Jack:
 
This is a great resource, except that does anyone care about the Revolution any more?  I'm forwarding an executive order by President Reagan on the 5th Amendment vs. private property rights (see below).  One wonders if anyone in the federal government is even complying with it.  I seriously doubt it.
 
What are you doing up so early on a Sunday morning?
 
 
Ron

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Executive Order 12630--Governmental actions and interference with constitutionally protected property rights

Source: The provisions of Executive Order 12630 of Mar. 15, 1988, appear at 53 FR 8859, 3 CFR, 1988 Comp., p. 554, unless otherwise noted.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and in order to ensure that government actions are undertaken on a well-reasoned basis with due regard for fiscal accountability, for the financial impact of the obligations imposed on the Federal government by the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and for the Constitution, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Purpose. (a) The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. Government historically has used the formal exercise of the power of eminent domain, which provides orderly processes for paying just compensation, to acquire private property for public use. Recent Supreme Court decisions, however, in reaffirming the fundamental protection of private property rights provided by the Fifth Amendment and in assessing the nature of governmental actions that have an impact on constitutionally protected property rights, have also reaffirmed that governmental actions that do not formally invoke the condemnation power, including regulations, may result in a taking for which just compensation is required.
(b) Responsible fiscal management and fundamental principles of good government require that government decision-makers evaluate carefully the effect of their administrative, regulatory, and legislative actions on constitutionally protected property rights. Executive departments and agencies should review their actions carefully to prevent unnecessary takings and should account in decision-making for those takings that are necessitated by statutory mandate.
(c) The purpose of this Order is to assist Federal departments and agencies in undertaking such reviews and in proposing, planning, and implementing actions with due regard for the constitutional protections provided by the Fifth Amendment and to reduce the risk of undue or inadvertent burdens on the public fisc resulting from lawful governmental action. In furtherance of the purpose of this Order, the Attorney General shall, consistent with the principles stated herein and in consultation with the Executive departments and agencies, promulgate Guidelines for the Evaluation of Risk and Avoidance of Unanticipated Takings to which each Executive department or agency shall refer in making the evaluations required by this Order or in otherwise taking any action that is the subject of this Order. The Guidelines shall be promulgated no later than May 1, 1988, and shall be disseminated to all units of each Executive department and agency no later than July 1, 1988. The Attorney General shall, as necessary, update these guidelines to reflect fundamental changes in takings law occurring as a result of Supreme Court decisions.

Sec. 2. Definitions. For the purpose of this Order: (a) "Policies that have takings implications" refers to Federal regulations, proposed Federal regulations, proposed Federal legislation, comments on proposed Federal legislation, or other Federal policy statements that, if implemented or enacted, could effect a taking, such as rules and regulations that propose or implement licensing, permitting, or other condition requirements or limitations on private property use, or that require dedications or exactions from owners of private property. "Policies that have takings implications" does not include:
(1) Actions abolishing regulations, discontinuing governmental programs, or modifying regulations in a manner that lessens interference with the use of private property;
(2) Actions taken with respect to properties held in trust by the United States or in preparation for or during treaty negotiations with foreign nations;
(3) Law enforcement actions involving seizure, for violations of law, of property for forfeiture or as evidence in criminal proceedings;
(4) Studies or similar efforts or planning activities;
(5) Communications between Federal agencies or departments and State or local land-use planning agencies regarding planned or proposed State or local actions regulating private property regardless of whether such communications are initiated by a Federal agency or department or are undertaken in response to an invitation by the State or local authority;
(6) The placement of military facilities or military activities involving the use of Federal property alone; or
(7) Any military or foreign affairs functions (including procurement functions thereunder) but not including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works program.
(b) Private property refers to all property protected by the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
(c) "Actions" refers to proposed Federal regulations, proposed Federal legislation, comments on proposed Federal legislation, applications of Federal regulations to specific property, or Federal governmental actions physically invading or occupying private property, or other policy statements or actions related to Federal regulation or direct physical invasion or occupancy, but does not include:
(1) Actions in which the power of eminent domain is formally exercised;
(2) Actions taken with respect to properties held in trust by the United States or in preparation for or during treaty negotiations with foreign nations;
(3) Law enforcement actions involving seizure, for violations of law, of property for forfeiture or as evidence in criminal proceedings;
(4) Studies or similar efforts or planning activities;
(5) Communications between Federal agencies or departments and State or local land-use planning agencies regarding planned or proposed State or local actions regulating private property regardless of whether such communications are initiated by a Federal agency or department or are undertaken in response to an invitation by the State or local authority;
(6) The placement of military facilities or military activities involving the use of Federal property alone; or
(7) Any military or foreign affairs functions (including procurement functions thereunder), but not including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works program.

