Thursday, May 27, 2010

An Open Letter to the Residents of Kenny Lake

An Open Letter to the Residents of Kenny Lake,

The Kenny Lake Community League admitted to violating dispersal regulations during their revenue sharing meeting last month. They admitted they did not post announcements in three public places for five days before the public meeting, designed to "give residents the opportunity to comment on their ideas".

After a complaint to Governor Parnell, the League was told by Dept of Commerce agent Tara Jolie to comply with this Minimum Qualification next time, and to re-hold the public revenue meeting on June 15. Without any mention of a reprimand or investigation, Jolie praised the League for doing such fine work and suggested to the complainer that it was an oversight.

The revenue sharing started as a program to help municipalities, first called MEEP, then SEEP, then as the Community Revenue Sharing Program (CRSP) when Sarah Palin became Governor. The funding was expanded to include unincorporated areas in 2007.

According to the Alaska Division of Community Advocacy, "The Kenny Lake Community League organizes activities, is an advocate for local concerns, and administers state grants." http://www.dced.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CF_CIS.cfm?Comm_Boro_Name=Kenny+Lake

With my own eyes I have yet to see any activities organized by the League, other than the yearly fair. Their only other legitimate purpose, the Community Well, is so messed up and has so many complaints the new Treasurer, Lisa Boone, refuses to even touch the old well fund books. After repeated attempts to find out the League's exact new purpose from their email list, I am assured by their non-response that they are not an "advocate" for my concerns. From what I can see they provide nothing substantial to the community as a whole. That they attempt to hide their activities from the public is now public record.

The League has received a total of $57,528.00 in CRSP funds since FY 2008, administering money required to be "irrevocably dedicate[d] to a public purpose." (Application Cover Sheet FY 2011)

Sitting at the helm of the Kenny Lake Community League is President Gay Wellman. Under her leadership, the League became a corporation, approved by the members in October 2009. This writer has no idea how many League members voted to approve this change.

According to their new corporate By-Laws, "To be a voting member the community member must submit a membership form at any time during the fiscal year at least a week prior to the Annual Fall meeting. Any person signed up during a membership year is considered a member of
the Kenny Lake Community League."

Their membership area is defined by them as "extending from Thompson Pass to mile 95 along the Richardson Hwy. and the area along the old and new Edgerton Hwy to mile 22 on the new Edgerton Hwy." Compare this to the description by the state of Alaska: "Kenny Lake lies off of the Richardson Highway, between miles 1 and 22 on the Edgerton Highway and between miles 1 and 11 of the Old Edgerton Highway."

In December 2009, I responded to an email plea sent out to the KLCL elist by a local business owner. He asked, "How did the Community League violate the Articles of Incorporation and the bylaws by: declaring themselves a Board of Directors instead of a community league?"

Community meetings are all alike, whether you're in Seattle, Washington or Kenny Lake. After a decade of experience in dealing with community groups, I have zero respect for the entire concept of community governance. I am not now and will never be a member of any community group. Why? Because not only did the League refuse to answer his question, they spent the better part of an hour lecturing him about how hard they work to help the community. They followed up their lectures with two lecture/editorials in the CRR 12/17/09.

But check out what I learned in just one meeting:

The Agenda for the December 7, 2009 KLCL Board Meeting included a review of the construction progress. The KLCL does not appear to follow any procedures for putting grant funded work out for public bids. Under "Electricity" it says: "Choose who to do rest of electrical work, Bob or Jim Williams?"

Discussion of hiring a short-term administrator was also on the 12/07/09 Agenda. The formation of Seven Standing Committees was last, including the need for a Finance Committee to "establish a working budget, look at options for further grants or funding avenues."

For the past two seasons the League has paid someone $3000.00 to manage the one day, 8 hour Fair. Now they wonder if the Fair needs a separate committee. They also want a committee to revise and review scholarships. They want a committee to plan Hall Usage (and establish fees). They want a Maintenance Committee, a Well Committee, and a Records Committee.

Last month, during the unpublicized revenue sharing meeting, the KLCL asked for another $6202.00 for maintenance/improvements in FY2011. They also have plans to upgrade the building's electrical by separating the meters to each building. They claim the increased wattage they gain will give them "more options" for community events.

Yet in October 2008, Kenny Lake's "success" was celebrated in a USDA Rural Development newsletter. Published 10/18/09, the article explains: the USDA provided a grant of $26,300 through the Community Facilities Program. According to Arlene Rosenkrans (USDA), "We use both halls for the annual community fair and local gatherings, but both buildings needed to be fixed." The Result? The USDA says Kenny Lake "now has two usable buildings."

Gay Wellman is a familiar name around Kenny Lake, as is her husband Dave. Together they own and operate a private Bed & Breakfast called the Wellwood Center on the Edgerton Hwy. Arlene Rosenkrans wrote an article about Gay in the May 6, 2010 Copper River Record where she listed all of Gay's associations and achievements. Arlene tells us Gay is a "skilled facilitator," openly referred to in London/EU academia as a Marxist Change Agent. Included in Gay's list of activities is, "She is a founder and Board Member of Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE)." WISE's spiritual mission in Kenny Lake is to remake local residents into more "enlightened citizens" who "make wise decisions."

WISE President Janelle Eklund is another active participant in the KLCL. She owns a private tourism company called Copper River Country Nature Tours. Together with WISE, Janelle runs nature walking tours from Copper River Princess that cost $119. per adult, $79. per child.

WISE offices appear to be housed at the Wellman's private home in Kenny Lake. The Wellmans also operate their for-profit School of the Earth out of their home based business. SOE is saving Mother Earth by "providing education, motivation, and support for constructive action." Costs for these classes are unpublished.

In FY 2008, WISE received $3000. from the CRSP pot. In FY 2009, WISE received $4000. from the CRSP pot. In FY 2010, WISE received $4000. from the CRSP pot. During the last revenue sharing meeting WISE requested $4000. for FY2011, "To continue student water shed program/camps/lectures." A request was also made on behalf of a new study proposed by Dave Wellman and his new group, The Willow Creek Watershed Consortium, for $4500., "to research the viability & longevity of Kenny Lake's only creek."

All funding requests from the Wellman's affiliate groups were granted.

Of the seventeen groups receiving CRSP funds since 2008, WISE ranks 5th, above Copper River EMS ($11,300. - 3 years), Kenny Lake School Association ($10,000. 1 year), Kenny Lake School ($8500 – 2 years), Kenny Lake School Track Association ($7500. – 1 year), Copper Nuggets 4-H Club ($6900. – 2 years). Obviously the Wellman's and their buddies on the League believe WISE enlightenment programs can be classified as serving a greater "public purpose" than the school, kid's sports programs and the all volunteer fire department.

In her December article praising Gay Wellman for all her good works, Arlene goes on to tell us "She is also an active member of Copper Country Alliance and the Wellwood Council. The Copper Country Alliance "was formed in 1992 to enable residents and friends of the region to speak out with a unified voice to protect its rural and wild character during a period of rapid tourist development, road construction, and change." It's a dues paying membership 501(c)(3) club.

What rapid tourist development are they referring to? I see nothing of the sort out here. In fact what I see could be more aptly defined as a steady decline in tourist businesses, at least for the ones not affiliated with WISE or the KLCL.

The Wellwood Council exists no where online so I don't have any information about it. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the Well Committee getting $4000. in CRSP grants in 2008.

My proposal to expand kennylake.com to include a community toolbox, to form an online network for local businesses to advertise and market their goods and services, to establish a community classifieds section and provide detailed maps of local businesses and services was shot down by Paul Boos (WISE) and Billy Williams (Tonsina Agricultural Project, $16,500. – 4 years, above WISE on the CRSP list).

