Well kiddies, it would appear that even the United States Supreme Court no longer gives a flying ferret about who you are, where you live, or what your rights are. In brief, for those who don't already know, the Court voted 5 to 4 (O'Connor, Scalia voted against, but Rhenquist, et al did not!) that the local government of New London, CN can in fact seize property from anyone they want to, then just
hand it over, for free, to big companies, not even for a public road, a school, or anything of general benefit like that. Regardless of what the proponents say "It will create jobs, the redidents were scum anyway, etc.", this action is a
direct infringement upon your Constitutional rights, and is in inarguable contradiction with the Fifth Ammendment, which reads:
Amendment V - Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings. Ratified 12/15/1791.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. As you can see, this is entirely unacceptable. In other news, According to the San Diego Union Tribune, the Court yesterday also said that the Federal Government can also commit overt and malicious fraud by being allowed to decide NOT to honor any previous contracts with individuals and NGOs at any time. The details? Central Valley farmers are being denied water righs that were aggreed upon. Now the Department of Agriculture doesn't have to pay up, and there's supposedly "nothing they can do about it"!
As Americans, partisans (Libertarian or otherwise), and as humans, we cannot allow this to continue. Therefore, The Phoenix of Light Network recommends the following actions be taken by each and every concerned citizen, both in the USA and worldwide:
1. Boycott large, so called "Big Box" stores, such as Walmart, Costco, McDonalds, and the like. Many larger chains are perfectly fine, but be aware and don't support those that pushed for and will take advantage of emminent domain and use their power to buy off politicians. Remember, these kinds of huge all-in-one sellers are usually garbage anyway, both in terms of product quality, and in terms of how they screw over their own workers and competing buisinesses.
2. Boycott the Supreme Court. Excersize your God/Allah/Yaweh/whatever given right to rebel and dish out some civil disobedience. This doesn't mean that you have to start a riot (they don't work, rocks don't beat bullets). What it does mean, though, is that you must dish out some passive, nonviolent resistance. When facing a situation in which emminent domain or some other unjust usurpation is placed upon you, do not give in! Fight it, and let the cops drag you out kicking and screaming, if that's what it takes. If everyone does this, the job will become too hard, and will be stopped.
3. Spread the word. Many people around the country know about these adverse circumstances, but many more do not, or simply do not recognize the gravity of what is taking place here. Please pass the word along, and don't forget to tell them that PowerPenguin sent you :)
4. Organize! Join a local or national activist's group, or become active again in those which you have let fall by the wayside. If we work together, the wealthy, powerful, and greedy will not be able to stop us all. A few suggestions to get you started are:
Democracy Matters (Clean/Public Elections Reform)The Bill of Rights Defense CommitteeThe Libertarian PartyDownsize DC (E-mail Activism)GOING PUBLICNow let's see what a few of our write-in contacts has to say:
From "Rich B."-
"We can’t let this ruling die in the press. The
following is a strong article that states my
frustrations. You can also go to The Property Rights
Foundation of America at http://prfamerica.org to
help fight the good fight.
Thanks,
Rich Belitz
Supreme Court Rules That No One Owns Their Home
Gives free reign to roving land barons, their agents
and banks
June 24, 2005 By Alex Jones
Private property rights are the foundation of freedom.
Now developers can pay off your local politicians and
then come in and steal your property without even
giving you best use price. Imagine middle class
neighborhoods across America being bulldozed because
developers have written up a proposal for making more
money off of your property. Either it's your property
or it isn't. The United States is simply going back to
feudalism. In medieval England, before the Magna
Carta, in 1214 the local lord would decide what you
could and could not do with the King's property. This
ruling overturns 800 years of common law and common
sense. It butchers the Bill of Rights. To put it
frankly, it's gone. So many Americans are asking why
the Justices would make such a decision, overtly, 180
degrees away from freedom. That's the point. It's in
your face. The big police state dog is off the porch,
and they think there is nothing you can do about it.
The all-powerful Imperial State has thrown down the
gauntlet. They have slapped the American people upside
the head and brutally raped us, and we have put up
with it. So, now they're placing what's left of
American freedom on a spit so they can roast and eat
us. The founding fathers said over and over again that
the level of tyranny under which we will live is the
exact amount that we will accept. A group of hard-core
criminals has gained control of our society. They
could care less about the future of this country or
the general public's welfare. What we are witnessing
is a mad gold rush of corrupt politicians and
corporations strip-mining western society.
We are being looted and sacked like ancient Rome by a
heard of blood-thirsty barbarians. The only difference
is the barbarians of today have high-tech public
relation firms and cable news channels launching their
psychological warfare barrages: "lie down, lie down,
don't resistGovernment loves you. Give up liberty for
security..Tasering 82-
Year-old Alzheimer patients is good..Mercury in
vaccines is nutritious..Open borders means
safety..Submit to us..Trust us..We don't lie.."
The fact is, just because the Supreme Court says we
don't have any property rights doesn't mean it's true.
