Said story: Activists Fight Green Projects, Seeing U.N. Plot

Across the country, activists with ties to the Tea Party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They brand government action for things like expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space as part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities.

They are showing up at planning meetings to denounce bike lanes on public streets and smart meters on home appliances — efforts they equate to a big-government blueprint against individual rights. (snip)

The protests date to 1992 when the United Nations passed a sweeping, but nonbinding, 100-plus-page resolution called Agenda 21 that was designed to encourage nations to use fewer resources and conserve open land by steering development to already dense areas. They have gained momentum in the past two years because of the emergence of the Tea Party movement, harnessing its suspicion about government power and belief that man-made global warming is a hoax.

Some may in fact see it as a UN plot, but, then, the UN has been pushing junk science and all sorts of initiatives, most recently “biodiversity” and “sustainability”, as a means to put more control into the hands of government, as well as people’s hard earned money. As Tom Nelson points out

Is Revkin really sure that Tea Party activisits don’t just see their hard-earned cash being blown on idiotic left-wing bad-weather-preventing projects?

Let me tell you a little tale. Behind my home is a greenway that follows the Neuse River. The stretch in my area, which extends a few miles from the Highway 264 bridge north, is mostly dirt and gravel. Over the last few months they have been paving it. And cutting down trees. Wait, cutting down trees on a greenway? And by “months” they have literally been slapping down a mile or two of pavement perhaps 5 feet wide. I hear their machines every weekday for months. Not quite sure what they are doing, but, I’m pretty sure it’s expensive. Now, I have no problem with the greenway. In fact, I think it’ll be great to rollerblade on (there are no good places in my area to ‘blade). Of course, not many people used it before: most folks either walked the sidewalks or the golf car paths. I’d go for a walk down it beforehand (it’s been closed for about 5 months now) and see no one else. A $13 million bond was voted in back in 2007. Perhaps, in this economy, it isn’t the time to spend the money on a greenway that will barely be used. Total cost for all the greenways is $30 million. Rather expensive, eh? And wasteful. Should have put convicts out there building it.

Similarely, TEA Party activists are tired of the government wasting enormous amounts of money, usually overspending at high levels, on “green” projects that will rarely be used. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes nature projects for the sake of nature are good. But, be responsible with the money. And don’t cut trees down on greenways, for goodness sakes.

(AP) A U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change.

The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would ensure that countries will be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

In fact, they are going to start talks next year which will conclude in 2015, which means 4 more years of awesome climate vacations conferences in far off exotic vacation spots.

The deal doesn’t explicitly compel any nation to take on emissions targets, although most emerging economies have volunteered to curb the growth of their emissions.

Of course not. Said 3rd world shitholes emerging economies (with little to offer which is why they have been “emerging” forever) can easily curb the growth of their emissions since they have little to no industrial base and little to no power industry. But, they will get a ton of money from countries with actual economies to build their slush funds.

Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for at least another five years under the accord adopted Sunday – a key demand by developing countries seeking to preserve the only existing treaty regulating carbon emissions.

And the vast majority of countries failed to even get close to their binding targets under Kyoto.

The United States was a reluctant supporter, concerned about agreeing to join an international climate system that likely would find much opposition in the U.S. Congress.

There’s a big reason why it is important to win back the Senate and White House, and keep control of the House: stopping this kind of massive idiocy, which is simply a way to transfer tons of money to the government and the United Nations, as well as giving the government and the UN massive control over our lives and economies. China and India might join, but neither will destroy their economies for the sake of a fake issue. They talk the talk, especially China, which increased its CO2 emissions by 171% since 2000. But they do little. They understand that a meager 0.8C temperature increase since 1900 is no big deal, and that a warmer world is not necessarily a bad thing. Longer growing seasons, less need for heating fuel. Oh, and that anthropogenic global warming is a fake issue.

Tom Nelson has a few great links on the ending of COP17.

Climate Depot has an exclusive draft of what the climahysterics are pushing, which includes an international climate court, the “rights” of Mother Earth, war is to end, and, oh, the West will contribute all the money which will first go to the UN, which will not have account for where the money goes.

