Free Republic

FAIRFAX, Va. - As Erick Williamson sees it, being naked is liberating, and if passers-by get an eyeful while he's standing in front of a picture window, that's not his problem. A Fairfax County judge saw it differently Friday, convicting Williamson, 29, of indecent exposure in a case that raised questions about what's OK when you're in your own home. Two women said they saw much more of Williamson than they cared to in October, even though he never left his home. He received neither jail time nor a fine but is appealing anyway, saying a larger principle is at...

When the new West is won, will there be cowboys? In light of what her neighbors are up to, Double O Ranch owner Vicki Olson isn’t so sure. “I guess the point that I keep hammering at is that if they succeed, that means all of us third- and fourth-generation ranchers are gone,” Olson said. She is the average Montana rancher, 56 going on 70, working a spread gouged from the pebbly soil by her grandparents 100 years ago. Her neighbor, the nonprofit American Prairie Foundation, is methodically acquiring ranches and crafting a 3.5-million-acre wildlife reserve out of private property...

“Not good news ... but that's life. We all end up dead in the end ... it's what we do between birth and death that counts.” Those were the words of our friend, Larry Toelle, just days after receiving the news that he had only a short time to live. Having battled cancer for several years and thinking he’d conquered the beast, this came as a shock to all of us who knew and loved this fine American gentleman. We thought he had more time, that we would get to see him again, but when I got the email from...

A Tribute to my friend Jeff Head, Free Republic’s Eagle Award-FREEPER OF THE YEAR It had only been a few minutes earlier that I hugged blackie, Barb, GrandmaC, redrock and his precious family and headed north out of the narrow canyon, glancing in the rear view mirror at the tiny community of Jarbidge, Nevada. The sun was low in the west, bouncing glistening sparks off the tips of junipers and the winding creek that the narrow dirt road followed. It had been a long three days, my car, gear and my body was covered with a quarter inch of Nevada...

The United Nations says it can end poverty, stop global warming, and end the threat of contagious disease while also unlocking $7 trillion of hidden wealth from developing nations in the process. If this sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. In a new book launched with great fanfare at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The New Public Finance: Responding to Global Challenges, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) claims to offer “innovative financial mechanisms that could dramatically reduce the cost of managing global risks can now be implemented by governments across the world.”...

Jeremy Engelking will appear in Douglas County court this afternoon to face a trespassing charge. But here’s the kicker: The Superior man allegedly trespassed on his own property. Engelking, 27, aimed to hunt deer Wednesday morning when he noticed a pipeline crew on his land. He hopped on his ATV and told workers they had no right to be on his property because he had received no compensation from Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. for an easement. Engelking said workers told him he was in an unsafe place and asked him to come to an equipment staging area, where he continued...

Jeremy Engelking will appear in Douglas County court this afternoon to face a trespassing charge. But here’s the kicker: The Superior man allegedly trespassed on his own property. Engelking, 27, aimed to hunt deer Wednesday morning when he noticed a pipeline crew on his land. He hopped on his ATV and told workers they had no right to be on his property because he had received no compensation from Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. for an easement. Engelking said workers told him he was in an unsafe place and asked him to come to an equipment staging area, where he continued...

Eminent Domain: Four years after the Supreme Court told a Connecticut homeowner that no one's house is safe from developers, Brooklyn homeowners may lose their homes to a pro basketball team. On June 3, 2005, by a 5-4 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively repealed the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, deciding that your constitutional right to be secure in your home didn't matter if your state or community decided your property could produce more revenue as a shopping mall or condominium development. Pfizer coveted Susette Kelo's working-class neighborhood for an office park and condominium complex. The city fathers...

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...

ALL HOMEOWNERS BETTER READ THIS Cap & Trade legislation: This bill is only 1428 pages long. The House passed it without reading and it is in the Senate now awaiting to read it after they come back from their August recess "fact finding trips". Here is the link for the bill http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bil Home owners take note & tell your friends and relatives who are home owners!!! Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to complywith the energy and water efficiency standards of this Act. H.R. 2454, the...

Stories like this just make me weep for my country. In September local Connecticut news station WTNH reported: Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation’s most notorious eminent domain project.There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne’s lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot’s towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs...

The private homes New London, Conn., took through eminent domain from Suzette Kelo and others, are torn down now, but Pfizer has just announced that it closing up shop at the research facility that led to the condemnation. Leading drugmakers Pfizer and Wyeth have merged, and as a result, are trimming some jobs. That includes axing the 1,400 jobs at their sparkling new research & development facility in New London, and moving some across the river to Groton. To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to...

