WE don't generally wander far from local, but the PJTV Trifecta (below) caught our collective eye.  Living next to Canada makes Border Patrol a part of daily life, 24/7.  WE like having a secure border, and national security is a truly enumerated federal duty.  Knock on wood we're probably safer than people on the southern border.

But there's a another program here that few citizens are aware of - regular and totally "un-warranted" photo surveillance that Whatcom County (and a slew of partner agencies) engage in on a regular basis.  This aerial surveillance now being done using Pictometry.  What once was merely "mapping" is something very invasive.

Pictometry is not garden variety aerial photography for mapping and measuring for public work.  Using airplanes, look-down and oblique photos are taken regularly and then compared to prior images using a specialized computer program to watch for changes, to see what people are doing.  Boy, if that doesn't fit the definition of "surveillance" WE don't know what does.

Who's watching?  All kinds of agencies are (see list after this paragraph), including the Lummi tribe. The whole purpose is to actively snoop on citizen activity, peering at everyone's home, yard, or farm by taking oblique photos periodically without having to establish "probable cause" or get a warrant.  If the Pictometry computer program flags some perceived activity or change to your property (from a long list of options)  you're subject to further investigation, or maybe even a knock on the door.  Who's privy to what extent of the photo bank isn't clear.  Do they all share everything?  Is there any protection from abuse?  Most importantly, is this much un-warranted surveillance justified?  What would a court say if a citizen objected?

Those involved:  Whatcom County (numerous departments), City of Bellingham, the Housing Authority, Blaine, Everson, Lynden, Sumas, PUD #1, the Conservation District, the "Council of Governments", the WTA, Lummi Nation, Ferndale, Lk Whatcom WAter & Sewer (and who knows how many more - the feds too?)

There were no public hearings about the adoption or expansion and continuation of this program.  There's never been a chance for the citizenry to weigh in over a number of years (4 or 5).  Pictometry is being renewed for 2015 (and perhaps longer), it was in the county budget.  For a taste of the terms, look at this agreement and a truckload more here.

And are these pictures public records?  Will "the people" be permitted to "see" the pictures and reports - Pictometry "product" - that our public servants see?  Not a chance. WE have good reason to expect access to be denied (records withheld) "to protect citizens privacy" (!) if you could believe the hypocrisy of such an oxymoronic excuse. These photos and reports ("product") is being held in the hands of a very tight circle of "interests."  Carefully read this stock clause in all of the Pictometry agreements:

How does all that cozy vendor-agency protection square with the Public Records Act, which says:

If you were lucky enough to attend An Evening with Bill Whittle last month at the Mt. Baker Theatre (sponsored by the Northwest Business Club), you were witness to the inspiration for the following video, live on-stage. See if you can spot the tag line.

Bill Whittle said in a previous Firewall, that you don't hear the phrase, "Hey, it's a free country" much anymore. He's right; you don't. Because it really isn't. Back then, you were free to do pretty much whatever you wanted, subject to a few well-known, well-understood, common-sense restrictions (murder, theft, vandalism, etc.).  Civilized "was" as "civilized does." Crime was something that could be recognized, related to real harm.

Today, it's just the opposite: only the most trivial choices are up to the individual. Anything significant requires a permit. Have you tried a simple home remodel project lately? Government bureaucrats are taking our freedom and selling it back to us as permits.  If you don't pay ritual homage to The Man there will be hell to pay.

In what might be described as a cross between a TED talk and a civics roundtable, the Northwest Business Club is presenting a speaker event so big it will be held at the Mt. Baker Theatre:  "An Evening with Bill Whittle," August 29, 2014.  Here's the blurb:

      Whittle is a popular champion of what’s best about American liberty and its principles. With incisive wit and inescapable logic Bill examines the links between honest science and progress, and the importance of Common Sense Resistance to illiberal policies that cripple human advancement and creativity. Local notables from the Pacific Northwest will join Bill on-stage for a panel discussion of the major issues in our area.

