CBS Anchor's Links to Green Group Criticized

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 7/23/02 | Marc Morano

[HairOfTheDog]

I would love to read it... don't have time now, logging off for awhile.

Gene, I would be interested in your opinion on all this...

As for NC selling off some of the land... I don't freak out over "land grab". Some lands that should be kept from development should be bought by the public, so on its face, that doesn't wig me out.

I spend a lot of time trail riding on public forest lands... the only reason I can ride them is that they are public, and I contribute by volunteering to maintain the trails through a Backcountry Horsemen group I belong to. Working to preserve the trails for all, and advocating for continued access to these lands.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Oh-sorry-you get it. Excuse former post to you, Steve in DC. Dogbyte - are you defending TNC? Or just attacking the writer of the article exposing the cosey relationship between CBS and TNC? Of course we knew that the environazi's call the plays for the presstitutes. That is nothing new. Naming names is a bit new.

Finding out the truth regarding the monstrosity that is The Nature Conservancy is something the spinmeisters running their show just don't like. Too bad.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Fine. Ping me when you do have time to read that link. Especially when you are ready to defend TNC. That will be enough.

[Austin Willard Wright]

The NC is involved in grand theft of existing private land, often sold at a loss by very comparativley weak land owners such as little old ladies. It makes big profits (and its officials make salaries) from the resale to the feds. Read the article.

[IncPen]

TNC is a public charity, according to the IRS. Why doesn?t TNC give the land to the government?

The quote above is typical of the entire piece. It's about envy, corporate greed, and rich-bashing.

If, as insinuated, there are individual crimes, let them be prosecuted.

But I'd no more tell the Nature Conservancy what to do with their money than I'd tell General Motors what to do with theirs .

[Carry_Okie]

You have a lot to learn about TNC. They get the land cheap because of they way they work with government to regulate the owner to death. Sometimes they do it to get a straight profit by actually selling the property to a developer when the auspices under which they had gained the property were to prevent development.

That's racketeering sir. You would do well to read Mr. Arnold's books. If you want an alternative to this kind of corruption, read mine.

[Colonel_Flagg]

He added, "What I find interesting is that somebody thinks that $15,000 is going to make any difference to anybody at CBS or for that matter The Nature Conservancy."

Then I'm sure Osgood wouldn't mind a CBS donation of $15,000 to the Eagle Forum. Or some other group with which his network disagrees. Right?

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Excellent point. This thread has helped me get a clear view on some things. Thanks to all who started the thread.

[Austin Willard Wright]

The NC is not like General Motors and is not a free market environmentalist organization. It is a shake-down outfit, really a criminal extortion scam, somewhat like Operation PUSH which works hand-in-hand with the feds to steal land. Read some of the links or contact the Competitive Enterprise Institute if you don't believe me.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Excellent point. This thread has helped me get a clear view on some things. Thanks to all who started the thread.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Wrong. It is about a "non profit charity" megolith that has become a monster gobbling up private land using underhanded muscle tactics and then "reselling" the land to the government??? Why not donate it????

Have you read the Undue Influence's investigative information about The Nature Conservancy - or do you just not want to know.

Either preference speaks loudly about you.

[MinuteGal]

Having endured a debilitating five-year law suit over government property condemnation, and using that time for extensive research, I'm somewhat of an expert on the various methods employed to destroy constitutional personal propery rights both on the federal and local levels.

It would take me five years to type here the devious ways that cunning leftist individuals and groups employ to grab property under the guise of "environmentalism". Needless to say, this organization under discussion is just one group of many employing these methods.

One method is to gain property and then use it to glom onto adjoining properties ad infinitum through other means. These groups know precisely how to flim-flam the politicians, the uneducated masses and even genuine conservative environmentalists and sportsmen such as those posting here. They work quietly, patiently and incrementally.

P.S. Our family remarkably won the lawsuit against all odds and the property remains in private hands.