Otherwise, though, everything seemed hunky dory for the COP17 wrapup in 140 characters or less

(nagidapc) Feeling disillusioned with the UN process- decisions passed more due to exhaustion/lack of clear communication, not active consent #COP17

(climatepanda) #cop17 . Done. Can’t be too happy though. Barely applause.

(Kate Sheppard) @keithkloor per earlier question, disappointment here seems as high as Copenhagen, but dysfunction is longer in duration in Durban. #COP17

(alisdaniela) is true @adammacisaac: Watching the failure of #COP17 via 140 character messages is a slow painful process. #UNFCCC #Climate #durban

But, watching the failure of COP17 in 140 characters was amusing. Especially all those tweets about the great parties. COP18 will be in Qatar, which actually has a big vacation industry. Oh, and is #20 on the world oil production list.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

(Fox News) After suing Arizona and Alabama over their strict immigration laws, the Obama administration is seriously weighing whether to legally challenge similar measures in four other states.

“To the extent we find state laws that interfere with the federal government’s enforcement of immigration law, we are prepared to bring suit,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa. “The department is currently reviewing immigration-related laws that were passed in Utah, Indiana, Georgia and South Carolina.”

“In reviewing these, the department is proceeding consistently with the process followed and the legal principles established in United States v. Arizona,” she said. “Based on that review and applying those principles, the United States will decide whether and when to bring suit challenging particular state laws.”

Wonderful. People are sick and tired of the federal government failing to enforce the laws of the land in respect to illegal aliens, which includes those who have overstayed their visas, not just sneaking into the country from nations all over the world, yet, Team Obama plans to bring more suits. This may play well with his unhinged base (which doesn’t realize that the illegals are taking their jobs), but their is not data showing that this increases the likelyhood that US citizens of Hispanic descent will vote Democrat

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees federal immigration policy, criticized the administration’s move.

“The administration should be working with states, not against them, to enforce our immigration laws,” he said. “This latest attempt to challenge a state’s efforts to enforce the rule of law, while turning a blind eye to cities and states that knowingly harbor illegal immigrants through sanctuary policies, is undermining the very same rule of law that our country was built on.”

Yeah, but in Democrat World, the Law is politics, and can be ignored for potential votes.

States’ rights is code for discrimination.

Isn’t it great how they can read the minds of everyone who believes in the Constitutional provision which provided States with power against the potential tyranny from the federal government?

A century and a half ago, some states asserted the right to leave the union. We fought the nation’s bloodiest conflict, then admitted the traitors back into the country on generous terms. Though our Confederate brothers and sisters died defending the enslavement of African-Americans, we did this in the name of peace and forgiveness.

Oh, you mean those Democrats who did that?

Fast forward, to the 1960’s, all Americans were free from legalized slavery — but blacks were still routinely denied the ballot. Some states blocked access to the ballot with the same ferocity, and on the same grounds, that they stood in schoolhouse doors with ax handles — states’ rights. Denial of the ballot was based on the right of states to control all election procedures.

I agree, those Democrats were bad people for doing that. Funny, though, how Democrats, who always say that they are the smartest people in the room and can see shades of gray, take a black and white position (no pun intended) on this subject, and fail to see that using the 10th Amendment incorrectly doesn’t diminish the whole thing.

But radical conservatives, frightened by the country’s demographics and the potential long-term voter realignment, and also emboldened by a federal judiciary that puts “federalism” limits on Congress’ enforcement powers, are now raising the terrible visages of voter suppression and states’ rights once again.

You know why? Because some may require *gasp* ID to prove identity when voting. So, obviously, those states that are passing/pushing laws which require people to prove who they are when performing one of their most sacred duties is intentionally raaaaacist, as evil conservatives attempt to disenfranchise minorities. Well, we are trying to disenfranchise dead people, who may be minorities. And dogs and cats, who may be owned by a minority. And Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jesus II, Bart Simpson, Family Guy, King Kong, Doodad Pro, and Good Will, among others, will be disenfranchised.

But, any of you who believe in ALL the Amendments are raaaaacists. Period.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

In an effort to ensure their citizens are treated fairly in Alabama, 16 nations, including Mexico, filed briefs against the state’s controversial new immigration law that has already drawn fire from the U.S. Department of Justice.

