Free Republic

Last month, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2011, H.R. 1433. This bill would suspend federal economic development funds for two years to any state or municipality that expropriates private property via eminent domain for a private purpose. H.R. 1433 enjoys the bipartisan support of Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) as well as more than two dozen other co-sponsors. If enacted, this legislation would strike at the heart of the 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London. This ruling allowed government entities to expropriate private property at...

The measure has the backing of the Senate's top two leaders -- President Pro Tem Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, and Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock -- who have signed on as co-sponsors. "The federal government has excessively abused the authority of state and local governments for some time," Albers said, explaining why he sponsored the proposal. SR 889 has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

OKLAHOMA CITY — A special guest speaker adressed today's joint session of Oklahoma Legislature. Newt Gingrich only spoke to lawmakers for just over 10 minutes, but his message was focused. He said, "I want to talk about three examples of the change we need." At the top of the list, he touted a movement started by Gingrich and managed by Texas Givernor Rick Perry to strengthen the 10th amendment and return power and tax money to the states. It's something Ronald Reagan tried to do 30 years ago and failed. Gingrich says times have changed. "And there's a lot deeper...

No Child Left Behind is an example of why the 'one size fits all' mentality is an improper way to govern. Placing standardizations as well as allocating specific resources at the federal level is not working. Our education system is decaying. With increasing costs and decreasing scores it is clear that reform is necessary to ensure that the future of our nation have the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy. Chairman Kline of the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee is sponsoring two pieces of legislation to address this issue. The two bills reform federal education...

Could there be a real awakening - the removal of the Establishment's shackles from elected officials and their votes - if Americans vote in a non-Romney nominee? I imagine the GOP Establishment cringes at the idea - the spectacle and sense of power that would create [shrink government; states' rights, remove Federal Agencies.....] in "We the People!" This conservative "revolution" could have positive consequences outside of the Executive. Will our elected officials' loyalty return to their constituents and away from their fear of party leadership's power over their re-election fate? Will they remember who they serve? Will more conservatives rally...

Amidst flowery February orations, in retrospect, the Civil Rights movement’s main beneficiary appears to be Washington. State segregation ceased, which is well, but forced federal integration remains, well, wrong. Washington rightly overturned denials of freedom oppressing southern blacks, but did so by infringing on others’ liberties elsewhere. En route, civil rights became the sine qua non of American statism. Civil rights legislation provided the primary catalyst for government’s escalation since WWII. Sadly, the Civil Rights Act brought neither legal equality as proposed in theory; nor equality of outcomes to which the Left strove in practice. The CRA failed doubly. First,...

On February 13, a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at eminent domain abuse sailed through both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. This legislative action qualifies the amendment for a plebiscite vote in November. The amendment would stipulate that compensation resulting from eminent domain seizures include lost profits and access in addition to the value of the underlying real estate. This change has the support of Virginia property rights advocates including Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. If enacted, this constitutional amendment would strike at the heart of the 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London. This ruling allowed government...

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, in her State of the State Address, outlined a bold plan for tax reform focused on reducing rates and consolidating Oklahoma’s seven tax brackets. The plan would end Oklahoma’s complicated seven bracket income tax structure that begins taxing on the first penny any Oklahoman earns, instead replacing the structure with three brackets – Oklahoman’s making below $15,000 a year would pay a 0-percent rate, those making under $35,000 would pay a 2.25-percent rate, and those making $35,000 and above would pay a 3.5-percent rate. The Tax Foundation ranks Oklahoma as 38th in the nation in terms...

Nowhere is the haughtiness of American politics better displayed than with our dueling former Speakers. The latest love spat between Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi illuminates America’s sorry political state. She keeps coyly insinuating she knows something and will time its release for maximum damage. It appears Mr. Gingrich is finished anyway, and I’m no fan. His infidelities trouble me. His overarching concern seems to be Newt Gingrich, a not uncommon trait in politicians, but hardly the attribute of a transcendent leader. His prior associations with Mrs. Pelosi promoting Cap and Trade and frequent policy flip-flops reveal an unscrupulous opportunist....

This February, let's acknowledge several forgotten heroes from black history. We ought to laud those who actually strove for what the laundered historical ledger pronounces as the all-encompassing intent of the civil rights movement: laws affording equal protection regardless of race. Sadly, these stalwarts in the struggle against segregation have been consigned to historical obscurity by the politically correct acclaim for their resentment-fomenting rivals. Popular culture extols Marxists like W.E.B. Du Bois, despite his repeated praise for Stalin and Mao, even while he despised everything America represents. Dubois's heritage is best perpetuated by Jeremiah Wright, Jessie Jackson, and Al Sharpton...

Last year the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals once again used the Clean Water Act to bludgeon industry and property owners. In Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the nation’s most infamous appellate court held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had been misinterpreting its own regulations for more than three decades. The EPA has traditionally considered the cultivation of trees to be an agricultural activity. The jurists of the Ninth Circuit have determined that they have the expertise to overrule decades of regulatory precedent and deem forestry a manufacturing activity. Unfortunately for the two and half million...

Last week, two hundred thousand Bostonians were nearly apoplectic over the threat of a TV blackout that could have caused them to miss their beloved Patriots playing in this year’s Super Bowl. A deal reached between DirecTV and Sunbeam Television, which owns the local broadcasting affiliate carrying the game, means it will go on. However, consumers directing their anger at content and cable providers are often unaware that most of the fault lies with government retransmission rules. TV blackouts are unfortunately nothing new, the occasional result of negotiations between broadcasters and content providers, and the cable, satellite, and telcos that...

It's Christmas in the geeky budget world today. While everyone else is thinking about the Florida GOP primary, DC budget and tax wonks are reading the annual "CBO Budget and Economic Outlook." Here's my three takeaways after reading the report. They are by no means exhaustive: 1. If all scheduled tax increases are avoided, tax revenues will still come in at historical levels. CBO has to use a "current services baseline," which means they have to assume that Congress will let the path of current law run its course. That means that Obamacare is implemented, the 2001/2003 tax relief goes...

An administrative law judge in Georgia could decide as early as this week whether voters in the state convinced him Barack Obama’s name should be removed from the 2012 presidential ballot because he is not qualified to hold the office. But win, lose or draw, the fight isn’t going to be over, as other cases are erupting across the nation, with challenges being raised anew even in Obama’s own adopted political network in Illinois. The Georgia hearing was before Judge Michael Malihi, and while none of the lawyers who appeared in the proceedings was willing to predict what the decision...

Americans face many stark choices in the 2012 election for President but the starkest of all is whether or not they want their President to be bound by the Constitution and act within the law or to act as a dictator outside the bounds of the Constitution and the law. Given Obama’s behaviour and stated intentions, the choice cannot be more stark for Americans…do they want to live in a dictatorship with Obama as the dictator or do they want to live in a free country where their leader is accountable to the people and the country’s institutions and not...

Population increase is a natural sign of political health. By that measure, Baltimore has been sick a long time. Six straight decades of depopulation have reduced the city by a third. The "experts" assert that immigration is the key to a population rebound. In his Persian Letters, Montesquieu reflects on the fate of the great cities of Constantinople and Isfahan: "People, attracted for a thousand reasons, ought to flock to them from every direction. Yet they are decaying internally and would long since have perished, had not their sovereigns in almost every century caused entire new nations to enter and...

Longstanding tension between Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Democratic President Barack Obama flared into the public spotlight Wednesday just after Air Force One touched down in Phoenix. Brewer, who was on the tarmac to greet Obama, hand-delivered a letter before engaging the president "intensely" for several minutes, including pointing her finger directly at him, according to Politico's Carrie Budoff Brown, acting as a pool reporter for other media outlets.

“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.” – Lord Acton Americans have long been blessed. We’ve never been perfect but this cynical, politically correct age tends to harp more on our deficiencies than highlight the astounding prosperity that a generally free society brought. Today, some of our youth assume wealth their birthright while disparaging its capitalist wellspring. America’s heritage was one of free markets with limited, constitutional government. Independence was born less from revolution than a defense of historic liberties based on innate, natural rights. The founding vision affirmed tradition...

On January 12, the Indiana Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal, & Civil Matters passed Senate Bill 54, an important step in the fight against eminent domain abuse. This legislation would mandate that state universities seeking to acquire private business property to compensate the business owner for estimated future earnings in addition to the traditional fair market value of the property. Senate Bill 54 is the brainchild of State Senator Doug Eckerty (R-Yorktown) and was prompted by the plight of a Muncie, Indiana businessman who found himself in competition with the biggest of all big businesses, the government. For the last...

CARSON CITY — Synthetic drugs that mirror cocaine and marijuana are showing up more often in Nevada, and some state legislators are unhappy that the state Pharmacy Board has not taken action to ban them. Assemblywoman April Mastroluca, chairwoman of the Legislative Committee on Health Care, said it’s been almost a year since the 2011 Legislature discussed the problem and she is frustrated the Pharmacy Board had not adopted a regulation to prohibit the “synthetic cannabinoids and bath salts.”