Environmental Opinon’s

03/07/03

Nature Conservancy – Fraud and Theft!
By Sheriff Mike Cook

Many times in the past I have made comments about the Environmentalist’s using the cause and their organizations to get large sums of money and make themselves rich. Each time I get e-mails and letters from people who say I was totally wrong and way off base. I have even stated that the concern for the movement had been totally absorbed by those who were after the money and not the cause. Again I was chastised by those who believe the cause was pure and that people within the cause wouldn’t use it for that purpose. Well now I get to say I told you so.

There is now a Senate Committee in Congress investigating the Nature Conservancy. If you don’t know, the Nature Conservancy is a non-profit charitable organization. They have been taking the money they get and buying land all over America. They buy this land then add development restrictions to it, then it is resold for less money. The buyers of this land then make tax-deductible gifts to the nonprofit, Nature Conservancy. Does this rouse your curiosity yet?

Now here is the big one. It seems this organization has been making large, no interest loans to their employees. Such as a $1.5 million loan to President Steven J. McCormick and a $500,000 mortgage extended to California state director Graham Chisholm. Boy, wouldn’t you and I like working for an organization like that? Some sources say the loans are then “forgiven” and they don’t have to pay it back.

Now the Senate committee is also asking for the land sales records to government agencies, including appraisals and any profits banked by the Natures Conservancy. They are also asking for records and a list of grants from other nonprofit organizations like the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Forest Foundation, and the National Park Foundation.

I don’t know about you, but I smell something real bad in all this. It is my belief that I was right on the money when I said they are in this for the big bucks and nothing else. What makes me mad, and should make you mad as well, is that they are doing a lot of this with our tax money! They are abusing the system to get everything they want, using taxpayer money to do it with, and they don’t pay any taxes.

With any kind of luck, they will get what is coming to them in the way of justice. But what will be done about all the damage they have already caused? Will the government go back and right these wrongs? I don’t think that will happen at all. Those people will probably walk away with a big grin and all the money and land.

We try to raise our children the right way and tell them crime doesn’t pay, and that honesty is the best policy. Then they see things like this and former President Clinton beating the system by lies, cheating, and crime. How in the world can a parent prove to a child that this is wrong when people who do it are never punished for what they do? This must come to a stop, and the people of America had better wake up and demand a stop to it or we will be lost forever. I still believe that truth, justice, and the American way are the best, however I think they are slowly proving that it no longer exists in Washington D.C.

One answer is to be careful who you donate money to, who you vote for, and to become involved. Everyone has been upset at one time or another when hearing about organized crime or if they were a victim of crime. Well, this is the same thing. You and I are not only the victims, we get to pay for it!. As victims we have a right to demand justice and I believe we should. Write letter’s, send e-mails, or make phone calls and demand justice. You will feel better and be able to point out the right thing to your children for a change.

God Bless America.
God Bless our troops, still in harms way.

Michael E. Cook, Coos County Sheriff, Retired.

http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/23/sheriff.htm

New

03/07/30
Nature Conservancy, The Tip Of The Iceberg
By Sheriff Mike Cook

Last week we talked about the Nature Conservancy and the fact that they are under investigation by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Much of this information was exposed by the Washington Post and I believe the findings of this committee will have far reaching effects.

I also learned that the Nature Conservancy receives over $30 million in taxpayers money every year. This money comes from the Department of Agriculture. You should ask why an organization that takes in over $700 million a year with annual assets of over $2.7 billion need our tax dollars?

I must tell you this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many grants are given with your tax dollars to many of these so called environmental organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council who in turn uses that money to file law suits against anyone who is against their political agenda, including the hand that feeds them.

What I find just funny as all get out is that the liberal enviro-types turn right around and complain about organizations like the Pacific Legal Foundation, who work for the other side of the cause, by claiming they get their funding from big industry, the so called enemy of the environment. So when did big industry become the bad guy? And I ask you this: when was the last time an enviro-nut-case gave you a job? Anyway, this isn’t the case with the Pacific Legal Foundation because much of the funding is from donations from people who are concerned about how the enviro-whacko’s are destroying our way of life and our nation, not to mention the economy. Who cares anyway as long as they get the job done. Perhaps we should request the government fund them also in fairness.

Now you may want to ask, who in our government is setting these groups up with all this tax money. This is why each and every one of you needs to take a look at your government and pay attention to what is going on. I will tell you that much of this all started with the Clinton administration and the Democrats are supporting these groups. Let me say here that it isn’t all Democrats, it’s the liberal wing of that organization which seems to have taken over the party in the past few years.

The stickler in all this is that people in bureaucratic jobs high up, like the General Accounting Office, are reporting to Congress that they couldn’t audit these grants to the enviro-groups because of insufficient records of what was expected and what work was performed. Doesn’t that just make you all warm and fuzzy inside? That’s your money being wasted to destroy your income, if you work for someone, or own your business. Our own government is helping them do it.

