Free Republic

Talk about your Texas two-step. First, he danced around issues and whether his "good buddy" Gov. Ridge might be his running-mate. Then he danced away with at least $600,000. It was for Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the leading if untested candidate for president, what political pros dream about - a no-harm Philadelphia payday. At a Catholic grade school in North Philly and a later $1,000-a-head fund-raiser downtown, Bush used his first Pennsylvania day of Campaign 2000 to say nothing approaching controversy and little approaching specifics. Asked, for example, for his foreign-policy stance, Bush said he's for "peace and ...

If times are so great, why have bankruptcies hit record highs in each of the last three years? "When times are as good as they are, we shouldn't see bankruptcies climbing. But that's just what's happening," said Charlotte Birch, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association. Some 1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcies in 1998. Economists predict almost as many will file this year. In 1991, during the last recession, there were less than a million. Birch's outlook doesn't show much improvement. "The numbers will be down slightly, but they'll still be pretty high," she said. That's bad news for ...

FC committee unsure about use of Russian troops in Kosovo. MOSCOW, June 24 (Itar-Tass) - At its session on Thursday the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council has not yet made the decision whether to recommend the upper house of the parliament to sanction the use of Russian military troops in Kosovo. However Deputy Chairman of the committee Kirsan Ilyumzhinov told Itar-Tass that he was not inclined to dramatise the situation. "We still have time till 10 a.m. to make up our minds," he told Itar-Tass. (Eds: at 10 a.m. A plenary session of the chamber will begin to ...

NOW the Spratly disputes are turning inward, hitting the core of Asean. Philippine President Joseph Estrada has said that his government will lodge a diplomatic protest with Malaysia over the occupation of a rock in the disputed area. Estrada's statement has changed the nature of political engagement among the claimants other than China, which has so far remained benign. Philippine Defence Secretary Orlando Mercado seems to increase his country's stakes every time he comments on the disputes. This time he said reconnaissance planes had spotted a newly constructed concrete platform on a rock about 1,000 kilometres Southeast of Manila. ...

Muslim silence about Islamic crimes By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist, 06/24/99 What do American Muslims have to say about the ominous roundup of Jews in Iran? Word reached the West earlier this month that at least 13 Iranian Jews - and possibly as many as 30 - have been held incommunicado since March. They are accused, almost certainly falsely, of spying for Israel and the United States. The prisoners are from the poor Jewish communities of Shiraz and Isfahan; among their number are rabbis, kosher butchers, a cemetery guard, and a 16-year-old boy. According to the independent Iran Press Service, ...

TOKYO -- North Korea shelved talks with its southern neighbor on Wednesday and held all-day, closed-door talks with U.S. officials. The meetings, thought to focus on plans for a missile test and the North's nuclear program, were to continue today. U.S. special envoy Charles Kartman began talks with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan. The U.S. side presented the preliminary findings of a U.S. inspection last month of a suspected North Korean nuclear weapons complex. Officials said Kartman was also prepared to discuss a potential groundbreaking review of Washington's policy toward Pyongyang that could lead to an end ...

As a constitutional amendment against flag desecration sailed through the House of Representatives yesterday, I was wondering what the penalty is for desecrating the Constitution. I just wish more members of Congress had their priorities straight. The flag is just a symbol -- an important symbol, to be sure, but a symbol, nonetheless. A symbol of what? Presumably it is a symbol of the hard-won freedom we have experienced in the United States for most of its history. That freedom, our founders reminded us, was God-given and protected by the U.S. Constitution. Thus, the Constitution is a symbol, too. ...

IF NOTHING ELSE, WE COULD DESIGN A REWARD POSTER TO CIRCULATE ON THE NET...(unfortunately, graphic arts is not in my bag of tricks)

VOUCHERS' DAY IN COURT ERASE THE DOUBT Lawsuit needed to clarify constitutional question. Are school vouchers legal? That's what the American Civil Liberties Union wants to know. So do we. So on Tuesday, the day after Florida's Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law a massive school-reform bill that included his voucher plan, the ACLU and a coalition of other groups took the issue to court, just as they'd promised when the bill cleared the Legislature. Some voucher supporters have been sharply critical of the ACLU for mounting this challenge. In Monday's editions of The Herald, for instance, the conservative Institute ...

Here at the Center for Food in the Public Interest, we have been dining a good deal lately, as is our custom this time of year, at the Jersey Shore, and we would like to take this opportunity to recognize the great contribution that the cuisine of southern New Jersey makes to this great nation. Simply put, the food of the Jersey Shore is what America is all about. At one time, patriotic tub-thumpers loved to speak of the United States as a melting pot, and these days they call it a rainbow or a mosaic or whatever, but ...

