Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPP)

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed free trade agreement under negotiation between Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. Leaked documents show the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is pressuring TPP countries to expand pharmaceutical monopoly protections and trade away access to medicines. Public Citizen and our partners envision a very different Asia-Pacific region partnership--one that advances pharmaceutical access and innovation simultaneously. Through analysis, and advocacy, we are working to spotlight public health and the knowledge economy at the negotiations and helping countries push back against Big Pharma's corporate influence. 

Access to Medicines in the Trans-Pacific FTA

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed free trade agreement under negotiation between Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. The United States has ambitions to eventually apply the terms of the proposed Trans-Pacific FTA to the entire Asia-Pacific region – roughly half the world’s population. Recently, President Obama told reporters that the Trans-Pacific FTA could be “a real model, not only for the region but for the world.”

While the negotiating parties to the Trans-Pacific FTA pledged that it will represent a “new model” and a “high-standard, 21^st century agreement,” it has become clear that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) intends to follow the same aggressive models established by other free trade agreements of years past – and then go even further. USTR has proposed measures harmful to access to medicines in several chapters that have not been seen before in U.S. trade pacts. These terms concern not only patent and data rules but also attacks on government purchasing and medicine formularies.

The U.S.-proposed terms would inhibit access to medicines in individual Trans-Pacific FTA countries and also constrain potential and emerging sources of supply such as Vietnam and Malaysia.  Applied regionally, the Trans-Pacific FTA would limit the economies of scale necessary for the generics industry to keep prices low. These risks combined make the Trans-Pacific FTA especially dangerous for generic competition and access to medicines in the Asia-Pacific region.

The negotiations are closed to the public and the text is secret.  Nevertheless, leaked texts have revealed U.S. demands that would:

·         Expand pharmaceutical patenting and create new drug monopolies, by lowering patentability standards and requiring patentability of minor variations of older, known medicines.

·         Lengthen drug monopolies by requiring countries to extend patent terms.

·         Eliminate safeguards against patent abuse, including among others the right of third parties to challenge patent applications (pre-grant opposition).

·         Risk facilitating patent abuse by requiring countries to condition marketing approval on patent status (patent linkage). Under patent linkage, even spurious patents may function as barriers to generic drug registration.

·         Expand exclusive control over clinical trial data including through an extra three years of data exclusivity for new uses of known products (in addition to five years exclusivity for first uses) and a new provision on biotech medicines.

Our work with partners has supported and helped facilitate impressive resistance from health advocates and developing countries to anti-access proposals in the Trans-Pacific FTA. Peru has publicly announced it will yield “not one centimeter more” to U.S. demands on trade and health, and influential new partners such as the Malaysian AIDS Council have publicly criticized the agreement. Coalition work has also led to a new U.S. government initiative on access to medicines that, while substantively flawed, testifies to the growing influence of the access to medicine movement. Help us stand for access and fight Big Pharma in the Trans-Pacific FTA.

A draft agreement leaked Wednesday shows the Obama administration is pushing a secretive trade agreement that could vastly expand corporate power and directly contradict a 2008 campaign promise by President Obama. A U.S. proposal for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact between the United States and eight Pacific nations would allow foreign corporations operating in the U.S. to appeal key regulations to an international tribunal. The body would have the power to override U.S. law and issue penalties for failure to comply with its ruling. We speak to Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, a fair trade group that posted the leaked documents on its website. "This isn’t just a bad trade agreement," Wallach says. "This is a 'one-percenter' power tool that could rip up our basic needs and rights." [includes rush transcript]

Source:  Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

Comments:

This is another U.S. tax giveaway fostered by globalist corporate would-be monopolies.  They could keep law suits filed to extort billions from U.S. taxpayers.  This totally undermines U.S. law and subjugates it to an international tribunal appointed by the global corporations.  It is part of U.N. Agenda 21, global socialist governance.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

City of Stockton California is Bankrupt

The Lessons Stockton Teaches    By STEVE STANEK,

 Posted 06/27/2012 06:26 PM ET

There are at least two lessons in the bankruptcy filing of Stockton, Calif., former boom town gone bust:

1. Don't give local government workers pay and perks that residents who pay for them can only dream of receiving in their private-sector jobs.

2. Keep local government out of economic development and redevelopment, which often are just forms of local central planning and corporate welfare that usually fail to achieve their goals.

Stockton is a northern California city of nearly 300,000, making it the largest in the nation to go bankrupt. Probably no one has more clearly described what's gone wrong there than City Manager Bob Deis.

"Stockton," Deis explained in an interview with Time magazine several months ago, "overcommitted to long-term obligations that even under the best of times the city could not afford."

