American Policy Center » 2005 » September
- Meet the International Democrat Union
- The Silver Bullet for Liberty Statement by Tom DeWeese 2005 Freedom 21 National Conference Reno, Nevada
- The Tyranny of the ESA and the Threat of Kelo 2
- The Food Police Finally Get Their Smoking Gun
September 26, 2005
By Tom DeWeese
Not many Americans, particularly conservative Republicans, have heard of the International Democrat Union (IDU), but most would be very surprised to learn the names of its membership and its true goals.
Formed in 1983, the IDU says it’s a “working association of over 80 Conservative, Christian Democrat and like minded political parties of centre and centre right.” Some of the political party members of the IDU include the German Christian Social Union; British Conservative Party; Norway Conservative Party – and the U.S. Republican Party.
In the IDU’s 2005 Declaration, issued after a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., it stated “Our common goal is of free, just and compassionate societies. We appreciate the value of tradition and inherited wisdom. We value freely elected governments, the market-based economy and liberty for our citizens. We will protect our people from those who preach hate and plan to destroy our way of life. Free enterprise, free trade and private property are the corner stones of free ideas and creativity as well as material well-being. We believe in justice, with an independent judiciary. We believe in democracy, in limited government and a strong civic society.”
Such a statement gives one the impression that the IDU is on a mission to spread the ideals of the American Revolution around the globe. Here, at last might be an international organization that brings the good news of our own Declaration of Independence to the far corners of the oppressed world. No other document on earth more strongly declares the principles of liberty that made the United States the guiding light of the world. With the Republican Party as an active member, it would certainly be expected that American documents and principles would be the basis of policy for an international organization that declares it promotes “free enterprise, free trade and private property.”
But a careful look at the IDU’s founding Declaration of Principles reveals a very different message. The second Paragraph of the IDU Declaration states: “Being committed to advancing the social and political values on which democratic societies are founded, including the basic personal freedoms and human rights, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; …” That, of course, is the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights that the IDU document is promoting.
There are two conflicting philosophies of governing in the world. One, the American view, as outlined in the Declaration of Independence, states that all people have rights they are born with and that government’s only job is to protect those rights at all costs. The Declaration says that these rights are forever and unquestioned. It is the foundation for human freedom. The other says that government decides the rights we should have, professing that all such rights give way to an undefined, common good whenever the situation is warranted. That means that all so called rights are subject to the whim of whatever gang is currently in power at the time, making the definitions of what constitutes the “common good.”
As an example of how this second philosophy works in practice, the Constitution of the Soviet Union said that Soviet citizens had most of the same rights as Americans, except it also said individual rights were secondary to the common good. In the case of the Soviet Union, the common good was defined as creating a worldwide communist utopia.
The UN’s Declaration of Human Rights takes this second approach, outlining specific rights it says we should all have. It says nothing of unalienable rights and refers to the “rights under the law.” Who or what is the law, according to the Declaration? It says “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.” Now, at first look, that sounds like America. Democracy. People voting – the end of dictatorship. But such a concept ignores the very root of American freedom – that our rights are guaranteed, no matter what the majority thinks.
Suppose the majority of people vote to abolish your business or take your home? This is called majority rule and is another form of dictatorship. It’s what led to the ravages of the guillotine in revolutionary France. It’s rule by fear; fear of the wrong gang changing the rules; fear of standing against the crowd. Majority rule is simply a lynch mob – or more graphically, three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
This is the root of the philosophy entrenched in the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. It is the root of the political policy behind Sustainable Development and the Supreme Court’s Kelo Decision on Eminent Domain. It’s the philosophy that says the common good needs to be served. Hang individual rights. Personal wants and needs must give way to the whims of the crowd in charge.
Now this destructive philosophy is entrenched and being passed off as freedom by the International Democrat Union, an international organization that dares pretend to speak for those of us who advocate limited government and human liberty. The IDU’s documents are filled with rhetoric about compassion. Does it show compassion to support a policy that says no one’s property is safe from confiscation?