Now if all this doesn’t have your blood boiling I don’t know what will. It’s time to get involved. These people are doing more damage to America than any of our enemies that we are fighting in the middle east right now. They hammer us at every turn and cause more and more damage to society. They are robbing us of our land and now they are doing everything in their power to run us off the land or to devalue it so they can buy it cheap.

They are cutting off our water, planting large predators, or getting laws passed by friendly politicians that regulate everything you do on your own land. Then when they don’t like what they see you doing they go after you and destroy you any way they can. These enviro-people don’t care about you, the Constitution, or the rule of law, unless it works for them. They will stop at nothing to win and will pull every low down trick in the book.

Where is John Wayne, and Roy Rogers when we need them? We need them to run in and expose the bad guys and send them packing so that we can all live happily ever after. I hope the American spirit to fight wrong is still alive and well out there so that we can send this movement to the basement where it belongs.

God Bless America.
God Bless our Troops still in Harms Way.

Michael E. Cook, Coos County Sheriff, Retired.

http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/30/sheriff.htm

The following statement by Rep. James Hansen point out several issues that concern him. The key issue here is you have to understand just what “Wilderness” means. Special interest groups are counting on most people not understanding the true meaning and implications when groups want to designate areas as wilderness. Representative Hansen explains it rather well.

“Environmental Extremists Don’t Represent Most Americans”
BY REP. JAMES V. HANSEN Utah’s 1st Congressional District.
Sunday, March 24, 2002

Most Americans consider themselves environmentalists and conservationists. We all want clean air, clean water, abundant wildlife and wilderness to which we can escape.
I want those. I have worked hard to create and preserve these things. But in recent years, I have watched the environmental movement become more extreme in its demands. To hear environmental groups these days, everything should be untouched wilderness. Public lands should be left wild and untouched. Dams should be busted and reservoirs drained. Mineral and energy development on public lands should be stopped. Cattle and sheep should be shooed from public lands on which herds have grazed for 150 years.
Much of the public, lured by the glossy ad campaigns and the romantic notion of wilderness, has bought into these notions without considering the costs. Extremism in any area of our lives comes at a price. Environmental extremism is no different.
I smile when some people write to me about wanting more wilderness. In their letters, they talk about loading their families up in the RV and going up to these new wilderness areas to get away from it all, smell the pines, enjoy campfire-roasted food and reconnect with each other.

They don’t understand what “wilderness” means. They don’t understand these lands will be closed to all but the hardiest hiker. No roads. No vehicles, not even a mountain bike.

In embracing the romantic idea of millions and millions of acres of more wilderness, people don’t understand that closing off our public lands to recreation, grazing, resource development and even efforts to prevent wildfires has staggering implications. Such a move would hobble our economy and our national security.

It would even affect our ability to do something as simple as switch on the light in the kitchen. Right now, Los Angeles’ electricity comes from clean Utah coal that is within a 9 million-acre swath of land some environmental groups want to put into wilderness. If that happens, Los Angeles loses its abundant electricity and joins the rest of California on the roller coaster of fluctuating price and availability.
If we stop grazing on public lands, the price of meat would skyrocket. Pull out the dams and electricity bills would go up sharply while the reliability of power would nose-dive. Stop the development of oil and natural gas on public lands and you would see the result in your heat bill and the prices at the gas pump. Stop mineral development and the cost of the thousands of things in our daily lives with metal in them would climb.
Close down all our military training ranges on public lands and our national security would falter. Prohibit wildfire prevention on public lands and you would watch summer wildfires eat millions of acres of pristine forests each year.
Even urban transportation would become a nightmare. As we discovered with the Sierra Club’s lawsuit over the Legacy Parkway, its extreme agenda even prohibits building needed highways on public lands near urban areas.
So the question becomes: Where do we draw the line? How do we protect our wild places, wildlife, clean air and clean water and still enjoy a strong economy and the ease of modern life?
Congress and the White House work every day to strike this balance. So do tens of thousands of public policy leaders around the country. We work to preserve the many good things about the American way of life — including our prosperity, safety and beautiful public lands — without sacrificing one for the other.
Some day I’d like to see a glossy calendar reflecting that hard reality.
Rep. JAMES V. HANSEN
5/11/01

Following a scathing five-part expose of environmental groups by Tom Knudson, The Bee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental reporter in the Sacramento Bee, three Congressmen, Mike Simpson (R-ID), George Radanovich (R-CA), and James Hansen (R-UT), have spoken out about these groups’ alleged corruption, fraud and abuse of power. You can read the entire Sacramento Bee series at http://www.sacbee.com/news/projects/environment/index02.html. All parts of this series, entitled Environment, Inc., are listed on the left side of the page.