Topping the list of overcommitted obligations are high wages and lavish retirement and health insurance benefits. Symptomatic of the problem is a 56-year-old city worker — no, make that retired city worker — quoted by Reuters in a news article on the Stockton bankruptcy.

She is just 56 years old and already retired. Where but in government do people in their 50s routinely get to retire ... and with taxpayer-funded health insurance? This Stockton retiree was worried the bankruptcy would force her to pay for her own health insurance, as the city's new 2012-2013 budget calls for eliminating retiree medical benefits.

Elimination of this perk years ago might have helped the city avoid bankruptcy and bond defaults.

Then there are economic development and redevelopment. Central economic planning failed in the Soviet Union, is failing in Cuba and is being abandoned in China. But all across California and the nation, local officials apparently believe in it by launching into development and redevelopment projects. It doesn't occur to them that if a project needs government backing, it probably will fail. The nation is still waiting for Amtrak to make its first profit.

Stockton has $700 million of debt, much of it to pay for various economic development and redevelopment projects. Go to the Stockton city government's economic development Web site and you'll read, "Economic development is one of Stockton's main focuses during this time when so many of Stockton's citizens are facing financial challenges."

You'll see the city has Enterprise Zone, Advantage Stockton, Brownfields and Financial Assistance for Businesses programs. You'll see a list of four separate redevelopment project areas, and you'll be able to find a list of completed projects. They include Stockton Arena, Stockton Ballpark, Downtown Marina and The Hotel Stockton. The millions of dollars of city loans and other subsidies have done nothing to keep the city out of bankruptcy.

Fortunately, people are waking up. Even people in government.

Nearly the first thing that Gov. Jerry Brown did on taking office in 2011 was to propose an end to the state's hundreds of redevelopment agencies to free up money for schools. Lawmakers passed a bill killing urban redevelopment districts, and Brown signed it one year ago.

Voters in San Diego and San Jose voted by overwhelming margins earlier this month to rein in their cities' retirement benefits. Stockton's bankruptcy shows why those people did the right thing . .. and why other cities should consider doing the same.

Source:   Stanek is a research fellow at the Heartland Institute in Chicago. http://news.investors.com/article/616372/201206271826/the-lessons-stockton-teaches.htm?p=full