The root of the IDU’s political agenda is Fabian Socialism which wants to blur national borders and cultures, eliminate private property and individual liberty in favor of the common good. The Fabians consider themselves to be a ruling elite that knows better than individuals how to run our lives. Their way is: Heads, government wins. Tails, citizens lose. It is the worst form of tyranny. And this is the root of the IDU, and by association, apparently the Republican Party. That answers a lot of questions about recent Republican policy decisions.
Today, we are in a battle between the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Between Liberty and Tyranny. Freedom Vs Fabian Socialism. It is no longer a battle between Left and Right, Liberal Vs Conservative. Many who call themselves Conservative have been greatly troubled by the policy decisions of the Republican Party and the Bush White House. Perhaps now the reasons for their confusion will be more clear. The answers lie in the accepted policies of an international organization that most local and state Republican leaders have never even heard of – and major Republican leaders won’t even acknowledge exists. The IDU’s web page, by way of proof, is www.idu.org. It exists.
Justice John Paul Stevens. Justice Anthony Kennedy. Justice David Souter. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Stephen Breyer.
These four men and one woman have ruled that the United States Constitution truly is a meaningless document. Their ruling in the Kelo case declared that Americans own nothing.
After declaring that all property is subject to the whim of a government official, it’s just a short trip to declaring that government can now confiscate anything we own; anything we create; anything we believe. They said our purpose in this country is to simply “serve the greater good.” Our own hopes and dreams mean nothing. The state now decides.
Without the right to own and control private property, there are no other rights. Freedom of speech can’t survive if we have no property on which to stand as we express our ideas. Guns are property and can now be confiscated. Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures was lost with the Patriot Act. And the right to a fair trial? Fair by whose standards – the same government that can now simply take your home because it wants to line its pockets with the building of a new shopping mall?
Our government just ruled that there are no natural rights – only rights it cares to grant us. Rights that will flow with the ebb and tow of daily change. There is no foundation. No root of liberty. For property rights are gone.
Founding principles
Our Founding Fathers left no doubt in their writings, their deeds or their governing documents as to where they stood on the vital importance of private property in a free society.
John Locke (one of the major influences on the Founding Fathers as they created this nation) said: “Government has no other end than the preservation of property.”
The great French economist, Frederic Bastiat said: “Life, liberty and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
John Adams said it best when he wrote: “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God; and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Adams would be shocked to learn that the Supreme Court of the nation he helped create would agree to empower government to take private land to enrich the pockets of private profiteers.
229 years of American ideals of liberty have come to an end. In one crash of the gavel, Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer have declared themselves above the ideals of Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Madison and Henry. It is the end of the Enlightenment. The end of the Shining City on a Hill.
It is no longer a warning of what might happen. It is reality. It wasn’t black helicopters we needed to fear. It was the black robes of the Supreme Court.
Is tyranny our fate?
The question now becomes, what do we do? Obviously we have one of two choices. We accept our fate, or we fight. Are we finished? Do we quit? Do we surrender?
It would be easy to do that. No one would blame us. We gave it the good fight. We could hide behind the idea that ancient conspiracies set our fate long before we were born. Members of secret societies somehow trumped every ideal we hold – and overpowered every move we made.
We could pat ourselves on the back and say, well, they were just too strong. What could we do? Tyranny is our destiny. Is that what you want to tell your grand children when they ask you what you did to preserve the ideal of America?
In another era, we could have loaded up boats and sailed to a new world to live by the ideals we hold. But that was already done. People ran from tyranny. They came here – to America.
Now tyranny has caught us. And there’s nowhere else to run. We either accept our pre-ordained “fate” or make a stand. This is it, my friends. This is the moment when we decide the future of our ideals.
You know the ideals I’m talking about. That you are born with liberty. That it is your natural right to speak your mind; start a business; own and control property; build your dream home – and expect it to be there for as long as you like; practice your religion exactly as you believe; and, above all, expect that the government will protect those rights at all costs.
