ASPCA ordered to pay $9.3 million for harassment, abuse

Feld Entertainment, Inc., the producer of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, announced today that the company has reached a legal settlement with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in connection with two federal court cases.

Under the settlement, ASPCA has paid Feld Entertainment $9.3 million to settle all claims related to its part in more than a decade of manufactured litigation that attempted to outlaw elephants in the company's Ringling Bros.  Circus. This settlement applies only to the ASPCA. Feld Entertainment's legal proceedings, including its claims for litigation abuse and racketeering, will continue against the remaining defendants, Humane Society of the United States, the Fund for Animals, Animal Welfare Institute, Animal Protection Institute United with Born Free USA, Tom Rider and the attorneys involved.

"These defendants attempted to destroy our family-owned business with a hired plaintiff who made statements that the court did not believe. Animal activists have been attacking our family, our company, and our employees for decades because they oppose animals in circuses. This settlement is a vindication not just for the company but also for the dedicated men and women who spend their lives working and caring for all the animals with Ringling Bros. in the face of such targeted, malicious rhetoric," said Kenneth Feld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Feld Entertainment.

The parties filed dismissal papers today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as a result of their settlement. The settlement covers only Feld Entertainment's claims against ASPCA for attorneys' fees and damages in the initial Endangered Species Act (ESA) case filed in 2000 by the animal rights activists and the resultant racketeering (RICO) case brought by Feld Entertainment in 2007. Discovery in the initial lawsuit uncovered over $190,000 that these animal activist groups and their lawyers paid to Tom Rider who lived off of the money while serving as the "injured plaintiff" in the lawsuit against the circus.

"Our firm has been defending Feld Entertainment against this onslaught of misguided litigation brought by animal activist groups for years. As their attorneys, it is gratifying to finally have a settlement that begins to make up for the harm inflicted on this company, the family who owns it, and its employees," said John Simpson of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., lead counsel for Feld Entertainment in all of the cases covered by the settlement with ASPCA.

Background of Case

The original complaint was filed in July 2000 by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Animal Welfare Institute, the Fund for Animals and Tom Rider, who is a former Ringling Bros. employee. The case was dismissed in 2001 but was reinstated in 2003 after an appellate court ruled that if Tom Rider could prove that he was injured by Ringling Bros.' treatment of the elephants, the case could proceed. The Animal Protection Institute joined the case in 2006.

The trial began on February 4, 2009 and lasted approximately six weeks. The case is ASPCA, et al., v. Feld Entertainment, Inc., No. 03-2006 (D.D.C.)(Hon. Emmet G. Sullivan presiding).

On December 30, 2009, the U.S. District Court ruled in Feld Entertainment's favor (published as ASPCA v. Feld Entertainment, Inc., 677 F. Supp. 2d 55 (D.D.C. 2009)). In its ruling the Court stated that, "the Court finds that Mr. Rider is essentially a paid plaintiff and fact witness who is not credible, and therefore affords no weight to his testimony regarding the matters discussed herein, i.e., the allegations related to his standing to sue." ( www.ringlingbrostrialinfo.com/uploadedFiles/ASPCA%20Memorandum%20Opinion.pdf )

That decision found that the plaintiffs' litigation was based on the untruthful testimony of a paid plaintiff and witness who the Court found received at least $190,000 in payments as his sole source of income over an eight year period by animal special interest groups, including ASPCA, their lawyers and an entity founded and controlled by those lawyers, the Wildlife Advocacy Project.

The Court also ruled, "that ensuring Mr. Rider's continued participation as a plaintiff was a motivating factor behind the payments to him, and that these payments were a motivating factor for his continued involvement in the case." The Court also ruled against the other plaintiffs in the case: "because the organizational plaintiffs have not established an injury in fact, traceable to FEI's actions that can be redressed by the Court, the organizational plaintiffs have no standing to sue under Article III of the United States Constitution."

Furthermore, the Court ruled that "based upon his failure to complain, the Court finds that Mr. Rider either (1) did not witness elephant mistreatment when he was employed by FEI or (2) any mistreatment he did witness did not affect him to the extent that he suffered an aesthetic or emotional injury." The Court's December 2009 ruling was affirmed in its entirety by the Court of Appeals on October 28, 2011.

