The Con-stitution And The Power To Confiscate

Constitution, Founding Fathers, History, Private Property

“The Con-stitution And The Power To Confiscate” is the current column, now on WND. An excerpt:

Bolstered by the U S. Forest Service, Summit County authorities, in Colo., are scheming on seizing 10 acres of verdant land that belongs to Andy and Ceil Barrie.

The parcel of land is situated within the White River National Forest. The authorities claim the couple’s use of a motorized vehicle on the preserved land risks “damaging the alpine tundra and streams and the habitat of the endangered lynx.”

Since it is the nature of government to “turn a wormhole into a loophole,” the solution sought by the county’s commissioners and attorney general is to confiscate private property under the guise of “open-space” conservation.

On their side—and against the right of private property—the knaves of this Colorado county have a thing even more formidable than the U S. Forest Service: the U. S. Constitution.

Or, dare I say the Con-stitution?

Any discussion about the plight of the Barrie couple must be prefaced by noting the following:

There is no dispute as to the right of government grandees to grab private property.

What remains of some dispute is whether the county has exceeded its authority to steal. For the Constitution gives authorities the right to seize private property for the “common good—that catch-all constitutional concept. Has not the General Welfare Clause, in Article I, authorized all three branches of colluding quislings to do just about anything which in their judgment will tend to provide for the general welfare?

The term for state-sanctioned theft of private property is “eminent domain.” A section of The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution reads as follows: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Understand: Compensating the individual if and when government confiscates his land for the ostensible greater good: that is not what’s so wicked here. Rather, it is that implicit in the Bill-of-Rights clause mandating “just compensation” is the acknowledgement that government has the right to confiscate private property, in the first place. …

Read on. The complete column is “The Con-stitution And The Power To Confiscate,” now on WND.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

At the WND Comments Section. Scroll down and “Say it.”

On my Facebook page.

By clicking to “Like,” “Tweet” and “Share” this week’s “Return To Reason” column.

If you’d like to feature this column, WND’s longest-standing, exclusive paleolibertarian column, in or on your publication (paper or pixels), contact ilana@ilanamercer.com.

Zero Care: Affirming The Criminal Class; Spitting On Ordinary Americans

Crime, Government, Healthcare

And US pundits and pols dare call Putin’s Russia corrupt to the core? What follows is a critical mass of evidence, courtesy of National Review, detailing the affirmative-action program for the criminal class that is Obamacare. These are cases of known criminals, screened and accepted into the ranks of the lawful criminals who man the Zero-Care bureaucracy:

* Convicted Terrorist Worked as Obamacare Navigator in Illinois 2/26/14:

A terrorist from Jordan briefly worked as an Obamacare navigator in Illinois while authorities remained unaware of her conviction for involvement in a deadly grocery store bombing and two other attacks.

Rasmieh Yousef Odeh was convicted in Israel for her role in several bombings, including the 1969 attack on an upscale Shufersol grocery store, which killed two Hebrew University students who had stopped in to buy groceries for a hiking trip in the Jerusalem hills.

* Colorado Health-Exchange Director Indicted for Fraud, Theft 2/13/14:

The director of Colorado’s health exchange has been placed on administrative leave after the state discovered she had been indicted for stealing from a non-profit …

* 43 California ACA Navigators Have Criminal Convictions, Including for Forgery and Welfare Fraud 1/29/14:

One navigator committed forgery twice in twelve years and was also convicted of burglary in between.
One navigator was convicted for committing welfare fraud and had also been caught shoplifting on at least two occasions.
Another navigator had two more forgery convictions, as well as a domestic-violence charge.
At least seven navigators had multiple convictions but were still approved.
Even though applicants are required to self-report prior offenses, records show that 21 prospective certified enrollment counselors failed to do so — and were approved anyway, even though their background check revealed criminal convictions.