We know by witnessing history that totalitarianism does not work. Government control of the actions of the people only leads to poverty and misery. We know that people pinned under the heavy hand of government do not produce for their masters. We know that that there is no such thing as faceless, nameless masses in some undefined “common good.” We know that the United States was the first nation ever created that recognized the natural rights of individuals – and America’s history has proven that such a system is the only one that produces prosperity and happiness.
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our nation. And the future of liberty. The Supreme Court put the decision on our door step. There is no middle ground. And they are forcing us to make that decision today.
Do we fight for those ideals of liberty? Or will we allow them to be lost forever under some global village? Do nothing, and they have made the decision for us. What can be easier than that?
Fighting back
But if we decide to fight, then we truly must know what we are doing. Half hearted attempts at rallies and letter writing, like we’ve done in the past, won’t get the job done. No short cuts. No silly rhetoric.
I’ve got to tell you, I get some pretty strange stuff in my office. Letters, e-mails, phone calls. People write to me with ideas they think will put us on the road to victory. Everybody’s looking for that one quick fix. The right slogan. The silver bullet – that will defeat our enemies and restore freedom to America. Almost daily, I receive someone’s solution – the great plan that no one else has thought of.
A good friend of mine, for example, wrote a huge book that carried all of the facts and figures to prove his position against a certain government program. He called me to say all we had to do to turn things around was to get a copy of the book into the hands of every single member of congress.
I tried to explain that Congressmen can’t read. In fact, they now have the votes in Congress operating exactly like a fast food restaurant. You know the ones where they have so many illegal aliens operating the front counter w.
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h can’t survive if we have no property on which to stand as we express our ideas. Guns are property and can now be confiscated. Protection against unreasumbers so they will understand. H.R. 1 – yes. H.R.1146 – no. In fact, about the only question they ask now is “Do you want to super size that?”
I’ve received buttons, bumper stickers and tee shirts – all created to provide “the message” that will turn everything around. I’ve receive phone calls resulting in long discussions about how to come up with just the right sound bite that will capture the nation’s imagination and send the scoundrels to the tall grass.
And my personal favorite – we’ll use words that will be so innocent sounding that the other side won’t know what we are really up to.
The ESA
On that subject, let me just say, I will not be a part of the current ridiculous campaign to “update and strengthen” the Endangered Species Act. I don’t want the worst piece of legislation of all time to be “updated and strengthened.” I want it repealed.
If you want something then you must demand it. It may be that, in the end, you don’t get your way, but what you have to settle for is a whole lot better than if you had never tried. Do you want this monster off your back? Then start today to demand what you want.
Instead of standing there with your head down, following orders of people with suspected motives, who tell us to “never say repeal,” stand up for what you want.
Here’s a modest suggestion. Hold rallies on state house lawns to demand repeal of the ESA. Burn it in effigy. Tar and feather it and run it out of town on a rail. Make a quilt with the names of all of the ESA victims depicted. Name the towns that have disappeared; The businesses that have been destroyed; show the brands of the ranches that no longer exist. Spread it out on all of the state capital lawns while someone reads the names out loud.
And if you do this, state lawn by state lawn – back in Washington, those cowards hiding behind the marble columns of the Capitol Building will hear you. If your rallies are strong enough you may hear them say, “My people don’t even want this thing – so we had better do something to give them some property rights protections.”
I guarantee that the result will be much more to your liking than you’re ever going to get with the current scared little whisper of a request – “can we have some property rights protections, please?” If we had done that ten years ago, instead of standing down, afraid to say repeal, we wouldn’t be reduced to silly games today.
Why are our so-called champions on the Hill so afraid to do what is right and start a campaign to repeal the ESA so we can stop destroying American dreams with the most destructive law ever to get on the books?
Because of the Kelo ruling, shocked Americans are more ready now than ever before to listen. But still we’re told, it can’t be done. Perhaps it’s because some of our “champions” don’t really want it gone.
Update and strengthen. You see, update means – no compensation until you’ve already lost half of your land. Strengthen means – add the Invasive Species language that we’ve been fighting for more than ten years.