Based upon what was revealed in ASPCA, et al., v. Feld Entertainment, Feld Entertainment brought suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against ASPCA, HSUS and other animal rights activists and their lawyers alleging violations of the RICO statute and Virginia Conspiracy Act, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process. The court denied the defendants' motions to dismiss that case on July 9, 2012. ( http://www.ringlingbrostrialinfo.com/uploadedFiles/First%20Amended%20Feld%20Entertainment%20RICO%20Complaint.pdf )

Via press release

Taiwanese news animation tackles Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech

Gallup: More support putting gun in every school than support gun ban

Voters are more likely to support putting a loaded gun in every school than support a ban on the sale of semi-automatic guns, a new Gallup poll finds.
Sixty-four percent of the country say "having at least one school official at every school carry a gun" will prevent mass shootings.  Sixty-three percent believe the same of "banning the sale of assault and semi-automatic guns."

That means Barack Obama is about to lead his party into a disastrous 2014 defeat. 

That's because that 63 percent support for a semi-automatic gun ban collapses when voters learn just what exactly a semi-auto gun ban is -- and you'd better believe they'll be told on TV, radio and in the mail during the 2014 election.

Gallup finds support for a semi-auto handgun ban falls sharply to 52 percent when people are told a semi-automatic handgun is one "which automatically re-load(s) every time the trigger is pulled."  Putting one simple fact in front of a voter suddenly removes any mandate for a semi-auto ban.

Additionally, only 52 percent support for an issue at its most emotional time is a recipe for defeat for any politician who signs on, especially given the fact the poll is of all adults and not just active voters -- who are more pro-gun than the general public.

It gets worse for gun grabbers.  Gallup finds only 27 percent of Americans support a "a nationwide ban on the sale of handguns, except to law enforcement officers," which is what a ban on the sale of semi-automatic handguns practically is.  An astonishing 71 percent of the general public opposes such a handgun ban.

Backing that up is a CBS News poll conducted in the height of emotion after the incident.  It found only 26 percent believed stricter gun laws would helped prevent the tragedy.  Further smacking down Obama, half said stricter laws would have had no effect.

Americans believe more guns stop crime, not less.  If Obama continues to callously exploit dead children to push a radical agenda he'll find more, not less, defeated Democrats.

CNN Host: I'm 'gleeful a tragedy happened'

John Nolte has the story.

Liberals compare school reformers to Newtown killer, suggest healing by uniting against school choice

In what can only be termed sociopathic behavior, two prominent liberals are gleefully using the mass killing of children in Connecticut to push an unrelated political agenda against education reform.

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education and teachers union activist Diane Ravitch started the disgusting spree by declaring the process of emotional healing in Newtown Conn. can begin by uniting the community against school reformers.

"Newtown does not need a charter school. What it needs now is healing. Not competition, not division, but a community coming together to help one another. Together. Not competing," writes Ravitch.

The deranged Ravitch then insinuated that tying tenure and teacher pay to performance is somehow related to the massacre.

"Oh, and one other thing, all these dedicated teachers belonged to a union. The senior teachers had tenure, despite the fact that 'reformers' (led by ConnCAN, StudentsFirst, and hedge fund managers) did their best last spring to diminish their tenure and to tie their evaluations to test scores," Ravitch wrote.

Ravitch is no nameless fringe character.  She is a Research Professor of Education at New York University.  "In 2010, the National Education Association selected her as its 'Friend of Education,'" she states in her biography.

Shockingly her depraved behavior was celebrated, not criticized, by school union bosses.  Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers Union, went so far as to commend Ravitch for politicizing the tragedy and even declared advocates of school choice are child killers themselves.

"There might have been a time where 'politicizing' tragic events, especially mass shootings was thought to be in poor taste. That has changed with the 24/7 news cycle that continues to focus far too much time and energy on the perpetrator of the massacre than that of our precious victims. (Teach for America vice president David) Rosenberg’s 'false outrage' needs to be checked. That same false outrage should show itself when policies his colleagues support kill and disenfranchise children from schools across this nation," rambled Lewis*.

The head of the Chicago Teachers Union just said charter school teachers are themselves mass child killers.

Both need to apologize, and be closely watched.

* That was her statement as written in her capacity as Chicago's top education union official, including punctuation errors and improper use of phrases.

EPA boss faces federal probe into lawbreaking

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog is looking into whether the agency uses separate internal email accounts to conduct government affairs," The Hill reports.

"EPA’s inspector general said the audit follows on a congressional request. Some lawmakers have pressed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for answers on her alleged use of a separate internal email account under the alias 'Richard Windsor.'"

The bogus email account was uncovered by Chris Horner, American Tradition Institute's Director of Litigation.

"Its office of the inspector general wants to know whether the agency’s email practices comply with federal laws. The concern is whether correspondence through internal accounts would show up in a search for federal records."

NAACP not happy about advancement of colored person

South Carolina Congressman Tim Scott will break a color barrier when he becomes the United States Senate's only black member and first black Republican since Reconstruction and some people aren't too happy about it.

