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Air Dates: Oct 24 & 25, 2015 | Lawrence Kogan & Tom Collier (CEO of Pebble Partnership)
The EPA long ago lost its watchdog status and has turned rabid environmentalist. Now, clear evidence of the EPA colluding with environmentalists and tribes is beginning to emerge—ironically, in what the EPA had hoped to turn into one of its trophy cases: the Pebble Mine.
Show 5-43 will air the weekend of Oct 24th & 25th. Join us as we expose collusion between the EPA and “environmental” organizations, the tribes, and other players.
What’s important to understand in this fight against a government agency run-amok, is that they violated the rule of law and a basic tenet of American freedoms: due process. The EPA, by applying an obscure rule that it had never used before in its four-decades’ old existence and by trying to circumvent the permit process, it was denying Pebble Partnership its due process. Just as though it had arrested someone in suspected of a crime and put them in jail without any Miranda rights, no legal counsel, and so on.
Links Mentioned
Lawrence Kogan’s firm: the Kogan Law Group – tons of great info and articles on the assault by the Enviro-Left on our free market system
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Air Dates: September 12 & 13, 2015 | Jonathan Williams & Karla Jones
Devolution is defined as “the transfer or delegation of power to a lower level, especially by central government to local or regional administration.” When it comes to the transfer of public lands here in the U.S., this means the federal government giving control of federally held public lands to the states in which those lands reside. Why is this important? Jobs.
With more than 98 million Americans continuing to be out of the workforce, the jobs resulting from a public lands transfer to states means more than ever that the federal government honor their promise to relinquish control of the public lands held in trust. At one time, Illinois and Missouri both had more than 50% of their land controlled by the federal government when they entered statehood. Now, the federal government holds only 1% and 4%, respectively. So why do they maintain control of so much public lands states west of the Rockies—on average, more than 50% of these states? Why should Illinois get to have 99% of their land and Oregon gets less than 47% of its land?
US Economy off a cliff. Time for a public lands transfer to states.
We’ve talked in the past with Ken Ivory and it’s seemed a little theoretical at times: what would it be like if the states got their lands back? Now we some direct evidence of what it would look like from our neighbor to the north: Canada.
We’ll start by talking with Jonathan Williams of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) about the continuing record numbers of Americans not working and the state policies that consistently work to put people to work; policies that ALEC advocates. We’ll then talk about a federal policy that needs to happen: a public lands transfer to states. Karla Jones, also with ALEC, walks us through the process. We’ll examine the roadblocks and hurdles to making this happen, astonishing examples of federal mismanagement to private land management, and then look at how this has unfolded in Canada.
Sorry, environmentalists; it wasn’t the end of the world.
Links Mentioned
If you’re not visiting American Legislative Exchange Council on a regular basis, you’re missing out on a huge amount of incredible information — policies that your state ought to be implementing if they want to be successful. Don’t you want your state to be successful? Of course you do! Then visit alec.org.
Read ALEC’s State Lands report, which we discuss with Karla Jones. (You can download a copy for easier reading; see the Download PDF link on the right-side of the page.)
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Show 5-24 | Air Dates: June 13 & 14, 2015
The battle for control over federal public lands intensifies as Rep. Ken Ivory is attacked by a Far Left group and accused of fraud. Why is the battle so important? Jobs. If you don’t live inside of a major city, you know that those in rural areas create wealth and jobs by getting their hands dirty. Blue collar, good paying, and living-wage jobs through honest, hard work.
Logging, mining, farming, ranching, all create additional jobs beyond loggers, miners, farmers, and ranchers. For instance, the logging industry would be meaningless if not for millwrights, saw operators, electricians, welders, engineers, and many others. We’ve previously had on guests from Center for America, which has pointed out there is a coming shortage of exactly these kinds of jobs — skilled workers.
American Jobs for America’s Heroes
Our first guest, Brigadier General, Marianne Watson, of Center for America is spearheading their campaign “American Jobs for America’s Heroes.” Drawing on her background as Director of Manpower and Personnel at the National Guard, she is leading the effort to connect small business owners with National Guardsmen and veterans. This is a tremendous opportunity for small-business owners to hire America’s skilled service men and women. If you need a job filled, they have a job-posting site that will not only list your job but they will also act as your HR Department to match the right service personnel for it.
Ken Ivory Attacked by Far Left Group
Lands held by the federal government. Note the difference between east and west of the Rockies
Here on I Spy Radio, we don’t like it when our friends come under attack. We especially don’t like it when the attackers are well-funded, hypocritical leftist organizations. Such is the case with Campaign for Accountability, which filed allegations against Ken Ivory and his nonprofit organization, American Lands Council. Campaign for Accountability alleges fraud on three fronts: that Ken Ivory knows the effort to turn ownership of federal lands to the states is a “fool’s errand;” that, knowing this, he defrauded counties who paid for membership in his organization; and that American Lands Council exists primarily to enrich Ken and his wife.
What’s interesting is that most of those “reporters” in the press who covered this, didn’t bother asking, “Just who is this group accusing Ken Ivory? Are their accusations even valid?” So we did.
On their “about us” page, Campaign for Accountability says, “Millions of Americans’ lives are negatively impacted by decisions made behind the doors of corporate boardrooms, government offices, and shadowy nonprofit groups.”
