Free Republic

Here they are folks, those who have been "honored" after appearing on yesterday's news shows PROFESSIONALS' MONTHLYBe sure to check out the "THINKING MAN" cartoon at the bottom of the page.Also, since he's been doing the rounds promoting his new book (SHADOW), an excerpt of a critique of Misters Woodward and Bernstein (after their appearance on Meet the Press on 8/98 during which they commented on the Lewinsky matter) follows (the rest of the article is at PROFESSIONALS' MONTHLY): Almost exactly 24 years ago this week, an historical event took place. Amazingly, we seem to be living it all over ...

FOREWORD: Free Republic has devoted itself to the mission of rooting out corruption in government, including the accumulation of power by the government in excess of legal authority. In participating on Free Republic over the past year it has become increasingly clear that many FReepers, no doubt well-intentioned, lack the critical faculties and rational basis for recognizing corruption and discerning between truth and falsehood. We cannot fight corruption if we have no basis for recognizing it, or for explaining why it is wrong. We cannot discern between truth and lies in media, education, etc., if we do not understand epistemology ...

Stocking Up: After Gun Bill Flops, Weapons Show Draws a Crowd The Associated Press L I T T L E R O C K, Ark., June 21 — Under a din of banjos and the hum of fluorescent lights, the chatter of bartering from a larger-than-expected crowd echoed through the region’s biggest gun show. While Congress debates whether to impose more restrictions on who can buy a gun — and when — rednecks, rebels and average Joes turned out for the weekend show. “They want to make a stand,” said Mike Jones, 36, who was carrying his three-month old daughter, ...

President Clinton last week criticized racial profiling by police as a "morally indefensible, deeply corrosive practice," but he strongly defended such profiling when he was governor of Arkansas.     He approved the profiling of Hispanics by Arkansas State Police as part of a drug interdiction program in 1988.     The Arkansas plan gave state troopers the authority to stop and search vehicles based on a drug-courier profile of Hispanics, particularly those driving cars with Texas license plates. A federal judge later ruled the program unconstitutional.

China-US joint venture aims to help hi-tech firms raise funds BEIJING, June 21 (AFP) - An indirect subsidiary of China's state-owned news agency Xinhua has teamed up with a US company to match promising high-technology Chinese companies with venture capital firms overseas.Xinhua Financial Corporation joined hands with Bush Corporation to form Bush-Xinhua Financial Consulting Services, a joint news statement said.The firm will focus on smaller, mid-cap firms in high technology and emerging industries."We are taking a page from the most successful IPO (initial public offering) markets in the world and Silicon Valley in California," said Dennis Pelino, Bush's chairman ...

When Texas Gov. George W. Bush went to Iowa to announce his campaign for the presidency, ABC's Cokie Roberts was among the journalists on hand to go one-on-one with the Republican front-runner. One of her questions revealed the kind of media bias that Gov. Bush, or any Republican, will have to contend with in coming months. She asked Gov. Bush if his theme of "compassionate conservatism" will counteract the "dark side" of the Republican Party. The governor's mild reply may have been the way to stay on the media's good side, but we wish he had disputed the premise of ...

Helms Faces Off With White House on Missed ABM Treaty Deadline By Thomas W. Lippman Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 21, 1999; Page A05 There are limits, it seems, to the detente Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright forged two years ago with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), and the administration crossed one of them June 1. That was Helms's deadline for the Clinton administration to submit for Senate ratification modifications negotiated with Russia to the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty. Helms believes the amendments would fail to receive the two-thirds vote required for ratification, an outcome ...

The House vote last week to allow the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools shouldn't become law, and in fact a similar issue failed a 1980 test of its constitutionality. The measure is pure political showboating. It detracts from more rational considerations about religion and the classroom and workplace that are already well underway, part of a broad search by the federal government to make room for religion in public in a way that doesn't violate the separation of church and state.      The commandments amendment was tacked onto the juvenile crime bill by Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.). ...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Under a din of banjos and the hum of fluorescent lights, the chatter of bartering from a larger-than-expected crowd echoed through the region's biggest gun show. While Congress debates whether to impose more restrictions on who can buy a gun - and when - rednecks, rebels and average Joes turned out for the weekend show. ``They want to make a stand,'' said Mike Jones, 36, who was carrying his three-month old daughter, Debbie. ``They think their rights are going to be taken away soon, so they're stocking up.'' Show organizers said the crowd was ...

EUROPEAN companies are finding the much-trumpeted opportunities of the vast Chinese market far less promising than many had hoped, a survey says. Less than half the European companies in China surveyed by Fiducia, a China-based management consultancy, are failing to break even. Most have found their performance worse than expected and managers complained strongly about Chinese bureaucracy. Jurgen Kracht, Fiducia's managing director, said companies were showing a new realism about the size of the potential mainland market for Western-standard goods, which can be counted in the millions rather than the £1.3 billion so often quoted. "China has been quite smart, ...

Many Americans objected to President Clinton's bombing of Yugoslavia -- without a declaration of war by Congress and with no threat of attack against the United States. You might be one of those who think it's wrong to bomb innocent Serbs for the alleged sins of one man. By attacking a smaller country without provocation, our President invited the resentment of hundreds of millions people worldwide, as well as the active interest of terrorists who might want to react to such a dangerous foreign policy. Who gave President Clinton the authority to jeopardize our future in this way? Well, maybe ...

Pornography course contributes nothing to moral sensibility http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IT WOULD SEEM that much of "higher learning" has gotten real low. Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., has a course that requires students to produce pornography as their final exam. This course, "Pornography: Writing of Prostitutes," examines the history, impact and portrayals of pornography in society. Hope Weissman, a women's studies professor, teaches the course. Speaking of the students' final requirement to produce pornography, she said to The Hartford Courant, "Nothing would be considered too risque."........ Click here for full article.

Taking back our streets http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- THE CITY OF CHICAGO had a problem familiar to many other cities: gangs. Sporting their colors, tattoos and other identifiers, they liked to hang out in poor neighborhoods looking for trouble. Responding to the law-abiding citizens of those neighborhoods, who reported feeling intimidated and unsafe, the Chicago City Council passed an anti-loitering ordinance. The ordinance made it a crime punishable by a fine of up to $500 and imprisonment for up to six months to "loiter," defined as "remaining in any one place with no apparent purpose." The council provided four predicates for the ...

Stop oversimplifying gun debate http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- AS THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE for the year 2000 gets off to an uninspiring start, gun control is one of the big issues on the campaign trail. Last week, Vice-President Al Gore fired off another volley at the National Rifle Association and blasted the House for failing to pass gun control laws approved by the Senate. In Michigan, gun control is a popular cause. A proposed amendment to state law would raise the minimum age for a gun purchase from 18 to 21 (just like the legislation before Congress). One could endlessly debate the ...

Crumbs of compassion http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- YOU KNOW THIS is going to be one heck of a campaign season when the Democratic front-runner is being forced to prove he's more compassionate than the Republican one. Try as he undoubtedly did, Al Gore couldn't quite make it through his campaign announcement without revealing his defensiveness about W's presumptuous appropriation of the compassion theme. Bush has definitely gotten Gore's goat, and maybe even his family farm --- tobacco and all. It's a beautiful thing. Gore took an unmistakable shot at Bush when he said, "I want to do it the right way, ...

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 ...