Where's Our Bailout from Rapacious Local Government Revenue-Sucking Schemes?

It can be said that even the victims of predatory lending get something out of the deal, if only for a time.

But the hapless victims of the Wilmington, Delaware government's revenue predators are only bled and extorted, effectively robbed by force of "law" or even the point of a gun...

...In this case the sheriff's...who has the grim duty of auctioning off properties Wilmington government is seizing from citizens unable to come up with 10's of 1000's of $$ in ex post facto vacant property fees.

The much-touted vacant property fine program has made the City government the holder of more parcels in Wilmington than any other landowner. It is just another one of many meat-grinder gotcha revenue scams that only hurt the little guy.

With all the rage to demonize free enterprise and free markets and those evil rich people, where is the outrage from 'government-is-the-answer' do-gooders about the punitive abuses of local governments that just outright fleece citizens of lower or modest means?

Here is video testimony from one aspiring entrepreneur, Mr. Richard Dyton (sp?), who is being bled dry by the Wilmington / Baker government. He addressed Wilmington City Council on March 5, 2009.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, March 10, 2009) 100's of 1000's of dollars of this man's money, blood, sweat, and tears go on the chopping block of a sheriff sale.

This gentleman is amazingly composed and humble, considering what he is up against. His pleas say more than I ever could :

It doesn't matter that Mr. Dyton can't come up with the money or that he is doing everything possible to carry on, in spite of the cruelly-robotic indifference of City Solicitor John Sheridan and Finance Director Ron Morris.

The Baker administration's greedy hogs are intent on grabbing as much loot and land from the community as they can, no matter who gets steamrolled.

Mr. Dyton is but one person who decided to get up and make a public plea. But there are many more individuals I personally know, all unwilling to go public for fear of reprisals, who have already been crushed and dispossessed of their property by the City government's bullies.

They are victims of the Wilmington city government's thug mentality : "pay up or it's ours...all nice and legal-like. And by the way, we'll be back for more."

Meanwhile the Wilmington government funnels multi-million dollar subsidies to wealthy monopolist developers Buccini-Pollin :

"WILMINGTON -- City Council voted Thursday to borrow up to $15.5 million for a de facto grant program for developers who want to restore the upper levels of downtown properties on Market Street.

The money for the Market Street Upstairs program comes at a time when the city is facing a $9 million deficit.

Likely recipients include Buccini-Pollin Group Inc., which plans to renovate 25 properties into offices, stores and apartments. About $3 million of the $15.5 million is targeted for the Queen Theater, the cornerstone of Buccini-Pollin's Market Street plan. The longtime vacant movie house will be a performing-arts center." - News Journal - March 6, 2009

I wonder has anyone checked whether Buccini-Pollin is paying fees on all of their vacant condos and townhouses?

Sheesh, who needs the Mob when you have the Baker administration?

Its abuses epitomize why government should be the first thing we strictly regulate, before it ever undertakes to regulate us.

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

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