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Student Blogger Loses Defamation Case
An anonymous reader writes to tell us about Yaman Salahi, a UC Berkeley student and blogger, who lost a lawsuit brought against him by Lee Kaplan, a journalist for FrontPageMag.com. Kaplan had sued Salahi in California small claims court for tortious business interference and libel, in response to a blog Salahi had set up about him called "Lee Kaplan Watch." Salahi lost in small claims court and then lost an "appeal" — which is essentially a retrial by another small-claims judge. No written opinion was offered with either decision, though all other court filings are available. From Salahi's update on his blog: "...because [Kaplan] sued me in small claims court, I did not have the protections of the anti-SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Policy] statute... I will never know why I lost the initial hearing, or why I lost the appeal, because small claims judges are not obligated to release written opinions with their rulings.... I will never have the opportunity to take this to a real appellate court where my first amendment rights might be protected."
Blogger vs Journalist in the court.. in the blog.. on crapdot...
And nobody does really care because both are retarded, attention whores or both.
I'll lean back and wait for the next Jack Thompson article. He's a attention whore too but at least he's funny.
How about "Antisemetic terrorist sympathizer fuckhead waging a disinformation campaign", and got called on it. Boo hoo. Look a little closer at the 'student blogger'.
Kaplan is a conservative journalist, who writes for Frontpage Magazine (a conservative magazine) and also Israeli News.
Salani is a radical Muslim student from radical Berkeley. Who from the looks of the suit defamed the man. Likely as part of the "legal jihad" that the radical Muslim students engage in on Universities and Colleges.
UCI has lots of harassment, over-anti Semitic speech, and speeches by people such as Daniel Pipes shut down by Muslim students threatening violence or shouting down the speakers. Well known anti-Semitic hotspots in the Academy such as Columbia (where over anti-Semitism is not just tolerated but encouraged, witness the NY Sun articles about Jewish students complaining about it), the UK (where universities are boycotting Israeli Universities, Professors, and any and all research from those universities), and of course Berkeley provide an environment where Muslim and Leftist anti-Semitism are as natural as breathing and slander, libel, and defamation of Jews and Conservatives are a matter of course.
I have no doubt that Salani in such an environment would feel entitled to commit any of these: slander, libel, defamation of character. Because if the target is a Jew or Conservative (or both) the Academy encourages it. It is however actionable and I'm glad Mr. Kaplan brought suit.
If anyone doubts what I say, merely check out any Muslim Student Association speaker on a campus near you. See for yourself. Or check out any conservative or Jewish event on campus and witness the disruption, intimidation, and threats of violence. Columbia University students rushing the stage and assaulting the Minutemen Speakers who were there to discuss their organization as part of the Campus Republican's events come to mind. But you can easily check the accuracy of the above statements by visiting a campus and seeing for yourself.
...get modded down and tagged with "flamebait" or "troll," as if the moderator had some magical personal insight into the psyche and motivation of the poster.
It doesn't help that the article, and presentation of such, are biased towards the perspective that "this is a miscarriage of justice"; anyone disputing this with any degree of vehemence whatsoever has been modded down as a "troll" or "flamebait". You're simply not allowed to disagree with the preordained conclusion.
Personally, I wouldn't want my name or person being used as the subject of an inflammatory blog, either - would any of you tolerate it without challenge? The blogger lost in court, and this doesn't deserve my sympathy.
Just because someone's poor doesn't mean he gets to commit crimes.
You can't personally attack people in print without a solid basis of fact. That seems to be a *good* law. I applaud mr. Kaplan for excercising his rights, and I feel no sympathy for someone who was obviously just making a large ad-hominem attack.
What was the content they argued about anyway ?
- A student vs. a pro?
- A blogger vs. another blogger?
- Pro Israel vs. Pro Palestinians? (*)
I thought Groklaw was for David vs. Goliath legal affairs.(*) I reserve my personal interpretation to myself (Am I pro something? Being pro something is not compatible with being pro something-else?).
Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks,
starting from the most obvious down to the least obvious:
Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has ever come across them knows
they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us.
In my experience, I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have
met, regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight
of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their
hatred: Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot '97, etc.
Contrary to media depictions, I would argue to blacks are
weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300
years. It's unbelievable that it took them that long to fight back.
On the other hand, we slaughtered the Russians in the
Japanese-Russo war.
Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so
many of them, including Reverend Al Sharpton, tend to be Christians.
Yet, at the same time, they spend much of their time whining about
how much they hate "the whites that oppressed them."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Christianity the religion that
the whites forced upon them?
Blacks don't get it. I know it's a blunt and crass comment,
but it's true. When I was in high school, I recall a class debate
in which one half of the class was chosen to defend black slavery
and the other half was chosen to defend liberation.
Disturbingly, blacks on the prior side viciously defended slavery
as well as Christianity. They say if you don't study history,
you're condemned to repeat it.
In high school, I only remember one black student ever
attending any of my honors and AP courses. And that student was
caught cheating.
As a blogger, I'm a little concerned that something we do would be subject to legal action. Bring back the freedom of speech please.
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To me, this is a very important case. It shows how corrupted small claims courts can be. Most small claims judges think your are in their house and you basically have to kiss their @ss.
