re: #30 Buck

Most conservatives think this issue is stupid. Karl Rove, O’Reilly, Beck… all think this is as dumb as can be.

I think this is the same as the minority of liberals who thought Bush was a war criminal that should have been impeached. Or the idiots that believed Loose Change. Or the nuts that thought Bush was just a puppet of Karl Rove and VP Chaney. All equally dumb ideas if you ask me.

I’m going to do something I otherwise don’t do anymore and link to a column by Michelle Malkin (Charles, please delete this if you feel the link inappropriate). This one on NRO and isn’t bigoted. I use it only to explain that National Review isn’t confused about who Donald Trump is, and they know he’s no species of conservative:

Trump’s Eminent-Domain Empire

Don’t be fooled by the Donald. Take it from one who knows: I’m a South Jersey gal who was raised on the outskirts of Atlantic City in the looming shadow of Trump’s towers. All through my childhood, casino developers and government bureaucrats joined hands, raised taxes, and made dazzling promises of urban renewal. Then we wised up to the eminent-domain thievery championed by our hometown faux free-marketeers.

America, it’s time you wised up to Donald Trump’s property-redistribution racket, too.

Trump has been wooing conservative activists for months and flirting with a GOP presidential run — first at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and most recently at a tea-party event in South Florida. He touts his business experience, “high aptitude,” and “bragadocious” deal-making abilities. But he’s no more a standard bearer of conservative values, limited government, and constitutional principles than the cast of Jersey Shore.

Too many mega-developers like Trump have achieved success by using and abusing the government’s ability to commandeer private property for purported “public use.” Invoking the Fifth Amendment takings clause, real-estate moguls, parking-garage builders, mall developers, and sports-palace architects have colluded with elected officials to pull off legalized theft in the name of reducing “blight.” Under eminent domain, the definition of “public purpose” has been stretched like Silly Putty to cover everything from roads and bridges to high-end retail stores, baseball stadiums, and casinos.

Malkin’s an ass, but she’s right about Trump. He has zero respect for the property of others.