Eminent Domain is the idea that the state can take a piece of land or house, etc, at a fair price, so they can build a road or something for the public good.  Not too long ago the Supreme Court, wrongly in my opinion, expanded this to say the government could take the land from one private organization to another for development purposes (Kelo v City of New London, FindLaw.com, WikiPedia.com).

What does this have to do with Sotomayor?

She was also on the panel that decided the 2006 case of Didden v. The Village of Port Chester by unpublished summary order.

The important part of that sentence is ‘unpublished summary order’, which I’ll come back to in a bit.  The case was this

The case involved what can fairly be described as an extortionate use of the state’s power of eminent domain. Bart Didden wanted to build a CVS pharmacy on land he owned. A politically powerful developer wanted to build a Walgreens on the same spot, so he “asked” for $800,000 cash or a 50 percent stake – or else he’d have the town seize Mr. Didden’s property. Didden refused and Port Chester took his land the very next day.

Instead of exploring the obvious differences between that case and the Supreme Court’s controversial decision in Kelo v. City of New London, Sotomayor and her colleagues issued an unpublished decision, devoting but a single paragraph to conclude that there was “no basis upon which relief can be granted.” Moreover, the panel made a wholly inappropriate factual finding that the $800,000 cash “offer” was not extortion but merely “voluntary attempts” to resolve the case. Didden – and property owners everywhere – deserved a better airing of his constitutional challenge.

(Both of the previous quotes from CsMonitor.com)

Basically a town takes a guy’s land, gives it to another guy and this Judge does not even actually listen to the case (that’s the ‘unpublished summary order’ bit).  She basically says ‘nope, not going to listen to this case, I don’t have to, I’m a judge and oh, here’s a case Kelo v City of New London that sort of supports me’.  Even a cursory glance at the facts of the case reveals that the case was not really about eminent domain but rather about extortion (and probably some dirty politicians).

Really, this is the person we want on the bench?

Tags: sotomayor

Supreme Court | 2 Comments »

It has been reported everywhere, so via Stratfor.com,

North Korea has declared it is no longer bound by the Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War now that South Korea has joined the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).

The Armistice has been what has been keeping them from walking across the de-militarized zone (oh, that and the land mines that we’ve planted and can’t get a waiver to the land mind treaty for).  So now, they have lost the last scrap of cover that ‘we’re just trying to get along’.

The North Koreans aren’t interested in getting along with anyone.  I think this is what a lot of people do not understand.  There are countries out there, North Korea, Iran, Saddam’s Iraq, certain countries in Africa, that just don’t care if the rest of the world ever accepts them.  Now one of them has nuclear weapons and says ‘we are in a state of war with you.’

Tags: korea

dangerous countries | 1 Comment »

A New Influenza Virus

(more…)

Tags: CDC, H1Ni Flu, swine flu

common sense, medical | No Comments »

I’ve posted about the school system in LA before, but this caught my attention

In the jargon of the school district, Kim is being “housed” while his fitness to teach is under review. A special education teacher, he was removed from Grant High School in Van Nuys and assigned to a district office in 2002 after the school board voted to fire him for allegedly harassing teenage students and colleagues. In the meantime, the district has spent more than $2 million on him in salary and legal costs.

Last week, Kim was ordered to continue this daily routine at home. District officials said the offices for “housed” employees were becoming too crowded.

About 160 teachers and other staff sit idly in buildings scattered around the sprawling district, waiting for allegations of misconduct to be resolved.

Why do they sit idly by you ask?

Although there is no specific reference in the contract to housed employees, an attorney for L.A. Unified pointed to Article 9, Section 4.0, which defines the “professional duties” of a teacher, such as instructional planning and evaluating the work of pupils.

With no mention of photocopying, stuffing envelopes or answering telephones in the contract, the district and union have interpreted this provision as prohibiting clerical duties.
“Why would we denigrate [teachers] by forcing them to do something they’re not supposed to do?” said A. J. Duffy, who is now president of UTLA, adding that housed teachers are entitled to a presumption of innocence.

Umm, how about because they are supposed to be teaching and it was their conduct that took them out of the classroom? In the case of the teacher highlighted in the article he had 4 sexual harrassment complaints (at least two from students) over the course of two years. All said this school system is paying160 teachers $10 million a year not to teach.

Tags: Education, taxes, union

Education, taxes | 1 Comment »

I was purusing Michelle Malkin’s blog this morning and came across this video

The 2 most important points, I thought, were that there has been a shift in terminology by the people pushing this idea from ‘Global Warming’ to ‘Climate Change’ and the fact that there has not been any global warming in a decade.

Tags: global warming

taxes | 1 Comment »

I was sitting at breakfast this morning, watching Fox news when I saw the death of common sense. Now, I know that we have been slowly watching it die for some time but I believe that this morning, it officially died. (more…)

Tags: common sense, death of common sense, illegal immigrants, prisoners

Funny, Obama, common sense, government, morals and ethics | No Comments »

ElectionJournal.org has taken the time to put all of the places ACORN has been accused or convicted of voter fraud onto a Google Map.  In case ACORN doesn’t sound familiar, ACORN recieved federal tax money to help poor people (ie, those who couldn’t afford them) get mortgages (sound like a problem that’s biting us now?), and is now being chosen by the President to help with the US census.  What can possibly go wrong?

Tags: acorn, census

Obama, corruption, government | No Comments »

Tim Geithner is going to catch the “tax cheats”. Isn’t that kind of like putting the fox in charge of protecting the hen house? Tim Geithner is one of the ones that was using the “loopholes” to keep more of his “hard earned” money. (more…)

Tags: Obama, tax cheats, taxes, tim Geithner

Obama, corruption, economy, government, taxes | No Comments »

I’ve often thought that if a school district could fire teachers for not doing their jobs then maybe they could hire those that could and maybe pay them what the market would bear, which would be good all around.  I came across this article in the LA Times (its a long one, but worth the read).  It had tons of good information, but a couple of passages I wanted to point out

Meanwhile, said Kendra Wallace, principal of Daniel Webster Middle School on Los Angeles’ Westside, an ineffective teacher can instruct 125 to 260 students a year — up to 1,300 in the five years she says it often takes to remove a tenured employee.

and

“The hardest conversation to have is when a student comes in and looks at you and says, ‘Can you please come teach our class?’ ” she said.

When coaching and other improvement efforts don’t work, she said, “You’re in the position of having to look at 125 kids and just say, ‘I’m sorry,’ because the process of removal is really difficult. . . . You’re looking at these kids and knowing they are going to high school and they’re not ready. It is absolutely devastating.”

The article has a lot of things that defies common sense, like evidence collected at the beginning of the processes is often not admissible as it goes on because of the lengths of these proceedings, to the fact that these things are so costly and long that some teachers get promotions while they are happening and others get to simply offer apologies for things like ‘touching’ their swimming students.

There is an ironclad system in place to protect these teachers.  Teachers who, according to one example in the article, could not put together a lesson plan for reading and math.  I know there are good teachers, I’ve had some, but there is no reason that teaching should not be like any other job.  I cannot imagine going to work every day, performing poorly, and my boss taking 5 years to fire me.  Its outrageous, and in this case it is a generation of Americans who are losing out so that a few teachers can collect their retirements.

Tags: union education

Education | 1 Comment »