International Forecaster Weekly

Kelo And Eminent Domain

Kelo and eminent domain... Alliances without approval of Congress... criticizm as treason... extraordinary rendition and the outsourcing of torture to foreign lands... new scandals... nothing to eat... Cindy Sheehan...

Bob Chapman | August 15, 2005

The final word on Kelo and eminent domain is an absence of justice. After many years of injustices in social issues, our Supreme Court has switched to legitimizing corporate theft. The decision by the Supreme Court on the Kelo issue is a violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments and they are well aware of this. The Fifth provides, "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." In the case of Kelo property can be taken from private ownership and given to other connected ownership. The Fourth Amendment says it is the right of the people to be secure in their houses against unreasonable seizures and that should not be violated. It is now up to our President and congress to assist us in retaining our freedoms. We all know that isn’t going to happen. They are all captive to elitist money interests. Thus, our freedoms and our country continue to descend into a fascist tyrannical form of government.

Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution says, “No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation” yet, Utah’s Governor, Jon Huntsman, Jr., a former member of the Council on Foreign Relations, has announced an “Alliance for Prosperity” with Mexico. This is a plan to boost economic development and tourism between Utah and Mexico. On the issue of illegal aliens, Huntsman said he would work on the mobility of the workforce, which implies amnesty for Mexicans now working in the US illegally. The state, at Huntsman’s urging, has enacted a measure issuing privilege cards” to illegal aliens from Mexico. Huntsman’s trip to Mexico was a full-fledged summit between “nation states” in order to implement and complete an illegal alliance. Is anyone in Washington listening? Where is the Justice Department – sleeping?

Elections in America remind us of elections in the old Soviet Union. Incumbents stay in office as long as they like and the two candidates to choose from are both controlled by the same group of people. Eighty percent of the House contests end in landslide victories and 20% are uncontested. Incumbency is so entrenched that most voters lack any real say in who represents them. The salary is fine and better yet they have a spectacular separate pension program and $1 million in subsidies for staffs, travel, franking, etc. Ninety percent of Congressional districts are so gerrymandered that the outcome is certain. The bottom line is you are voting for two controlled candidates, which is a waste of time. You just saw that in the CAFTA vote. The game is over and it is all downhill from here. George and the neocons have imperiled our rights. Using criminal means to satisfy an end is never justified. Claiming that our government can kidnap and imprison suspected terrorists without trial, or to send them to foreign lands or hidden prisons to be tortured threatens the rights of every American citizen. You are next - make no mistake about it. The travesty of 9/11 and now 7/7 has given the elitists whom control our country and England the right to totally control our lives. Whether you like it or not, it is them or us, the gloves are now off.

Many Americans see criticizing our government as treason. That is because their ox has not been gored yet. They have not had their door kicked in at 3:00 a.m. and they have not as yet been hauled off to an internment camp. We cannot figure out who is dumber, the conservatives or the liberals. Our President has decreed under the Patriot Acts that under the law you can become a non-person if you disagree with government. You can be shipped to Gitmo Bay, Morocco, Egypt or anyplace he chooses because you are a potential terrorist. This is not some theory or a possibility, it is going on today and it is going to get lots worse. Jose Padilla, an American citizen has been held in military custody for three years and three months. Our government says he tried to smuggle a dirty nuclear weapon into the US. He has been designated an enemy combatant via executive order. The justification to hold Padilla is spurious at best. George has rendered moot habeas corpus so Padilla does not have his day in court nor are any charges rendered. This is legally validated as a wartime measure. This was not authorized by Congress, yet our President can do as he wishes. This is power without limit, the unrestricted use of force and no restraint under law. This is the principles under which both the Nazis and the Communists flourished in the 1930’s. Bush’s executive order has transferred all authority to the executive office and Bush has a blank check to do as he pleases. George and the neocons believe that the election they rigged was an “accountability moment,” which allows them to do whatever they want. Our Congress cannot place any limits on the President’s determinations as to any terrorist threat. He can call anyone he wants at any time for any reason a terrorist.