Sec. 3. General Principles. In formulating or implementing policies that have takings implications, each Executive department and agency shall be guided by the following general principles:
(a) Governmental officials should be sensitive to, anticipate, and account for, the obligations imposed by the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment in planning and carrying out governmental actions so that they do not result in the imposition of unanticipated or undue additional burdens on the public fisc.
(b) Actions undertaken by governmental officials that result in a physical invasion or occupancy of private property, and regulations imposed on private property that substantially affect its value or use, may constitute a taking of property. Further, governmental action may amount to a taking even though the action results in less than a complete deprivation of all use or value, or of all separate and distinct interests in the same private property and even if the action constituting a taking is temporary in nature.
(c) Government officials whose actions are taken specifically for purposes of protecting public health and safety are ordinarily given broader latitude by courts before their actions are considered to be takings. However, the mere assertion of a public health and safety purpose is insufficient to avoid a taking. Actions to which this Order applies asserted to be for the protection of public health and safety, therefore, should be undertaken only in response to real and substantial threats to public health and safety, be designed to advance significantly the health and safety purpose, and be no greater than is necessary to achieve the health and safety purpose.
(d) While normal governmental processes do not ordinarily effect takings, undue delays in decision-making during which private property use if interfered with carry a risk of being held to be takings. Additionally, a delay in processing may increase significantly the size of compensation due if a taking is later found to have occurred.
(e) The Just Compensation Clause is self-actuating, requiring that compensation be paid whenever governmental action results in a taking of private property regardless of whether the underlying authority for the action contemplated a taking or authorized the payment of compensation. Accordingly, governmental actions that may have a significant impact on the use or value of private property should be scrutinized to avoid undue or unplanned burdens on the public fisc.

Sec. 4. Department and Agency Action. In addition to the fundamental principles set forth in Section 3, Executive departments and agencies shall adhere, to the extent permitted by law, to the following criteria when implementing policies that have takings implications:
(a) When an Executive department or agency requires a private party to obtain a permit in order to undertake a specific use of, or action with respect to, private property, any conditions imposed on the granting of a permit shall:
(1) Serve the same purpose that would have been served by a prohibition of the use or action; and
(2) Substantially advance that purpose.
(b) When a proposed action would place a restriction on a use of private property, the restriction imposed on the use shall not be disproportionate to the extent to which the use contributes to the overall problem that the restriction is imposed to redress.
(c) When a proposed action involves a permitting process or any other decision-making process that will interfere with, or otherwise prohibit, the use of private property pending the completion of the process, the duration of the process shall be kept to the minimum necessary.
(d) Before undertaking any proposed action regulating private property use for the protection of public health or safety, the Executive department or agency involved shall, in internal deliberative documents and any submissions to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget that are required:
(1) Identify clearly, with as much specificity as possible, the public health or safety risk created by the private property use that is the subject of the proposed action;
(2) Establish that such proposed action substantially advances the purpose of protecting public health and safety against the specifically identified risk;
(3) Establish to the extent possible that the restrictions imposed on the private property are not disproportionate to the extent to which the use contributes to the overall risk; and
(4) Estimate, to the extent possible, the potential cost to the government in the event that a court later determines that the action constituted a taking.
In instances in which there is an immediate threat to health and safety that constitutes an emergency requiring immediate response, this analysis may be done upon completion of the emergency action.
Sec. 5. Executive Department and Agency Implementation. (a) The head of each Executive department and agency shall designate an official to be responsible for ensuring compliance with this Order with respect to the actions of that department or agency.
(b) Executive departments and agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, identify the takings implications of proposed regulatory actions and address the merits of those actions in light of the identified takings implications, if any, in all required submissions made to the Office of Management and Budget. Significant takings implications should also be identified and discussed in notices of proposed rule-making and messages transmitting legislative proposals to the Congress, stating the departments' and agencies' conclusions on the takings issues.
(c) Executive departments and agencies shall identify each existing Federal rule and regulation against which a takings award has been made or against which a takings claim is pending including the amount of each claim or award. A "takings" award has been made or a "takings" claim pending if the award was made, or the pending claim brought, pursuant to the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment. An itemized compilation of all such awards made in Fiscal Years 1985, 1986, and 1987 and all such pending claims shall be submitted to the Director, Office of Management and Budget, on or before May 16, 1988.
(d) Each Executive department and agency shall submit annually to the Director, Office of Management and Budget, and to the Attorney General an itemized compilation of all awards of just compensation entered against the United States for takings, including awards of interest as well as monies paid pursuant to the provisions of the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, 42 U.S.C. 4601.
(e)(1) The Director, Office of Management and Budget, and the Attorney General shall each, to the extent permitted by law, take action to ensure that the policies of the Executive departments and agencies are consistent with the principles, criteria, and requirements stated in Sections 1 through 5 of this Order, and the Office of Management and Budget shall take action to ensure that all takings awards levied against agencies are properly accounted for in agency budget submissions.
(2) In addition to the guidelines required by Section 1 of this Order, the Attorney General shall, in consultation with each Executive department and agency to which this Order applies, promulgate such supplemental guidelines as may be appropriate to the specific obligations of that department or agency.

Sec. 6. Judicial Review. This Order is intended only to improve the internal management of the Executive branch and is not intended to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any person.

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Jack Venrick
To: ron ewart
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: Which has the greater power, "Mother Nature" or "Man"

Ron -
 
I have this 3 x 4' (approx.) chart of the Revolutionary War History Chart from 1763 - 1783 in a stair step fashion.  I was just pouring over it with coffee.  It has a tremendous amount of info.
 
I shipped it to myself out of a Boston museum.  Here it is.
https://www.learningwithease.com/
 
Jack
----- Original Message -----
From: ron ewart
To: Jack Venrick
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 7:13 AM
Subject: Re: Which has the greater power, "Mother Nature" or "Man"

Jack:
 
I am acutely tuned to what is going on politically, so I pick up facts and information and store them in my memory, or write them down.  I use that information as subjects for my e-mails.  I also have a copy of the Statistical Abstract of the U. S., 2000 edition.  It has all kinds of facts and figures in it about the U. S.  That is where I got the deaths and wounded for the wars since the civil war.  I can't vouch for its accuracy, because it was compiled by the U. S. Government and they aren't known for accuracy, but its the only resource I have.
 
In any event, once I have a subject in mind, it can take anywhere from an hour to three hours to formulate a message. The following e-mail was compiled over several days before I sent it out.
 
Take care,
 
 
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: Jack Venrick
To: ron ewart
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 8:21 PM
Subject: Re: Which has the greater power, "Mother Nature" or "Man"

Ron -
 
How long does it take you to put all your facts together and how do you do it?  Good job!
 
Jack
----- Original Message -----
From: ron ewart
To: r.ewart
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:48 AM
Subject: Which has the greater power, "Mother Nature" or "Man"

To: Rural Landowners, Government Types, Interested Parties and the News Media
From: Ron Ewart, President, National Association of Rural Landowners

A few days ago, the Hawaiian-born Pineapple Express spread its seemingly unending sheets of rain across the Pacific Northwest.  The rivers breached their banks and ran yellow-brown with silt, trees, roots, sand, rocks, minerals, houses and every other imaginable compound or man-made item that makes its home along the river bank, or adjoining lands.  People were driven from their homes.  Roads were cut and bridges were blown out.  Some folks were trapped by the high water.  Thousands of Isolated animals drowned in lakes made by the flood.  Salmon-spawning beds were washed away, or silted up.  Many fish were carried out to sea by the strong currents.  Some were left high and dry when the water receded.   Dry land was inundated with several feet of water and most plants and trapped animals died.  But when the Sun returns in the Spring and warms the moist earth, new life is born in the enriched soil, left behind by the flood, just as it has for millions of years, without the intervention of "man".
 