Namely the NAACP, who are hinting they will seek to cleanse the Senate of the black representative.

"(H)is voting record in the U.S. House of Representatives raises major concerns,” NAACP senior vice president for advocacy and policy Hilary Shelton tells The Daily Caller.

“It is important, we believe, that he recognize that awesome responsibility and perhaps what we’ll see is a change in how he votes and what he advocates for in a way more consistent the NAACP has as well.”

He blasted Scott for supporting education reforms that would give parents and local communities more control over schools and curriculum.  The education policies supported by the NAACP have led to lower test scores and graduation rates for black students.

Shelton indicated the NAACP will try to deliver the black lawmaker's seat to a white politician, removing all black representation in the Senate, should he seek re-election.

Texas Democrat Party official issues terrorist threats to kill gun owners

Texas Democrat Party official John Cobarruvias issued multiple terrorist threats to begin hunting and killing people who voice support for legal gun ownership

"Can we now shoot the #NRA and everyone who defends them?," he wrote on Twitter, also writing on his blog, "They need to [be] wiped off the face of the earth."

Cobarruvias is a Houston-area precinct chairman and a State Executive Committee member for the Texas Democratic Party from Houston, setting official party policies.

The use of violence or threats of violence for social or political purposes is terrorism. There can be no tolerance for violence or those who advocate it.

When guns stop crime the media attach their silencers

I wrote this article over ten years ago, on Jan. 28, 2012.  It was published Feb. 4, 2002 in The (Virginia Beach) Virginian-Pilot, the Commonwealth's largest newspaper.

Give the media credit; they know how to selectively report a story. Covering last year's EP-3 reconnaissance plane crash, Communist China's People's Daily failed to mention Chinese pilot Wong Wei frequently buzzed American aircraft and likely rammed the slower plane. Cuba's Granma conveniently neglected to report that Elian Gonzales' supposedly loving father rarely saw the child prior to Elian's escape to the United States.

And just this month The Washington Post and other news outlets purposefully did not report that two armed students stopped the tragic shooting at Virginia's Appalachian School of Law.

The story itself is newsworthy. When Peter Odighizuwa began his deadly rampage, most students fled the premises in fear of their lives. Two students, however, bravely faced the armed maniac determined to end the killing. Tracy Bridges, 25, and Mikael Gross, 34 retrieved guns from their cars and with the help of police officer Ted Besen surrounded Odighizuwa. Bridges aimed his weapon at Odighizuwa, who dropped his and was tackled. Had Bridges and Gross obeyed the federal "gun free schools" law, Odighizuwa would have continued his deadly rampage, killing with impunity while unarmed citizens waited for the government's monopoly on force, the local police, to arrive and resolve the situation.

Given the fact that their actions saved countless lives, the omission of that critical fact is stunning. Had the men attempted to subdue Odighizuwa, at least one almost certainly would have been shot at point-blank range. A more likely scenario is a crazed Odighizuwa moving through the campus' buildings killing all those he came across as hundreds fled, powerless to stop him.

The fact that two men put their lives at risk and were able to heroically save numerous other students only because they had firearms is central to the story. But somehow it fell through the mainstream media's gaping editorial cracks.

The silence is deafening. In last Friday's New York Post, the American Enterprise Institute's Dr. John Lott reports that of the 280 news reports identified by Lexis-Nexis search engines, only four reported that two of the students who stopped the mass killing were armed. When only 1.4 percent of news stories mention the fact that those who stopped a potential massacre did so with firearms, that can't be chalked up to the constraints of a word count.

"In this age of 'gun free schools,' the vast majority of the news reports ignored the fact that the attack was stopped by two students who had guns in their cars," wrote Lott. Considering the sensationalized coverage afforded shootings by hostile armed students, it is disturbing to hear the silence surrounding peaceful armed students who heroically stop mass killings. While the minute handful who discharge weapons in schools are afforded days of network news coverage, stories on the two million defensive uses of firearms are found only in the newsletter of Gun Owners Of America and the local police blotter.

Lott's research shows Bridges' and Gross' actions aren't unusual. In his best seller More Guns, Less Crime, Lott finds that peaceable citizens use firearms to stop crimes more than two million times a year. In over 90 percent of those cases the gun is not even fired. Just the remote threat of a citizen using deadly force to defend his life and property is enough to quell a criminal's desires. Odighizuwa may have been deranged, but he was certainly rational enough to realize he was no match for an armed citizen.

For their efforts, the media still have a hard time restraining evidence that gun control causes crime and that an armed society is a polite society. The normally far-left BBC begrudgingly reported this month that handgun crime in Great Britain has increased 40 percent, despite a 1997 ban on handguns.

