According to a front page report NYTimes by John Broder, the reaction to the recent Kelo Decision of the Supreme Court has begun in the state capitols where "In a rare display of unanimity that cuts across partisan and geographic lines, lawmakers in virtually every statehouse across the country are advancing bills and constitutional amendments to limit use of the government's power of eminent domain to seize private property for economic development purposes.

The conflict arises over government actions to seize private homes or businesses as part of a redevelopment project that at least partly benefits a private party like a retail store, an apartment complex or a football stadium.

 

 Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, signed a bill on Sept. 1 that prohibits use of eminent domain to benefit a private party, with certain exceptions. Among those exceptions is the condemnation of homes to make way for a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys.

According to Tom Farrey , of ESPN

in January 1991 citizens of Arlington Texas approve public funds for a $191 million baseball park.  In April of the same year,  The Texas Rangers organization shepards through the Texas legislature a bill that creates Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority (ASFDA), a quasi-governmental entity that is given the power of eminent domain.  Gov. Ann Richards signed it into law, and 13 acres of private proterty are seized for the Rangers' new ballpark, prompting two law suits.

 

June 1998 Tom Hicks buys the Rangers for $250 million.  January 1999 The Rangers agree to future payments to the ASFDA that will total $22.2 million to cover costs that the ASFDA incurred related to litigation over the seizure of private property for the ballpark.  This closes a dispute that occurred when the Rangers refused to reimburse the authority after a court judgment.

That my dears is how it is done.  Who needs the Kelo decision or the subsequent state legislation, when a model of corporate rectitude stands before us with little, apparent public scrutiny.  Leave aside the other ambiguities of what one investor said when asked by reporters about his involvement in the Texas Rangers Land Deal.  His reponse was: "It was always a land deal."   And so it was because it involved not only the new Ballpark but housing and retail development around the Ballpark. 

That particular Rangers investor turned $606,302 into $14.9 million in less than seven years.  Now that is a real deal.

In the New York Times you will find a report that is disconcerting:   "U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review".  The Bush Administration has taken secrecy to a new silly level.  It has reclassified many documents previously made public and available to historians and researchers.  As a result of complaints to the National Archives, an audit was performed.  The results show that in a secret, flawed process the CIA and other agencies, supported by the overbearing emphasis on secrecy of this administration, spent millions of dollars to pull from public access thousands of documents.  Pulling these documents did not always result in reclassifying them.

It is the case that some documents should not have been declassified, but most of those pulled or reclassified were not threats to the national defense.  "...the complaints about the secret program, which prompted... decision to conduct an audit, showed that the government's system for deciding what should be secret is deeply flawed."

Contrary to the intent of Congress when it passed the Presidential Records Act of 1978,  this Bush administration by a 2002 executive order  limited access to presidential papers that are necessary to historians  Executive Order 13233 withholds the presidential papers of G.W. Bush, W. J. Clinton, G.H.W. Bush and R.W. Reagan until 50 years after their respective deaths.  It is the case that this administration  has recently been compelled to acknowledge domestic surveillance by warrant-less wiretap.  In each of these instances suit has been brought against the Bush administration to bring them to account.

What are they trying to hide?

This morning Elisabeth Bumiller in her "White House Letter" New York Times 20 Feb 2006) recounts the activities of Mary Matalin, adviser to Mr. Cheney from early Sunday morning - the day after the accidental shooting by the Vice President of Harry Whittington - until the next weekend when she retreated to her weekend farm.

Bumiller's account did not include Matalin's bravura performance Sunday morning on Meet the Press   (MTP - 19 Feb 2006) when in her  attack on  the White House Press Corps for its shabby treatment of and out-of-control, over reaction to the hunting mishap ,  she made the case  for Cheney's feelings about what happened.  Matalin criticized the press corps for having no empathy for the Vice President who "must have felt horrible after shooting his dear friend in the face."

What a flip-flop, turn of events or to use Matalin's phrase  " delicious hypocrisy".  After spending years decrying the Democrats as the "mommie party"  that acts on feelings and the Republicans as the "daddy party" that is cool and rational, Matalin  goes to great lengths on MTP to decry the calculated, cold, unemotional response by the Vice President's critics, all the while establishing Cheney's feelings and caring emotions in an effort to humanize the Darth Vader of the Bush administration.  The Vice President is many things;  Mr. Warmth he is not.