Free Republic

Why the winner of the Y2K race will be ... Bubba http://www.jewishworldreview.com HERE'S THE THING Americans most want in their next president: not Bill Clinton. Fortunately, that is precisely what they will get, even if Al Gore and George W. Bush headline the Y2K race. A Gore-Bush match-up would give us the most intriguing personal clash since Nixon and Kennedy faced off in 1960 and the most ideological contest since the Reagan-Carter match-up in 1980. It would mark the first baby-boom grudge match after four elections in which the Republican candidate was an average of 20 years older than ...

SMALL NUKE TEST? China set off a small nuclear-related blast over the weekend - days before U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering arrived in Beijing to deliver the latest American apology, according to Pentagon intelligence sources. The timing of the blast is being viewed by some U.S. officials as yet another negative signal from Beijing over the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. China has cut off military contacts with the United States and its government-controlled press in recent weeks has been filled with stories referring to the United States as "the enemy." According to Pentagon sources, the ...

There is a strong likelihood that presidential and congressional pay raises will be enacted this year. A House bill would double the president's salary, to $400,000, beginning in 2001. Congress, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, is pretty much resolved to give its members a cost-of-living increase. Members took a 2.3 percent raise in 1998. If they get the same percent, that would increase their pay by more than $3,000 - to about $140,000 annually. Supporters contend the chief executive is overdue for a raise. Besides, they say, the vice president makes almost as much - $175,400 ...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Virginia's Republican Party leadership has voted to hold a presidential primary, a decision party leaders say will give the state more national clout. On a voice vote Saturday, the Republican's Party's State Central Committee passed a resolution to hold a primary on Feb. 29, 2000. The vast majority of committee members voted in favor of the resolution. ``This opens it up to Republicans around the state and will expand the base of the party,'' said Chris LaCivita, executive director of the state GOP. Under the Virginia GOP's old process, some delegates to the national Republican ...

The poor and needy have a claim on the compassion of their neighbors, but it's a claim that is easily abused. In the Bible -- without which the very idea of helping the poor would never have crossed most people's minds -- we find passages supporting both charity ("I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat") and responsibility ("if any would not work, neither should he eat"). Most people understand this. Will Rogers, for example, made radio appeals for the relief of the destitute in the Great Depression, and he also spoke approvingly of a soup kitchen that ...

Des Moines Register June 20, 1999 On Iowa Visit, Keyes Delivers Moral Message By Jennifer Dukes Lee Register Staff Writer Newton, Ia. -- In his continuing appeal to social conservatives, Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes told Iowans Saturday to stop writing him off as a candidate sure to lose. After hearing one of Keyes' speeches, an audience member told him, "If I could just vote my heart, I'd vote for you," Keyes recalled. Keyes responded Saturday: Just do it. Kathy Wilson, a 45-year-old homemaker from Newton, said she probably will. "He had all of my attention," Wilson said. "He's the ...

                     SCHOOL WHISTLEBLOWERS' TALES OF TORMENT                   By MARIA ALVAREZ                  One teacher found a rat in his school mailbox.                  Another discovered her personnel file suddenly                  filled with complaints.                  Yet another has stopped receiving his paycheck.                  Harassment, intimidation and, in some cases,                  termination are the consequences faced by a                  growing number of city teachers who've stepped                  forward to blow the lid off school corruption,                  several told The Post.                  "With all the problems in our schools, people are                  more prone to pick up the phone and call                  investigators," said ...

In a recent voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives struck a blow against creeping globalism by giving Americans more control over their land. The vote sharply curbs the United Nations' authority to designate certain areas of the U.S. as ``World Heritage Sites'' and ``Biosphere Reserves.'' There are currently 83 such U.N. land designations in our country and many more sites are under consideration. Although the executive branch has to approve the U.N.'s action, the land-designation pact still tramples on the rights of local communities, state elected officials and even Congress. The American Land Sovereignty Protection Act is designed ...

We hear it everywhere, from churches to Congress: we need to allow religion back in the schools if we want to avoid another tragedy like the one at Columbine High School. Groups like the Christian Coalition say there has been a moral decline ever since the Supreme Court banned school prayer. They were disturbed by the story of Cassie Bernall, the Columbine student who was killed after saying she believed in God. And they make demons out of all atheist students, as if they had anything in common with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. As a high school junior ...

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Becky Fenger (602)955-1930 Thursday, June 17, 1999 Ambassador Alan Keyes Files Presidential Exploratory Committee (Washington, D.C.) Thursday, June 17, 1999 - Ambassador Alan Keyes, conservative commentator and host of "The Alan Keyes Show: America's Wake-Up Call", has officially formed an exploratory committee for seeking theRepublican Party nomination in the presidential election of 2000. Attendant documents have been filed with the Federal Election Commission.

