Trans Texas Corridor

Trans Texas Corridor, originally uploaded by twelvebitphoto.

The US Supreme Court effectively eliminated private property rights with it's Kelo decision, a decision that essentially allows anyone wealthy and hooked up politically to take land from anyone who isn't --under the cover of urban renewal, or hypothetically increased tax revenues. This is little more than legalized theft by the powerful. Individual states, of course, can choose to uphold the US Constitution and past rule of law. New Jersey, it seems, may have done just that in placing limits on these legalized thefts.

In Texas, once a bastion of property rights --a relative bastion at least-- the State is seeking to do the Supreme Court one better with what is probably the biggest single eminent domain theft in US history. If there is a more flagrant abuse of eminent domain in the service of private interests and cronies, I've never heard of it. The "Republican" government seeks to condemn private property in a mile wide swath across the entire State, and then turn this property over to the control of private interests --private interests, that is, who are more moneyed and hooked up than the current private owners. This in-your-face legalized theft, and ultimate boondoggle, is called the "Trans Texas Corridor."

As this sign indicates, one of hundreds along Highway 95, east of Austin, this notion isn't particularly popular with land owners who will see family property --in one of the most beautiful areas of the State-- disappear forever into the pockets of corrupt politicians and their corporate cronies.