Leni

[kcvl]

Only when the last tree is dead,
The last river dammed,
And the last field paved over,
Will we realize we can't eat money?
-The Nature Conservancy

There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception to the rule. -Charles Osgood

[E.G.C.]

Once again just another example of the establishment media's ongoing incestious relationship with liberal and progressive special interest groups. A tremoudous disservice is being done to the news and informtion cosumers of this country by this contiuned situation and the media's unwillingness to fess up to this bias and clean up their act.

[rockfish59]

$15,000 is a 'paltry' sum??
Hell, I live on $13,000 a year disability pension!
Send it this way ya' commie watermelon!

[hattend]

You have to look at the broad pattern to see my problem with this. The Nature Conservancy buys a farm or estate in Southern Maryland, for instance, to keep the property from being developed. They pay $5 million. They then encumber the property from development and flip the property to the Feds as a "park" or "open space" and the feds pay them back their $5 million plus some.

Then they do the same thing, with the same dollars, somewhere else. Again, and again and again.

They launder the land for the feds like fences launder money for crooks.

Hmmm...feds withhold water from farms, The Nature Conservancy comes in, buys the land for 10 cents on the dollar, then sells the land to the feds at 30 cents on the dollar. Everybody is happy, except the farmer.

Feds get the land, that would be political suicide to just take, for 1/3 price and TNC makes 200% profit.

(The above may never happen, but is possible, right?)

[blackie]

Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing, enviro-nazis terrorist's and media on our Freedoms !!

Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!

Molon Labe !!

[teeman8r]

the problem stems from the organization using government to restrict the owners of property, and taking taxable lands out of the state coffers, so that ownership becomes a financial burden through increasing property taxes and then the group puts pressure on land owners to sell to them...

they have no sympathy for private land owners...

[HairOfTheDog]

Checking in briefly as I have time... today turned out to be a pretty busy day to enter into complex coversations...

And I am highly interested in this issue... I hope we can continue conversation tonight when I am more available.

I have a basic philosophy about environmental preservation that is this.

-There is intrinsic value to preserving some land from development.
-property owners have the right to use their property as they see fit, provided they do not cause damage that impacts others.
-Those who wish to see land remain undeveloped should buy it for that purpose, at market value, from a willing seller. This can include the state, if their is a public interest in having the land in public hands.

Of course there are fine details in those points that need to be worked out. This thread may help me clarify them. I would love to have you enlighten me if I am wrong about thinking NC is not that far from my own philosophy. If you can agree to my points above and tell me how the NC does not abide by that philosophy, then please do...

However, please don't just throw reading materials at me. I am not going to read through pages and pages of essays. If you would like to convince me I am wrong, then make it easy to agree with you by giving me a short argument of what you think... not links to thousands of words.

I would like facts to back up your claims. I have a hard time believing that all the sensitive land in this country is owned by unwitting old ladies. Give me concrete examples of strongarming as a normal mode of doing business. I am not going to believe you on accusations about unnamed blue haired ladies that just seem to be too perfect as a victim.

[IncPen]

The NC is not like General Motors and is not a free market environmentalist organization. It is a shake-down outfit, really a criminal extortion scam, somewhat like Operation PUSH which works hand-in-hand with the feds to steal land. Read some of the links or contact the Competitive Enterprise Institute if you don't believe me.

Then go ahead and prosecute them for runnning a racket, not for what they do with property they rightfully own.

Wrong. It is about a "non profit charity" megolith that has become a monster gobbling up private land using underhanded muscle tactics and then "reselling" the land to the government??? Why not donate it????

Have you read the Undue Influence's investigative information about The Nature Conservancy - or do you just not want to know.

I read through the material at the link, and what I see is a bunch of bitching and moaning about what people do with their own property, and that somehow they must be evil because there's money involved. You sound like a damn socialist. Who are you to dictate what they do with their property, whether they sell, donate it? You're guilty of the very thing you accuse them of.

So, no, I don't want to know about Undue Influence and their anti-wealth rants.