Liberty
Matters News Service
April 26, 2007
I Spy
There will soon be no place to hide when the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) aims its spy camera at your property. The government's new USGS Land Cover visualization and Analysis Tool will allow agencies such as The Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U. S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to view and analyze land cover data from any web browser. "Land cover data has been a largely untapped information resource," said Barbara Ryan, USGS Associate Director for Geography. The information is essential, claim its proponents, for the managers of public and private lands, urban planners, agricultural experts and scientists in the study of climate change and invasive species. "This is the ultimate tool that will be used by non-profits and government land-use agencies to determine if a landowner destroys or manipulates habitat or alters a wetland. If a landowner signs up under a conservation easement, the 'baseline' (actual physical description) is determined on the signature date. Any physical alterations will be monitored by satellite. With the third-party enforcement aspect of conservation easements, this will be the tool used to force landowners into compliance in the future without anyone even leaving their computer," said Dan Byfield, president of the American Land Foundation.
USGS Launches Land Cover Data
Web Tool
Shattered Dreams
A new book from the National Center for Public Policy Research, recounts horror stories describing how the governments in the U.S. routinely destroys the lives of ordinary Americans. "Shattered Dreams: One Hundred Stories of Government Abuse," paints a disturbing picture of how the "government of the people, by the people and for the people," is anything but. Second Amendment champion and rock star, Ted Nugent wrote the forward and Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, author of "The Constitution in Exile," and "Constitutional Chaos," provided the introduction. Shattered Dreams is a well-researched documentation of a government that ignores its own laws by stripping citizens of their rights and bankrupting them as they try to defend themselves from an increasingly powerful central government. The stories illustrate the ways the Endangered Species Act has been stretched to drive people from their homes and ruin their businesses; how eminent domain is habitually used to force private citizens to turn their properties over to other private entities; how the government sticks its nose into every nook and corner of American life. This book shows how far the United States government has veered off the path of freedom and liberty and into the dark woods of tyranny. The brave souls who fought and died for America over two hundred years ago must be wondering why they ever bothered. To view the book or order, go to http://www.nationalcenter.org/ShatteredDreams.html
Shattered Dreams: One Hundred
Stories of Government Abuse
Tall in the Saddle
In the finest traditions of the old West, Wyoming rancher Frank Robbins is fighting for his property rights. The guys in the black hats are not cattle rustlers, this time, but Bureau of Land Management (BLM) thugs. Robbins has tangled with them ever since he bought the High Island Ranch in 1993. The previous owner had granted the BLM an easement across the ranch, but the government failed to file it in the public records and Robbins was never told it existed. When Robbins refused to allow the agents to cross his land that is when the government declared war. Robbins' lawyers, R. S. Radford and Timothy Sandefur, wrote that the government "repeatedly harassed the guests at [Robbins'] ranch, cited him for minor infractions, and brought him up on criminal charges of interfering with federal agents during their duties." The government's attorney, Solicitor General Paul Clement, presented a brief to the U. S. Supreme Court titled: "There is No Fifth Amendment Right Against Retaliation For the Exercise Of Property Rights." Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, arguing for Robbins, told the Court, "[T]he position of the government here is that there is constitutional limit on the kind of retaliation they can engage in." The decision won't be released until summer, and hope is the court will not repeat the folly of the Kelo decision. In the words of Investor's Business Daily; "We hope this time there are more justices than jesters on this court."
Hold the Quick Take
For the second time in two months, Maryland's Court of Appeals has chastised Baltimore for its nasty habit of confiscating private property by "quick take." The court ruled the Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC) had no business seizing the property of Robert Sapero to allow Station North Development Partners, LLC to proceed with its $50 million building project. The ruling follows a similar decision in February after BDC seized property belonging to George Valsamaki. "There certainly was no evidence that quick-take was necessary for the public's health, safety, or immediate welfare, and it was not asserted that [Mr. Sapero] was a 'holdout' of any sort," wrote Judge Dale R. Cathell. The BDC waited a year and a half before swooping in with an offer of $770,000 even though Sapero already had a $2 million contract on the property. The court admonished Baltimore for using quick-take as a "litigation tactic" when purchase negotiations broke down. "The use of quick-take should always be subject to close scrutiny," Judge Cathell concluded. "It must not be forgotten that private property rights are fundamental constitutional rights."