Liberty Matters News Service

September 19, 2008

CALL America 2008 “Coordinating America’s Local Leaders”

The 17th Annual Property Rights Conference sponsored by Stewards of the Range and the American Land Foundation will take place in Austin, Texas, November 13th-15th. “We are training people how to use the coordination strategy developed by Fred Kelly Grant, because it is the most effective tool we have to protect property rights at the local level,” commented Dan Byfield, President of the American Land Foundation. For the past two years, the organizations have concentrated on teaching local government how to require federal and state agencies to work directly with them by asserting their statutory authority through coordination, and it’s working. In August 2007, four cities and school districts in Central Texas began using the strategy and, as a result, have held off the approval of the environmental study for the I-35 segment of the Trans Texas Corridor for over a year (the first leg of the NAFTA Superhighway). There are now nine commissions in Texas fighting the TTC and dozens of other areas across the nation using coordination to protect their communities from ESA listings, grazing and timber reductions, and park expansions. CALL America 2008 will train local leaders how to use the coordination process and provide a forum for those already using the strategy to gather and meet others across the nation doing the same. However, the conference is only the beginning of the support the two organizations provide. “Next year, as with this year, we will spend much of our time traveling and working directly with the areas implementing this strategy to ensure they are successful,” commented Margaret Byfield, executive Director of Stewards of the Range. “The words and the statutes are already there,” noted Fred Grant, President of Stewards of the Range. Grant is the attorney who first began using the coordination strategy fifteen years ago in Owyhee County. Since that time, he’s started a movement across the country in dozens of other locations. “We don’t need to wait for Congress to pass new legislation in order to protect our livelihoods at the local level. The authority is already in the federal and state statutes.” Fred Grant will be leading the training session, with the help of several county commissioners, mayors and local leaders from around the nation who are now implementing this strategy. For more information, click here.

U.K. Jury Absolves Greenpeace of Criminal Damage

A jury in the United Kingdom, last week, decided that it is okay to deface private property if the vandalism is done in the name of saving the world from global warming. The trial stems from an incident last October in which six Greenpeace members attempted to shut down the coal-fired Kingsnorth power plant to protest government plans to build similar plants. The intrepid eco-warriors scaled the plant’s chimney to scrawl Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s name to shame the government into backing off the plans to provide British citizens more abundant and affordable power. “Gordon, bin it,” was the message they had planned but they only managed to complete the Gordon part. It is unclear why they thought that name would bring down the power plant. It did, however, cost Kingsnorth owners £35,000 to remove the graffiti. The Greenpeacers defended their action under the “lawful excuse” clause of the 1971 Criminal Damage Act that allows property to be damaged to prevent greater damage, as in knocking down a door to fight the fire within. By attacking the power plant they were attempting to head off greater damage to the earth from global warming, they claimed. Prof. James Hansen, NASA scientist and Al Gore advisor, testified on behalf of the defendants telling the court that the 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide emitted daily by the Kingsnorth plant could lead to the extinction of up to 400 species. Hansen said: “Somebody needs to step forward and say there has to be a moratorium, draw a line in the sand and say no more coal-fired power stations.” Professor Hansen has been spreading the global warming gospel for over twenty years. No doubt, this silly defense will make its way across the ocean to America to be exploited by more environmental extremists in the future to justify their criminal acts.

Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law

H.R. 6598, The Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008

H.R. 6598 was to be marked up in the House Judiciary Committee September 17th. The bill prevents horses from being sent to slaughter (for human consumption) across U.S. borders. Special interests groups last year succeeded in closing the last horse slaughter plants in the U.S., using the argument that horses should not be “what’s for dinner,” claiming the U.S. plants used “inhumane” methods to dispatch the animals. Since that time, thousands of horses have been sent to Canada and Mexico. Last September, several Texas newspapers exposed the hideous manner in which these horses are killed in Mexico. H.R. 6598 would make it a criminal act for horse owners to knowingly sell their animals for slaughter. The penalties include fines of unknown amounts and imprisonment of up to three years. H.R. 6598 should be re-titled: The Equine Cruelty Act of 2008. A Time Magazine story from May 2008, stated: “Rising grain and gas prices, as well as the closure of American Slaughterhouses have contributed to a virtual stampede of horses being abandoned – some starving – and turned loose into the deserts and plains of the West to die cruel and lonesome deaths.” As bad as the situation is now, an ignorant Congress would make matters much worse by passing H.R. 6598. The issue has been delayed, since the measure failed to be “marked up” in a late afternoon House Judiciary Committee meeting. Once again, citizens are forced to battle the government to protect their property rights, even their rights to manage their own livestock.

HR 6598 Reference
HR 6598 Reference
HR 6598 Reference
HR 6598 Reference

H.R. 3036, No Child Left Inside Act

The House is set to vote on a new government propaganda measure to indoctrinate American children with an agenda promoted by the powerful environmental lobby. H.R. 3036, will provide grant money for non-profit organizations and state and local educational agencies to gain resources needed to further the field of environmental education. Sec. 11, (a), (1), says in part: “These entities may use the funds to coordinate with any program or unit operated by a Federal Natural Resource Management Agency to carry out environmental education programs…” Sec. 11 goes on to state the funds may be used to develop and implement various standards and frameworks “in environmental education, including the need to balance conservation of the environment with the development the Nation’s energy resources.” Sec. 11 (B) states: [the grants] “provide… students with opportunities to directly experience nature in ways designed to improve overall academic performance, self-esteem, personal responsibility, community involvement personal health (including addressing child obesity issues), or their understanding of nature; (C) provide integrated instruction on waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting programs; (D) address issues of environmental justice, including policies and methods for eliminating disparate enforcement of environment laws and regulations with respect to minority and low-income communities, with particular attention to the development of environmental justice curriculum at the middle and high school level.” The bill, which is set to be heard by the full House September 18, 2008, was introduced July 12, 2007, by Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D-MD) and has 64 co-sponsors.

Take Action Alert
ED Watch Action Alert
HR 3036 Bill

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