Here's an example of Bill Whittle at the top of his form:

Yes, he's conservative; maybe even a little bit libertarian. Whittle appears regularly on the internet’s PJTV and BillWhittle.com in “Firewall,” “Afterburner,” and “Trifecta” episodes. His 11-part “Mr. Virtual President: Your Government” series, a collection of signature commentary and political parody, was released in March 2014. Whittle has a very large following from coast-to-coast and internationally with many thousands of subscribers following his work, which has received millions of hits on YouTube, PJTV and BillWhittle.com.

Local notables from the Pacific Northwest will join Bill on-stage for a panel discussion of the major issues in our area. Sort of like a Trifecta:

Visit the nwbclub.org site and BillWhittle.com to learn more. Tickets are on sale at Mt. Baker Theatre. Here’s a link to a full-color flyer that you can download, print and distribute in your neighborhood.

GET YOUR TICKETS ahead to save yourself time standing on line!

The executive branch, with an army of bureaucracies, professes to implement legislation passed by congress. The trouble is, these vast and callous government agencies have assumed the authority to make regulations having the force of law, without deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed: they're not elected! There's inadequate feedback. 

Yet, when designing the American form of government, our founders created a separation of powers, so that congress would have a check on the executive branch, and they gave the executive branch the veto power over congress. The way congress checks the executive branch is by refusing to fund it. There are several agencies that are in dire need of a reigning in of the purse strings. WE take you to Cle Elum, where citizens decided they'd had enough ... 

Continue reading ... 

Citizens should not have to take time off from their day jobs, don overalls and manually push back against our own government by hard labor. We should be able to prevail on our representatives in congress to defund our oppressors. Well, maybe not our representatives west of the Cascades, because they really like big, oppressive government, but you get the idea. 

The feds, the EPA - our eco-friendly overseers - they're here, they're there, they're everywhere.  In a wet place like Whatcom County, each day presents a new opportunity to snoop and harass the public.  Seems like any puddle may be enough to lord over.

Reposted from Pacific Legal Foundation's PLF Sentry
July 24, 2014 - "Troubled Waters"

When federal regulators at the EPA step out of line and assume power they don't lawfully possess, PLF hauls them into court to stop them - as we did in our unanimous 2012 victory at the Supreme Court in Sackett v. EPA.

Well, the EPA is at it again.  Last March the agency proposed a new rule to redefine "navigable waters" under the Clean Water Act.  The feds claim the new rule "clarifies" which waters are regulable without expanding the scope of the Act.  But PLF Principal Attorney Reed Hopper stated in a recent blog post* that "this is utter nonsense, which only the uninformed believe."

Be assured that PLF is watching the EPA's new rule like a hawk, and we're prepared to challenge it in the courts, if necessary.  Stay tuned.  

*[Here's that recent blog post] by  Reed Hopper, "More EPA Spin ..."

We have documented here and here how the EPA is misrepresenting its proposed rule to redifine “navigable waters” under the Clean Water Act.  The Administration unabashedly claims the new rule is compelled by Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Act and that the rule will not expand the government’s jurisdiction.  But this is utter nonsense, which only the uninformed believe.  So we give kudos to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for calling the EPA on its blatant misrepresentations.

Yesterday, the committee issued an interesting Fact Check showing how the actual language of the rule is contrary to the EPA’s claims about the rule, including such claims as;

The rule does not regulate new types of ditches;

The rule does not regulate activities on land;

The rule does not apply to groundwater;

The rule does not affect stock ponds;

The rule does not require permits for normal farming activities; and,

The rule does not regulate puddles.

The Fact Check is revealing.  Check it out here.

In a breathtaking maneuver last Tuesday evening, the Whatcom County Council showed that the sleazy tactics used in the last election were in fact indicative of their true colors. 

We saw this in the underhanded way candidates for the Ferry Advisory Board were selected. A new applicant was added without due process, and the voting process was weird, to say the least. Consider what happened, as reported at Saturday Morning Live...

This council also bent over backward to accommodate marijuana production as "agriculture," with huge grow and processing operations popping-up all over the county in places where business of this type and scale wasn't being conducted during the Growth Management Act (GMA) "bright line" year 1990. No such breaks will be given to other citizens, who had bloody well better stay inside the lines that have been drawn tightly around them in rural areas, ag zones, and LAMIRDs.  And this council continues to haggle to make small livestock processing operations as restricted and miserable as possible. Seem like a double standard?  Special privileges for the favored?

