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U.N.
Monitor:
New
Details Emerge: France and Russia Bought and Paid for by Oil for Food
 Since
the first hints of the massive Oil for Food scandal, many have suspected that
Saddam Hussein used the program to buy friends in France, Russia, and states
that neighbor Iraq.
Over the past two weeks, three new disclosures comprehensively confirm that
suspicion.
On October 5, a subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee held
hearings which featured first-time-in-public testimony from executives of key
Oil for Food contractors. Their testimony confirmed that Saddam abused the Oil
for Food program in order to pocket billions while the U.N. office in charge of
the program ignored evidence of such problems as a result either incompetence or
conspiracy.
To
read more,
click here.
Legal
Update:
'The
Antitrust Paradox' Continues
 More
than a quarter century ago, Robert H. Bork noted the conflict between the
pro-consumer policy behind the antitrust laws and the pro-competitor approach
developed through their enforcement. In his seminal book The Antitrust
Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself, Judge Bork, then a Yale law professor
and later an influential federal appellate judge and Supreme Court nominee,
argued, in the words of one reviewer, that antitrust enforcement had "led to the
protection of inefficient competitors, the punishment of successful firms, and,
ultimately, the detriment of the interest of consumers, which the antitrust laws
were designed to protect in the first place."
Specifically, Judge Bork explained that the overzealous application of the
antitrust laws and the resulting intervention into otherwise free markets did
not maximize consumer welfare by ensuring lower prices, as is the purpose of
antitrust policy. Instead, such an approach achieved the opposite effect by
sacrificing potential consumer savings in order to level the playing field
between admittedly unevenly matched competitors. In other words, the economic
reality of antitrust enforcement is to prevent consumers from reaping the
benefits of lower prices by punishing those large companies that are best able
to produce products at lower costs because of their ability to employ efficient
economies of scale in supplying their substantial market shares. Hence, the
paradox: enforcement of the antitrust laws undermines their very purpose because
legal intervention artificially elevates consumer prices by propping-up failing
competitors in order to create the mirage of fair competition.
To
read more,
click here.
Legal
Reform:
John
Kerry vs. John Kerry on Legal Reform
His Record Reveals the Truth Behind His New Rhetoric: Kerry is a Consistent
Opponent of Legal Reform
 In
recent days, Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry has voiced his support
for legal reform. But Kerry's record reveals the truth behind the rhetoric.
Kerry is no supporter of legal reform. In fact, he has consistently opposed it
in the U.S. Senate. There is little question that John Kerry has been and
remains a good friend of the trial lawyers. Want proof? Kerry has received more
than $12 million for his campaign from trial lawyers. And his running mate is
renowned plaintiff's lawyer John Edwards. We've prepared a chart comparing what
Kerry has said recently about legal reform with his record.
To
see the chart,
click here.
Freedom
Line: Guest Commentary
Iwo
Jima, If Covered By Media Today
By
Senator Zell Miller
 What
if today's reporters had covered the Marines landing on Iwo Jima, a small island
in the far away Pacific Ocean, in the same way they're covering the war in Iraq?
Here's how it might have looked:
DAY 1
With the aid of satellite technology, Cutie Cudley interviews Marine Pfc. John
Doe, who earlier came ashore with 30,000 other Marines.
Cutie: "John, we have been told by the administration that this island
has great strategic importance because if you're successful, it could become a
fueling stop for our bombers on the way to Japan. But, as you know, we can't be
sure this is the truth. What do you think?"
Pfc. Doe: "Well, I've been pinned down by enemy fire almost ever since I
got here and have had a couple of buddies killed right beside me. I'm a Marine
and I go where they send me. One thing's for sure, they are putting up a fight
not to give up this island."
To
read more,
click here.
Freedom
Line:
Presidential Debates? Bah, Humbug, Squared!
 Presidential
debates, the new reality programming that have threatened even the primacy of
the Trumpmeister and bikinied bimbettes scarfing worms, are not the way to
select a President. You are being told otherwise, in the most reverential of
terms, by everyone with a stake in the debate industry, undoubtedly the most
lucrative seasonal work available, but don't believe them. We endured all three,
four if you count the Veep dry-shaving Pretty Boy's legs with a rusty razor
right there on TV.