Copy and paste this link, its from the Tennessean they are too ashamed of their stuff to have it posted here... http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091028/NEWS02/91028067/TN+Attorney+General+says+landlords+can+ban+tenants++guns+

You’re standing in your kitchen making coffee. You are naked, but no one else is home. It’s early in the morning and you are in the privacy of your own home. All right, so maybe you’re a little bit odd, and maybe not everyone makes coffee naked. But your house, your rules, right? That’s probably what Virginia resident Eric Williamson was thinking last Monday morning as he made himself coffee while dressed in nothing but his birthday suit. Unfortunately for Williamson, he wasn’t quite as alone as he thought. Walking through his yard were a woman and her seven-year-old son,...

The “innocent until proven guilty” concept is at the very heart of our legal system. Government ought not be able to exact punishment for a crime until proof has been established, beyond a reasonable doubt, by a jury of one’s peers.But this foundational principle of justice has been tossed out the window in recent years, at least in one realm, that of civil or asset forfeiture. Civil forfeiture allows police to seize more than $1 billion worth of property each year — cash, cars, boats, etc. — that is alleged to have been used in the furtherance of a crime.The...

Taxes fund environmental suits - Environmental law firms reap billions in fees to fund lawsuits October 15, 2009 The federal government has paid out billions of dollars to environmental groups for attorney fees and costs, according to data assembled by a Cheyenne, Wyoming, lawyer. Karen Budd-Falen of Budd-Falen Law Offices [main@buddfalen.com or 307-632-5105] said the government between 2003 and 2007 paid more than $4.7 billion in taxpayer money to environmental law firms -- and that's just in the lawsuits she tracked. The actual figure, she said, is far greater. "I think we only found that the iceberg exists," she said....

In a case where a firearm was locked in the glove box of a postal employee, the strong central government once again stuck it's chest out and scoffed at the Second Amendment. From an appeals case in U.S. District Five: “the Postal Service owned the parking lot...and its restrictions on guns stemmed from its constitutional authority as the property owner” How arrogant of the Judges to rule that someone other than “we the people” own the postal property. Finally there is no constitutional authority granting them any right to restrict firearms, they do so only by a string of rulings...

CANTON, Ohio — After taking a class that covered global warming last year, Jill Saylor decided to save energy by drying her laundry on a clothesline at her mobile home. "I figured trailer parks were the one place left where hanging your laundry was actually still allowed," she said, standing in front of her tidy, yellow mobile home on an impeccably manicured lawn. But she was wrong. Like the majority of the 60 million people who live in the nation's roughly 300,000 private communities, Saylor was forbidden to dry her laundry outside because many people viewed it as an eyesore,...

A British farmer who stood up to Robert Mugabe and was beaten, abducted and finally had his house burnt down has travelled to Washington to ask the Obama administration to put pressure on the Zimbabwe government before it seizes the last remaining white farms. Ben Freeth and his wife Laura with their children Anna, Phillip and Josh. Ben Freeth, who moved to Zimbabwe from Kent, joined his father-in-law Mike Campbell in taking Mugabe to an international court to stop the farm seizures. Their secret footage of the campaign of intimidation launched against them will form part of a film to...

A Pennsylvania man who refuses to allow city officials to enter his home without a warrant has been forced out to stay in a hotel instead, evicted by a notice posted on his door that forbids him from using or occupying the building he owns. Borough Ordinance No. 1188 of Lansdowne, Penn., requires all rental properties – including the private residence of the landlord, if he lives onsite – be subjected to annual inspections, with or without a warrant. But Michael Marcavage, who lives in half of a Lansdowne duplex he owns, renting out the other half, believes the city...

Should one of New York's great landmarks be used to honor of the 60th anniversary of the bloody Communist uprising and takeover of China?

Here’s a good one. An American icon, The Empire State Building will be turning red and yellow to mark the 60th anniversary of communist China. The Empire State Building is regularly lit different colors to signify different events throughout history or to observe holidays. This one takes the cake however. Communist China is in the process of helping to ruin our economy and probably does as much as possible to undercut our every move when it comes to rogue regimes like North Korea. So hey, let’s honor the commies by lighting a building in honor of what? 60 years of...

Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation's most notorious eminent domain project. But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.

A Chilton County [AL] woman is fighting an effort by federal prosecutors to seize her home and 40 acres in a marijuana case against her husband, who committed suicide during his trial. Mara Lynn Williams, 56, a cancer survivor who works as a nurse at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, said she knew that her husband, Royce, 53, used marijuana for chronic pain after multiple surgeries. But she said she did not know he was growing it on their acreage, and she was not charged in the criminal case. Her husband was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in a car...

Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt. (snip) The Senate rejected the amendment by a largely party-line 61-36 margin, with Feinstein opposing the restoration of water deliveries to farmers. The California senator claimed she was blindsided by the amendment to the bill she was managing in the Senate, bizarrely comparing the move to a "Pearl Harbor." "No one from California has called, written or indicated they wanted this on the calendar," Feinstein protested.

Delta smelts: Preferred over humans. Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.Now it's a place where farmers no longer farm, but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the...

If you plan to attend the protest with Sean Hannity tomorrow and don't know what to wear, print this reversed on a t-shirt iron-on.

NEW YORK – A government that is constitutionally required to offer each citizen a "useful" job in the farms or industries of the nation. A country whose leadership intercedes to ensure every farmer can sell his product for a good return. A nation that has the power to act against "unfair competition" and monopolies in business. This is not a description of Cuba, communist China, or the USSR until 1991. It's the vision of the future of the U.S, as mandated by a radical new "bill of rights" drawn up and pushed by President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass...

You owe your life — and everything else — to the sovereign. The rights of subjects are not natural rights, but merely grants from the sovereign. There is no right even to complain about the actions of the sovereign, except insofar as the sovereign allows the subject to complain. These are the principles of unlimited, arbitrary, and absolute power, the principles of such rulers as Louis XIV. Intellectuals have assiduously promoted them; think of Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. A new intellectual champion of absolutism has now emerged. Mild-mannered University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein has been advancing the...

For the next several days, I will publish letters and Essays by Vladamir Lenin On the United States. Examine Bolshevik views on the US way of life and free market. I hope you all find it very interesting Marxism and the American General Redistribution In Issue 15 of Vperyod April 20th 1905, Vladimir Lenin discusses Marx's views of America's founding and on land distribution....The year was not 1848 as erroneously stated in the article by Comrade-, but 1846. Herman Krige, a Co-worker of Marx and at the time a very young man, had gone to America in 1845 and there...

A friend of mine in the radio business called me recently to ask what I think about the "performance tax" issue. If you are a regular listener to talk radio, you've probably heard ads decrying a plan to impose a "tax on radio." In essence, it is an imposed royalty; the government would force radio stations to cut a check to an entity, which would send those funds to record companies. A government board of Copyright Royalty Judges would send the check, as opposed to a negotiation between the businesses themselves. Most of the money would go to the record...

Back in June we published an article about a land grab the State of North Carolina was attempting to make on land owned by Alcoa, Inc. You can get the background on this particular issue in that earlier article. The N. C. Property Rights Coalition is reporting tonight (7-28-09) that a significant victory for private property owners in the state. By a vote of 8-6 the House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee rejected a bill SB 967 that would have opened the door for the state to take over Alcoa's privately owned dams, powerhouses and other facilities on the Yadkin...

Empty turtle shells, decaying skunk carcasses and a set of deer antlers lay strewn about an empty campsite in California's Sierra National Forest. The butchered animals, as well as several five-pound propane canisters, camp stoves and heaps of trash, were all that remained of the 69 marijuana plantations recently uncovered in Fresno County as part of operation "Save our Sierras." The massive operation that began in February has already seized about 318,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced last week. In addition to 82 arrests, the multi-jurisdictional federal, state and local operation netted 42 pounds of processed...

HELP!!! Freepers, I need an attorney specializing in property rights ASAP. The country sent me a notice they would be maintaining the creek behind my house for drainage purposes. What they didn't say is that they'd be removing all the trees that impede their big rig- which means I lose my privacy!!! I called the drainage commission in Ottawa County and they said they had the right to do whatever was necessary to maintain the creek, including removing trees and leaving them on my property for me to clean up. My property line goes to the middle of the creek....

Here is video of protesters outside a North Carolina Mall protesting the decision of the Concord Mills Mall to give the boot to a Conservative Kiosk because they said the products sold there were too "inflammatory." This despite the fact many other products with similar themes or liberal advocacy are being sold throughout the mall. About 100 protesters turned out, including an 80 year-old woman who said "I just decided, if not me, who?" . . . . (Watch Video)

Her appointment could further shrink the property rights of homeowners and small businesses, says law professor Ilya Somin in an editorial. Somin says that Sotomayor takes the Supreme Court's controversial 5-to-4 Kelo decision, which allowed homes to be seized for the benefit of developers, and expands it beyond even what the Supreme Court intended:

If you thought Judge Sonia Sotomayor's controversial stances on racial issues were problematic, you should get a gander at the Supreme Court nominee's apparent hostility to property rights. Judge Sotomayor served as the senior judge on one 2006 case, Didden v. Village of Port Chester, which respected University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein described as "about as naked an abuse of government power as could be imagined." Her judicial panel's ruling might be the worst violation of property rights ever approved by a federal appeals court. It is part of a pattern of Judge Sotomayor's pro-government rulings that run...

