http://apnews.myway.com/…

Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways.

Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (FINK’-by-ner) says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways.

During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter’s question of whether the crackdown and fines were related to the city’s budget crisis.

The three-term mayor faces a recall vote in November. Critics have claimed he’s wasted city money.

City Councilman D. Michael Collins calls the ticketing “Mickey Mouse nonsense.” He has told residents he’ll try to have the citations rescinded.

That law is so ridiculous it had to be made to collect revenue. My question though is did the city council really have so much hubris to think they could really get away with enforcing it?

http://rawstory.com/…

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) yet again went against the grain in Congress when he
stood up in the House and argued against a proposal that would tax 90
percent of AIG executive bonuses, saying that it was a “disgrace,” a
“distraction” and an “outrage” that undermined the Constitution.

Despite the protestations of Paul and a few others, the House voted
overwhelmingly to pass the bonus tax legislation Thursday afternoon.

Roll Call reports the vote was 328-93 to impose a 90 percent tax on
employee bonuses at companies that received federal bailout funds.

“While the vote was bipartisan, the GOP was split on the bill, with
Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) voting against it and Minority Whip
Eric Cantor (Va.) voting in favor of it,” reported Roll Call.

CNN notes that the measure, which now heads to the Senate for
consideration, would tax individuals on any bonuses received in 2009 from
companies getting $5 billion or more in money from the Troubled Asset
Relief Program. Those with incomes more than $250,000 would see their
bonuses taxed at the 90 percent rate.

“We can’t have any concept of we’re getting even, but we must have a
concept that we’re trying to show that Congress … cannot tolerate that,”
said Charlie Rangel (D-NY), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
on Wednesday.

Said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “We must also protect the American
taxpayer from executives who would use their companies’ second chances as
opportunities for private gain. Because they could not use sound judgment
in the use of taxpayer funds, these AIG executives will pay the Treasury
in the form of this tax.”

It’s just sad. As Paul said it’s just a distraction. They are worrying about a minute amount of money which was unconstitutionally allocated and not earmarked. Then they go and pass this unconstitutional bill of attainer while they sit back and watch as the Federal Reserve System tosses billions of dollars around, debases the currency and further destroys the economy.

http://cnsnews.com/…

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) predicted on Thursday that none of his Senate colleagues would ”have the chance” to read the entire final version of the $790-billion stimulus bill before the bill comes up for a final vote in Congress.

“No, I don’t think anyone will have the chance to [read the entire bill],” Lautenberg told CNSNews.com.

The final bill, crafted by a House-Senate conference committee, was posted on the Website of the House Appropriations Committe late Thurday in two PDF files.

The first PDF was 424 pages long and the second PDF was 575 pages long, making the total bill 999 pages long.  The House is expected to vote on this 999-page bill Friday, and the Senate either later Friday or Saturday.  [Editor's note: The first PDF, as posted on the House Appropriations Committee website as of 8:20 AM Friday morning, had grown by 72 pages to 496 pages, increasing the length of the total document to 1,071 pages.]

Of the several senators that CNSNews.com interviewed on Thursday, only Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) claimed to have read the entire bill–and he was speaking of the preliminary version that had been approved by the Senate, not the final 999-page version that the House-Senate conference committee was still haggling over on Thursday afternoon.

When CNSNews.com asked members of both parties on Capitol Hill on Thursday whether they had read the full, final bill, not one member could say, “Yes.”

And only one–Voinovich–volunteered that he had actually read the version of the bill that had passed the Senate.

Both Republicans and Democrats told CNSNews.com they were eager to read the unseen bill–once they could get get their hands on a copy of the final legislation.

Nonetheless, members from both sides of the aisle in both the House and Senate admitted they doubted they would have adequate time to read the bill before they actually voted for it.

“Certainly I hope to have the opportunity to go through [the bill] before the vote takes place,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told CNSNews.com. “But that’s something I’ve found doesn’t always happen around here.”

http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/27

http://www.newswithviews.com/…

It’s been over a month since a team of 10, heavily armed sheriff deputies, at the behest of county and state agencies, conducted an aggressive mid-day, search-and-seize raid of the home of John and Jacqueline Stowers, owners of an organic food co-op called Manna Storehouse in LaGrange, Ohio — and tore their world apart.

The couple has not yet been charged with a crime, but they don’t have to wait to become defendants in a trial — they’re the plaintiffs in a court action launched by two advocacy groups on their behalf.

The Columbus-based Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, through its 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, and the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund [FTCDLF] filed a joint, 12-page complaint Dec. 17 in the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas against the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Lorain County General Health District and the state’s attorney general for violating the Stowers’ constitutional rights, including their rights to due process and equal protection, and unlawful use of state police power.

“The use of these police-state tactics on a peaceful family is simply unacceptable,” said Buckeye Institute President, David Hansen, in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “Officers rushed into the Stowers’ home with guns drawn and held the family – including 10 young children – captive for six hours. This outrageous case of bureaucratic overreach must be addressed.”

I don’t suspect much will come from this but one can hope the family receives some sort of restitution.

http://www.crossroad.to/…

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking. Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.
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