Free Republic

The unfortunate fact is that Perry and Obama have a lot more in common than either would like to admit. They both think they’re smarter than the laws of economics and that they make wiser choices than markets do. And they both see taxpayer money as a giant trough for feeding their political pals. Perry is actually truthful about this, sort of. “I am a pro-business governor,” he told Time magazine last week. “I will be a pro-business president.” What he means is that he’s pro-certain-businesses, the ones run by his friends. As governor of Texas, Perry controls hundreds of...

JOHN Edwards likes ‘em old. The disgraced politician took advantage of a wealthy 100-year-old supporter to cover up the fact that he had an out-of-wedlock baby with his mistress, according to a new report. Interior decorator Bryan Huffman — a key witness in the federal grand jury investigation of Edwards’ presidential campaign — told American tabloid the National Enquirer that John misled Bunny Mellon, the super-wealthy campaign contributor who’s been dubbed the ex-North Carolina senator’s “Sugar Mama.” “I feel it was a misleading situation and an unfortunate situation,” Huffman said. “She and I found out — about the girlfriend and...

The last month has seen a blizzard of new sex abuse accusations against the Catholic Church from across the United States. Almost all of them--and the intense media attention they've garnered--can be traced to one man: a Minnesota lawyer named Jeff Anderson. Last week, an alleged victim of priest abuse in Wisconsin announced a lawsuit against the Vatican itself. Anderson is representing the alleged victim. A couple of days earlier, a Mexican man who alleged abuse by a priest years ago filed suit against Mexico's top Catholic cleric in a U.S. court. The plaintiff is another Anderson client. And throughout...

Psystar attorney leaves Apple teamPsystar shuffled its defense this week as one of the attorneys defending the Mac clone builder left its team. A filing has revealed that lawfirm Welker and Rosario's co-founder, David Welker, exited the team for unknown reasons but said he only played a small role in defending against Apple's copyright accusations. The defense member was responsible for filing some of Psystar's more recent filings, including those demanding Apple executives re-appear as witnesses, but said he neither worked with Psystar first-hand nor received pay for his efforts. His duties will be taken on by Eugene Action, who...

Psystar reasserted its claims that Leopard and Snow Leopard copyright-related issues should be dealt with in court independently in its response to Apple's motion to dismiss the unauthorized Mac clone maker's recent case filing in Florida. Apple and Psystar have been battling in U.S. District Court in California over whether or not the PC maker can build and sell Mac clones for months, but the clone maker added a new wrinkle to the case when it started the legal process over again with a new filing in Florida. Psystar filed a new lawsuit against Apple in Florida over Mac OS...

Psystar's legal battle against Apple over building and selling Mac clones took a turn for the worse when Apple filed a brief with the court accusing the company of spoliation, or intentionally destroying evidence. If Apple's accusations prove to be true, this could potentially ruin the company's chance of moving forward with its defense. According to Apple's brief, it has documented specific instances where Psystar intentionally deleted the code it uses to install Mac OS X on PCs, and that company Principals and employees were made aware of their requirement to preserve evidence. "Yet, as admitted by [Psystar CEO] Mr....

Psystar, the company Apple is suing for allegedly building and selling Mac clones without authorization, has been granted its motion to dismiss its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in Florida. The Judge overseeing the case, however, included the stipulation that if Psystar files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection Apple's case against the company in California will not be subject to an automatic stay. According to the court order, Psystar has also been blocked from filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six months, and Judge Mark, the Judge overseeing the company's bankruptcy case, is maintaining jurisdiction over the case so he...

BYO popcorn, beer and barf bags.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has told the Federal Election Commission that she continued her campaign even after endorsing Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama on June 7, a claim that lets her transfer millions of dollars from her presidential bid to her Senate campaign. The former first lady made the $6.4 million transfer from her White House campaign, which remains more than $7 million in debt, to Friends of Hillary on Aug. 28. That date would fall outside the legal deadline for making such a move if her campaign were to have ended June 7. Her campaign treasurer told federal...

A Kentucky college student has hired a lawyer after she was escorted out of a mall by security on Sunday because her dress was deemed too short, MyFOXBoston reports. Kymberly Clem, a 20-year-old student at Eastern Kentucky University, wore the dress Sunday after purchasing it from the mall in Richmond the previous day, the Richmond Register reported Tuesday. After just a few minutes inside of the mall, a security guard approached her and expressed concerns over the length of the garment. According to MyFOXBoston, the guard informed her that several female patrons had complained that she was disrupting their shopping...

A carved post and a boulder mark the place where Eddie Mies gunned down his dad last year on the family's rustic homestead in Shingle Springs. Up the hill a little farther, among the dusty pines and chaparral, stands another wooden post and a cairn of smaller rocks. This is where Mies, who was 34, died of bullet wounds from the ensuing gun battle with El Dorado County deputies. Three deputies and a police dog also were hit in the firefight that morning; all survived. The bloody date was June 5, 2007. Karen Mies, staggering under the news that her...

Rev. Rod Parsley withdraws McCain endorsement Saturday, May 24, 2008 10:08 PM THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH After saying Friday that he would not withdraw his endorsement of Sen. John McCain, pastor Rod Parsley has changed his mind. The pastor of World Harvest Church, in the Canal Winchester area, issued a statement almost identical to one he had sent late Friday night, but with one key change: the addition of the sentence “Therefore I withdraw my endorsement.” Spokesman Gene Pierce wouldn’t shed light on Parsley’s decision, saying only “this statement is a clarification on (Friday’s) statement.” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for...

The disgraced law firm of Milberg Weiss faces federal indictments for kickbacks and corruption in pursuing class-action lawsuits, along with its founder, and three of its senior partners have already pled guilty. One might think that politicians associated with the firm and the indicted partners would cut all ties and dump their contributions. However, neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama have done so despite the investigation being public since 2002: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has received more campaign money from disgraced lawyers at the controversial Milberg Weiss law firm than any other member of Congress, but she won’t say...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Florida's citrus growers are reporting only minor damage as the state thaws out from an overnight cold snap, even as snow flurries fall in parts of the Sunshine State. The National Weather Service says temperatures dropped into the 20s across north Florida, including parts of the Panhandle. The lowest temperature recorded was 20 degrees in Cross City, about 90 miles southeast of Tallahassee. A serious freeze would have been devastating to the state's citrus industry, already struggling from years of diseases and hurricanes. But most citrus growers are based in central and South Florida, where temperatures hovered...

Embarrassed presidential hopeful John Edwards promised yesterday to take millions of dollars of his own fortune out of a hedge fund tied to subprime lenders who foreclosed on victims of Hurricane Katrina. The populist candidate - who has denounced such lenders - invested $16 million of his $30 million in assets in Fortress Investment Group. The Wall Street Journal reported that 34 New Orleans homeowners struggling to overcome Katrina's aftermath faced foreclosure suits from subprime-lending units of Fortress. Yesterday, the red-faced Democratic candidate vowed to remove from his portfolio any Fortress funds that have a stake in those lender units....

Let us say right up front that it's terrific that John Edwards lives in a country where he can lose an election and still land a $480,000 part-time job as a consultant to an investment firm that keeps its hedge funds in the Cayman Islands as a tax shelter for its clients. This truly is the land of opportunity. We're also encouraged to hear that, according to the former Senator's spokesman, "John Edwards is running for President to give every American the opportunities that he's had." While there may not be enough half-a-million-dollar-a-year part-time consulting gigs to go around just...

Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between presidential campaigns to learn about financial markets and their relationship to poverty—and to make money too. In an interview with The Associated Press, the former North Carolina senator said his yearlong, part-time position with Fortress Investment Group helped his understanding of the connection but he has more to learn. Edwards has made eradicating poverty a focus of his second White House bid. Edwards, a multimillionaire after years as a trial lawyer, would not disclose how much he got paid for a year of consulting beginning in October...

A Northeast Portland man is suing basketball superstar Michael Jordan and Nike founder Phil Knight for a combined $832 million. Allen Heckard filed the suit himself, June 29th in Washington County Court. Heckard says he’s been mistaken as Michael Jordan nearly every day over the past 15 years and he’s tired of it. “I'm constantly being accused of looking like Michael and it makes it very uncomfortable for me,” said Heckard. Heckard is suing Jordan for defamation and permanent injury and emotional pain and suffering. He’s suing Knight for defamation and permanent injury for promoting Jordan and making him one...

Former President Bill Clinton has accepted at least $1.6 million from the United Arab Emirates, including $300,000 from a Dubai sheik who adamantly backs the country's controversial boycott of Israel. On Jan. 17, 2002, Mr. Clinton was paid $300,000 to address the Science, Technology and Arts Royal Summit in Dubai at the invitation of Crown Prince and UAE Defense Minister Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Less than three months later, Sheik Mohammad urged the United Nations to approve the use of force against Israel's to halt what he called the Jewish state's "butchery" of Palestinians, according to London's Financial...

January 17, 2006 Edition > Section: National > Printer-Friendly VersionClinton Eligible, Once Again, To Practice Law BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the SunJanuary 17, 2006URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/25965After five years of banishment from the legal profession, President Clinton will be eligible this week to reclaim the law license he gave up as a consequence of the inaccurate responses he gave under oath to questions about his relationship with a White House intern.Mr. Clinton's suspension from the Arkansas bar, which he formally agreed to a day before leaving office in 2001, expires on Thursday. It is unclear whether the former...