Despite that momentary lapse of anti-gun editorial judgment, the truth about gun ownership -- a firearm in the hands of peaceful citizen stops crime and saves lives -- goes largely unnoted.

Luckily, the proliferation of cable news channels and Internet-based information sources is breaking the media's anti-Second Amendment news monopoly. Pro-gun organizations such as Gun Owners of America and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership dutifully note, record and report statistics, evidence and first-hand accounts of lives saved by unabridged firearms ownership.

Declining crime rates in concealed-carry states embarrassingly refute years of anti-gun propaganda. And stories like that of Bridges and Gross, however underreported, trickle into the mainstream, proving that guns save lives and gun control breeds crime.

Bridges and Gross should be commended for their bravery and selflessness. Those reporters and editors who intentionally failed to note they could only do so because they chose to exercise a constitutional right should be ashamed.

Johnny Manziel's Letterman Top 10 Perks of Winning the Heisman Trophy

Johnny Manziel's Top Ten Perks of Winning the Heisman Trophy

Newtown and Lanza: Obama throwing lives away for electoral gains

President Obama is right. We should not accept acts of mass violence as routine or a byproduct of freedom.  

Thankfully the incidences of acts of mass violence have rapidly declined even as we have repealed gun laws and our nation becomes safer, and a wholesale reform of the nation's policies on mental health would not only prevent the loss of innocent victims but save the lives and restore the well-being of those who lose themselves to committing these acts.

If you want to stop tragedies like this we need to address the root of the problem - our inability to properly help people with health issues that make themselves a danger to others.

 We have an unaddressed social problem with people who have health issues that make themselves a danger to others. They are not being effectively treated or dealt with.

But rather than propose mental health policy reforms that would go a long way to solving the greater problem of acts of mass violence by dangerous persons Obama has instead announced he will seek cosmetic changes that don't address the issue of violent sociopathy itself, but instead allow him to attack his political opponents ahead of a 2014 election in which seeks to keep control of Senate and win control of the House while leaving the root of the problem completely ignored.

We are not solving the problem. We are just throwing lives away for electoral gains.

Opposition to Big Wind tax giveaway grows

More grassroots groups are joining American Tradition Partnership in opposing the “Wind Production Tax Credit” to bail out failing green corporations.

“They told 158 lawmakers in a letter that keeping the credit “essentially transfers taxpayer dollars from your constituents and subsidizes the states with such mandates’” The Hill reports.

Obama stopped arrest of sex offender working for Dem Senator

Earlier this year federal agents discovered Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, an intern for U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ,) is not just a convicted sex offender, but also in this country illegally.

A convicted sex offender working in an office with young women is a dangerous situation.

Naturally, federal agents moved quickly to arrest and deport the criminal.

One problem.

Senator Menendez is up for election this year.  Democrats stood to lose control of the U.S. Senate if a Democrat got bad press.

So the Obama White House blocked federal agents from arresting a sex offender working next to young women because it might hurt Democrats' chances of controlling the Senate.

Those federal agents contacted the AP to blow the whistle on Democrats harboring criminals and delaying arrests.

Fun fact about the union bosses' "free rider" argument

You know who is the about only group opposed to exempting non-union workers from union-negotiated benefits?  Union bosses. 

You see, being "forced" to share benefits with non-union workers, even if they fought to keep it that way, gives them a talking point to whip up opposition to it.

If you're a union member who opposes non-union members getting union-negotiated benefits, your union leaders are your enemy.

VIDEO: Democrats stomp on tent full of people, attack police officers

Democrats, including Obama, refuse to criticize the violent behavior of these feral animals.

Democrats threaten to kill children of Mich. governor, 'pray your wife gets cancer'

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has signed a Right to Work bill supported by 58 percent of the state's voters.

So typically, Democrats have reacted by threatening to murder, and even rape, him.

But Democrats are also targeting his wife with death wishes and even threatened to hunt down and kill his children, including his 14-year-old daughter.

Courtesy of Twitchy, here are just a few floats in the liberal parade of psychotic violence.

RT @erikFUCKINGhall @onetoughnerd believe us, you, sue, Jeff, mellisa, and Kelsey will burn for this. You fuck with our families, we kill yours!!!

RT @armycrystal55 @onetoughnerd @briancalley I pray your wife gets cancer

RT @Loladadollface Everyone in michigan wanns kill,Snyder that bitch nigga lied and,shit tryna,break up the unions,of,the working,class

RT @TinaMarieBaby Fuck Snyder ill kill him

RT @Offlogic @onetoughnerd you are soooo going to die painfully for this bullshit, it isn't even funny

Democrats promise bloody violence in response to Right to Work

Michigan House Democrats posted this to their Twitter account Tuesday then quickly deleted it, probably when someone informed them advocating literal violence is a crime.

Psychotic political violence isn't an isolated matter confined to fringe members.  It is officially endorsed and proposed by Democrat Party leaders.

We've had "town hall violence," bloody attacks on Tea Party events, multiple rapes and murders at Occupy events and now rampages of mob violence at state capitols in Wisconsin and Michigan.

We need to have a serious national discussion of the Democrat Party's increasing use of bloody mob violence as a tool of political discourse.

Photo of violent liberal attacker released. Reward for his arrest.

Here is a screen capture of video of the violent liberal who attacked conservative commentator Steven Crowder.

According to Luke Llondo, he appears to be with an IBEW local with three digits. Locals 665, 948, 557, 275, 445, 252 are the nearest to Lansing.

His first name appears to be Terry and his last name appears begins with an S.

Here is the reward fund for his arrest.

Go find him.

Union mob pounces on women, children at Michigan event

Watch as a mob of liberals act like feral animals, hooting and screaming as they rip down a tent with women and children inside.

These union attacks will grow only more violent, as 76% of Michigan supports Right to Work.  Liberalism has become synonymous with psychotic violence.

China profits as Obama loses another $130 million on 'green' energy

A123 Systems, the 'green' car battery maker bailed out by Barack Obama with $249 million in taxpayer funds only to declare bankruptcy anyway, has been bought by a Chinese car maker.

Wanxiang America Corporation bought the company in a Delaware bankruptcy court, The Washington Post reports.

A123 pocketed about $130 million of the taxpayer-backed loan handed to them by Obama before admitting they were bankrupt. 

Once again, Obama bet millions of taxpayer dollars on yet another green loser.  Those holding shares in A123 will lose their investment.  "If the deals are approved by the court, the shares," the Post reports. "That’s because proceeds from the sale of the two parts of A123 would be less than the company owes its creditors."

Ecoterrorism looms as environmentalists now committing crimes in Keystone attacks

Environmentalists aren't just a threat to the economy, they are also a threat to property and human life.

Unhappy that most Americans support the clean, safe Keystone XL jobs project, raging environmentalists are now engaging in a campaign of vandalism and trespassing.  Environmentalists see crime as a civil right.

Environmentalists "have taken to chaining themselves to machinery and trucks in an attempt to stall construction," POLITICO reports.

Those criminals are the nice ones.  There have also been attempts to plant bombs on natural gas pipelines.

Ecoterrorism is a serious problem in the United States.  Because leftists see authority over others as their right they too often resort to violence in order to grasp control.

Environmentalists in the United States have also recently set fire to the homes of medical researchers and destroyed crops and slaughtered animals intended to help develop affordable foods to combat world hunger.

As environmentalism grows increasingly synonymous with violence and terrorism it is important Congress take action to confront the growing threat of environmentalist terrorism.

House GOP seeks new corporate bailout?

The "fiscal cliff" coming in just days could mean massive tax hikes that kill honest energy businesses.

But Big Wind lobbyists are using the crisis to bail out Gang Green environmentalists.

They want Congress to continue the so-called "Wind Production Tax Credit," a handout created 20 years ago to help the wind energy industry "get off the ground."

Two decades later the wind energy industry hasn't gone anywhere.  Wind energy is a proven expensive failure, but politicians are continuing to hand them political favors while punishing honest energy employers.

Even worse, it appears Republicans will be the ones to bail out failing wind corporations while letting productive energy employers die at the hands of tax hikes and overregulation.

"(M)any House Republicans want to see the credit extended. With 81 percent of wind installations in GOP districts, there are a number of members who are under pressure to ensure the tax break survives," The Hill reports this morning.

It's up to you and I to stop them.  Again.

Please call your Congressman right now at 202-224-3121.

Tell them to REJECT any effort to extend the "Wind Production Tax Credit."

We shouldn't bail out expensive failures while letting affordable energy and good jobs die.  We need to save good jobs and affordable energy.

Call right now.

Sincerely,

Donald Ferguson
Executive Director
American Tradition Partnership

P.S.  Unlike anti-jobs groups like Greenpeace and The Sierra Club, pro-jobs advocate American Tradition Partnership does not seek or accept government funds.  We operate solely on the gifts of good friends like you.  We are are people-powered American grassroots organization, not a cabal of international leftist job-killers.

Help us keep fighting.  Go here to chip in $10 or more today.