Free Republic

THE Supreme Court removed federal powers in three decisions seen yesterday as an historic turning point in the way America is governed. The rulings, which shocked many constitutional scholars, mean individuals cannot force a state to comply with laws made by the US Congress. The rulings reverse the expansion of federal power over the 50 states, for the court's five-to-four conservative majority has told Washington that if it wants its laws enforced it must go to court itself. This is impossible, for Washington has neither the staff nor the money to sue whenever America's 273 million citizens are denied their ...

4 civilians die in Kosovo unrest By Anatoly Verbin PRISTINA, June 25 (Reuters) - At least 14 Kosovo civilians were killed in the provincial capital Pristina during the most violent 24 hour-hour period since NATO troops moved in to the region two weeks ago. ``Yesterday was a very busy day with a lot of overnight activity,'' Lieutenant Colonel Paul Watton of the British force which controls Pristina told a news conference on Friday. ``There are tremendous challenges here,'' he said. Another NATO spokesman, Major Jan Joosten, said an Italian soldier was wounded a weapon was accidentally discharged. He was taken ...

CHINESE RAIDS OUR AIR DEFENSE SECRETS. CharlesSmith Date: Tuesday, June 22, 1999 Subject: WND - Commerce Dept. & The PLA "Military" Air Defense http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_smith/19990622_xcsof_chinagate_.shtml. During the first four years of the Clinton administration, People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Ding Henggao and his top two PLA assistants, Lt. General Huai Guomo and Lt. General Shen Rougjun, raided U.S. technology on a scale never before imagined. Some of Lt. General Shen's fantastic exploits against the Clinton administration are documented in the Cox report dealing with the theft of nose cone technology from Hughes. In addition, some of General Huai's handy-work can be ...

Senate starts new custom: daily pledge of allegiance -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By MICHELLE R. DAVIS Washington Bureau -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON -- The longest-serving, oldest politician in the U.S. Senate made history again Thursday, by being the first person to open a Senate session by reciting the pledge of allegiance. South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond started a new Senate tradition Thursday when he faced the flag and recited the pledge. On Wednesday, senators approved a resolution to start each day the way most schoolchildren do. As president pro tem of the Senate, Thurmond usually opens the session each morning by banging his gavel and ...

First, it isn't our values we are asking others to live by. It is G-d's values that we have accepted and recognize as the best and wisest possible values by which to live. If I have expert advice and I see someone living foolishly and suffering as a result, I would have to hate that person to not share that expert advice with them.... ...Christians do sometimes try to coerce rather than persuade. I agree that this is approaching the problem from the wrong end, more or less. But I'm also not going to wait until we have 100.0000% agreement ...

Russia May Hold Baltic Exercises .c The Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) - Russian marines will hold combat exercises at a Baltic Sea firing range Friday for the first time in 10 years, a news agency reported. Up to 2,000 personnel, along with aircraft and helicopters, will participate in live-fire exercises at the Pravda firing range in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The exercises are part of larger war games coded ``West 99,'' designed to test Russia's ability to withstand an attack from the West. The military is mounting major exercises in various parts of the ...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In a city where neighborhoods coexist like tightly nestled countries -- each with a distinct personality and culture -- people don't sit quietly when one begins to invade another. And so San Francisco's Mission district, historically a haven for Hispanic immigrants and artists, has become a battlefield for yuppies, activists and one eccentric anarchist. ``The yuppie takeover can be stopped,'' reads one of his fliers. ``Vandalize yuppie cars ... Break the glass. Scratch the paint. Trash them all. Don't get caught.'' All sides are scrambling madly for affordable housing as the thriving high-tech economy, coupled with ...

***HELLO, MUDDAH, HELLO, BIG BRO*** NO MORE AMMO . . . . . . Just when it seems that the hysterical reaction to the school shootings in Littleton, Colo., has reached an unsurpassable level of lunacy, someone devises a reaction that is even more preposterous than any that preceded it. Congress has proposed superfluous gun laws, threatened to prosecute producers of violent movies, even demanded that achools post the Ten Commandments to stave off outbreaks of violence. Politicians, of course, live and breathe for the opportunity to overact to a crisis. We have come to expect such idiocy from the ...

Clinton Readies Medicare Drug Plan By TERENCE HUNT .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is floating a Medicare prescription benefit that could pay roughly half the cost of drugs up to a limit of perhaps $3,000 to $5,000 a year, in return for higher premiums paid by beneficiaries, officials said today. The proposal still is being written, White House press secretary Joe Lockhart said, and final details will not be disclosed until Clinton presents it Tuesday. Congressional Democrats are nervous about raising Medicare premium charges heading into the 2000 elections. They also are concerned about another ...