There is nothing going on out here that promotes local tourism, and the last big jump in visitor traffic that anybody noticed in Kenny Lake was when I first put up the website for the Kenny Lake Mercantile in Feb 2007. Sharon was full all summer and everyone commented on it. I volunteered a hundred plus hours to fill in her pages. I was sure it would be helpful to both locals and visitors, and the results were significant, immediate and profitable.

Now consider this:

"During the 2000 U.S. Census, there were 190 total housing units, and 47 were vacant. 33 of these vacant housing units are used only seasonally. 102 residents were employed. The unemployment rate at that time was 3.77%, although 67.62% of all adults were not in the work force. The median household income was $28,750, per capita income was $13,121, and 25.88% of residents were living below the poverty level." (State of Alaska census report)

Can we, as a community, really afford to ignore the reality of what is happening in our area? If we do not come together and find a way to promote local business and advertise our existence, our privately owned for-profit enterprises will become a thing of the past. Our children and grandchildren have so little opportunity for work here, and it seems to get worse every year.

Big Community Websites are very expensive to build and maintain, but that is the best and perhaps only way our small tourist businesses can compete for visitor traffic against the big corporate tour company (and its WISE affiliates). So yeah, I thought it made sense to utilize a busy site that's already up and has a gorgeous template, plus, the owner has already agreed to donate more of her web pages to the community. Should anyone of us wonder why Gay Wellman wrote and suggested perhaps I should build the League a website, along with her condolences that I lost the bid to expand kennylake.com?

Allegations of KLCL fiscal irresponsibly have been made and there are some community members who think a federal audit is needed. There are several other stimulus programs intended to "help" Kenny Lake that are under the direction of these same WISE people.

The Copper River Country Stories Mapping Project is also supposed to help promote tourism in our region. It will not include anyinformation about local services and goods. It won't help the local tourism businesses (besides the Wellmans, Eklund, Boos and other WISE businesspeople) but it will fulfill all the data gathering requirements for Asset Based Community Development. (Let Your Assets Be Your Guide, AK Rural CAP 2007).

On June 15, 2010 at 7pm the KLCL will again hold a public meeting to give you an opportunity to comment on bids and apply for a piece of the $55,302.00. You do not need to be a non-profit to apply, nor do you need to be a group. But I would hope that you would propose things that are actually going to benefit the community, or, at the very least, vote for proposals that don't favor and promote one type of tourism business over another. Also, I don't know about you, but the KLCL sure looks to me like it's expanding into a soviet/council/quasi-judicial government agency that uses the same M.O. as some other wiseguys I know.

P.S. Happy 100th Birthday to Kenny Lake, Chitina, and the Richardson and Edgerton Highways! We were established in 1910 on the very first roads ever built in Alaska. Isn't it amazing how the organizations irrevocably dedicated to Kenny Lake, the KLCL, the Copper River Development Association and the Copper River Country Chamber of Commerce, all agreed to completely ignore one of the American Businessman's greatest marketing tools, the Centennial Celebration? Too bad there wasn't any grant revenue money available to fund this big event. Every business out here could have made money off it.

Sincerely,
Niki Raapana, Website Content Manager for CampRedington.com and KennyLake.com 2007 to present, artist/creator of "Kenny Lake - Chitina Business Fun Map 2009", manager of The Terrain Depot, on the Wayside, Chitina, Alaska, opening summer 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

Kenny Lake - Chitina, Alaska - 100 years of Army Roads!

Gravestone at Arlington Cemetery for
Major General Glen E. Edgerton

This year Chitina, Alaska plans to celebrate it's 100th birthday. Founded in 1910 as a town serving the railroad depot for the Kennecott Mine, it's one of the oldest towns in Alaska and was once considered a potential spot for Alaska's capital. In honor of Chitina's Centennial Celebration, I've named our Wayside espresso/gift store/burger bus operation The Terrain Depot.

Then I got to thinking about Kenny Lake's history page I wrote for kennylake.com back in 2007. I went and checked and sure enough, I wrote that Kenny Lake was founded in 1910 as an ARC Roadhouse on the Edgerton Highway, first called the Chitina Valdez Fairbanks Military Road. So I asked a couple old farmers up at the store why Kenny Lake wasn't celebrating their 100 year birthday. The farmers never got a chance to answer, because the new clerk jumped in and told me it wasn't a "community" until the 60s. I know that's what the state websites and state tour guides say, but they're wrong, I've already proved that. Now I'm trying to find out why Kenny Lake doesn't get to have a history. She actually said the people who lived here in 1910 didn't "feel" like they had a community.. and that's when I lost my temper and said ,"How in the hell do you know what the people felt who lived here then? Do you have any evidence for that or did you just pull that out of your..." and then I turned and walked out the door. I asked my neighbors who she is and she's the former Treasurer or Secretary of the League... and used to work for the Park. Heh.

So, instead of giving these local communitarians any more of my time, I'm thinking about why the communitarian State of Alaska isn't doing anything to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the FIRST road ever built here, the Richardson Hwy, which goes right through Kenny Lake for at least 20 miles. It's not as if if they aren't aware of this fact:
The Richardson Highway is Alaska's oldest highway, beginning as a gold rush trail to Eagle in 1898. General Wilds P. Richardson worked to upgrade it to a wagon road in 1910 after the Fairbanks gold strike. It was made suitable for automobiles in the 1920's and was paved in 1957. Major side excursions include Chitina and McCarthy via the Edgerton Highway and McCarthy Road. http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/scenic/byways-richardsonsouth.shtml

Then I thought some more and went hey! What about the Edgerton Highway? What year was it completed? And while there is nothing online at any of the sites I scoured, it's apparent that the Edgerton Highway was completed at the same time Chitina became a town..because this is the road to Chitina, it's what connects Chitina to the Richardson. So technically we have Three Centennial Celebrations in our area this summer. And most important of the three celebrations is to honor the achievements made by the Alaska Road Commission and the US ARMY CORPS of ENGINEERS who made it possible for Alaska to join the 20th century.

Now I wish I'd have thought of this a whole lot sooner, because I'd guess the US Army might be interested in assisting me in planning this celebration. I found an Alaska state library too with lots of archived documents that would reveal a lot more about the history here. I always wanted to go deeper into our region's history but that was never going to pay me a dime so I didn't do it. Now I'm planning to enter the tourism market this summer and am looking at every possible angle I can find to advertise our existence. The Chitina Centennial is sponsored by their Chamber of Commerce. My Alaska Road Commission Centennial is sponsored by my principles.

I remain dumbfounded by the level of revisionist history I see happening here, and I can't stop myself from wanting to get to the bottom of this deception. I've spent most of my time lately researching the Community Plans and the way ABCD is moving into our area. But now that I'm back to thinking about my business and the importance of advertising and marketing, I'm ashamed that my state has forsaken the men who made the state possible. Our few roads are of primary importance to people across Alaska. The first road ever built should be a big deal.

Where would all these Indians and Nature Lovers drive their SUVs if the Army hadn't built anything for them to drive on? There's no evidence they've ever built anything we all use today. How would the RVs and cars and motorcycles get here if it wasn't for the US Army (and Scottish) engineers and troops (including an all black regiment) who built the Alcan Highway and every bridge on the way to and in Alaska? Modern culture is tied to the roadways and it's possible these roads might never have been built if the country would have been left in other hands. I don't know of one young Indian who does not have or desire to have modern technology in their daily lives. Everyone has snowmachines, 4x4s, cell phones, computers, televisions and vcrs and so okay the Japanese made most of this list, but that's the point, isn't it? Don't all American cultures deserve our utmost respect for what they gifted to each and every one of us? The "white" Europeans brought many good things to the Natives of Alaska and, as far as I can tell, back then it was a good trade for all sides except the Chinese. Some say the coolies working for the RR were all murdered and a mass grave exists somewhere along the McCarthy Road.

In 1971 the US Congress granted 1100 Ahtna their choice of land in the Copper River Basin. Naturally, because their subsistence naturalist lifestyle doesn't require roads, they claimed all the land along the roads. Now only Natives have places to go cut wood around here. Whites with Native relatives brag about it all the time and make it a badge of their superior position in the community. Since this whole communitarian redistribution of land started, after the feds and the parks and the state grabbed their portions, the "rest of us" non-Natives are left with the option to buy barely 1% of the land in the entire state.

I am tired of hearing how I need to honor the Indians and their way of life over my ancestors contributions to this state and this country. I know it's a communitarian divide and conquer technique, but that doesn't make me immune to it. And then part of my disgust is the level of complicity played by the tribes in implementing LA21 plans. But I really don't want to dwell on all the negative things going on around here.... not yet anyway. It's summer. It's time to make money and have lots of fun doing it!

Back to the celebrations!

Major Glen E. Edgerton was the engineer for our portion of the ARC Military Road, still not sure the exact date it was completed. At some later date the Highway was named for him. There's not a lot online about him but what there is shows an interesting fellow with connections to many names you'd recognize. I would LOVE to have access to copies of his orginal ARC blueprints!

GLEN E. EDGERTON
1940-1944, Born in Parkerville, Kansas, on April 17, 1887, Glen E. Edgerton was the son of John Edgar and Alice Edgerton. Graduated from Kansas State College in 1904; from the Military Academy at West Point, in 1908; and from the U.S. Army engineering school in 1910; advanced through the grades to major general in 1942. In 1914 he married Cordelia I. Hessin.

Edgerton was assistant engineer of the Panama Canal from 1908 to 1909, then he was chief engineer of Alaska Road from 1910 to 1915; director of the War Department Sales from 1921 to 1923; chief of the Federal Power Communication from 1925 to 1929; assistant professor of the Engineering School of the U.S. Military Academy in 1930. He returned to Panama as Panama Canal maintenance engineer from 1936 to 1940, then he was appointed Governor of the Panama Canal Zone on July 11, 1940, and served in that position until 1944.

During his tenure, several administrative changes occurred: the organization formerly known as the Bureau of Clubs and Playgrounds was designated the Panama Canal clubhouses; the special construction division and the special engineering division were consolidated under the title of the special engineer division.

During his administration, also, the highway and railroad bridge across the Canal at the existing Miraflores locks was officially opened to vehicular traffic in 1942, thus providing the first permanent bridge connection between the east and west banks of the Canal since the Canal was opened in 1914, and the excavation for the third locks project was initiated.
Edgerton retired on April 30, 1949. He died in 1956. http://www.pancanal.com/eng/history/biographies/edgerton.html
The gravestone pictured above looks like it says he died in 1976, not 1956?

I found one tutorial he wrote:

Wooden and Combination Highway Bridges. by Captain Glen Edgar Edgerton; 36 pages, 18 illus. Price 3.50 {Item No.6221} [Includes: Introduction, Design: Substructures, Superstructures. Construction, Costs] [Good technical article on prefabricated light wooden truss bridges] http://www.military-info.com/aphoto/Pm2.htm

Edgerton renovated the White House under Truman and chaired the Selectoon Board that inducted the first 333 women into the US Army Officer's Corps.

Edgerton was also a member of the exclusive Alfafa Club, and one year he was their "candidate" for president. According to their official story, they are a secret club whose members just have fun and makes jokes. Edgerton's name comes up in a David Ike forum about the club http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?p=541089

It's also been fun to see how many websites took their information from what I wrote on kennylake.com... I can tell who did because I spelled Edgerton's name wrong.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Climax Civilization and Visions of Eutopia

So much more information about communitarianism is appearing online I can barely keep track of it anymore. I just stumbled across this when I followed a search term somebody used to get here. This is a prime example of how far into the cult-mainstream it's come in the last decade, and how people have expanded the idea to suit their personal visions of Utopia. This site owner bases his communitarianism on "Visions and revelations written under the guidance of the Angel of Jerusalem, Ariel, God's Messenger of peace."
New Communitarian Models Communiversities, the Communitarian Village Proposal, the Communergy System, Gardenville, and Chateau Marmoset are various cooperative community concepts I have proposed or engaged in in past years. They are only models for new communitarian social structures and not blueprints for reproducing exact replicas. Time and circumstances determine the appropriate communitarian systems. But I believe they are good beginning models and present new ways of organizing our communities.{New ways of organizing communities is always the bottom line to a communitarian thinker. Niki}

After struggling for several years trying to actualize two of these structures, Communiversities and a Communitarian Village, I have come to the conclusion that intentional communities are extremely hard to organize if people desire to do it themselves democratically. This is probably why most surviving intentional communities are tightly run religious communities where decision-making is left to a small council of elders or the community's spiritual leader. Figuring out a way of setting up a co-operative community that is still loose enough for allowing individual self-determination like the freedom we have living in the mostly chance arrangements of existing towns and cities is the key issue for me these days.

Cooperative decision-making in intentional communities striving to be democratic can sometimes be so unbearably difficult that people just give up or get fed up with other people trying to run their lives for them. This problem was a killer one for the commune, Lime Saddle, that I and my first wife helped organize in 1971. Power trips abounded and it doesn't surprise me any longer that the 1960's and '70's communal movement went the way of the dinosaurs. The trick for communitarians today is figuring out how to co-operatize existing communities or build new ones that can figuratively fly, that can rise above petty bickering and still provide the benefits of cooperative lifestyles.

Below are listed the new community visions I have had and worked to bring to reality with various degrees of success and failure. Read more: http://biomystic.org/climaxciv.htm

The project name for the above site is Visions of Eutopia:

What is "Eutopia"? It isn't Thomas More's "Utopia" which means literally "no place" and it isn't "Ecotopia", an environmentalist's fantasy where they become the new ruling class. "Eutopia" is simply the "Good Place", the place where you're called to where you spiritually need to be to become a better person. It's the place where you help others do the same. It's really none other than that place Jesus called for his generation the "Kingdom of God" and which we can call for our politically correct one--the Realm of the Holy One.

So It's big and it's small. It's here and it's there. It's spread out all around you yet it's deep within you. It's the place in your heart and mind and in your community family where peace and harmony reign above violence. It's the place where you are at peace with yourself and where families and communities and nations are at peace with themselves and with the surrounding life-supporting natural world. It's the place in your mind that knows and lovingly accepts Life with all it's natural joys and pains of existence in this world that is the Great School of Living, if you are a believer, from which we all must graduate to enter the World to come.http://biomystic.org/index.htm

Supplanting the US Constitution: War, National Emergency and 'Continuity of Government' by Peter Dale Scott

This just came in from Consuelo. I remember reading about the "Shadow Government" in a headline news article in Seattle sometime after 9/11. I'm positive I kept it as part of my files. At the time I thought that would open some eyes around me... but it didn't... not even when the article said the plan was only to save the Executive Branch and not the Congress or the Supreme Court. Anyone else remember seeing that? Anyway, I like this man's style and approach and plan to read more of what he's written, especially what he's posted for free online. :) Thanks Con!

Supplanting the US Constitution: War, National Emergency and 'Continuity of Government'

by Peter Dale Scott

Recently by Peter Dale Scott: Opium and the CIA: Can the US Triumph in the Drug-Addicted War in Afghanistan?





In July 1987, during the Iran-Contra Hearings grilling of Oliver North, the American public got a glimpse of “highly sensitive” emergency planning North had been involved in. Ostensibly these were emergency plans to suspend the American constitution in the event of a nuclear attack (a legitimate concern). But press accounts alleged that the planning was for a more generalized suspension of the constitution.