So, Mexico and the other 16 nations are admitting that their citizens are present in Alabama in violation of Unites States law? Which means that we should listen to Mexico and find all their citizens and send them on back.

Edward Still, a Birmingham attorney who filed the brief, told The Montgomery Advertiser that the nations “want to have one immigration law and not 50.”

“Mexico has an interest in protecting its citizens and ensuring that their ethnicity is not used as basis for state-sanctioned acts of bias and discrimination,” the brief said, according to the paper.

And Alabama has an interest in protecting its citizens and ensuring that illegals are not around, taking Alabama citizens’ jobs, stealing their identities, stealing their property, assaulting them, raping them, killing them.

The Justice Department argues that the states are overstepping their authority by wading into something that is a strictly federal responsibility: immigration enforcement.

Which, in an of itself, is an idiotic argument: should state, local, and county police ignore lawbreakers if they are only breaking federal laws? But, then, the Politicized Obama DoJ doesn’t want to argue that they hate the law because these could be future Democrat voters if they could just ram through some amnesty programs.

The Justice Department filed a challenge to Alabama’s tough anti-illegal-immigration law Monday, arguing that the Constitution prohibits state and local governments from creating a national “patchwork” of immigration policies.

The suit, filed in Alabama’s Northern District, marks the second time the Obama administration has sought to block a state immigration reform law. Last year, the Justice Department filed a similar challenge to Arizona’s controversial SB 1070. A federal judge decided to temporarily block key parts of that law, including a provision that would have required police to determine suspects’ immigration status. (snip)

The federal complaint argues that the law, which is set to take effect Sept. 1, “exceeds a state’s role with respect to aliens, interferes with the federal government’s balanced administration of the immigration laws, and critically undermines U.S. foreign policy objectives.”

Well, if the Obama admin. is claiming that the Constitution prohibits…, then they should have no problem doing it themselves, right? It should be interesting to see what Alabama argues, which should certainly include the malfeasance of Los Federal government, along with the 9th and 10th amendments. The Law of the USA may be the supreme law, but, is there any reason why States cannot tighten those laws up?

Then there is Article IV Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;… That would seem to say that Los Federales are duty bound to stop illegal immigration.

Article IV Section 3: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. So, States have a claim to deal with their own property.

Moreover, the law, known as HB 56, “would result in the harassment and incarceration of lawful resident aliens — and even U.S. citizens who would not have readily available documentation to demonstrate their citizenship,” the government argued.

Yet, so far, any incidents have been so minor as to be meaningless. People who did not break the law have been harassed for other things in the past. Some people have been, unfortunately, put in jail for crimes they did not commit. Nothing is perfect.

But, hey, perhaps Team Obama has tanked the economy even further in order to get the illegals to go back to their home countries, because there are no jobs here.

Georgia, South Carolina, Utah and Indiana are surely next on the block for a lawsuit, as they also have tough illegal alien laws. Expect those suits to come quickly, if they come, because Team Obama surely doesn’t want these lawsuits during the general election season, since so many people are against illegal immigration.

CBN.com:

Sixty-six percent believe the Palestinians should start off with their own state beside Israel, but then move to just one Palestinian state.

And 92 percent believe Jerusalem should be their capital.

The survey of 1,010 Palestinians — 656 in the West Bank and 353 in the Gaza Strip — was conducted by U.S. pollster Stanley Greenberg, along with the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.

In light of the poll above, think about this: Neither Hamas, Fatah or the Palestinian National Authority, grant Israel the right to exist in their Charters and Constitutions, but exist they do. Israel has said there will be no two-state solution UNTIL and UNLESS, these factions accept and recognize the Nation of Israel’s right to exist.

Bet you think Gazans live in hovels? Take a look at the first video below. The second video is a Gaza Water Park, enjoyed by the boys. I do see one little girl not in shroud, but in something like a 1920’s bathing suit perhaps. The boys are in bathing suits in the hot sun – the girls in burkhas. The subtitle says Hamas burned the water park, but there is only a quick view.

Take a look at this video at American Perspective which lays out the plight of the people who live in what is known as Palestine.

The Gaza Strip

Gaza Water Park I (video)

A special meeting of the United Nations security council is due to consider whether to expand its mission to keep the peace in an era of climate change.

