Free Republic

<p>September 17, 2002 -- NEW Jersey voters already concerned about Sen. Robert Torricelli's low ethical threshold now learn that he's been a paid shill for a group the government identifies as a terrorist organization. Called on this by his Republican opponent, Douglas Forrester, in a debate Thursday, Torricelli said the group had been pulled from the State Department's global terror list and given a clean bill of health. Not true.</p>

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your...

Beijing has high hopes for Olympic flame on Everest Thu 26 May, 9:42 AM BEIJING (Reuters) - China has high hopes for the 2008 Olympic Games -- 8,850 metres (29,035 ft) high, to be exact. Beijing is investigating how to haul the Olympic torch to the peak of Mount Everest and broadcast the event live during the pre-Games torch relay, a senior Olympics official said on Thursday. "We have organised a research team and they are assessing it," said Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games, told Reuters. "It depends on the weather at...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NBC's broadcast of the 2004 Olympics has gotten off to as bumpy a start as the U.S. Olympic team itself, with prime-time ratings for the first three days of the Summer Games down slightly from four years ago, according to figures released on Monday. NBC's prime-time Olympics coverage still towered over the usual summer sitcoms, reality shows and reruns offered on rival U.S. networks during the first three days of the Athens Games, posting a hefty household rating of 14.1 and a full quarter share of all viewers watching TV on those evenings. But compared with...

<p>WASHINGTON — Federal employees who persuaded JetBlue Airways to give a defense contractor personal information about 1.5 million passengers — without their knowledge or permission — will have to undergo training about privacy issues. Employees of the Transportation Security Administration broke the spirit, but not the letter, of federal privacy laws, Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the chief privacy officer for the Department of Homeland Security, said Friday. She said fewer than six current employees were involved.</p>

WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli remains a polarizing political figure more than a year after leaving office. Both courted and reviled, the New Jersey Democrat who gave up his seat under an ethical cloud continues to shape the political landscape through his involvement in campaigns nationwide. His $50,000 donation to a group that ran anti-Howard Dean television ads triggered an angry retort this week from the former Vermont governor about the ``ethically challenged'' ex-senator. And his public pronouncement that he's raising tens of thousands of dollars for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has detractors calling for the Massachusetts...

WASHINGTON - Presidential Democratic hopeful John Kerry (news - web sites) is letting former Sen. Robert Torricelli raise money for him less than two years after the Senate formally rebuked Torricelli for his actions with a political donor. Torricelli, whose rising political career collapsed in 2002 after his fund raising became the subject of criminal and Senate investigations, said Friday he is not seeking a formal position in Kerry's campaign but has raised money for it. "I have asked people to send in checks," Torricelli said in a phone interview. "I have raised some money for John. I have known...

<p>The call came before 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Former Sen. Robert Torricelli was on the line, and Sen. Jon Corzine was not pleased.</p> <p>For days prior to that call, news reports blared word that Corzine, along with developer Charles Kushner, wanted a $100 million public subsidy to purchase the YankeeNets, and that Torricelli was the broker for the deal.</p>

Although they swear that Robert G. Torricelli never really had an inside track, several top officials in the McGreevey administration said last week that the former U.S. senator has been declared radioactive and his clients are to get nothing from the state. "The word from the front office is he's cut off," said one Cabinet officer, using the Trenton insider term for the governor's office. "They said, 'Cut him off and the people he brings around.' I sent the word to my people not to send anything he's connected with to my desk." Another Cabinet member said there had initially...

<p>An al Qaeda sleeper agent "wrapped in his cloak of American citizenship" has secretly pleaded guilty to aiding Osama bin Laden by scouting out bridges and railroads for destruction in New York and Washington, Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday.</p>

Mr. Genova also uncovered a legal memorandum from Mr. Forrester's lawyer written in April, when State Senator Diane Allen, one of Mr. Forrester's opponents in the Republican primary, was trying to block him from taking the ballot position of James W. Treffinger. Mr. Treffinger, the Essex County executive, had resigned from the race because of scandal three days earlier, or 40 days before the primary. Senator Allen maintained that moving Mr. Forrester's name to Mr. Treffinger's place on the ballot would come too late under Title 19 of the state election law, which sets a deadline of 51 days before...

