Thread: Irving, TX, Becomes Latest City To Drop ICLEI & UN AGENDA 21

Irving, Texas, Becomes Latest City to Drop ICLEI & UN Agenda 21

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Written by Alex Newman

Monday, 19 March 2012 11:40

Officials in Irving, Texas, recently decided not to renew the city government’s membership in a highly controversial organization known as ICLEI, an international group linked to the United Nations’ “Agenda 21” working to quietly impose so-called “sustainable development” on local communities. Tea Party groups, conservative activists, and supporters of private property rights promptly celebrated the news as yet another victory in the battle against the UN plot. After its membership expired in February, the city of more than 200,000 became the latest community to back out of the global scheme. Lawmakers across the nation, the Republican National Committee, and countless activists have warned with increasing urgency that Agenda 21 and ICLEI represent a radical socialist plot at odds with individual liberty and private property rights. Their efforts are now bearing fruit. As a growing array of experts and organizations throughout America work to expose the global body and its agenda, the number of cities and counties rejecting ICLEI and UN “sustainability” schemes is quickly becoming a stampede. Well over 50 local governments and counties have already expelled ICLEI in recent years, with membership in the international organization declining from over 600 members in America in 2009 to less than 535 today. And the pace is accelerating. According to recent reports, Irving City Manager Tommy Gonzalez and Mayor Beth Van Duyne officially announced that the city would no longer be a member of ICLEI — effective immediately. The decision comes in the wake of growing activism in Irving and around the state to expose the true nature of the UN’s Agenda 21. In January, Irving Republican Women’s Club treasurer Joyce Howard spoke to the City Council about ICLEI and asked that Irving cancel its membership in the controversial group. Other concerned citizens joined the battle, too. Speaking to the Irving City Council recently, Lone Star Tea Party member Robert Kecseg, a financial adviser, asked whether anyone even knew what the letters in ICLEI stood for. Nobody responded. So Kecseg explained — it’s “International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives” — and offered a brief summary of the organization and its agenda. "What this city has joined is an organization that is a political organization founded by the United Nations with a specific agenda," he told the City Council. "When you read a little bit about it and you learn what they're all about, it goes well beyond the wonderful things of ‘green’ this and ‘green’ that." Kecseg then proceeded to read from official UN Agenda 21 documents that, among other controversial positions, reject private land ownership as contributing to "social injustice" and call for all land use to be determined by authorities under UN guidance. The vast majority of Irving residents, however, hold much different views, he said. "I'm concerned about my property and I think everyone who owns property should be concerned as well," Kecseg explained as attendees listened intently. "My point is, as representatives, if you're representing the people, you cannot represent at the same time an outside organization such as that." Kecseg was hardly the only Irving resident to draw attention to the UN scheme. But the activism paid off: The Mayor appeared to take the concerns very seriously, asking Kecseg for a follow-up summary and promising to look into it. And now, thanks to the hard work of activists, taxpayers in Irving will save well over $1,000 per year in membership dues. Plus, the city government will no longer be paying for the implementation of the UN’s radical Agenda 21. Activists hope its influence will be completely expelled from the community in the coming months. “Agenda 21 is becoming a hot issue in Texas because of its connection to the United Nations,” noted activist Frank Koch, the founder of the grass-roots group Stop Agenda 21 in Texas working to expose and fight the UN scheme in the Lone Star State. “I applaud Irving, Texas, for having the wisdom to join the growing number of cities rejecting this insidious program. Thank you Tommy Gonzalez and Mayor Beth Van Duyne for your wise decision.” The so-called “alternative media” celebrated the news, too. “The Achilles Heel of ICLEI is exactly what has been targeted by Tommy Gonzalez, the Irving City Manager, and Mayor Beth Van Duyne; namely that local implementation is susceptible to public pressure and principled local officials who can resist the globalist march into their communities,” wrote Joe Wright in an article about the victory for the Activist Post. “The resistance must spread, for the world that is planned under the co-opted term of sustainability is nothing short of a futuristic dystopia of people herded into high-density living spaces, rationing of infrastructure and services, removal of personal property rights, and strict government monitoring and control over every aspect of the lives of individuals,” Wright added, citing ICLEI’s own statements. “It is a collectivist model that is distinctly anti-American.” But as awareness of the UN schemes grows, officials and communities are dumping ICLEI and Agenda 21 in droves. Just in recent weeks The New American has documented several examples. Lawmakers in the Tennessee House of Representatives, for instance, overwhelmingly approved a popular resolution blasting Agenda 21. And Ocean County, New Jersey, passed a similar measure attacking the scheme last month. “This United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called ‘sustainable development’ views the American way of life of private property ownership, single-family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms all as destructive to the environment,” the two resolutions explain, echoing a measure adopted earlier this year by the Republican National Committee (RNC). College Station, Texas, meanwhile, also withdrew from ICLEI recently. “I am truly excited to announce that the proposed 2013 College Station budget will not include funding for this organization,” wrote College Station City Councilman Jess Fields. “It is an insidious, extreme institution that does not represent our citizens, and for our taxpayers to continue to fund it would be ridiculous.” He, too, cited the UN’s own documents in a blistering report exposing Agenda 21. Of course, as numerous experts have noted, expelling ICLEI is only the first step in ridding any community of Agenda 21 and the influence of controversial UN “sustainability” schemes. Decisions made on the basis of its recommendations must be reversed, boards must be abolished, and care has to be taken to avoid allowing the dangerous measures to creep back into local policymaking. But according to activists, Irving, College Station, and the dozens of other communities that have already ended their involvement with ICLEI are now on the right track. Even as the UN prepares for its next global summit to build support for its “sustainable development” agenda, resistance in the United States is growing at a phenomenal pace. And Texas appears to be among the states that are leading the way. Related articles: Tennessee Lawmakers Pass Resolution Blasting UN Agenda 21 Ocean County, New Jersey, Blasts UN Agenda 21 in Resolution Texas City Withdraws From ICLEI, UN “Agenda 21” What are the UN's Agenda 21 and ICLEI? Your Hometown & the United Nations’ Agenda 21 Agenda 21 and the Movement Toward a One-World Govt New Strategies in the Fight to Stop Agenda 21 2011 Was an Incredible Year as Agenda 21 Becomes a Major Issue UN Demands $76 Trillion for “Green Technology” Obama Signs Agenda 21-Related Executive Order UN Bosses Secretly Plot Global Govt Through “Green Economy" for Rio+20 Oklahoma City Leaves ICLEI but Not Agenda 21 County in Washington Ditches Sustainable Development Pennsylvania County Rejects Agenda 21 Edmond Oklahoma Dumps Agenda 21 Maryland County Cancels Agenda 21 Participation UN's Green Economy May Cost $2.5 Trillion a Year Ambitious UN Sustainability Conference in Rio to Avoid Climate Talk Irving, Texas, Becomes Latest City to Drop ICLEI & UN Agenda 21 http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech-m...a-un-agenda-21

