Big Government Is No Victim

No tragedy is beyond exploitation by the left.  When census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead and it was leaked that “Fed” was scrawled across his chest, the entirety of the conservative and Tea Party movements were immediately convicted by the online left.  They were wrong, and we now know that Sparkman committed suicide.  Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the left also tried to hang Joseph Stack around the neck of the Tea Party.  Again they failed.

They are now doing the same song and dance with Pentagon shooter John Patrick Bedell.  Despite the fact that he’s a registered Democrat and 9/11 Truther, the left and their media sycophants are stretching to tie him to the Tea Party movement, though the best that they can honestly come up with is that he distrusted government.

That’s what it really boils down to.  At the end of the day, they know none of these guys will hold up as right-wingers.  Their real objective is simply to shame anyone who thinks government should be smaller, rather than bigger.  Anyone who thinks that the IRS is often used to bully Americans isn’t simply wrong, you see, but is also dangerous.  Anyone who thinks that a limited government would better promote prosperity and ensure individual liberty isn’t merely antiquated, but also a potential shooter of government employees.

They are essentially trying to use the acts of these lone nutjobs – which were despicable in every way – to make big government into the victim. The magnitude of this Orwellian endeavor is so unbelievable that it’s hard to describe in a manner that doesn’t sound over-the-top.  It’s better just to remind you of some of big government’s greatest hits.

The 2005 Kelo decision ruled that government can take property from one private person or group and give it to another in order to raise tax revenues. Such abuse didn’t just start with Kelo, however.  In the 4 year period from 1998 to 2002, over 10,000 properties faced at least the threat of condemnation in order to benefit another private party, according to a report by the Institute for Justice.  These are individuals being threatened and bullied by a massive government to give up their fundamental human right to administer their lawfully owned property as they see fit.

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Tags: Big Government, Bill Sparkman, Drug War, eminent domain abuse, Joesph Stack
Posted Mar 7th 2010 at 8:56 am in Uncategorized | 85106119 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bgarst/2010/03/07/big-government-is-no-victim/Big+Government+Is+No+Victim2010-03-07+16%3A56%3A20Brian+Garst

How ACORN Profits from New York’s Eminent Domain Abuse

Last month, New York’s highest court heard oral arguments in the case of Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation. At issue was the state’s controversial seizure of private property on behalf of a 22-acre development project known as the Atlantic Yards. Situated in central Brooklyn, this taxpayer-subsidized boondoggle was the brainchild of real estate tycoon and New Jersey Nets owner Bruce Ratner, who wants to build an “urban utopia” complete with more than a dozen office and apartment towers, a 180-room hotel, and a fancy new basketball arena for Ratner’s Nets to call home.

Real Estate Tycoon Bruce Ratner and ACORN's Bertha Lewis

To get his way, Ratner turned to his buddies in big government, specifically the Empire State Development Corporation, a controversial state agency with the power to bypass zoning laws and seize private property via eminent domain. In other words, this is a classic case of eminent domain abuse. Ratner isn’t building a bridge or a tunnel or any other legitimate public project that might justify the forceful taking of private property by the state. He wants to build a basketball arena, sell tickets to the games (not to mention broadcast rights, concessions, and luxury boxes), and collect a big fat profit.

So what in the world is ACORN, a self-described champion of “social and economic justice” and “low- and moderate-income people” doing in bed with a shady corporate powerbroker like Bruce Ratner? Let’s follow the money.

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Tags: ACORN, ACORN embezzlement, acorn scandal, Anita Moncreif, Atlantic Fields
Posted Nov 18th 2009 at 2:02 pm in ACORN, Economics, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 3319429 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/droot/2009/11/18/how-acorn-profits-from-new-yorks-eminent-domain-abuse/How+ACORN+Profits+from+New+York%E2%80%99s+Eminent+Domain+Abuse2009-11-18+21%3A02%3A24Damon+Root

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed: Terror Trials in the Big Apple

It is a Friday and President Obama is abroad.  What better time for the President and the Department of Justice to announce that 9/11 coordinator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and some of his fellow terrorists will be tried in a civilian court in New York City?

Yesterday, I wrote about the curious connection that major Obama and ACORN supporter Bruce Ratner has to the Department of Justice – the very department that refuses to initiate a criminal trial of ACORN. It just so happens that Bruce Ratner’s brother, Michael Ratner, shares the terrorist coddling sympathies of Attorney General Eric Holder.  As Michelle Malkin documents, Holder not only pushed for the pardoning of actual terrorists in his last stint at DOJ, but he was also a senior partner at a law firm representing detainees at Guantanamo. While Michael Ratner has not represented Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he did represent a handful of terrorists and won them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts under habeas corpus. This is just one of many legal “victories” that have paved the way for folks like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to be tried in civilian court on our soil.

This particular example highlights the underlying notion that terrorists should be privy to the same rights as United States citizens. In this instance, President Obama did in fact exercise his discretion (if you can call it that) by allowing the trial to take place in civilian court.  Attorney Brian Levi serves as the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.  As Levi noted today, “As a legal matter President Obama could very well also have tried these five detainees before military tribunals, as five others are…”

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Tags: 9-11 attacks, ACORN, Bruce Ratner, eminent domain abuse, eric-holder
Posted Nov 13th 2009 at 3:37 pm in Culture, Defense, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 30678193 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/johara/2009/11/13/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-terror-trials-in-the-big-apple/Khalid+Sheikh+Mohammed%3A+Terror+Trials+in+the+Big+Apple2009-11-13+22%3A37%3A03John+M.+O%26%2339%3BHara