Posted on 03/05/2007 8:24:25 AM PST by AuntB
Those of us who have been involved in property rights battles appreciated Helen Chenoweth-Hage. What a great loss to all of us due to her untimely fatal accident last year. Talk about your dream ticket for the presidential race.
A poster from Idaho, Helen's home state, on a polictical forum states:
"We are very particular about our conservatives.We like principles and backbone. We elected Helen Chenoweth/Hage and Bill Sali. Helen loved Duncan Hunter and spoke of him often, that is why I loved him before he ever decided to run."
Helen and Duncan had a great appreciation for each other and accomplished much while they were both in congress, especially protecting private property rights.
It was announced this week that the Mt. Soledad Cross, which the ACLU sued to have removed, will in fact remain per the Supreme Court, largely due to the actions of Duncan Hunter.
In a field hearing held by COMMITTEE ON RESOURCES on the Endangered Species act in 1999 in Hemmet, California, Chenoweth and Hunter were in the forefront to protect the average American citizen property owner. They questioned, with little mercy, the bureaucrats who through archaic regulations and unnecessary paperwork were thwarting use of private land by it's legitimate owners. Hunter's comments speak for themselves.
Mr. HUNTER: I think that shows some of the misguided policies, and, Mr. Chairman, I think this falls on our back as well as those of the Administrators. In this effort that is to protect the environment and the perversion that I think we have made of some of the regulations, we have actually damaged the environment. We have massive traffic jams that are a result of people not being able to afford homes in the areas where they work. One reason they cannot afford homes is because we are protecting their environment in the communities where they work. So we have them put out tons of smog on the freeway to get 60 miles away where they can afford a home. So I think that working America has a real stake in seeing to it that we pull back regulation, make it more reasonable and make it more applicable to folks like the gentleman who was in here, Mr. Turecek. I do not know if you saw him, but average people that have pieces of land that they want to develop, to give them a fighting chance at it. Mr. Kading, I appreciate all of the witnesses, but I especially appreciate you being here and laying out the perspective of a working man."
Recently, Hunter has stated this concerning property rights and the Kelo property rights/eminent domain decision by the Supreme Court:
"I am deeply concerned with the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision greatly broadening local government’s use of eminent domain in Kelo vs. New London and believe it is important that Congress protect the property rights of private landowners and curb the government from excessive regulatory takings. It is for this reason that I voted in favor of expressing the grave disapproval of the House of Representatives regarding the majority opinion in the Kelo case.
Additionally, I cosponsored H.R. 3268 , the Eminent Domain Tax Relief Act of 2005, which abolished the capital gains tax on private property taken by the government through eminent domain. I also voted in favor of a legislative amendment offered to H.R. 3058, the FY2006 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, prohibiting federal funding from being used to improve or construct infrastructure support on lands acquired through the use of eminent domain of private property for private development."
Hunter was awarded the American Farm Bureau Federation Friend of Farm Bureau award for the 105th Congress. The "Friend of Farm Bureau" is given each session of Congress to those members of Congress who were nominated by their respective state Farm Bureau and approved by the American Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors.
Helen and Duncan worked on other projects such as controlling trade agreements like Nafta and getting out of the World Trade Organization.
Afta NAFTA - "GOP sponsors of the NAFTA Accountability Act in the 104th Congress included such high-profile conservatives as Duncan Hunter, Zach Wamp, Helen Chenoweth, and Gerald Solomon. In a speech before Congress on March 12, 1996, Hunter claimed that between one and five million jobs had been lost to corporate downsizing over the past three years. "We seem to be giving our own country away" through NAFTA, GATT, the World Bank, and foreign adventurism, he said: "billions and billions to other countries while our own people head for the unemployment office or have to settle for jobs in fast-food restaurants."
From March 27, 2000: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has managed to win seven co-sponsors so far for a resolution that he introduced earlier this month calling on the United States to withdraw from the World Trade Organization. Responding to the congressman's call to co-sponsor the measure, issued in a letter March 10, have been Reps. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho), Duncan L. Hunter (R-Calif.)........
This morning we read an article about Diane Alden, who has been an important journalist in the property rights battle and conservatism in general.