Add that language, as, I’m sorry to report Congressman Pombo is apparently doing in his new ESA reauthorization bill, and you’ll wish you had the old one back.
This is an industry bill, and will serve no purpose other than to help one industry hurt another one. Property rights protection is an afterthought that will be sacrificed first in negotiations.
I believe that the proposed ESA authorization bill is nothing more than Kelo 2. The bill doesn’t deserve our support. It needs to be declared “dead on arrival.” The fact is, doing the right thing has become the hardest part of political life. But, in this late hour, as liberty is crashing down around us, it’s time we start.
The silver bullet
So what is the silver bullet to save our liberty? I’m going to give it to you.
My friends, I often hear it lamented that the Republic is dead. That we are now controlled by Washington. You know what – I have found that isn’t true. The Republic is still there buried under the weight of un-elected planning commissions, visioning statements and review boards.
Squeezed under all of that is the Republic of our Founding Fathers, rusting from lack of use. But it’s still there and still armed with the silver bullet the founders provided. The one to guarantee that no one could take it away.
You see, our founders created this Republic to be self protected by making government at the local level the most powerful force.
The Silver Bullet is the “precinct captain.” You scoff? You were hoping for something much more exciting! Well, that’s probably the very reason we’ve ignored it.
We would much rather turn our attention to Washington, Congress, or the President. Why then, are these government entities so powerful today? Because we’ve let them become powerful by placing all of our attention on them – while ignoring involvement in local government.
But the power still lies in the precinct captain. Our opponents know it. They have left no lowly office untouched.
Check it out. Go to your local government and check out the policies being implemented by the game warden and the dog catcher – Sustainable Development and animal rights, most likely.
City treasurer. City clerk. The people who collect the taxes and issue permits. What are their policies? How about the development department and its policy for building permits? Sustainable Development? Now move on up to City Council and Mayor.
Just one month ago, the United Nations held a major conference in San Francisco on Sustainable Development. The main target for the conference were the mayors. Those who attended were asked to sign two documents – the Green Cities Declaration and the Urban Environmental Accords in which the Mayors pledged to undertake 21 action items over the next few years to implement Sustainable Development.
These action items included water policy, energy policy, transportation and health. They were provided sample legislation and pledged to enact it. The policies called for the implementation of the Kyoto Global Warming treaty and Agenda 21.
One week later, in Chicago, the U.S. Conference of Mayors called for the very same policies. Go to its web site and you will see that Sustainable Development and Kyoto are the two priorities of the nation’s mayors.
Our enemies know that the power to impose this tyranny on us is now at the local level. It will do little good to spend time trying to stop it through Congress or the White House. In fact, President Bush already said we weren’t going to participate as a nation in the Kyoto Treaty.
What does the UN understand that you and I don’t? That it doesn’t matter what Washington’s policy is. They will just get the local cities and towns to do it anyway – because the towns and cities have the power to decide for themselves.
The Mexican government understands that fact. That’s why, even though the federal government has never officially recognized acceptance of the Consular ID cards, Mexico is going straight to local government to get it accepted.
Think globally – act locally
Think globally – act locally is not just a slogan. It’s an agenda. Now, to save our Republic and way of life, we need to make it our agenda. The Founding Fathers did.
Now that the UN meeting in San Francisco is over, watch as more and more local communities begin to organize non elected planning boards to control your lives.
Do you want to stop it? Then follow this plan. But be warned – it’s a lot of hard work. It’s hard – because we’ve neglected it for so long.
Make a chart of every single position available in your county. Break it down to the precinct level and then the ward level. List every office. Every board position. Now you will begin to see how large a task it is. But take it one step at a time. Start to fill those spots.
Work quietly. Please don’t hold a press conference to announce to the community that you plan to take it over. Work through what ever party you want – even the Democrats. The goal here is to get our people, who understand the Sustainablist agenda, into places of decision making. It would be a dream come true to have candidates from every party running on the same issue. It’s a goal to shoot for. The other side seems to have achieved it.
