Free Republic

Republican senators and the energy secretary on Tuesday agreed the structure of the Energy Department must change to better guard secrets at U.S. nuclear weapons labs but there was no consensus on what should be done. In an unusual meeting of four senate committees, there was general agreement that a quick legislative solution would be best, to strike while public furore was hot over allegations that China's spies got some top U.S. nuclear weapons secrets in the past 20 years. China has denied it stole U.S. nuclear secrets. But disagreements quickly emerged over how best to improve security. While ...

Senate Votes To Cut U.S.-U.N. Share By TOM RAUM .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation to cut U.S. contributions to the United Nations today as the price of an agreement to release nearly $1 billion in back payments owed to the world organization. Approved 98 to 1, the measure calls for a reduction in the U.S. share of the regular U.N. budget from the present 25 percent to 20 percent; and a drop in the share of peacekeeping operations from 31 percent to 25 percent. The reduction in payments would be unilateral, made over ...

Senators Discuss Action On Nuclear LabsBy Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican senators and the energy secretary Tuesday agreed the structure of the Energy Department must change to better guard secrets at U.S. nuclear weapons labs but there was no consensus on what should be done. In an unusual meeting of four senate committees, there was general agreement that a quick legislative solution would be best, to strike while public furor was hot over allegations that China's spies got some top U.S. nuclear weapons secrets in the past 20 years. China has denied it stole U.S. nuclear secrets. But disagreements ...

U.S. senators discuss action on nuclear labs By Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican senators and the energy secretary Tuesday agreed the structure of the Energy Department must change to better guard secrets at U.S. nuclear weapons labs but there was no consensus on what should be done. In an unusual meeting of four senate committees, there was general agreement that a quick legislative solution would be best, to strike while public furor was hot over allegations that China's spies got some top U.S. nuclear weapons secrets in the past 20 years. China has denied it stole U.S. nuclear secrets. ...

Catholic voting alliances: Quando hic sum, non ieiuno Sabbato; Quando Americana sum, ieuino Sabbato June 4, 1999 By Nicholas Sanchez American Catholics: they remain sleeping giants atop the American political scene. Met by a less than friendly (and overwhelmingly Republican) Protestant establishment upon entering the United States as immigrants in the latter part of the 19th century, they cast their lot immediately with the Democratic Party. Al Smith’s capture of the Democratic nomination for president in 1928 further enticed Catholics to close ranks with the Democrats. And as willful participants in the FDR coalition they, for the first time since ...

Republicans back school grant programs By Joanne Kenen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans Tuesday unveiled an education plan that would let states opt out of the traditional federal education funding system and come up with their own more flexible approaches. Republicans say the program would strengthen local control and minimize bureaucracy while ensuring accountability. Details of how money would be allocated have not yet been worked out. But Democrats, who bitterly fought earlier Republican proposals to switch a large share of federal school funding to block grants, dismissed it as a new twist on block grants that would cut school ...

North Korea, South Korea Talks Tense By JOHN LEICESTER .c The Associated Press BEIJING (June 22) - North Korea accused South Korea of deliberately pushing their rivalry ``to the brink of war,'' marring the highest level talks between the two governments in 14 months Tuesday. After just 90 minutes of talks, the North Korean delegation said it would not meet again with South Korean officials until Seoul was ready to apologize for a naval clash last week in disputed waters of the Yellow Sea. The meeting, taking place on the neutral ground of Beijing, was scheduled to deal with reuniting ...

Filed at 11:57 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press FOREIGN AFFAIRS/NATIONAL SECURITY Briscoe -OFF Burns Dunphy -World Bank votes on controversial decision to move 58,000 Tibetans. -Filing afternoon. Gedda -10 a.m., Sen ForRe subcomite, on threats to security in the Americas, witness Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commdr US SoCmd, 562, Dirksen. Lekic -OFF Raum -2:30 p.m., Holbrooke hearing, Sen ForRel, focus UN reform, 562 Hart. -Senate floor, State Dept., authorization if still up. Schweid

SIGHTINGS The Council On Foreign Relations And Weapons Of War From: roundtable The CFR and Weapons of War 4-17-99 On Tuesday April 13, 1999 Council on Foreign Relations member President BJ Clinton announced his intention to nominate Council on Foreign Relations member Robert J. Einhorn to be Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation at the Department of State. If the purpose of an Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation is to increase weapons proliferation then Einhorn is a good choice. America's Council on Foreign Relations, Britain's Royal Institute of International Affairs, and their branch organizations in other nations including the Bilderberg Group, have ...

