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Powerbrokers, Pimps and Prostitutes: The Radicalization of the American Military into the World’s Mo

Written by Subject: Military Industrial Complex

A disturbing trend is occurring in this country as the elements of the United States military are being drawn into the criminal enterprise activities of the military industrial complex.

 

At his 1960 Presidential farewell speech, President Eisenhower warned the American people of the unprecedented and unwarranted power of the military industrial complex and the dangers it posed to the civil liberties American people (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY ) .  

Today, in a small community near Marietta, Georgia, Eisenhower’s worst fears are coming to fruition where the United States Air Force at the behest of the Martin Lockheed, is literally stealing the property rights and subsequently ruining the lives of American citizens, without compensation, in the name of corporate profits.  

Meet Kim Goodman, she is a 51 year old former defense company employer. In 2006, Goodman and her neighborhood of 85 families fell victim to the unbridled greed of the vast military industrial complex. In 2006, Goodman’s home was worth a little more than $200,000. Today Goodman, nor her neighbors, could give their properties away.  Four years ago, Dobbins AFB, in conjunction with monolithic defense contractor, Martin Lockheed, expanded runway 11 and changed the existing flight paths to accommodate the much noisier plane, the F-22. The subsequent change in the flight path of the F-22 plane has made a ghost town out of the Fair Oaks neighborhood in the Marietta, GA area. Where once there were 85 families living in the area, today, there are none.

 

The change in the flight patterns was done without prior notice or personal regard to the safety, welfare and constitutional rights of the people that were retroactively placed in the new flight paths.  

The F-22 and the F-35 planes are the two new super planes of the Air Force. Both planes have experienced tremendous cost overruns, managerial shakeups and the F-35 has even violated Nunn-McCurdy act for cost overruns. Both planes are extremely noisy, dangerously noisy. For example, the noise levels of the F-22 frequently exceed 106 decibels. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states that repeated exposure to 96 decibels causes permanent hearing loss. At 106 decibels of repeated exposure, a human being is in greater danger for heart attacks, strokes and a variety of central nervous system disorders. In short, the 85 affected families of Marietta, GA, were placed in flight paths which made their homes unlivable. As the residents and their health declined, as a result of the new over flights, they sought to volunteer themselves to eminent domain proceedings and to be bought out by the Air Force. The Air Force claimed that they have no money for private property acquisitions. Now wait a minute, the courts have consistently held that if a party lessens the value of one’s property, or make the property unlivable, an act of enforceable eminent domain has been committed and that full, original value must be paid to the owner of the impacted property owner. The legal term for this abuse is inverse condemnation.  

 

The Air Force refused to pay these 85 homeowners for the loss of the properties citing the fact that they were just using the air space overhead as a kind of easement and no eminent domain had been committed. However, the deafening noise of the F-22’s was only a part of their problem. The Air Force then demanded that all trees in the Fair Oaks neighborhood be cut down at the residents’ expense. Outdoor barbeques were forbidden as is the construction of swimming pools, fences and the use of certain electrical devices. In fact, the Air Force has come on to these properties to post signs related to the restrictions and the Air Force further claims they have the right to enter these homes, without notice, to inspect for prohibited electronic devices. Keep in mind, that these were 85 families who had no restrictions when they built and occupied their homes. As a result of the Air Force’s actions, 80 families have already lost their homes due to foreclosure and the other 5 families are quickly approaching their foreclosure dates. Goodman, as is the case with the other remaining families, live in apartments while they hope to get this issue resolved.    

Goodman and four remaining neighbors sued the Air Force on grounds related to inverse condemnation. Mediation was subsequently ordered by the United States Court of Federal Claims Judge Lynn J. Bush 

on Court of Claims 1:09-CV-00839-LJB Kim Goodman vs. United States of America (Inverse Condemnation) was filed in Washington DC and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division. The Federal mediator ordered the Air Force to pay the beleaguered homeowners for the loss of property rights and property value and subsequent threats to their health and safety.  American justice prevails, correct? Well, not exactly. The Air Force was ordered to pay the 5 families a total of $200 each to pay for the forced abandonment of  their $200,000 homes.  Oh, and by the way, Judge Bush also ordered the families to pay the $750 that the mediation cost. At least now we have the price tag that the Air Force and Martin Lockheed place upon the lives of 85 families; $200 per family. Further, the judge was also asked to rule on the EPA and NEPA violations of Dobbins AFB and she refused to do so.

 

Next month, Dobbins AFB and Martin Lockheed are putting on an air show which will cost millions from a budget that does not contain a dime to compensate property owners for the loss of their homes.  

Before the readers retreat to a position of safety and say that is too bad for these poor people and thank God this is not my life, please be aware that 12 million Americans live in the vicinity of a military base and none of them are safe from this type of 5th Amendment abuse.

 

Subsequent parts of this series will expose the naked truth that the Department of Defense, the military and the defense contractors are abusing American citizens, in this manner all across the nation.  

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

 Martin Niemöller

 Part one of this series can be accessed at http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?Info=0098297  

(c) All rights reserved  2010

 

Dave Hodges is a retired statistics and psychology instructor and college basketball coach. He is presently the spokesperson for the Arizona Coalition to Protect Property Rights. He also hosts The Common Sense Show with Dave Hodges  which airs every Sunday, from 9-11pm Central, on the Republican Broadcasting Network (www.republicbroadcasting.org 

).

 

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