Preserving The American Political Philosophy

The dispute between Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens INC  and the Town of Boothbay entered a new chapter as 2017 came to an end. Lawyers for CMBG filed a lawsuit on Dec. 20 in U.S. District Court in Portland, claiming the Town of Boothbay denied CMBG its constitutional right to due process. The Coastal Gardens Inc thereby places the dispute in a constitutional context, which is where it needs to be, but for other reasons than those for which the Garden's lawyers have filed suit.  I submit, as a citizen of Maine, that if the Maine Constitution is honored, the town ordinances cannot give special treatment to one type of organization over another, based on whether the developer is codified as an educational facility, a museum, a big box store, or whatever. The premise of my argument is found in the preamble of the Maine Constitutions which articulates the objects of government, one of which is to "promote our common welfare". The adjective "common", as us

First the News! THE OFF TOPIC NEWS !  This summer was a strange season for the garden. The field of poppies, a perennial subject of local social conversation, did not make its appearance. In the front garden, poppy pods dried up and fell to the ground without blooming. This fall there were hardly any fresh new poppy leaves in the front hill side garden. I foresee a scant display next spring. If the property falls into the hand of someone who will nurture the poppies, they will return. It is our hopeful dream that the Andersen Design flagship location can be bought back from the bank and made into a historically preserved location for The Andersen Design Museum of American Designer Craftsmen, similar to what has been done with Russel Wright's former home, Manitoga.org , preserving the memory of a culture receding from the Boothbay Peninsula to make way for the plans of new and well financed centralized development groups. Otherwise the house and garden may be torn down to be

Refundable tax credits (redistribution of wealth) came into use in the USA in the mid seventies. Look what happened. Is it time to start letting the economy manage its self? Quote from a Facebook conversation about the New Boothbay Round About : Here's the deal. I don't care one way or another whether there is a frigging roundabout or not but i do think we need to look twenty or thirty years forward when we plan because growth is coming whether we like it or not. I'm not pushing it but i accept that it is coming. A threat? No just just that we haven't even begun to see the changes that will come. Apparently you all have mistaken me for someone who actually gives a shit what happens on the peninsular . as long as my property increases in value I'm good- local Boothbay person on Facebook Many people and politicians conflate economic development with increasing property values. In that case the town is nothing more than a business investment for its stock ho

Is The Maine Public Retirement System Unconstitutional? According to the Maine Public Employees ComprehensiveFinancial Report of 2010 , the Maine Public Employees Retirement System was established in 1942 to provide services for retiring public employees. No information is given about how the Public Employees Retirement System was legally structured in 1942. In the report MPERS is described as “an independent public agency of the State of Maine that traces its history to 1942”. Wikipedia  uses the same term but when the link is clicked it reveals that Wikipedia has no idea what " independent public agency " means.  An online search for history of MPERS between 1942 and 1985 comes up empty.  In 1985 during the administration of Governor Joseph E Brennan, the Maine Legislature passed a statute announcing its intentions of using general taxpayer monies to provide for retirement funds and death benefits for public employees, a faction which, incidentally, includes the Le

I am not a Libertarian, I an an Independent but I support Richard Light as Maine's next governor. He touches on many points that are resonate with my own, including that our political power is supposed to be local. That is what the Home Rule Amendment is about added to our Constitution in the sixties. In the seventies the Longley Doctrine was instituted by Legislative Deeming. Governors Longley created a board, composed exclusively of members of Maine's wealthiest and most powerful industries. The board was assigned the role of leading the legislature in creating a new form og government, by and for public private relationships. The newly formed board proposed to change by statutory law, the municipal public referendums which seven years earlier had been added to the Maine Constitution as Section 2 of the Home Rule Amendment. The Report- Governor's Task Force for Economic Redevelopment, Recommended Legislation for an Economic Development Program -110th Congress,

At times, when reading a statute one finds instructions to interpret the statute strictly or liberally. Instructions found in the statute chartering the FAME corporation (Finance Authority of Maine) are of another sort all together, falling into the category of a justification, as opposed to clarification of how the law is to be interpreted These instructions tells us that "Any benefits accruing to private individuals or associations, as a result of the activities of the authority, are deemed by the Legislature to be incidental to the public purposes to be achieved by the implementation of this chapter. [1985, c. 344, §5 (AMD).]" FAME is the state corporation whose function is to concentrate and redistribute capital. Even if publicly acquired capital is redistributed to a corporation hiring 1000 or more employees that is but a very small segment of the public, but none the less a segment of the populous which directly benefits from FAME's redistribution of public weal

The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law is an idiomatic antithesis . When one obeys the letter of the law but not the spirit, one is obeying the literal interpretation of the words (the "letter") of the law , but not necessarily the intent of those who wrote the law. Conversely, when one obeys the spirit of the law but not the letter, one is doing what the authors of the law intended, though not necessarily adhering to the literal wording. "Law" originally referred to legislative statute , but in the idiom may refer to any kind of rule. Intentionally following the letter of the law but not the spirit may be accomplished through exploiting technicalities , loopholes , and ambiguous language. Wikipedia . For clarification's sake: The Botanical Gardens is listed on the Maine corporate name search as  COASTAL MAINE BOTANICAL GARDENS, INC. I attended the appeals board meeting  pursuant to giving permission to the Botanical Garden's 30 milli