In the Arena, by Rich Jefferson – Gore Presidency Would Hurt Wood Industry
Someone said that a group of energetic young men should shavetheir heads, don saffron robes, obtain some big buckets and follow Al Gorearound on the campaign trail. Reminding everyone at each Gore campaign stop ofthe vice president’s notorious Buddhist fund-raising venture, they would alsowave signs, reading “Donations Laundered Organically for theEnvironment.” Or something like that.
A Gore presidency would be a lot like a Gorevice presidency, only more so. The Gore vice presidency has meant a lot to thecountry — like a lot of lost jobs in rural America where natural resources canstill provide employment when the federal government gets out of the way.
You can learn something about Gore by readinghis 1992 book, Earth in the Balance. Here you will find Gore’s uniqueblend of psycho-babble, pseudo-religious language, and environmental platitudes.
Earth in the Balancementions Gaia, but it does not mention Teddy Roosevelt. At least not in theindex. There was no way I was going to read the entire book to double-check theindex.
Franklin Roosevelt made it into Gore’s book,but not Teddy. Gore is a preservationist through and through. If he had aconservationist’s bone in his body, he would have at least mentioned TeddyRoosevelt. He was probably too busy inventing the Internet to bother with Teddy.
There are writers, however, who know how toresearch and report facts, not feelings.
Ron Arnold, executive vice president of theCenter for the Defense of Free Enterprise, has written a book called UndueInfluence. Arnold is a leader in the Wise Use movement, a movement that hasbeen targeted by the greens as their enemy.
Undue Influencecatalogs the most frightening green trends in America today. Our future is injeopardy because of Gore’s bureaucratic cronies and their foundation friendswho donate millions to groups determined to wipe industrialized civilizationfrom the earth.
This iron triangle has nearly made extinct thenatural resource extraction enterprises of America: wealthy foundations,grant-driven environmental groups, and zealous bureaucrats. Arnold will tell youabout Gore and his minions, how they have attacked rural America and won thebattle time and again.
Gore has surrounded himself with hotshots fromthe foundation-funded world of anti-free enterprise environmentalism. The vicepresident has far too many connections with environmentalist lawyers. Some ofthem would undoubtedly land in the federal judiciary if Gore is electedpresident. What do you think Gore judicial appointments would mean for federalcourt cases regarding private property?
Here’s one example of how foundations,environmentalists and bureaucrats cooperate in ways that are not reported in themainstream media.
Gore was allowed to appoint Carol M. Browner,who is a lawyer, not a scientist, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.Besides her anti-business background with Ralph Nader’s Citizen Action group,her husband, Michael Podhorzer is a lobbyist with Nader’s campaign financereform group, Citizens Fund. Podhorzer lobbies the executive branch in which hiswife works.
W. Alton Jones Foundation is a big moneysource for groups who adopt the foundation’s agenda of social engineeringthrough environmentalism. And the political relationships are, as documented byArnold, “incestuous.”
“While Browner headed EPA, her husband’sgroup got money from W. Alton Jones Foundation ‘to inform public about healthand environment threats posed by pesticides and to promote protection and policyreform,’ $60,000 in 1995; ‘To build public support for implementing leasttoxic methods of pest control in and around school building and public spaces,’$25,000 in 1996.
“Who regulates pesticides? EPA. Who’ssleeping with the (EPA) Administrator? Michael Podhorzer, Citizens Fund, whohandles only health issues.”
Does that sound like conflict of interest?What happened to Nader’s usual self-righteous indignation about unfair accessto government power? Or maybe that’s just when someone else has access?
We find out that the W. Alton Jones Foundationsays its grants are by invitation only. They seek far-left greenies who will dotheir bidding. This separates the foundation from potential public relationsproblems.
When you elect a president or a governor, youdo not just elect one person. You elect their entire crew of loyalists. If youare happy with the vice president’s loyalists who run EPA, or if you like theadministration’s heavy-handed efforts to stop timber harvesting in NationalForests – which is why the forests were created, after all – then you mustbe looking forward to a Gore presidency. Or if you like the way Clinton snatchesup sections of Western states to create national monuments as he did in Utah, toprevent Utah residents from actually working in local mines and supporting theirfamilies with honest work, you will just love a Gore presidency.
Undue Influenceis a great piece of research and reporting. It explains how the environmentalmovement was reorganized in the mid-1990s by a power that is very deep greenindeed. It’s called cash. It explains how some of the most obnoxious people onearth, the environmentalists, who put fifth– and sixth–generation timberfamilies out of work, are funded and how they get away with their shenanigans.It’ll make you sick.
Now we know what Gore meant when he talkedabout “reinventing government.”
Undue Influence, ISBN0-939571-20-X, is available at Amazon.com, your local bookstore, or by creditcard from Merril Press, (425) 454-7009.
