Free Republic

Wall Street warns against using eminent domain to seize underwater mortgagesBy Peter Schroeder - 08/19/12 05:00 PM ET Heavy hitters in the financial industry are lining up against a new idea brewing among local government officials to help struggling homeowners by seizing control of their mortgages through eminent domain. With many areas of the country still digging out from the housing crisis, some local governments are considering taking on the underwater mortgages at a substantially lower price, thus making them more affordable for the borrower. With policymakers at the federal, state and local level struggling to find a way to...

The Wall Street Journal reports that seizing mortgage could yield BIG returns for investors. “Tapping the power of eminent domain to repair underwater mortgages could generate investor returns of up to 30% and billions of dollars in fees for bankers behind the proposal, according to people with knowledge of the plan. Despite the controversy, some potential investors in Mortgage Resolution’s plan are stepping forward. “We think the program has legs and a fairly strong legal justification” to seize mortgages with eminent domain, said Tom Capasse, co-head of Waterfall Asset Management, which said it is considering investing in the plan.” Of...

In his op-ed, Professor Shiller discusses an approach by Professor Robert Hockett from Cornell Law School – using eminent domain powers of government to force principal writedowns for mortgages. “Professor Hockett argues that a government, whether federal, state or local, can start doing just this right now, using large databases of information about mortgage pools and homeowner credit scores. After a market analysis, it seizes the mortgages. Then it can pay them off at fair value, or a little over that, with money from new investors, issuing new mortgages with smaller balances to the homeowners. Taxpayers are not involved, and...

House votes to overturn Supreme Court decision on eminent domainBy Pete Kasperowicz - 02/28/12 05:19 PM ET The House on Tuesday afternoon approved legislation that overturns a 2005 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the ability of states to take control of private property under the doctrine of eminent domain and hand it to another private developer. That decision, Kelo v. City of New London, led to sharp complaints in particular from Republicans, who argued that the Court ignored the normal "public use" standard. Under that standard, eminent domain was seen as permissible only when the land or property taken would...

Hi all - I need some help finding a good spot to host a web site for a friend of mine. I use GoDaddy for some of my personal stuff, but was trying to see if there are any other good/fast/cheap alternatives. I need to register his new domain and need just a few megs of space for an informational web site that will be no longer than 2 or 3 pages and a couple of links. Any pointers would be a big help. Thanks!

A plan to populate the internet with hundreds or thousands of new top-level domains has security researchers pondering some of the unintended consequences that could be exploited by online criminals. Some of the scenarios aren't pretty. Consider the mayhem that might result from addresses that end in “exchange,” “mailserver,” “domain,” or other strings that are frequently used to designate highly sensitive resources on corporate and government networks. If a glitch ever caused an email program or other application to reach one of these external addresses, instead of the internal server carrying the identical host name, the outcome could prove disastrous...

Imagine you're a respectable, law-abiding owner of a small business. You show up to your shop one morning, only to find the doors barred and a big sign in front window reading, "The federal government has seized this business as it's affiliated with creating, distributing, and/or storing child pornography." Worse yet, imagine that every other business on the block was similarly locked up and had the same damning explanation on their front window. And even once the confusion was cleared up with the feds, it took a few days more to get all the signs down and all of the...

Following on from news of the third phase of ‘piracy’ and counterfeit related domain seizures in 7 months, US Senator Ron Wyden has asked the director of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to clarify some of the most pressing questions. If the domain seizures are to continue, the Obama administration has to be more open about the need for them and the process involved, he argues. Earlier this week we broke the news that US authorities had started a third round of domain seizures. This time, it turned out that the actions were aimed at sports streaming sites....

In the spirit of settling the wild, wild West, some communities are giving away free land lots. What's the catch? You have to agree to build a house (or park a mobile home) and live in it. For the most part, the places doing this are rural communities without much in the way of work opportunities. But there are definitely some upsides and we can think of worse places to wait out the recession than near a mountain stream in Alaska. Besides, doesn't the whole world work virtually now, or is that just my hemisphere? The concept is certainly not...

Internet domain name registry GoDaddy.com has put itself up for sale, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

There’s good news and bad news. First, the bad. As we all know, there just aren’t enough places to play skee-ball in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Which just ain’t right. But fear not. The good news rights that wrong. I have found the perfect location for skee ball this side of Steel Pier. Unfortunately for Mount Holly mayor Tom Gibson, that location happens to be where his house now sits. Hey, stuff happens. All that remains to be done is grease the political skids and file the paperwork required to seize Gibby’s house through eminent domain. Isn’t it great when...

The Democratic nominee for the Texas governor’s race, Bill White, continues his downward spiral in his campaign against Texas Governor Rick Perry, the Republican nominee. His sparsely-attended political gatherings are showing its effects on opinion polls. According to the Houston Chronicle, “a new Rasmussen Reports poll of Texans finds Texas Gov. Rick Perry with enough support to win the election for the first time this year. Former Houston Mayor Bill White in the meantime has lost ground, despite a round of television advertising.” Apparently, Mr. White is losing support in his home-base of Houston. The ‘Bill White Houston Political Machine’...

Scott Brown and four other Republicans have joined the Democrats to end debate on a phony jobs bill that even the Associated Press points out would create an insignificant number of jobs. Perhaps Mr. Brown should run as a Independent in 2012. ScottBrownForPresident.com is for sale, email us if you are interested.

An entire neighborhood was uprooted to make way for a big money development which will never be built!Want to know why people are mad at the nexus between big government and big money? The Famous 'Kelo House' Property Is Now A Vacant Lot By John Carney The Business Insider Law Review Nov. 10, 2009 What you are looking at above is a monument to government folly. It is the vacant lot where the home of Susette Kelo once stood. A decade ago, the town of New London, Connecticut claimed Kelo's house by right of eminent domain. The plan was to...

I saw this posted on a local forum and thought it would be a great name for someone who wants to gather together all of the empty suit news, humor and data on Obama. Remember the anti-Bush site AllHatNoCattle.com? Well how about AllTurbaanNoCamel.com (the domain is available according to godaddy.com as are all the other domain suffixes)? Get it before someone else does.

I read in Newsweek that an Eminent Domain case is going to be heard this term by SCOTUS ... Does anyone have the case name or know when it is on the docket for oral argument ???

The U.S. government and the body in charge of assigning Internet addresses signed an agreement on Wednesday that allows for greater global participation in the Internet domain name process. The U.S. Commerce Department said it reached an agreement with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), drawing praise from U.S. lawmakers, who wanted more trademark protections, and companies and international officials seeking greater independence from U.S. control.

Gospel recording artist Donnie McClurkin composed a popular song titled “Stand” (Released September 25, 2007 under the Verity Label). It’s a song written for inspiration and encouragement in the midst of a personal storm. During the song the artist ask a question, while at the same time proposing a universal answer.

Using its power of eminent domain, the city of Houston seized the land for the park from brothers James and Jock Collins last year. Officials claimed there was a "public necessity" for the park in the Uptown area, despite the fact that a much larger one — the 4.7-acre Grady Park — is just two blocks away. What will the new "pocket park" be used for? That's hard to say. The city has yet to draw up any plans for the land at the corner of Post Oak Lane and San Felipe. In fact, city parks director Joe Turner testified...

Soviet Internet Domain Survives – in Obscurity 13 August 2008 By Anna Yukhananov / Special to The Moscow Times In the culmination of a decades-long debate, the international community has finally recognized the Soviet Union — online, that is. The ISO, or International Organization for Standardization, voted this summer to grant the .su domain the status of exclusively reserved. Previously, all web sites ending in .su were to be phased out by 2042, at the latest. "The zone is stable, it lives, and it will always live," Vladimir Molchanov, deputy director of the nonprofit Foundation for Internet Development, told a...

GRANJENO, Texas (AP) - Founded 240 years ago, this sleepy Texas town along the Rio Grande has outlasted the Spanish, then the Mexicans and then the short-lived independent Republic of Texas. But it may not survive the U.S. government's effort to secure the Mexican border with a steel fence. A map obtained by The Associated Press shows that the double- or triple-layer fence may be built as much as two miles from the river on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, leaving parts of Granjeno and other nearby communities in a potential no-man's-land between the barrier and the water's...