Texas Toll Rage

Overwhelming Public Opposition (San Antonio, TX) - It's apparent that the fix was in before a single  citizen ever walked into the Bexar County San Antonio Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meeting Monday. The tumult and chaos surrounding transportation decision-makers in Bexar County has hit a feverish pitch and it's getting plain ugly for taxpayers. After several hours of debate, Bexar County Commissioner Kevin  Wolff gave the board his blessing to adopt a plan that includes toll  lanes along 36 miles of Loop 1604 and 7.8 miles of the US 281  corridor, parts of which were completely new and were never  discussed, presented, or properly posted for the public prior to  today's meeting.   "Why let a little thing like the Open Meetings Act get in their way?  TheMPO has always operated as if it were above the law. Nearly  every agenda is so vaguely worded, they could vote on a field trip  to Tahiti at taxpayer expense and the public would never know it,"  fumes Terri Hall, Founder/Director of Texans Uniting for Reform  and Freedom.   "They voted to adopt an un-vetted plan for dedicated bus-toll lanes  along 281, to shift 3-4 different pots of money around, including  stealing money from 281 and handing it to 1604, to convert existing  free lanes into toll lanes, and to take the toll roads away from the  RMA and give them to Via, and it was posted as 'Action on  additional Federal and State funding opportunities.' They even  claimed local ATD tax revenues fit under 'federal and state funding.'  By anyone's definition that's a violation of the Open Meetings Act."  Four elected officials, Commissioner Chico Rodriguez and Councilmen  Cris Medina, Rey Saldana, and Carlton Soules, were notable no- shows for such a critical vote that allows the unelected Advanced Transportation District (ATD) Board (one in the same with the Via   Transit Board) to control who will operate the toll lanes, who can  use them for free (buses and 'registered carpools' only), and, hence,  who will have the power to collect and spend the tolls. "Moms in minivans need not apply, ditto for business colleagues  headed to lunch or to the airport. Unless some government agency  pre-approves you as a registered carpool, you'll still have to pay  to use these lanes, even though your sales tax money built them,"  Hall notes.  The ATD Board put specific conditions on the deal, making a  very public swipe at the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority  (ARMA) by requiring TxDOT, not ARMA to build the toll  lanes. Why? The ATD Board telegraphed at its meeting Friday  that it plans to use toll revenues to fund a myriad of mass transit  projects.   "The war against cars is alive and well in San Antonio. This fight  has always been about who gets the pot of 'toll gold' at the end  of the rainbow," Hall contends.   First it was TxDOT, then Spanish toll operator Cintra, then  ARMA (which just got absorbed by Bexar County who also  wants the pot of toll revenues), now the ATD Board.  Though Wolff negotiated and authored a resolution specifically  to add new non-toll main lane capacity to US 281 from Loop  1604 to Stone Oak and Loop 1604W from Bandera to  Wiseman, it's pretty clear that Wolff never intended to fix 281  non-toll nor to hold TxDOT accountable for what it's proposing  (its diagram was vague & misleading). They've never been made  to explain, in plain English, where every existing lane is and what the corridor will look like with the proposed improvements,  much less to explain why they can fix Loop 1604 for $25 million/ mile compared to $37 million/mile on US 281. "If Wolff and the MPO had insisted this basic information be  presented prior to any vote, then the board would have seen  without a shadow of a doubt that TxDOT's plan does not ADD  a single new lane of added non-toll capacity and, in fact, converts  an existing free main lane into a transit-toll lane," insists Hall.  "Stone Oak isn't clamoring for bus lanes or toll lanes, it's  demanding the non-toll fix that's been funded and promised  to congestion-weary commuters in hearings since 2001." Now you see it, now you don't TxDOT claims the free lanes will remain in place, when, in fact,  they count the frontage roads as 'what's there now,' not the  freeway main lanes. Therefore, the plan adopted Monday  expressly defies the MPO's March 26 resolution to add non-toll  capacity to 281 -- and Wolff not only allowed it, he encouraged it,  despite telling TxDOT just over a week ago (at a June 15 MPO  special meeting), in rather heated tones, that he's made it clear  he wants added non-toll capacity -- all non-toll, no toll elements.  He even threatened that he wouldn't take a vote on it until they  changed the proposal to be consistent with the resolution. My, what a difference 10 days makes. Overwhelming public opposition The public testimony emailed in to the board opposed the plan,  130-3, and the three in favor were area Chamber of Commerce organizations and industry shills.   "The fact that the elected officials for the US 281 corridor, Wolff  and Senator Jeff Wentworth, voted to adopt a proposal that steals  $58 million in non-toll funds for US 281 to build a Via direct  connect to a Park-N-Ride only three percent of the population  will ever use (that amount of money would build roughly 6  overpasses on US 281), the fact that this plan will steal another  $20 million in non-toll funds from US 281 and hand it to Loop  1604 for a free overpass and non-toll expansion over there, and the fact that the plan beyond Stone Oak would convert every  existing free main lane into a toll lane (again trying to count  frontage lanes as the free lanes), is beyond comprehension,"  said an incredulous Hall.  North of Stone Oak could be fixed non-toll using the remaining  $88 million in Texas Mobility Funds (TMF) already allocated to  US 281. Now, that's not possible since the plan adopted Monday  steals nearly every penny of the remaining TMF money, and gives it to Via and Loop 1604. The fact that the ONLY dissenting vote was by a Democrat,  State Rep. Joe Farias, who cited DOUBLE TAXATION as his  reason for voting against (and the fact that this was in no way  properly posted under the Open Meetings Act), is an indictment  of today's establishment Republican Party.   "The GOP is NOT for the public's right to know, for  transparency, for accountability, for limited government,  or for the taxpayer. It's of, by, and for the special interests,"  observes Hall.  We don't buy it Advocates of the plan say, but 'we took $500 million in  planned toll lanes and made them non-toll,' when what they  did in reality was renege on a promise made March 26 to  add non-toll capacity only. In truth, the toll plan for US 281 should never have been  adopted by the MPO in July 2004 in the first place. The gas  taxes to fix US 281 without tolls were already there and  disappeared in 2008, well after the MPO vote to convert it  to a tollway in July 2004. With the arrival of $246 million  in new money ($146 million from TxDOT's recent $2 billion  windfall, $100 million in ATD), plenty to fix a measly 3 miles  on US 281 without ANY tolls, it unfathomable that NOT  one new non-toll main lane will be added to 281 under this  plan, yet a 10-mile stretch of four new non-toll lanes are  being added to Loop 1604 with an 8-10 year delay in  toll lanes being built.   "The excuse that we have to toll US 281 because 'we're  out of money' or can't get clearance doesn't hold muster  anymore. Anyone with a pulse can see this whole scheme  is fraud," Hall points out.  The elected officials who voted to toll US 281 & Loop  1604: State Senator Jeff Wentworth (in a run-off against  anti-toll Dr. Donna Campbell July 31) Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff Leon Valley Mayor Chris Riley Selma Councilman William Weeper San Antonio City Councilman Ray Lopez (plus 8 unelected appointees, including two votes from  TxDOT and two votes from Via) "The commuters along US 281 and Loop 1604 won't ever  forget who voted to do this to them, because they'll be  forced to pay a DOUBLE TAX in PERPETUITY,"   Hall predicts.  However, none of this is yet set in stone until the MPO's  short and long-range plans are officially amended. "There is still time to redeem the March 26 resolution.  What board members do after today's fiasco, will determine  whether they'll face retribution or redemption," promises Hall.   Tuesday, 26 June 2012 17:16 Source:  TURF is a non-partisan, grassroots, all-volunteer  group defending citizens' concerns with Agenda 21, toll road  policy, public private partnerships, and eminent domain abuse.  TURF promotes pro-taxpayer, pro-freedom, & non-toll  transportation solutions. For more information or to support  the work of TURF, please visit www.TexasTURF.org. Comments: Go to TrafficTruth.net and VOTE No on the Regional  Transportation 1% sales tax on July 31st Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Taxes for Roads

30% of our federal and state gasoline taxes have been misappropriated   to fund underutilized, expensive rail and public transit.  The federal department of transportation should be abolished and the federal 18.4 cents a gallon tax retained by the states to maintain the interstates.   

Funding rail and public transit should become a question for the states, counties and cities to answer.  We need to cut these lose to let rail find a way to become economically sustainable.  Public bus service can be returned to the private sector now.  It’s happening all over the country.  That would take over $2 billion in subsidies off the table in Georgia. 

Gasoline Tax

If we can restore the gas tax to a true use tax and restrict its use to roads, bridges, highways and interchanges, we should try living with our federal 18.4 cents per gallon for interstates  and our state 29.2 cents per gallon for roads.  We would have a total gas tax of 47.6 cents per gallon.  We sell 3 billion gallons of gasoline each year and that raises $552 billion from federal and $876 billion from state for a total of $1.428 billion per year.  If we add in county car tag taxes of $383,150,850, we should have $1.8 billion a year for roads.

Padded ARC Project Costs

The Project Costs in the Region 3 list of 190 projects has overcharges of 50 to 90 %.  We believe the actual value of the road projects are closer to $2 billion, not $6.5 billion. 

Wrong ARC Projects

Most projects in the list are unnecessary and are based on projected population increases.  These projects should be tabled.  Over $3 billion in this list are to expand public transit and bail out MARTA.  This should not be done at all.  All bus service should be private and MARTA should not expand, but should find a way to save the train system.

Repeal Regionalism

The Transportation Investment Act of 2010 should be repealed along with earlier laws that authorized 16 Nanny-Regions to “help” people do what they’ve been doing for themselves for a long time.

City and County Sovereignty

The state should assume full responsibility for interstate highways and Local government must be accountable for all other roads and bridges including roads designated as state roads.   Allocation of dollars to counties should reflect the type of road to be maintained.   The lane-mile method currently used counts dirt and gravel roads the same as paved roads and that isn’t right.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

T-SPLOST is a Trap

We should vote NO on the T-SPLOST 1% sales tax referendum on July 31.  Failure to do so could trap us with a 5^th layer of appointed, unelected, unresponsive REGIONAL government that undermines voter control by usurping city and county sovereignty.  If this treason passes, the unelected Politburo will make the final decisions.

The Soviet Union failed because of top-down appointed government engaged in central planning to create a “workers’ paradise”.  Let’s not make the same mistake.

Don’t Donate Your Money

 $8.5 billion is expected to be collected from the 10 Counties over the next 10 years.  Very little goes to relieve traffic congestion.   In our weak economy, we cannot expect that this very expensive tax referendum will pass.

The 190 projects on the January 2012 version of the Region 3 List total $6.5 billion.  These include projects by county plus an AR list and a MARTA list.

$3.12 billion goes to public transit, used by 5% of the population.  Public transit is by far the costliest form of transportation available.  It’s costly to build and costly to staff and maintain.  Rebuilding MARTA and expanding train and bus service within MARTA and GTRA will not relieve road and highway congestion and that is where the problems are.  Atlanta is the least dense metro area of its size on the planet.   Rail and bus transit will never pay for itself, but will double its short-fall to over $1 billion a year.   If you expand it, you only expand the tax subsidy it requires, forever.  MARTA must close its bus service and let buses go private in order to save the train.

The Concept 3 transit Plan outlines the final expansion of public transit at a cost of $75 billion.  That’s if there is a T-SPLOST 2 in 2022.  We would be starting expensive transit when we should be fighting to contain it.

Overcharges

That leaves $3.38 billion for roads and bridges.  Overcharges for the 10 counties range from 50% to 90%.  Counties could do the projects they really need for much less than is charged as a project cost.  Counties wouldn’t be required to follow Davis Bacon and pay triple for union labor.  They would also bid these widely to get the best deals.

My calculation of overcharges is based on 3^rd party data from the internet on the cost of constructing, refurbishing and maintaining roads, bridges and highway interchanges.  My data tells me that new road construction  costs  $1 million per lane  per mile and road milling and resurfacing costs $100 thousand per lane per mile.  There are very overpriced re-dos of highway ramp systems.  The project costs on the T-SPLOST lists range from 4 to 20 times higher than the standard costs I found. 

Most of these costs are not for new roads and lanes.  They are for bike lanes at $500 thousand per mile, sidewalks at $100,000 per mile, multi-use paths at $500 thousand per mile, street lights, landscaping and transit studies.   

The Slush Fund

The TIA law creates a slush fund of overcharges and allows for funds from this T-SPLOST to be used for “economic development projects”.  That have nothing to do with traffic improvement.  These are usually Community Improvement District  and Tax Authorizing District initiated boondoggles that take tax money to build projects that wouldn’t  be built without taxpayer subsidies.   They are not built to satisfy a real demand, so they fail.  In the meantime the developers make their money and leave the taxpayers holding the bag.  We currently have an oversupply of retail and office space and can’t afford to fund speculators who have nothing to lose.

The Real Problem

Our problem  has been that all roads lead to I-285 and that creates a bottleneck.  With the passage of the TIA, all dollars go to the State, creating another layer of bureaucracy, creating another bottleneck.  Finally, all projects are done by GDOT.  These are they geniuses who put stop lights on highway entry ramps.  This triples the bottleneck to ensure delays and cost over-runs for a list of projects that don’t attack the main problems.   In addition, we don’t like tolls on anything.  If we need lanes on the Interstates, take that out of the federal gas tax proceeds.  Road taxes should not be used for parks, recreational paths, bike lanes, sidewalks, landscaping or transit studies.

Plan B

Cities and counties could handle what they need faster, better and cheaper on their own.  Voters need to reject the T-SPLOST and then go directly to their city councils and county commissions to discuss how to find their own tax revenue to really reduce congestion, without any unnecessary frills.  Cities and counties need to cut non-essential expanses to find enough money to cover needed road expanses.  Public transit should be privatized.  Parks expansion should cease.  Recreation should be returned to the private sector.  Headcount should be reduced or frozen.  Temps should be used to build sidewalks, not contractors.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Dunwoody doesn’t need a Stream Buffer Ordinance

I attended a meeting at City Hall on stream buffers hosted by the Dunwoody Sustainability Commission with representatives from EPA, and the consulting firms hired to advise Dunwoody on the zoning rewrite.  Given the track record of horror stories we’ve read over the past 4 years, my concern was protecting private property rights and stream buffers clearly represent a “taking” of our private property rights. 

You as citizens have God given rights to your life, liberty and property.  Don’t give up these rights to a city ordinance.

If a stream buffer ordinance is included in the zoning ordinance, those of you who have a dried up creek or water shed in your back yard, would lose your back yard.  You would be required to let it become a weed patch that takes up 25 feet of your back yard. 

There is no advantage to having a weed patch over having your lawn. It is government harassment by liberals who want to tell everybody what to do, using city ordinances and phony science.

Water runs off property and goes into the ground water.  Ground water can find itself back in our water supply where it is treated to become drinking water. 

Someone told the EPA to find the most expensive, obnoxious ways to handle our water…I wonder who…Obama ? …Soros ? …the U.N. ?

There is a concern that we have not maintained our drinking water supply to overcome shortages during droughts.  Until we get active to solve this, nothing will improve.  We should ensure that counties have adequately maintained water supply pipes and have upgraded with pipes that last longer.  The oldest lines should be replaced before they break. 

Beyond that, we need more reservoirs dedicated to supplying drinking water to high population areas.  We may need a network of large pipes to carry water to population centers similar to oil and gas pipelines.  We may eventually need to buy water from other states or build desalinization plants on our coast lines.  The western U.S. doesn’t get as much rainfall and will surely need to do some of these things.  It seems apparent that securing water by law suit doesn’t  work.

Watch our politicians sit on this one for a few more decades.  They love a crisis.

Norb Leahy,  Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Democrats Against Agenda 21

SOUNDS LIKE SCIENCE FICTION...OR SOME CONSPIRACY THEORY...BUT IT ISN'T.

UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is implemented worldwide to inventory and control all land, all water, all minerals, all plants, all animals, all construction, all means of production, all information, and all human beings in the world.   INVENTORY AND CONTROL.

Have you wondered where these terms 'sustainability' and 'smart growth' and 'high density urban mixed use development' came from?  Doesn't it seem like about 10 years ago you'd never heard of them and now everything seems to include these concepts?  Is that just a coincidence?  That every town and county and state and nation in the world would be changing their land use/planning codes and government policies to align themselves with...what?

First, before I get going, I want to say that yes, I know it's a small world and it takes a village and we're all one planet etc.  I also know that we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and that as cumbersome as that can be sometimes (Donald Rumsfeld said that the Chinese have it easy; they don't have to ask their people if they agree.  And Bush Junior said that it would be great to have a dictator as long as he was the dictator), we have a three branch government and the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and self-determination.  This is one of the reasons why people want to come to the US, right?  We don't have Tiananmen Square here, generally speaking (yes, I remember Kent State--not the same, and yes, an outrage.) So I'm not against making certain issues a priority, such as mindful energy use, alternative energy sponsorship, recycling/reuse, and sensitivity to all living creatures.

But then you have UN Agenda 21.  What is it?  See our videos and radio shows at the bottom of this page (or search YouTube for Rosa Koire) or buy BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21 by Rosa Koire click here

Considering its policies are woven into all the General Plans of the cities and counties,  it's important for people to know where these policies are coming from.  While many people support the United Nations for its peacemaking efforts, hardly anyone knows that they have very specific land use policies that they would like to see implemented in every city, county, state and nation.  The specific plan is called United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development, which has its basis in Communitarianism.  By now, most Americans have heard of sustainable development but are largely unaware of Agenda 21.

In a nutshell, the plan calls for governments to take control of all land use and not leave any of the decision making in the hands of private property owners.  It is assumed that people are not good stewards of their land and the government will do a better job if they are in control.  Individual rights in general are to give way to the needs of communities as determined by the governing body.  Moreover, people should be rounded up off the land and packed into human settlements, or islands of human habitation, close to employment centers and transportation.  Another program, called the Wildlands Project spells out how most of the land is to be set aside for non-humans.

U.N. Agenda 21 cites the affluence of Americans as being a major problem which needs to be corrected.  It calls for lowering the standard of living for Americans so that the people in poorer countries will have more, a redistribution of wealth.  Although people around the world aspire to achieve the levels of prosperity we have in our country, and will risk their lives to get here, Americans are cast in a very negative light and need to be taken down to a condition closer to average in the world.  Only then, they say, will there be social justice which is a cornerstone of the U.N. Agenda 21 plan.

Agenda 21 policies date back to the 70's but it got its real start in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro when President Bush signed onto it.  President Clinton signed it later and continued the program in the United States.  A non-governmental organization called the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives,  ICLEI, is tasked with carrying out the goals of Agenda 21.  Over 600 cities in the U.S. are members; our town joined in 2007. The costs are paid by taxpayers.

It's time that people educate themselves and read the document and related commentary.  After that, get a copy of your city or county's General Plan and read it.  You will find all sorts of policies that are nearly identical to those in U.N. Agenda 21.  Unfortunately, their policies have advanced largely unnoticed and we are now in the end game.  People need to identify their elected officials who are promoting the U.N.'s  policies and hold them accountable for their actions.  Only when we've identified who the people are and what they are trying to do will we be able to evaluate whether or not we approve of the policies they are putting forward.  Some people may think it's appropriate for agencies outside the United States to set our policies and some people will not.  The question is, aren't  Americans  able to develop their own policies?  Should we rely on an organization that consists of member nations that have different forms of governments, most of which do not value individual rights as much as we do?  It's time to bring U.N. Agenda 21 out in the open where we can have these debates and then set our own policies in accordance with our Constitution and Bill of Rights. 
                                                                           ***
Ok, you say, interesting, but I don't see how that really affects me. Here are a few ways:

No matter where you live, I'll bet that there have been hundreds of condos built in the center of your town recently.  Over the last ten years there has been a 'planning revolution' across the US.  Your commercial, industrial, and multi-residential land was rezoned to 'mixed use.' Nearly everything that got approvals for development was designed the same way: ground floor retail with two stories of residential above.  Mixed use.  Very hard to finance for construction, and very hard to manage since it has to have a high density of people in order to justify the retail.  A lot of it is empty and most of the ground floor retail is empty too. High bankruptcy rate.

So what?  Most of your towns provided funding and/or infrastructure development for these private projects.  They used Redevelopment Agency funds.  Your money.  Specifically, your property taxes.  Notice how there's very little money in your General Funds now, and most of that is going to pay Police and Fire?  Your street lights are off, your parks are shaggy, your roads are pot-holed, your hospitals are closing.  The money that should be used for these things is diverted into the Redevelopment Agency.  It's the only agency in government that can float a bond without a vote of the people.  And they did that, and now you're paying off those bonds for the next 45 years with your property taxes.  Did you know that?  And by the way, even if Redevelopment is ended, as in California, they still have to pay off existing debt--for 30 to 45 years.

So, what does this have to do with Agenda 21? 

Redevelopment is a tool used to further the Agenda 21 vision of remaking America's cities. With redevelopment, cities have the right to take property by eminent domain---against the will of the property owner, and give it or sell it to a private developer. By declaring an area of town 'blighted' (and in some cities over 90% of the city area has been declared blighted) the property taxes in that area can be diverted away from the General Fund. This constriction of available funds is impoverishing the cities, forcing them to offer less and less services, and reducing your standard of living.  They'll be telling you that it's better, however, since they've put in nice street lights and colored paving.  The money gets redirected into the Redevelopment Agency and handed out to favored developers building low income housing and mixed use. Smart Growth. Cities have had thousands of condos built in the redevelopment areas and are telling you that you are terrible for wanting your own yard, for wanting privacy, for not wanting to be dictated to by a Condo Homeowner's Association Board, for being anti-social, for not going along to get along, for not moving into a cramped apartment downtown where they can use your property taxes for paying off that huge bond debt.  But it's not working, and you don't want to move in there.  So they have to make you.  Read on.

Human habitation, as it is referred to now, is restricted to lands within the Urban Growth Boundaries of the city.  Only certain building designs are permitted.  Rural property is more and more restricted in what uses can be on it.  Although counties say that they support agricultural uses, eating locally produced food, farmer's markets, etc, in fact there are so many regulations restricting water and land use (there are scenic corridors, inland rural corridors, baylands corridors, area plans, specific plans, redevelopment plans, huge fees, fines) that farmers are losing their lands altogether.  County roads are not being paved. The push is for people to get off of the land,  become more dependent, come into the cities.  To get out of the suburbs and into the cities.  Out of their private homes and into condos.  Out of their private cars and onto their bikes.

Bikes.  What does that have to do with it?  I like to ride my bike and so do you.  So what?  Bicycle advocacy groups are very powerful now.  Advocacy.  A fancy word for lobbying, influencing, and maybe strong-arming the public and politicians.  What's the conection with bike groups?  National groups such as Complete Streets, Thunderhead Alliance, and others, have training programs teaching their members how to pressure for redevelopment, and training candidates for office.  It's not just about bike lanes, it's about remaking cities and rural areas to the 'sustainable model'.  High density urban development without parking for cars is the goal. This means that whole towns need to be demolished and rebuilt in the image of sustainable development.  Bike groups are being used as the 'shock troops' for this plan.

What plan?  We're losing our homes since this recession/depression began, and many of us could never afford those homes to begin with.  We got cheap money, used whatever we had to squeak into those homes, and now some of us lost them.  We were lured, indebted, and sunk. Whole neighborhoods are empty in some places.  Some are being bulldozed.  Cities cannot afford to extend services outside of their core areas. Slowly, people will not be able to afford single family homes.  Will not be able to afford private cars.  Will be more dependent.  More restricted. More easily watched and monitored.

This plan is a whole life plan.  It involves the educational system, the energy market, the transportation system, the governmental system, the health care system, food production, and more.  The plan is to restrict your choices, limit your funds, narrow your freedoms, and take away your voice.  One of the ways is by using the Delphi Technique to 'manufacture consensus.' Another is to infiltrate community groups or actually start neighborhood associations with hand-picked 'leaders'.  Another is to groom and train future candidates for local offices.  Another is to sponsor non-governmental groups that go into schools and train children.  Another is to offer federal and private grants and funding for city programs that further the agenda.  Another is to educate a new generation of land use planners to require New Urbanism.  Another is to convert factories to other uses, introduce energy measures that penalize manufacturing, and set energy consumption goals to pre-1985 levels.  Another is to allow unregulated immigration in order to lower standards of living and drain local resources.

All of this sounds unbelievable until you have had direct experience with it.  You probably have, but unless you resisted it you won't know it's happening. That's why we'd like you to read our blog 'The Way We See It' (click here). Go to the section in the blog (look on the right side under Categories) called Our Story.  You'll get a look at how two unsuspecting people fell into a snake pit and survived to tell about it.

Source:  Rosa Koire, Democrats Against Agenda 21

Rosa’s message to Georgia:

You thought we had 50 STATES...wrong we are in ELEVEN MEGA REGIONS...LIKE THE SOVIET UNION !   -Google the North American Union.   A MUST READ ESP IF YOU LIVE IN GEORGIA

How did this happen?  How are they dissolving our state sovereignty?  By your legislature voting to follow Agenda 21.  Nixon actually put us into these regions and we were asleep!  This is serious!

Why do you think the push on HIGH SPEED RAIL… they are going to track our movement…must take away our mobility (ethanol in cars that rots the engines out…and they are trying to increase the ethanol % to 15% from 10%!)

They must control our movement so they get rid of auto and move us like cattle thru trains!  Think I am kidding…take a look what is UNSUSTAINABLE on the Agenda 21 report of the UN Biodiversity

Assessment Report.

Single family homes…that’s why the push into stack and pack barrack housing…so we will be corralled into and for the high speed rail, roads are unsustainable, no cars…that’s why Ethanol using our food supply and destroying our engines.

Take a look… GA RESIDENTS…THIS IS YOUR TSPLOST AT WORK…VOTE NO ON JULY 31 on TSPLOST! 

NOW THEY HAVE SCREWED UP THE WORDING ON THE BALLOT YOUR GOVERNOR IS DOING THIS.  PAY ATTENTION.

Rosa Koire/PPJ Contributor, ASA Executive Director January 12, 2012
Post Sustainability Institute   www.PostSustainabilityInstitute.org
www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com
 www.SantaRosaNeighborhoodCoalition.com

Video’s of the public meeting protest are available on www.DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21.com

Comments:

Yes, there are Democrats against U.N. Agenda 21.  They are for real.  Google Rosa Koire and read her books.  There are also socialists who are Republicans.  Those who wish to return government to compliance with the U.S. Constitution as written are the good guys.  Those who wish to ignore the Constitution are the bad guys.  Google your Ballot for July 31 and find the Pro-T-SPLOST language that was added.  Google TrafficTruth.net and Vote No on T-SPLOST July 31 and reject “regionalism”.

Norb Leahy,  Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Wealthy Americans Jumping Obama’s Ship

Wealthy Americans aren’t just leaving tax-heavy states like New York and California, they’re leaving the country.

U.S. citizens are defecting at record levels in order to escape high taxes, the New York Postreported. About 8,000 U.S. citizens are projected to renounce their citizenship in 2012, or about 154 a week — versus 3,805 in 2011, or about 73 per week, according to immigration officials, the Post reported.

They want to avoid tax bills resulting from the proposed 55-percent hike on the wealthy and the anticipated expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of the year, the Post reported.

“High-net-worth individuals are making decisions that having a US passport just isn’t worth the cost anymore,” Jim Duggan, a lawyer at Duggan Bertsch, which specializes in protecting assets of the wealthy, told the Post.

“They’re able to do what they do from any place in the world, and they’re choosing to do it from places with much lower tax rates," he said. "Some are philosophically disgusted at the course our country is taking in all kinds of ways. They’re making a strong protest of, ‘Enough is enough.’ But largely it’s an economic decision.”

But to leave means finding a new country and obtaining citizenship and there are many that are eager to welcome wealthy Americans, such as Australia, Norway, Singapore, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, and Antigua, according to the Post.

These countries tend to offer a fast track to citizenship and protections from the Justice Department and IRS.

Source:  Newsmax. Sunday, 24 Jun 2012

Comments:

The same thing continues to happen from state to state and will continue.  California’s high taxes have prompted moves to other states. We have an obligation to keep taxes as low as possible and ensure that tax dollars are spent on core services that include roads, bridges, sewers and water and nothing else.  The free market can provide everything else we need.  We have allowed government to expand its footprint beyond its competence, encroach on the free market and choke it with unnecessary regulations.  

Georgia politicians are pushing T-SPLOST, a plan that fails to address traffic congestion that is full of outrageous overcharges.  This was prompted by pressure from Obama to spend money on unnecessary, unsustainable sand holes and unelected, regional governance that undermines cities and counties..  

Our only hope is a No Vote T-SPLOST on July 31.  Google concept 3 Atlanta transit   This is a planned $75 billion expansion of public transit.  We don’t need any of it and we certainly shouldn’t squander our tax dollars on public transit and the creation of a slush fund for CIDs and tax subsidized commercial development that will fail. Private-Public Partnerships are scams to transfer our tax dollars to politically connected developers.   Voter should be determining where roads are built and fixed, one at a time, by their elected city and county officials.  This should not be done by appointed, unelected boards controlled by the Governor.  If this passes and regionalism survives, people will move from Georgia.

Norb Leahy,  Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader