Property Rights Trampled By Supreme Court Liberals

So liberals on the Supreme Court side with private business, make that big business (Pfizer in this case) over the rights of homeowners. The ruling tramples the little guy, the working person with dreams of home ownership. Will the liberals be outraged by this erosion of property rights at the expense of big business? Imagine if the conservatives on the Court voted for this instead? We wouldn’t hear the end of it.

Don Luskin on the SICK DECISION,

Let’s be clear about where populist liberals really stand when they seem to be supporting “the public” and “the community.”
A Supreme Court decision today, with all the liberals voting in favor, has cleared the way for government to condemn private property under eminent domain for commercial redevelopment. That means, simply, that individual families can have their homes seized against their will so that rich developers can put up shopping malls and office parks — so long as some government entity makes a case that it’s for “the public good.” So who’s the “public” here? Obviously, it’s whoever has more power to influence government decisions.

Arguing With Signposts has a huge link round-up for blog reaction
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(HatTip, Wizbang)

Justices Rule Cities Can Take Property for Private Development

Who’s responsible for this decision?

Justices John Paul Stevens David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Anthony M. Kennedy joined the majority opinion in Kelo v. City of New London, No. 04-108. Justice Kennedy also wrote a separate concurring opinion to emphasize that while there was no suggestion in this instance that the plan was designed to favor any individual developer, “a court confronted with a plausible accusation of impermissible favoritism to private parties should treat the objection as a serious one and review the record to see it if has merit.”

Who dissented?

Justice O’Connor’s dissenting opinion was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. She emphasized that rather than adhering to its precedents, the court had strayed from them by endorsing economic development as an appropriate public use.

“Who among us can say she already makes the most productive or attractive use of her property?” Justice O’Connor asked.

She added: “The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

lsb
Originally uploaded by punditreview.

We are very pleased to announce that this Sunday evening, June 26, at 9pm EST our guest will be LaShawn Barber.

Hugh Hewitt says LaShawn is “a rising star of the blogsphere”

We agree.

You can stream the show live at WRKO and you can call in and ask LaShawn a question toll free at 877-469-4322.

Trey Jackson has video of that Dick in the Senate apologizing. Please watch it. What do you think? I’m glad he apologized yet I believe his true feelings were revealed in his original statement. For a differnt take, Dean Esmay diasgrees.

Durbin’s comments aren’t outrage enough for him to lose his leadership position in the Democrat party, just enough to have to eeek out an unconvincing apology. I wonder what Trent Lott thinks of that? He eeeked out and unconvincing apology and had to give up his leadership position! Bummer.

What a day for Nancy Pelosi. First, she defends Durbin while he is on the other side of the Capitol apologizing,

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California had earlier on Tuesday described Republican criticism of Durbin as an attempt to divert attention from sinking public support for the Iraq war.Yet Durbin decided to try to end the controversy, saying, “I offer my apology for those offended by my words.”

Then she unintentionally reveals the liberal strategy,

When a reporter asked Pelosi Tuesday whether the House would some day get to a point where it would vote to cut off funding for military operations in Iraq, she replied, â??The public will get there first. Their approval of this war is down to 37 percent in todayâ??s poll; in March, it was 47 percent to 47 percent.”

She wasn’t done.

â??How can they defend this war?â? she asked.

I ask, how can she say that and claim to support the troops?

And finally, she proved herself, and her party, woefully unprepared to protect this country,

“These questions are important because the safety of our country depends on our reputation and how we are viewed, especially in the Muslim world,” she said.

Our reputation keeps us safe? If only we hadn’t been so mean to these savages during the past few years, we would be safe today? If it wasn’t for Bush and his Iraq war our reputation would be great. What ignorance.

How was our reputation when the Islamo fascists stormed our embassy in Iran twenty six years ago?

Or when they bombed the barracks in Lebanon.
Or Pan Am Flight 103.
Or the Khobar Towers.
Or the embassy bombing in Kenya.
Or the embassy bombing in Tanzania.
Or the attack on the USS Cole.
Oh yeah, that thing that happened in 2001, they did that too.

This is your modern day Democrat party. Worrying about how people feel who have been killing us for a quarter century. If she and her fellow liberal Demiocrats are so worried about our reputation, why are they so ready and willing to slander our troops?

Their true colors are plain to see. They cannot protect us. God help us if they get back in power.

