Senator Lee tells WH to stay in its own backyard

When the all-encompassing Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation was first proposed in 2013, we addressed this inherent enslavement of every American to federal authority. Does the term “enslavement” hit a raw nerve… good. The article, 21st century Slavery – HUD vs MLK, took the issue of a federal agency dispensing zoning directives for neighborhoods, your neighborhood, to the crux of the problem – the creation of a new federal plantation.
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Stand by Me Protest held at state capital in honor of Lavoy Finicum

A protest was held Saturday on the steps of the State Capitol. A few dozen protestors, who say they gathered to honor the life of the late LaVoy Finicum, also vowed to carry on his legacy by taking a stand against the federal government.
Stand By Me for LaVoy and Liberty was one of a number of similar rallies slated in states across the nation, including Texas, Florida and in Oregon.
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Central Valley congressman wants taxpayers to know what empty federal buildings are costing

The federal government spends more than $1.7 billion a year to maintain 770,000 empty buildings while other agencies are leasing or buying new space, and Rep. Jeff Denham is fed up. This is something that hasn’t been handled in Republican or Democrat administrations because it’s too big of a bureaucracy,” Denham (R-Turlock) said in an interview in his office. “There’s no incentive for the agencies to sell.”
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Feds Seek “Mental Health” Testing of All Children, Adults

Next time you visit your doctor, be careful how you respond to his questions, or you may just be branded “mentally ill” and subjected to “treatment.” That is because a panel advising the Obama administration, in partnership with Big Psychiatry, wants to make doctors subject all American adults and children over age 12 to screening for alleged “mental health” disorders — particularly depression, at least to start with.
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70% Of Obama’s Budget Is Writing Checks To Individuals

Budget: What is the federal government's most important function these days? Based on the Obama budget released today, it's not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It's cutting checks.
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Federal Rules Shutting Down Work Centers for the Disabled

Work centers for the disabled provide a useful service for businesses while allowing individuals with special needs to gain work skills and autonomy. But new federal regulations would make life difficult for these charitable operations, potentially causing some to close their doors.
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Poll: Almost half say feds are an 'immediate threat'

Forty-nine percent of people asked in a new Gallup survey say the federal government poses "an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens," and another 19 percent say the federal government is too big in general and puts forth too many laws.
Though this sentiment has been felt by generally the same percentage of Americans for the past five years, fewer than a third of those asked (30 percent) believed it when they were first asked in 2003.


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Was Sierra Pacific Victim of Government Shakedown?

After what became known as the Moonlight Fire burned some 65,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada in 2007, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection decided that Sierra Pacific Industries was responsible for the damage. The culprit, regulators charged, was a friction spark from a bulldozer operating on Sierra Pacific land. Cal Fire fined the timber company $8 million to pay for related costs. Because the fire burned more than 40,000 acres of national forest, the federal government also went after Sierra Pacific's deep pockets; in 2012, Sierra Pacific agreed to a settlement that entailed paying the feds $47 million and giving Uncle Sam 22,500 acres of forestland.

That's how the system should work, you probably are thinking, and I would think that, too -- except that Superior Court Judge Leslie C. Nichols tossed the state's case, citing a lack of solid evidence. Last year, he ruled that the government's case was "corrupt and tainted.

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Who Owns the West?

CLICK HERE FOR LARGER VIEW

This map, created by Stanford's alumni magazine and republished by Bigthink, shows just how much federal ownership dominates the West. In effect, the map serves as a visual representation of changing land policies. The federal government kept a tighter hold on land from the 1890s on. And that time period was when the Western states were settled and formed.

Read more at VOX.com

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Government's Empty Buildings Are Costing Taxpayers Billions

On a street corner in downtown Washington, D.C., David Wise is opening a century-old iron gate in front of an old, boarded-up brick building.

Wise is an investigator for the Government Accountability Office, the government's watchdog group. His mission is to figure out why the government owns so many buildings, like this one, that it doesn't use.

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Time for a yard sale? Selling excess property could net government billions

When families face a budget crunch, they have but a few options -- spend less, make more or starting selling stuff.

So why doesn't the federal government do the same?

Given the current state of the country's finances, many are wondering if it is time for the federal government to sell what it doesn't need -- basically, hold a yard sale.

The federal government is sitting on billions in assets that are either sluggish or just dead weight. That includes federal land, buildings and other structures. Two years ago, President Obama's deficit commission identified 64,000 buildings and structures that it deemed excessive, underutilized or vacant and recommended should be sold.

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Fox: Utah on verge of passing bill demanding Feds relinquish public land

3/6/2012 (AP) SALT LAKE CITY – Lawmakers who want to seize control of federal lands are pushing a legal battle they insist is winnable despite multiple warnings their effort is highly unconstitutional and almost sure to fail in court. ✧ Utah is poised to become the first state to pass a package of bills that demand the federal government relinquish claims to huge sections of public land. A proposal that advanced Wednesday demands that by 2014 the federal government cede control of nearly 30 million acres -- nearly 50 percent of the entire state. ✧ A bill setting an identical deadline is also moving in the Arizona Legislature. Read more at Fox News... Read More......

Ray Stevens - God Save Arizona

(Hat tip: Lou Copes) Read More......

Was America Built on a House of Cards?

Excerpt from Government of Deceit by Pat McConnell, Chapter 37, Page 206:

"Was Twentieth Century America built on a mountain of debt?

Federal Government infrastructure
How about the interstate system with all the bridges? Were they ever paid for? We are now in need of repairing or replacing some bridges, but did we ever pay for them the first time?

The Interstate Highway system is the largest public works project ever completed in the U.S. Its construction started in late 1956 and continues today. The original system was budgeted at $25 billion and was to be completed in 12 years. However, the originally planned interstates were completed in 1992, taking about 36 years to complete. Alas, the costs grew, and soon the price tag ended up at $114 billion (adjusted for inflation, the cost might approach $1 trillion.) The actual funding of construction was 90% federal and 10% state. The feds financed the 90% with bonds to be paid back through federal gas taxes.

Only for the years 1956, 1957 and 1960, did the Federal Government balance the budget. Examining the deficits for the years thereafter; it is obvious that when the bonds came due, they were just paid off with new borrowing. So, in essence, we never paid for the interstate system. In addition, we have been paying interest on the interstate system ever since. Now, if the Interstate Highway system is the largest public works project in our history and it is not paid for, I think that a logical conclusion could be reached that little of our Federal Government infrastructure was paid for after about 1930, when Deficit Spending became a national addiction. Oops."

Mr. McConnell continues the chapter with state & local government and John Q. Public's addiction to credit; though hardly comparable to the fed.

Doesn't Rep. DeFazio (D-OR) serve on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure? Read more about Government of Deceit. --bc Read More......

Will there be a Supreme Court vs. Obama smackdown?

EXAMINER.COM, 7/9/2010 by Anthony G. Martin (Hat tip: Stella Gunether via email) - According to sources who watch the inner workings of the federal government, a smackdown of Barack Obama by the U.S. Supreme Court may be inevitable.

Ever since Obama assumed the office of President, critics have hammered him on a number of Constitutional issues. Critics have complained that much if not all of Obama's major initiatives run headlong into Constitutional roadblocks on the power of the federal government.

Obama certainly did not help himself in the eyes of the Court when he used the venue of the State of the Union address early in the year to publicly flog the Court over its ruling that the First Amendment grants the right to various organizations to run political ads during the time of an election. Read more at the Examiner...

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic). Chief Justice John Roberts, U.S. Supreme Court. Read More......