Sunday Oct. 6, 2002; 2:09 p.m. EDTLautenberg Retracts Promise for 21 Debates A spokesman for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Frank Lautenberg has retracted Lautenberg's promise, offered just yesterday, that he would meet his Republican opponent Doug Forrester for 21 debates in different New Jersey counties before Election Day. Asked whether his boss intended to honor the 21-debate pledge, Lautenberg spokesman Tom Shea told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, "Absolutely not." "We'll do debates," Shea explained. "The voters of the state will have plenty of opportunities to hear the two candidates. Twenty-one debates in 21 counties with only 30 days left...

This appears pretty handy to detect one's liberal rating. Way to go, Ashcroft! Helms scores a 0 liberal rating, along with others. FReegards.... Alabama Shelby R (R) 5 Sessions J (R) 0 Alaska Stevens T (R) 30 Murkowski F (R) 10 Arizona McCain J (R) 5 Kyl J (R) 0 Arkansas Bumpers D (D) 95 Hutchinson T (R) 0 California Feinstein D (D) 85 Boxer B (D) 100 Colorado Campbell B (R) 25 Allard W (R) 0 Connecticut Dodd C (D) 90 Lieberman J (D) 75 Delaware Roth W (R) 10 Biden J (D) 70 Florida Graham B (D) 60...

I read the news today (oh, boy), and the stories on the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court gave the impression that it was a real long shot – i.e. having certiorari granted. Why would that be? The relevant NJ election statute (19:13-20) is very clear and reads as follows: A selection made pursuant to subsection (c) and a statement of the selection SHALL be filed not later than the 48th day before the election. The relevant portion of subsection (c) says simply: . . .for a statewide office, the candidate shall be selected by the State committee of the...

Heads Up! Sean Hannity just announced that Jim McGreasy called and asked to be on his radio show this afternoon. Sean said they are trying to arrange the call-in, so be listening; Sean predicted fireworks. Tony

<p>Given the outcry directed at the U.S. Supreme Court after it ended the 2000 Florida recount, we'd understand if the Justices aren't too keen on getting involved in another election dispute.</p> <p>But when it comes to the Republican appeal yesterday of the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision to allow a late switch on the state ballot, we don't think they have much of a choice. Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution specifically delegates to state legislatures, not to state governments as a whole, the authority over the "times, places and manner" of holding Senatorial elections. As such, the "equitable powers" invoked by the New Jersey court to "liberally construe" this particular law simply do not exist.</p>

Washington, Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court,still scarred by the fight over the 2000 presidential electionfight, probably will be reluctant to wade into the battle over NewJersey's U.S. Senate race, legal experts said.     Republicans today asked the nation's highest court to blockDemocrats from putting former Senator Frank Lautenberg on thestate's Nov. 5 ballot. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruledyesterday that Lautenberg could replace Senator Robert Torricelli,who withdrew from the race Monday.     The high court two years ago issued a 5-4 decision thatcleared the way for Republican George W. Bush to defeat DemocratAl Gore and become the 43rd U.S....

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey submitted to the Clinton White House a pardon application by a campaign donor at the same time the donor was cooperating in an investigation of Torricelli, according to court papers. In a letter submitted in the case of Lawrence Penna, prosecutors said Penna asked Torricelli for help in obtaining a presidential pardon in the fall of 2000 "without telling the prosecutors and agents responsible for his supervision." Penna, the former president of a defunct New Jersey brokerage firm, subsequently received a nine-month prison term for making illegal campaign donations to Torricelli and...

Forrester Statement On New Jersey Supreme Court Decision (TRENTON, OCTOBER 2) – U.S. Senate candidate Doug Forrester tonight issued the following statement: “Today, the people of New Jersey lost. The Torricelli-Lautenberg machine’s disregard for the rule of law, fair elections and the people of New Jersey will, once again, make our great state the butt of national jokes. “The good people of New Jersey understand what has transpired over the past few days. A few powerbrokers read public opinion polls and concluded that I was going to beat Bob Torricelli, and decided to change the rules of the game. The...

Which law(s) do you want to be "liberally construed" (broken or not enforced)?Hey, if DemocRATS can do it why can't I?