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View Full Version : Seized Ivory Tower!!!!



Fish boy
06-28-2005, 06:15 PM
Ok, not seized yet but anyone who has paid attention to anything besides the donzi girls section drama (R.I.P.) recently has heard about the the supreme court's recent ruling allowing local government's to take private land if it deems there is greater value (tax or economic) in the hands of a developer than it has as your personal home.

This is a heart warming story starring Justice David Souter (swing vote allowing the degradation of the constitution with the recent vote) and his house. Enjoy! :D

How do things look from your ivory tower now?! (http://www.freestarmedia.com/hotellostliberty2.html)

Laszlo
06-28-2005, 06:37 PM
Fish Boy, isn't this great. Maybe next year we can change our country name to something else! OH..maybe we can call it, um.. the USSR! Ya, that sounds great! Not only do we rent our houses from our state and federal governments (through property tax), now they can evict us whenever they want. Well, i've got my middle fingers sticking up at all the aholes in the supreme court! P.S. Maybe on our new country flag we can put a HAMMER and Sickle on it. Wouldn't that be great!

NOTICE "The common good" in the paragraph below! That phrase is HAUNTING

* The hammer and sickle, the symbol of the "collapsed" Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is the banner under which at least 50,000,000 people were murdered, and countless others imprisoned. This state had no respect for any of the freedoms we take for granted in our country today. Freedom of thought, Freedom of association, freedom of movement, Freedom of religion, just to mention a few, all these were banned "FOR THE COMMON GOOD" in Communist Russia.

mphatc
06-28-2005, 06:42 PM
Very Cool!!!

I heard about the ruling and forgot that David Souter lived just up the road!
Certainly a good local story to watch as raising monies for this would not be hard!!!

Does Weare, NH need a hotel, no, but hey if it rases tax revenue this town would gain from it. It's a small off the beaten path town a bit to the NW of Concord.

Mario

Fish boy
06-28-2005, 06:44 PM
Fish Boy, isn't this great. Maybe next year we can change our country name to something else! OH..maybe we can call it, um.. the USSR! Ya, that sounds great! Not only do we rent our houses from our state and federal governments (through property tax), now they can evict us whenever they want. Well, i've got my middle fingers sticking up at all the aholes in the supreme court! P.S. Maybe on our new country flag we can put a HAMMER and Sickle on it. Wouldn't that be great!

NOTICE "The common good" in the paragraph below! That phrase is HAUNTING

* The hammer and sickle, the symbol of the "collapsed" Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is the banner under which at least 50,000,000 people were murdered, and countless others imprisoned. This state had no respect for any of the freedoms we take for granted in our country today. Freedom of thought, Freedom of association, freedom of movement, Freedom of religion, just to mention a few, all these were banned "FOR THE COMMON GOOD" in Communist Russia.

I hear ya man, WTF are they thinking. Although I hate to see it happen to anyone, maybe Souter's home being turned into a hotel would make them realize the train wreck they in all likliehood created with this ruling. :frown:

gcarter
06-28-2005, 08:16 PM
It's funny how liberal judges will almost always take the side of government.
But if you listen to their lies, there for the little guy.

Laszlo
06-28-2005, 08:19 PM
I hear ya man, WTF are they thinking. Although I hate to see it happen to anyone, maybe Souter's home being turned into a hotel would make them realize the train wreck they in all likliehood created with this ruling. :frown:


I agree. This is such a big issue that hopefully it raises awareness. The problem is the SUPREME COURT ruling! It's a big hurdle to overcome but you can change it. If we let them get away with this, i can't imagine what they'll take next!

TuxedoPk
06-28-2005, 08:41 PM
Fish- See any reason why this wouldn't apply equally to property owned by religious and other not for profits? It would seem to me that an argument could be made that it must apply equally in order to maintain a seperation of church and state.

Fish boy
06-28-2005, 09:16 PM
tux, I have not read the ruling only the summary, but it is a very interesting point. Typically, religious orginizations are not going to be at the top of the pile when it comes to tax revenue generated by the individual parcel. However, the reality is that the uproar of trying to take someones church would likely result in the local govt's finding "other economic impact" such as keeping property values high in neighborhoods since proximity to schools, shopping, and houses of religion are important factors in home purchases.

Same would go for many not for profits, although technically it would seem that the ruling opens the door to them too.

One thing just occured to me as I am writing this... I wonder what native americans are thinkng right now about the recent uproar over this ruling???

TuxedoPk
06-28-2005, 09:54 PM
One thing just occured to me as I am writing this... I wonder what native americans are thinkng right now about the recent uproar over this ruling???

They would have lost Manhattan either way... at least they got $24 in beads and trinkets for it :)

Considering the that the Carnarsie tribe of Brooklyn sold the Dutch Manhattan and didn't have rights to it. The selling of the Brooklyn bridge pre-dates the bridge and created one of the first title issues in New Amsterdam.

I'm losing it here trying to picture a native American with a Brooklyn accent. Yo Yo, Little Antny who runs like deer... it's time for dinner. Is that a TP in your loin cloth or are youse just happy to see me?

Sport
06-29-2005, 08:09 AM
FishBoy,

Last night was the St. Pete Beach city meeting about this subject, the city taking land for private developement. I received a letter on my door to come to the city meeting and express my thoughts. I was going to go but the weather last night was horrible (I'm getting old and scared to go outside). Something about stopping 20 story buildings from going up on the beach. What is in it for the mayor and Paul Skipper ? ? ? I think that they should place a 50 year stop on all construction over 8 stories. I am sorry I didn't go to the meeting now ! But that lightning was pretty bad when the meeting was starting. If this place starts to look any more like North Sand Key maybe it's time to move South towards Anna Maria Island. My .02

Sport

txtaz
06-29-2005, 09:46 AM
Grrrrrrrrrr :mad: :mad:
I pitty da fool who tries to take my house :fire:
Da Taz (with fewer civil rights)
Seriously Jodi what can we do to overturn this ruling. It's obviously wrong.

Patti
06-29-2005, 09:58 AM
They would have lost Manhattan either way... at least they got $24 in beads and trinkets for it http://www.donzi.net/ubb/smile.gif

Considering the that the Carnarsie tribe of Brooklyn sold the Dutch Manhattan and didn't have rights to it. The selling of the Brooklyn bridge pre-dates the bridge and created one of the first title issues in New Amsterdam.

I'm losing it here trying to picture a native American with a Brooklyn accent. Yo Yo, Little Antny who runs like deer... it's time for dinner. Is that a TP in your loin cloth or are youse just happy to see me?

Hey..I was born and raised in Canarsie..and I dont sound like that..well not ALL of the time http://www.donzi.net/ubb/wink.gif

Craig S
06-29-2005, 10:32 AM
As a waterfront property owner, that court decision S****!

Fish boy
06-29-2005, 10:42 AM
Grrrrrrrrrr :mad: :mad:
I pitty da fool who tries to take my house :fire:
Da Taz (with fewer civil rights)
Seriously Jodi what can we do to overturn this ruling. It's obviously wrong.

Ask the people don't like Roe vs. wade how easy it is to overturn the Supr Ct.. Unfortunately, as much as many of us do not like it, it is the law of the land right now. :(

Since it was pretty much a liberal vote that did it, we can only hope (on this issue)that Rhenquist and possibly O'Connor, who are likely to retire soon, are not replaced with liberal judges so the next time a challenge to this law makes it through the courts and makes it all the way to the supreme court, it will be struck down rather than cemented by further tweaking.

The only real chance of getting it changed is for someone to challenge it after there is a change in the supreme court makeup. Help can come from legislation though as long as it does not contradict the ruling. For example, county could say- no grant of eminent domain to developer vs. Private Citizen without showing of X% gain (or economic impact) in tax value over X years from the current tax revenue (or economic impact)generated by the parcel. It could be a ridiculous/"almost" impossible number necessary to get ED.

That would leave the developer in a quandary if it is realistically impossible to get ED under any circumstances: he could 1) challenge the denial and risks it going to the supreme court and losing this ruling for everyone (and his future projects); 2) takes his lumps; 3) try to "influence" local government officials to reconsider and make a special exception in his case.

Realistically, In order to deal with the ruling it is important for people to be involved in state and local politics- go to town hall meetings..etc. Hold politicians accountable for their actions and keep pressure on them. Don't say "someone should do something about this", do it yourself. Most of them like being politicians and the specter of losing their job to help a walgreens take Ms. Johnson's family home might make him think twice if he thinks he cannot do it without the spotlight of public scrutiny shining on his actions.

Anyway, nothing bad has happened yet, lets hope for no news being good news on this one.

TuxedoPk
06-29-2005, 08:06 PM
This reminds me of the how the roadways and bridges around the boroughs of New York City and Long Island were developed. If anyone wants an absolutely amazing book to read check out the Power Broker. It's a story about Robert Moses and his rise to power and his power struggles and victories over the mayors, governors, and presidents of the United States.

A great read whether your into how NYC was developed or just an amazing story about how one man accomplished so much, ruined so much, and created a system whereby he had unlimmited power.

- An interesting story from the book. Robert Moses built Jones Beach in Long Island. In order to allow people from the city to get to the beach he built the roadways. In order to keep blacks from going to the beach he build all of the overpasses on the highways too low to alllow buses out to the Island and to prevent future mass transportation to allow the blacks out to his beach he made sure the highway medians were too narrow to ever allow trains to run.

Craig S
06-30-2005, 10:07 AM
[QUOTE=Fish boy]Since it was pretty much a liberal vote that did itQUOTE]

Looks pretty much like a pro big business vote. Here's whats going on down in
Freeport, Texas.:lookaroun

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3239024

Fish boy
06-30-2005, 05:54 PM
Just heard a rumor that Tom Delay (who is a king Tool in my book except for this) is introducing legislation that will deny federal funding to any state who uses ED to take private property to give it to a developer. Just a news blurb, and the devil is in the details, but seems to be a look towards a step in the right difrection.

goatee
06-30-2005, 11:27 PM
this is SOOOOO awsome if it go's through.
how much more "correct" could this even be?