Small island states, which could disappear beneath rising seas, are pushing the security council to intervene in a threat to their very existence.

There has been talk, meanwhile, of a new environmental peacekeeping force – green helmets – which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, is expected to address the meeting on Wednesday.

But Germany, which called the meeting, has warned it is premature to expect the council to take the plunge into green peacemaking or even adopt climate change as one of its key areas of concern.

The UN has done a wonderful job with peacekeeping duties. It was great how they stopped the genocide in Rwanda back in 1993. Kept the Serbs from slaughtering thousands. Never used “criminal lunatics” to fill quotas. Never engaged in rapes or trafficking of children for sex. Quite frankly, all those island nations who are worried about the seas jumping up 2,000 feet and swallowing them up should think twice about letting the UN come and “help” them.

And then there is the whole issue that the seas are not rising any faster than they have for the past 1,000 years. In fact, some data suggests that the seas are going down, which happens when the world cools. But, mostly sea level rise is consistent with what has been going on for the last 7,000 years, since the big rise from the end of the last ice age stabilized.

Can anyone actually name an island that has disappeared under the waves from global warming?

America is fast coming to a crossroads from which there will be no return if we take the wrong path. Do we take the road that leads away from America and toward a Euro-esque way of governing? Do we cast aside our American character and bury our great nation in a grave of socialist-styled authority? Do we damn our progeny to a failed superstate that violate every tenet of our original ideals?

I say we do not. I say we reject the Democrat’s Euro-esque ideas and refocus ourselves on American exceptionalism. Our federal system has strayed far from our founding ideals and we may soon find that its time for a new Declaration of Independence from a tyrannical government that has usurped power from proper authority.

Since it was just Independence Day over the weekend (and I waited until it was over on purpose so as not to obviate from that celebration), I offer this new Declaration as a rallying cry to all those willing to return to our true American character…

A New Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events it again becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a failed authority and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God as well as our original, properly constituted laws entitle us, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of we the people; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to repair to their former Systems of Government. The history of the present President, his Congress, and our recalcitrant federal government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

It has abused its role over the law and instituted fiat rules that are detrimental to the common good — welfare, cap and trade, oppressive taxes, onerous regulation on business are recent examples.

It has forbidden governors of states to pass laws useful to local needs and has interfered in state business.

It has refused the right of local government to govern at home and has as a matter of course caused local legislators to carelessly assume they have no power.

It has defacto dissolved the authority of state governments so that the representatives of the people constantly defer to rule from Washington.

It has refused to secure the borders so that all manner of foreigners of the lowest station might flood these shores without hesitation while refusing to allow those foreigners with useful skills and education to enter and apply for citizenship.

It has allowed capricious courts to usurp proper legislative duties and to rule from the bench.

It has seated judges with no opposition or investigation and has not required judicial candidates to express an interest in the true meaning of the law of the land.

It has erected a multitude of new regulatory offices few of which have any basis in the Constitution and has as a form of graft filled them with friends, lobbyists, and placemen.

It has refused to properly fund our armies in times of peace without including graft and monies unconnected to the needs of our armed forces.

It has therefore interfered with the military stopping it from operating at peak efficiency.

It has conspired with powers outside our duly constituted authority to take away our constitutional rights, to subvert our national laws, and has given assent to forces such as the UN to rule us from afar without accountability. These outside forces are hateful of our system and desire it’s end. Therefore we accuse our government of attacking us from inside.

For positing that UN forces are superior in authority to our own:

For signing treaties inimical to our national interests:

For cutting off free trade with worthy countries such as Colombia, yet opening trade with evil countries such as China:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us of our constitutional rights of property, life, and self-protection at every opportunity:

For creating rules that encroach on freedom of religion:

For increasing the size of government to never before seen size and power in a manner against our founding principles and for purposefully creating chaos in business, banking, and every other area of the private sector with never ending regulations that strangle, confuse, and stifle American growth:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

And for corrupting our legislatures with federal largess and assuming unto the federal government all powers to rule from Washington D.C.

It has abdicated its Constitutional role and essentially come to see the people as an enemy and waged philosophical war against us.

