Posted on 06/25/2005 8:17:22 AM PDT by snowsislander
First, you have to dismiss from your head the notion that states have rights. They don't. Individuals have rights. States have powers, and those powers are circumscribed by the US Constitution, just as are the powers of the Federal Government. The Federal Government under the 14th ammendment if not others has the authority, under equal protection to prevent the states from abusing their powers.
Maybe it's time for We the People to select a spokesperson to deliver an ultimatum. I just don't know who would be best. Congressman Billybob seems to have a big pair and has a pretty good grasp of the situtation.
If you think about it in terms of the red/blue election map, who do you think is running all of the big cities?
If I lived in one of these communities, I'd be looking to see if my city father was a member if this group & if he was, I'd try to get a recall...
If the Republicans want to make inroads into the heart of the Democrat base, this case just screams big time grass roots action. "If they can do it to me, they can do it to you!" "Your Mayor thinks it would be okay to take your home to give it to someone else!"
"The reason the Japanese did not attempt to invade en masse the U.S. mainland during WWII is because they knew there was a firearm behind every blade of grass waiting for them."
I thought it was because the Americans learnt the Japanese code and blasted their fleet to hell at Midway.
"I could not disagree more with your assessment that this is a positive thing for the economy or that this will unburden capitalism. Capitalism will not last long if the smallest stakeholders effectively have no property rights. This is a victory for corporatism, not capitalism."
I did not mean that this is a positive thing for the economy in general. It is good for my niche in it.
I agree: it is a victory for corporatism.
"The unionists were not wrong to organize against what they perceived to be corrupt power. Collective action (as in the refusal of UAL workers to accept compromises with the corporation) can be self-defeating. But there are legitimate and positive uses of this form of power."
I agree.
"I also do not agree that American homeowners will simply forget about this. For one, I certainly won't be making any more urban real estate investments. The sight of bulldozers bearing down on the homeowner in New Londo (and what I assume will be a huge crowd) may in fact be a Tiananmen Square moment, a moment in which capitalism is defended from corporatism and plutocracy."
It won't happen.
Americans reflexively obey the law.
They do not strike against the government.
There will be no Tiananmen square moment.
Americans will be mad, they will vent their spleen for awhile, nothing will happen to most of them personally, and they will fall back to sleep.
When there is some terrible news story about something related, they will get angry a time or two.
Then they will not read those articles anymore, nor listen to the reports. They will turn away, much as people do from pictures of the starving in Africa or aborted children. Some things are too painful to see when you feel powerless to do anything about them.
This will be one of those things.
All things in America except, curiously, slavery were each one of those things.
The victory is for corporatism, it won't be reversed, and while psychologically regretting that it is as it is, the prudent man will be sure to place his own investments in corporations.
Fortunately the party system, two parties or whatever, is not structural and can be changed at the whim of the People through the periodic election.
Congressman Billybob
No. This was decided way before the actual war started. I can’t give you dates.
I would appreciate and invite anybody else who can jump in on this.
Thank you for your question.
Further, all I can add is the decision not to invade mainland U.S. was made by a high level Japanese admiral.
And, why?
So they can put a bike lane in! (The mini traffic lane style that tracks right along with traffic)
Apparently, in my hometown and with the commie leftists that run the city council, a bike lane is more important than a man's property.
Everytime they are asked about it, they "nuance" their way through the answer, saying nothing in 500 words. When asked if they would at least admit that they are taking a man's property that he has owned for 30 years for a bike path, they respond, "It's for the public good."
So, yeah, I will be taking my best efforts to eliminate every single one of these idiots, but there are a lot of people in Gainesville Florida that are, well, communists. Half of the professors can't muster a concept about what a real job is...they have never worked. And, many the skulls full of mush go right along with what their professors say, register to vote, and vote these idiots back in office.
Maybe that this decision is already affecting my hometown, it's hitting a little harder. But, I'm really quite dismayed.
Sigh. Yes, although I hope for heroics, I know this will not happen. I will avoid troubling authority, concentrating on my family, job, investments. Maybe this was what Jeffers was writing of?
We Are Those People
Robinson Jeffers
I have abhorred the wars and despised the liars, laughed at the frightened
And forecast victory; never one moment's doubt.
But now not far, over the backs of some crawling years, the next
Great war's column of dust and fire writhes
Up the sides of the sky: it becomes clear that we too may suffer
What others have, the brutal horror of defeat—
Or if not in the next, then in the next—therefore watch Germany
And read the future. We wish, of course, that our women
Would die like biting rats in the cellars, our men like wolves on the mountain:
It will not be so. Our men will curse, cringe, obey;
Our women uncover themselves to the grinning victors for bits of chocolate.
Thank you for your insight and information. I just spent some time going over some of your replies to others, and while I don't like your conclusions, I understand them. We tax-paying wage-slaves have just been handed our walking papers -- it's just not time-stamped yet as to when those papers will become effective.
Effectively, yes.
. . . and when all is still and there is silence in the land, be sure to have your ear plugs handy.
"First, you have to dismiss from your head the notion that states have rights. They don't. Individuals have rights. States have powers, and those powers are circumscribed by the US Constitution, just as are the powers of the Federal Government. The Federal Government under the 14th ammendment if not others has the authority, under equal protection to prevent the states from abusing their powers."
The 14th amendment applies only to race. You're sounding like a liberal.
You are wrong. Dead wrong. And equal protection under the laws is a good thing, even for conservatives.
Translation: We are glad we can take you property and give it to the developers who paid us campaign contributions (RE bribes).
"You are wrong. Dead wrong."
Depends on whom you ask. Rehnquist, Thomas, and Scalia, for example, have said the equal protection clause applies only to race. The liberals on the court want to apply it to everything. Like I said, you're sounding like a liberal.
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