The advent of the Supreme Court ruling 5 to 4 on the extension of the taking of private property for private use, profit and higher taxation brings a long overdue focus on Constitutionalism and conservatism.

Get out your copy of the Constitution. Mine was given me by an old friend, the late Chief Justice Warren Burger. Go to Amendment V and you will see in the clearest and most indelible language "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

It does not say that private property can by taken for private use. Nor does it say that a governmental body can take private property and transform it to a new private use in the name of the public good. "Public" means public as in highways and governmental necessities.

Every true conservative voice in America should be screaming at the top of their lungs at this outrageous decision. They're not. Example; Sean Hannity with a vast national audience failed to even mention it on the day following the decision. He chose instead to occupy a large portion of his first hour defending the comments of a Bush administration political leader.

Let me be clear. I'm not interested in making a personal attack on Mr. Hannity. I'd like to say some nice things about him on a personal basis. I do think his conservatism needs to be questioned. He is not conservative. He is not, as he claims, a Reagan conservative. Most consider him a neocon. I object to that because it implies "new conservative".

In my view, being "conservative" has all to do with supporting the Framers' principles and not trying to find ways of developing new meanings for their words or as many pseudo conservatives do, either ignore them completely or abridge them to suit the issue of the moment.

Let's be honest. Hannity is a patriotic and, I believe, a religious fellow. He is probably the leading mouthpiece for the Bush policies in our nation today. Other leading talk show hosts have carefully separated themselves from the budget busting spending, the open door immigration policies, the shipping of jobs overseas, and pork barrel spending which the President won't veto or even try to influence.

While Hannity got his big break in radio in small market Alabama radio ( I knew the owners who gave him the break) and Georgia radio, and married an Alabama lady, he nonetheless is anti-Southern. Check some of his ill-conceived comments about the Confederate Battle Flag. He doesn't help the Bush team by getting involved in a Republican primary in Georgia where he recently appeared in support of the questionable Ralph Reed. As the mouthpiece for the Bush administration it is doubtful he could do so without some sort of green light.

No true Reagan conservative would duck out on as serious a Constitutional infringement as the confiscation of private land for a more advantageous tax collection. This certainly smacks of elitism in rewarding the wealthy at the expense of the middle and lower classes. The Marxist thinker comrade Gramschi would be smiling at the progress being made in America. He's gaining on his vision of taking us without firing a shot.

Governor Perdue exercised the same dangerous intrusion on property rights when he signed one of the toughest smoking bans in the nation. There was a better answer by voluntary resolution by business owners in the spirit of free enterprise. The governor didn't listen, he didn't negotiate, he only saw what his advisors told him is a majority of non smoking voters who would support him. Some non smokers cheered this violation of private property rights.

How can they say they support the Constitution?

It won't stop there. Let's see what they think when they see private property like their own confiscated and transferred to someone else for a bigger tax base. With the mentality in America today these folks will say "Oh that won't happen to us."

Beware of "foot-in-the-door legislation" such as the land-grab bills (SB-5) and other secrecy legislation that the Republicans introduced in the Georgia General Assembly in 2005. It's a sure bet such secrecy and land-grab bills will be introduced again.

It's time to separate the wheat from the chaff. We have sat on our tails too long while false prophets lead us down the road to destruction whether knowingly or otherwise.