Gotta see this kind of stuff to believe it.   All this is here, now.

WAHA (Whatcom Alliance for Health Advancement) "public-private" scored big

It's hard to believe how far public-private "partnership" goes nowadays.  WE learned that this non-profit charity's agent and president is ALSO the director of Whatcom County's Health Department. Where this gets wobbly is the government person has been actively promoting grant awards to the private, special-interest endeavor as part of the "paid job" for years.  Is this small potatoes?  WAHA picked-up an "up to" $5.7 million grant this January to implement Obamacare (to "transform" healthcare in Whatcom County and the whole region).  This program wasn't even presented to county council till February, after the award was already made.  What a world, WOW.   Check out our page about local healthcare doings here.    Effective 11/30/12 the name changed from "Whatcom Alliance for Healthcare Access" to "~ Health Advancement."   It will be interesting to see if anybody's medical costs go down while quality care goes up.   The $5.7 mil sure wasn't free.

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Northwest Clean Air Agency - Pitching $3.4 million in cash again!

Rivers of cash flow through all kinds of special agencies run by appointees nowadays.   The whole nation was appalled by the recent GSA scandal.   Meanwhile, WE find millions being ladled out right under our noses without pressing need, and definitely without much accountability.  With a crass GSA-like sense of humor, the Northwest Clean Air Agency ran a $3.5 million rent-seeking funding extravaganza last April that they called a "Pitchfest."   Check out the applications here.    They're handing out another $3.4 million again right now for "work" in 2013.   Here's a clip that describes it: 

Request for Proposals: The Northwest Clean Air Agency seeks ambitious proposal(s) capable of achieving significant greenhouse gas emission reductions.  Approximately $3.4 million will be available by mid-2013 to fund one or more projects. No proposals for less than $250,000 will be considered for this funding round.

...Their FAQ says:  

The term "outcome" means the result, effect or consequence that will occur from carrying out the project. Outcomes may be qualitative and environmental, behavioral, health-related, or programmatic in nature, but must also be quantitative. They may not necessarily be achievable within the funding period.

Probably ICLEI will be back at the trough, among so many who applied last year here.   Did you see the video of Dr. Don Easterbrook's lecture about the insignificance of greenhouse gasses?   Check it out - it's an eye opener!

Green-Washing a Young Mind

Our education system is indoctrinating our kids faster than we can educate them. Brian Sussman, author of Eco-Tyranny, interviews one unfortunate subject. Her conclusion is simply tragic, unhealthy, and completely predictable:

In The Every Good Idea Needs to Be a Law Department...

Bellingham City Council is considering an ordinance to require landowners to shovel their walks when it snows, under penalty of law, to the tune of $100.00 per day. Given that the City of Bellingham doesn't even own a snowplow, WE have a suggestion: Hey council, how about when the streets are all clear of snow, you come after our sidewalks, OK?

Aren't there enough slip-and-fall lawyers to handle this problem? How did humans get around on foot before government oppression was invented? In the wintertime, I expect my roads, sidewalks, bicycle paths and hiking paths to be less navigable than usual. This has been the case for millenia. It is easier to wear proper shoes and put on tire chains, than it is to shovel the planet.

You're the 99%? What's the Problem?

Dude, if you're the 99%, then what in blazes is your major malfunction? Are you telling me that one percent of the population has you and all of the world's power and wealth cornered? Tell me another!

WE certainly do not support corporatocracy (or union-ocracy) but if it weren't for the kakistocracy, we wouldn't be in this mess. An activist government is a fraud magnet. When government goes around trying to make the world "nice" by choosing winners and losers, and regulating everyone "for the good of the planet" or "for the good of society", that's when the special interests selfishly begin lobbying government to make their lives easier. If everyone had equal justice instead of social justice, then everyone could duke it out in the real world of good luck, bad luck, and the school of hard knocks and real work, on a truly level playing field -- not a government mandated one that gives special advantages to arbitrarily chosen "victim" groups, species and planets.

Here's life's first lesson: life ain't fair. WE don't expect it to be. You shouldn't either. Government cannot make it so. Any government that governs against natural law is bound to fail. It is our individual duty -- not government's -- to help those less fortunate among us, including nature. True, some people are greedy, heartless bastards. But using government to force them to "play nice" (who gets to define "nice"?) always has, and always will, backfire.

Hear me now, and believe me later: to make the world a better place, the founders gave us the First Amendment. It's a great tool; you should try it. You can convince people to follow your lead -- voluntarily. You can convince people to join your church -- voluntarily. But the non-establishment clause says that you cannot make it mandatory.

If our politicians would follow The Constitution that they all take an oath to uphold and defend, WE think the problems that we are facing today would be far less severe. Bailouts to large banks? Unauthorized. Take-over of the automobile industry? Unauthorized. Fraudulent grants to "green" industries? Unauthorized. The enumerated powers are very short, but the list of shame goes on.

Flier at Occupy Phoenix asks, “When should you shoot a cop?”