Walter Williams Corruption of language MANY OF MY YOUTHFUL Saturday afternoons were spent at the theater watching Tarzan or Jungle Jim fighting in the swamps and jungles against the forces of evil. There were swamps and jungles because we saw them. When have you last heard the words swamps and jungles? Have swamps and jungles disappeared from the face of the earth? No, for political purposes they've been renamed. They're now wetlands and rain forests. The public can't be whipped into a frenzy about saving swamps and jungles, but wetlands and rain forests are a different matter. Everybody's onboard with ...

Bill Clinton was seen outside the White House tour exit on Penn Ave last Saturday. He was carrying a bunch of flowers and a sign that said, "Wanna Go Out?"Word is he will be back again tomorrow with a huge bouquet of flowers. Come join the protest. Bring your best sign because a lot of photos will be taken.Showtime is from 10 am to 2 pm. Be there!Kristinn and Angelwood have some great signs in the works. In fact, so good I stole their ideas.Don't be shy, we had lurkers join last week. And we had tremendous support from the ...

1310 GMT, 990625 Yugoslavia – RTS Serb TV has reported that an attempt on the life of Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini was made during his visit to Kosovo on June 23. The report said he was fired at by the KLA, who are angry at Italian forces for actively protecting Serbs in Kosovo. News footage, aired by the station, showed Dini completely surrounded by plainclothes bodyguards and KFOR soldiers. There are no other reports of the incident. 1304 GMT, 990625 Romania/Yugoslavia – NATO Secretary General Javier Solana will visit with President Emil Constantinescu and Prime Minister Radu Vasile July ...

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 ...

Republicans actually helped their image with voters -- and boosted their election prospects in the 2000 election -- by impeaching President Clinton, a leading Democratic pollster said Thursday. At the same time, Democrats are suffering from a delayed voter disgust with Mr. Clinton's scandals that has improved GOP chances for the presidency and Congress in next year's elections, according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. As a result of the "time-release" change in attitude among voters, moral values have become the dominant issue for voters and could spell defeat for Vice President Al Gore and his fellow Democrats next year. ...

Dear Members of the House, We are closely watching how you handle the Second Amendment. Please Do Not enact any new laws that harm, restrict, or damage our Second Amendment. All GOOD Congressman will be posted here for praises, and all bad Congressman will be posted and voters will be reminded at election time who voted for new anti-gun legislation. Thank you for your service to America. House Members can be reached at 202 456 3121

Mena: The Oral Deposition of Richard J. Brenneke Joint Investigation by the Arkansas State Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Congress The following deposition was taken from Mr. Brenneke at The Office of the Attorney General 323 Center Street Little Rock, Arkansas on June 21, 1991 at 10:10 a.m. (Excerpts are from pages 3, 4, 6, 7-12, 13, 14-21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28-30, 39-41.) MR. ALEXANDER: My name is William Alexander, Jr., and I'm an attorney and a member of the United States Congress. I'm a member of the Bar of the State of Arkansas as well as ...

Republicans actually helped their image with voters -- and boosted their election prospects in the 2000 election -- by impeaching President Clinton, a leading Democratic pollster said Thursday. At the same time, Democrats are suffering from a delayed voter disgust with Mr. Clinton's scandals that has improved GOP chances for the presidency and Congress in next year's elections, according to Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. As a result of the "time-release" change in attitude among voters, moral values have become the dominant issue for voters and could spell defeat for Vice President Al Gore and his fellow Democrats next year. ...

Netanyahu Reveals Clinton Double Cross on Pollard Release (IsraelWire-6/25) This originally appeared in Hebrew in Yediot Ahronot on June 18 1999 – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans in the book he is currently writing to publish several details that will considerably embarrass the president of the United States. In one of the chapters Clinton will earn the title 'International Swindler'. And this is the story. In September '98, Yom Kippur Eve, Clinton and Netanyahu met for a conversation in the White House, during the course of which Netanyahu agreed to attend the conference at Wye Plantation with Yassir Arafat on ...

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Serb professor, 2 workers murdered in Kosovo PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- A Serb professor and two Serb workers at the University of Pristina were shot to death overnight in a classroom building, according to the school's dean. Later a Serb and an Albanian were wounded in a gun battle when a family of Albanians returned to Pristina to find Serbs living in their homes, NATO officials said. Relatives of both families opened fire on each other in the city hospital, wounding a nurse and guard, the hospital said. As NATO peacekeepers were investigating the hospital shootout and the gruesome killing at ...