As part of its routine Iran-contra coverage, the following exchange was printed in the New York Times, but without journalistic comment or follow-up:

[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?

Both North’s attorney and Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the Committee, responded in a way that showed they were aware of the issue:

Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?

[Senator Daniel] Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that?

Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation.

Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.

But we have never heard if there was or was not an executive session, or if the rest of Congress was ever aware of the matter. According to James Bamford, “The existence of the secret government was so closely held that Congress was completely bypassed.” (Key individuals in Congress were almost certainly aware.)

Brooks was responding to a story by Alfonzo Chardy in the Miami Herald. Chardy’s story alleged that Oliver North was involved with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in plans to take over federal, state and local functions during a national emergency. This planning for “Continuity of Government” (COG) called for “suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law.”

To my knowledge no one in the public (including myself) attached enough importance to the Chardy story. Chardy himself suggested that Reagan’s Attorney General, William French Smith, had intervened to stop the COG plan from being presented to the President. Seven years later, in 1994, Tim Weiner reported in the New York Times that what he called “The Doomsday Project” – the search for “ways to keep the Government running after a sustained nuclear attack on Washington” –had “less than six months to live.”

To say that nuclear attack planning was over was correct, but this statement was also very misleading. On the basis of Weiner’s report, the first two books on COG planning, by James Bamford and James Mann, books otherwise excellent and well-informed, reported that COG planning had been abandoned. They were wrong.

Mann and Bamford did report that, from the beginning, two of the key COG planners on the secret committee were Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the two men who implemented COG under 9/11. What they and Weiner did not report was that under Reagan the purpose of COG planning had officially changed: it was no longer for arrangements “after a nuclear war,” but for any "national security emergency." This was defined in Executive Order 12656 of 1988 as: “any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.”

In other words extraordinary emergency measures, originally designed for an America devastated in a nuclear attack, were now to be applied to anything the White House considered an emergency. Thus Cheney and Rumsfeld continued their secret planning when Clinton was president; both men, both Republicans, were heads of major corporations and not even in the government at that time. Moreover, Andrew Cockburn claims that the Clinton administration, according to a Pentagon source, had “no idea what was going on.” (As I shall explain later, this sweeping claim needs some qualification.)

The expanded application of COG to any emergency was envisaged as early as 1984, when, according to Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan,

Lt. Col. Oliver North was working with officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency . . . to draw up a secret contingency plan to surveil political dissenters and to arrange for the detention of hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens in case of an unspecified national emergency. The plan, part of which was codenamed Rex 84, called for the suspension of the Constitution under a number of scenarios, including a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua.

Clearly 9/11 met the conditions for the imposition of COG measures, and we know for certain that COG planning was instituted on that day in 2001, before the last plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. The 9/11 Report confirms this twice, on pages 38 and 326. It was under the auspices of COG that Bush stayed out of Washington on that day, and other government leaders like Paul Wolfowitz were swiftly evacuated to Site R, inside a hollowed out mountain near Camp David.

What few have recognized is that, nearly a decade later, some aspects of COG remain in effect. COG plans are still authorized by a proclamation of emergency that has been extended each year by presidential authority, most recently by President Obama in September 2009. COG plans are also the probable source for the 1000-page Patriot Act presented to Congress five days after 9/11, and also for the Department of Homeland Security’s Project Endgame – a ten-year plan, initiated in September 2001, to expand detention camps, at a cost of $400 million in Fiscal Year 2007 alone.

At the same time we have seen the implementation of the plans outlined by Chardy in 1987: the warrantless detentions that Oliver North had planned for in Rex 1984, the warrantless eavesdropping that is their logical counterpart, and the militarization of the domestic United States under a new military command, NORTHCOM. Through NORTHCOM the U.S. Army now is engaged with local enforcement to control America, in the same way that through CENTCOM it is engaged with local enforcement to control Afghanistan and Iraq.

We learned that COG planning was still active in 2007, when President Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD 51). This, for the sixth time, extended for one year the emergency proclaimed on September 14, 2001. It empowered the President to personally ensure "continuity of government" in the event of any "catastrophic emergency." He announced that NSPD 51 contains "classified Continuity Annexes" which shall "be protected from unauthorized disclosure." Under pressure from his 911truth constituents, Congressman Peter DeFazio of the Homeland Security Committee twice requested to see these Annexes, the second time in a letter signed by the Chair of his committee. His request was denied.

The National Emergencies Act, one of the post-Watergate reforms that Vice-President Cheney so abhorred, specifies that: “Not later than six months after a national emergency is declared, and not later than the end of each six-month period thereafter that such emergency continues, each House of Congress shall meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to determine whether that emergency shall be terminated” (50 U.S.C. 1622, 2002). Yet in nine years Congress has not once met to discuss the State of Emergency declared by George W. Bush in response to 9/11, a State of Emergency that remains in effect today. Appeals to the Congress to meet its responsibilities to review COG have fallen on deaf ears.

Former Congressman Dan Hamburg and I appealed publicly last year, both to Obama to terminate the emergency, and to Congress to hold the hearings required of them by statute. But Obama, without discussion, extended the 9/11 Emergency again on September 10, 2009; and Congress has continued to ignore its statutory obligations. One Congressman explained to a constituent that the provisions of the National Emergencies Act have now been rendered inoperative by COG. If true, this would seem to justify Chardy’s description of COG as suspension of the Constitution. Are there other parts of the Constitution that have been suspended? We do not know, and the Chair of the Homeland Security Committee has been told he cannot find out.

Plans drafted by a secret committee, including corporation heads not in the government, have provided rules that allegedly override public law and the separation of powers that is at the heart of the Constitution. Congress is derelict in addressing this situation. Even Congressman Kucinich, the one Congressman I have met, will not answer my communications on this subject.

Yet as I see it, the only authorization for the COG planning was a secret decision by President Reagan (NSDD 55 of September 14, 1982) which in effect federalized the counterinsurgency planning (called Cable Splicer), which he had authorized in California when governor there.

It is clear that the planning by Cheney, Rumsfeld and others in the last two decades was not confined to an immediate response to 9/11. The 1000-page Patriot Act, dropped on Congress as promptly as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution had been back in 1964, is still with us; Congress has never seriously challenged it, and Obama quietly extended it on February 27 of this year.

We should not forget that the Patriot Act was only passed after lethal anthrax letters were mailed to two crucial Democratic Senators – Senators Daschle and Leahy – who had initially questioned the bill. After the anthrax letters, however, they withdrew their initial opposition. Someone – we still do not know who – must have planned those anthrax letters well in advance. This is a fact most Americans do not want to think about.

Someone also must have planned the unusual number of war games taking place on 9/11. COG planners and FEMA had been involved in war games planning over the previous two decades; and on 9/11 FEMA was again involved with other agencies in preparing for Operation Tripod, a bioterrorism exercise in New York City.

Someone also must have planned the new more restrictive instructions, on June 1, 2001, determining that military interceptions of hijacked aircraft had to be approved “at the highest levels of government” (i.e. the President, Vice-President, or Secretary of Defense). The Report attributes this order to a JCS Memo of June 1, 2001, entitled “Aircraft Piracy (Hijacking) and Destruction of Derelict Airborne Objects.” But the written requirements had been less restrictive before June 1, 2001, and I am informed that the change was quietly revoked the following December.


