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Pentagon holding meetings with contractors WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon Monday said it had met with Lockheed Martin Corp. to review defense contracts and would hold similar reviews with other big military suppliers. ``The fact is that these meetings are just a continuing effort to make certain that our relationship with our contractors work smoothly,'' Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said. ``They are about process, not about program,'' she said. The Pentagon met with Lockheed on a Saturday about three weeks ago, Irwin said. The Wall Street Journal, citing senior Defense Department officials, said Boeing Co. has been scheduled for ...

Jammin' Ann Coulter will be appearing on the Hannity & Colmes Show @ 9:00 PM EDT this evening.Don't miss this chance to see Miz Coulter strut her stuff(And she's got some kinda stuff to strut!!) in a wonderful Geraldo-free environment.

Early Campaign Finance Vote Slows By DAVID ESPO .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - An effort to force campaign finance legislation to the floor ahead of Speaker Dennis Hastert's timetable appears becalmed in the House, where a petition drive has failed to gather any new GOP support in more than three weeks. Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, the leading Republican advocate of the measure, says, ``I make no assumptions'' about whether any additional GOP lawmakers will sign the petition. Thus far, 195 Democrats and independent Rep. Bernie Sanders have backed the effort to force the bill to the floor ...

[excerpt] Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. official who essentially becomes Kosovo's governor under the peace deal... When was this guy elected? ...had expressed concern Sunday that KLA activities could undermine his authority. Authority? What authority? Whence derived? On Monday, he praised the agreement and set about the work of building peace. While Jackson is chiefly responsible for security, Vieira de Mello's tasks include...re-establishing civilian courts and police forces, and preparing for elections. And if those elections and courts happen to "undermine the authority" of the UN?... Vieira de Mello said one of his first acts would be to issuestrict ...

Independent Counsel Act Criticized .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - With nine days left in the life of the Independent Counsel act, the chairman of the committee considering its renewal said Monday that Congress should give the Watergate-era law ``a decent burial.'' Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson said the law is fatally flawed because it provides loopholes that allow an attorney general to protect a president under suspicion, while leaving independent counsels defenseless against unfair attacks. Thompson, who supports leaving the probes with the Justice Department with provisions for congressional and White House input, said he was ...

Man Sentenced for Biting Wife's Lip .c The Associated Press BOSTON (AP) - A man was sentenced to five years probation Monday for biting off his wife's lower lip during an argument over a party he wanted to attend. Cator Lewis-Charles, 36, of Boston, pleaded guilty in Superior Court to mayhem. He must complete an anger management course and a batterer's program. The argument on Jan. 2, 1998, at the couple's home escalated into pushing and shoving. Lewis-Charles grabbed his wife and bit her lower lip, tearing it from her face, said prosecutors, who didn't disclose the wife's name. Lewis-Charles ...

The Declaration of Independence is politically incorrect. That became an issue when the New Jersey Assembly debated a bill that would require public school students to recite the ''all men are created equal'' passage of the declaration every day, in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance. Some lawmakers objected, saying the declaration reflects outdated and inappropriate colonial values. If it must be recited, they argued, then ''all men'' should be changed to ''all people.'' The Assembly, disinclined to edit the famous words of Thomas Jefferson, approved the bill in its original form. Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, however, has indicated ...

ISSUE 1485 Saturday 19 June 1999 'Dreamboat Bush' proves to be ladies' man By Mark Steyn GORE, Bush; Bush, Gore; Bore, Gush. One believes in "compassionate conservatism", the other in "practical idealism"; or maybe one believes in "practical compassion", the other in "idealistic practicalities". Either way, the battle lines for the presidential campaign were drawn this week. "On this ground I will make my stand!" declared George W Bush, defending himself against those who'd attacked him for his "compassionate conservatism". I don't think anyone has attacked him for his compassionate conservatism: we'd just like to know what it means. So ...

GENEVA, June 21 (AFP) - A US expert warned on Monday it would take up to five years before the people of Kosovo could resume their daily lives free of the menace of landmines. "This is a problem that can be managed, but it is going to require not just a question of months," US ambassador Donald Steinberg told journalists. "It's going to be question of three to five years in our estimation before we have conditions in Kosovo where individuals can go back to their lives as before," said Steinberg, recently appointed the US special representative for global humanitarian ...

The U.S. Department of Education has designed a way to sidestep the growing number of federal court decisions holding that affirmative action -- as intensively pursued by the department -- is unconstitutional. News of this stratagem was first reported in the authoritative weekly the Chronicle of Higher Education: "Colleges would be in legal jeopardy if they use SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) or ACT (American College Testing) scores as the primary basis for admissions and financial aid decisions, according to draft guidelines that the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is circulating among college officials." The coercive bureaucratic device ...

I am signed up with their education program and I thought this would be a heads up to watch for all here: **Attention Teachers** Special programming on National Security Issues to air tomorrow, June 22 beginning at 7am ET on C-SPAN! Tuesday, June 22 Schedule follows: LIVE 7 - 8 am ET On C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) will discuss the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing to be held later in the day. LIVE 8 - 9 am ET - On Washington Journal, Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ('73 -'77), will discuss major international and domestic issues ...