Mark Jimenez, the Miami computer exporter who became the largest Florida donor to the Democratic National Committee before being indicted for illegal campaign contributions to President Clinton, is living in the Philippines as a special advisor to that country's president. Last week, the U.S. government formally asked Philippine authorities to arrest him and return him to the United States. Justice Department spokesman John Russell said the Jimenez case is ''a priority matter, and we're treating it like a priority matter.'' More info and links at the Committee on Government Reform web site.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Tuesday approved a plan to pay the bulk of the huge U.S. debt to the United Nations in return for reforms at the world body and a reduction in future dues payments. On a 98-1 vote, the Senate backed a package that would pay $819 million in U.S. debts to the United Nations over three years and forgive $107 million the organization owes the United States. In exchange, the United Nations would agree to cut the U.S. share of the regular U.N. budget from 25 percent to 20 percent, and the U.S. share of peacekeeping ...

Lyrics Copyright 1999, Doug from Upland. Not for commercial use without permission of the author. You're a great new flag…San Francisco's gay flag For this month of gay pride may you fly You're the symbol of…back doors we love Use oil or it is too dry We are queer and proud…we will shout it aloud Of your jokes we will pay no mind As you watch our rainbow flag We'll sneak up from behind Willy Brown's the man…we'll do him if we can Old and gray but his butt's still in shape May the world view…perversion true In public ...

The uses for biometrics, either as security or authentication mechanisms, are virtually limitless. Law enforcement can make an electronic ''mug book'' from a face geometry database, with a hidden camera beeping the police station whenever a wanted fugitive steps in front of the camera at a known drug hangout. Entire article.

Sherlock Holmes would have had little difficulty in analyzing the real motives behind the recent expressions of concern from prominent Democrats such as U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson, the Chinese government, and Asian-American activists about the racist reactions of prominent Republicans, the Washington media elite, and the American people towards Chinese-Americans, and Asian-Americans generally, as a result of the China spy scandal. "You say, Watson, that the dog barked on the night of the crime. Curiously, that same dog had also barked on the night of a previous crime. On both occasions, however, when inquiry was made, there was no ...

(CNBC)   Salon online magazine decided to go public, in spite of the fact that they have no profit potential and no real revenue to speak of. Priced low at $10.50, the stock never took off, dipping as low as 9 13/16 and never rising higher than 10 13/16. ) (Reuters)   Salon is only the second company to go public under the auction format, called the ``OpenIPO.'' Lead underwriter W.R. Hambrecht+Co., which developed the new system, describes it as a fairer way to price new issues, by giving individual investors more power to set the price. The offering has ...

Ventura's safety on tour costs state Gov. Jesse Ventura's cross-country bookselling tour, which has helped drive ``I Ain't Got Time to Bleed'' to the fifth spot on the New York Times bestseller list, will cost the state more than $15,600 in travel expenses, officials said Monday. Expenses for three state troopers on the trips to Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago totaled $11,468. Expenses for one staff person on the tour was put at $4,167. The troopers' expenses may go a few hundred dollars higher once final meal reports are filed, a spokesman in the governor's office ...

The U.S. Department of Defense is so concerned about the potential for problems associated with the Y2K millennium bug that it is considering unplugging itself from the Internet to defend against a simultaneous cyber assault. That word comes from Marvin Langston, the deputy chief information officer for the Pentagon, who says the discussions about the plan are "as serious as a heart attack." "We need to close down back doors around the year 2000 to prevent hacking during Y2K confusion," he said during a panel discussion at an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association conference last week. In the ...

WASHINGTON — When President Clinton returns to Washington from Europe early Wednesday, he will find an escalating political battle over who will replace him in the 2000 election and which party will control Congress. While Clinton was on a seven-day overseas trip winding down NATO's air war against Yugoslavia, Vice President Al Gore formally declared his candidacy to succeed him and Republican front-runner George W. Bush basked in the afterglow of an intensely watched initial presidential campaign foray to Iowa and New Hampshire. On Capitol Hill, with a clear eye on next year's elections, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives last ...

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Eight days, five countries, little sleep and lots of stress have taken a noticeable toll on President Clinton. As he wrapped up his European tour Tuesday, the baggage he carried back to Washington was mostly under his reddened eyes. On the flight between Macedonia and Italy — the journey's last leg before Air Force One pointed home — Clinton sat next to his wife with a folder marked "PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT'' clutched to his stomach, his head flopped over on his right shoulder. Sound asleep. Several times earlier in the trip, Clinton acknowledged tiredness. He confessed ...

The era of class-action civil lawsuits is just getting warmed up. Under the premise of recovering health care costs, the states sued "big tobacco" for billions, and got a settlement. Next, they're trying to go after gun manufacturers, using the same tactics of recovering health care costs borne by the states to treat victims of gun violence. How long can it be before we see a suit brought against computer manufacturers, to recover the health care costs borne by the states in treating children for the health problems they suffer as a result of exposure to computers? We have ...