By KATIE NELSON
Associated Press Writer

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) – Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation’s most notorious eminent domain project.

There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne’s lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot’s towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.

But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.

Proponents of the ambitious plan blame the sour economy. Opponents call it a “poetic justice.”

“They are getting what they deserve. They are going to get nothing,” said Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the landmark property rights case. “I don’t think this is what the United States Supreme Court justices had in mind when they made this decision.”

Kelo’s iconic pink home sat for more than a century on that currently empty lot, just steps away from Connecticut’s quaint but economically distressed Long Island Sound waterfront. Shortly after she moved in, in 1997, her house became ground zero in the nation’s best-known land rights catfight.

New London officials decided they needed Kelo’s land and the surrounding 90 acres for a multimillion-dollar private development that included residential, hotel conference, research and development space and a new state park that would complement a new $350 million Pfizer pharmaceutical research facility.

Kelo and six other homeowners fought for years, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2005, justices voted 5-4 against them, giving cities across the country the right to use eminent domain to take property for private development.

The decision was sharply criticized and created grassroots backlash. Forty states quickly passed new, protective rules and regulations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some protesters even tried to turn the tables on now-retired Justice David Souter, trying unsuccessfully in 2006 to take his New Hampshire home by eminent domain to build an inn.

In New London the city’s prized economic development plan has fallen apart as the economy crumbled.

The Corcoran Jennison Cos., a Boston-based developer, had originally locked in exclusive rights to develop nearly the entire northern half of the Fort Trumbull peninsula.

But those rights expired in June 2008, despite multiple extensions, because the firm was unable to secure financing, according to President Marty Jones.

In July, backers halted fundraising for the project’s crown jewel, a proposed $60 million, 60,000-square-foot Coast Guard museum.

The poor economy meant that donations weren’t “keeping pace with expenses,” said Coast Guard Foundation president Anne Brengle.

The group hopes to resume fundraising in the future, she said.

Overall, proponents say about two-thirds of the 90-acre site is developed, in part because of a 16-acre, $25 million state park. The other third of the land remains without the promised residential housing, office buildings, shops and hotel/conference center facility.

“If there had been no litigation, which took years to work its way through (the court system), then a substantial portion of this project would be constructed by now,” said John Brooks, executive director of the New London Development Corp. “But we are victims of the economic cycle, and there is nothing we can do about that.”

A new engineering tenant is moving into one of the office buildings at 1 Chelsea St., and a bio tech firm with as many as five employees is getting ready to move into an existing building on Howard Street, Brooks said.

Kelo, paid $442,000 by the state for her old property, now lives across the Thames River in Groton, in a white, two-bedroom 1950s bungalow. Her beloved pink house was sold for a dollar and moved less than two miles away, where a local preservationist has refurbished it.

Kelo can see her old neighborhood from her new home, but she finds the view too painful to bear.

“Everything is different, but everything is like still the same,” said Kelo, who works two jobs and has largely maintained a low profile since moving away. “You still have life to deal with every day of the week. I just don’t have eminent domain to deal with every day of the week, even after I ate, slept and breathed it for 10 years.”

Although her side lost, Kelo said she sees the wider ramifications of her property rights battle.

“In the end it was seven of us who fought like wild animals to save what we had,” she said. “I think that though we ultimately didn’t win for ourselves, it has brought attention to what they did to us, and if it can make it better for some other people so they don’t lose their homes to a Dunkin’ Donuts or a Wal-Mart, I think we did some good.”

Scott Bullock, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, argued Kelo’s case before the Supreme Court. He calls “massive changes that have happened in the law and in the public consciousness” the “real legacy” of Kelo and the other plaintiffs.

The empty land means the city won a “hollow victory,” he said.

“What cities should take from this is to run fleeing from what New London did and do economic development that is market-driven and incorporate properties of folks who are truly committed to their neighborhood and simply want to be a part of what happens,” he said.