But make sure those candidates are people who understand the entire picture of Sustainable Development and Agenda 21. It will do you no good to help elect candidates that are, perhaps, good on one issue, like gun control or abortion, but fail to see the whole picture. Those are the very people who will fail you later.
Take over a precinct. Just one. You will control the election of every candidate at every level – at least in your little part of the city. Then take two.
You will need precinct workers to make sure our people get to the polls. You will need poll workers to make sure our votes are counted. Make sure they are people you can trust.
Run a candidate for the lowest office in town. Control it. No position is without power. And do it again. Go up the ladder. Get more precincts. Grow, neighborhood by neighborhood.
Step by step. Control enough precincts and even presidential candidates will seek you out for help in getting elected. You will control the candidates. You can stop the bad ones from even being able to run. Again, I warn you, only help elect local officials who oppose Sustainable Development. Refuse to support the lessor of two evils.
Pay attention to the non-elected review boards, policy committees and planning commissions. Can you get one of your people on it? Who is doing the appointing? Can you imagine the damage we could do to Sustainablist goals by getting one person on the local architectural review board? Don’t forget those hated homeowners associations. Get on the board and control policy. And don’t stop there.
You need to have the ability to create controversy against policies by current office holders. This will help you find like minded folks to join you. And it will help create issues so your candidates can win. Remember, most people would oppose them if they knew the truth. Tell them. Spread out.
A new Chamber of Commerce?
Consider this idea. If your local farm bureau or Chamber of Commerce isn’t representing you – start a new one. Understand this – you don’t have to just take their double dealing. Go around them. Show up at council meetings, or at the meetings of any agency or board that purports to make policy that affects you.
As a new group representing business interests, homeowners or farmers, demand your say. Back up your demands by issuing news releases and doing interviews on local radio and television – representing your new group. Start saying over and over again that the governing body isn’t representing the interests of your constituents.
If you make enough noise as the group which is truly standing up for farmers or businesses or homeowners, those individuals will follow you. You will pull the power structure right out from under the established organizations that have been taken over by our enemies.
Legislatures, courts, and the ballot box
The Supreme Court hit us with a crushing blow. But it is not the final one – by any means. In fact, it may well be the spark we’ve needed to, not only get ourselves geared up – but to bring others to our cause.
People are starting to fight back across the nation. You’ve already heard of the successful ballot measure 37 in Oregon. In one of the greenest states in the nation, they demanded and got 100% compensation – retroactive! Measure 37 was won at the ballot box in a campaign that was run on a shoestring against the entrenched green behemoth we are all told to fear.
The State of Utah has stood up to the Federal Department of Education and tossed out No Child Left Behind; that was the state legislature. The State of Wisconsin has passed legislation against Smart Growth policy; that was the state legislature. The State of Georgia has said no to mental health screening; that was the state legislature. And I keep hearing that state legislatures are nothing but puppets for Washington.
More than 100 communities across the nation have said no to the Patriot Act. That was in city councils. The Michigan Supreme Court overturned the most offensive Eminent Domain ruling – the very one most communities have been using as their excuse to grab private property for private development. Michigan may now have the strongest property rights protections in the nation. That was in the courts.
We can build on these successes by organizing state by state, town by town – to force legislation to safeguard property rights. That train has obviously already left the station.
Rather than despair, consider this: The Supreme Court may have done us a huge favor. For the first time in many decades, property rights are on the front pages. People who have rarely entertained a political thought in their lives are now talking about the Supreme Court decision and understanding that it is very bad.
Congress has rushed to produce bills in both the House and the Senate to effectively overturn Kelo. Each bill is called the Property Rights Protection Act. State legislatures are now the major focus of campaigns to pass strong property rights language. Did you ever think you would see such efforts nationwide?
Those who are pushing Sustainable Development and globalism are now, frankly, out of step – old fashioned – out of date. And so are those who are telling you that it’s just too dangerous to ask for property rights protection in a new ESA.
