Convoys & Message Launching from California

Her family fled to the USA when Castro seized their property during the Communist takeover in Cuba. Today, her family and neighbors face the same threat from a coalition of environmentalists and the USA government. "We lost our property to Castro and the Cuban government... I can understand how that might happen in a communist country, but not here, not in the United States."

"You must be in a position to be able to control your own destiny and protect your constitutional rights. That is why this is such an important battle for all U.S. citizens. These are the issues that we are defending, to be able to do what we want with the land that we own."

Suzette de Armas is typical of thousands of Americans facing the same problem in various communities throughout the United States. Here in Sacramento, California, years of environmental meddling and dictatorial demands on private property owners, farmers and ranchers has been challenged all the way to the United States Supreme Court. See: Natomas land plan is under attack and Borden Ranch Partnership v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Now citizens from around the USA are joining the Sawgrass Caravan to Florida for what will likely be the biggest land rights rally in USA history. On the way, they will meet in key towns and cities to hold local demonstrations and to gather numbers for their march to Florida. To that mission, our fledgling NorCal-Capitol Area Free Republic (NCCAFR) Chapter has pledged to follow the mission subscribed by Free Republic to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. To that end, we organize, educate, and support grassroots activists throughout our region and connect national organizations with these grassroots groups and activists across the country that share their common goals and beliefs. In this case, it's all about the fifth amendment rights of all Americans not to "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

In California, local citizens are forming property/water rights convoy to link with southern California and northern California convoys in Tracy. Purpose: to protest abusive government actions which have cut off water rights and property access to landowners and farmers in California, Oregon, New Mexico and Florida. To that end, NCCAFR saw this national struggle allied with the lofty goals so clearly stated by Free Republic Forum and Free Republic Network.

Free Republic Forum is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah

The Free Republic Network organizes, educates, and supports grassroots activists and connects national organizations with grassroots groups and activists across the country that share their common goals and beliefs.

The Network is dedicated to providing resources for two types of organizations, Affiliate Chapters and Strategic Partners, and to training and supporting individual conservative activists.

The re-energized Free Republic chapter in Sacramento will host the convoy rally at our state capitol, recruit Free Republic membership, advance conservative values and support for Republican candidates in our state. Assemblyman Mike Briggs and Senator Thomas Oller sponsored the permit needed for the rally on capitol grounds. Dozens of cities, large and small, will be represented at these patriotic events.

Our Chapter's leader, Freeper farmfriend, forged an alliance with one of America's oldest, largest and most respected advocates for the plight of ranchers, farmers and land owners; The United States Grange. Together with dozens of other patriot groups, we have networked and combined resources in common cause, a just cause, and one for every property owner threatened by "the wetlands vision" of federal and private environmentalists. Your property, your community your own home could be next! Doubt that sweeping statement? Learn the facts, In the finest tradition of Free Republic Network, this grassroots activism connects national organizations with grassroots groups and activists across the country that share their common goals and beliefs. In this case, DEFENSE of the FIFTH AMENDMENT property rights of EVERY American.

The first Breaking News Press Release on Free Republic was taken down by the list owner and the moderators. We should have the same freedom of expression afforded other Freepers and Free Republic Chapters. Just because the cause we support isn't "politically correct" due to political relationships between Free Republic and Florida politicians, we should still be able to post this news. That the first Convoy launched today, with others beginning the patriotic journeys tomorrow, this is truly Breaking News.

There seems to be some confusion over who is behind this thing and whether there are hidden agendas. This is the best description I have been able to find. The "Paragon Foundation" which is financially backing the carvan has its web site here. This appears to be a collection of fairly well-to-do New Mexico cattle ranchers who have been fighting the gubment for years over these land-rights issues, and have gotten themselves a fleet of attorneys and have turned into a major pain for the environmentalists and the Interior Department.

There is an allegation in the article that the caravan is an attempt to affect the Governor's race, but that allegation comes from the Sierra Club... which is not on my personal list of trusted sources.

I can find nothing to indicate that the Paragon Foundation is anything but what it claims to be. I doubt that Florida politics are even on their radar. To them this probably looks like just another federal land grab... the sort of thing they go after all the time. The protagonists in the case are the Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers vs the homeowners.

This is from the Miami Daily Business Review of September 9th:

New Mexico group in Glades fight

Will the "Sawgrass Rebellion" scheduled for next month in Homestead to protest the Everglades restoration plan be another South Florida blip on the government vs. property owner radar screen?

Or, could it be a political maneuver that succeeds in spotlighting what rebellion promoters like to call "junk science" and how they could lose their Miami-Dade homes because of it?

Either way, it's got the attention of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several environmental groups.

The rebellion centers on the 300 or so primarily residential property owners in what's called the 8.5 Square Mile Area in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. For years, they've raised a ruckus over the federal government's efforts to take their land as part of the 'Glades restoration. They've organized groups, hired attorneys and sued. But despite U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore's ruling in July that the feds don't have the authority to force them out, residents still are fearful.

With the U.S. Senate now back in session, there's a possibility lawmakers will amend an appropriations bill that would allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - charged with implementing the Everglades plan - to move forward.

So, property owners figure, it's time to ramp up the publicity. Residents and the Dade County Farm Bureau trade group plan a rally Oct. 19 at the Miami-Homestead Speedway in Homestead. Expecting upward of 35,000 people, promoters say singers Willie Nelson and Gloria Estefan may appear.

Speedway spokesman Phil de Montmollin says he knows of the event but that so far there's no formal booking.