Hurricanes and tornadoes tear up or alter the landscape beyond recognition.  (Katrina/New Orleans 2005)  As we saw in December of 2004, an earthquake-triggered tsunamis devastated thousands of miles of India, Thailand and Indonesian coast line, for thousands of feet inland.  Hundreds of thousands of people died.  Property damage was un-measureable.  Each year volcanoes erupt molten lava and hot noxious gases, ash and other toxic debris into our atmosphere, that have the power to change world climate for years.   Pyroclastic flows sweep down the mountainside at hundreds of miles per hour, searing and enveloping everything in its wake.  In 1815, an Island in the Pacific exploded with such fury into the atmosphere that 1816 became the year without a summer.  In 1883, when the Pacific Island Volcano Krakatoa annihilated itself in a gaseous-magma explosion, over 36,000 people were killed on Krakatoa and neighboring Islands.  In the year 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius, in present day Italy, entombed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum forever.  It happened so fast, there was no escape.  People were instantly encapsulated in hot ash, while going about their daily routines.
 
Earthquakes shake buildings into rubble as the earth trembles violently and reverberates across the land.  Some parts of the Earth are scorched by the relentless Sun that turns the sand into a granular frying pan.  The dry, parched soil separates in irregular cracks, as any remaining moisture is heat-baked out of the soil.  Upon occasion asteroids or comets bore into the Earth's mantle at terrifying speeds, ejecting huge plumes of rock, hot gases, water vapor and other life-ending material, that have the potential for massive species extinction.   Just ask the dinosaurs.
 
12,000 years ago, a blink of an eye in geologic time, one-third of the Earth's surface was covered in a sheet of ice over one mile thick.  There were no trees, lakes, rivers, wetlands, plants, animals (or Al Gore's polar bears), birds and insects that existed there.  Around 10,000 years ago, the Earth began to warm up and the ice dams broke, sending monster waves of water across flatland and prairie, down canyons, scouring deep gouges in the land.  Every animate and inanimate thing in its path were erased or buried under hundreds of feet of silt and mud.  But somehow the Earth survived without all those wetlands, lakes, rivers, plants, animals, insect and birds.  Every wetland we save today by draconian land use regulations, is a drop in the proverbial bucket, compared to the wetlands that didn't exist during the iceage of 12,000 years ago. 
 
Since the Earth was formed some 4.5 billions years ago, 99.9% of every species that ever existed, went extinct.  And we spend billons trying to save species that will probably go extinct anyway, in spite of our futile, infantile efforts.  (i.e. the Northwest Spotted Owl)  In the process, we rob American citizens of their constitutionally-guaranteed property rights, their livelihood and their dignity.
 
The hard, cold, unalterable fact is, what we have described above, is just Mother Nature at work.  Man has no power to do any of these things.  No matter what man does, it is puny in comparison to what havoc Mother Nature can reek upon her planet.   The trillions of dollars we spend, that is taken out of our economy, and the regulations we promulgate to supposedly repair or prevent the damage that man does, are in most cases an absolute waste of resource.   And no, we are not advocating that we pollute our environment with every kind of toxic chemical we can create.  Common sense environmental protection makes good common sense and we have existing laws to punish the perpetrators of true environmental damage.
 
And further, the so-called apocalypse of global warming is man-made, the-sky-is-falling propaganda, to exert ever more control over the people and to remove their rights and their God-given freedom.  The government and the scientist-lobbyist that are paid by government, manufacture this man-is-the-cause of all environmental evils, for a not-so-hidden agenda.  They sell it by advertising.  It permeates the airways.  It has become the rallying cry for a certain political party.  It has infiltrated our schools and colleges and the news media is the "carrier" of this apparition of green disease.  Man's effect on the atomosphere pales in comparison to what Mother Nature can do to it.
 
The National Center for Public Policy Research gave this statement:  We recognizes both that global temperatures have risen over the past 150 years and that anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect. But The National Center also believes, based on the evidence that currently exists, that any anthropogenic signature is likely to be modest; that significant scientific uncertainty remains on the effects of any warming that may occur; and that current efforts to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions may prove ineffective while imposing enormous burdens on the world's poor.
 
