TAXPAYERS FUND GREENIE POLITICKING

"Even though most environmental groups are determined to oust President Bush from office this November, those groups are benefiting from an unprecedented level of federal assistance, according to a Washington, D.C., research group. It's possible that some of that money is also being used in the campaign against a second Bush term, Capital Research Center (CRC) reported in an editorial, citing audits conducted by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The audits, according to CRC's David Healy, show that in the fiscal year 2004 budget, $143 million was channeled to environmental groups that disclose their finances. That's nearly twice as much as the $72 million that the groups got in fiscal year 1998.

Between 1999 and 2004, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation saw its federal awards increase nearly six-fold while its private donations were increasing at a much smaller rate. Nature Conservancy's federal grant money doubled between 1999 and 2004, even though the group has been plagued by scandal, Healy reported. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters (LCV) all received taxpayer dollars from the Bush administration, yet the groups have been working together to mount an anti-Bush "Environmental Accountability Fund," Healy wrote.

For example, according to Healy, the groups have organized "anti-Bush efforts in key battleground states. In New Mexico ... LCV is recruiting volunteers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, while the Sierra Club has added two full-time campaign staffers, and NRDC has aired at least two radio spots."

The green groups are not shy about enlisting the help of famous Democrat politicians or liberal-minded celebrities either. Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, who is associated with Audubon Society, was quoted by Healy as blasting the Bush administration's environmental policies. "I cannot remember, I cannot recite to you a single positive new policy or program sponsored by the current administration," Udall reportedly said....

But an expert on federal grants to non-profit organizations, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNSNews.com that property owners were "extremely unhappy" about environmental policy and with their perceived lack of influence on federal policy during a recent Interior meeting. "This kind of funding has turned around and is starting to bite [the Bush administration,]" the expert asserted.....

Robert Bidinotto, editor of Organization Trends and Foundation Watch, published by Capital Research Center, said that though federal grants may not be used directly for political activism such as Environmental Accountability Fund, the funds nevertheless helped the environmental groups launch political campaigns. "Grants, at the very minimum, boost these groups' size, visibility, influence, clout, cache; all of these things are directly transferable to activities such as Bush-bashing during the election year," he said. The result, Bidinotto said, is "that as the funding from the administration has been going up, so has the volume of [the environmental groups'] voices.""

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

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