A while ago, I had a ticket I was trying to fight, however, the judge was a prick and nothing I said mattered. The judge almost held me in contempt of court because I wouldn't "shut up". What the hell is that? Why should citizens have to put up with this crap? Small claims should be our first line of defense. However, small claims is a nightmare that one should avoid at all costs. A small claims judge can rule however the hell he/she wants based on... well whatever.
This blogger did nothing wrong according to OUR CONSTITUTION. However, he now has to pay more than $7,500 USD because why?
If you don't think it is a big deal case and we all should just "let it be", why don't you pay this bloggers $7,500+ fine? I didn't think so.
General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
Look here, LIAR, you need to look honestly at Israel's history. It is surrounded by countries that want to destroy it, and have tried to do so many times. The gains in territory Israel has made were for strategic military advantage, and much of them have been given back.
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Get to the back of the bus, now nigger!
You completely ignore the possibility that Kaplan didn't want to have to involve lawyers and the expense thereof when he felt that the judgements that small claims court can award would be sufficient to satisfy him.
No I didn't, I said it was foolish of him and backfired. He's got the money and should have used it to get the result he really wanted. If it was such a plain case, it would have been settled quickly by any competent opposing attorney and would not have cost substantially more. What he really wanted was to shut up the blogger, what he got was $7,500. What the blogger got was more publicity than a full page advert in the New York Times could buy.
My conclusion that there's no merit to his case comes from reading the blogs themselves. Nothing I saw constituted libel. There were things that might not be true, and there were things that were malicious, but I did not see anything that was both. Both of these nutballs believe the things they are saying. Kapplan, however, has been caught in several intentional lies and that's what this is all about. Kapplan is embarrassed and wants a shut down.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Why post as an AC fag? No, if a cop pulls me over, my first qestion is WHY. If there is a legitimate reason, I comply. Simple. However, I have not been pulled over for about 15 years or so now. If a cop wants me to "comply" with his/her directions, they better have a reason to pull me over and better be following the laws that do not strip away my rights. I am a card carrying member of the ACLU and proud of that. I have rights that many, many others have died for. I am not going to let some cop with a "god complex" strip away my rights.
General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
Today, while driving through our small town, I ended up behind a minivan that had a bumper sticker on the back. The sticker had the kike flag in the middle of it, and under it the quotation from the book of Genesis that reads "I will bless those who bless thee". I now will list my own reasons for thanking and blessing Israel, our lone ally in the Middle East, for everything she has done for us, since most Americans are unaware of just how great of friend we have in israel. For extorting from me and my fellow Americans $16,000,000,000.00 a year for the last 4 decades, we bless thee. For taking our most sophisticated weapons technology and stealing it for yourself without paying the American patent holders, we bless thee. For taking that high-tech military technology and selling it to our enemies, such as the Russians and Chinese, thus further endangering us, we bless thee. For using that weaponry in a sustained attack against a United States ship, the USS Liberty, in an attempt to sink her, thus preventing US servicemen from revealing to the rest of the world information concerning the war crimes they witnessed you commit against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Desert during the Six Day War, we bless thee. For killing 35 and wounding 170 American sailors aboard the USS Liberty, we bless thee. For bribing the United States government into covering it up, preventing any justice from being done for the benefit of the families of the lost sailors - as well as the American People, we bless thee. For sending your agents into Egypt and blowing up American buildings for the purpose of blaming the Arabs in an event known as the Lavon Affair, we bless thee. For sending your agents into Libya during the Reagan administration, and broadcasting radio messages in Arabic that were designed to sound like "terrorist cell planning" so that the US would initiate military strikes against Khadafi, we bless thee. For withholding information from us concerning the planned attacks against the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, attacks you knew about through your moles in the Islamic world and about which you deliberately refused to warn us in order to further your interests against the Arabs, we bless thee. For employing Jonathon Pollard, an American serviceman paid to spy for Israel in order to steal even more of our National Security secrets for your parasitic purposes, we bless thee. For blackmailing President Clinton through one of your intelligence agents, Monica Lewinsky, in order to prevent a coherent peace program from being pushed forward between yourself and the Palestinian people that you have brutalized and murdered for the last 50 years, we bless thee. For breaking every agreement you have made with your Arab neighbors, stealing their land, displacing, murdering, and treating them like the subhuman animals, we bless thee. For using your agents within the first Bush administration to involve us in the first Gulf War, causing the deaths of American men and women, and exposing our servicemen to whatever bioweapons were/are responsible that has led to Gulf War Syndrome, we bless thee. For your role in the September 11 attacks in this country, and for blackmailing and bribing the US government into deporting back to Israel the 200 or more spies that were arrested after the attacks, we bless thee. For supressing the information from the American people of your involvement in the September 11 attacks and sending us in the wrong direction in search of answers, we bless thee. For using one of your agents in the US Army Weapons Lab, Lt Colonel Philip Zack to steal anthrax and distribute it into our mail system, terrorizing US citizens and killing several in order to blame the Arabs, we bless thee. For using your agents in the US Government, namely, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, and the rest into initiating this war in the Middle East so that you could bring to heel all the enemies you have made during the last 50 years, we bless thee. For using your agents in the media to lie to us on a minute by minute basis about the war,