Chmelik and Shamley Cover Federal Lands Recovery Update with…
From: GemStatePatriot.com
Jim Chmelik, agent for the Western Landmark Foundation and Doyle Shamley with Veritas Research Consulting discussed new strategies for the recovery of Idaho Public Lands in St. Maries, Idaho, on Thursday the 29th. The event, sponsored by the Benewah County Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) was well attended for such a small mountain town.
Chmelik, who is also a commissioner for Idaho County, stated that the private sector is only seeing one side of the story now as portrayed by the media. He emphasized that this effort to get our lands back from the federal government needs being sold to the public through advertising. The Western Landmark Foundation was formed last March with Chmelik as the registered agent. He says when 50 counties have signed up he’ll start asking supporters to contribute between $3,500 and $5,000 each toward a legal fund.
He showed slides about how the environmental community wants us to believe our forests are being kept in a pristine manner when in reality Idaho forests are so poorly managed by the federal government that just in Idaho County alone this year, 246 thousand acres were lost to fire most largely as a result of an utter disregard for proper maintenance. In contrast, state of Idaho forests properties have a much smaller incidence of fires, bug problems, and wildlife safety.The American Lands Council reports that the Federal government spends $16.17 an acre and gets a return of $11.79 an acre for forest lands they manage in Western lands for a loss of $4.38 per acre, contrasted to forest lands managed by the states themselves spending $2.56 an acre and getting a return of $37.16 an acre for a $34.60 an acre profit. This should be an easy sell to Idaho citizens if they were just made aware of real facts.
Doyle Shamley gave a very extensive presentation about Idaho forest lands controlled and managed by the federal government which included a slide stating that “New Regulations abound – 168 major actions in 2015 for Idaho…how many were you notified of or gave input towards?”
Shamley’s in-depth presentation on the problems is capsulated quite well by the American Lands Council on their website: “The Problem • Record-setting catastrophic wildfires — burning up millions of animals, emitting carcinogenic pollutants into our air, and destroying wildlife habitat and watersheds — are the result of decades of dysfunctional federal bureaucracy. • Locking up access to our nation’s abundant resources has needlessly placed America at the mercy of foreign powers for essential materials, such as timber and rare earth minerals vital to national defense, renewable energy, and electronics technologies. • Federal policies are stifling the economic opportunity of western communities and requiring citizens in the East to pay for it. This is undermining every State’s independence and flies in the face of our system of liberty and self-government.”
One of the best resources for clearing up any misinformation is the American Lands Council Policy Statement. The American Lands Council policy statement in regards to the Transfer of Public Lands was drafted and ratified by delegates from 14 states as well as the American Lands Council Board of Directors. The policy statement covers the basics of what we believe and what goals we hope to achieve.
ALC POLICY STATEMENT
- WE URGE THE TIMELY AND ORDERLY TRANSFER OF FEDERAL PUBLIC LANDS TO WILLING STATES FOR LOCAL CONTROL THAT WILL PROVIDE BETTER PUBLIC ACCESS, BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, AND BETTER ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY;
- WE SUPPORT EXCLUDING EXISTING NATIONAL PARKS, CONGRESSIONALLY DESIGNATED WILDERNESS AREAS, INDIAN RESERVATIONS, AND MILITARY INSTALLATIONS FROM THE TRANSFER; AND
- WE SUPPORT EQUIPPING FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL AGENCIES WITH RESOURCES NECESSARY TO PLAN FOR A SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO STATE-BASED OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF THE TRANSFERRED PUBLIC LANDS; AND
- WE URGE MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES FOR THESE LANDS THAT WILL: IMPROVE PUBLIC ACCESS; IMPROVE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH; IMPROVE ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY; RETAIN PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF PUBLIC LANDS; IMPROVE EFFICIENCY OF WILDFIRE CONTROL; INCREASE LOCAL INVOLVEMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY; PROTECT USE RIGHTS; PRESERVE CUSTOMS & CULTURE; INCORPORATE FEDERAL AGENCY EXPERTISE; GENERATE SELF-SUPPORTING FINANCE.
The policy statement in its entirety can be found Here.
“By nearly all accounts, our federal lands are in trouble, both in terms of fiscal performance and environmental stewardship.” — Property and Environmental Research Center (PERC), Bozeman, MT
RX for Lobbyist Disease
From: GemStatePatriot.com
A most debilitating disease for the health of our Republic is one that could be called Lobbyist Disease (LD). Our freedoms & sovereignty are fatalistically threatened by it on the same level equated by the Lying Media Syndrome and the Hollywood Propaganda Disorder.
Cures for Lobbyist Disease borne by our elected representatives would probably witness some gnashing of teeth and necessitate a very strong will, a trait sorely scarce today among politicians. Much like a drug addiction, Lobbyist Disease addicts might reason that they can’t imagine wanting to quit since they have become so reliant on their ‘help habit.’