In The Road to 9/11 I suggest the change in the JCS memo came from the National Preparedness Review in which President Bush authorized Vice-President Cheney, together with FEMA, “to tackle the… task of dealing with terrorist attacks.” Not noticed by the press was the fact that Cheney and FEMA had already been working on COG planning as a team throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

As I wrote above, it is necessary to qualify a Pentagon official’s claim (to author Andrew Cockburn) that the Clinton administration had “no idea what was going on” in COG. Let me quote from my response to Cockburn’s book in my own, The Road to 9/11:

[Weiner’s] article persuaded authors James Mann and James Bamford that Reagan’s COG plans had now been abandoned, because “there was, it seemed, no longer any enemy in the world capable of . . . decapitating America’s leadership.” In fact, however, only one phase of COG planning had been terminated, a Pentagon program for response to a nuclear attack. Instead, according to author Andrew Cockburn, a new target was found:

Although the exercises continued, still budgeted at over $200 million a year in the Clinton era, the vanished Soviets were now replaced by terrorists. . . . There were other changes, too. In earlier times the specialists selected to run the “shadow government” had been drawn from across the political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans alike. But now, down in the bunkers, Rumsfeld found himself in politically congenial company, the players’ roster being filled almost exclusively with Republican hawks. . . . “You could say this was a secret government-in-waiting. The Clinton administration was extraordinarily inattentive, [they had] no idea what was going on.”

Cockburn’s account requires some qualification. Richard Clarke, a Clinton Democrat, makes it clear that he participated in the COG games in the 1990s and indeed drafted Clinton ’s Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 67 on “Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government.” But COG planning involved different teams for different purposes. It is quite possible that the Pentagon official was describing the Department of Defense team dealing with retaliation.

The Pentagon official’s description of a “secret government-in-waiting” (which still included both Cheney and Rumsfeld) is very close to the standard definition of a cabal, as a group of persons secretly united to bring about a change or overthrow of government. In the same era Cheney and Rumsfeld projected change also by their public lobbying, through the Project for the New American Century, for a more militant Middle East policy. In light of how COG was actually implemented in 2001, one can legitimately suspect that, however interested this group had been in continuity of government under Reagan, under Clinton the focus of Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s COG planning was now a change of government.

Understandably there is great psychological resistance to the extraordinary claim that Cheney and Rumsfeld, even when not in government, were able to help plan successfully for constitutional modifications, which they themselves implemented when back in power. Most people cannot bring themselves even to believe the second, known half of this claim: that on September 11, 2001, COG plans overriding the constitution were indeed implemented. This is why the first two print reviews of The Road to 9/11, both favorable and intelligently written, both reported that I speculated that COG had been imposed on 9/11. No, it was not a speculation: the 9/11 Commission Report twice confirms that COG was instituted on the authority of a phone call between Bush and Cheney of which they could find no record. No record, I did speculate, because it took place on a secure COG phone outside the presidential bunker – with such a high classification that the 9/11 Commission was never supplied the phone records.


A footnote in the 9/11 Report says

“The 9/11 crisis tested the U.S. government’s plans and capabilities to ensure the continuity of constitutional government and the continuity of government operations. We did not investigate this topic, except as needed to understand the activities and communications of key officials on 9/11. The Chair, Vice Chair, and senior staff were briefed on the general nature and implementation of these continuity plans.

The other footnotes confirm that no information from COG files was used to document the 9/11 Report. At a minimum these files might resolve the mystery of the missing phone call which simultaneously authorized COG, and (in consequence) determined that Bush should continue to stay out of Washington. I suspect that they might tell us a great deal more.

What is the first step out of this current state of affairs, in which the constitution has in effect been superseded by a higher, if less legitimate authority? I submit that it is to get Congress to do what the law requires, and determine whether our present proclamation of emergency “shall be terminated” (50 U.S.C. 1622, 2002).

An earlier polite, judiciously worded appeal to this effect failed. It may be necessary to raise the issue in a larger, albeit more controversial context: the scandal that a small cabal was able to supersede the Constitution, and Congress has failed, despite repeated requests, to do anything about it. I would hope that Americans concerned about this matter would raise it with all the congressional candidates in the forthcoming elections. At a minimum, candidates should promise to call for a full discussion of the proclaimed national emergency, as the law requires.

This is reprinted from Global Research. Go to the original for footnotes.

May 22, 2010

Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Drugs Oil and War, The Road to 9/11, and The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War. His book, Fueling America's War Machine: Deep Politics and the CIA’s Global Drug Connection is in press, due Fall 2010 from Rowman & Littlefield.

Copyright © 2010 Peter Dale Scott, GlobalResearch

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Statewide Initiatives and Referendums to STOP UN LOCAL AGENDA 21

There is no national initiative or referendum process for the federal government of these united states. All powers that lie with the people directly exist only at the state level. When we were still living in Seattle there was a concerted effort by attorneys representing environmental groups (1000 Friends) to stop the people from bringing initiatives. The last thing the communitarian crooks want is for us to have a tool that will stop the land grabs and other constitutional violations becoming the law of the land under UN Agenda 21.

I'm thinking of calling our counter plan The Kenny Lake - Chitina Rejuvenation Project. Less than a week before we open and I'm still taking interior materials out of the 20' gertee. Made five new mini mobiles, some tiny wooden signs, and organized and packed all the new and old materials I'm taking down with me. Got some really nice shiny, bright materials for info signs and now I'm thinking about expanding the Chitina Centennial Celebration to include Kenny Lake, because it was established at the same time Chitina was. Kenny Lake was a supply stop for travelers on the Chitina Valdez Fairbanks Military Road. There has been no advertising or marketing of our 100 year birthday by any of local groups who claim to work for the community. It only just occurred to me last night. Good thing I have 300 yards of vinyl sign materials coming... I can make several huge signs for these historic celebrations!

As the WISE guys and gals continue to ignore the obvious and critical needs of this community, our tiny ACL group will continue to find legitimate ways to market and develop existing local businesses. Our mission is to restore the economic diversity of our area, because it is so essential to American prosperity that everyone is treated equally. We will honor the contributions made by all the people who've worked and lived in the Copper River Basin since the end of the nineteenth century, not just the Ahtna Indians, but also the Norwegians, Germans, Russians, Chinese and numerous other immigrants. We'll have slide shows of Alaskan Oakie homesteads, maps of the trains and roads built here by the US Army Corp of Engineers, and I found a bunch of old Gold Prospector maps from 90 years ago! (Remember when you were a kid in school and the state maps always showed the RESOURCES available in each state? Modern maps show us all the land locked up (protected) by the Park and Ahtna, minus the minerals). I still have to find time to update and revise the Kenny Lake - Chitina Business Fun Map I made last year. I wanted to make it into a big 4x8' sign to hang outside the Merc on the porch, like the one in Ten Sleep, Wyoming. I can make a sign that says "BIKERS WELCOME!" too. :)

Laws governing the initiative process in Alaska:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Laws_governing_the_initiative_process_in_Alaska


About Initative & Referendum
The People's Right To Make & Repeal A Law

A Possible Long Term Solution

Initiatives and Referendums are reshaping local and state government, policies, and even the geography of American cities and counties. Citizen lawmakers are using direct democracy to limit growth, block Wal-Mart stores, issue bonds for schools and parks, set minimum wages, finance arenas and stadiums, and a host of other issues.

The Initiative and Referendum process is available to most all municipalities in every state. The practice dates back to ancient Greece. It appeared in America in 1777 when the Georgia state constitution provided a means to adopt amendments with the voters' consent. In 1898, South Dakota granted its voters the right to initiate all forms of legislation.

The modern day movement to utilize the Initiative process can be said to have begun in 1978 in California with the passage of Proposition 13 that cut property taxes from 2.5 percent of market value to just 1 percent. After Proposition 13 passed in California, similar measures were adopted through the initiative process in Michigan and Massachusetts. Within two years, 43 states had implemented some form of property tax limitation or relief and 15 states lowered their income tax rates.

The simple truth is, major reform in this country is not possible without the initiative process. Many argue that career politicians are not going to put limits on their own time in office or limits on the amount of other people’s money they can spend. Nor are they going to do anything that might rock the ‘special interest boat’. The initiative process is vital to reforming our country.

