Free Republic

In the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina, the government of New Orleans has devolved from its traditional status as an elective kleptocracy into something far more dangerous: an anarcho-tyranny that refuses to protect the public from criminals while preventing people from protecting themselves. At the orders of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Police, the National Guard, the Oklahoma National Guard, and U.S. Marshals have begun breaking into homes at gunpoint, confiscating their lawfully-owned firearms, and evicting the residents. "No one is allowed to be armed. We're going to take all the guns," says P. Edwin Compass...

The war to the death against big estates decreed by President Chávez in the Poliedro put paid to the illusions held by many who still believed that the government was going to act rationally and within the confines of the law. ... This Commission will have a “constitutional mandate” to incorporate the land it considers “idle, abandoned or underused” into “the productive process of the country,” according to the Decree on the Reorganization of the Ownership and Use of Land Suitable for Agricultural Use. The land so considered will be handed over to groups of the population and organized communities...

These past days have been rich in demonstrations that the Venezuelan state is sinking fast into some type of tribal units ruled by weapons. Sunday's papers reflected the marvelous contradictions in which we live, making Gabriel Garcia Marquez an illuminated amateur. I wanted to start with the latest on the seizure of El Charcote, that X-thousand acres ranch in Cojedes part of a group of ranches owned by British interests. I use the X as a number since the true extent of the land owned, and by whom, has become the mystery du jour. And the source of quite a...

The land-grabbing ranch expropriators in Venezuela are doing their stealing of lands in Che Guevara tee shirts! Che's not just a nostalgic relic of the past, he is the live image of the recrudescence of communism in action. The Financial Times of the U.K. is doing by far the best job of covering the descent of Venezuela into a Marxist hell. The United States media seemingly couldn't care less about the fate of a very important neighbor. Their performance so far mocks any claim to serve the public with necessary information.

Countries the world over jockey hard to attract foreign investment. They care about it enough to make it a national priority, to send spies against their competitors, to build infrastructure, and to change laws to make their investment climate attractive. Most know of the economy-developing potential of foreign capital. The United States itself was developed this way, largely on British capital which built its great railroads, mining ventures, universities and corporations. China is now the giant of this game opf attractring foreign investment, aptly offering favorable business conditions and great opportunities to businesses the world over. But it's not just...

Venezuela's Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez, has begun confiscating farms and ranches, a violent act worthy of Zimbabwe’s ethinc cleansing, marauding socialist tyrant Robert Mugabe. Like Mugabe, his made his first target a wealthy British aristocrat. But unlike Mugabe, who openly reveled in barbarism, Chavez is using stagecraft calculated to create a melodrama that will excite his supporters, while putting the rest of the world to sleep. And he's doing it to conceal reality Staged with troops, cameras, peasants waving machetes, circling helicopters, Chavez's cow drama aligns “the people” against the 32,000-hectare cattle ranch of Lord Sam Vestey, a British-accented villain...

The Government of Cojedes state took over as proimised the British owned cattle ranch Hato El Charcote. The Goveror stil claims they are respecing private property, but "it is not absolute" whatever that means. You can read more about it here, here and here. The people at the bottom are not part of the intervention, they are the invaders of the ranch, who are protesting because the Government apparently is not going to give them the intervened land, but it will be handed over to 28 cooperatives of farmers.

I have mentioned Carlos Machado Allison in this blog before. He is retired from Universidad Central de Venezuela, was President of the Venezuelan National Fund for Agrarian Research .... He is just finishing a book called “Agriculture in Venezuela”. Today he is interviewed in page 3 of El Nacional ... here are some excerpts: “The agricultural states are the poorest of the country” On the state being the biggest landowner: “This is true; it has so much that it does not even know what it has. Some say it has 8 million hectares, other say 20 million. But there is...

A cattle ranch that Venezuela’s government has targeted for expropriation under a land reform programme. Agroflora, a Vestey Venezuelan subsidiary, said it can prove rightful ownership of the El Charcote ranch in western Venezuela. Under a Land Law enacted by President Hugo Chavez in 2001, the government can seize land if it deems property is not being used productively for agriculture or was obtained illegally. Eliezer Otaiza, director of the National Land Institute, said the ranch sits on land previously owned by the government and Vestey has failed to prove it legally acquired all the land.

Many thought there would at least be political calm after Chavez’ victory in the recall vote and the regional elections. No such luck, that is simply not the style. Chavez thrives on conflict, on pushing people to see how far he may go. When the Governor of Cojedes decreed the intervention of some farms in that state, many thought it was another footnote in the revolution, something even reasonable. I didn’t. That is simply not the style, Chavez was in China when this happened, but few of these Governors act alone or even have a mind of their own, they...

SALT LAKE CITY  -- A suburban junior high math teacher was arrested today for allegedly threatening to go on a shooting rampage if she did not get the assignments she wanted, police said. Sandra Wariner, 57, was taken into custody while on her lunch break at a fast food restaurant, and charged with making a terroristic threat. Principal Steve Lindsay notified police after Wariner allegedly threatened to return to Bountiful Junior High School with a shotgun and open fire at him, students, and other teachers, said Bountiful police Lt. Steve Gray. "What she was concerned about was the classes she...

On July 1, 2003, three days before Pennsylvanians were to begin celebrating our Independence from tyrannical British rule, 13 members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced a bill that would give law enforcement the authority to confiscate all handguns in private possession, unless they are approved by a newly created Handgun Standard Commission.  The catch 22 is that no handgun currently  manufactured today will be able to comply with the standards outlined in the legislation that this Commission must use to approve handgun sales.  These standard(s) will require that the only handguns that will be permitted to be owned...

WASHINGTON, DC -- An allied military plan to confiscate weapons in Iraq may destabilize the nation further by giving the green light to street thugs and Baath Party loyalists who are terrorizing innocent civilians, says the Libertarian Party. "Imposing this gun grab is like declaring war on Iraq for a second time," said Geoffrey Neale, Libertarian Party chairman. "How many innocent men, women and children will be kidnapped, robbed or murdered because their U.S. 'protectors' turned self-defense into a crime?" Iraqi citizens will be forced to surrender their heavy weapons under a proclamation expected this week from U.S. and British...

LOS ANGELES(AP) - City leaders have a message for motorists caught soliciting prostitutes: Police will seize and sell your car. In an ambitious effort to go after customers, the City Council gave initial approval to the law as a way to ease the problem plaguing a number of neighborhoods. The proposed ordinance, endorsed by Police Chief William Bratton, is similar to ones in Stockton and Oakland. It could receive final approval on Tuesday. "If you dry up the market, hopefully the prostitutes will go away," said police Capt. Michael Downing, commanding officer of the Hollywood Division, which accounted for 2,000...