A Lot Of Utah Is Empty, and Federal Owned
Utah Population Density
Eminent Domain, Meet Utah!
Well, some of you may be aware that the US Supreme Court decided that Eminent Domain could extend to local government taking your land and handing it over to somebody else if they thought their cronies could make more money off of it. Well, Utah has decided to use that to it’s advantage.
Just heard on Fox News that Utah has begun an Eminent Domain action… Against the US Government…
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4275929/utah-challenges-the-federal-government/?playlist_id=86858
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/utah-eminent-domain-seize-land-uncle-sam/story?id=10584565
(The Feds own a large chunk of land in western states, despite the constitution saying they ought not.)
$Trillion of Coal
I missed the exact name of the chunk of land, but they said it is believed to have over $1 Trillion of coal reserves under it that are effectively ‘off limits’ due to Federal rules. So Utah has said “We can make money off that land, and the Feds are being too tight with the rules. We’re taking it. We have a right to Utah land.”
All I can say is: Go UTAH!
Either we break the Federal strangle hold or the Eminent Domain FUBAR gets patched. Nice. Very Nice.
Musings from the Chiefio 
Dig baby dig!
Oh, and it’s always possible that the US Congress or the Supremes may decide “some citizens are more equal than others”… with emphasis on those in DC…
Of course, if the DC Critters get too out of hand, the States could always decide to repeal the 17th Amendment and take back the Senate…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Since it started in large part to make sure states elected senators in a timely manner, and since having fewer of them might be a feature (IMHO), I see no reason to keep it around. And I can imagine some states feeling the same way. It’s time for a bit more states rights and a bit less unfunded mandates.
While they are at it, they could knock off the 16th too (in an ideal world…) For non-US folks, the 16th is the one that allows the Feds to have an income tax.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitutionn
That would make it a ‘clean sweep’ with the already repealed 18th amendment ( prohibition of alcohol). They had some nutty ideas about that time, wouldn’t hurt to clean them up now, IMHO.
What goes round, comes round! ;-D
While you are at it, reinstate the original 13th amendment that was in force for 40 years and then erased during the Civil War.
Very Strange. “Titles Of Nobility” prohibition. I’d never heard about a missing amendment before, though some googling showed it…