Hanover Public School District Superintendent Jill Dillon said filing preliminary objections to Hanover Borough's use of eminent domain to take the recreation field, as well as Myers Memorial Playground, from the district costs between $185 and $425 an hour based on the skill, experience and seniority of the individuals performing the tasks. (snip) And as for the cost. "It certainly will not be cheap, that's for sure, for either side," Glenn said. Glenn said it seemed like an interesting case with one public entity taking property from another. He studies eminent domain on a federal level, not at the state...

'.XXX' Domain Name Under Consideration Again By Nathan Burchfiel CNSNews.com Staff Writer January 19, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - The organization in charge of approving Internet domains has reintroduced a controversial proposal to create a domain registry specifically for pornographic content. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in June 2005 approved the creation of the ".xxx" domain. But in May 2006, the organization voted against a contract with domain distributor ICM Registry, in part because of outcry from conservative family groups. Since then, the ICANN and ICM Registry have worked to revise the terms of the original contract, adding...

Arlington, Va—“Your money or your property” may soon become the mantra of politically connected developers nationwide as the result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement today that it will not consider the appeal of an eminent domain case involving attempted private extortion. The case the Court declined to review arose out of the Village of Port Chester, N.Y., one of the nation’s worst eminent domain abusers. The Village’s chosen developer approached property owner Bart Didden and his business partner with an offer they couldn’t refuse. Because Didden planned to build a CVS on his property—land the developer coveted for a...

Republicans, This Is Why You MUST Vote!Written by Doc FarmerMonday, November 6 2006ChronWatch.com Tomorrow is Election Day. The miracle provided to you by the Founding Fathers in 1776, and protected and preserved for you by the blood of our best. A miracle that most Americans, sadly, take for granted. Don't be one of those who take it for granted. Especially if you're a rep/con/tair -- my more accurate term for the so-called "right". An amalgam of the core political constructs of Republicans, conservatives and libertarians. For many, many months, you've been told that the lib/dem/soc/commies (my more accurate term for...

I have an Internet-related question.I want to look up all of the domains registered to a particular registrant. Can this be done by using a WhoIS web site or through some other available search engine or other means?Thanks much for any help.

A small band of archers has been shooting bows and arrows for 37 years on a range in the Pike National Forest north of Deckers, paying the U.S. Forest Service about $450 a year for a permit. This year it will all end because the Forest Service presented the Columbine Bowmen with a bill for $23,000 for the one-year permit, said club president Tom Younger. The same fate faces the 180 or so members of the Buffalo Creek Gun Club, who shoot targets in the Pike forest near Bailey. The club's annual permit fee of $150 over the past 40...

Six months ago, Alexander Sterin was running a laundromat in East Camden with 6,000 square feet of fluffing and folding. He paid his workers and his taxes, and still had plenty of quarters left to support his family. Today, Sterin is a financial mess and the Wash House is abandoned. Graffiti covers the walls, weeds wind through the parking lot. Men loiter near the boarded-up entrance, ignoring the signs that read No Trespassing: Property of the State of New Jersey. For this, Sterin - and Camden - have the New Jersey Schools Construction Corp. (SCC) to blame. The SCC condemned...

Joy and Carl Gamble bought an English stucco house in Norwood, Ohio, in 1969. They raised two children there and worked seven days a week in their small grocery store to pay off the mortgage. “ We had the house fixed up just the way we liked it,” Carl says. “When we retired, we planned to sit down and enjoy it.” But now the Gambles live in their daughter’s basement. Their house stands vacant in the weedy field that was their neighborhood—seized by the city and transferred to a developer who wants to build shops, offices and condominiums. In Long...

Since the NY Times believes it's in the public interest to put us all at increased risk at the hands of terrorists, and since untold millions will now have to be expended to develop new methods to track terrorist financing I think that a New York city location such as the NY Times building would be better used for some other purpose. And it would seem ironic justice if the same faulty ruling brought to us by the liberal judges be used to rid NY of the terrorist aiding Times. So my challenge is (and be clean) what better use...