While we're on the subject of the "Occupy" movement, WE thought we'd share something we saw on Hot Air:

Hot Air has confirmed with the Arizona Department of Public Safety that fliers have been found at Occupy Phoenix instructing people on when to shoot police officers.  First reported by the Jon Justice show on  104.1 FM in Tucson, the flier resulted in a counterterrorism alert issued to all law enforcement agencies in the state: (continue reading...)

The media love to compare the "Occupy" movement to the tea parties. Maybe, in the sense that they're both demonstrations by frustrated citizens, but the comparison ends there. 

Tea parties occupy their venue until their parade permits expire, then they leave the place cleaner than they found it.  OWS typically take over a place, and trash it, overstaying their welcome.

Tea parties have a clear message: Follow the Constitution. OWS don't seem to have any clear message, except that they don't seem to like corporations. Or paying back their student loans.

Heads Up - Alert:  Democracy School (not as we know it)

Folks are training-up  locally to transform (scuttle) American democracy and business as we know it - and that's no exaggeration.   There's a movement afoot to retire outdated and wrongheaded constitutional ideas and legal concepts about the individual rights of (human) citizens.  The progressive concept is that communities and the environment should have constitutional rights, too - a click above pesky personal rights.  When these folks talk about constitutional Rights of Nature it seems they mean that literally.  They talk about "nature" having official "guardians."  Here an excerpt from the CELDF public website that's a real eye opener:

          "In the U.S., title to property carries with it the legal authority to destroy the natural communities and ecosystems that depend upon that property for survival.  In fact, environmental laws in the U.S. were passed under the authority of the Commerce Clause, which grants exclusive authority over “interstate commerce” to Congress.  Treating nature as commerce has meant that all existing environmental law frameworks in the U.S. are anchored in the concept of nature as property. 

            The Legal Defense Fund has assisted communities to craft and adopt new laws that change the status of natural communities and ecosystems from being regarded as property under the law to being recognized as rights-bearing entities.  

            Those local laws recognize that natural communities and ecosystems possess an inalienable and fundamental right to exist and flourish, and that residents of those communities possess the legal authority to enforce those rights on behalf of those ecosystems.  In addition, these laws require the governmental apparatus to remedy violations of those ecosystem rights.

        The Rights of Nature Ordinance, which originally began as a separate, stand-alone ordinance, has now been integrated into all of the other substantive ordinances generated by the Legal Defense Fund. "

This school was a big hit earlier this year  in Bellingham, when it was offered at Sustainable Connections' digs.  And then it was offered through the Whatcom Folk School  2011 summer session.   Watch Out Whatcom!   It appears that this national Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) group is targeting "home rule charter" counties like ours which are ideal legal targets for this kind of transition.   Spokane has been a focus area for their "community organizing."   Recently, a group of high-ranking Whatcom County elected officials took this course.

Heard about, and wondered about "Farm Plans" in Whatcom County?

It's really become complicated for a private citizen to have a horse, a cow, or a couple of pigs in this county.  You may be breaking umpteen regulations without knowing it.  WE are going to do a lot more digging on this (and we're looking for individual stories about how this has been going).   But for now, go and see the county's elaborate regulations and requirements that are already in place for small properties.   KNOW that much this isn't directly applied to commercial operations that operate under "agricultural" regulation.   more...

Inside Job - NGO getting paid to lobby government.

APRIL 2011 -- The Port of Bellingham awarded $20,000 to the Foothills Chamber of Commerce, basically to LOBBY government for more grants.   The chamber has a subcommittee - the "Foothills Communications Taskforce" -- that wants a government subsidized communication network (called NoaNet) to compete against private enterprise providers like Comcast and home satellite services (like Hughes and Wildblue) that are already available in the foothills.    The "rationale" for this $20,000 can be read here.  Exactly WHY would anybody believe that the project proponents are motivated to “report” anything but sunshine?  WE will keep you posted.   A lot of public money is involved in the "outcome."   WE think the public should question why government feels it's appropriate to undermine free market mechanisms blatantly.    UPDATE:   Son of a gun (surprise?) - they got that grant!   And it was an inside job from the start.

"Communityship Quiz" -- are you a good little citizen?

WhatcomCounts has an 11-page quiz that they'd like citizens to take that's supposedly provided to help local government judge behavior that affects our "health."  But this thing asks very little about actual health - it's loaded with questions about how you get along with your neighbors, social activities like church attendance, if you turn the lights off when you leave a room (!), and whether or not you're politically active.   Think that's CREEPY?   Go, look at the quiz yourself (this is cached).   Who knows how the results of studies like this reported to the state and the feds?   This private organization is, of course, on its own advocacy mission.

Did you know local government has committed the us - the public -- to carbon emission reductions here?  Year 2020 goals?   TRUE!

In 2007 Whatcom County committed the public to generating 10% less greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (pretty much by any means they dream up) than what they say we generated in 2001.  There is no question that the County Executive and Council knew exactly what they were doing.  Read the 2007 resolution that adopted the 2020 emissions goals here.    The complete 64-page plan launched by Executive Pete Kremen can be read here - see his statement on Page 6!   The whole "back-story" about ICLEI and local government is on our own page here.