It's all with a helping hand from the Paragon Foundation, which is pitching in $100,000 for the rally costs.

The event actually begins in Naples-Fort Myers a couple of days earlier; a convoy then will travel over to Homestead.

(Naples is involved because of protests over Everglades issues in a residential area called Golden Gates Estates.)

Madeleine Fortin, a 8.5 SMA property owner and president of the 8.5 Square Mile Legal Defense Foundation, says the Sawgrass Rebellion is really a step toward a national coalition that would unite all property owners who contend Big Government is intruding on their private property rights.

"It is becoming a tragedy and it's based on junk science, most of the time," she says.

Junk science?

Fortin describes incidents she says indicate how government manipulates environmental issues to make a case for land grabs: how lynx hair was "planted" in California just to keep people out of a certain area to be declared a lynx habitat; how a report about the nearly extinct Cape Sable seaside sparrow was misleading because the birds were counted during nesting season when the males don't sing, far reducing their numbers; and, to promote flooding of an area, dryness in a sparrow habitat area was described as an arson danger but the only fire Fortin could find on record was one started by the bird counters' helicopter.

And so on.

Eventually, Fortin bumped into the Paragon Foundation, based in Alamogordo, N.M. Fortin asked Paragon to become involved in the 8.5 SMA issue.

Paragon's Web site - adorned with American flags and liberty bells - states its mission is to "offset those forces prevailing in our society" that seek to destroy private property rights, stop productive uses of public land, force land management decisions detrimental to the environment, and destroy the customs and lifestyles of rural areas.

J. Zane Walley, Paragon editor, lecturer and organizer of "rebellions," is in town setting up the Homestead-Naples gig.

Formed in the 1990s by New Mexico cattle ranchers fed up with governmental intrusion on their grazing lands, Paragon is funded by the estate of deceased petroleum lease negotiator-cum-rancher Tom Linebery, according to Walley.

He won't say how much money Linebery bequeathed, except to note that it's "in the millions of dollars."

The group, Walley insists, is not against environmental protection, though he admits environmental groups describe Paragon members as eco-terrorists.

Still, the Everglades restoration plan will kill, not help, the 'Glades, Walley says.

He cites environmental showdowns in Ohio and Oregon where Paragon helped live-off-the-land families face down government intervention in the name of trumped-up science.

While the 8.5 SMA situation is different because it's the first time Paragon has flown the flag for a primarily residential area, it's still a case in point, Walley says.

Since Paragon's involvement, says Dade County Farm Bureau president David Kaplan, government agencies have paid more attention to residents.

"In my humble opinion, just an old country boy who knows good land, the environmental movement is killing land they are trying to save," says Paragon's Walley. "Who wins here? No one. They push people out and kill the 'Glades."

Well, now, that's mighty tall talk for a cowboy from out West.

Some South Florida folks familiar with environmental issues hint that Walley trekked in bull manure on his boots - and a far bigger political agenda.

Alan Farago, the Sierra Club's Everglades co-chairman in Miami, knows of the Paragon Foundation.

"The timing on this is curious," he notes. "I think it is politically designed to coincide with the governor's election, and put pressure on gubernatorial candidates about the issues they [Paragon] advocate."

Farago, who was active in the Florida Keys about 10 years ago during formation of the marine sanctuary, believes Paragon is linked to a group that tried to stir up Keys' residents against the sanctuary.

"The problem with this group and others like it is that you can never really peel back the layers to where the money is," he adds, noting that the marine sanctuary opponents consisted of Big Business like forest and timber companies.

"These guys are anti-government until it comes time for their [farm] subsidy. ... They have no credibility."

An environmental insider in South Florida who spoke on condition of anonymity took Farago's comments a step further.

"These are mostly large land owners and farmers who extort money from the federal government to get the highest value for their property," he says. "There is a whole other agenda going on here in which the people who really want Everglades restoration to fail are actively engaged in using the 8.5 SMA as a kind of launching pad. They are outsiders, and we really don't know where the money is coming from."

The insider also questioned to what extent the Miccosukee tribe is involved in the Sawgrass Rebellion, particularly because the tribe has been acquiring land in southern Miami-Dade County that government agencies had intended to acquire.

Walley says the tribe is not publicly involved, but he declines to elaborate. Tribe general counsel Dexter Lehtinen did not return a phone call.

"This isn't 1776 and the king is not trying to house troops on people's land," says Richard Grosso, former general counsel for 1000 Friends of Florida and now general counsel for the Environmental and Land Use Law Center, a nonprofit law firm based at Nova Southeastern University.

"We are trying to do the most extensive environmental restoration project the world has ever seen and we absolutely need chunks of land" for it, says Grosso, whose firm represents environmental groups in Everglades restoration matters.

Not only is the 8.5 SMA a huge obstacle to the restoration project, but the issues "are so interwoven and complex that there isn't room for someone to walk in with a slogan and single perspective, and ignore the science and reality," he adds.

At the Army Corps of Engineers office in Jacksonville, Richard Bonner says he welcomes Paragon's involvement as he would any interested party.

He'd never heard of Paragon, but other Corps officials and lawyers have, says Bonner, the deputy district engineer for project management.

What puzzles him is why Paragon is adopting the 8.5 SMA cause when land takings there have been handled at fair market prices.

As for Walley's contention that the Everglades is being killed in the name of science, Bonner just doesn't get it.

"That's just not true," he says. "We think they [Paragon] has a place in the process. We just hope they are looking at the facts and basing their actions on facts."

Bonner expected to go on a hunting trip in mid-October. Instead, he figures he just might drop in on the rebellion.

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