WASHINGTON — President Bush declared Friday that the federal government can only seize private property for a public use such as a hospital or road. The president signed an executive order in response to a Supreme Court decision granting local governments broad power to bulldoze people's homes to make way for private development. It was the one-year anniversary of the controversial Supreme Court decision in a case involving New London, Conn., homeowners. The majority opinion from the divided court limited homeowners rights, by saying that local governments could take private property for purely economic development-related projects because the motive was...

The Quinnipiac University telephone poll conducted last June 13 disclosed that Bob Casey's lead over Sen. Rick Santorum since October was 52% to 34% (with sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points). Santorum's job approval rating has also dropped to 38%. Base on the poll results, Clay Richards (Quinnipiac poll assistant director) said, "Sen. Santorum appears to be his own worst enemy in his battle for re-election."

U.S. Sen. George Allen (R-VA) introduced a concealed-weapons bill on May 26 that would "simply require" US states to recognize each other's concealed-carry licenses and permits. But Virginians Against Handgun Violence Executive Director Jim Sollo criticized the bill.

A new CNN poll found that 47% of respondents would "definitely not vote for" Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

A Quinnipiac University poll found 60 percent of New Jersey voters oppose Gov. Jon Corzine's proposed 1 percent sales tax increase, which is seen by a number of Democrats as the only alternative to help close a $4.5 billion budget deficit.

Here are articles showing Clinton's unclear stance on the issue, she advocates "abortion as a matter of right" and yet criticizes other government for its use to control population calling it “fundamental injustice". ...now which side are you Hillary?..is this clear indecisiveness a showing of trying to accomodate everyone on both sides of the issue..for more votes?... 1. http://www.votersdomain.com/article.php?aid=3263&tid=103&from=search 2. http://www.votersdomain.com/article.php?aid=5892&tid=103 Check the site, there's more on abortion and what political representatives have to say about the issue. http://www.votersdomain.com/search.php

City officials use fanciful arguments to explain why, say, a Costco is a public purpose because it brings in more tax revenue than the neighborhood that was there before it. With that simple twist of a phrase, essential constitutional property protections have been obliterated. You might own a small warehouse, but a developer wants to build a new high rise on the site. The government will come in and offer you the value of the warehouse (and will usually lowball the price and often force you to go to court to get a higher price, where you will pay your...

LONG BEACH, Calif. (BP)--City leaders in Long Beach, Calif., have classified the Filipino Baptist Fellowship’s building as a blighted area and are forcing the congregation out in order to make way for condominiums. The path for the case was laid when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last summer in Kelo v. New London, Connecticut that a city’s use of eminent domain to transfer property from one private party to another may qualify as a “public use” protected by the Constitution. John Eastman, director of The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence who is defending the church, said the case -–...

-snip- Last fall Mr. Peterson told a Senate subcommittee that when the government threatens to condemn people's property because it thinks someone else can make better use of it, "a majority of the time, most people agree to sell." Interesting. Given the choice between selling and fighting an expensive legal battle they will almost certainly lose, after which they will have to give up their land anyway, probably on less advantageous terms, most people "agree" to sell. -snip-

ATLANTA — Local governments would be prohibited from condemning private property to put money in the pockets of developers under legislation unveiled Wednesday by Gov. Sonny Perdue. Taking charge of a legislative debate that has spawned dozens of bills, the governor proposed both a constitutional amendment and a law banning eminent domain for economic development purposes. The two measures also would allow only elected officials to make decisions on condemning private properties for any reason. "The government's awesome power of eminent domain should be used sparingly and never be abused for private benefit," Perdue said during a news conference at...

It happened late in January on the FOX network's Hannity and Colmes program, with the pretty blonde, Estrich, in her abrasive voice subbing for the absent abrasive Colmes. The subject was eminent domain, a process by which a government "condemns" private property and takes it for "public" use. Until recently, I had never seen it used for any other purpose than to make way for a road or a public development of some kind. A park, a facility to keep equipment, like fire trucks, in a central location. A place to put a school. Those sorts of things. Then, the...

