Movement builds to seize Souter home

THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND Movement builds to seize Souter home If New Hampshire selectmen don't bite, ballot initiatives planned

Supreme Court Justice David Souter probably never expected his vote to permit a Connecticut town the power to seize the homes of citizens would come back to haunt him.

An effort by a Los Angeles advertising entrepreneur to persuade the city fathers of Weare, N.H., to turn the tables on Souter by seizing his home and building a hotel on the site is gaining steam.

Logan Darrow Clements and his company, Free Star Media, are now collecting online contributions from the public to support the project.

"There's lots of work that still needs to be done to accomplish our objectives," Clements told WND. "But I am confident we can be successful. This is a way ordinary Americans can fight back – not just against Souter, but against local officials who abuse their authority and callously seize the homes of law-abiding citizens out of sheer greed."

The town of Weare has been inundated with calls in support of the proposal since WND first publicized the story of how Clements plans to turn eminent domain against one of its champions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 two weeks ago that local towns and cities can seize homes and private businesses through eminent domain and turn the properties over to private developers for no other reason than the fact that it would result in higher tax revenues for the municipality.

"There are so many people who have come out of the woodwork to support me," Clements said. "Government has just gotten far too big and far too powerful. ... We're trying to make a larger point that we're losing freedom so fast in America that we have to stop what we're doing and take a stand and fight it."

A few days after the ruling, Clements faxed a request to Chip Meany, the code enforcement officer of Weare, seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road, the present location of Souter's home.

"Am I taking this seriously? But of course," Meany told the Associated Press. "In lieu of the recent Supreme Court decision, I would imagine that some people are pretty much upset. If it is their right to pursue this type of end, then by all means let the process begin."

Clements wants to build "The Lost Liberty Hotel" on the property as a kind of museum commemorating the lost right to private property in America.

The Kelo v. City of New London decision allows the New London, Conn., government to seize the homes and businesses of residents to facilitate the building of an office complex that would provide economic benefits to the area and more tax revenue to the city.

Though the practice of eminent domain is provided for in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, the case is significant because the seizure is for private development and not for "public use," such as a highway or bridge. The decision has been roundly criticized by property-rights activists and limited-government commentators.

The first step in the process, said Clements, is to get the Weare Board of Selectmen to vote in favor of the seizure. However, even if that action is unsuccessful, Clements says citizens in the town can and will draft a ballot initiative to accomplish the objective.

A reprise from the past...........

TODAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2002

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/TheNote_Special3.html

.....One thing we want to leave you with to remember us by is another excerpt from Barbara Walters interview with Al Gore and family, which airs tonight on 20/20 at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT (check your local listings).

The following exchanges, while sure to interest 'Note' readers and historians, actually won't be part of tonight's 20/20 broadcast, so you can read them only here and now:

WALTERS: I'm not sure that people realize that while you were in the residence of the Vice President [during the Florida recount] there were crowds of people outside screaming at you. What was that all about?

AL GORE: Well, this was the Republican response to what was happening during that 36-day period, and they organized busloads of people that came and stood outside the house all day and all night screaming at the top of their lungs.

WALTERS: What, "Get out!"?

TIPPER GORE: Things like that, yes, and, and sometimes … things that we don't want to say on your program, and, some people saw that they were buses from "churches," but it was organized. The one thing that, that they did mainly was reach the bedrooms of our children, and Albert was still in school locally, and trying to study, so we rearranged, you know, they … kids moved to a different part of the house, and I was trying to think of a way that we could kind of laugh about this since obviously it was out of our control, there wasn't anything anybody could do so I got all the boom boxes in the house and … I remember sort of what the government did with Noriega … I thought we'd try that, and I aimed them at, toward, you know, where the crowd …

WALTERS: The crowd?

TIPPER GORE: … And I put nature sounds on and turned it all the way up. And at least the kids laughed.

AL GORE: There were a few, more than a few who supported us and were offended by the organized chanting round the clock who came out on the other street corner during the day to express their support with signs, and … You know, emotions were running high throughout the country and it was just an unprecedented time.

