So announces a colorful commercial billboard strategically situated on I-90, west of the Belgrade, Montana interchange, that features a web site address - www.StoptheFTAA.org.

While a former Big Sky state legislator named Bob Davies is among those responsible for placing the billboard, this particular campaign is the brainchild of a Wisconsin-based educational group that frequently and unapologetically defends American sovereignty - the John Birch Society. John McManus, the Society's president, says that the FTAA - Free Trade Area of the Americas - "is poisonous bait on a barbed hook."

Them's fightin' words especially in fishin' country. But after doing some investigating, I can understand why McManus, et. al., are concerned enough to launch a nationwide grassroots effort to stop the FTAA.

Over a decade in the making, the FTAA has been described, by supporters, as "the most far-reaching trade agreement in history." If enacted, the FTAA will bind together the economies of 34 nations in North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean (excluding Cuba) into a free trade area. Stumbling blocks to trade and investment, like tariffs and subsidies, would be reduced or even eliminated.

Joining this European Union-style alliance means adhering to the mind-numbing regulations imposed by the FTAA which will trump our nation's laws and our ability to control the borders. The latter is especially troubling post-9/11.

But here's the really strange part: President George W. Bush is one of the heads of state who is committed to completing FTAA negotiations by early 2005. The proposal would then be presented to the U.S. Congress for a vote.

However, it is Congress, not the president, according to Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, that has been entrusted with the authority "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." The question: Why is Bush eagerly promoting - to borrow a phrase from the fast food industry - a super-sized NAFTA?

Ten years ago, when the North American Free Trade Agreement's proponents (like Senators John F. Kerry and Max Baucus) told the citizenry that the pact would be responsible for creating jobs and higher wages, they weren't entirely wrong. The federal International Trade Administration, which oversees the Office of NAFTA and Inter-American Affairs, has 2,400 well-compensated government employees.

Meanwhile, We, the People, have NAFTA to thank for the following:

* The United States running a $100 billion combined trade deficit with Canada and Mexico, our NAFTA partners.

* The Economic Policy Institute's estimate that the United States has lost 879,280 jobs between 1993 and 2003 (1,900 in Montana alone), due to the above-mentioned trade deficits.

* The nation's highways being opened to big rigs from Mexico, not bound by U.S. safety standards, which will result in more illegal contraband coming into our country and more traffic deaths and more pollution.

* Diminished control over national security and health concerns. The Billings-based AGRI-NEWS reported t