You’d think an organization that calls itself “Campaign for Accountability” might want to, you know, be accountable and transparent. Especially when they accuse Rep. Ken Ivory of using his nonprofit to “primarily” enrich himself and his wife. So how much does the Executive Director for Campaign for Accountability get paid? Or the rest of their staff? What percent of their revenue goes to salaries — “enriching themselves” to use their terminology.
We asked. They refused to answer.
We also asked who their major donors were, so they wouldn’t be perceived as a “shadowy nonprofit group.” Again, they refused to answer. So much for accountability. And they accuse Ken Ivory of fraud?
Ken Ivory’s Responses
Tune in to hear Ken not only defend himself against the accusations of fraud but respond to what we found out about Campaign for Accountability. He is joined by Montana State Senator, Jennifer Fielder, who was part of the commission Montana assembled to examine the management of public lands.
Are you a small-business owner? Need staffing but don’t have an HR Department but want to find skilled workers? Find out more about American Jobs for America’s Heroes
Campaign for Accountability appears to be a spinoff of a Far-Left “nonprofit” funded by George Soros. While CFA is only a few months old and hasn’t filed tax forms yet (for nonprofits, these are known as “990s”). However, CREW has. Check out CREW’s tax filings for 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Feel free to compare these to Ken Ivory’s American Lands Council’s 990s for 2012 and 2013.
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Air Dates: May 9 & 10, 2015
When it comes to land use and natural resources, it seems to be an unending battle for control between two combatants: urban vs rural. Often, this means that the Urbans (city dwellers) want or need the sanctimonious psychological safety of believing they’ve “protected” or “saved” the environment, which means blocking rural people (country dwellers) from accessing, using, harvesting or otherwise touching natural resources. In other words, they want the benefits of what the rural areas produces (food, wood, water, etc.) without actually harvesting any of it.
This is like wanting beef without touching cows.
Even worse, after blocking rural people from engaging in economic activities that they—the city dwellers—haven’t “sanction” they—the city dwellers—raise taxes and inflict other economic hardships.
If this sounds all too familiar, you probably live in a rural area. If you’ve never ever heard of this, you undoubtedly live in a city.
We talk with William Tucker about the “Detroit-ification” of rural areas and the incomparable harm city dwellers are inflicting on people who’ve chosen to living the country and provide city dwellers with all the benefits of life that the city dwellers just won’t get their hands dirty to do. And we talk with Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) about the perfect example of cities destroying rural areas—California.
Rep. Tom McClintock represents the 4th Congressional District of California, which takes in both urban and rural areas. It runs east of Sacramento to the Nevada border, and then southeast, including mountainous regions and Yosemite National Park. (map)
Wall Street Journal article: “Where are the smelt” another article on California’s self-inflicted devastation.
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Air Dates: Jan 10 & 11, 2015
The federal government holds title to 640 million of acres of land, mostly west of the Mississippi. In some states, this is more than 60% of all land within their borders. The battle as to who should own that land, whether the feds or states, has been going on since before the 1900s. Why does this matter? They represent trillions of dollars of economic activity.
This week on I Spy Radio, we talk with Rep. Ken Ivory (UT) about the continuing battle to force the federal government to honor their promise to transfer land to the states in which it belongs. We start by getting some clarification and history on exactly who legally owns the land: the feds or the states? We also discuss on-going battles in states like Utah—which threw down the gauntlet, demanding their land by Dec. 31, 2014—and Wyoming, which had 1 million acres unilaterally seized by Obama’s EPA. Find out what counties can do, why Canada is already transferring control of its land to its territories, and what strategies and tactics the new Republican-controlled Congress is likely to pursue.
Links mentioned
The American Lands Council – be sure to sign their petition to let lawmakers know this matters to you!
Utah passed HB 148 in 2012, demanding the federal government transfer ownership of the land to Utah. Here’s a link to more info on HB 148 (via Constitutional Defense Council)
It’s Valentine’s Day and nothing says “love” like a ring. A gold ring with a shiny pebble in it. But you can’t say “love” without getting all of that from a mine somewhere. So for you romantics, we’re running a best-of I Spy on the Pebble Mine and their fight against the EPA.
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Air Dates: Feb 14 & 15, 2015
One of our listeners (thank you, David D.!) put us on to a story exposing Russian money being funneled to the environmental left, especially the anti-fracking movement. Needless to say, this got our attention but it turns out it was only the tip of the iceberg. We expose the Puppet Masters of the Enviro-Green movement with investigative journalist, Ron Arnold.
Want to know more about the pile of cash rabid environmental groups have at their disposal to do things like shut down mining and access to National Forests? This week on I Spy Radio, we expose the backbone of the environmental movements—their funding—and their illegal collusion with government officials.
We talk with Ron Arnold, Executive VP of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, and long-time investigative journalist who has tracked the far-left environmentalist for more than 4 decades. And, we look at foreign influences, specifically Russian oil oligarchs, who have been secretly funding environmental groups here in the U.S. All of this means, literally, tens of billions of dollars going to anti-oil, anti-mining, anti-timber, anti-ranching, anti-you-name-it.
Philanthropoids: The Puppet Masters of the Leftist Environmental Movement.
Download a copy of the US Senate Minority ReportThe Chain of Environmental Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA.
