Free Republic

An Arizona appeals court on Wednesday upheld a jury’s $600,000 judgment in favor of a rancher in a defamation lawsuit, rejecting an environmental group’s argument that documents it posted on the Internet were shielded by the First Amendment. The Court of Appeals upheld a Pima County Superior Court jury’s award of compensatory and punitive damages to Jim Chilton in his lawsuit against the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit with offices in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, D.C. A lawyer for the rancher said the appellate court had stood up for a person wrongly defamed, while an attorney...

U.S. Capitol Police said yesterday that they have no record of an alleged incident in which then-Rep. Mark Foley supposedly tried to enter a Capitol Hill dormitory for teenage pages. The purported nighttime incident has been cited by lawmakers and a key witness in the scandal that involves Foley's interactions with congressional pages and the House's handling of the matter. Unlike sexually graphic electronic messages that Foley sent to teenage boys, evidence of the alleged dorm incident has proved elusive. Yesterday, acting Capitol Police Chief Christopher McGaffin said his staff conducted electronic and hand searches of files covering several years...

New York state has an enormous Medicaid-fraud problem, estimated at billions of dollars a year. To strengthen the state’s weak anti-fraud program, the state assembly is pushing a New York version of the federal False Claims Act; the measure would reward whistle-blowers and their attorneys for turning in Medicaid cheats. But that measure can’t be the whole answer—indeed, by itself, it could easily create as many problems as it solves. Fighting Medicaid abuse requires a whole arsenal of weapons—new technologies to sniff out fraud, tougher criminal penalties, and increased oversight of who’s allowed into the program. Because of the power...

Google and Archive Links Still Show Soros' Donation on MSIF Website Michelle Malkin has the update on a 527 organization's attempt (Main Street Individual Fund) to hide the George Soros' $50,000 donation to moderate Republicans (Republican in name only - RINOs) who are essentially against President Bush. This organization funds "Main Street" moderate Republicans. Even if the Google cache is supposedly gone (Soros) you can always try the Internet Archive site to find the cache where it would look like this. Click on any of the three that were archived in 2004 and see that Soros' name is still there....

ARIVACA, Ariz. -- Jim Chilton is one of hundreds of ranchers targeted by environmental groups for allegedly allowing cattle to despoil the West's backcountry. Now Mr. Chilton is showing ranchers how to turn the tables on the green groups by using their own playbook. The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson is known for its lawsuits against ranching practices -- and for its methods of posting photos on the Internet that it says depict land destruction. So when the Center came after Mr. Chilton, he struck back with a defamation suit in Arizona Superior Court in Tucson last year. He...

LOS ANGELES - An Inglewood man charged with falsely reporting to New Jersey police that a relative in that state was an al-Qaida terrorist who planned to blow up a British Embassy building was ordered held without bail Thursday. Bukhtiar Abdul Latif Katchi must remain in custody until he can be sent to New Jersey to face the charge. He faces as much as 10 years in prison if convicted. Police say Katchi and the relative, whose name was not released, were involved in a real estate dispute involving property in Pakistan. The FBI has cleared the relative of any...

When some members of Congress violate the Constitution, how can we have any confidence in their leadership? Yet that is precisely the effect these unlawful filibusters of judicial nominees are having -- undermining confidence in the Senate. Instead of voting yes or no on President Bush's picks for certain federal judgeships, Democrats are refusing to allow a vote to even take place, using a Senate rule that no motion may come to a vote while still under discussion. The filibuster, as it's called, has been used by both sides for over a century and a half to delay votes while...

Below is excerpt of interest => whole article worth read, though: Exploitation of tragedy is a sport played not only by environmentalists. Insurer Munich Re used the event to renew its call to fight global warming, which the insurance industry has recently begun blaming for natural disasters. Concerned about large payouts for natural disaster claims, insurance companies are very eager to establish global warming as contributing to those disasters, so they can sue deep-pocket businesses supposedly responsible for that global warming.

When it comes to fighting government fraud, Washington state lacks a key weapon: a state False Claims law. The federal government, thirteen states and many local jurisdictions (including Washington, D.C. and San Francisco) have adopted False Claims laws. These measures allow anyone with unique knowledge and evidence of fraud against government to act as a "private attorney general" and sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the government. These citizen fraud fighters, however, are first required to petition the government attorneys to take action before filing suit. If that government doesn't take action, the citizen then is empowered to act on...

Kerry Campaign Response to Sinclair Smear10/22/2004 10:20:00 PM To: National Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Chad Clanton or Phil Singer, 202-464-2800, both of Kerry-Edwards 2004 WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a response from Kerry-Edwards 2004 to Sinclair Broadcasting: "Sinclair executives have given more than $100,000 to George W. Bush and the Republican Party. Tonight they supported him with millions of dollars of air time devoted to an anti-Kerry smear aimed at influencing the election. Sinclair gave lip service to the first amendment but fired an honest journalist working for Sinclair who spoke out against their smear. Sinclair's...

ARLINGTON, VA - The DebateFacts.com website will provide real-time text and video responses to John Kerry's vacillation, defeatism and personal attacks during tonight's debate.  The website will set the record straight with text and video enabling voters to see how Kerry is playing politics with the most important issues facing our nation.DebateFacts.com also features John Kerry's debate briefing book prepared by Bush-Cheney '04 and unveiled Monday by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  The briefing book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the debate Senator Kerry has been having with himself on a number of foreign policy issues.  It outlines...

“I’m John Kerry and I’m reporting for duty.” Those were the words that opened the dog and pony show that was John Kerry’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. As Kerry has told us ad nausem, he served in Vietnam. What he hasn’t told us could be compiled on a list that would make Santa Claus’ “naughty and nice” list look like a Post-It Note. Let’s first expose the fact that John Kerry was not the enthusiastic patriot he portrays himself to be.As the liberally biased media start to rehash President Bush’s National Guard record, let’s demand some straight...

Mired in False Victimism… Written by JB Williams ©2004-09-02 I’m reminded of the early days of labor unions in America, when mob bosses who ran the unions would order hits on small mom and pop merchants in the lower east side, then send bag men out to neighboring merchants to collect “protection” money, offering to protect these folks from similar attacks. Of course, anyone who refused to pay would be next on the list for a hit until everyone in the neighborhood was paying protection money. This is the early history of “collective bargaining”, the game is called “hurt and...

CHUGWATER, Wyo. (AP) - Amy and Steve LeSatz want to be able to teach their clients the finer points of riding and roping without having to trailer their animals 25 miles to the nearest public indoor arena whenever the weather turns miserable. But the LeSatzes aren't able to build their own riding arena. The only decent site on their property in southeastern Wyoming lies within 300 feet of Chugwater Creek, and building there is far too expensive because of Endangered Species Act restrictions intended to protect the Preble's meadow jumping mouse. "The mouse that doesn't exist," Amy LeSatz noted drily....