On June 9th, 2011, President Obama signed executive order 13575 for the Establishment of the White House Rural Council.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/DCPD-201100431/pdf/DCPD-201100431.pdf
This immediately caught the attention of conspiracy theorists, who portrayed it as a "land grab" - somehow the council was supposed to take land away from rural farmers as part of a UN program galled "Agenda 21". Some versions of this theory were quite extreme:
http://www.infowars.com/executive-o...ural-and-agricultural-lands-for-un-agenda-21/
It's not entirely clear where they get this idea. The actual executive order gives the council no powers, it's basically just a bringing together of 24 different departments so they can focus on an area of common interest. It changes no laws, and the council appears to have no powers other than to get people talking to each other.
What seems to be suspicious to the conspiracy theorists is the large number of different government departments on the council - and this is portrayed as somehow creating a huge expensive government bureaucracy.
http://americanpolicy.org/executive-order-13575/
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2011/07/1...ural-and-agricultural-lands-for-un-agenda-21/
This really just demonstrates a misunderstanding of what White House Councils are for. This is best illustrated by comparing it to another council, the White House Council on Women and Girls. Here are the two relevant press releases, with the text of the executive orders.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...order-establishment-white-house-rural-council
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...-creating-white-house-council-women-and-girls
Note that they use the same boilerplate text. Both were created by executive order. They both have the same list of 25 government departments. They both have the same basic mission (coordinating departments), and the same general provisions, which essentially say the council has no authority over existing departments.
The truth is that these councils are nothing special. There's plenty of them, and all with the same long list of members, because it's basically a mechanism to coordinate policy effectively across all departments. Something you'd think people would want, right?
Here's another:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...se-council-automotive-communities-and-workers
The problem here is that people are comparing the Rural Council to something like the Council of Economic Advisors, or even the National Security Council, instead of what it more closely resembles in terms of actual power: The Council on Women and Girls.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/DCPD-201100431/pdf/DCPD-201100431.pdf
This immediately caught the attention of conspiracy theorists, who portrayed it as a "land grab" - somehow the council was supposed to take land away from rural farmers as part of a UN program galled "Agenda 21". Some versions of this theory were quite extreme:
http://www.infowars.com/executive-o...ural-and-agricultural-lands-for-un-agenda-21/
This council can be viewed as nothing less than the establishment of a domestic terrorism group which will orchestrate the coming assault on private agricultural property owners in an effort to force them off their land and out of production. There was an effort during the Reagan presidency to launch a similar assault on individual owners of agricultural land which would have displaced more than 2 million people, handing their land over to others who were more amenable to the government and UN control.
It's not entirely clear where they get this idea. The actual executive order gives the council no powers, it's basically just a bringing together of 24 different departments so they can focus on an area of common interest. It changes no laws, and the council appears to have no powers other than to get people talking to each other.
What seems to be suspicious to the conspiracy theorists is the large number of different government departments on the council - and this is portrayed as somehow creating a huge expensive government bureaucracy.
http://americanpolicy.org/executive-order-13575/
The Obama Administration has issued an Executive Order that creates massive top-down control of our nation’s rural areas.
It will create a massive bureaucracy overseen by 25 Cabinet Secretaries who will be joined by a hoard of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) self-proclaimed “stakeholders,” and other special interest who stand to gain power and wealth.
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2011/07/1...ural-and-agricultural-lands-for-un-agenda-21/
This really just demonstrates a misunderstanding of what White House Councils are for. This is best illustrated by comparing it to another council, the White House Council on Women and Girls. Here are the two relevant press releases, with the text of the executive orders.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...order-establishment-white-house-rural-council
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...-creating-white-house-council-women-and-girls
Note that they use the same boilerplate text. Both were created by executive order. They both have the same list of 25 government departments. They both have the same basic mission (coordinating departments), and the same general provisions, which essentially say the council has no authority over existing departments.
The truth is that these councils are nothing special. There's plenty of them, and all with the same long list of members, because it's basically a mechanism to coordinate policy effectively across all departments. Something you'd think people would want, right?
Here's another:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press...se-council-automotive-communities-and-workers
The problem here is that people are comparing the Rural Council to something like the Council of Economic Advisors, or even the National Security Council, instead of what it more closely resembles in terms of actual power: The Council on Women and Girls.