The Hot Gates - 480BC. An event that was to determine what path much of the Western World would follow occurred as the Persian army threatened to overwhelm Greece in 480BC. The West today again faces both external and internal threats to its identity.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Agenda 21 ICLEI - Creation and Purpose

The Agenda 21 threat is difficult to perceive by an individual since, it comes at us in so many forms, many of which are disarmingly labeled with stated purposes of "sustainable development", environmental protection, and preservation of land. This post will deal with the ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives), which is a movement that seeks to bring the US and others nations of the world under the mantle of the Leftist/Environmentalist plan for the elimination of the free individual, private property rights, and national sovereignty. The means that it employed to encourage (And possibly cajole) state, county, and municipal governments to deal directly with the UN and other extra-national bodies to bring their districts into line with the Global agenda. Of course our Constitution annoying limits such negotiating to the Federal Government, but why let that stand in the way? County and Municipal governments are especially vulnerable. This is not due to the people wanting to go in this direction , but because a good portion of them, busy with their lives, assume that those who run for town councils and the like are, if not for their interests, at least not enthusiastically in opposition to their interests.

This leaves a chink in the armor in which Leftists or radical environmentalists, simply presenting themselves as candidates of normal political parties, secure mayoral/town council positions from which they can begin creating ordinances and policies that severely restrict property owners, burden the same with regulations that result in excessive operational costs, and generally create climates in which small and middle-scale farms and other properties/businesses are no longer tenable. The result is a sell-off to corporate farms and other large business entities to avoid bankruptcy, foreclosure, or crushing fines. Those who stay in rural areas will devolve into employees on the once-free farms and other businesses; those who leave will move to the cities.

Note that ICLEI bigwig Mr.Jeb Brughmann (In the quotes below) describes creating high densities in the cities. People who live in cities are easier to control and will naturally gravitate towards governments that provide the most at the lowest or no cost and thus create increasingly-dependant people. Although I will freely admit that, due to the end of textile and other factory-type businesses in urban areas, we have a tremendous amount of unused and relatively cheap properties that have great potential for development. The problem is that those who advance Agenda 21 have decided that they will implement a vast array of measures that will gradually force people to move to these zones.

