Sarah Palin has learned what I have known for decades: the American civil justice system is not a forum for justice at all. In fact, it's a farce.

On Tuesday, a jury found that the New York Times did not legally defame Ms. Palin when it wrote that her political action committee incited the shooting attack that left Arizona Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords gravely wounded.

Of course, Governor Palin's PAC had nothing to do with the crime as the Times admitted when it apologized for the brutally irresponsible assertion.

Nevertheless, a New York City jury rejected Palin's lawsuit unanimously, saying the newspaper did not act with malice, the threshold famous people have to prove in order to win damages in civil court.

Not act with malice? What other reason would there be to link the conservative Palin with the shooting?   What motivation would a liberal newspaper have to connect an innocent person with a heinous act if not to be malicious?

It's absurd.  

The history of the New York Times is to smear conservative politicians in a variety of ways. As they say, you can look it up. Reagan, Bush, Trump. Take your pick.

And so, Sarah Palin gets no justice. And I know how she feels.

In 2003, the always despicable Al Franken put out a book calling a number of people "liars." My picture was on the cover of the book. Franken's primary allegation was that I was not raised in working-class Levittown, New York, but in an affluent town nearby. Therefore, I was a liar and a phony.

Of course, that is false, and I proved it by producing the deed to my parents' house in, yes, Levittown.  

So, I thought I had the vile Franken and his publisher "dead to rights," as the cliche goes. But no. Franken claimed his book was "satire" and shouldn't be taken "literally," therefore there was no malice.

If you read the stupid book, it is filled with bitter invective based upon Franken citing so-called facts. The only apparent "satire" is that Franken actually scored a book contract.

The truth is that weasels like Franken and other ideological haters get away with defamation all day, every day. Our legal system is one giant mess both civil and criminal.

As Sarah Palin now knows.

See you for the No Spin News beginning at six eastern.