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Most of us, of course, own multiple RF devices.  Your cell phone, your wireless Internet connection, and even your garage door opener all transmit signals through the air.  All are fair game for warrantless inspection, the FCC says.

The FCC claims it is only interested in RF devices that use “unlicensed” frequencies.  For instance, if you operate a radio station out of your home, and didn’t bother to obtain a broadcasting license for it, the FCC may come calling.  That’s particular true if the signal is powerful enough to interfere with the signal from a licensed station.

However, the FCC says that it can also inspect equipment using “licensed” frequencies.  And that includes every household in the United States, with the possible exception of groups like the Amish, who eschew modern electronic devices.

The FCC doesn’t have the right to seize anything—only to inspect any broadcasting RF devices.  However, if agents see anything in your home that’s “suspicious,” they can notify police, who may then be able to obtain a warrant for a more thorough search.

According to the FCC, its authority to search private homes comes from a 75-year old law authorizing warrantless administrative searches of radio transmitters.  Back in 1934, of course, there were no wireless routers, cell phones, or RF-activated garage door openers. Today, almost everyone does, yet the FCC still claims the same powers.

The saving grace to this policy is that the FCC won’t simply barge into your home if it wants to inspect any of the RF devices you own.  Instead, it will leave a note on your door announcing its intention to inspect whatever unlicensed (or licensed) RF devices in your home.

If such a notice appears on your door, don’t call the FCC to schedule an inspection.  Call your lawyer.  You have a right for your lawyer to be present for any warrantless inspection of your home.

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This video is another one of those deceptive products of Congress intended to make you think that Congress has far more power than it does. Your brain would have to be flatlining under the influence of Splenda (sucralose) or punched full of holes by Equal (aspartame) to fall for this crap.

As we have reviewed several times before, there are only two ways to change the Constitution. Congress can’t do it. The president can’t do it, either, not even a real president.

And what do we know about legislative acts that violate the Constitution? Hang this on your gun belt:

“[a]n unconstitutional act is not a law; . . . it imposes no duties; it is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.” Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U.S. 425, 442 (1886).

“An unconstitutional act is not a law; it binds no one.” Huntington v. Worthen, 120 U.S. 97, 101-02 (1887).

“An unconstitutional law is void, and is as no law. An offence created by it is not a crime.” Ex parte Siebold, 100 U.S. 371, 376 (1880), quoted with approval in Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 408 (1963).

Do we have to wait until a court issues a ruling on the constitutionality of a legislative act? No, we don’t. Each of us is the final arbiter of the Constitution. Dave Champion explains in this 12-minute segment of his show.

Blatant lies about private property rights

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From the National Assn. of Farm Animal Welfare, 4.22.09

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Life is precious, even more so when a little life is hanging by a thread. Here at Dickinson Cattle Company Inc., near Barnesville, Ohio, USA, every life is priority, the people and the livestock. When every breath of oxygen and ounce of colostrum is life or death, tender love, and on the spot management is drastically important.

Herd health doesn’t come out of a bottle, or because of a federal law. It certainly is not about ear tags, or about Humane Society animal rights theory. It comes from devoted livestock management by the people who appreciate and respect livestock the most, the owners. Herd health is not a fourth of July rally. It goes all year long with generous amounts of clean hay, water and minerals during cold winter days.

Ranchers know their stock. Genetics are planned with special traits for many generations. Not only do producers know every herd animal, they often know their planned mating genealogies for 20 to 50 years deep back into historic pedigrees. The mind of a true stockman evaluates every trait of every animal. The herd sires receive multiple scrutiny. Frozen semen is a special tool for breed improvement. Check DCCI sires available at http://www.texaslonghorn.com/inventory/semen/index.cfm

Over 1000 livestock producing families per month go broke or terminate their businesses. This is caused by excessive enforcements, taxes, regulations of governments beyond reason, and the cost of labor having to compete against union salaries and the government’s high paying jobs. Each day Congress and the Senate pass more laws to increase cost of agriculture production. Look close at these American families and realize they are a vanishing species. They work day and night to excel. The elderly fear the future; youth innocently dream of the grandeur to come. As children prepare for the cattle shows of this coming Summer, Washington regulators prepare to force mandatory NAIS compliance to strap livestock owners with one more hard financial blow.

You may have called your elected federal officials hundreds of times and robotically treated like a borrowed mule, never receiving the dignity of a returned call. Try another hundred emails, letters, fax and phone calls. Call your state veterinarians who have all taken massive bribes (cooperative agreements) from the USDA to promote NAIS. As the elected and employed ones vote themselves increases of salary, insurance and retirements annually, thousands of food producers in the USA depart. Please try a few more times to contact your enforcers. Someday, one may listen to the people affected by their onerous legislations and do the right thing. Please say — NO to NAIS.

For more info www.naisSTINKS.com, or e-mail Ag.Ed@NAFAW.org

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We all know that the biggest roadblock to mortgage modification is and has been the loan servicer and that servicer’s responsibility to its investors. So many loans during the housing boom were pooled and sold off to investors that it became close to impossible for the servicers of those pools to get permission across the board to change the terms of individual loans.

Taylor and the NCRC are proposing a new government program, using TARP money, whereby the government would “use its power of eminent domain to take troubled properties/loans from mortgage servicers and lenders, so large numbers of loans could be modified, writing down principal and interest rates. The loans would then be re-sold to the private market.”

The government would buy these loans at a “steep discount.” Eminent domain allows the government to take an asset where a public purpose is served, and it requires that they pay the investor the “fair market value” for it. NCRC claims the fair market value would be about 30-50 percent of the current loan value.

NCRC argues, “Discounting the purchase of these loans would strike a balance between assisting homeowners and ensuring that lenders, servicers and securitizers are not rewarded for financing and servicing predatory and price-inflated loans.” That discounted price would then “be sufficient to write down the loan balance of millions of loans such that they can be permanently refinanced or modified to ensure long-term sustainability.”

This strikes me as a REALLY BAD IDEA for several reasons.  Olick touched on one of the problems briefly:

The sticky part is proving that a mortgage is in fact a piece of real estate, but I’ll leave that to the scholars out there. Essentially it’s a way to force lenders/servicers into submission.

The NCRC laid out their case for the use of eminent domain by John Taylor, their president, in testimony yesterday:

A number of legal scholars have suggested that there are legal impediments regarding the complexity of selling loans held in securitized pools. Therefore, NCRC recommends the alternative approach of using eminent domain with the HELP Now proposal to purchase loans from investors and servicers. The current economic crisis would justify the government’s use of eminent domain laws for a compelling public purpose. In addition, eminent domain would overcome several barriers. Through compulsory purchases of troubled loans, reluctant servicers, investors, and lenders would not need to be persuaded to participate.

Utilizing the federal government’s power of eminent domain avoids lawsuits from disgruntled investors. As Harvard Law Professor Howell Jackson points out, eminent domain can solve the barriers related to first and second liens by directly purchasing all mortgages on targeted properties.

The use of eminent domain could also alleviate pricing uncertainties to unfreeze the credit market, and it could establish fair prices for mortgages through existing judicial mechanisms. The government should ensure that renters receive protections under its program. A sizable number of distressed loans involve investors who do not live in the property they purchase but
have rented the properties to tenants.

Once fair prices are established, a secondary market can then be re-established and voluntary efforts to refinance mortgages will most likely accelerate.

My concerns are as follows:

1. That rather than re-establishing a secondary market, this would kill it. Would investors really believe “Hey, we know that former purchasers of mortgages were turned into fish bait, but now it’s safe to go back in the water?” As long as the government keeps changing the rules and putting investors at a disadvantage, there will be no stability in mortgage markets.
2. The moral hazard issue is huge here.  Why buy a house you can afford when you can buy a home beyond your means and have the price adjusted to your budget? This punishes those who were more conservative in their purchases or chose to rent. This rewards the wrong people.
3. Investors as well as homeowners would benefit from this plan on the pretext that this helps renters. Should flippers and speculators be bailed out in the name of “helping” their renters? Just how much irresponsible behavior should be financed at the expense of the responsible?
4. Lastly, I am concerned about the fact that this would be seizing mortgages, not  real property, and that this is stretching the definition of “public use”.

I am not an expert in constitutional law, but I am aware the eminent domain need not be real property.  According to Wickipedia:

The exercise of eminent domain is not limited to real property. Governments may also condemn personal property, such as supplies for the military in wartime, franchises; this includes intangible property such as contract rights, patents, trade secrets, and copyrights.

In spite of that, typically eminent domain has been restricted to real property. To expand this use on such an excuse is to start down a slippery slope. It is one thing to have eminent domain used to obtain vital supplies in a military campaign, it is another to confiscate the assets of one group of people in order to benefit another group.  The potential for abuse is huge.

Wickipedia also states:

The legal doctrine of eminent domain, like the doctrine of seizure of contraband, allows expropriation of property within the existing system of law. Otherwise, expropriation may imply either a criminal or a revolutionary act.

We need to consider whether this really falls under the existing system- the alternative is frightening.

Fortunately, so far the NCRC’s proposal is just that- a proposal.  Here’s hoping that the House Financial Services Committee members nodded off during Taylor’s presentation.

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Trans Texas Corridor renamed, not dead

TURF reaction to TxDOT announcement:

The announcement by TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz at the Texas Transportation Forum that the “Trans Texas Corridor, as it was originally envisioned, is no more,” is just another in a series of comments to lead opponents into believing the Trans Texas Corridor is indeed dead. TURF believes this is a deliberate move to dupe opponents into complacency, and we expect iron-clad action before we begin celebrating victory.

It’s clear from the TxDOT Director’s speech, that it’s only a name change and the Trans Texas Corridor is, in reality, going underground.

This fact is evident in just about every news source across the state:

“‘Amadeo told folks at the forum that the Trans-Texas Corridor, as it was originally envisioned, is no more,’ Amacker (Saenz spokesperson) said. ‘Instead, what we’ve got is a series of smaller projects.’

Those ’smaller projects’ will apparently include the 300-plus miles of what has been called TTC-35 from San Antonio to the Oklahoma border and the I-69 project from the Rio Grande Valley to Texarkana. But they will not be called the Trans-Texas Corridor.” — Austin American Statesman

________________________________________________________

“Other than backpedaling from the Trans-Texas Corridor brand, and the goals and priorities set over the years, the Trans-Texas Corridor remains intact.

TxDOT still plans to partner with private corporations to build and lease projects. Toll roads, truck-only lanes and rail lanes are also still on the table.

Environmental studies for the I-35 and East Texas corridor segments still chug through the pipeline. And a development contract with Cintra of Spain and Zachry Construction Co. of San Antonio, for projects paralleling I-35, is still valid.” — San Antonio Express-News

_________________________________________________________

“The renewed effort now will operate under the name ‘Innovative Connectivity Plan.’” – Houston Chronicle
_________________________________________________________

No law has been changed, no minute order rescinded, no environmental document re-done (as is required by federal law), and there are still two contracts signed giving two Spanish companies the right of first refusal on segments of the corridor previously known as TTC-35  & TTC-69. So by every real measure, the Trans Texas Corridor goes on full steam ahead. What today’s hype was about is a political ploy to make the public go back to sleep while it gets built under a different name. While we welcome genuine responsiveness from TxDOT and a true repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor, this hardly qualifies.

Lets just say, we agree with Senator Robert Nichols’ statement in the Dallas Morning News:

“If it is just a name change, and nothing more, I don’t think that is going to do much to appease lawmakers,” said Nichols, R-Jacksonville.

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The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act establishes within the executive branch the position of intellectual property enforcement coordinator, who will be appointed b More..y the president.

The law also steepens penalties for intellectual-property infringement, and increases resources for the Department of Justice to coordinate for federal and state efforts against counterfeiting and piracy. The so-called Pro-IP Act passed unanimously in the Senate last month and received strong bipartisan support in the House.

The Bush administration initially expressed its opposition to the legislation, but one of its more contentious provisions, which would have allowed the Justice Department to pursue civil litigation against copyright infringers, was removed.

The law has received wide-ranging support from within the business community, including from the Recording Industry Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and copyright holders such as NBC Universal. Labor groups such as the AFL-CIO have also expressed their support for the new law. Business and labor groups have said strong intellectual-property enforcement is critical for the development of the U.S. economy.

“What the Congress recognized and the president has ratified is the critical importance of innovation, technical invention, and creativity to the U.S. economy,” said Rick Cotton, executive vice president and general counsel of NBC Universal. “This law will dramatically move the priority of IP enforcement up the agenda in critical ways.”

Intellectual property in the U.S. is worth more than $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and accounts for more than half of all U.S. exports.

“By becoming law, the Pro-IP Act sends the message to IP criminals everywhere that the U.S. will go the extra mile to protect American innovation,” said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The legislation saw opposition from some public-advocacy groups, including the American Library Association, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

“It would’ve been nice to have something to benefit the public and artists instead of big media companies,” Public Knowledge Communications Director Art Brodsky said, noting that Congress and the president could give more consideration to the public on matters of intellectual property, with further action on the issue of “orphan works,” copyrighted material for which the owner cannot be found.

The Senate in September passed a bill limiting civil actions in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works.

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Please go to kucinich.us now and sign the petition, which calls for impeachment. This is the one petition that will make a difference because I will be delivering it personally to your member of congress. Please circulate word of this petition far and wide, to all your friends and family. This is the one opportunity that we have right now to actually change events in this country.

Two hundred and thirty-two years ago, our nation was conceived in liberty. We have once again reached a moment of truth, one that Lincoln recognized at Gettysburg as to whether “this nation or any nation so conceived or so dedicated can long endure”.

Through the ashes of war, Lincoln prayed that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

This Fourth of July, 2008, we face a different kind of war; one which is trying our souls.. a war based on lies. But with the power of truth and the power of the people we can achieve a new birth of freedom, standing up for what is good in America, insisting on the rule of law, demanding adherence to the Constitution, and supporting the impeachment of a President who lied to take us into a war against Iraq.

Be the answer to Lincoln’s Prayer. Please pledge your support now to restoring the rule of law in America. As we once again celebrate our Independence, let us celebrate freedom from fear and pledge that this government of the people will survive in this land that we love.

Please go to kucinich.us now. This is your chance to make a difference; truly celebrate our Independence. Thank you.

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Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

Lanier has been struggling to reverse D.C.’s spiraling crime rate but has been forced by public outcry to scale back several initiatives including her “All Hands on Deck” weekends and plans for warrantless, door-to-door searches for drugs and guns.

Under today’s proposal, the no-go zones will last up to 10 days, according to internal police documents. Front-line officers are already being signed up for training on running the blue curtains.

Peter Nickles, the city’s interim attorney general, said the quarantine would have “a narrow focus.”

“This is a very targeted program that has been used in other cities,” Nickles told The Examiner. “I’m not worried about the constitutionality of it.”

Others are. Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. police union and a former lawyer, called the checkpoint proposal “breathtaking.”

Shelley Broderick, president of the D.C.-area American Civil Liberties Union and the dean of the University of the District of Columbia’s law school, said the plan was “cockamamie.”

“I think they tried this in Russia and it failed,” she said. “It’s just our experience in this city that we always end up targeting poor people and people of color, and we treat the kids coming home from choir practice the same as we treat those kids who are selling drugs.”

The proposal has the provisional support of D.C. Councilman Harry “Tommy” Thomas, D-Ward 5, whose ward has become a war zone.

“They’re really going to crack down on what we believe to be a systemic problem with open-air drug markets,” Thomas told The Examiner.

Thomas said, though, that he worried about D.C. “moving towards a police state.”

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