Activists say judge trampling free-speech in North Dakota
October 1, 2012 at 5:16 am in Grand Forks Herald
Supporters of a failed campaign to abolish North Dakota property taxes say a judge is trampling their free-speech rights by telling them to apologize to their opponents. Continue Reading
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“If these public officials believe that the statements made by Empower the Taxpayer — either verbal or written — are slanderous and libelous, they are free to hire their own lawyer and proceed accordingly.”
Absolutely, totally correct.
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Agreed. If more than their feelings were hurt, they have recourse. If only their feelings were hurt, I would argue it is time for them to put on their big boy/girl underwear and move on.
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So let me get this straight. The @sshats sued state officials, for nothing, except telling the truth about what would happen if that measure passed, costing the state and it’s taxpayers thousands of dollars, lost, and think they shouldn’t have to reimburse the rest of us. That’s the problem with out legal system when it comes to these instances. If you sue someone and lose, it should automatically be required that you pay their legal fees, no matter what.
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You know what else is true? Farmers DON’T pay property tax on there homestead and cost everybody else to chip in extra to pay for it.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Yeh, while paying many thousands of dollars on their farmland to pay for YOUR kids to go to school for “free”, etc.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Apology is wrong. Goes against everything America stands for, especially in a political campaign.
Paying for the frivolous lawsuit: absolutely appropriate.
Two completely separate issues
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I think it’s wrong simply because it’s what happens with two opposing sides on an issue. They tried as hard as they could to paint anyone with a position who spoke out about the measure as being greedy and corupt, but it didn’t work. In fact I’m guessing it probably back fired on them more than it did any good.
Anyway I’m no fan, but I too think ordering an apology is wrong. Maybe a hint of a lower fine contingent on an apology, but not an order….
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Judges have been overstepping their authority for decades. Anyone remember forced busing which caused enormous white-flight to the suburbs?
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I do remember forced bussing…barely.
Was that not a response to school districts that refused to fund/upgrade the “black” schools to the same level as the schools the “white” kids went to? In other words, if the district was forced to mix the races of the students at a given school, they could no longer fail to fund schools in black neighborhoods ’cause the white parents would complain.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding–I think I was about eight at the time.
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God, you make me feel old. Anyway, it was mainly taking the “separate but equal” no-no and applying it to the schools of Boston and St. Louis. One judge in each case took over the school systems and mandated sending kids all over the place. As I said, the real result was that whites abandoned the two cities, dropped the tax base, and all the schools suffered.
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So you’re saying it would have been better to continue to underfund the black schools? Actually your description of white flight is exaggerated.
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I think you need to check your facts Realist. While not quite as old as Gene I am close. White flight and crumbling tax bases were a problem in EVERY American city during this time. Boston & St. Louis were just two examples. I would have chosen Detroit or Chicago. In both of those cities the the percentage of white kids in schools went from 60%-70% to 20% in less than a generation.
Why do you think people want vouchers? They want to send their kids to a school where there is less chance of being shot and more chance of actually learning something.
The trouble is, a child’s chance of succeeding in school is 2:1 the quality of the parent over the quality of the school. If the parent never reads to their child, never asks if they have homework, never holds them accountable for grades, you could have Einstein teaching physics and Ghandi teaching ethics and government and the kid would still end up an illiterate could of been.
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They want vouchers because it’s easier to pay to lift some schools than to make enough money available to lift them all. Yes you’re right about some of those schools will be in areas with a lot of poverty, but to beef up some schools for selected kids while letting other schools continue to deterriate is no solution at all.
There has been some amazing strides at making schools in poverty areas a better learning vehicle that have had sucess. We need to look at some of those before we continue down this road of vouchers and eventually getting back to “Equal but seperate” schools
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Isn’t the rest of the story that eventually other measures were used in most parts of the country that basically forced intergration so it really didn’t work out much better any place else? Hell…I go through St. Louis quite a bit and it seems like a damn thriving mixed racial city to me……..
My biggest fear going through there is crossing the Mississippi……I just know that huge earthquak that happends every few hundered years in MO is waiting for me to be in the middle of that bridge……You know…Sometimes it’s not so great to watch those “What If” kind of shows on History and Discovery….Once you see them you just can’t not think about it if you might be where something will happen…..So if you hear about the big earthquake in MO, and that the big bridge by the Archway collapsed….And you don’t see me on here…You’ll know it got me…..
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