Remaining critics of the Initiative & Referendum process include most all politicians in the states which do not yet offer this proven form of direct democracy. Of course, tough to find support in congress or from those that benefit from status quo in Washington.

Opponents claim that "Law Making" is a very complicated process which is best left to the "Law Makers" - those we elect to do the job......

There is no doubt that you can find flaws with citizen lawmaking. No form of legislating is perfect. But in an era of growing government, there needs to be one last check in the Checks & Balances or national government. The expansion of the Initiative process seems to be an uphill battle. Due to the reforms that the citizens have been successful in promoting through the initiative process – reforms that have limited the power of government – legislators in states without I&R have been hostile to advocating it and unfortunately its expansion can only occur by legislators giving it to the people. This in itself is a perfect example of why we need I&R.

An Initiative, which can be drafted by anyone, generally requires the signatures of a specific percentage of the district’s registered voters, often between five and 15 percent, to qualify for the ballot. If sufficient signatures are received and verified, then the measure is placed on the ballot for the next scheduled election or at a special election. If approved by a vote of the people, the measure becomes law.

More About the Initiative & Referendum Process

Two types of Initiative exist:

• Direct Initiative: A direct Initiative is the standard form of this process. Interested parties prepare the Initiative and collect the necessary signatures. If they are successful, the issue is placed on the ballot. If approved by the voters, the measure becomes law.

• Indirect Initiative: Indirect Initiatives (mandated in some localities) require that measures receiving a sufficient number of valid petition signatures are then submitted to the legislature for action. Usually, if the legislature fails to pass the proposed legislation, it is submitted to the electorate for final disposition; however, in other areas, the proposal dies if defeated in the legislature.

Three basic types of Referendums exist:

• Petition or Popular Referendum. A Referendum by petition follows the initiative process in which a statutory number of signatures is collected in order to qualify the measure for the ballot. The voters then decide the measure's fate.

• Optional or Legislative Referendum. The optional Referendum is the means for a legislature to refer a controversial matter (e.g. a new tax) to the electorate for a vote.

• Constitutional (or Statutory) Referendum. Some states and localities require that certain types of measures (often constitutional amendments, bond measures and some types of taxes) be submitted to the electorate in a Referendum. These measures often require more than a simple majority for approval.

Learn more about the Initiative and Referendum process from the
Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern Californi.

How Can We Establish A National Initiative & Referendum Process ?

A Constitutional Amendment may be offered in the House or Senate by any representative. Many, less worthy, Constitutional Amendments are offered every year.

By Joint Resolutions : Joint resolutions may originate either in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. There is little practical difference between a bill and a joint resolution. Both are subject to the same procedure, except for a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution. On approval of such a resolution by two-thirds of both the House and Senate, it is sent directly to the Administrator of General Services for submission to the individual states for ratification. It is not presented to the President for approval. A joint resolution originating in the House of Representatives is designated "H.J.Res." followed by its individual number. Joint resolutions become law in the same manner as bills. {emphasis mine}

A Constitutional Convention may be called by agreement of two-thirds of the legislatures of the States. A Constitutional Convention may propose one or more amendments to the United States Constitution. These amendments are then sent to the states to be approved by three-fourths of the legislatures or conventions.

http://www.unitedstateslegalinfo.com/initiative.htm

Kenny Lake to hold another Community Revenue Sharing meeting on June 15

The state of Alaska DCRA responded to my neighbor's email complaint about the lack of public notices required under the "Minimum Qualifications" for the revenue sharing program. Their response (posted below) assures him the KLCL has done a "great job" with the program in the past and assures him this "oversight" was a "rare occurrence."

After asking several people I know who live in Kenny Lake, I'm still convinced only a few people in Kenny Lake have knowledge of the existence of this revenue sharing program. It appears to me that even fewer residents know that individuals (not just 501cs) in the community can apply for funds that are "irrevocably dedicated to a public purpose."

The issue for me now is finding exactly what criteria constitutes a public purpose. WISE certainly does not belong to the "people as a whole." I don't know anyone in Kenny Lake who benefits from WISE activities and programs. I do know several people and businesses in Kenny Lake that are affected by WISE activities and programs, but affected does not necessarily mean a positive benefit to the people of Kenny Lake, and, there is evidence to suggest WISE actions actually have a negative affect on the community as a whole.

Here's my "problem" with this whole funding scene. The Wellmans own and operate a private Bed & Breakfast that's in direct competition with other business owners in Kenny Lake; this is an important factor in my estimation. How does Patty Ryan at the Golden Spruce, Lisa Boone at the Merc, Ada Wilson's Native Arts, the upholstry shop or the new greenhouse on the Old Road get a positive benefit from public funds going to the Wellman's property (or, for that matter, Billy Williams Ag project)? In addition to it being in their private home and commercial business, it is the office for WISE and the religious School of the Earth, and it may also be the office for the new Wellman Council (which needs to be explained) and the new Willow Creek Watershed Consortium. That they have a firm hand in every organization in Kenny Lake that receives community revenue is enough to make me think we, as a community are in dire need of more transparency and must find a way to include more public input into local "government" funding.

Since we are an un land taxed, unincorporated, non Borough affiliated area, I wrongly assumed this was one of the few "free" places left in the states. We are being sucked into the regional government plans as easily as a fished is slipped back into the river. Local residents are none the WISER, and since the League is a membership organization (now corporate) which requires an application to join, it does not fulfill the constitutional role of a locally elected government entity. The current leadership of the KLCL (excluding the new treasurer) does not adhere to basic constitutional requirements for legitimate government agencies, as is evidenced by their total lack of response to requests for information about their purpose and programs. Apparently their superiors at the State government and their BLM "partners" in the Federal govt support this "new" policy of communitarian balancing.

I would also like to explore the foundation for Janelle Eklund's (President of WISE) private tourism business (Copper River Country Nature Tours) that uses the exact same name as was developed by her and her friends during our Regional Tourism Branding workshops. (And the use of the word "country" is of particular interest since most locals and local companies call themselves the Copper River Basin or Valley.) Then there's the whole Copper River Country Stories Mapping Project, the tourist map that eliminated all the local service and goods providers from the map, ongoing for the past 2 years now, under the lead of WISE buddies at the Copper River Watershed Project. The CRWP is served by One Northwest, whose 2007 Report tells us:
In 2007 we . . .
. . . served 246 organizations.
. . . created 28 new websites.
. . . launched 11 constituent relationship
management databases.
. . . developed 13 new email newsletters.
. . . hosted 1,249 lists with our email list service.
. . . provided service to 195,986 subscribers to
those lists.
. . . provided the 2,767 subscribers to ONEList with
online organizing strategies, tips, and techniques.

So what we have here are a few local (globally connected) businesses that control Kenny Lake. They know how vital a community website is to sustaining local businesses and local residents. They know that over 60% of Alaskan Tourists use the internet to pre-make their travel plans. They know that Alaskan businesses miss out on at least 60% of the market when they do not have an online presence. They know unenlightened local businesses and unevolved local residents cannot compete against their tightly controlled, well connected and well funded group of Enlightened Ones. They surely know the value of Public-Private Partnerships, a term most locals have never heard once in their lives. And yes, they all "volunteer" for various causes and events, but they also make a lot of money off their directly related for profit tourist businesses.

Cost: $119 for Adults

$70 Children under 12

Tours start June 1 and end September 1.

Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment is a partner with Princess Tours. Inc. and a partner with Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge. If you want to book a tour as a Princess Tour customer, you can book your tour by calling 1-800-426-0442 . You can also visit Copper River Princess Princess Activities web page for more information. Look for “Copper River Country Nature Tour.”


