Folks, the clock is precariously close to the September 29th, 2006 deadline to get federal eminent domain reform on the U.S. Senate's agenda and to allow a vote.

We are going to share a letter we found this morning. If you haven't called your U.S. Senator of choice, please do it TODAY. Right NOW. Take the time for the call. Make the time for the call. YOUR private property rights are at stake! If your U.S. Senator will not support this measure, and if your U.S. Senator is up for re-election this November, politely remind them, that an enlightened voter is an angry voter!

(Do you hear us now, Senators Santorum and Specter?)

Here is the letter in which a NJ Resident Pleas for Passage of HR 4128 / S. 3873 :

09/14/06 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom :
New Jerseyans need to wake up

To the Editor:

I want to strongly urge my fellow New Jerseyans to wake up and see what is happening here in our state and all across the country -- namely, the routine taking of private houses to give to other private owners, a clear violation of our basic constitutional rights.

This is not hyperbole, this is real.

The Constitution specifies that government can exercise eminent domain to take a property when a true public need is involved, e.g., a highway or bridge, but it is being abused to reward politically connected developers and to increase tax revenue to cities and municipalities.

New Jersey is one of the worst abusers of eminent domain. The most prominent case currently in litigation is in Long Branch.

It is your neighbor today, but it is you tomorrow. As Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Please write your U.S. senator today to urge him to vote in favor of the bill to protect us from eminent domain abuse that was passed last year by the House of Representatives (HR 4128).

DAVID COTTER

Towaco