Remember how you felt on September 12, 13, 14 in 2001? Pretty awful. The next attack was going to happen at any moment. Here we are four years later and there have been no attacks on US soil. What we are doing is working, we have our foot on the terrorists throats and the liberals in this country want to take it off, pick them up, give them a warm blanket. I hate to say it, but I think we need to be whacked again here at home because so many people in this country have forgotten what we are up against.

Blogger Austin Bay served in Iraq and has now gone back one year later as a journalist. He finds the changes, make that progress, striking. He’s also wondering if we have the will to win back in the states…

This return visit to Iraq, however, spurs thoughts of America — to be
specific, thoughts about America’s will to pursue victory. I don’t mean the will
of U.S. forces in the field. Wander around with a bunch of Marines for a half
hour, spend 15 minutes with National Guardsmen from Idaho, and you will have no
doubts about American military capabilities or the troops’ will to win.

But our weakness is back home, in front of the TV, on the cable squawk shows, on the editorial page of The New York Times, in the political gotcha games of Washington, D.C.

It seems America wants to get on with its Electra-Glide life, that Sept. 10
sense of freedom and security, without finishing the job. The military is
fighting, the Iraqi people are fighting, but where is the U.S. political class?
The Bush administration has yet to ask the American people — correction, has
yet to demand of the American people — the sustained, shared sacrifice it takes
to win this long, intricate war of bullets, ballots and bricks.

I could not agree more with this assessment. Bush needs to get out there, get aggressive about defending what we are doing, why it is so crucial to our future and why the American people need to prepare for a generation long struggle against these savages. He has dropped the ball and the “hurry up and lose” crowd now has the momentum here in the states. Get out there Mr. President before it is too late!

This whole Dick Durbin episode has been a case study as to why blogs matter and why the MSM can’t stand them. It took five days of constant pressure from the new media, (blogs/talk radio/cable), to force the MSM to break their silence on the issue. They ignore and protect and then they characterize things like this.

â??Sen. Durbinâ??s Regret.â? Thatâ??s a hell of an interesting headline for a guy who had this to say in a radio interview conducted on Friday morning:

Q: No regrets on the statements you made?

Durbin: No, I donâ??t, and Iâ??ll tell you why. I went to the floor and read a memo from the FBI. This isnâ??t something I made up.

Do you think that it would have helped L.A. Times readers to understand GOP outrage if they had been told that, earlier that same morning, Durbin had maintained that he had no regrets for the statements? I do. But that is nowhere mentioned in the article. Instead, we hear that the guy has apologized, but that the rotten stinkinâ?? GOP wonâ??t accept the heartfelt apology:

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant minority leader, subsequently said he regretted that his comments were misunderstood as criticism of U.S. troops. But Republicans have continued to call for a more forthright apology.

. . . .

â??I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood,â? he said in a written statement. â??I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support.â?

But that language, Republicans said, was not enough. On Saturday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on the Senate to censure Durbin because his statement of regret did not retract the comparison.

The closest the article comes to alerting readers to Durbinâ??s hypocrisy is to say that he â??initially seemed unrepentant.â? Initially? What about on Friday morning, when he said he had no regrets? The paper skips over that and says: â??By Friday, however, he relented.â?

No. On Friday morning, he seemed unrepentant. On Friday afternoon, he â??relentedâ? to the extent of being sorry that others were too thick to understand what he was really saying.

If Durbin were a Republican making a ridiculous statement about policies of a Democratic administration, his Friday morning remarks would have been the focus of the story.

Instead we get a headline talking about â??Sen. Durbinâ??s Regret.â? Nice.

This Sunday evening at 9pm EST, our guest on Pundit Review Radio will be Dan Kennedy, the media writer from the Boston Phoenix.

Dan is a pretty liberal guy so we should have an interesting discussion about that Dick in the Senate, Durbin, the war on terror, the current state of the media and the impact of blogs. We are also going to discuss our governor, Mitt Romney, and his increasingly obvious plans for a presidential run.

I hope that you can join us by listening live online at www.wrko.com. If you would like to participate in the show, you can call us toll free at 877-469-4322.

Pundit Review Radio
Guest: Dan Kennedy
9PM EST on Sunday, June 19

RadioBlogger unloads on Dick Durbin. Ouch, that must hurt.