100 years ago, there were dairy farms all around the rivers of Washington and Oregon.  There were no manure lagoons or any other attempts to control animal waste products from entering the environment, or waterways.   And yet every year, rivers were gorged with spawning salmon.  So it couldn't have been man-made pollution or habitat degradation that has depleted our current salmon runs.  Could it be that we are harvesting way too many salmon at sea today?   Could it be that we are at a natural low cycle of salmon runs, due to many other factors that have absolutely nothing to do with man or habitat?  Could it be the Sun, ocean temperatures or currents, volcanoes, or other variables over which we have no knowledge, much less control effect Salmon runs?  Or could it be all of these things?
 
There is hard, scientific evidence that says a 25-foot buffer around any river, lake, stream, ocean or wetland is more than adequate to protect them.  But environmentalists demand and lobby government for 300 and 450-foot buffers.  Ludicrous!  Saving every wetland and forcing by regulation draconian habitat buffers, are nothing more than an excuse by government and radical environmentalists to control people and their land.  The cost of this policy is in the trillions of dollars.  Under current environmental regulations not one city in the U. S. could have been built.  President Eisenhower's policy to pave America with freeways, would have been too costly at the time and these vital transportation arteries would have never been built, as well.
 
Environmentalists have seriously disrupted a free society to provide the resources necessary to keep that society going economically.  Environmentalists have stopped drilling for oil in areas of known oil reserves, thus making us more dependent on foreign sources and driving up the cost of oil and oil-associated products, accordingly.  Environmentalists have stopped oil refineries and nuclear power plants from being built for almost 30 years.  Environmentalists have forced 18 different grades of gasoline, further complicating limited refinery capacity.  Ethanol costs $0.39 more per gallon to make than it saves.  All these reasons are why a gallon of gas is now over $2.00 and will not likely come down and that's why our power capacity is at or near maximum.  Blackouts and brownouts are inevitable during peak demand. 
 
Environmentalists, in concert with radical international environmentalists, are trying to lock up private lands in the U. S. for biospheres and wildlife corridors, without compensating the owners of the private lands they want to take.  Why?  The unnecessary cost for overt and radical environmental protection has been in the Trillions of dollars since it became in vogue over 30 years ago and it has severely weakened our economic engine, reduced our power capacity and eroded our constitutional form of government, almost beyond repair.  
 
Almost anything that man attempts to save the environment, one way or another, will be trumped by Mother Nature.  And yet, gullible, uninformed and naive citizens buy into this environmental propaganda.  They then get on the bandwagon and champion the cause, all the while being led around by the nose by the perpetrators of this mindless, the-sky-is-falling, green-usurps-everything, travesty. 
 
The cult of environmental extremism is killing this country.  When will we call these propagandists for what they are, charlatans and con men?  When will we wise up, rise up and take back our streets, our land and our government?  If we delay much longer, it will be too late.  The enemy already has a 40-year head start.  Man may not be able to tame Mother Nature, but we sure as Hell can make sure our freedom isn't taken away from us by an out-of-control government and the social and environmental special interests that lobby them.
 
 
 
 
Ron Ewart, President
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS
P. O. Box 1031, Issaquah, WA  98027
425 222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848
(Fax No. 425 222-4743)
Website: www.narlo.org

"THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS"
 
The National Association of Rural Landowners (NARLO) is a non-profit corporation, duly licensed in the State of Washington.  It was formed in response to draconian land use ordinances that were passed by King County in Washington State (Seattle) in the late Fall of 2004, after vociferous opposition from rural landowners.  NARLO's mission is to begin the long process of restoring, preserving and protecting Constitutional property rights and returning this country to a Constitutional Republic.  Government has done a great job of dividing us up into little battle groups where we are essentially impotent at a national level.  We will change all that with the noisy voices and the vast wealth tied up in the land of the American rural landowner.  The land is our power, if we will just use that power, before we lose it.  We welcome donations and volunteers who believe as we do, that government abuses against rural landowners have gone on for far too long and a day of reckoning is at hand.  To learn more, visit our website at www.narlo.org.
 
President Roosevelt, in his 1933 inaugural address said, “…. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”.  I maintain that the only thing we have to fear is unbridled government.  The only way unbridled government can exist is if WE THE PEOPLE allow it.  Unfortunately, we have.