some point, I believe that all passengers in vehicles crossing the border
needed to show a valid US birth certificate. When I crossed by foot last
year near Niagara Falls, I was required to show my US passport.

Bob

 

Quite.

You remind me of an occasion (in the 70s?) when I was visiting a friend
living in Germany (as it happened, a US citizen employed by the American
military) close to the Belgian border (Eiffel district, rather pretty). He
drove me round and we crossed into Belgium on a small road (off a 'main'
road parallel to the border) that lead also to some houses that fronted in
Germany but had access only via Belgium.

Anyway, this was an 'unmanned' crossing point and there was a sign from the
German authorities declaring that crossing the border was only permitted at
authorised crossing points elsewhere.

We ignored this, especially as we had no relevant papers on us.... We
continued on our spin in the (now Belgian) countryside and then had to
return the same way otherwise we might have been held up...

BTW, small correction in my previous message: I meant to say PERfunctory
controls rather than "defunctory"...

DAS

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We knew that

 

They always did, save for some exceptions (in the Great Lakes, for
instance, pleasure boaters landing but remaining near their
vessels....still a requirement that they make a telephone call to US
officials)

Not correct. There was always the possibility, on both sides of the
border, for a vehicle to be detained for "secondary" inspection.
Happily, it was usually a matter of a polite exhange with a few
questions asked, and answered and then one could be on one's way. It
could go in another direction very quickly if the official had reason
to feel that it should....sometimes, a smart ass response to one of
his questions could be enough...as well it should.

Sorry, that's not true either. Exit from Canada doesn't require
stopping, (although in the years just after WW2 there was such a
requirement) but entry into Canada from the US has always entailed
stopping for an interview by an officer.

That might usually have worked for a US citizen, but a Canadian was
always well advised to have his birth certificate and other ID
available for presentation to the US official on entry.

It's all changing now and the requirement for either a passport or
other "acceptable" documentation is virtually a reality....required
for air travel, advised for car....stay tuned.

There's also the Nexxus program...a pre-approval system designed for
commuters and that's in place at the busier border crossings like
Windsor/Detroit and Blaine/Douglas in BC, etc.

 

On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:08:43 UTC, "Dori A Schmetterling"
Didn't that little part of countryside bordering Belgium used to be
German before WWI, around Eupen, I think?



"What do you mean there's no movie?"