LD stems surprisingly not so much from monetary benefits and perks, but it usually appears in the beginning, at least, as an appreciated resource for needed information. There is way too much for newly elected office holders to learn and underpaid and overworked staff, if they exist at all, just can’t help enough. So the disease probably starts quite innocently through accepting much needed information. Relationships and dependences are established and their growth begins as sure as a cancer spreads. Lobbyists ‘information’ takes on an aire of trusted credibility by extremely busy and often ‘naively trusting’ politicians who might think of themselves as beneficiaries but in the reality of matters Constitutional might really be dupes. In actuality they are truly part of our problem in government. These elected officials are too trusting and not doing the hard work of studying original source constitutional facts. They have LD.
We didn’t elect lobbyists for decision making or help in decision making. But what’s a guy to do, right? Our elected representatives are in a deep quagmire of much more activity and overwhelming agendas than caring statesmen can usually deal with. There is a false presumption by far too many Americans today that these elected people in Washington and our state capitals largely help us with our everyday problems and our commerce. Our wealth emerges, not from government offices or politicians’ edicts, but only from that portion of the marketplace that is free.
If you truly understand our wonderful Constitution, most of our federal agencies and bureaucracies shouldn’t even exist, so subsequently, nor should the thousands of highly unconstitutional laws and regulations that are strangling the life out of our commerce and stealing our freedoms.
Lobbyists shouldn’t have the missions they have. Their workload should be restricted by the lack of a marketplace for their services in the government. Instead they should be stroking a vibrant, competitive business community with all their talent.
The prescription for curing Lobbyist Disease should be large daily doses of studying the word of the Constitution which elected officials swore to uphold in all that they do. Morality and limited government is the combination that characterized America and made it the envy of the world before the recent focused drive toward utter socialism and ceding our sovereignty to global power elitists who know best for everyone about everything.
Reversing big government back to minimal standards spelled out in the Constitution and the discipline to follow the serious oaths sworn to it when elected can minimize government activity and any assistance from lobbyists to understand and follow what’s going on. LD can be eradicated and lobbyists can find other work gainfully in the private sector as can most unnecessary government employees. Politicians that refuse to take their prescription need be removed from political life support and replaced with real patriots at the polls ASAP if not recalled sooner.
That my fellow patriots is the prescription for fixing this dreadful dangerous disease. If our elected representatives would study and follow the Constitution, abiding by their oaths they took promising to uphold it, we wouldn’t be even considering most of all the highly unnecessary issues and topics they are asked to take action on. They are truly not topics that our government should be dealing with in the first place.
Some very salient points from the late Secretary of the Treasury, William E. Simon in his book A Time for Truth: “Bureaucracies themselves should be assumed to be noxious, authoritarian parasites on society, with a tendency to augment their own size and power. People must be taught to start calling for a rollback of the bureaucracy, where nothing will be lost but strangling regulation.
“Productivity and the growth of productivity must be the first economic consideration at all times, not the last. That is the source of technological innovation, jobs and wealth. This means that profits needed for investment must be considered a great social blessing, not a social evil.
“The American citizen must be made aware that today a relatively small group of people is proclaiming its purpose to be the will of the People. That elitist approach to government must be repudiated. There is no such thing as the People; it is a collectivist myth. There are only individual citizens with individual wills and individual purposes. It is scarcely astonishing that individuals now feel “alienated” from their government. They are not just alienated from it; they have virtually been expelled from the governmental process.
“Strangely enough it was not until I understood the liberals, who dominate our political life, that I was finally able to understand my own fellow Republicans, with whom I have been on a restless four-year journey. A friend of mine once wisecracked, “A Republican is a Democrat who knows he’s crazy.” And there is truth to his claim. Too often, the Republican tends to buck but ultimately follows Democratic trends. Unlike the Democrat, however, he commits his economic misdeeds in a state of moral depression and is not in the slightest astonished when the disasters occur because he always knew they would.’ – Unquote from William E. Simon
The late Walter E. Williams was a professor of economics at George Mason University and stated in his article ‘The Role of Money in Politics: Favors and Loot for Sale‘, “The bedrock problem is the awesome power of Congress. We Americans have asked, demanded and allowed congressmen to ignore their oaths of office and ignore the constitutional limitations imposed on them. The greater the congressional power to give handouts and grant favors and make special privileges the greater the value of being able to influence congressional decision-making. There’s no better influence than money.
“You say, ‘Williams, you’ve explained the problem. What’s your solution?’ Maybe we should think about enacting a law mandating that Congress cannot do for one American what it does not do for all Americans. For example, if Congress creates a monopoly for one American, it should create a monopoly for all Americans. Of course, a better solution is for Congress to obey our Constitution.”
Wrapping this up is a slam dunk quote from author and economist Thomas Sowell from his book ‘The Vision of the Anointed,’“In the anointed we find a whole class of supposedly “thinking people” who do remarkably little thinking about substance and a great deal of verbal expression. In order that this relatively small group of people can believe themselves wiser and nobler than the common herd, we have adopted policies which impose heavy costs on millions of other human beings, not only in taxes but also in lost jobs, social disintegration, and a loss of personal safety. Seldom have so few cost so much to so many.”