MONROE, Va. (AP)-- Angry at being cooped up in stuffy buses after their job training center had been evacuated for a bomb threat, students clashed with police equipped with riot gear.Students spat on officers and threw cigarette lighters and balled-up T-shirts at them during the confrontation Sunday at the Old Dominion Job Corps Center. No one was injured, police and school officials said.About 40 police officers squared off against the students, and prepared to use a high-pressure water hose in case the students charged, said Amherst County Sheriff L.T. Ayers."It was just a mess there for about an hour or ...

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — "Don't do that!'' the head of an organization trying to remove a million mines from Bosnia exclaimed Monday when Hillary Rodham Clinton lifted a mine on display at a medical institute here and touched its fuse. "No, no, I won't (activate it),'' the first lady told Jernej Cimpersek with a smile, putting the mine safely away, part of her tour of the National Institute for Rehabilitation. It was only after that incident that Cimpersek, director of the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims' Assistance in Bosnia-Herzegovina, gave Mrs. Clinton a protective jacket like those ...

Talking heads have had a fine time recently taking potshots at Texas Gov. George W. Bush, noted Meredith Oakley of the Arkansas Demcorat-Gazette yesterday. What does the governor stand for, they ask? "They don't ask the same question about Democratic candidate Al Gore," she writes, "But I figure that's because they already know the answer: He stands for Bill Clinton -- as well as by and with him, even to the point of declaring just a few days back that misleading people has nothing to do with lying. "Yes, sir, that's just what we need; four to eight more ...

Monday June 21 4:06 PM ET US To Release Russian Kennedy Papers After Review LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (Reuters) - The United States plans to release Russian documents about the life and death of former President John F. Kennedy after a review of the papers, the White House said Monday. The documents, which Russia gave the United States Sunday, could be of particular interest because Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, lived in the former Soviet Union for several years before he returned to the United States and killed the former president in November 1963. Russian President Boris Yeltsin surprised President Clinton Sunday ...

PAK ATTEMPT AT CHANGING LOC IRRESPONSIBLE, SAYS GERMANY Bonn, June 21 (Agencies) - In one of the strongest indictments of Pakistan by any foreign government yet, Germany has termed as "irresponsible'' Pakistan's attempt to change the status quo on the Line of Control. Wolfgang Massing, head of the Asia desk at the Germany ministry of foreign affairs, says he has information that apart from Afghan militants, the Pakistani Army was involved in the intrusion in Kargil, violating the LoC. Massing was speaking recently at a debate in Berlin on `Regional and Global Security Implications of the Indian and Pakistani ...

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - The United Nations raised its light blue flag over Kosovo Sunday, and with it hopes for order and democracy in the bitterly divided region. But the red-and-black flag of Albania, which flies over their headquarters on the hilly outskirts of Pristina and elsewhere in Kosovo, represents a serious challenge to U.N. authority. The separatist Kosovo Liberation Army is occupying town halls the United Nations says it should administer and intervening in disputes the world body says it should mediate, raising concerns that plans for a multiethnic Kosovo will be hijacked. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the high-ranking, ...

The thread below discusses an article written by an AP "journalist". SUBMACHINE GUNS FOR SALE AT GUN SHOW? http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a376e32d044a3.htm The original tile and byline are: Patrons Turn Out for Gun Show By Robert Sanchez Associated Press Writer It uses the following inflamatory terms in association with "redneck":Banjo music (mentioned twice), rebels, the South, drunk, dirty jeans, cutoff undershirts, unshaven, cursing, obscene gesture, Nazi medals and Confederate flags.It is obvious that the intent was to reinforce the neagtive stereotype for the slur "redneck". If you are offended and wish to complain to the Associated Press, you need to contact Assistant To ...

With Slobodan Milosevic's rule shaken by Serbia's withdrawal from Kosovo, an even more extremist and anti-Western politician is bidding to take his place. After quitting Milosevic's government when NATO-led troops marched into the southern Serbian province, Vojislav Seselj is poised to mount the greatest political challenge to the Yugoslav President since he came to power 10 years ago. If Mr Seselj succeeds, it will put into place a nationalist leadership even more strident and anti-Western than the regime NATO just tried to bomb into submission. Mr Seselj, a 45-year-old lawyer and Serbia's Acting Deputy Prime Minister, launched his political career ...

Nato watches Kosovars strip village clean By Andrew Buncombe in Grece British and French troops stood and watched as looters pillaged and burned a Serb village yesterday, making a mockery of Nato's claim that it is providing security for both Serbs and Albanians. Serbs in the village of Grece, 10 miles north of the Kosovo capital Pristina, had apparently been warned on Saturday night by returning Albanians that they should leave immediately. Early yesterday morningdozens of tractors and trailers arrived in the tiny village and the Albanians set about taking anything they could find. As well as the obvious ...