deterioration of civil rights

[badsede]

So, just let me add my own voice to the displeasure at the eminent domain decision of the Supreme Court that has set the precedent for eminent domain to extend to include commercial enterprize within "public use

Comments

[ldygwynedd]

You may be interested in something I posted yesterday to a friend's journal:

I see this all the time around here.... big business buys government.

I live in a very swanky town. Land values are horrendously high and developers have always tried to make the most out of their investment as is their right and purpose. But the voters of our county decided a long time ago that what makes my home town a great and wonderful place to live has a lot to do with the quality of our natural resources: the trees, the woods, the habitats, the wild life, and the voters wanted them to be preserved. So they enacted several environmental policies --that were all voter originated, not county commissioner proposed-- to protect our environment.

My husband is the director of the environmental department that makes sure these policies are implemented. Right now there is a huge issue about a large business who wants to locate in our county. They've built a lot of smaller projects here already but now they are moving their corporate offices down here lock, stock and barrel. They've got land that they want to build their home office on but we have ordinances that require a certain amount of their land be kept natural. They don't want to reserve that part of their land because it will interfere with the size of their building, so they did what all businesses seem to do, they went to our elected officials and put "pressure" on. I don't know how what they did but all of the sudden, Bill's boss approved something to go through without following the citizen oversight procedure, an important part of the environmental permitting process.

Now there's a huge dust up because the citizen's group is calling foul as they should, the county commissioners are pressuring the manager to pass it through anyway, and some commissioners are pointing fingers at Bill's department as being the source of the ills of the government for Hampering a Beneficial Business That's Going to Bring Prosperity To The County. But all Bill is doing is following the ordinances that the VOTERS put in place (indirectly, but that is what they wanted.)

The long and the short if it is: Money talks.

[badsede]

The long and the short if it is: Money talks.

That is why we must shout.

Billy Joe Armstrong (lead singer of Green Day) makes the point that every dollar that we spend is a vote .. a vote in favor of the system and companies that produced whatever it is that we are buying. I don't get how a dumb punk-rock singer can understand the power of using captialism itself to fight the injustices caused by capitalism through conscientious consumerism and the boycot while it seems that the majority of Americans can not or will not.

[badsede]

And yet we consume. That's one of the reasons that I like terms like conscientious consumerism. The apparent dichotomy in the term creates pause for thought.

[ldygwynedd]

The problem is that our electorate thinks they've taken care of protecting their environment by voting on those referenda.

What happens is that big bucks walks through the door of the commmissioner's individual offices and who knows what happens. I only know that if it was publicized what goes on, the public would be up in arms. Our newspaper is more interested in finding fault in staff doings rather than in what the elected officials are doing. It's odd.

[badsede]

It is a general problem. Typically, people either think that voting does nothing or voting is all they need to do .. despair or complacency.

Have a good trip!!