One of the purposes of the Fifth Amendment is to protect private property from usurpation by government, declaring “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. ” Under the law of eminent domain, the state can compel a property owner to sell his property to the government, but is required to justly compensate him for the loss. However, there are other ways in which the state can usurp private property rights without actually taking title to the property. When the state imposes regulations that deprive a citizen of the rights associated with private ownership of some or all of his property, it’s known as a “regulatory taking. ”
In 1992, the U.

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When the Bush administration launched its PR blitz to sell the Iraq War in September 2002, the American public never stood a chance of learning the truth behind the massive fraud emanating from the White House. Bush and his propaganda czars knew something the American public had not quite grasped: The American media was little more than a megaphone for those in power. This was especially true for celebrity journalists like Judith Miller, the Movies national security correspondent for the New York Times; and Bob Woodward, once a crusading muckraker at the Washington Post, now father confessor to the political elite.
For three years, the Bush administration called the tune, and the New York Times danced. In the run-up to the Iraq War, the newspaper, led by Miller’s dispatches, acted as a conveyor belt for the lies of Iraqi exiles, channeling their self-serving distortions right onto the front pages.

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On April 9, 2007 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the Final Interim Rule on Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (6 CFR part 27) in the Federal Register. The rule goes into effect in on June 8, 2007 and the Secretary of DHS will, on that date, be able to direct individual, or classes of, chemical facilities to initiate actions under that rule.

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It is no secret that an implosion is taking place across the country.

It’s in the headlines everyday, on the news channels every night, on blogs all across the internet and discussed in local pubs everywhere. Oh, I don’t mean the economic implosion. No, No, No! I mean the implosion taking place right before our very eyes within the Republican Party. The popularity of President Obama aside, the Republican Party is doing an effectively gory job of devouring itself from the inside out. Between the sad attempts by RNC Chairman Michael Steele to revive the GOP by “urbanizing” it’s image with slang normally reserved for rappers and the tired, transparent tactics of defacto GOP mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh, the Republican Party is losing its unity faster than your average boy band.

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Such a lot going on these days. So much to worry about, agitate over, grapple with. It’s really quite engrossing, all this talk of war, global warming, dwindling energy resources, impeachment, globalization, terrorism, corporate greed, government corruption, the media, the neocons, the zionists, torture camps, nuclear weapons. Whew, what a list. It’s almost like an intricate, Babies, multi-level video game, isn’t it.

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“We said that big banks can no longer take advantage of hardworking Americans,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. , said of the recent legislation that will restrict rate hikes and late fees charged by credit card companies. But some out there argue that credit card holders are just as culpable. It seems there is a fine line between who is really to blame: the companies that provide the easy credit with high penalties or the consumers that take easy credit and ignore the possible penalties.
Just how did credit cards become so ubiquitous in the American financial landscape? A recent article in Time magazine noted that credit cards have been around since the 1920s. Service stations, hotels and restaurants began offering credit cards when Americans began venturing out in their cars to a world beyond the convenience of their local banks.

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There is a new paradigm sweeping America. You know you are about to hear a part of its gospel each time someone qualifies a statement with the phrase, “In the post September 11th world…” You’ve all heard it a thousand times over the past five years.
“Freedom of speech is great, but in the post September 11th world…”
“I don’t want the government eavesdropping on my conversations, but in the post September 11th world…”
“I don’t agree with the war, but in the post September 11th world…”
Americans have been a fortunate and relatively free people for a long time. The first part of each of these statements, demonstrates the strength of our belief in the principle of freedom. We know—instinctively—that a powerful, all-knowing, unchecked government is a bad thing, but we have been sold a bill of goods that liberty and safety is a zero-sum game.

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The following excerpts are from a speech Obama gave in Muncie, Indiana, on April 12.
Lately there’s been a little typical sort of political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true. . . .

Oh, is that why there’s been a little typical sort of political flare-up? Because Barack Obama said something everybody knows is true? And what was it again that we all know is true? — Oh yes, it was that the reason the majority of working class Americans don’t support Obama’s policies is because “they get bitter; they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations. ”
Now, some people might feel it’s extremely condescending of an Ivy League millionaire to dismiss the legitimate concerns of a large proportion of American citizens about the erosion of their 2nd amendment rights, the rampant problems associated with illegal immigration, or their deep dedication to religious convictions, as just “a way to explain their frustrations. ” But what these cynical critics fail to realize is that Obama wasn’t attacking these poor benighted folks, he was making excuses for their ignorance. He’s actually on their side, don’t you see?
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There is a new paradigm sweeping America. You know you are about to hear a part of its gospel each time someone qualifies a statement with the phrase, “In the post September 11th world…” You’ve all heard it a thousand times over the past five years.
“Freedom of speech is great, but in the post September 11th world…”
“I don’t want the government eavesdropping on my conversations, but in the post September 11th world…”
“I don’t agree with the war, but in the post September 11th world…”
Americans have been a fortunate and relatively free people for a long time.

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Being hard pressed to find a single appropriate definition of it, I will use that of Mr. Philip Atkinson put forth on the website ourcivilisation. com. Philip said “Political Correctness is the communal tyranny that erupted in the 1980s. It was a spontaneous declaration that particular ideas, expressions and behavior, which were then legal, should be forbidden by law, and people who transgressed should be punished.

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