Sure we are way behind. Sure, we have a massive job ahead of us and we would be fools to delude ourselves otherwise. But, after all of our hard work over the years, after being a lone voice in the wilderness, something has started here. Thank the Supreme Court for jarring a lot of sleeping Americans awake. Our job now is to keep fanning the flames.
Now is not the time to circle the wagons or give up. Now is the time to move out, get involved, and turn the tables. Stop being polite to your oppressors. Tell them their time is through. Tell those who pretend to speak for you in Washington to either get on board with our agenda – or get out of the way. We are no longer going to go quietly into the night.
If you want to get rid of the ESA – then say so. Tell them to repeal it. Organize those rallies on State House lawns instead of letting someone else tell you to stand down while they speak for you in Washington.
If you want to defeat Sustainable Development – then expose it for what it is – a soviet collective that has no business in the United States of America.
Demand an end to the use of eminent domain. Tell them no more private homes will be taken so Wal Mart can get richer. Americans are ready to listen.
Get mad. But get busy. And do what it takes to win. Organize at the local level – use the power the Founding Fathers gave us to preserve the Republic – and throw off the yoke of tyranny.
Write this down and take it home with you: “The right of the individual to own and control private property is the foundation of liberty.” And now write this: “Precinct Captain is the root to victory.” That’s the silver bullet that leads to sustained liberty. Put the two together and restore and preserve this Republic.
Now that’s something to tell your grandchildren when they ask what you did in the great war to preserve American liberty. Salute, and tell them “I was a Precinct Captain.”
September 7, 2005
By Tom DeWeese
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the worst, most destructive, and most powerful law ever to come out of Congress (with the possible exception of the federal income tax law). For thirty two years the ESA has robbed property owners of their land; killed jobs; destroyed whole industries, and created a government tyranny that would have had our founding fathers in the trenches, locked and loaded.
Americans have clearly seen, through the recent Supreme Court ruling in Kelo Vs New London, that local governments can now take private property for any scheme they can devise. However, the precedent for such cavalier disregard for property rights comes directly from the ESA.
Since it’s enactment in 1973, the ESA has penalized landowners for their stewardship of their property. Farmers, ranchers, tree farmers, homeowners and other landowners who harbor endangered species on their property or merely have wildlife habitat are subjected to severe land-use restrictions that often lead to economic ruin. In much of rural America the ESA has turned landowners and endangered species into mortal enemies.
To keep their property from falling under ESA’s severely punitive land use controls, desperate landowners have learned to preemptively sterilize their land, making it inhospitable to the species the ESA is supposed to protect. The practice is known as “shoot, shovel and shut up.”
Incredible as it may sound to the average American, in the 32 years the ESA has been on the books, just 34 of the nearly 1,300 U.S. species given special protection have made their way off the “endangered” or “threatened” lists. Of this number, nine species are now extinct, fourteen appear to have been improperly listed in the first place, and just nine (.6% of all species listed) have recovered sufficiently to be de-listed. A less than 1% recovery rate isn’t good – especially considering the human suffering and devastation caused in the process. The end result is that the ESA does nothing to protect endangered species – it just makes the federal government more powerful.
These are the reasons why property rights advocates have been trying for years to get some type of reform (if not outright repeal) of the ESA in order to provide property owners with some relief. These Americans need language that would respect property rights, provide real compensation for land taken and bring the ESA into compliance with the United States Constitution. Yet, the radical environmental movement simply won’t agree to change even a single comma in a law they consider to be their holy grail.
Now comes Congressman Richard Pombo, chairman of the U.S House Resources Committee and self-proclaimed property rights advocate. With great fanfare earlier this year, Pombo announced that, in this Congress he was going to introduce new legislation to fix the ESA and get the landowners the relief they need. Early in June, Pombo’s staff began circulating a draft of the bill he intends to introduce, entitled, “The Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” (TESRA).