KARENNA GORE: Well, when we were in the Vice President's house during the recount, it was it was very intense. And one of the things I remember is that there was a … an organized effort by, I don't know whether it was the RNC or it was … it was right-wing groups, it was definitely Bush-campaign-oriented effort to bus in people to have a sort of siege at the Vice President's house, and, so, they were all lining there, screaming, and it was kind of an assortment of groups. I mean, some of them were anti, um, were anti-abortion groups, and some of them were pro-gun groups, and some of them … they all had their different signs. But they were all screaming, "Get out of Cheney's house," the whole time. And I just remember being there next to my dad, because I went for a run, and I ran back through them, and I was very upset when I came into the house. And my whole attitude was, like, "We've got to fight back harder. And where are our crowds?" And my dad, I'll never forget his response. He said, "We have to do what's best for the country, and it is not good for the country to have this kind of divisiveness. And he was on the phone, really calling off the dogs.

((My INSERT from The DRUDGE REPORT: http://web.archive.org/web/20010609154240/www.drudgereport.com/gore1.htm

The TIMES has learned that Gore personally lobbied top newspaper and newsmagazine editors and television news executives during the past month. "Gore made two rounds of telephone calls, once when he feared Harris would certify the Florida results on Nov. 18 and again when she was about to certify on Nov. 26."

The vice president personally urged editors and executives not to join Harris in declaring Bush the winner.

The TIMES outlines a memo written by Gore spinner Mark Fabiani' which detailed a weeklong plan that left little to chance in a crusade to "create news relentlessly, especially news that is televised."

He suggested ways to plant stories in the TIMES and prescribed "a strict schedule of two televised press events each day," including a Thanksgiving-eve visit to a homeless shelter.

GORE ORDERED ATTACK ON HARRIS

When Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris emerged as a key player, Gore asked an adviser: "What do we know about her?" according to the report.

When a Gore adviser responded that Harris was a partisan and Bush's campaign co-chair, Gore demanded: "Why aren't we getting that out?"

Later, Gore campaign press secretary Chris Lehane publicly called Harris "a hack'" and "Commissar Harris," drawing a private rebuke from the vice president. "This wasn't the communications strategy we agreed on,'' Gore sternly told one aide. End of MY INSERT))

KARENNA GORE (continued from above): There were people who wanted to fan the … the flames of the racial issue and have real unrest.

(( MY INSERT from this report: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/789979/posts?page=222#222

Hey, I was there at the VP Mansion over two weekends .. there were NO busloads brought in .. word just got around .... the GOP crowd lined Mass Ave for a couple of blocks .. then some union thugs and miscellaneous dregs came and stood on the opposite corner (no more than 20), but worked their way over to our side, put their faces into ours, whispering obscenities, and tried to provoke an incident.. NOTHING ... all the GOPers were having a really great time. On the Sunday when Katherine Harris was to certify at 5pm, there was a countdown (thanks to the atomic clock at the VP mansion) ... but.. the chant WAS "Get out of Cheney's house" .. she got that right. 222 posted on 11/15/2002 10:47 PM CST by EDINVA. End of MY INSERT))

KARENNA GORE (continued from above): And he was on the phone asking them not to, because of what was best for the country not because of what was best for him politically. And that's really who he is.

WALTERS: Do you remember the crowds outside screaming?

KRISTEN GORE: The crowds that were screaming outside our house, you know, "Get out of Cheney's house." And other things … of that nature, were really upsetting. It was difficult … It was just very … upsetting that someone would … yell those things at us. It felt … we felt sort of like … trapped in this … you know, little house with all these people yelling mean things. It's no fun. You know, whether you're a child of the person who they're directed at, or anyone else. It … it wasn't a good situation.

WALTERS: Were you scared?

KRISTEN GORE: I was scared that the truth was not going to come out. That's what I was.

After 20/20 and a break for your local news, you can catch Gore on Letterman.

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