We have rules and protocols to ensure that the citizens have their voice, and a state constitution to ensure everyone gets fair and equal treatment under laws - that is, if elected officials actually follow the Constitution, not outrageously ignore it.

Of course, audacity is a powerful tool. You've heard the expression, "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission." Forgiveness may be divine, but we mortals should let the county council know we saw what they did, and we do not approve. 

Send your emails to all council, council@co.whatcom.wa.us or individually,

• At-Large,  Rud Browne (360) 820-9494 RBrowne@co.whatcom.wa.us
  
• District 1, A Barry Buchanan (360) 224-4330 BBuchana@co.whatcom.wa.us
  
• District 1, B Pete Kremen (360) 734-3802 PKremen@whatcomcounty.us
  
• District 2, A Ken Mann (360) 483-6020 KMann@co.whatcom.wa.us
  
• District 2, B Sam Crawford (360) 671-7262 SCrawfor@co.whatcom.wa.us
  
• District 3, A Carl Weimer (360) 384-5919 CWeimer@co.whatcom.wa.us
  
• District 3, B Barbara Brenner (360) 384-2762 BBrenner@co.whatcom.wa.us
  

What a crazy world it is when WE humans find ourselves feeling akin to endangered species, victims all of bad science and the constant contradictions brought on by clueless and unaccountable bureaucracies.  This tale seems quite similar to what we've seen and suffered for years up here in Whatcom County where, like our little buddies fish and fowl, we find ourselves more endangered by ill conceived programs than what ordinary life throws at us.  WE see crazymaking practices year in and year out, cast widely like abandoned river nets, and the slaughter of starlings, geese, beaver, and all manner of critters - by whom, and for what?  Rural folks and farmers are being pinned down and put off their land, as a benefit to what?   Only the out of touch could believe these agencies are worthy to wield such reckless power.

Gophers, artillery, and US Fish & Wildlife
by Glen Morgan
The Official Blog, Freedom Foundation
April 17, 2014

The Freedom Foundation has written extensively about the Thurston County Mazama Pocket gopher saga. This was another Endangered Species Act (ESA) story about a little rodent that through no fault of its own has become a symbol of the abuse of people by the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and other government agencies and special interests. On April 9th, the USFWS officially listed the pocket gopher as an endangered species, and the residents of Thurston County, Wash., get to enjoy the restrictions and harm this listing will bring to them.

It could have been worse. The original habitat maps used inThurston County for the Western pocket gopher included about 150,000 acres covering thousands of farms, homes and businesses. The final habitat maps issued in the USFWS are much more limited, and the property restrictions issued by the Federal government appear far less onerous than the bizarre restrictions enthusiastically invented by the Thurston County Commissioners and their Central Planning department. Communities near the delta smelt, sage grouse, or spotted owl have paid a far higher price for ESA-induced regulation.

However, as an example of government incompetence, the disregard of science, squandering of tax dollars, and just plain silliness, the pocket gopher saga shows what is repeatedly occurring throughout the United States. Our tax dollars fund this abuse of the ESA, and the consequent harm to our society.

Let’s start with the little rodent at the center of this controversy. Until recently, the pocket gopher in Thurston County had only two tangible enemies. The first was the usual plethora of predators – weasels, coyotes, owls (when the burrowing rodents are above ground), and feral cats. The second was human. The pocket gopher, true to its nature, likes to feed on the roots of plants and trees – particularly newly planted fir trees in forests. The larger timber operations recognized that to improve their replanting efforts they would need to address the pesky rodent that was killing their trees. The US Forest Service (USFS) was happy to help, and for decades sponsored both trapping and poisoning efforts. It was determined that eradication was very difficult and that gophers are hardy creatures. An interesting point here is that Ken Berg, the current director of the local USFWS appears to have been employed by the USFS during the time it sponsored trapping and poisoning of gophers in Thurston County and elsewhere.

Times change. The Forest Service stopping poisoning and trapping the gopher in the early 1990s, and a movement began to instead list the gopher as a “threatened” species. The initial problem was that nobody really knew how many of the gophers were around or where they lived. Early in the survey process, it was discovered that the largest concentration of pocket gophers lived at the Army’s Fort Lewis.  And the gopher didn’t live just anywhere on the base, it preferred the artillery impact range. Since World War I, this is probably the most churned, burned, and impacted piece of land in Washington State, yet the hardy pocket gopher thrived among the fires, explosions, and change. The second largest concentration of gophers was at the Olympia airport in Tumwater, Wash. – hardly an example of pristine wilderness.