Wrangell Institute for Science and Environment (WISE) is a grassroots organization dedicated to teaching science and environmental education. It is our dream to bring a sense of wonder, excitement, and a stewardship of nature so people can carry those special moments with them throughout their life. With this solid foundation, citizens will be able to make informed and enlightened decisions about where they live and their environment around them. Our strength lies in collaborating with many groups and organizations to provide a quality education experience in science and natural history. WISE depends on sponsors, partners, tour receipts and memberships for delivery of its programs http://www.copperrivertours.org/aboutwise.html

The "need" for a Community Website in our area is well established in our Regional Tourism Branding and Marketing Plan. If I had a faster connection I'd open and quote from this:

Grant No: 07-79-05590

Jun 30, 2007 ... Regional Tourism Branding. We developed the “Copper River Country” brand, and a new marketing strategy for the region. The marketing plan is ...
www.commerce.state.ak.us/oed/dart/pub/EDA_Report.pdf

pub·lic (pub′lik)

adjective

1. of, belonging to, or concerning the people as a whole; of or by the community at large: the public welfare, a public outcry
2. for the use or benefit of all; esp., supported by government funds: a public park
3. as regards community, rather than private, affairs
4. acting in an official capacity on behalf of the people as a whole: a public prosecutor
5. known by, or open to the knowledge of, all or most people: to make information public, a public figure
6. Finance owned by shareholders whose shares can be freely traded, as on an exchange: a public company

public purpose legal definition
n
A governmental action or direction that purports to benefit the populace as a whole.

Webster's New World Law Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
pur·port (pʉr pôrt′; also, and for n. always, pʉr′pôrt′)
transitive verb

1. to profess or claim as its meaning
2. to give the appearance, often falsely, of being, intending, etc.

Origin: Anglo-Fr purporter <>
Can definitions change? http://www.indianexpress.com/news/govt-expands-definition-of-public-purpose-as-it-works-on-a-new-land-acquisition-law/30142/

This blog had visitors from the DOA in Juneau this past week. The State of Alaska came in directly to the page I wrote about the revenue program. Yet my email to Tara Jollie at DCRA, where I requested the proper procedures for administering the program and the exact process for contesting the results of the unpublicized community revenue sharing meeting on May 11, 2010, has not been answered. My quest for evidence of a a public purpose for WISE and the legal standards by which we can judge if WISE programs serve a public purpose is ongoing.

I remain unconvinced that Gay Wellman's private for profit and non-profit tourist businesses serve any LOCAL public purpose. I say it's not a coincidence that the two men who objected to my proposal to build a community section at kennylake.com have both been top receivers of these community funds for the past four years, including $12,000. out of this years' pot. Isn't it interesting that the WISE nature tours just happen to go along the same creek the WISE ones decided they needed an extra $4000 to "study" this summer?

----- Original Message -----
From: Jollie, Tara L (CED)tara.jollie@alaska.gov
To: *********
Cc: "Doyle, Anne M (GOV)" anne.doyle@alaska.gov; "Machulsky, Mara M (CED)"
mara.machulsky@alaska.gov

Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 10:49 PM
Subject: Public notice postings

May 21, 2010
Dear Mr. ******,

DCRA staff talked to several members of the Kenny Lake Community League including its treasurer and president.

The FY 11 Community Revenue Sharing Program public meeting notice for Kenny Lake was advertised in the local newspaper “Copper River Record”, on the local radio, and emailed to community members. However, there was an oversight on the posting of the public meeting notice in three prominent and public places for at least 5 days before the meeting.

President Gay Wellman agreed today to hold another community meeting on June 15, 2010. That meeting will be noticed in at least 3 prominent and public locations for at least 5 days before the meeting. She will be providing DCRA with copies of the notices.

The Kenny Lake Community League has done a great job with its revenue sharing in the past. DCRA considers this posting oversight a rare occurrence and after the second public meeting is conducted, this issue should be resolved.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. If DCRA can be of further assistance or if you have other questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Sincerely,
Tara Jollie
DCRA Director

From: "Doyle, Anne M (GOV)" anne.doyle@alaska.gov
> Date: May 18, 2010 4:29:39 PM AKDT
> To: *********
> Cc: "Jollie, Tara L (CED)" tara.jollie@alaska.gov, "Machulsky, Mara M
(CED)" mara.machulsky@alaska.gov
> Subject: Public notice postings
>
> Dear Mr. *******,
>
>
>
> Thank you for your email to Governor Parnell regarding your concerns with
the notice postings for the Revenue Sharing meeting on Tuesday, May 11th. We
have requested the Director of Community and Regional affairs, Tara Jollie,
to work with you in this respect. She can be contacted at 907-269-4580 or
tara.jollie@alaska.gov.
>
>
>
> Thank you, again, for your email to the Governor’s office and please do
not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Anne Doyle
>
> Executive Secretary
>
> Office of Governor Sean Parnell
>
> PHONE: 907-465-3500
>
> FAX: 907-465-3532
>
>
>
> anne.doyle@alaska.gov
>
> www.alaska.gov

Now here's another group I never heard about yet. Their Annual Report confirms the region has an established need for aggressive online marketing campaigns.
The Copper River/PWS Marketing Association
A beautiful image of Cordova Alaska

The Copper River / Prince William Sound Marketing Association incorporated in 2005 after an overwhelmingly successful election of the Area E drift gillnet salmon fleet to self assess a 1% marketing tax on their annual catch. This election established Alaska’s first Regional Seafood Development Association (RSDA) and ushered in a new era for Alaska seafood marketing. Regional marketing allows individual fisheries to promote their regional seafood products in the marketplace and introduce the world to specific Alaska seafood brands. This model allows each region to tell the story of their fishermen and fishery, highlighting the attributes that set their fish apart from the rest. The CR/PWS Marketing Association works to promote all wild Alaska salmon, while educating consumers about the taste, texture, oil content and flavor variations that make our salmon so special. The story of our region reaches far beyond the premium salmon we produce to encompass the rich history, environment and people that have fished these pristine waters for generations and call Prince William Sound home. http://copperrivermarketing.org/index.php/about_us/the_association/

Annual Meeting - May 5th at 10am - Published on Apr 21, 2010

Join us on Wednesday, May 5th at 10am at the Masonic Hall for our annual meeting.
Does Sam McCallister, a Captain of a dipnetter fishing boat operating out of Chitina, pay this 1% marketing tax? Here's another funding program that appears to think marketing is important:

Alaska http://www.americantrails.org/resources/funding/bywaysfund06.html

Bike and Pedestrian Trail at Homer Terminal - Alaska's Marine Highway - $63,000

On-board Traveler Information Display Signs - Alaska's Marine Highway - $74,760

Statewide Communications Plan - $76,000

Corridor Management Plan Implementation: Glenn Highway - Year 4 - $25,000

Marketing Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage - Alaska's Marine Highway - $54,560

DVD Brochure - Alaska's Marine Highway - $69,530

Kodiak & Aleutians Interpretive Plan - Alaska's Marine Highway - $48,600

Auke Bay Coastal Trails Interpretive Program-Alaska's Marine Hwy - $75,000

Total for Alaska (8 Projects) - $486,450

Alaska's Grant History

http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/scenic/org-funding.shtml

Alaska and its byway communities have received over $4.8 million in federal funds for 34 scenic byways projects between 1993 and 2004. A few of the projects that have been funded include the:

Construction of the Bird Creek Scenic Overlook and the McHugh Creek Overlook on the Seward Highway.
Construction of the Bird Pt. Overlook & related pedestrian improvements on the Seward Highway.
Preparation of corridor management plans for the AMHS and the Seward, Dalton, Glenn and Sterling Highways.
Restoration of Historic Mining Buildings in Hope.
Construction of Kawabe Park in Seward.
Restoration of the Pt. Retreat Lighthouse along the Alaska Marine Highway in Southeast Alaska.
Construction of improvements to interpretive centers in Moose Pass and Cooper Landing.
Development and installation of Byway markers along designated roads.
Design and maintenance of a web site for the Seward Highway All-American Road.
Interpretive planning for the Seward Highway, the Alaska Marine Highway and the Glenn Highway.
Design and installation of interpretive panels in the Palmer Commuter Center.
Design and printing of the Official State Highway and Scenic Byway Map.