Date: January 20, 2006 From: Jerry Falwell EMINENT DOMAIN KNOCKING ON CHURCH’S DOOR I learned this week that a small Baptist church in Oklahoma is at risk of losing its place of worship because it sits on a site where city leaders want to build a shopping plaza. This eminent domain business is getting serious. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo ruling last year, we are facing a brand new ballgame in terms of private property and what that term really means. For the Rev. Roosevelt Gildon, pastor of the Centennial Baptist Church in Sand Springs, Okla., eminent domain is...

After more than a decade fighting county officials and developers over a Midvale shopping center, Pearl Meibos and her family have finally come out on top. The Utah Supreme Court sided with the family this week in a fight over the Family Center shopping complex, which boxed in her family's century-old homestead with little room to spare. For shoppers, the ruling means the Ross Dress for Less and Bed, Bath & Beyond stores on Fort Union Boulevard could be partially torn down. Some of the Wal-Mart parking lot also could be torn out. For members of Meibos' Croxford family -...

OAKLAND, Calif. — Revelli Tire ( search) has been a family-owned business in Oakland, Calif., for 56 years. But if action by the city council remains on course, the tire store will have to find a new home or go the way of the dinosaur. In July, using the power of eminent domain, the Oakland City Council evicted John Revelli from his store and locked the doors. The council's argument: One landowner should not impede the progress of a city on the move. "I am being forced to give up and give away all I have worked for all these...

Union Township, N.J. -- Carol Segal has a problem: He wants to build townhouses on the six acres of land he owns in New Jersey's Union Township and has contracted with a developer to build 100 townhouses there. But the township government wants to develop the property themselves, and - incredibly - they have voted to take his land through the eminent domain process and let a local developer with political connections do the job. "They want to steal my land," Segal told the Newark Star-Ledger. "What right do they have when I intend to do the exact same thing...

Real Angry Over Real Estate Why a recent Supreme Court ruling has lots of homeowners hot under the collar By Silla Brush 10/10/05 Stan Dunn and his wife, Barbara, had just sold their home in California and were about to retire to the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga this spring when they heard the rumblings: A developer might tear down their new home--and more than 300 other nearby houses--in order to build a new complex of apartments, townhouses, and businesses to eliminate blight and boost the economy. And while town officials are excited at the prospect, the Dunns say they have...

Lumberton OKs road's location close to house LUMBERTON - In a unanimous 7-0 vote Monday night, the Lumberton City Council approved the proposed location of a connector road that, when built, will run within 50 feet of a paralyzed man's bedroom. "The action plan we passed tonight is part of the design to connect subdivisions to subdivisions in accordance with a city ordinance," Surratt said. "It will help move traffic east to west in our city...." There are four choices now for drivers "He may not get to go boating or fishing. That's his piece of land," Linda Rich said....

Judgment day on eminent domain The state Senate Judiciary Committee today likely will vote on several measures that would curb alarming abuses of eminent domain by California cities and redevelopment agencies. Local governments routinely take property from homeowners and small-business owners and transfer it to large corporations that promise a huge tax windfall to cities that are willing to trample on property rights. A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June - Kelov. City of New London(Conn.) - ruled in favor of such takings, but the public backlash has spurred efforts in most states, including California, to put some limits on...

The Constitution Party invites you to its Fall 2005 National Meeting in Columbus, Ohio on September 16th and 17. Party leaders from across the country will be there and you won't want to miss this event! Special Guest Speaker Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center will be with us to discuss Property Rights and Eminent Domain. Addresses by the party's 2004 standard bearers, Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin, along with a fine list of other outstanding speakers will inform and inspire us all. For more details, visit: http://www.constitutionparty.com/view_events.php Encourage your friends, family and others to come to Columbus so...

Chuck Douglas: 'New' Justice Souter is not the one I remember By CHUCK DOUGLAS Guest Commentary THIS MONTH marks the 20th anniversary of the New Hampshire Supreme Court decision titled Merrill vs. City of Manchester. That case dealt with the question of public use in exactly the same context as did the recent Kelo vs. New London case in the United States Supreme Court. Justice David Souter sat on both cases but came to totally different conclusions.