Posted on 06/24/2005 5:59:15 AM PDT by conservativecorner
I wrote a book a few years ago about property rights.
It was called, "This Land Is Our Land."
I didn't think of it as an optimistic book at the time.
But after yesterday's chilling U.S. Supreme Court ruling that government can seize our property against our will for no other reason than it capriciously chooses to do so, the title is certainly no longer accurate.
We do not own our property any more in America.
Imagine the home you own – the one you scrimped and saved your entire life to purchase, the one you planned on living in for the rest of your life, the one you planned to pass on to your heirs – was taken from you, capriciously by a small group of local officials in conspiracy with wealthy developers who want to level it and build office buildings.
You may not have to imagine it. It could happen to you any time. It has already happened to a group of Connecticut homeowners – salt-of-the-earth, working Americans whose modest homes represent their life savings, their estates, their life's work.
That was the finding of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday. Your property is not your property.
That home you invested so much of your life in – it belongs to the government. It is only on loan to you until the day the government chooses to loan it to someone else. That is the message of the black-robed tyrants. Listen to it well.
This is the most basic freedom – upon which all the other liberties we hold dear are built.
That's what the founding fathers explained. Freedom of speech? It descends, they said, from the right to property. Your thoughts, your beliefs, your opinions were equated with your personal property and possessions. That's why you had the right to express them according to your conscience.
Notice I said "had."
Five fascists on the U.S. Supreme Court undercut every freedom we know in America.
I do not exaggerate when I say they have done more damage to the Constitution than any five people in history.
Stop worrying about Osama bin Laden and nuclear-armed terrorists. All they can do is kill you. Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stephens and Stephen G. Breyer have done something worse. They would have you live in servitude to the state. They would reduce all free Americans to serfs. They would make government your master.
The Congress better stop worrying about trivial issues like flag desecration. The Constitution has just been trampled, spit upon and torched. In doing so, these judicial terrorists have done more harm to the American way of life than weapons of mass destruction ever could.
If this ruling is permitted to stand by the U.S. Congress, it's simply time to start shopping for a new country or start planning the revolution. I don't know what else to say about it.
President Bush needs to speak out against this travesty of justice. The Congress needs to be heard from. Yes, the Congress has the power, should it ever have the courage to use it, to set aside a ruling like this and permanently enjoin the court from ever ruling in the future against the well-enshrined, inalienable, well-documented, constitutionally protected right to own and enjoy property.
This country was birthed in a war of independence fought against an unaccountable empire that failed to acknowledge and respect the rights of colonists in America. But the grievances of those heroic patriots that created the greatest experiment in freedom the world has ever known were trivial compared to the grievances 21st-century Americans have against the empire in Washington.
The only question is whether or not we have the courage of our forefathers. Are we willing to sacrifice our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to reclaim our American birthright of freedom?
It's time for a new tea party. It's time for a new Lexington and Concord. It's time for a new Declaration of Independence. It's time for civil disobedience and throwing off the shackles of rule by men. It's time to begin plotting how to re-establish the rule of law under a sovereign God.
This ruling is much worse than you think. It has the of cascaded effect. In other words:
A widow has an undeveloped property as an investment from her late husband. A judge rules that a developer can develop houses on it to increase property taxes to support the local schools. The widow is given the minimum amount for the land and the developer puts a house on the land.
A year later, the city fathers decide that they want a huge mall to get revenue for their local sales tax. The Widows home and all the other homes in that area are given to the Project Managers of the Mall. The homeowners are given the minimum values of their homes.
A year later, the State decides that the mall is environmentally unsafe and writes a bill to have it turned into a environmentally wetland. The mall is razed and the roads around it. The businesses in the mall are given the minimum value for their property and the employees are fired.
Brave new world huh?
I think it is time. We do need to make our 'elected leaders' know who the BOSS is, and it is not them.
They are out of control. Answering to everyone but the very people who elect them into office. The question, Do we have the backbone today to do this?
Yup, I'm waiting for the "ownership society" and the "people vs the powerful" speeches. So far the closest thing I've seen is this: Statement of Ralph Nader on Supreme Court Eminent Domain.
Pathetic..
I still just cannot believe this ruling. Are the 5 justices totally senile now? I am so mad about this. Has Bush said anything yet? Has anyone in Congress?
bump
The right against unreasonable search and seizure is gone too. Think of it, a state agency will be able to come onto their (no longer your) property to make assessments on the disposition of the state's property. Anything illegal they see will be fair game.
I have got to tell ya folks, this SCOTUS ruling is buzzing all over the Internet. Liberal web sites are decrying it, (One Quote: "I never thought I'd see the day I agree with Thomas and Scalia"), my local news website can talk of nothing else, and even non political sites like a woodworking site my husband visits are raving about this. If George wants to get nominees to the Supreme Court voted in, all he has to do is ask their opinion on eminent domain. Heck, make it clear any court nominee now held up is against indiscriminate taking and they are a shoe in.
America's robed mullahs have spoken.
Sorry, I meant, "shoo in".
New "local Government" Happy Dance Song
This land was your land
But now it's my land!
From California
To the New York islands
From the redwood forests
To the gulf stream waters...
Your land may now be seized by me!
Woody Guthrie's song was actually about communism principles.. the land belongs to all of us.. not one person... In fact a verse exists, though it is rarely sung where he bashes private property rights completely...
A copy recorded with the anti-private property rights, sung by the man himself is believed to be one of the most priceless items in the national archives.
I know it comes as a shock, but that song was a protest song against capitalism, written during the depression era.
Great song. Can somebody put together a video?
How about a "Don't Touch My Property!" march on the Supreme Court when it reconvenes in Oct. (Notice these gutless, chinless wonders waited till the end of this session to release this stink-bomb of a ruling.) A million people brandishing pitchforks would make a great picture on TV and perhaps impress upon these tyrants that the people are not asleep....or are they?
Will we as sovereign citizens, with GOD GIVEN rights, allow our liberty to be usurped by the oligarchy? I am willing to bet we will. Those that try and defend the constitution against this abomination, one of many by the way, will be picked off one by one, and portrayed as right wing kooks.
Where is the leader of the country, the Republican party and the defender of the constitution? Paging wimp boy George Bush, the country needs a leader. If you are unwilling to step forward, resign and lets try a President Cheney for a while.
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