The Ventura Gem & Mineral Society, Inc. (VGMS)

Government In Action 1998 Archive.

Table of Contents.

1. FEBRUARY - PEOPLE FOR THE WEST is now PEOPLE FOR THE USA,
2. JUNE - DEATH OF COMMON SENSE,
3. JUNE - NO PASSING GRADE FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR,
4. JULY - ARE YOU SOUNDING OFF,
5. JULY - THE FEDERATION SCENE by Cal Clason.

February.

PEOPLE FOR THE WEST is now PEOPLE FOR THE USA.
     Environmentalists are anti cattle grazing, fishing, mining, open roads, logging, and many other necessities of life.
     The organization People for the West is working for people's rights--the right for logging companies to work, the right to use roads that have been open since the 1800s, the right to do mining, etc.
     With the new year the name has been changed to PEOPLE FOR FOR THE USA, to include all 50 states, for a good reason. Read on--
     The Green Movement began in the West because this is where most of the federal public lands are. The Green Movement is pushing east with their campaign of overregulation and economy-crippling obstruction. Recent headlines are revealing--
     "The U.S. Forest Service has halted virtually all logging on its East Texas lands to comply with a sweeping court injunction granted to environmentalists."
     "A lawsuit to halt logging in Pennsylvania marks a growing trend of legal challenges to timber sales in the East. Over the last two years, environmentalists have also gone to court in Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Vermont."
     "A federal judge on September 5 ruled that the U.S. Forest Service must suspend logging in two areas of Wayne National Forest in southern Ohio pending a hearing".
     "A group of House of Representatives and senators is calling for a moratorium on logging in 750,000 acres of national forest lands in southern Appalachian Mountains.
     Not to mention strong new Green assaults in Minnesota, the Carolinas, and other non-western states. Westerners have put forth a heroic effort to reclaim a voice in the decision affecting our communities and resource-based culture. But we in the West do not have a monopoly on hard times, nor on Green interference. If you think it's become difficult to sustain a way of life as a Western rancher, for example, try being a farmer in the middle U.S. today, where nearly one half of the work force has either no job, or an inadequate one. Like the West, the East contains farms, oil and coal production, timber harvesting, and all of the resource production activities that are the backbone of our grassroots organization.
          From People for the USA 1/98.
          Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer,
          Via People for the USA 1/98.

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June.

by Lori Borgman.

Common Sense, aka C.S., lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the millennium. No one really knows how old he was, his birth records were long ago entangled in miles and miles of bureaucratic red tape.

A most reliable sage, he was credited with cultivating the ability to know when to come in out of the rain, the discovery that the early bird gets the worm and how to take the bitter with the sweet. C.S. also developed sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and prudent dietary plans (offset eggs and bacon with a little fiber and orange juice).

C.S.'s health began declining in the late 1960s when he became infected with the If-It-Feels-Good, Do-It virus. In the following decades his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of overbearing federal and state rules and regulations and an oppressive tax code.

C.S. was sapped of strength and the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, criminals received better treatment than victims, and judges stuck their noses into everything from Boy Scouts to professional baseball and golf.

His deterioration accelerated as schools implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of 6-year-old boys charged with sexual harassment for kissing classmates, a teen suspended for taking a swig of Scope mouthwash after lunch, girls suspended for possessing Midol and an honor student expelled for having a table knife in her school lunch were more than his heart could endure.

As the end neared, doctors say C.S. drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding regulations on low-flow toilets, mandatory air bags and a government plan to ban inhalers from 14 million asthmatics due to a trace of a pollutant that may be harmful to the environment.

Finally, upon word that a North Carolina town council was attempting to restrict front porch furniture to lawn chairs and settees that are aesthetically attractive, C.S. breathed his last.

Services will be at Whispering Pines Cemetery. C.S. was preceded in death by his wife, Discretion; one daughter, Responsibility; and one son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers, Half-Wit and Dim-Wit.

Excerpt of a March 27, 1998 article by Lori Borgman of Knight Ridder Newspapers.

     From People for USA.

