Thursday, June 23, 2005

supreme court: poor people, please move over. now, roll over and play dead.

this just stuns me. now, if your state wants to cozy up to a developer, they can claim that your property just isn't providing the tax revenue that a new development would, claim eminent domain and seize your house. so says the supreme court.

“Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random,” [Justice Sandra Day] O’Connor wrote. “The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.” (and to think that Reagan put this woman in. wow.)

"The biggest crime in America is being poor." - Aunt Florence, Z"Tsl'V.

side notes: i know, i know, we are supposed to maintain 'balanced' collections in terms of viewpoint/opinion within public libraries. but it occurred to me the other day, as i helped someone checking out a michael savage book, that it's highly self-defeating for libraries and other public institutions to make this kind of conservative cut-everything-that-isn't-a-bomb mindset easier for people to access. (also, i'd like to play mischief and replace michael savage books with dan savage texts.) hmm, no wonder when i turn on PBS lately, there are documentaries extolling all things FDR.

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