A Republican Missouri state legislator with ties to the birther movement has joined forces with an activist who uses a Glenn Beck video as "proof" that the United Nations wants the elderly to kill themselves.
Their alliance is aimed at overriding a veto from Gov. Jay Nixon (D), who this year killed a a bill that would enact a statewide ban on the U.N. program known as Agenda 21.
Agenda 21 was developed during the U.N.'s 1992 climate change conference, and it promotes a series of recommendations for sustainable development. Although then-President George H.W. Bush signed on to the plan, it is not a treaty that can be ratified by the Senate and therefore is not law in the United States. Agenda 21 is also a favorite target for the tea party, which has claimed the program would seize private property and force people to move into walkable communities.
Missouri state Rep. Lyle Rowland (R-Cedarcreek) has emailed his colleagues to push for a vote that would override Nixon's veto. The correspondence includes a letter from Todd Isaac Skelton, the leader of Missourians Against Agenda 21, who claims the program would allow governments to start taking private property.
Skelton's website prominently features a video in which conservative pundit Beck makes specious claims about the U.N.'s sustainability program, strongly implying that its intended effect would be population control by euthanizing the elderly. Skelton says the video is evidence of the true ill intentions of the program.
Glenn Beck has admitted that the video played into conspiracy theories and that he used it in order to promote interest in a fiction book he wrote on Agenda 21.
Yet Rowland explained his position, similar to Skelton's, to The Huffington Post.
"It is 'we are going to condemn your property for a nature trail or a new park,' and no one voted on it," Rowland said. "That's what I want to put a stop to. If people want a new park then they vote on it. If they want to condemn property for a new nature trail, let them vote."
A veto override session is scheduled for Sept. 11 and Rowland is hopeful his push will come to a vote. A spokesman for state House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) did not return a call for comment. A measure to override a gubernatorial veto needs a super majority from the state legislature. If the initial vote to pass the Agenda 21 ban -- before it was vetoed by Nixon -- is any indication, Nixon's veto is likely to be overridden, as the initial vote had the number necessary for a super majority.
Rowland said that the U.S. Department of the Interior's decision to stop the White River Blueway in Missouri and Arkansas is proof to him that Agenda 21 is allowing all levels of government to make decisions in secret to seize private property to build new parks and trails. The Interior Department had approved the Blueway plan but dropped it earlier this month after objections that the program was a way to seize control of private property. Congress is currently reviewing the entire Blueway program.
While Agenda 21 is not U.S. law, Rowland told HuffPost that executive action is being used to implement it -- and not only in the federal government. Rowland added that a local official from the St. Louis area said his community seized someone's land to build a new bike trail that was developed in secret.
Rowland, who last year pushed legislation to require presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates before being allowed on the Missouri ballot, told HuffPost that he has not looked at Skelton's website or viewed the video and thus could not comment on it.
"I just used his letter," Rowland said of Skelton. "I don't know anything about the video. Before I can comment I would have to see it and do some research on my own."
CLARIFICATION: Language in the story has been adjusted to clarify the legal status of Agenda 21.