As you all know our constitution does not grant such powers to our President. The executive office does not have such powers nor does the legislative or judicial branches. The powers of our commander-in-chief are contingent and limited. Only Congress can declare war and fund that war. What our President has done is unconstitutional and Patriot Acts I & II are unconstitutional. This is the same usurpation of power embodied in the “Enabling Act” passed by the German Reichstag in 1933, which gave Adolph Hitler the opportunity to become dictator of Germany.

The designation of “enemy combatant” allows a legal void to any US citizen, never mind a foreigner. Our President can also have you tortured, abused, mutilated and raped if he so desires and he has already done so in prisons he maintains with his neocons throughout the world. Our Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez says interrogators and torturers also enjoy immunity from prosecution because they acted pursuant to an exercise of the President’s constitutional power. These powers are not constitutional and everyone in government knows that, but no one dares challenge the neocons. They will end up destroyed or dead. This is what our government has become. Do you get it? This is totalitarian government - a corporatist/fascist government.

This is how our President gets away with “extraordinary rendition and the outsourcing of torture to foreign lands. This is not solely the work of George and the neocons. It was pioneered by another pack of elitists in the Clinton Administration. There were 150 renditions prior to 9/11. This is what our leadership and our country has become. We have a despotism run by a dictator who doesn’t have enough brains to get out of his own way. In time you will see he will make Caligula look like a saint.

About 1.1 million children were homeschooled in 2003, up 29% from 1999.

The FCC, Federal Communications Commission, in another dreadful ruling says that big telephone companies no longer have to lease their high-speed internet lines to competitors, giving these elitist corporations more power over the delivery of popular fast internet services. Many smaller operators such as Earthlink and AOL could ultimately lose use of DSL lines or have to pay the telephone companies more to keep offering broadband web access, which is designed to fleece the customer. There will be a delay of a year before the impact will be felt. The bottom line is small ISPs will be driven out of business and the bigger ones would have to pass on increased prices they receive from telephone companies, which will again act like monopolies.

For years we thought the Democrats were bad. We never realized what bad was until we encountered the Bush crime family.

Tom DeLay is in deep trouble in Texas in a pay-to-play scandal. He even outright told lobbyists you either pay via campaign contributions or you are toast. Now we have the Rove/Tom Noe team in Ohio in deep trouble. Tom Noe and his wife Bernadette helped fix the Ohio elections as Tom made $12 million of $50 million in rare coins disappear. We must say the neocons are ambitious, sort of like the old time Democrats used to be. I can remember when I met Tip O’Neal. It was 1954 and Tip was on his way up. I was with his nephew Jimmy Nagle and they needed something arranged. Tip said to him, “Is this Irish boy one of the family?” Jim said yes. Tip said anything you want you just come and see me. As least with Democrat crooks something was allowed to fall through the cracks. I was campaigning when I was eight. I know the breed; I’ve come to know both sides. The problem is with Republicans nothing falls between the cracks. They want it all and they are very vicious about it. We have just report on the Sybel Edmonds revelations and the part Dennis Hestart (R-IL), Speaker of the House had to play in kickbacks, payoffs and participation in narcotics money laundering. Great people these Republicans and I’m not a Republican. I am far to the right of these crooks. Thus, we have Coingate and now Turkeygate with bumbling Hestart, who is almost as dumb as George W. Bush. The Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation Funds will never be the same. We are also unhappy to report that a survey of financial management firms that were contacted to manage bureau funds in 1997 shows that almost all their campaign contributions went to Republicans. Now isn’t that a coincidence? They gave $5 million to Republicans and $282,000 to Democrats. Isn’t that interesting? That was all arranged by the Rove/Noe complex. Eighty-eight percent of contributions went to Republicans. In the last 10 years something terrible has happened to Republicans – they have become worse than Democrats – if that is possible. The Ohio Worker’s fund was a slush fund for Republicans. The skimming of funds was an exact duplicate of what Tom DeLay was doing in Texas. This caper in Ohio is now the subject of multiple state and federal investigations, both criminal and civil and we are happy about that. If they were Democrats we would be equally happy. Crooks are crooks no matter what groups they belong to. Looting is looting no matter which way you cut it. That is America. Our politicians and our businessmen are either fascist crooks or plain vanilla crooks. It does not make any difference. They are just plain crooks.