It was with great disappointment and pain that, in reading the draft, property rights advocates found that TESRA fails to live up to Pombo’s promise in two very specific ways. First, the bill calls for compensation of taken property only after a full 50% has been taken. Many small landowners can’t afford a 25% loss of their farmlands, homes, ranches and investment property, much less 49.9%. And even those who hit the magic 50% trigger many never see any money, as property owners would still be required to jump through costly and time-consuming bureaucratic hoops that can make it impossible to file a claim.
Worse, Pombo’s TESRA includes a provision that would create regulation of so-called “invasive species” under the ESA for the very first time. Under an Executive Order signed by former President Bill Clinton, invasive species are defined as “any species, including seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating that species, that is not native to that ecosystem.”
By this definition, almost any living thing could be considered an invasive species, thereby giving federal regulators broad new powers to regulate human activity – where we live, what we plant in our yards and where and how we vacation. Specifically, invasive species can be interpreted to mean the Kentucky Blue Grass used in most yards; the pear tree planted in the back yard; the family dog; or cattle grazing in the fields – all regulated under the power of the Endangered Species Act.
It is difficult to go on the offensive against people who have been considered friends, such as Congressman Richard Pombo. Certainly property rights advocates have few friends in Congress. However, Congressman Pombo’s version of the Endangered Species Act is no friend to property owners. Indeed it’s a greater threat than the current ESA law. The “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” will give the federal government even greater power to take private property and should be renamed Kelo 2. The bill is expected to be introduced sometime in September, and must be opposed by every American who believes in the Constitutional right to own and control private property. Supporting a bad law helps no one.
September 1, 2005
By Tom DeWeese
We have been warning for years that they were using the exact same play book used to destroy the smoking industry. Now the food police have what they’ve been looking for. A special report that says french fries cause cancer. There’s no proof to the claim, of course. Just a Swiss study done three years ago that said Acrylamide, a by product of chemicals and high heat found in deep fried foods might have a link to cancer. In fact, since that study first came out, there have been several more issued to dispute it. There is no peer-reviewed, sound science to prove the statement. But one disputed article is all it took.
Suddenly, after three years, the food police decided it was in their interest to resurrect the study and make an issue of it. Now, true to the play book, the attorney general of the State of California, Bill Lockyer, is calling for warning labels on potato chips and fries. The attorney General lost no time in filing law suits against nine food chains and snack-food makers, including McDonalds, Wendy’s, and Frito Lay.
However, as Frank Muir of the Idaho Potato Industry pointed out, “We’ve been eating Acrylamide since man invented fire. Ever since we started cooking foods, there’s been Acrylamide that we’ve been consuming.”
Why so is the California Attorney General in such a haste to force the heavy hand of the law into the market place yet again? Do you know how much money states have made through class action suits against cigarette manufacturers? This is a new way to raise state revenue without having to raise taxes. It’s kind of a new Eminent Domain scheme where government just grabs a company’s profits when it wants to. First the warning labels, then the suits in the name of the poor victims of the potato chip profit mongers.
This is how we do things in America now. An unsubstantiated report (perhaps even just a news release) from a group or individual that has a political agenda. The perpetrators know it’s coming. They prepare behind the scenes and, suddenly, we have an instant nationwide outcry for “something to be done.” Government officials puff up to the microphone to tell us how they are protecting us all. The lawyers just want to get “justice” for the pre selected, ready-made clients. And another American right disappears – for the common good, of course. As Attorney General Lockyer says, “I’m not telling them to stop eating potato chips and french fires…” The arrogance of that thought should speak volumes about how this guy thinks. He certainly does think he has the power to tell us to stop doing things in our everyday lives – if he can find the right excuse to scare people and stampede them in the right direction.
By the way, just for the record, there never was a peer-reviewed scientific report that proved second hand smoke ever existed, either. It was just an internal report at the EPA, put out in a press release. That’s how easy it is to destroy any industry. Guilt by innuendo. And they’ll keep doing it to industry after industry as long as ignorant, gullible, hateful Americans think it’s OK to take the profits of those evil corporations. Just be careful. Something you like may be next on the list. Perfume and household pets have been mentioned. All it takes is a smoking gun – real or made up. It really doesn’t matter.