Lobbyists helped sell most of these thinking peoples’ brainstorms to unconstitutionally-minded elected officials who have fallen prey to the addiction to Lobbyist Disease. Either politicians take the prescription and start improving from it or they’ve got to be culled at the voting booths immediately. It may be hard to believe this but we won’t survive business as usual.
We must study issues, inform others, follow the Freedom Indexes for the U.S. Congress at thenewamerican.com/freedom-index/ and for the state of Idaho at Index.idahofreedom.org and fire elected officials who are not following our rule of law through the Constitution. There is no other way to right our absolute mess. Presidents, congressmen and senators created this boondoggle we’ve become and they must pay for it by ending their political careers and be replaced with real accountable patriots who understand the Constitution and take their oaths to it seriously. Our trust and our Constitution have been violated for too long! But this only works when our citizens fulfill their roles of responsiblity in paying full attention and acting accordingly since it is their government.
ISAA’s ‘Constitutional Carry’ Campaign Completes Successful Rallies
From: GemStatePatriot.com
The Idaho Second Amendment Alliance (ISAA) concluded a five city speaking tour of the state on Saturday, October 3rd at the Coeur d’Alene City Park with a large crowd of Second Amendment supporters who wish to see the organization’s push to get ‘Permitless Carry’ which is often called ‘Constitutional Carry’ signed into law in Idaho.
A crowd of close to 300 assembled to hear speakers: Greg Pruett, president of ISAA, Heather Scott, State Representative for District 1 from Blanchard, Matt Shea, Washington State Representative for District 4 from Spokane Valley and Dan McDonald, a Radio talk show host and commercial roofing consultant who spoke for constitutional Sheriff Daryl Wheeler-Bonner County.
 Actor Ryan Durbin |
 ID Rep. Heather Scott |
 WA Rep. Matt Shea |
 Talk Show Host Dan McDonald |
Pruett opened with pointing out that President Obama recently mentioned in a recent speech that there are two countries that the U.S. should be modeled after, and they are Great Britain and Australia. Both countries had their guns confiscated.
Greg Pruett: “It is not a conspiracy. President Obama is coming. He has made it clear on BBC that his biggest frustration as President has been his inability to take away your guns.
“Michael Bloomberg has passed firearms regulations in Washington and Oregon and he has made it clear that Idaho is on his target list. That’s not right. If he thinks he can get his legislation passed, that means we are not being loud enough about not wanting Michael Bloomberg in the state of Idaho.
“This is our chance, this is our time; we have got to make it here in Idaho. I’m sick and tired of seeing these other states being more successful than us. We need people to lead, we need law enforcement, state officials, city and county officials to get out and lead in protecting our 2nd Amendment.
“The 2nd Amendment is our first and last line of defense against tyranny and we need to keep it that way.”
Currently, seven states, Arizona, Wyoming, Kansas, Maine, Vermont, Alaska and Oklahoma have Constitutional Carry laws, and Pruett has stated that other conservative states are passing pro-gun legislation while Idaho is lagging behind.
Washington State Representative Matt Shea roused the audience with some facts and quotes: “Our God given unalienable rights to bear arms is being attacked almost everywhere we go. The words in Washington’s Constitution ‘shall not be impaired’ and in Idaho’s Constitution ‘shall not be abridged’; those words mean what they say. The fact that we’re even having a discussion about exercising our God given unalienable right is ridiculous to me.”
Rep. Shea then read a couple quotes since he says the media tries to say that this stuff doesn’t exist. He first quoted from founding father Tench Coxe in 1788, “Congress has no power to disarm the militia, their swords and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of the federal or the state governments, but where I trust in God, it will forever remain in the hands of the people.”
Then from Thomas Jefferson, Shea quoted, “A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. It gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with a ball and others of that nature are too violent to the body. The gun therefore, should be the constant companion of your walks.”
Shea continued, “The media has been intense in changing that narrative of the founding fathers and I believe the media has been implicit in lying about guns and gun free zones. I want to be very clear about this. Since 1950, every mass shooting of three or more people with one exception has been in a gun free zone.”
Radio talk show host Dan McDonald read a statement from Bonner County (constitutional) Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, who couldn’t attend due to a previous long standing commitment, “I personally believe that persons carrying concealed weapons without permits do not create a threat to peace. Why? Police are already trained to assume that everyone they contact is armed. Constitutional Carry is not going to change our tactics.”
Representative Heather Scott said after the rally, “It was encouraging to see so many patriots show up in support of our 2ndamendment rights and Constitutional Carry. I look forward to working with the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association and other like-minded groups to finalize the language of this new legislation and get it passed this session!”
Click to hear ‘Protect My Idaho’ presentation.
Greg Pruett stated after the Coeur d’Alene event, “The Idaho Second Amendment Alliance has completed a successful tour of the State of Idaho in support of Constitutional Carry. We are pleased that hundreds of citizens across the state showed up to show their support for this great cause. We felt the anxiety and frustration of the citizenry that Idaho has not yet acted on this important issue. When the State of Maine beats Idaho to passing real pro-gun legislation we know that we have a lot of work to do. We need Idahoans to stand up and take action. You can no longer sit on the sides and wait. Please contact your legislators immediately and politely ask them to support Constitutional Carry in Idaho.”