Their idea is that, well, those areas are all ruined already. So, instead of creating parkland (As you will see in Mr. Brughmann's comments), urban development will consist of building housing, presumably high-rise apartments, to house the newly resettled. This will achieve many goals, including bringing rural and suburban populations to a bare minimum, reducing the electoral strength of those regions, and increasing the same in urban areas. So my grandchildren will not be able to listen to the chorus of Spring Peepers or the symphony of songbirds in the Spring, or gaze upon the Autumn leaves while they wait for the school bus unless I move the family to the rural zones to be - not a farmer, but a farmhand.

People who live in cities face ever-increasing degrees of governmental control. Ridiculously- restrictive smoking bans, demonizing of table salt (NYC), and terrifyingly restrictive firearms laws (Washington DC, Chicago, NYC) are the norm in urban areas, and I see no reason why this trend will not continue as more and more people are ushered into the cities.

As the photo below indicates, the counties that voted for the Democratic candidate in the 2004 Presidential election (The 2000 election was virtually identical and it is fair to say that 2008 was close too) were almost totally confined to urban areas. Taking steps to move as many people as possible to cities is a good bet to increase the urban electorate and thus provide a permanent base of voters who will consistently overwhelm national elections with Leftist candidates. This will also apply to seats in the Capital Building; Congressional districts will of course be redrawn to reflect the locations in which the most people live, and Senatorial seats in more states will simply go to whomever the new all-powerful urban electorate votes in. As an example, Pennsylvania and Ohio, both very rural states already politically driven in a big way by Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland, etc., will in all probability be completely swamped after the changes occur. Note in previous posts that I have asserted that the Left has done everything that it can to keep multiple generations of the US population, especially that of urban areas, in states of permanent bondage, helplessness, and reliance on governmental assistance.


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ima...by_county..gif


As noted at top, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives is a means for the step-by-step implementation of Agenda 21 and global or pan-regional "Governance"*. I will provide some quotes from an interview with Mr. Jeb Brughmann, a big shaker and mover (And apparent co-creator of ) with the ICLEI.

If you don't believe that Agenda 21 exists, read on....

http://sovereignty.net/p/sd/How%20IC...%20created.pdf (Source of the interview quoted below)
Jeb Brugmann (Mr. Brughmann's site)



All italics and bolding are mine. I also inserted a few remarks:

"You may remember cities declaring themselves as sanctuaries for refugees
from El Salvador and Guatemala, (Remember how the Leftists got a free ride in the late 80's - early 90's by the media despite their atrocities?) esting from South Africa, establishing sister-city relations with the Soviet Union and this movement built and demonstrated the capacity of local governments to have an impact in international affairs so when the Cold War came to an end, we, in the movement decided that we had to identify the next phase of activities for local government involvement and it was clear at that time that we should focus on the global environment."

Commenting on being contacted by the UN and being offered a part in the new movement after his work was noticed-

"We were surprised, because we were aware that we were having an impact but we never
thought of a direct relationship between local government and the UN which is an
organization of countries. I got involved with local government in the early 1980s as part
of this broader peace and human rights movement. I was actually the Director of the City
of Cambridge, Massachusetts Peace Commission, (Just what is/was that?) a very unusual city agency. It was through that Commission that we were able to build this international network. But now the ICLEI is a worldwide organization. We have 250 city members from about 60 countries. They represent about 150 million people. What we have discovered is that through the concrete practical actions of the cities at the local level, we can have a real measurable impact on global environmental trends.


What we have found since Rio, the Earth Summit, is that so many of the agenda items in Agenda21 actually cannot ever be implemented without local governments and communities taking action. So that is what we are about today making sure this agreement among nations actually will get implemented after all the rhetoric is spent.

We get engaged in the design of that policy. As the
United Nations is right now negotiating an international treaty of dealing with the climatechange problem, the cities are at the table. In the U.S., 45 cities have joined an international "Cities for Climate Protection Campaign." Their commitment as participants in that campaign is to develop a local action plan to reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions. The U.S. EPA is giving full support to this activity financially. In fact, the cities are reporting to the EPA on their emissions reduction so the U.S. government can
go to the international arena and claim that the U.S. is complying with its treaty
commitments. So we are now at the starting point of engaging in a process with the
United Nations and governments in actually designing the policies that we can implement
locally in order to achieve global environmental accords. We will be doing the same with climate, Agenda 21, and we have endorsed a major international campaign called "Local Agenda 21" whereby now more than 2000 cities in more than 60 countries around the world are developing Agenda 21s for their cities with concrete targets, with concrete budgets on how they are going to implement these things and this is a movement that is now beginning in the U.S. Out of the 4000 or so cities and towns in the United States,
there are now only 19 formally in this Local Agenda 21 activities.

