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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SAT, JUNE 26, 1999 20:20:12 ET XXXXX NATIONAL COMPUTER SYSTEM TO MONITOR AMERICANS NAMES, ADDRESSES, SALARIES AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS The WASHINGTON POST is planning a front page story for Sunday editions detailing an emerging federal computer system that monitors the names, addresses, salaries and Social Security numbers of virtually all adult Americans -- all in the name of tracking down parents who owe child support. The POST's Robert O'Harrow Jr. describes a system that is currently in place due to the overhaul of welfare laws three years ago which now "calls for all employers ...

China has objected to the appointment of former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten as Europe's new trade commissioner, it has been reported. The Sunday Times says China's leadership has effectively vetoed the move after hearing that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was campaigning to get Mr Patten the job. An appointment to the role will be announced next week by the European Commission's incoming president, Romano Prodi. The paper quoted one unnamed senior minister as saying: "The Chinese have vetoed Chris Patten." It said that other member states had not wanted to jeopardise the EU's lucrative trade with China ...

Arrest the War Criminals Sunday, June 27, 1999; Page B06 THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S posting of an up-to-$5 million reward for information leading to the capture and trial of Slobodan Milosevic and his fellow alleged war criminals is a welcome sign of seriousness. The International War Crimes Tribunal, a creature of the United Nations, is not out for revenge, and its indictments are not just a sidelight of the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. Rather, the court's work represents a search for justice and accountability that is at the very center of what the Balkans need, and that should be at ...

Buchanan Camp Denies Candidate Is Considering Party Switch By Ceci Connolly Sunday, June 27, 1999; Page A06 Former Nixonite Patrick J. Buchanan is swatting away speculation he may abandon the Grand Old Party and sign up with the Reform Party. And that might be a good thing, given the high standards Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura laid out last week. "We have a 12-step program for all recovering Democrats and Republicans," the Reform Party governor told The Washington Post. "The first thing they have to do is recognize they are one." Ventura said he met with Buchanan in Minnesota recently but ...

Please explore the Common Sense Conservative website... check out the opinion topics that cover a wide range of issues and problems confronting America, including abortion, racism, government, & gays. Do you agree or disagree with any of these "common sense" politics? If so, please post here the reason why...and offer the solution you think is better. Thanks. 1-Eagle

Does anyone here know the religious affiliation of Alan Keyes? I checked the Vote Smart site and the line for religion is simply blank. Someone on another discussion group said he was Catholic, and while I don't think that's correct, I can't seem to find anything definate at all.

Asia's economic crisis has hit China's export trade hard. China has paid the price for not devaluing its currency, with export growth slowing to 0.5% year-on-year, the lowest annual rate for 15 years. Basing the figures on volume rather than price, exports actually declined. China will have to focur more on domestic spending In the past few years, Chinese exports have been growing fast. They improved 20% last year, but the decision to keep China's currency, the yuan, at the fixed rate of 8.28 to the dollar, made many of its products uncompetitive in Asia. Exports to the rest ...

Justices Favor Pragmatism Over Liberalism By Joan Biskupic Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 27, 1999; Page A1 One of the most important rituals in the grand white marble and red velvet setting of the Supreme Court is the announcement of a decision and naming of the justices who agree with it – and those who don't. As the Supreme Court term ended last week, four names were a refrain of dissent, often recited with a hint of weariness at their recurrence: "Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer." This is the foursome fighting the bold conservatism of the Rehnquist majority. These ...

White House knew of possible Chinese spying one year earlier than previously admitted WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration was first told that China may have stolen U.S. nuclear secrets almost one year earlier than it originally admitted, the New York Times reported Sunday. Throughout the uproar over allegations that China stole secrets to every key U.S. nuclear warhead made since the 1970s, Republicans have claimed the White House failed to react quickly or strongly enough to the charges. The White House has said it learned of the possible spying in April 1996. Unnamed current and former U.S. officials told the ...

In New Jersey a bill passed the lower House that would ask school students to recite two sentences from the Declaration of Independence every morning after the Pledge of Allegiance, but liberal legislators are having a fit about it. The Claremont Institute tells this story you won't get on the boob-tube. Here is the Fourth in a series of "Trenton's Battle of Principle." The full story can be read on the Claremont Institute web page. Trenton's Battle of Principle, Part IV By Larry P. Arnn In our last three Precepts, we discussed the shocking fact that in New Jersey, certain ...

IF YOU'RE CALLED FOR JURY SERVICE Don't worry! Be happy! Look at jury service as a golden opportunity to "do some good" for yourself and others. It's your chance to help the justice system deliver justice, which is absolutely essential to a free society. It's also your chance to do some "political good". As a juror, you have a better opportunity to be heard by lawmakers and law enforcers than in any other way, short of becomming an elected official yourself: Your vote on the verdict is also a measure of public opinion on the law itself - an opinion ...