A previous court ruled that black Americans were not
human beings and thus had no rights. Would you follow
a similar decree today? Despots know the power of
setting precidents. That's why they've been bragging
about their unprecedented ruling. I for one am glad
that the mask is beginning to slide from the demon's
face. They've been land-grabbing for a long time. Now
it's just going to be more overt. So let it come, and
let everybody know what you are: a pack of wolves, a
pack of criminals, a pack of liars, and a pack of
scum."From "Steve S."-
"Karl Rove spouts off about the 'death of liberalism.' 2 million civic organizations sprout up out of nowhere in the US over the last decade.
Now you tell me which is news.
Let's see here: Rove, Rove talking, Rove talking about liberalism, Rove talking about the death of liberalism. By corporate media standards, that line of logic smells like a story that will sell. So that's news.
Civic organizations? Who could possible care?
But this is the real news story. And on one hand it's infuriating that it gets no news coverage. Still, the fact that it doesn't, and yet is such an insistent tide that will change the course of American and international politics forever, makes it almost...pleasantly subversive.
Rove's really an unusual one to talk smack about liberals. Social liberals, economic liberals, old liberals, neoliberals, 'progressives' and 'Democrats' and whatever other liberals there are in the world, all are bound by some sort of passion for change. That's all it takes: passion, and change. Not resistance to change. That's conservativism. (In the strictest sociological sense.)
Now I can't think of a single person who's changed the workings of American politics more than Mr. Karl Rove. So you don't like the way election campaigns run. Why don't we just throw out some votes, rig voting machines, and launch negative smear advertising that borders on libel? Or let's say you want to do nation-building, even though the guy you shoved into office already said in debates he wouldn't do that. Do some smart PR and scare tactics, turn the media into your lapdog, fix some intelligence, and of course, make sure everyone in the Administration keeps saying the same lies, verbatim, over and over and over until the public (and even the liars themselves) believes it's true. And the nation-building, that's not going too well after all? Distract attention. Force votes in Congress that merely serve to illustrate the terrible partisanship of one party while saving the pants of the other.
The man is an asshole, but that's true for many neoconservatives. What makes them assholes is that they really ARE interested in preserving the status quo, til their last bitter screaming day on earth if they have to. They just do it in a very liberal way. It is very...confusing. Nonsensical.
But if we watch the tides of history, it's perfectly understandable. Society has accelerated drastically over the past century, and continues to accelerate even faster. Businesses are born in the morning and dead by nightfall. Social movements that used to take decades to build can coalesce in a few months today. Whatever good or bad tidings are at hand, the consequences are now felt immediately; with our oil peaking and our glaciers melting, this is an ominous sign. All our time now is spent addressing the bad consequences of destructive and monstrously stupid structural policies, not the structural policies themselves. Better put that revolution on hold; you have to wade through the mess first.
In other words, the tide of the present is liberal. Everything is moving, in flux, in nail-biting velocity, and if you really want to uphold conservative ideals, good luck to you, because now is a terrible time for that. It's not even that the world has time to ponder the merits of slowing down, let alone stopping; it's that the world has whizzed right past its advocates and doesn't even notice them.
The tide is ferocious, and it signals the end of our stalwart structures, our rocks. You know them by name. Corporations, capitalism, American hegemony, the military-industrial complex. They were put in place to keep the order, to maintain the stability, to STOP THE MOTION. A city full of skyscrapers, so high they can block out the sun for most of the day. Tall, impenetrable, unmovable buildings, the bricks of our society, the markers. The ones that should remain even when humans are dead and gone. They really tried to stop the motion. They really did.
But if you want a clue as to what lies ahead, go to Japan. There you will find more buildings clustered together than you can possibly fathom. It just REEKS of good business. Only when you stay there a few weeks do you discover what most Japanese know: more and more of those buildings are empty. All the time. The 'ghosts' of Japan.
It will happen here too. We're only walking on the thinnest of tightropes, after all. And the net that would catch us is a long, long, long way down.
Now who wouldn't be terrified of this possiblity? Who wouldn't be terrified of losing the order, of becoming victims of the liberal tide (I'm talking economic here) that we've all had a hand in developing?
So as with all tides, another one forms as an alternative. The conservative tide. And this could be predicted by history too. Indeed, it's always been there.
Neoconservativism is just an ingenious way of combining the two. Feed the conservative tide by drawing off the velocity of the liberal tide, using its tools, siphoning off its energy. After all, you really can't fight a preemptive war for control of Iraq's resources in 1950's America, no matter how Communist you call it. You need to make preemptive war a POLICY. And you need to do it fast. Make whatever drastic changes you have to. In the end, the 'memory' of 9/11 will justify it.
Neoconservatism is like a parasite of both of these tides, but it is little more than that. Neoconservatism is not a tide. It's just a handy tool of several powerful and wealthy people. Tides need extra punch from the masses to go anywhere; there is none for the neocons. Yes, they will go away soon, kicking and screaming and doing much damage along the way. For this we should be thankful.
