Tea Party Patriots Co-Sponsoring Presidential Debate Tonight

Tea Party Patriots, along with the SRLC and CNN, will co-sponsor a primetime Presidential debate this Thursday in Charleston, South Carolina – two days before the crucial South Carolina primary.

“The South Carolina primary is a critical contest in the march towards the Republican presidential nomination,” said Mark Preston, CNN political director. “The support of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference and the Tea Party Patriots is invaluable in helping us to provide the Republican candidates an opportunity to answer direct questions on the many challenges facing the nation.”

The debate will air live from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET on CNN, CNN en Español, CNN Radio and worldwide on CNN International and CNN.com. It will re-air on CNN for the primetime West Coast audience at 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET. CNN will also provide a live feed of the debate to the American Forces Network, which is seen in 175 countries and aboard naval ships around the world so that U.S. airmen, marines, sailors, soldiers and officials serving overseas can view the debate.

Donald Trump: Property Rights & Eminent Domain

While the outspoken Donald Trump is bringing a refreshing flavor to the GOP presidential jockeying for 2012, a respect of property rights over a plundering of property rights through the use of state-sponsored eminent domain for his projects should raise some questions....

From NRO --

In a free market, there’s a pretty simple process for dealing with the situation that arises when one person covets another’s belongings: The coveter makes an offer to purchase them. If the offer is rebuffed, the coveter can make a new proposal, but he cannot simply take what he wants. It’s an effective way of recognizing the impracticality of the Tenth Commandment while enforcing the Eighth.

Donald Trump’s covetous nature is not in dispute, but what many may forget is that he’s no great respecter of the admonition not to steal, either: The man has a track record of using the government as a hired thug to take other people’s property.

This is called, of course, “eminent domain.” The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment allows the government to take private property for “public use,” so long as “just compensation” is paid. In the infamous 2005 Kelo decision, the Supreme Court held that “public use” could include, well, private use, so long as the new property owner paid more in taxes than the previous one. In other words, it allowed developers and the government to gang up on homeowners. The developer gets more land, the government gets more tax money. The only losers are the original owner and his property rights.

A decade and a half ago, it was fresh on everyone’s mind that Donald Trump is one of the leading users of this form of state-sanctioned thievery. It was all over the news. In perhaps the most-remembered example, John Stossel got the toupéed one to sputter about how, if he wasn’t allowed to steal an elderly widow’s house to expand an Atlantic City casino, the government would get less tax money, and seniors like her would get less “this and that.” Today, however, it takes a push from the Club for Growth to remind us of Trump’s lack of respect for property rights. More....