* Felonious Obamacare Navigators? 1/21/14:

Most states have nonexistent or only partial requirements for background checks for Obamacare navigators. But new legislation introduced in Arizona, Colorado, and Virginia would mandate background checks for all navigators, establishing strict guidelines for what offenses the state would consider disqualifying. … These navigators work with vulnerable populations and have access to confidential data, including Social Security numbers, financial information, and health records. Nevertheless, the federal government does not require Obamacare navigators to undergo background checks.

* Confirmed: One Connecticut Obamacare Navigator Has Felony Conviction 1/20/14:

Open records obtained from Connecticut show that one navigator for that state’s exchange was allowed to work despite a Class B Felony conviction (Connecticut’s Class B Felonies are punishable by 1 to 20 years in prison).
AccessHealthCT declined to disclose the navigator’s name or the charge associated with the conviction, citing privacy protections.

* How Many Obamacare Navigators Have Criminal Pasts? 1/16/14:

Certified New Mexico navigators had been charged with crimes including: eight domestic-violence charges, including aggravated battery and aggravated assault of a household member; four drug charges; two larceny charges; one petty-theft charge; one shoplifting charge; and two child-abuse charges. There were also several driving-related charges, including DWIs, DUIs, and speeding or traffic crimes. In at least two instances, navigators had traffic charges for lacking insurance.

* Obamacare’s Fishy Navigators 1/16/14::

One in seven of New Mexico’s certified Obamacare navigators had a match in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, according to public records obtained by National Review Online.

MORE.

The American ruling elite has immunized itself from the laws it inflicts on the masses, whom it rightly does not fear.

Other than the vocal identity groups, who are revered and catered to by North-Eastern elites—the mass of American voters are deemed pushovers.

And deservedly so, for how else can one view a soft people who, in the face of craven the injustices of Obamacare, do no more than lament the loss of faith in “their” beloved government?

The traitors at the top show their contempt for their subservient subjects by exposing these passive pushovers to the detritus of humanity.

Mocha Man (Don Lemon) Makes History, Or So He ‘Thinks’

Affirmative Action, Barack Obama, Intelligence, Race, Racism

An ecstatic Don Lemon, the stupidest creature to have been plonked in an anchor’s chair on cable television, attended the launch, by black America’s president, of the “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative. The CNN cretin announced that He—as though being a mocha man made Lemon part of the story—believed the president when he claimed “this initiative” as his “lifelong goal,” “even after he leaves office.”

If to go by “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010,” by Charles Murray, “rising inequality and declining mobility,” as well as “widespread decay in moral fiber”—are as serious and widespread among “white, lower-status, less well-educated Americans” as they are among the black and Hispanic communities.

It is against this backdrop that Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative-cum-shakedown will see “leading foundations and businesses [donating] at least $200 million over five years towards programs aimed at minority youth of color.”

Lemon, who is himself an important exhibit in my case that we live in The Age of The idiot, salivated live from the White House for CNN. If you locate the clip on that nitwork, send it along.

UPDATED: Three Branches of Colluding Quislings

Barack Obama, Constitution, Federalism, Founding Fathers

Pray tell when have the “two other branches” that are supposed to check the presidency, ever done anything but collude with the executive?

One gets the impression that Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, thinks that “the expansion of executive power,” to which he has once again testified on Capitol Hill, was a feature of the Barack Obama presidency only.

Turley did, however, clarify that “this problem didn’t begin with President Obama,” and that he “was critical of his predecessor President Bush as well,” although “the rate at which executive power has been concentrated in our system is accelerating.”

“Frankly,” warned Turley, “I am very alarmed by the implications of that aggregation of power.”

Turley is also irked by the fact that “the two other branches appear not just simply passive, but inert in the face of this concentration of authority.”

But when have Congress and the judiciary ever done what the Founding Fathers promised the constitutional scheme would compel them to do?

The truth is that the Constitution gave us three branches of colluding quislings. It was in the cards.

UPDATE: Should the Federal Constitution be ratified, there would be “no checks, no real balances,” thundered Anti-Federalist Patrick Henry.