Free Republic

Though it’s home to some of the most expensive real estate listings in America, California is readying to pass a housing bill that one "Million Dollar Listing" agent warned could create the "hardest hit" to the market since the 2007-08 crash. "In about ten days or so, there's a measure called the ULA measure that's going to go into effect, which is going to be probably the hardest hit to the real estate market that we've seen since 2007," broker Josh Altman said on "Varney & Co." Monday. Altman’s comments come in response to the recently-passed "United to House L.A."...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide a property rights dispute on whether government entities violate the Constitution when they seize homes for failure to pay taxes and then keep all the proceeds or allow private investors to profit. The justices will decide whether such seizures violate the takings clause of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which requires that the government pay compensation when property is taken. They will also weigh whether government action could be viewed as an excessive fine under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The justices will weigh a claim brought by Geraldine Tyler, a 93-year-old...

Lyndon McLellan fought the law -- and apparently, he won. The North Carolina business owner for months has been battling the federal government after IRS agents last fall seized $107,000 from him, under a controversial practice known as civil forfeiture. But his attorneys at the Institute for Justice announced Thursday that the IRS and Department of Justice have moved to dismiss the case and give him back his money. (snip) Two months ago, the government offered McLellan 50 percent of his money back and warned him against chasing publicity, even going so far as to suggest it would rile people...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Framing himself as a politician who's unafraid to share "hard truths" with the American people, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is proposing an income cap on Social Security benefits as part of major restructuring plan announced ahead of a likely presidential bid. The Republican is set to deliver a speech Tuesday in New Hampshire outlining his ideas on reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — so-called entitlement programs. As part of the plan, he'll propose phasing out Social Security payments for those making more than $80,000 in other income and eliminating them for those making $200,000...

I donÂ’t particularly care how people vote, but I do care whether they believe in freedom.ThatÂ’s why I periodically share stories that should convince everyone to believe in the libertarian philosophy of small government, individual liberty, and personal responsibility.The stories that get me most agitated are the ones that involve innocent people being robbed by bureaucrats.And when I say robbed, I use that word deliberately.Such as the case of an elderly couple who had their hotel stolen by government.Such as the case of the family grocer who had his bank account stolen by government.Such as when the government wanted to...

If you ask me about the most wasteful department in the federal government, IÂ’ll state that there are lots of good choices, but if forced to identify the best candidate for elimination, IÂ’ll go with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.If you ask me about the entitlement program most in need of reform, IÂ’m tempted to say all of them, but ultimately IÂ’ll argue that we should first fix Medicaid by devolving it to the states, accompanied by block grants as a transitional funding mechanism.But if you ask me to identify the most evil and despicable thing that government...

After 9/11, the federal government “…called on police to become the eyes and ears of homeland security on America’s highways.” But if the new, more aggressive agenda of seeking out suspicious individuals was embraced by officers as part of their interdiction training by the federal government, their policing behavior turned out to be worlds removed from the mundane yet somehow historically reassuring promise to “protect and serve” the American public. For law enforcement officers throughout the nation were eagerly learning and practicing the fine art of “policing for profit,” that is, the barely legal method of confiscating money and assets...

      Sunday, March 21, 2010 We Were Warned   [Daniel Foster] After fifteen months, nobody can say that we went into this blindly:The foregoing and more from Paul Ryan can be found here.

Holding handsSaturday 20th March 2010 Dear Family and Friends,South African President Jacob Zuma inspected a guard of honour at Harare airport at the end of his brief visit to Zimbabwe. The South African President's departure was shown on ZBC television and was one of the few parts of the visit not shrouded in secrecy. Presidents Zuma and Mugabe held hands as they walked along the line of assembled dignitaries and once Mr Zuma had gone up the stairs to the aircraft, Mr Mugabe raised both his arms and with fists clenched, punched the air a few times. It looked...

Ten years to practiceSaturday 13th March 2010 Dear Family and Friends,As we come towards the end of our rainy season we hear the news that one in four Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid. We are not surprised. Since the start of the season 6 months ago, everyone has been commenting on the dramatic absence of crops on farms. Travel in any direction, towards any of our country's borders and you see grass, weeds and derelict farms. The best crops are those planted on roadsides and little squares of vacant land in urban areas. There has been...

All are welcome Saturday 6th March 2010 Dear Family and Friends, They say that a picture speaks a thousand words and the one I picked up on the roadside this morning certainly did. I'm not generally in the habit of picking up litter on public roads but this was different. It was the remains of a poster that had been torn off a street light pole. From the scraps of bright coloured paper left clinging to a number of other poles, it was obvious that a line of the same posters had all been torn down recently. I had travelled...

You did the responsible thing. You saved in your IRA or 401(k) to support your retirement, when you could have spent that money on another vacation, or an upscale car, or fancier clothes and jewelry. But now Washington is developing plans for your retirement savings. BusinessWeek reports that the Treasury and Labor departments are asking for public comment on "the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams." In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit...

I’m not sure—I’m no prophet—but I think I just saw something genuinely profound, genuinely amazing, and cool that could be the tidal wave of the future. Here’s the setup. It was Tax Day. Thousands of self-organized protesters had gathered around the nation to protest the irresponsible, incredibly rapid expansion of government under the current administration. The Democratic Party and the elite media had done everything in their power to first ignore, then discourage, ridicule, and belittle this grassroots movement. Theoretically respectable journalists were reduced to making double-entendre sexual jokes about tea bags. These are the same people who rushed en...

...So YOU thought KELO was abusive...??? KLEPTOCRACY 201 - Today's Lesson Today, class, we will learn how to exercise 'eminent domain' without that pesky need to pay the owner ANYTHING for the property... ...and using this new method, you can not only strong-arm the property away from its rightful owner, but you STILL get to keep shaking down the "property owner" for all those great  PROPERTY TAXES on the parcel, AS WELL! ...WHAT could be BETTER than THAT???!!! ...It's a Kleptocrat's DREAM!!!

LOS ANGELES—A Torrance man cannot be reimbursed for thousands of dollars he was forced to pay to support a child he did not father, an appeals court ruled. State laws do not allow Taron James to demand repayment of the money he supplied before a DNA test confirmed that the child of a former girlfriend was someone else's, the state 2nd District Court of Appeal said in a ruling published Tuesday. James, 38, said he will appeal to the state Supreme Court. James said he has been in "financial hell" since the case began. "The fight is to keep this...

Richland County residents could be fined for parking in their front yard. Erica tanks wants to see it happen. "We want everyone to have pride in their neighborhood and that's not what we see here," says Tanks. Richland County Council is considering a ban on parking in front yards. One councilman tells News 10 it's his biggest complaint. But not everyone sees it as a problem. Another neighbor, Terry Smith, says "as long as it ain't a nuisance and you're keeping your yard up I think everyone should mind their own business." Under the ordinance, anyone living in the unincorporated...

CONAWAY RANCH is a 17,300-acre spread north of Davis. On property that sidles up to I-5 and provides a fine view of the Sacramento skyline, owners grow rice and alfalfa, boast rights to 50,000 acre-feet of water and extract natural gas. The gray sky and Sierra runoff are home to countless birds -- ducks, egrets and hawks -- some of which the owners hunt. Yolo County wants the land. In 2004, county supervisors voted to seize the ranch by eminent domain. "We want to keep it from being developed," explained Supervisor Mike McGowan. The owners are fighting back, and they're...

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget. Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans' choice to borrow money and add to this year's expected $331 billion deficit to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that doesn't seem possible.

Police departments fighting over Mixon's forfeited SUV The Associated Press - Wednesday, May 12, 2004 MINNEAPOLIS Two suburban police departments are fighting over a sports utility vehicle forfeited by Vikings defensive end Kenny Mixon after a recent drunken driving conviction. Under state law, Mixon's seized 2001 GMC Yukon Denali may be sold because of repeat drunken driving offenses. South Lake Minnetonka, noting that one of its officers pulled Mixon over in November, says it should get half the proceeds from a potential sale. But because Mixon's arrest occurred in Deephaven, police there say the SUV is theirs. South Lake Minnetonka...

<p>Annie was an ethnic Chinese born in Malaysia who had legally emigrated to the U.S. decades ago. She entered my law office with her mother, who clutched a well-worn copy of a Chinese language book called What You Need to Know About Life in America that is eventually encountered by most immigration lawyers.</p>