Common sense would suggest, based on these findings, that the gophers were doing fine living alongside humans (not to mention artillery and a busy airport). Instead, the regulators decided to “save” pocket gophers from things like tractor tire vibrations, kids on bicycles, cats, dogs, and playground equipment. Inconvenient facts just never seem to bother the self-appointed defenders of nature as they scramble for grant dollars to fund their studies, not to mention their livelihoods. Everyone from the Thurston County Commissioners to the leadership of the local Thurston County Democrat Party were convinced that a burrowing rodent which thrived among exploding artillery shells was bound to go extinct if rural residents were permitted to install big toy play sets in their backyards or move dirt in their fields.

Responding to this nonsense, the Freedom Foundation worked with citizens to launch a local education effort called “Stop Taking Our Property (S.T.O.P.) Thurston County.” We engaged hundreds of people to show up and testify at multiple public hearings, confront elected officials, put up yard signs, and expose the truth. This effort delayed state and local efforts to use the gopher as a regulatory tool and likely prevented some of the most harmful restrictions from becoming law. However, the die was cast years earlier, and neither citizens nor science could dissuade the regulators from their power grab.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) biologists actually raised questions about both local and federal efforts to list the gophers as threatened or endangered. The state’s scientists pointed out the lack of DNA evidence to show that different gopher groups were really “sub species” in need of their own separate listings. These questions and doubts were suppressed, along with any other information that might fail to support a federal USFWS listing under the ESA.

The USFWS regularly rejects, ignores, or tries to avoid science. A recent example from Eastern Washington was the recent attempt to list the White Bluffs Bladderpod. In that case, USFWS squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars on unnecessary studies while pleading poverty to avoid conducting a DNA test. When a private agricultural group paid the $25,000 themselves, the DNA test confirmed there was nothing to distinguish this plant from others just like it spread all over the Western United States.

Most of the time, USFWS just lists the animal absent any serious science or technical review. It does this in collusion with organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in a practice called “Sue and Settle.”  The scam goes like this: First, CBD identifies or invents hundreds of critters that it claims are scarce. CBD then sues USFWS because these animals, bugs, or plants are not yet listed as endangered. USFWS initiates the listing process and negotiates in a kind of legal kabuki theatre to make it look like a real lawsuit and to run up CBD’s soon to be reimbursed legal costs. Then USFWS throws up its hands and "surrenders," listing the species as endangered regardless of science, truth, or harm to people. The bureaucrats get more power, the environmentalists get their way and taxpayers pay everybody’s legal bills.

Public pressure does sometimes make a difference, even with the USFWS. In public hearings the USFWS held last year about the pocket gopher listing, there were big, pretty signs claiming the USFWS “supported agriculture.” The actual USFWS proposal, however, was that no crops could be harvested, no fields tilled, no tractors driven anywhere near suspected gopher populations except between the months of November and February. Farmers and agricultural folk openly ridiculed the USFWS for proposing to only allow farming in the winter. It was loud, funny, and anyone with even elementary education about agriculture knew the farmers were obviously correct.

The ridicule and embarrassment was enough that even USFWS modified their final restrictions to exempt normal agricultural practices. This is great for the farmers who were boisterous and engaged, but if you happen to be a residential property owner or non-farm business in the affected locations, you will be burdened by the ESA gopher listing. No more sheds, barns, or outbuildings without federal approval (and additional fees, of course). Most landowners don’t even know this has happened to them, but they will learn soon enough.

Some have already experienced a similar process thanks to theThurston County Commissioners’ gopher-based property restrictions (see Pocket Gopher Deed-2014  as a “deed” restriction called a “gopher deed”).

Of course, it isn’t about the gopher. It is about control and restricting the land use of rural residents. Most bureaucrats involved in the process know this. If any of these government agencies actually wanted the gopher to explode in population, they would pay farmers to raise the rodents and we would have gophers by the millions. Such an effort would direct both the money and the power away from government and to regular people, it would solve "the problem," and it would be successful.  Of course, there is no goal to solve any of these "problems."  Why?  Like so many other things in life, finding the answer is as easy as following the money.  And even with the ESA listing bringing federal involvement, it is unlikely Thurston County will back off since they gain both power and revenues from these regulations.

A lot of money has been passed around between government agencies and special interests over just this one kind of gopher. There are grants for the county, the state, and even some nonprofits to “study” the animal. There are tens of millions of dollars for “mitigation” and “habitat” purchases. There is money to be made for consultants, planners, and other courtiers. All this money is taken from the people and used to grind down the local citizenry in a process that is designed to punish regular people not on the grant money train.

If you don’t think this matters to you, you probably won’t have to wait long before you get to experience something similar. “You might not be interested in government, but government is interested in you,” as the saying goes. Unless you live in an urban core, there is most likely a critter, insect, or plant near you being considered for listing by the USFWS. If it isn’t the gopher, a butterfly, a bird, or a plant, it might be a slug. The USFWS is currently paying people to count slugs all over Western Washington. Inevitably some of them are in your yard. Of course, John Davis, former editor of Earth First! was famously quoted as saying “…Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs…” I’m sure the Center for Biological Diversity would agree with that statement. In fact, it appears that slugs, like pocket gophers may have far more value to these folk than people. We live in a relatively free country where they can believe this nonsense, however, we should not have to support it with tax payer dollars. Defunding and dissolving USFWS would be a good start towards stopping the insanity.

Until then, the pocket gophers will continue to thrive alongside exploding artillery, and the USFWS will continue to destroy people’s lives and communities, ignoring science and helping to pay off their special interest friends. 

For those who want to see how local elected officials sell this type of scam to those who actually believe them, read their editorial in the local paper here.

If you want to listen to how a local Representative - Republican JT Wilcox thinks of this type of legislation, you can listen to my interview here.  

     The headline at the Bellingham Herald reads, "Under new leadership in Whatcom, Futurewise to try cooperation". That might just work, following the last election, what with the county council now stacked with sympathetic syncophants. (No, not all, but WE think WE know who you are.)  Given the massive amount of outside money spent on the ugly tactics of last fall's election, nobody should make the mistake of assuming the results were a genuine mandate from the electorate. The perspective of this council has become very narrow, in most ways deaf and blind to the self reliance of "county" people who don't share their Bellingham addresses. There's little knowledge, fondness, or respect for the rich diversity of county life outside Bellingham's city limits (in the small cities, small towns, for farmers and their rural residential neighbors).

Futurewise wants to be a "resource" for government, promoting their brand of environmentalism, "to prevent urban sprawl before legal action is needed". If that isn't a veiled threat, WE don't know what is. Very cooperative.  Given that Futurewise has a constant and imposing presence at our county's department of Planning and Development, the word "co-opt" would be more accurate.

Sensible planning is one thing, but WE reject the premise that Futurewise, or any other person or group, should claim authority to direct and dictate where people live and whats best for the county. Not everyone wants to live in cities. Those who want to live in urban villages or pack & stack cubicles, fine; enjoy that lifestyle if it’s your desire.

But WE find vigilante public-private policymaking neither appropriate nor healthy for community planning. Why should the Growth Management Act – a state law - need this self-appointed enforcement arm?  On what authority? Is the GMAFB not adequate? (oops, that should read GMHB) (Google it!)

WE have to ask, who runs this county? Bellingrad? A bunch of legal eagles from who-knows-where? Or is local government accountable to citizens from all across Whatcom County?

Under new leadership, instead of being an environmental watchdog, Futurewise says it wants to have "broader appeal". Really? The best way WE see that happening is to butt out, and allow the local community to develop with the control and consent of its people as it sees fit, without special interests and self-anointed authority figures trying to influence the lives and settlements of the citizens in a supposedly free country.

According to the report, Futurewise has now decided to focus its efforts on helping to "solve" the water rights dispute. The "dispute"?  That's rich. Futurewise has been a central protagonist in the dust-up. And they claim to represent whom, exactly? By what process did the public request this "help"? WE will lay dollars to doughnuts that the rights of individual citizens won't be defended or championed in their efforts -- just a SWAG. 