The history of Colorado is rich in the tradition of private property and gun rights to protect life and property. The fundamental right to keep and bear arm for the purpose of protecting life and property was reinvigorated in 2003 by the State’s General Assembly. Now, a new tactic is being used by Adams County officials to eviscerate those fundamental rights in a criminal prosecution of a small farmer who clearly was within the grand tradition of the State.   The Colorado Constitution was formed 100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That additional time was...

More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.Kids at Creative Steps Day Camp were thrilled to go swimming once a week at the Valley Swim Club. But after only one trip to the private club, they were... "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor. The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You've gotta hear this sound bite from Henry Waxman this afternoon with Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington, on MSNBC.  She said, "Republican leader John Boehner, in explaining why he was reading the bill on the floor," meaning the cap-and-trade fiasco, "told The Hill newspaper, 'People deserve to know what's in this pile of [expletive.]'  Does that indicate what kind of relationship has now developed between the Democrat majority and the Republican opposition right now?" WAXMAN:  Since Obama has become president, the Republicans have said no to an economic stimulus bill, are saying no to the global warming...

A Logan County judge ruled last week that the state Department of Environmental Protection should grant Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. the permits it needs to develop gas wells in the 3,300-acre Chief Logan State Park. Story by Dan Page Email | Bio | Other Stories by A Logan County judge ruled last week that the state Department of Environmental Protection should grant Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. the permits it needs to develop gas wells in the 3,300-acre Chief Logan State Park. Let's give a rousing cheer for Logan County Circuit Judge Roger L. Perry, whose opinion protects the...

Vanity: Can anyone point me in the direction of a good website to search information on property rights for land courted property in Cape Cod and rights to rebuild a home regardless of neighbors view changing on coast.Looking for case law, articles.... I'd appreciate any help.Thanks

Every now and then, even in Oregon, environmental activists and property rights advocates find themselves on the same side of the political fence. One of those politics-makes-strange-bedfellows issues has been brewing in the Oregon Legislature and may still find its way to the governor's desk if Senate strategists can get it to the floor for a vote. House Bill 3058, which passed the House a couple of weeks ago, would allow private companies seeking to construct "linear utility or transportation" facilities to apply for removal and fill permits for wetlands on other people's property. These companies already have the considerable...

Despite strong opposition from agricultural groups and private property rights advocates, a bill that would expand the federal reach of the Clean Water Act, and that could have sweeping effects on everyday farming activities, passed out of a key U.S. Senate committee last week. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 12-7 to advance S. 787, also known as the Clean Water Restoration Act, which now faces consideration by the full Senate. If adopted, the legislation would give the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers authority over nearly every wet area in the nation, including farm...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is moving forward with a floor vote on climate change legislation this week even though many Democrats are undecided on the controversial bill. Pelosi’s gamble to schedule a Friday vote is one of the riskiest moves she has made as Speaker. There are at least eight Democrats who are firm “no” votes, while many others are on the fence (see chart page 14). In an indication that Democrats lack the necessary votes to pass it on their side of the aisle, Pelosi and other party leaders have met with centrist Republicans seeking their support. Pelosi and...

While some San Francisco renters breathe a sigh of relief, landlords are outraged at a series of new regulations coming from the tenant-friendly Board of Supervisors. On Tuesday, the board voted to pass a package of renters' rights laws authored by Supervisor Chris Daly, and another supervisor introduced a measure that would make it illegal for owners who want to move into their property to evict families with children. The new legislation, authored by Supervisor Eric Mar, is aimed at keeping families with children stable and in affordable housing. It will expand existing laws, which already protect seniors, disabled people...

A Documentary Critical of the California Coastal Commission Under Attack June 17, 2009 - A filmmaker who is producing Sins of Commission, a movie critical of the California Coastal Commission’s infringement on private property rights, was served a subpoena by the commission to acquire raw footage of the film before its final release! Claiming that this intimidation is an attack on his 1st Amendment Rights, the filmmaker is going public. This legal tactic comes as no surprise to property owners who have dealt with a commission who has denied them the ability to make even the most modest improvements to...

TOLEDO, Ohio – Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways. Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (FINK'-by-ner) says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways.

... Judge Sonia Sotomayor will doubtless be questioned about Kelo at her confirmation hearings next month. But her answers will be complicated by her participation in a 2006 decision applying and extending Kelo. Bart Didden, the property owner on the losing side of that decision, Didden v. Village of Port Chester, said in an interview that he had been contacted by aides to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who seemed eager to explore Judge Sotomayor’s views on property rights. The ruling in Didden is not popular among some property rights and constitutional law professors. Eight of them filed a...

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint. Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply...