Free Republic

...District Judge John Dietz, declaring the money used to collect signatures "an unauthorized, illegal contribution," granted the Democratic Party a temporary restraining order to block Green Party candidates from being certified for the November ballot. Democrats contended that a petition drive to put Green candidates on the ballot was actually an effort to help Perry, a Republican, by diverting votes from his Democratic challenger Bill White... It had struggled earlier to get the required 43,991 petition signatures for its candidates to make the ballot. At a hearing Thursday, Green Party member Garrett Mize testified that Perry's former chief of staff,...

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics ruled Tuesday that a proposed ballot initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman cannot go forward, reaffirming an earlier ruling that such a vote would be discriminatory. The board cited the city Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination against gay men and lesbians. The board decision, which will probably be challenged in court, means the D.C. Council can move forward with its plans to vote on a bill next month to legalize same-sex marriage. The council on Tuesday scheduled a vote for Dec. 1. "We have considered all of the...

KILLEEN, Texas – The attorney for a man suspected in a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, says he's heading to San Antonio to meet his client. Retired Col. John P. Galligan says he was retained by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's family on Monday. He says he has asked investigators not to question Hasan and doesn't know if he's been medically cleared to talk. Hasan is accused of opening fire on the Army post on Thursday, killing 13 people and wounding 29 before civilian police shot him. He remains at a U.S. Army hospital in San Antonio, where a...

Filmmaker Michael Moore responded Wednesday to the Michigan Republican Party's request that he be prosecuted for offering underwear and food to college students in exchange for their promise to vote. "It's ironic that Republicans have no problem with allowing assault weapons out on our streets, yet they don't want to put clean underwear in the hands of our slacker youth," Moore said in a statement. "The Republicans seem more interested in locking me up for trying to encourage people to participate in our democracy than locking up bin Laden for his attacks on our democracy." Moore said Republicans missed the...

Michigan prosecutors won't bring charges against filmmaker Michael Moore who state Republicans say broke the law when he offered new underwear and food to young people who promised to vote in the presidential election. On Tuesday, the Michigan GOP asked prosecutors in counties where Moore had spoken to bring charges against him. State law prohibits offering something of value in exchange for agreeing to vote. "It's ironic that Republicans have no problem with allowing assault weapons out on our streets, yet they don't want to put clean underwear in the hands of our slacker youth," Moore said, according to the...

OTTAWA -- A convicted killer with a record of drug addiction and fleeing parole has earned a 72-hour conjugal visit with his gay lover at Ontario's Joyceville penitentiary. Kevin Joseph Humphrey, a former fugitive who became subject of a Canada-wide warrant in 2002, spent the past weekend at the so-called "love shack," according to a prison source. When he repeatedly went on the lam, police considered Humphrey dangerous because of his drug addiction and violent criminal record. The former Toronto man was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1983 robbery slaying of Charles Palmer in Minden, Ont. Correctional Service of...

HOW OUR CITIES STACK UP Presumably, since municipal by-laws are approved by a vote of council, they all made sense to someone at some time. Nevertheless, in city halls across the country, regulatory insanity abounds. Herewith, the National Post's top ten wacky by-laws: 1. MONTREAL According to a 1996 by-law, it is explicitly forbidden to make or store a nuclear weapon, under pain of a $300 fine for a first offence, $500 for a second, and up to $1,000 for subsequent violations. This penalty scheme is identical to that for home owners who allow weeds to grow in their yards....