George Bush never got used to the scrutiny and criticism that have become part and parcel of the modern presidency. His own words tell the tale. President George Bush was sick, almost reduced to tears. His third son, Neil, who was shy and dyslexic, was under public criticism for his involvement in a Colorado savings and loan association. As far as Bush was concerned, the son was paying part of the price for the father's presidency. "They're out to get my boy," Bush told White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, "they're out to get me." Four years earlier, Neil had ...

Guess when firearms and ammunition sales soar the most, as well as new National Rifle Association memberships? It always happens when the president talks up new gun control laws or Congress votes on new restrictions, as it did last week. Why does this happen? Thank the Law of Unintended Consequences. Americans aren't dumb. When they think they might lose more of their Second Amendment rights, they rush out to make sure to buy the product before it's taken away and to sign up with the NRA to fight against further erosion of the right to keep and bear arms. ...

Bar Codes for the Body Make It to the Market Biometrics May Alter Consumer Landscape By Guy Gugliotta Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 21, 1999; Page A01 HOUSTON—Jordan Pearce stood before the Bank United cash machine, stared at a blinking light for perhaps three seconds, waiting quietly while a hidden camera scanned his eyeball. The machine's television screen spasmed once and opened for business. Moments later Pearce pocketed $40 and departed, just like millions of other Americans who stop at their local ATM to get money every day. Except that Pearce, 18, a rising freshman at nearby Rice University, ...

Gun control may act as a starter's pistol, some think. After ABC interviewed House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt and House Majority Whip Tom DeLay on the subject, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard explained all. "I noticed Dick Gephardt used the phrase 'gun safety' about 15 times. The words 'gun control' never passed his lips. So the campaign has begun for 2000," Mr. Kristol said. He was struck, he said, by the two lawmakers' contrasting ideas. "They really have a disagreement," Mr. Kristol said. "That was a conservative and a liberal, and they were mixing it up. And ...

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Canada has much to be proud about so far in Kosovo. Although just off the airplane from Edmonton, the soldiers of Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) were among the first NATO troops in Kosovo nine days ago. Fifty-two hours after their armoured cars rolled off a freighter in Greece the Canadians were motoring across Kosovo in a rainstorm as part of Britain's 4th Armoured Brigade, which was the spearhead for NATO's largest ground operation ever. Of a force that will eventually grow to about 50,000 soldiers, but now numbers 16,000, the only troops to beat the ...

The Hidden Bond RPower(catfish@hitter.net) 21 June l999 A conquered nation can surely be kept suppressed as long as it is occupied by the conqueror I guess. After all, the South has remained subservient to its Yankee masters since Sherman raped, burned, and pillaged his way to the sea. BUT - - it seems the times, they are a-changing! Now, even the black folk for whom all this terror was allegedly loosed, have begun to realise that even today they are slaves to the Yankee Imperialists even more than the conquered Anglo Southerners. Lest we forget - the money was made ...

By Jeb Bush, Republican governor of Florida. Today Florida will take a giant stride forward in ensuring that schools serve children and their families when I sign into law the Bush/Brogan A+ Plan for Education. The plan puts the educational needs of every student above the bureaucratic needs of the system. Here's what it does: Assesses student learning. For the first time, Florida students in grades three through 10 will be tested annually on their progress. Each student's test results will be sent home to his parents. Raises standards by ending "social promotion." No longer will students advance to the ...

G.O.P. Retreating From Hard Stand Against Abortion June 21, 1999 G.O.P. Retreating From Hard Stand Against Abortion By RICHARD L. BERKE WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party has undergone a fundamental repositioning, and softening, of its stand on abortion, recognizing that a more tolerant position on probably the most divisive issue in American politics is crucial to its hopes of reclaiming the White House. Several major presidential candidates are barely mentioning abortion on the stump, if at all. Some members of Congress are concentrating on other issues, like taxes and education. Even some leaders of the anti-abortion movement have moderated ...

Transplant rule debated   June 21, 1999 BY MARK BROWN, STAFF REPORTER   Some of the nearly 1,200 people waiting to receive a liver transplant through Chicago hospitals could get a life-saving boost from a controversial proposed change in how donated livers are allocated. But that same rules change might mean a longer wait for a new liver for the area's most famous transplant candidate, Walter Payton. The proposed system of "regional sharing" has drawn protests from health officials in Wisconsin, who are concerned Chicago hospitals will siphon off livers donated to Wisconsin's organ banks. Wisconsin even has passed ...

By Paul C. Light, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "The True Size of Government" (Brookings, 1999). How can Washington prevent future security breaches like the one at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory? Last week former Sen. Warren Rudman, chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and head of a special investigating panel, recommended a "new semiautonomous agency" within the Department of Energy that would have "a clear mission, streamlined bureaucracy and drastically simplified lines of authority and accountability." Mr. Rudman is right to focus on the structure of the department, not the failures of ...