Some debate critics argue that sophisticated government policy cannot be
enunciated in two-minute bites. Sure it can. Taxes are bad. If you don't leave
some children behind, no one will be left for unions to recruit. More people
need guns than need health insurance. (Have you ever been to a health insurance
show?) War is hell, but appeasement is national suicide. Big government is the
answer to only one known question: What do liberals want?
See? Sophistication, nuance, some zen-think, the power of simple, irrefutable
truth.
To
read more,
click here.
CFIF History
& Civics Quiz:
Question of the Week
How many families in American history have had both father and son elected
President of the
United States?
(a) 1
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 4
For the correct answer,
click here.
Jester's
Courtroom: Tales Stranger Than Fiction
Featuring bizarre and sometimes humorous real life stories from the courtroom.
Partying All the Way to a Jury
 A
New Jersey jury has awarded nearly a million dollars to a man who was discovered
passed out on a snow bank the morning after leaving a New Year's Eve party. The
jury ordered two local police departments to pay the man $850,000 because their
searches failed to find him after a passerby reported a man unconscious in a 911
call hours earlier.
Frederick Puglisi, 20, left a New Year's Eve party to buy cigarettes and
something to eat just after midnight on
January 1,
2001.
Puglisi had been drinking, and, somewhere along the way, he apparently succumbed
to drunkenness and passed out. According to Puglisi's attorney, a 911 caller
reported that a man had been hit by a car at
1 a.m.,
allegedly referring to Puglisi, who doesn't recall any such accident. The police
searched but never found Puglisi, and he remained unconscious on a snow bank
until being discovered late the next morning. By that time, Puglisi's body
temperature had dropped to 78 degrees and he suffered from frostbite that caused
the disfigurement of his right hand.
Puglisi filed his lawsuit against the two local police departments alleging they
inadequately followed up on the 911 report. Specifically, Puglisi's attorney
argued that the police dispatcher did not get enough information from the 911
caller and that insufficient details were passed on to the searching police
officers. The lawyer also claimed that the search was too short and that the
officers never left their cars.
After trial, the jury ordered the
Bergen County
police to pay Puglisi $450,000 and the
Ramsey
County police to pay him another $400,000. The jury initially awarded $1 million
but reduced the verdict by $150,000, finding Puglisi was 15 percent at fault
because he was drunk. The police departments plan to seek a new trial.
Source: Associated Press
To
read more,
click here.
Since many of these gems do not attain national attention, the Jester welcomes
you to share with us your favorite wacky stories from a courtroom near you!
Please be sure to provide the source. You may e-mail us at
mailto:info@cfif.org
Notable Quotes:
Quote
of the Week
 Author
Burt Prelutsky, on Giving the United Nations Significant Power to Resolve
International Crises:
"I would sooner trust the mafia to call the shots. You think I'm indulging in
hyperbole? At least I have no reason to think that, for all its faults, the
Costa Nostra hates
America. I
mean, consider that among the regimes having votes are the like of Cuba, China,
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea to you), Laos, Cambodia,
Rwanda, Myanmar, Sudan, Uganda, and two-dozen Muslim-dominated dictatorships
running the gamut from Bahrain to Yemen. And that's not even counting France."
For more Notable Quotes,
click here.
Do
you have a notable quote you'd like to share with the Center, e-mail it to
mailto:info@cfif.org Be sure to provide us the source of the quote.
Ray's Cartoon Corner:
Ray's Cartoon Corner
 Visit
"Ray's Cartoon Corner," the lighter side of CFIF's website. The Corner is a good
place for freedom lovers and free market advocates to go to catch up on the
latest social, economic and political issues affecting individual freedoms and
rights through the humorous medium of editorial cartooning. The cartoons are
drawn by Ray Gardner, a self described free market conservative and
thirty-something cartoonist who lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona.
To
view Ray's latest cartoons,
click here.
As a
non-profit, 501(c)(4) corporation, the Center for Individual Freedom relies upon
the generous private financial support of individuals, associations, foundations
and corporations. Please consider becoming a proud supporter of the Center
today. To
donate
online, please
click here.
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