Environmentalists have always thought that saving the planet is about creating new parks...Most people don’t get to go to these parks....The city, because of its concentration, allows us to economically invest in the infrastructure we need in order to protect the environment as well as social services. It is by creating high density that we can finance public transportation systems (Removing our ability to move ourselves from place to place), recycling systems, all of these things so we want to reap the opportunity of the city to protect the environment.

We got involved during the process of the negotiation of
Agenda 21s sustainable development action plan. Our job since the Summit has been to make sure that local development is aware of its responsibilities in implementing that plan and that it has the resources and the support to do it. What does it mean? Local governments need to create a mechanism in which
they work with the business community, the non-profit organizations, the civic sector to
develop strategies to implement the different chapters of Agenda 21 -- dealing with issues like protection of the atmosphere, water resources, biological diversity, changingconsumption patterns, sustainable agriculture all of these areas mentioned in Agenda 21.


So what do we have to work with at the local level? First we have local law and regulation. Municipalities manage the infrastructure or invest in the infrastructure which is needed to deal with pollution control. Municipalities often times have a great influence over the public educational system amid spend a lot of money


We’re trying to overcome this by taking a partnership strategy to implementation in many cities, particularly those that are doing this local Agenda 21 process in the U.S. What they do is create multi-sectoral councils, or organizations, where local government representatives, business, the church community, the union community, the non-profit community meet together, flesh out a common strategy in areas where they can agree with one another, and make joint agreements to implement that strategy

And, this year were [sic] launching a new program. It’s called Cities 21. We will be inviting our members from around the world to measure the change in their performance in key areas: energy,waste management, water resources management, from 1990 to 2000. But economic growth is accelerating tremendously. Since1992, 450 million new people have been born on this planet. So, as we speak, 10,000 new people will come into this planet. Population growth, economic growth, are accelerating to the point where the earth is noticing and were stressing the limits of the balance in our eco-system.

It wasn’t until the Cold War came to an end, that the 1987 World Commission on Environment andDevelopment put forward a third doctrine called Sustainable Development which is about balancing social equity, the long-time socialist concern; economic vitality, the capitalist concern; amid [sic?]the new concern that neither paid any attention to - environmental sustainability. We have a new concept for how to develop; now were just beginning to learn how to put it into practice."

Referring to the Soviet Union and its treatment of the environment.(below) Those who recall the Leftist/neo-pagan kid's propaganda show Captain Planet and the Planeteers may remember how the Planeteer girl from the Soviet Union was a model for sound environmental practices and the US Planeteer boy always needed to be reminded of things like his responsibility to limit the amount of children he should have as an adult. This was of course sickening as, even not counting Chernobyl, the Soviet Union's environmental record was far worse (And I am being generous) than that of the US:

Russia - Environmental Problems

"They had strong environmental laws, but because there is no distinction between business and government, those laws were never
implemented. "


People who desire to maintain our national sovereignty, property, rights inherent to Western Societies, and the choice of where we live need to become involved at their local level first. Find out if your local government(s) are involved with the ICLEI. If they are, research as much of Agenda 21, sustainable development, etc, as you can. Talk about these with your friends and associates and let your local politicians know that you do not approve of the direction in which they are taking us. Let them know that we will not simply acquiesce to their Agenda.(Pun intended)
More links will be at the bottom.

* On "Governance"
Proposed UN Environmental Constitution For The World Would Establish An Incredibly Repressive System Of Global Governance

"In documents such as these, drafters have learned to never use the term "global government" because it sets off alarm bells for people. So they often use the more politically-correct term of "governance". On page 36, we are told that proper governance includes the creation of governing institutions on various levels "from the local to the global"....

"Governance is the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). It also can be defined as the rational organization of society in order to achieve the objectives emerging from its common concerns emerging from material, economic, historical and cultural foundations and needs. Governance includes the creation and the functioning of institutions and of norms at various levels from the local to the global."


