Here’s a good idea: a local Colorado group is trying to get an amendment to limit Eminent Domain onto the ballot this November:
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer allowed local governments to seize property for economic purposes, but said states were free to enact their own laws protecting property rights.
Colorado Citizens for Property Rights is seeking an amendment to the state constitution that would limit the government’s ability to use eminent domain to take property for private uses such as stores, private toll roads, corporate campuses or other economic development projects.
They said their proposal would not affect the use of eminent domain for public projects such as highways, schools or utilities.
I won’t completely endorese this ’til I get a chance to read their proposal, but I agree with the sentiment. Eminent Domain needs to be limited, as we learned last year.
Here is an example of why it’s not a good idea to keep telling people, “look out for anything suspicious while you are flying.”:
A Frontier Airlines passenger on a flight from Denver who had a notebook that contained the words “suicide bomber” was taken into custody Wednesday and questioned for several hours before being released to his family, police said.
The suspect, identified only as a 36-year-old male residing in Santa Cruz County, got the attention of a fellow passenger after writing in a journal that had the words “suicide bomber” handwritten on the front, authorities from the San Jose Police Department and the FBI said. He was also clutching a backpack in what the fellow passenger regarded as a suspicious manner.
The entire concept of reporting suspicious behavior is making people paranoid. Now, if you are eccentric, you have a good chance of having to explain to law enforcement why you aren’t a terrorist. Does anyone think this is a good thing?
Last week, we found out that the NSA was illegally spying on phonecalls from American citizens. This week, we find out that the NSA has been using illegal tracking cookies on their website!
The National Security Agency’s Internet site has been placing files on visitors’ computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them.
These files, known as “cookies,” disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake.
Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States.
My god! Will someone please explain to the NSA that their are rules and laws that they must adhere to? Theoretically, no one is above the law. Even the NSA.
Now that a couple of days have passed, a lot of people are wondering wither the air marshalls were justified in shooting Rigoberto Alpizar. Eyewitess accounts seem to directly contradict the official reasons given for the shooting:
One passenger said he “absolutely never heard the word ‘bomb’ at all” during the uproar as the Orlando-bound flight prepared to leave Miami on Wednesday.
Federal officials say Rigoberto Alpizar made the threat in the jetway, after running up the plane’s aisle from his seat at the back of the jetliner. They opened fire because the 44-year-old Home Depot employee ignored their orders to stop, reached into his backpack and said he had a bomb, according to authorities.
It is hard to say exactly what I would do in that situation without actually having been in that situation, of course. But I’ve gotta believe that there was another resolution besides shooting the guy in the back. Surely one of the marshalls should’ve been able to tackle they guy.
For some reason, I seem to write a lot of entries about Kansas. Can’t imagine why that is, but it might have something to do with the fact that many Kansas residents are apparently out of their friggin’ gourds. Take, for example, Jennifer Watt, a school principal who suspended a student for speaking Spanish at school.
A school superintendent in Kansas has apologized to a high school student suspended for speaking Spanish at school.
Zach Rubio, 16, was sent home from the Endeavor Alternative School last month for speaking in Spanish in the cafeteria and elsewhere at school.
Principal Jennifer Watts sent him home and suspended him through the following day.
District officials told the boy’s father the action was a direct result of his speaking Spanish. Rubio’s father is a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 25 years.
Yes, you did read the right, the only “crime” that Rubio committed was speaking his native tongue. Apparently, in Kansas, that’s worthy of suspension from school.
There’s another story about school newspaper censorship, this time regarding high schools in Pennsylvania.
The student newspaper at Lampeter Strasburg High School ran the ad for Common Roads in its November issue — only to have it pulled.
The ad invited gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth to check out the group.
“It’s just saying we’re here if you need us. Check us out,” said Carol Reisinger, executive director of Common Roads.
The superintendent of the Lampeter Strasburg school district, Dr. Robert Frick, nixed the ad after the papers were printed.
They were reprinted without it. Other school papers refused to take the ad from the beginning.
Frick wouldn’t go on camera, but he told the television station that the advertisement encouraged students to attend “something we know nothing about.”
All I can say is: ugh. Schools should be teaching kids about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, not first-hand experience in how censorship works.
Wow… it is scary that this type of thing is happening in Colorado in the year 2005:
Deborah Davis, 50, of Arvada, Colo., told the Rocky Mountain News that the bus she took to work passed through the Federal Center, and that federal officers would routinely board it asking for identification. She said the officers with the Federal Protective Service just looked at the IDs and did not record them or compare them with any lists.
After reviewing her rights, one day in September she refused to produce her ID and she refused their orders to get off the bus. She said she was removed from the bus, handcuffed and ticketed for two petty offenses.
Looks like the Oak Ridge (TN) High School superintendent isn’t so keen on the whole Free Speech idea:
Administrators at Oak Ridge High School went into teachers’ classrooms, desks and mailboxes to retrieve all 1,800 copies of the newspaper Tuesday, said teacher Wanda Grooms, who advises the staff, and Brittany Thomas, the student editor.
The Oak Leaf’s birth control article listed success rates for different methods and said contraceptives were available from doctors and the local health department. Superintendent Tom Bailey said the article needed to be edited so it would be acceptable for the entire school.
This is scary, truly scary. Shouldn’t our public schools be teaching children about the Rights its citizens are granted which makes this such a great nation, instead of demonstrating what happens when those rights are trampled on?
As if there aren’t enough reasons to join the ACLU, here’s another:ACLU files suit over 2 ousted from Bush event
The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday sued two volunteers who helped with a March appearance by President Bush, saying they removed two people from the event because of their political views.