Meanwhile, Futurewise previous local chapter director has moved on to RE Sources for Sustainable Communities -- which could be another fine organization, if they'll just live and let live. WE don't think it's in their nature to do that, unfortunately. 

WE just wanted to give you a heads-up about a science and rights-based discussion series being presented by Citizens Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR) down in Skagit County:

Special guest Speaker:
Don Easterbrook, Ph.D., Professor (Emeritus) Geology, Western Washington University will present Impacts of Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, and Envision 2060 in Skagit County, April 4, 2014   FRIDAY   7:00 PM.

Panel: 
Zach Barborinas, Mike Newman, John Roozen will discuss Skagit County Property Owners:  Citizens or Subjects? Skagit Water Rights.  People, the Law, the Rulings, May 9, 2014  FRIDAY  6:00 PM

Special guest Speaker:
Tim Ball, Ph.D. Professor (Ret) Geology, University of Winnipeg will present The Climate.  Science Based on Evidence, May 30, 2014  FRIDAY  7:00  PM.

Meetings Open to All.  FREE Admission, at SKAGIT PUD, AQUA ROOM 1415 Freeway Dr.  Mt. Vernon.

Click here for more information.

     In the dark of night, while most folks were sleeping - oblivious - a piece of legislation that only had its "first reading" in Olympia twelve days ago passed by a vote of 93-5. This little slip of a bill, a mere three pages, will kick the principles of justice and liberty as we know them closer to the proverbial cliff.

      That sounds mighty dramatic, maybe over the top.  What's this bill about?

Waal...  HB 2454 is a bill that paves the way for "water quality trading" in Washington State. Painted as accommodating and innovative, and dressed-up as so many bills are nowadays in predictable, wolf in sheep's clothing buzzwords like "voluntary" and "market-based," the legislature is setting up tables in the temple of environmental justice for the sale of Get Out Of Jail Free cards.  Instead of nabbing those who pollute, and correcting real problems appropriately, this bill says:

How convenient. Instead of confronting and solving water quality problems (and let's call a spade a spade here, bad water quality means POLLUTION, are WE right?) the Conservation Commission and Washington Ecology will be tasked with exploring ways to trade these sins away.  HUH?  Figure it out. Dense places that pollute the most can buy their way out of trouble by locking down large expanses of clean land, agriculture, or better still pay for trendy recreation and renovation projects whether they're useful or not. That would suit a lot of city obsessives, particularly the growth management lobby. The "restoration" industry will go for it, along with the land trusts, water trusts, and mitigation banks like this new one - all so anxious make sales. Lock-down land, grow bureaucracy, pick-up big contracts, and accommodate deep pocket polluters through perpetual extortion - what a deal!! Is that not what the EPA and 17 states have been selling?  It looks good in booklets, but it is what it is - typically out of proportion and not solving much.

Whether we need it or not, "environmental protection" is one whale of a lucrative business around here. The potential for corruption and exaggerated "environmental needs assessment" is real; that's obvious. WE ask - how much does this kind of thing achieve in making Whatcom County or Washington State a better place?  A cleaner place?  More productive, healthier?  And, how can greed be kept out of these institutionalized staff-driven goldmines? WA Commerce has been promoting regional TDR's (transfers of development rights) between counties to help grow cities that don't keep their own acts clean.

As things are already, good and decent stewards of healthy rural land find themselves thanklessly hobbled like lambs tied to stakes - cautioned not to turn a shovel of dirt, or farm without a plan.  It's the devil being spied on and watched over, having to obtain say-so first from the lairds and keepers. Is there no end to the scope and scale of this state's "environmental" lock-downs and the institutional coveting of ever-more private property?  Water quality - uh - pollution trades...  What a load of hypocrisy.

WE have reported on quite a few stories just like this in the last couple of years, like the abysmally vague and scientifically vacant "natural resources marketplace," the greedy interests that underpinned and promoted the DNR reconveyance, and how local watershed planning has been hijacked by a greedy local monopoly and the Puget Sound Partnership. There's little question that the growing web spun by bureaucrats and bankers (and the barking left) have no intention of giving up.  The road back has got to be guided by common sense.