The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a bill that would prohibit states and local governmnets from using eminentdomain to take property for economic development.
The bill (approved 27-3) split Democrats on the Committee with heated debate on the subject. Committee Republicans had a strange ally in Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who tried unsuccessfully to make the new ban even stronger. Other Democrats, like Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY), wanted to restrict the ban by offering amendments on the grounds that this bill would hobble city governments seeking to promote economic development.
Republican Howard Coble (NC) stated what the Kelo decision did was create a huge opposition by joining all political view points. "Ethnic minorities and the elderly are disproportionably effected" when private property is taken for a private purpose, Coble explained.
I am in complete agreement with the House panel. Private property should only be taken by the government for a public use. And when I say public I don't mean giving it to a private company to build a baseball park or any other crap like that. This is America where freedom is not just intended to be for hippies to protest. Our Founding Fathers understood private property is the basis of all political and constitutional rights. Without the means to live how does one carryout the 1st Amendment rights (I am no excluding the others Amendments) in the first place?
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Did You Know?
The leading House leadership PAC (in terms of dollars raised) is House Speaker Hastert's Keep Our Majority which raised $1,304,000. Coming in second is National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Thomas Reynolds's Together For Our Majority which brought in $1,024,000.
Cable Companies: More Customer Choice Would Be Nice
The Senate Commerce Committee Technology Subcommittee failed to address at its recent hearing the idea of cable operators offering pay-per-channel programming. The concept has merits and is supported by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
There are many channels that go to waste and others I wished I had. In a true capitolistic society these cable companies would allow for greater customer choice instead of merely force-feeding us the same channels as if we all like the same things.
There are many channels that go to waste and others I wished I had. In a true capitolistic society these cable companies would allow for greater customer choice instead of merely force-feeding us the same channels as if we all like the same things.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Quote of the Day
"We want less government in business and more business in government." -- Warren G. Harding
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Speaking of Grand Jury Investigations
Alabama's former Democratic Governor, Donald Siegelman, was indicted yesterday on federal charges of racketeering, fraud, bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice. Siegelman is alleged to have taken bribes while governor. He denies the charges, and is planning on running again next year.
Not too shocking ...
The Volcker committee issued its final report on the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal, which named several thousand companies and individuals who took bribes and paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. The largest number were Russian and French.
Can you believe this?
The Washington Post posted the news of Iraq's new constitution on page A13 under the headline, "Sunnis Failed to Defeat Iraq Constitution." I guess this is nothing new to this newspaper because we all know that majority-Muslim nations that let citizens vote on new constitutions are a dime a dozen. I guess keeping it off the front page is an intellectually defensible stance.
What is the proper role of government following a natural disaster?
Is it simply to restore law and order and essential services? Or is the government supposed to hold people's hand, paying for their every need and waiting on them hand and foot? This is a lesson from Katrina. More and more with each passing day Americans are being taught, and they're learning quite well we must say, to depend on government for just about everything. People who stocked up on necessities such as water, non-perishable food, batteries and other basics weren't the ones complaining. The more we depend on government the more politicians love it, and the less freedom we have. Self-sufficiency is no longer the goal for far too many Americans. Now the goal is to see how much responsibility they can turn over to the government while continuing to live the easy life.
America cannot survive this new attitude of government dependency.
America cannot survive this new attitude of government dependency.
D.C. a step closer to banning smoking
The D.C. Council health committee has approved a plan to ban smoking in all District bars and restaurants by January 2007.I hate smoking but I do not think that government should ban it. People should have the freedom of choice. Freedom to go to a bar or freedom to own a bar that allows smoking. When we let government limit our choice we loose that freedom.
The full council could vote on the measure as soon as December.
Smoking ban legislation has been stalled in committee for two years, but supporters say a majority of the 13-member council now favors some form of a ban.
The ban would be similar to one in New York City, with exemptions for outdoor areas, cigar bars, hotel rooms, retail tobacco outlets and facilities that research the effects of smoking.
Opponents say a smoking ban would hurt the city's thriving hospitality industry and encourage smokers to patronize Virginia businesses.
The bill also provides for an economic-hardship waiver for businesses that can demonstrate a "significant, negative impact."
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Stupid PETA
Ok, what is up with this PETA ad? A naked chick with the meat chart? Come on PETA, don't you know that meat-eating men and lesbians all over the planet are going to see this and think "oh, I'd eat the hell out of that!"
Liberal's G-d George Galloway: A crook like no other
Christopher Hitchens writes:
"Just before my last exchange with George Galloway, which occurred on the set of Bill Maher's show in Los Angeles in mid-September, I was approached by a representative of the program and asked if I planned to repeat my challenge to Galloway on air. That challenge—would he sign an affidavit saying that he had never discussed Oil-for-Food monies with Tariq Aziz?—I had already made on a public stage in New York. Maher's producers had been asked, obviously by a nervous Galloway, to find out whether I had brought such an affidavit along with me. I replied that this was not necessary, since his public denial to me was on the record and had been broadcast, and since it further confirmed the apparent perjury that he had committed in front of the U.S. Senate on May 17, 2005. I added that I wanted no further contact with Galloway until I could have the opportunity of reviewing his prison diaries.
That day has now been brought measurably closer by the publication of the report of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This report, which comes with a vast archive of supporting material, was embargoed until 10 p.m. Monday and contains the "smoking gun" evidence that Galloway, along with his wife and his chief business associate, were consistent profiteers from Saddam Hussein's regime and its criminal exploitation of the "Oil for Food" program. In particular:
Yet this is the man who received wall-to-wall good press for insulting the Senate subcommittee in May, and who was later the subject of a fawning puff piece in the New York Times, and who was lionized by the anti-war movement when he came on a mendacious and demagogic tour of the country last month. I wonder if any of those who furnished him a platform will now have the grace to admit that they were hosting a man who is not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well."
"Just before my last exchange with George Galloway, which occurred on the set of Bill Maher's show in Los Angeles in mid-September, I was approached by a representative of the program and asked if I planned to repeat my challenge to Galloway on air. That challenge—would he sign an affidavit saying that he had never discussed Oil-for-Food monies with Tariq Aziz?—I had already made on a public stage in New York. Maher's producers had been asked, obviously by a nervous Galloway, to find out whether I had brought such an affidavit along with me. I replied that this was not necessary, since his public denial to me was on the record and had been broadcast, and since it further confirmed the apparent perjury that he had committed in front of the U.S. Senate on May 17, 2005. I added that I wanted no further contact with Galloway until I could have the opportunity of reviewing his prison diaries.
That day has now been brought measurably closer by the publication of the report of the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This report, which comes with a vast archive of supporting material, was embargoed until 10 p.m. Monday and contains the "smoking gun" evidence that Galloway, along with his wife and his chief business associate, were consistent profiteers from Saddam Hussein's regime and its criminal exploitation of the "Oil for Food" program. In particular:
1) Between 1999 and 2003, Galloway personally solicited and received eight oil "allocations" totaling 23 million barrels, which went either to him or to a politicized "charity" of his named the Mariam Appeal.
2) In connection with just one of these allocations, Galloway's wife, Amineh Abu-Zayyad, received about $150,000 directly.
3) A minimum of $446,000 was directed to the Mariam Appeal, which campaigned against the very sanctions from which it was secretly benefiting.
4) Through the connections established by the Galloway and "Mariam" allocations, the Saddam Hussein regime was enabled to reap $1,642,000 in kickbacks or "surcharge" payments.
Yet this is the man who received wall-to-wall good press for insulting the Senate subcommittee in May, and who was later the subject of a fawning puff piece in the New York Times, and who was lionized by the anti-war movement when he came on a mendacious and demagogic tour of the country last month. I wonder if any of those who furnished him a platform will now have the grace to admit that they were hosting a man who is not just a pimp for fascism but one of its prostitutes as well."
New James Bond hates guns
The new Bond, Daniel Craig, hates guns. He revealed in OK! magazine: "I hate handguns. Handguns are used to shoot people and as long as they are around, people will shoot each other."I hope he knows he will make alot of money by playing someone who protects his country by shooting others. I doubt he does though. He is just another stupid asshole actor.
Conservatives launch anti-Miers website
There is a growing chorus of conservative leaders lining up against President Bush on his selection of Harriet Miers for the swing seat on the Supreme Court. Conservatives as diverse as Robert Bork, Phyllis Schlafly, Rush Limbaugh, Peggy Noonan, Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, Gary Bauer, George Will, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin all are united in their opposition to this nomination. I don't know if this will Change the President's mind, but its not good when you turn around and see your own men firing shoots at you.
By the way Joe Wilson is a liar as well
Weapons inspections in 2003 and 2004 have little bearing on whether Iraq sought uranium in 1999. And the British review of prewar intelligence (known as the Butler report) concluded that the claim was--and remains--solid. Even Wilson's own reporting about a 1999 meeting between Nigerien government officials and an Iraqi delegation seemed to corroborate earlier reports, dating back to October 2001, that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger.
More problematic: Wilson's "central assertion" was not a soft, subjective claim that Bush's statement was incorrect. His central assertion was that he had seen the documents that proved the Bush administration had lied. Wilson's story was compelling not because he had simply come to a different conclusion than the Bush administration, but because he alone could demonstrate that the administration's claim was built on a lie.
Clinton, Libby, and Rove
Teddy Roosevelt once remarked:
We already know former President Bill Clinton is a liar, now we are waiting for word if Libby and Rove. If either failed to be fully candid with federal investigators or with the grand jury that should be enough for them to indicted. No administration is above the law and if anyone in the Bush White House did violate the law, then they should be held accountable. Too bad that didn't happen in the Clinton White House. I hope it does this time.
"Liar" is just as ugly a word as "thief," because it implies the presence of just as ugly a sin in one case as in the other. If a man lies under oath or procures the lie of another under oath, if he perjures himself or suborns perjury, he is guilty under the statute law. "
We already know former President Bill Clinton is a liar, now we are waiting for word if Libby and Rove. If either failed to be fully candid with federal investigators or with the grand jury that should be enough for them to indicted. No administration is above the law and if anyone in the Bush White House did violate the law, then they should be held accountable. Too bad that didn't happen in the Clinton White House. I hope it does this time.
For the liberal media, black people are evil
"Now, Anybody see the difference between the two photos below? You guessed it. The USA Today version on the right was deliberately altered to make Condi Rice look more menacing. Notice how the whites of the eyes are highlighted to make her BLACK eyes look BLACKER and HATEFUL."
Iran wants to wipe out Israel
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hard-line president declared that Israel should be "wiped off the map." Signing a happy note, he continued: "There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world. The World without Zionism."
Mahmoud went on to threatened others: "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury, any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world." Peace be with you too, asshole.
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