But our gratitude is short-term. There's a more serious concern at the moment, which Rove would disagree with publicly but privately recognizes with big saucer eyes: liberalism isn't dead. And no, it cannot be killed, and it won't run out of steam, not at the rate we're going. And yes, it will triumph over conservativism, in fact it's probably run over it a few times now. Hippies and radicals and progressives, take heart. Wobblies and anarchists and feminists, rejoice. Globalization advocates AND opponents, you are allowed to wet your pants in your infatuated state.
Now take a breather, and everyone say 'fuck.' That is what we should be saying right about now. Because the times, they are a-changin', way way way too fast for us. We know there's a train wreck in the works. The problem is we keep shoveling in more coal. Addiction to the speed.
Everyone is thriving off of change at the moment. You can run down the laundry list: politicians, social movements, corporations, communes, Africa and Asia and America and the G8 and Oxfam and Amnesty International and the Project for a New American Century and the Swift Boat group and advertisers and adbusters and technocrats and bloggers and indymedias and faith communities and secular humanists and even all your friends and family. Now when I say 'thriving,' it is tongue-in-cheek. More accurately, a lot of the fuel that drives the existence and survival of all these things is less and less the substance and more and more the motion. The motion spawned the dot com revolution, and the motion also caused its demise. The motion is what spawns reckless oil drilling and oil peaks and wars for oil as well. Why do people join protest marches? When they feel the momentum is right for them to join the 'other side.' It's the same momentum that encourages us to get off the fence over any particular issue.
So we are getting our highs off of moments, moments which are changing ever more rapidly and thus are more exciting, more fulfilling you would say. And we do not like to live dull lives. No matter how 'conservative' or 'liberal' or whatever you think you are, in the end you would prefer spontaneity and new energy over not having either. This is a new thing; it wasn't always like this. But in today's Age of Consequence, it all boils down to a simple cultural conclusion: don't get caught dying.
And we all know how un-American dying is.
This motion, this unending uncontrollable acceleration, it feels like life to us. Like to be caught in its whirlwind is the same as living. That can be a dangerous illusion, especially when you're not looking where the spinning top is going; it just might fall off the edge.
But sometimes, something unexpected happens from that whirlwind. Something new is created. The tonic for the ills.
And this gets me back to the real news story of our era: the civic organizations. The phrase sounds so rusty and unpalatable. After all we're not counting a lot of nonprofits with this category, or exciting online groups like MoveOn, or even a lot of uncharted, loose organizations like Food Not Bombs. No, this is ACLU, NAACP, DAR and that little community group in your area which you know next to nothing about, except they want to preserve parks or advocate for low-income housing or some random thing like that. The UNINTERESTING groups.
And there's 2 million of them in the United States. And counting.
Consider: the population of the US is 300 million. That means roughly one civic organization for every 150 people.
The proportion is similar to another surprising one: the proportion of nonprofits in Augusta, GA to its residents. Augusta is a golf haven, it's strip mall country, plus it's the SOUTH, haven of racism and bigotry (like the rest of the US), not exactly what you'd imagine when you think of empathy. Yet there are 4000 nonprofits in Augusta. Roughly 1 for every 140 people. The only place with a better proportion is a smallish city in Missouri.
Missouri?
No wonder this news isn't worthy of media attention. It just doesn't jive with what we think we know about America. It's also embarrassingly uplifting.
Americans? Actual, living, breathing citizens? Participating? In a democratic way? Creating their own agendas because their politicians have abandoned them and the prospect of the corporate American Dream has failed them? Is that really happening? And on such a grand scale?
Yes, it is happening. It's probably the one thing about America that I can be proud of at the moment. And the craziest thing about it is that, in its own way, it's already laying the seeds for when this whole busting-out bloated balloon of a world starts collapsing. When despair reaches a theatre near you, these organizations will be ready with open arms. To start anew, in a different, and hopefully better, way.
Perhaps the even crazier thing about this momentum is its immense hope. Hope that transcends all rifts and polarizations, all images and arguments, all the gloom and doom which we *seem* to have grown so fond of. Whenever I meet people working in these organizations--and they span the board, and they're EVERYWHERE, so ubiquitous it's unbelievable--I always get the sense that they're hiding a smile somewhere, a perpetual one. Like they've got a fantastic secret. The answer to the terrors the Age of Consequence has begotten. And I feel it too.
To all those out there who rant and rave about the stupidity of everyday Americans, their apathy or need for convenience or lost citizenry or mind numbery from the boob tube or just plain incompetence, I have to say, I feel for ya. All your criticisms do have merit in some small way. Giving up on America and proclaiming the 'death of liberalism'--like another man who I profoundly dislike--has its appeal. There is always the cynical route; you are open to taking it.
But if, in the meantime, you've been volunteering with a group, going to meetings which are not required of you, or participating in some way to affect some small ounce of the community around you--then you are the proof that disproves you. Whether you can see it or not, you are the future. And it's a bright one.
And the day your travails, along with so many millions of us around America, make the news, you probably won't even care. Because this is a profound story in the works. And stories like that aren't for the selling; they're for the telling.
And now is the time to talk."
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