The Hot Gates 480BC: Obama's Rural Council and UN Agenda 21

The Hot Gates 480BC: Agenda 21 - More Details and Original Sources

The Hot Gates 480BC: Farming Families Targeted by Dept. of Labor - Agenda 21 is Likely Cause

The Hot Gates 480BC: Recent Agenda 21 Developments

The Hot Gates 480BC: Marxists Hijack Democracy - Pretend That it is About Redistribution

The Hot Gates 480BC: Martial Law - Obama to Control Distribution of Goods and More - Agenda 21 is Written All Over This One

The Hot Gates 480BC: Cloward-Piven Founder Gleefully Anticipates Occupy for This Spring




The Hot Gates 480BC: Agenda 21 ICLEI - Creation and Purpose

GREAT NEWS Out of ARIZONA! RIO DECLARATION (And ICLEI, Too!) Only a HOUSE Vote Away From BEING BANNED in ARIZONA!

Posted on 04 April 2012.

While bills banning ICLEI have been introduced in several states, the best effort was quietly done in Arizona. The Senate and a House committee have voted to prevent the state and all its political subdivisions from implementing the Rio Declaration (That’s where Agenda 21 comes from!) and it bans ICLEI in Arizona! It passed the house committee by a unanimous vote, according to the Arizona Republic. There’s more:

The bill would bar the state and Arizona counties and cities “from adopting or implementing the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.”

Under the provisions of Burges’ bill, the state, counties and cities could not accept funds from, spend funds from or give funds to “certain non-governmental organizations,” including non-profit groups and contractors, for any of the declaration’s initiatives.

The Arizona Republic’s reporting is, to put it mildly, shrill:

Arizona “tea party” members are pushing through legislation to quash government-funded efforts to reduce pollution and improve energy efficiency in cities, counties and the state.

Opponents of Senate Bill 1507, sponsored by Sen. Judy Burges, R-Sun City West, say the bill would shut down any government-led environmental initiative, such as Energize Phoenix, a $25 million, stimulus-funded project to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses along the light-rail corridors in central Phoenix.

***

Similar bills opposed to the 1992 U.N. declaration and its guiding principles — to protect the Earth, all living things on it and to eradicate poverty — have been proposed by legislators in at least three other states: Kansas, New Hampshire and Tennessee.

The Democrat House member sounded ignorant at first:

“This is the most ludicrous bill I’ve ever seen in six years in the Legislature,” House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said.

But then he showed wisdom:

With this legislation, “you could pretty much shut down any form of government sustainability” efforts, he added.

Rep. Campbell, that is EXACTLY the POINT! We want to stop forced “sustainability” that is not necessary to meet legitimate environmental needs. Liberty and sovereignty is inconsistent with Agenda 21. And ICLEI implements Agenda 21, in spite of comments like this:

ICLEI spokesman Don Knapp said the group offers software and expert guidance to help its member cities, including Phoenix, implement green programs.

However, the organization cannot unilaterally implement programs.

“We are not an organization that has any authority,” Knapp said.

I am hoping and will monitor this bill for it has great effect and may be challenged in court and we’ll perhaps find out if ICLEI membership is unconstitutional. See this:

Tucson officials have issued a position statement to respond to bills that it considers “pre-emptive” to local authority and programs.

“I don’t believe that the state can dictate to a charter city who they can contract with,” said Chinwe Mary Okoye, a lobbyist for the city.

I await that challenge. Kick ICLEI and Agenda 21 OUT of USA!

Here‘s the text:

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
2 Section 1. Rio declaration on environment and development;
3 prohibition; definition
4 A. The state of Arizona and all political subdivisions of this state
5 shall not adopt or implement the creed, doctrine, principles or any tenet of
6 the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the
7 Statement of Principles for Sustainable Development adopted at the United
8 Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro,
9 Brazil in June, 1992 or any other international law that contravenes the
10 United States Constitution or the Constitution of Arizona.
11 B. Since the United Nations has enlisted the support of numerous
12 independent, non-governmental organizations to implement this agenda around
13 the world, the state of Arizona and all political subdivisions are prohibited
14 from implementing programs of, expending any sum of money for, being a member
15 of, receiving funding from, contracting services from, or giving financial or
16 other forms of aid to the International Council for Local Environmental
17 Initiatives or any of its related or affiliated organizations including
18 Countdown 2010, Local Action for Biodiversity, European Center for Nature
19 Conservation, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the
20 President’s Council on Sustainable Development, enacted on July 19, 1993 by
21 Executive Order 12852.
22 C. For the purposes of this section, “political subdivision” includes
23 this state, or a county, city or town in this state, or a public partnership
24 or any other public entity in this state.

GREAT NEWS out of ARIZONA! RIO DECLARATION (and ICLEI, too!) only a HOUSE vote away from BEING BANNED in ARIZONA! | Virginia Right!