There is nothing nice about having nothing to eat. We have been there and done that. Our country once had the best farming industry in the world. In the last 30 years the farming industry has been taken apart leaving 75% of farms owned by corporate elitists. The result has been the mass depopulation of rural counties. In fact, as of 6/04 in dollar terms we became a net food importer. For many food items we are now dependent on foreign production. First there is the outsourcing of production in the name of so-called free trade and international competition especially through successive international changes enforced via WTO. Our importation of fish and shellfish is now 80% of our needs and for fruits, juices and nuts it is now 33%. Forty-three percent of imports in 2003 were in tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, onions, etc. Mexico supplies us with 27% of our fruit and 38% of our vegetables via US owned corporate farms. Thirty percent of America’s tomatoes now come from Mexico. The result in livestock is that three companies virtually control the entire meat industry. Needless to say they are controlled by elitists. When competition gets a little fierce they find ways to curtail that, such as Canada’s supposed mad-cow incidents. Exports to the US were cut off for a few years. That sent beef and pork prices considerably higher for the monopoly.

Over the past 15 years of global outsourcing, a network of elitist international farming interests has dominated decisions about location of farm commodity production, and what people do or do not eat. What outsourcing of production and offshoring has done is undermine our national economy. The producers strangling our economy for elusive short-term profits.

Last week on radio we brought attention to the protest of Cindy Sheehan whose son Casey died in Sadr City, Iraq on April 4, 2004. She is camped out several miles from George S. Bush’s domicile in Texas. The Secret Service would not let her get any closer. Our President refuses to see her and answer her questions. He sent two of his front people to pacify her. All she wants to do is ask the President, “Why did you kill my son?” What did my son die for?” Mrs. Sheehan arrived in Crawford aboard a bus painted red, white and blue with the words “Impeachment Tour.” All we can say is it is about time. Let’s help Mrs. Sheehan anyway we can.

Ali Soleh Kahlah al-Marri has filed a lawsuit against US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, which reveals the gratuitous cruelty inflicted on a foreign student held without charges for more than two years as an “enemy combatant” in a South Carolina naval brig. He is a citizen of Qatar who had been studying in Peoria, Ill prior to his abduction at Bradley University. He had come with his wife and children to earn a graduate degree. He had obtained his bachelor’s there. He has asked the US District Court to declare unconstitutional the severe and unnecessary deprivations and restrictions he was subjected to while in custody. He was in solitary confinement for that period and never saw his family nor spoke to them. He was allowed to shower three times a week while in hand and leg chains. He had nothing but the Koran for over two years. He had no soap, toothbrush or paste nor toilet paper. The water in his cell was frequently turned off and he was often without socks or footwear during the winter. He was denied medical and mental health treatment and was not allowed to see a Muslim cleric. He was never formerly charge. Thus far courts insist the President has the authority to decide unilaterally who is an enemy combatant and who is not and anyone so designated is not entitled to a judicial hearing. This is what our country, its citizens and foreigners are subjected to by the lunatics running our government. Mark our words - we are next. Leave now while you still can.

The Army is in a terrible recruiting situation and George and the neocons know a draft is totally politically unacceptable. Consequently, proposals are being floated in and out of Congress. The latest is the “21st Century Draft,” which over time would transform and meld what are now voluntary service programs like Americorp, the Peace Corp and the military into a compulsory Universal Service Program. This is similar to what was done in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The concept is everyone serves, but they would be allowed to choose whether their term of involuntary service is done in a military or civilian capacity. Of course, the fine print will state that if enough Americans do not volunteer to do their mandatory service in the military, then the government can and will change their “choice.” This is a draft plain and simple and don’t you parents and grandparents be deceived by it. You should also have everyone you know deluge Congress now with a resounding “NO.” This is still replacing Selective Service with National Service. All it amounts to is a name change. Do not be deceived by your government and the elitists who control it.

Scandal plagued Halliburton – the oil services company that still pays Dick Cheney – sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor. They were sold to Iran this past April.

Iran is ten years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb and that time frame would have been even longer had it not been for Halliburton’s treasonous sale. Another scandal is brewing in Iran. The new government believes the defeated former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and business associates were involved in widespread corruption of Iran’s oil industry, specifically tied to the country’s business dealings with Halliburton. Several of the executives of the Oriental Oil Kish Company, which is owned by Rafsanjani’s children, have been arrested on charges of economic corruption.