Although activated by spirit of competition and by complex of inferiority, Russian paratroopers have arrived at Pristina--capital of Kosovo--before NATO troops, it's a little consolation. Small unit of Russians crossed border between Bosnia and Serbia and finally stationed its camp near Pristina airport. And what? Will they fight NATO troops? Hell no. Act of weakness and desperation. It is awfully depressing to watch a NATO victory over Yugoslavia. Eleven weeks of awfully costly bombardments and medium-size country, European, independent, with an experienced, courageous army, is on its knees. Blitzkrieg, however, was made possible by multiple factors: 1). By concentration of ...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Now that the war in Kosovo appears to be over, the newspaper columnists and political analysts are having their way with all the "could-have, would-have, should-haves" of American foreign policy. In this decade of wholly unsettled military conflicts, many are now beginning to wonder what the legacy of Kosovo will be. On the other hand, it would be safe to say that there's a great number of people on this campus that still have no idea where Kosovo is, or anything beyond a vague impression of why we just fought ...

The United States on Thursday offered a reward of up to $5 million to encourage the arrest of alleged Yugoslav war criminals, including President Slobodan Milosevic. State Department spokesman James Rubin said the money would go to ``those who provide information that leads to the transfer of indicted war criminals'' to the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Washington has provided evidence and support for the Hague court to pursue cases against those responsible for atrocities in Kosovo in recent months, when Serb forces forced hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians to flee ...

LONDON [MENL] -- President Saddam Hussein has authorized preparations to assassinate exiled opposition leaders organized and financed by the United States to overthrow the Iraqi ruler, Arab sources said. The sources said Saddam has authorized his son, Qusay, to train hit squads to assassinate or intimidate exile leaders who have launched an effort to oust the Iraqi president. Over the past month, Iraqi and Kurdish leaders have met in Washington in a U.S.-financed effort. Saddam's efforts include a reshuffle of his security and intelligence services and offers of amnesty to Iraqis who fled their country. Among the appointments was that ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - While Americans rallied behind President Clinton during the impeachment process, a bipartisan poll released today suggests the public has a growing concern about moral leadership that may help Republicans. The GOP has almost a 20 percentage-point edge over Democrats when asked which party best represents the values of faith in God, personal responsibility, ethics and honesty and knowing right from wrong, according to the latest Battleground Poll. Democrats and Republicans are tied at 39 percent apiece when voters were asked which party they would vote for if the election for Congress were held today. Texas Gov. George ...

Caracas, Venezuela-The recession battering Venezuela's economy is deepening, and President Hugo Chavez still hasn't set out a clear turnaround strategy. Demand for everything from automobiles and steel to electricity and food has shriveled this year. Unemployment rates in Venezuela's major cities have reached their highest levels in decades. Many analysts are lowering estimates of the country's economic performance for 1999, projecting a contraction in Venezuela's gross domestic product of 6.5% or more. Last year, the economy shrank by less than 1% "The economy is in a hole," says Tamara Herrera, an economist with Sintesis Financiera, a Caracas consultancy. The last ...

THE 100 BEST NON-FICTION BOOKS OF THE CENTURY Earlier this year, Random House announced that it would release a list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century. The publisher had enjoyed success (and controversy) with its 100 best novels; now it would do this. Here at National Review, we decided to get a jump on them by forming our own panel and offering our own list. Under the leadership of our reporter John J. Miller, we have done so. We have used a methodology that approaches the scientific. But-certainly beyond, say, the first 40 books-the fact of the ...

IT'S THE POLITICS THIS IS THE FIRST—and perhaps only—art of political warfare in a democracy: understanding that the side of the underdog, which is the side of the people, wins. In the impeachment conflict, sound Democrat political strategy in defending the President was underwritten by a full employment economy, a soaring Dow, positive social trends (declining crime rates, increasing morality indexes) and no clear political framing of the case for removal. In these circumstances, the conservative response of the public to stick with a twice-elected, sitting President is perfectly understandable, even re-assuring. The Democrat campaign against impeachment was a remarkable ...

Lewinsky questioned on tapings Maryland prosecutors present her answers to Tripp grand jury; Testimony critical to case; Experts say elusive tapes won't be needed to seek indictment By Del Quentin Wilber Sun Staff State prosecutors recently questioned Monica S. Lewinsky for the first time and presented her answers to a Howard County grand jury investigating possible illegal wiretapping by Linda R. Tripp, said sources familiar with the case. Lewinsky's testimony is critical to the investigation, legal experts said, because she would likely testify that she did not know she was being taped by Tripp. That is an essential part of ...

U.S. MARINES AMBUSHED BY SNIPERS IN KOSOVO By MARILYN RAUBER WASHINGTON - Snipers yesterday fired on U.S. Marines in Kosovo - and the second U.S. gun battle in as many days had the Pentagon fretting over their "extremely dangerous" mission. The 20 to 30 Marines were manning a checkpoint near Zegra - south of their headquarters at Gnijlane - when they came under fire from snipers inside a house. None of the Marines was injured in the attack. "We have become the target of violent acts," said the commander of the U.S. forces in Kosovo, Army Brig. Gen. John Craddock, ...