Free Republic

Big 3 Automakers Hit With Huge Lawsuit NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news), Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - news) and DaimlerChrysler AG (NYSE:DAJ - news) have been sued for some $5 billion in a lawsuit that alleges they sold cars with defective and dangerous seats and concealed the defect, according to court documents. The suit, filed Thursday in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleges that the vehicles in question have seats that are ``defective and unreasonably dangerous'' because they are unstable and susceptible to collapse backward in a rear-end collision, according to the documents. ...

William Clinton:"NATO did NOT commit war crimes - NATO stopped war crimes." ...in his afternoon news conference around 4:50 pm today OK let the comments begin: Anyone believe THAT one? pssst...hey, buddy, wanna buy a bridge?

The imposition of independent study law on charter schools has roared back to the forefront. The agreement made by the budget conferees (approved on a partisan vote of 4 to 2) was to approve the new charter school funding model and to impose independent study law on charter schools. The funding model is already included in the Omnibus Education Budget Trailer Bill. To fulfill the remainder of the agreement, the Governor has requested another bill be sent to him that will impose independent study law on charter schools before he signs the budget. He is scheduled to sign the budget ...

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. But, ...

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 ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton said today he's not surprised that ethnic Albanian are engaging in revenge attacks on Serbs ``after what they've been through,'' but he said NATO is doing its best to stop the violence as refugees return home. ``NATO is not letting it happen,'' the president said at his first news conference since March. ``We're doing what we can to stop it.'' Despite NATO's appeals, ethnic Albanians torched Serb houses in western Kosovo Thursday and looted Serb-owned shops in the capital of Pristina. Tens of thousands of returning refugees are exceeding NATO expectations. Asked about the lawlessness, ...

Scientists Face Lie Detector Tests By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) -- Amid the uproar over Chinese espionage, scientists at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory are being told their loyalty is not in question, but still many of them will soon be subject to lie detector tests. So when Energy Secretary Bill Richardson came to the laboratory where a half century ago the atomic bomb was born, he was confronted with the question: Shouldn't he be tested too? ``Will you lead by example and take a polygraph yourself?'' one of the scientists asked as ...

Delays in background checks have led to the illegal sale of guns to about 1,700 convicted criminals in the United States, law enforcement record indicate. The Washington Post is reporting today that the FBI is blaming flaws in its National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which has been in place since November. Under the system, the FBI has three business days to do a background check on gun purchasers. If the check is not completed in that time, gun dealers are allowed to make the sale. According to the newspaper, the FBI issued 1,687 ``gun retrieval notices'' between Nov. 30 ...

Please post your comments from today's press conference. It sounds to me Clinton is on the ropes and the press is starting to ask difficult questions. We are not there yet....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Larry Fine, the frizzy-haired member of the Three Stooges who suffered never-ending abuse from Moe and Curly, is getting gentler treatment in his hometown. A wiseguy Philadelphia weekly is leading an effort to raise $25,000 to paint a mural of Fine on South Street, a funky stretch of restaurants and tattoo and tongue-piercing parlors. Is the money coming in? Why, soitenly. So far, the weekly has raised about $2,900 without once resorting to eye-poking or hair-pulling (or head-bopping, pie-throwing or administering a smack across ...

Britain's Financial Services Authority Friday said many large banks and insurance companies had further improved their readiness for tackling any Y2K-related computer problems but there was still work to do before the end of the year.Michael Foot, Managing Director of the FSA in charge of financial supervision said only one ``high impact'' financial firm, which he did not name, was at serious risk compared to 12 in March.Foot told a conference on the financial sector's Year 2000 readiness that the single firm was not one of the 12 on the March list whose failure to comply could have serious consequences ...