PDF  documentView a complete list of NSB Grants awarded to Alaska's Byways

The Scenic Byway plan was blocked by Glennallen and Kenny Lake locals several years ago. So where are the local efforts NOW to bring this whole planning issue into the public arena for discussion and debate prior to any actions taken on behalf of our entire community?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Survivalist Blog - fantastic book giveaway!

Not only am I an anticommunitarian, I"m also what's called a "prepper" and a survivalist. It's been mostly a personal journey, this roughin' it life I'm living, but I do enjoy and appreciate reading other people's experiences. Sharing information with people has been one of the few fun things I do online. I have grown and learned a lot from the people who send me links and recommend literature. What's the point in my knowing about the emerging synthesis of ideas and the regional to global justice system if I'm not going to use it to my advantage? Thanks M.D.!
M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a Go Berkey Water Filter System (a $139.00 value)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.
Watched Aaron Russo's Freedom to Fascism last night. It was the best explanation of the Tax Honesty movement I've ever seen, but then it's the only one I've ever seen. While I don't trust several of the "our side" experts he interviewed (Ruppert, Fitts, etc) it didn't detract one bit from his presentation of the story. How the bankers seized covert control over the United States is essential knowledge for Americans who choose to resist the emerging harmonization of norms. I did not like his recommendations for action at the end, but I never like the suggestions that we get organized and march on Washington DC. I don't believe we can restore constitutional govt using Marxist street actions. Plus, near the end Russo tells us our founders gave us our freedom. But that's a weird way to say it, because our founders did not GIVE us our freedom, freedom to live comes from our Creator. Our founders secured their economic freedom from an empire who considered common men wage slaves/subjects. We have secured nothing for ourselves.

If we really are the masters here, then why would we stand outside our servants' offices and protest their erroneous policies and laws? Why wouldn't we draft a resolution and vote/pass a people's initiative? If protecting our property and prosperity is the only legitimate purpose for govt and we have the power to fire them and restore the rule of law, then why would we need to protest in the streets? To me it's the sign of our corrupted nation. I wish Russo would have ended the film with a contact address to help instigate a statewide national referendum to put a cap on the feds... revoke executive order privileges, end the federal reserve, nullify the IRS, abolish Agenda 21 and sustainable development, and fire every Czar and office created to outmaneuver the US Constitutional requirements for separation of powers. We are the law here, that is our only power... and that is the only way we can restore our power. Maybe somebody out there is writing this document right now.. maybe Spokane, WA is our pilot test.

And if one more history expose tells me the progressive takeover of the federal government began under President Wilson, I'm going to write an entire book about what happened in 1901.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Is Obama a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, or something more "enlightened"?

The conservative Christian press continues to tell us Obama is a Muslim:

THE GREAT MUSLIM PRESIDENT
By Bernie Conrad
May 16, 2010
NewsWithViews.com

"Will America wake up in time to elect a Christian?"
http://www.newswithviews.com/Conrad/bernie105.htm

The Arab-pro Palestine press is more concerned with his Zionist beliefs:

Letter to Obama: You've Sold Your Soul for Kosher Dollars
By Mohamed Khodr
May 12th, 2010

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." –Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Speech, 1986 http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/05/12/letter-to-obama-youve-sold-your-soul-for-kosher-dollars/
How many Muslims were appointed to Obama's administration? How many Muslims has Obama nominated to the US Supreme Court? How many Protestants has he nominated?
On May 10 you announced your nomination of Elena Kagan as the third Jewish American to the Supreme Court, if confirmed, making the Jewish constitution of the Supreme Court to be one third although they only make up 1.7% of the U.S. population. The Supreme Court has no Protestant Justice despite their constituting the largest percentage of the U.S. population. I am confident that this appointment of a lawyer with no judicial experience is just another appeasement to the Jewish community to comfort their concern about your Israeli policy and to keep their money flowing to the Democratic Party. They needn't worry. No politician at any level in America dares to speak out against Israel if he/she seeks office. It's a death sentence. (Ibid)
I was gifted a copy of Alex Jone's End Game dvd (thanks Judi!) and watched it last night. It's a very long, professional, accurate overview of the historical evidence for the NWO. He uses all the stock footage from films of Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Castro, Clinton, Gore et al, and there's many photos of death camps, skulls, dead bodies and gruesome defects, all of which creates a very emotional and heart wrenching viewing experience. He spends a lot of time focused on the Rothschild Banks and details how they control the fed, the IMF, WB, etc.

But, Rothschild's commitment to political Zionism is not mentioned, nor his role in the establishment of the state of Israel or the Zionist purpose for "The Banker's WARS". Jones does mention Israel twice, once in regards to the Mossad security teams at Bilderberg and again when he's exposing the radiation of "dark skinned" Jewish children in a US Pentagon project after WWII. He spends half an hour explaining the Eugenics programs, how it tie sto modern programs like Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Movement, but he never once exposes the racial classification and discrimination written into Israeli (Rothschild) national law.

Jones definitely never tells us the Israeli Zionists regularly refer to Palestinians as "dogs." He tells us the Bankers' basis for the European Union was Trade Agreements (which is accurate), tells us China is a model for the new global system (also accurate), but never mentions that presidential adviser since 1979 and Obama's guru, Dr. Amitai Etzioni, the "Everything Expert" told us American neighborhoods must also incorporate the Israeli kibbutz model.

Jones never explains why the US Supreme Court now bases its decisions on Talmudic Law. He uses Dr. Michael Coffman to explain the Biodiversity Treaty and the new sustainable development terms are thrown out in one long rushing sentence, he has pictures and video footage to the Trans Texas Corridor, he ties it all to the UN Wildlands Act. But for some reason? he never mentions the words UN LOCAL AGENDA 21 or tells his audience this is the key EXISTING and EASILY AVAILABLE document that shows the details of the plan. He never introduces the program that's the most essential tool in the hands of Americans who struggle to identify the "treasonous" communitarian changes to local zoning laws and who need a LEGAL WAY TO fire the people implementing the NWO AT THE LOCAL LEVEL.

In my opinion this video falls easily into the 95% fact, 5% lie by omission category. For someone who claims to be an expert on the police state, it's beyond incredible he didn't tell us what Community Oriented Policing is when he explained the global police/military force.

Plus, I'm sorry, but it's embarrassing to watch Jones yell through his bullhorn at the "elites." His childishness disrupts and discredits this entire factual and serious presentation. He harasses the "elites" outside the secret Bilderberg meetings and yells the solution to 1984 is 1776! Gee, does Jones, like his "opposites" on the far left hope to see another violent revolution in America? Are we to believe we are helpless in the face of such sinister motives? Should free American people really take to the streets in the Hegelian tradition? Or is American time and effort better spent acting as if we ARE the government here, by closing down illegal local councils, vetoing illegal local policies, firing all the foreign "experts" and routing the elected local officials who comply with treasonous plans and actions (like what's happening in Spokane, WA right now?)?

Near the end Jones stands outside the Texas governor's mansion screaming, like he did at Bilderberg, about how "We're not your slaves!" Yeah, okay, that's an effective way to fight the NWO. It's absolutely brilliant.

I need to see the most recent film Alex Jones made where he identifies the plan as communitarian. If anyone has an extra copy of that in dvd, please send it to me at the address under the header for this blog.