It has plundered our businesses with overweening regulations, capriciously outlawed entire fields of business, and burdened the lives of the people with oppressive taxes.

It has created an army of police, taxmen and regulators to fan out across the land to assault and imprison our citizens, to confiscate lands to federal ownership and to lay waste the economy and bring our people into a form of dependency akin to slavery.

It has often sent our armed forces to foreign nations without a proper mission, held back necessary funding, and burdened it with untenable “rules of engagement” which has limited our troop’s ability to fight to win, and has allowed barbarous enemies to gain the upper hand on the battle field.

It has attempted to separate the citizenry into warring factions yet has allowed our enemy to easily enter the country and perpetrate a merciless Muslim warfare which is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, religions and American institutions and intends enslavement of us all.

In every stage of these violations millions of citizens have gathered in the streets to protest these government outrages yet no heed has been paid to the agony of the people in its hallowed halls.

Nor have we been heard by our Democrat brethren. We have warned them of the destruction of the American rule of law, yet they are uninterested in this plight. We have appealed to their love of country and we have reminded them of the glorious history of our great nation to no avail. They have turned a deaf ear to Constitutionality, a cold shoulder to our American character, and our law and we find their sympathies lie with Europeans instead of their fellow Americans. We must, therefore, consider them enemies of our national interests, safety, health, and welfare.

We, therefore, the representatives of the American tradition and character assemble as citizens proud of our history and institutions, and in the tradition of our national power being held in the hands of the people, assert our loyalty to our true American system. We hold this government to be illegitimate by its usurpation of power and its obviation of our laws. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence that has been rejected by our enemies, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

We’ve already had the tea party. Now, let the new revolution begin!

One of the main forces behind the Tea Party movement and the disgust that many Americans have with the federal government is its supreme arrogance and its constant unwanted and unwarranted power grabs. This is one of the things that the American people really need to put their attention toward reversing.

Perhaps it is just beginning?

Alaska, for instance, has just thrown its weight behind the opposition to the federal government’s obscene persecution of an Alaskan citizen who was arrested for violating rules that the federal government has imposed on those Alaskan waterways flowing through national parks.

The state is claiming that regardless of what the man did on the waterways, the federal government has no authority to arrest and prosecute the man because the waterways are in Alaska’s purview and the feds are over stepping.

Another recent example is in the millions of dollars that the federal government is forcing local city and state governments to spend on new street signs. The feds have changed its regulations on the typography on street signs and is requiring all street signs in the country to conform to the new regulations. From whence does this arrogance come? Well if states get federal highway money the feds feel they have the right to demand that the states spend that money the way the feds say they must spend it. If that means wasting millions on new street signs then that’s just what they will expect to be done.

Then there’s the multiple states joining the lawsuit over Obamacare. At least 20 states attorney generals have joined together to fight off President Obama’s attempt to take over the country’s healthcare system.

The federal government’s grasping for unconstitutional power is everywhere these days from the EPA, to the president, to Congress making rules without really bothering to justify them under our governing document.

All might not be lost, though. There is a growing movement among the various states to begin to reapply their 10th Amendment rights.

The 10th Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” States are beginning to find a renewed interest in this clause.

Certainly it should come as no surprise that this is occurring when one reviews the many, many ways that the powergrabbers in Washington have exceeded their authority and encroached on the sovereignty of the states.

Another effort is the “Repeal Amendment” effort as seen at www.repealamendment.org. The site tells us of its goal…

Our Founding Fathers gave enumerated powers to the Federal Government and reserved most of the power for the States. Today, the federal government has usurped the power that the Founders originally intended for the States.

The Repeal Amendment is dedicated to restoring our nations economic liberty by advocating for an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that restores the balance of power between the States and Federal Government.

The Amendment these folks would like to see passed is this:

Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.”

“This doesn’t undo some of those bad Supreme Court cases and doesn’t resolve some of the problems of the Seventeenth Amendment, but it does restore some of the balance of power that was originally intended — and the mechanism by which we can control some of the out of control spending and get our debt under control,” said Marianne Moran, executive director of RepealAmendment.org.

It is hoped that this renewed interest in state’s rights will lead to knocking down the federal government’s power a few pegs and eliminating some of the undue and illicit power that the federal government has stolen from us.