Has anybody seen Chris Black recently...reporting live on CNN...anyone? Just checking..... I took a few days off for family/personal celebrations; but I believe it has been very quiet at the White House with the Clintons off to Europe last week. Today, the swamp was mostly buttoned up when I arrived. I did think there would be a lot of activity because Clinton is giving a press conference/spin exhibition today. There was plenty of activity at the Monicagate with cameramen, their sidekicks and lots of unfamiliar press people entering to get ready for the press conference. I spied a group posing ...

The imposition of independent study law on charter schools has roared back to the forefront. The agreement made by the budget conferees (approved on a partisan vote of 4 to 2) was to approve the new charter school funding model and to impose independent study law on charter schools. The funding model is already included in the Omnibus Education Budget Trailer Bill. To fulfill the remainder of the agreement, the Governor has requested another bill be sent to him that will impose independent study law on charter schools before he signs the budget. He is scheduled to sign the ...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Gore's Personality Excerpts from Al Gore's 1969 Harvard thesis, ``The Impact of Television on the Conduct of the Presidency 1947-1969'': The advent of television in politics prompted the public to evaluate presidential appearances on personality, not issues, Gore said in his paper. ``This is, of course, human nature, and politicians have always known it,'' he wrote. ``However, the old medium, newspapers, filtered out references to the president's personality, and reported primarily the issues involved.'' --- ``A large part of the credit for (President) Kennedy's success on television was due to ...

Tuesday June 29th 4:00pm EDT Please join Town Hall for Live Chat with Daivid Guenthner, Managing Editor of the Lone Star Report

(Washington, D.C.): Yesterday, the House Government Reform Committee held a critically important hearing featuring testimony from Energy and Defense Department employees who have been punished for warning about Clinton Administration policies that threaten U.S. security.(1) No sooner had Republican and Democratic Representatives received this evidence of efforts by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and other senior Clinton Administration officials to punish people for the incompetent or malfeasant behavior they opposed than rumors began circulating in Washington about Mr. Richardson's next victim: Vic Reis, the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Defense Programs. Vic Reis -- The Next Fall Guy? In today's Washington ...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At a time when the Clinton administration is celebrating their role in the defense of ethnic Albanian Muslims in Kosovo, a genocide against Christians in Sudan by the radical Islamic regime in Khartoum is virtually ignored by the White House.While visiting a Kosovar refugee camp on Tuesday, President Clinton said that "no one ever, ever should be punished and discriminated against or killed or uprooted because of their religion or their ethnic heritage."During a recent visit to the U.S., Bishop Macram Gassis, the Catholic bishop of the El-Obeid Diocese in Central Sudan, spoke out again about the genocide against ...

Millennium-Travel Rates Tumble Amid a Surplus of Flights, Rooms By DANIELLE REED Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL John-Andrew Murphy just booked a long weekend at New York City's chic SoHo Grand Hotel for $284 a night. Here's what makes that rate so surprising: He's staying there Dec. 31, 1999. "I never expected this, not in New York," says the 29-year-old researcher at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. In fact, the hotel is actually charging him less than what it did for a trip in October. "We don't want to gouge people," says a hotel ...

On the Right Track We are seeing a strong response from the American people on values issues in the wake of recent news headlines, particularly the tragedy in Littleton, Colorado. This was underscored by an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released yesterday which showed solid support for our values. Here is a sampling of the results of the poll: Eighty-six percent of the people favor allowing federal funds to go to private charitable organizations-- including religious groups. Sixty-four percent believe that allowing religious-based instruction on values and morals should be allowed in schools. Sixty-four percent of those polled oppose allowing ...

TALLAHASSEE - A day before George W. Bush's fundraiser here, both Bush brothers are pressured on affirmative action. The sponsor of a petition drive against affirmative action on Thursday criticized both Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, GOP presidential front runner George W. Bush, for refusing to support his efforts. But at the same time, American Civil Rights Institute founder Ward Connerly acknowledged he's raising money for the Bush presidential bid and hopes affirmative action will be a key theme of the 2000 campaign. Among the ways to do that, Connerly said Thursday in Tallahassee, is to make Florida ...