The bio on Adlen states, " Diane's heroes include Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Joan of Arc, St. Padre Pio, Lou Dobbs, the Minutemen, Phyllis Schlafly, Helen Chenoweth-Hage, Barbara Cubin, George Putnam, Marc Bernier, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Jeff Sessions, Mark Kirkorian, Frank Gaffney, Steve Farrell, Peter Brimelow, William Hawkins, her dad Neil Alden, as well as the unsung heroes who have blogged and supported real conservatism and American interests as opposed to the partisan or corporate variety. Most particularly her heroes include the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States who lay it on the line every single day." [snip]
That is the arguement, that they work for low wages. The Falun Gong say they don't. And when their usefulness is over, their bodies are farmed out for parts.
I think they would rather be out of work then sold off to work camps.
Do you believe that American corporations are giving our country away through free trade agreements? Do you believe that free trade agreements cause corporate downsizing? Do you believe that our 4.6% unemployment rate is a sign that millions of Americans are on their way to the unemployment office? Do you believe our rising incomes and net worth are a sure sign that Americans today have to settle for jobs at fast food restaurants?
If so, you might be a populist who can appeal to the economically challenged. Hunter thinks protectionism can work. It doesn't.
But don't take my word for it. Look at what a conservative commentator had to say about Hunter. Like myself, he approves of everything he sees in Hunter but has concerns over his protectionist leanings.
There is one area in particular where Duncan Hunter departs from the conservative orthodoxy and that's on trade issues. He's neither a fan of free trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA, nor does he think we're getting a square deal on trade from China. Although many Republicans will disagree with Hunter on this issue, many Democrats find themselves nodding their heads in agreement with what he has to say.His Trade Position May Be a "Bug" To Republicans, But It Can Be A "Feature" To Democrats.
Duncan Huner won a medal in Viet Nam, and his son did two tours in Iraq, including Fallujah.
He certainly has walked the walk.
Does anyone have the link to Diane Alden's article that was mentioned in the article?
Bump!
Hasn't so far.
Clearly, if that ideal is to be realized...it will take real conservatives...with real stones...to get the job done. The Communists will be laughing all the way to the bank with the current crop of RINOs and RATs...
China is not a "friendly country".
So you opposed N/CAFTA, right?
Substitute abortion and the 2nd Amendment, two issues that dwarf trade issues, and you're describing Rudy to a T. You'll never have a candidate you agree with 100%.
I don't feel comfortable with it, but I'm grounded enough in reality to understand that slapping a tariff on ping-pong balls doesn't address the problem. Do you? Does Hunter?
If we decide we want a second manufacturer of armor-plate, then Uncle Sam needs to build a plant, and either pay its workers to sit on their butts until they are needed, or purchase their work-product and stockpile it. Both cases are dangerously close to simply being a Federal job program, for reasons that don't need to be explained on a conservative website. And don't get me started on the Law of Unintended Consequences, other than to remark that if we get to the point that the armor-plate is needed, chances are that it or the plant itself will be obsolete.
It's that simple: if it's a matter of national security, then Uncle Sam needs to cut the check. We need to quit pussy-footing around with non-solutions, and quit listening to whichever politician-of-the-moment chooses to pay lip-service to the issue.
California Congressman Duncan Hunter scoffs at the notion detainees at the U-S prison in Guantanamo Bay are being abused. On "Fox News Sunday," he read from the detainees' food menu, which included orange glazed chicken, fresh fruit and rice pilaf. He adds sarcastically that he sent for the menu "so that average Americans could understand how we're brutalizing people in Guantanamo."
Is that not just great?! Hunter just goes after the insanity. He's the best.
If you go to the original article it has links to the Alden articles and other references.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2007/02/duncan-hunter-champion-of-property.html
The Alden bio:
http://www.newsmax.com/pundits/bios/Alden-bio.shtml
No, I supported them as a step in the right direction. They are more managed trade agreements than truly free trade agreements, but it's a start. Eliminating tariffs increases trade, and in the case of the Central American countries, they had to agree to eliminate government monopolies on such things as insurance and telecommunications.
American companies can now go down there and compete. That's a good thing.
And we don't have a free trade agreement with them, either.
Armor plate is not a dual-use product. Its production cannot be the result of "augmentation," unless you are attempting to claim that the U.S. has no steel mills . . . in which case augmentation would be necessary.
If country A is slapping tariffs on imports AND subsidizing exports AND devaluing their currency AND stealing as many secrets as they can get their hands on AND using all possible leverage to get western companies to give them their manufacturing technologies AND flooding the markets of country B AND is not following the regulations of the trade agreements, then country B is an idiot if it does not respond in a firm manner.
China ain't Canada. It's a communist enemy.
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