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NO PASSING GRADE FOR DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR, Excerpts from a report by U.S. Representative Jim Gibbons, Second District Nevada from PEOPLE FOR THE USA.
     The Department of Interior has for some time been a "thorn" of private property owners across America. The citizens of Nevada should know. BLM (Bureau of Land Management) owns and controls nearly 87% of the State of Nevada.
     Nevadans fight a constant battle to ensure the rights of private property owners are protected and preserved. The outcome of property rights in Nevada has an impact on the whole nation.
     Now Congress, as well as the General Accounting Office and the Inspector General of the Department of Interior strongly criticize the Interior Department's management and planning for hundreds of millions of America's parks, wildlife refuges, and other public lands under the Interior Department.
     The Government Performance and Results Act was implemented to encourage greater efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in Federal spending, and requires agencies to set goals and use performance measures for management and budgeting.
     The Interior Department failed on most counts. Their strategic plan was so voluminous it was deemed "not user friendly". Only 2 of the Interior's performance plans were addressed. The department is in disarray.
     In addition to the criticisms by General Accounting Office and Inspector General, Congress now rates the Interior Department at 29.5% performance. They have plenty of room for improvement.
          Contributed by Florence Meisenheimer.

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July.

ARE YOU SOUNDING OFF? Editorial from AFMS Newsletter, June, July, August 98.
     Are you letting your congressman and your Representative know YOUR views about the use of public land? OR - are you sitting there quietly while the exclusionists push for rules that would stop ALL rock, gem, and mineral collecting for ALL time on ALL federal land.

Can't happen? Re-read the old story about the camel and the test. The strategy is to remove and restrict use of public lands one rule at a time until ALL use is restricted to Wilderness Area Rules.

George Loud, Chair of the AFMS Conservation and Legislation Committee, sent a warning in January. There is again the prospect of a change in land management by Presidential Decree again by-passing Congress. The proposed decree would:

1. Change the definition of roadless area to include parcels as small as 1000 acres - currently 5000 acres is the lower limit for such designation;
2. Impose a moratorium on planned activities in roadless areas;
3. Provide a new definition of "roadless" whereby areas now considered "roaded" would be reclassified "roadless";
4. Impose new restrictions for these "roadless" areas beyond a moratorium on timber harvesting. Expect road and trail closings;
5. Direct a new inventory be taken of "roadless" areas with a call for further areas to be designated wilderness. Look for defacto wilderness management of roadless areas.

SOUND OFF REGULARLY to your Representatives and Senators. Make them aware that you consider that you have rights and interests in public land that are legal and proper. Let them know you want those rights defended. It is indeed now or never. Federal regulations NEVER move towards fewer restrictions.

WHERE TO WRTE OR CALL:

(Webmaster's Note: Please remember the following information is from 1998.)

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THE FEDERATION SCENE by Cal Clason.
     Just a couple of notes on the Administration's latest land grab policies. From The Reader's Digest-October l997, a synopsis of the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan, which, according to U.S. Fish & Wildlife secretary, Bruce Babbitt, is visionary and will spread across the country. It stems from the golden-cheeked Warbler being declared endangered in 1990. There was no scientific evidence to prove it, rather, it was based on the disappearance of suitable habitat. They counted trees! A 30,000 acre preserve was established, developers could develop Habitat outside the preserve as long as they paid a fee. Owners within the preserve can sell the land, but the government has 30 years to pay and then only if they have the money; and by their own admission they don't have it. During one meeting when asked whether or not the impact on human lives was considered, a biologist from FWS replied, "No, that is not a part of any biological assessment."

Another, the "Central Texas Rare Species Conservation Plan", if enacted, will open the door for a grand scale "voluntary" land grab in every state in the nation. Landowners have two choices:

1. Voluntarily enter a "safe harbor" agreement and give up their right to remove, modify or disturb "suitable" habitat for permission to use the rest of their land, so long as they maintain the habitat;
2. Refuse the "safe harbor" agreement and face enforcement action under the Endangered Species Act.

Should all the landowners opt-out, their responsibility to maintain suitable habitat will remain. Which the FWS defines as "all lands that harbor or could support" endangered species. Voluntary or coercion? You decide.

     From the Pseudomorph June 98.

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