Liberty
Matters News Service
September 9, 2005
Water Rights Aren't Property Rights, says Judge
A federal judge has rejected the argument by 13 Klamath Basin landowners that the government must compensate them for "taking" their irrigation water in 2001. Judge Francis M. Allegra said the irrigators don't have the protection of the Fifth Amendment because they have no property right to the irrigation water. "What the judge has said is the government can take water away from irrigators and there is not a damn thing they or the state can do about it," said Roger Marzulla, Defenders of Property Rights attorney, who represented the landowners and irrigation districts. "This decision is so bad the court of appeals will have to reverse it," he continued. Judge Allegra ruled that a similar California water case was not a precedent in the Klamath Basin case even though the Oregon farmers' water was taken under the Endangered Species Act to protect coho salmon and a couple of sucker fish. "This ruling was important because it rejects a pretty extreme view of property rights and water law," said Todd True, an Earthjustice attorney. Lynn Long, one of the plaintiffs, was disgusted with the ruling too. "I would give you a bigger perspective, that it is bad for America when citizens are deprived of the ability to make a living," he said.
Judge Rejects Property Claims from
Irrigators
Rulings in Takings Case
Not the End
UN Global Tax Proposal
The UN has plans to impose global taxes to finance its world take-over. The United States' share of the preposterous plan would cost Americans an additional $845 billion over the next ten years. However, UN Ambassador John Bolton has taken steps to put a stop to the international socialists' scheme. "[T]he U. S. does not accept global aid targets or global taxes," Ambassador Bolton fumed. The Los Angeles Times charged that changes Bolton made to the UN document, the "Millennium Development Goals," would result in millions of deaths, while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said removal of the tax targets "would hurt billions of people." Here is a sampling of taxes the UN would impose on the United States and other wealthy nations for "redistribution" to citizens of third world countries: E-mail tax that would generate $150 billion a year; Carbon tax producing $125 billion per year; Currency Transaction Tax, $264 billion; International air transport tax, $2.2 billion; Aviation fuel tax, $12.5 billion and the list goes on. The last thing the United States needs is to shovel more money into the corrupt United Nations.
UN Wants $845 Billion from US
Global Taxes are Back, Watch Your Wallet
Kelo In Colorado?
San Juan County Colorado officials explain that it is just a coincidence the land they are confiscating for avalanche control is also used extensively by skiers and maintenance workers associated with the nearby Silverton Mountain Ski Resort. "We're not pursuing this on an economic-development basis," said County administrator Willy Tooky, even though the new ski area is doing wonders for Silverton's winter-depressed economy. Jim Jackson, whose land is being condemned, filed a trespass suit against Aaron Brill, the resort's owner last December. "The most egregious instances of trespass have occurred for the purpose of recreational skiing, not for avalanche control," said Thomas Johnson, Jackson's attorney. "The plans are to keep this [road] open for public use and recreation," said Tooky and that means Brill's skiers can also use it, but Brill denies the condemnation will primarily benefit his resort. Colorado lawmakers don't think the land grab violates state law nor do they think they need to beef up property protection measures in Kelo's wake proving even though a private entity stands to gain from a condemnation that doesn't make it illegal, as long as some public purpose is being served.
Land Seizures About Safety, Officials Say
Native Plant Inventory Under Way
The Center for Plant Conservation, (CPC) based in St. Louis, MO, is heading a group of thirty-some botanical organizations that will study native plants to determine if they are threatened or endangered and what steps are needed to restore them to their former glory. The study will provide information to federation agencies about how many of the 800 or so species are located on public lands and worse, will provide the feds with a summary of how many of the species are most dependent on private lands for recovery. At present, a landowner can "take" a listed plant on his private land, but neither he nor his livestock can "take" it on government land. Bruce Rittenhouse, CPS's conservation programs director, explained native plants … "are the canary in the coal mine. They are the signals of health." The fragile native plants are imperiled because of the usual suspects: mainly habitat loss, "invasive species," and pollution, all which can be attributed to human presence. The goal of environmentalists, including the Nature Conservancy, is to eradicate all plants that weren't on this continent in 1492 and this study could help them persuade a "green" Congress to provide the legal framework to do it. There is "invasive species" language included in Rep. Pombo's ESA reform bill right now. Money for the study, $500,000, or so, is being provided mainly by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, funded by millions of tax dollars, along with Chevron/Texaco and the Edward K. Love Conservation Foundation.