Sunday's TV news show lineup ABC's "This Week" - Topics: Gun control and politics; the future of the Republican agenda. Guests: Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura; House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. CBS' "Face the Nation" - Topics: Medicare reform; drug plans for seniors; doctors' unions. Guests: Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala; Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.; Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas; Dr. Nancy Dickey, president, American Medical Association. NBC's "Meet the Press" - Topics: Enforcing the peace in Kosovo; Sen. Orrin Hatch's announcement for the GOP presidential nomination; Campaign 2000. Guests: Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO supreme allied commander, Europe; Sen. Orrin ...

How Tito's training destroyed Nato hopes of a clean war By John Simpson SOMEHOW it was no great surprise to read in last week's newspapers that after 11 weeks of bombing, 40,000 or so sorties and untold thousands of tons of bombs, Nato had managed to hit only 13 Serb tanks in Kosovo. It has claimed, of course, to have knocked out up to 40 per cent of the 280 or so tanks the Serbs were believed to have deployed in Kosovo, plus almost 60 per cent of their artillery and mortars. What Nato really hit were canvas and wood ...

LIFE SPRINGS FROM ASHES OF SHATTERED CITY By NILES LATHEM NINETEEN-year-old Kuitesa Graicevci could barely contain her excitement at the news that Tricky Dick's, a popular night club, was going to reopen. "I haven't seen my friends in four months. I've been hiding in apartments and basements. "Now it's all changed. I'm so happy to be going out." said the pretty English-language student, a beaming smile illuminating her face for perhaps the first in a long time. Kuitesa's good cheer is shared in many quarters of this war-torn city these days. That's because, in just a week since Serbian ...

HILLARY CLINTON'S STRANGE NEW BEDFELLOWS By ERIC FETTMANN IT was one of those cute stories about computer mix-ups and misdirected campaign solicitations that occasionally move across the political newswires. This one, however, is worth more than its humor value: It could provide the first signal of the direction in which Hillary Clinton is moving as she prepares to launch her U.S. Senate bid. Thomas Golisano, a sheriff's lieutenant in upstate Orleans County, was stunned one day earlier this month when he picked up the phone and found himself talking to the president of the United States. "He got on ...

OUR SCHOOLS SHOULDN'T BEA JOB-PROTECTION AGENCY By RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HERE'S where I think the dividing line is on the policies, programs and politics of education: You either believe that it's essentially a school system with a large number, thousands of schools and millions of children that need help, need support, need some guidance - or you believe it's a job-protection system. Is it really all about those schools doing well and the children doing well? Or is it more important that the school system is the job-protection system, a job-protection monopoly? That, sure, schools should succeed, but if ...

MEN HAVE 'MORE' ON THEIR MINDS; FOR LADIES, IT'S A LOVE THING By LAURA WILLIAMS When it comes to sex, men and women don't agree on much - except that men want it more. The Post's poll found close to half of New Yorkers - both men and women - believe males are the friskier sex, while only 15 percent think females are. "I've known women who can go without sex for ungodly periods of time," said Brooklyn lawyer Dolan Garrett, 47. "Men just can't do that." The survey findings are no surprise to 20-year-old college student Nathan Bull ...

RUSSIANS LAND A BIG ONE By BRIAN BLOMQUIST WASHINGTON - A plane carrying 21 Russian paratroopers touched down in Kosovo yesterday, re-opening the Pristina airport that had been closed by NATO's war against the Serbs. The airport is controlled by a small Russian force of about 200 troops. But Russian President Boris Yeltsin has approved boosting that force to 3,616 peacekeepers. They would serve inside a section of Kosovo that NATO has put under British control. Moscow soon will send 200 more paratroopers, 30 border guards, and 200 Interior Ministry troops. "This is all part of bringing Kosovo back ...

RUSSIANS LAND A BIG ONE By BRIAN BLOMQUIST ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WASHINGTON - A plane carrying 21 Russian paratroopers touched down in Kosovo yesterday, re-opening the Pristina airport that had been closed by NATO's war against the Serbs. The airport is controlled by a small Russian force of about 200 troops. But Russian President Boris Yeltsin has approved boosting that force to 3,616 peacekeepers. They would serve inside a section of Kosovo that NATO has put under British control. Moscow soon will send 200 more paratroopers, 30 border guards, and 200 Interior Ministry troops. "This is all part of bringing Kosovo back ...

HILLARY ADDS VETERAN SCHUMER AIDE TO HER TEAM By MAGGIE HABERMAN In the strongest sign yet that she'll toss her hat into the ring, Hillary Clinton has hired the veteran press secretary who worked on Chuck Schumer's winning 1998 campaign for her Senate exploratory committee. Howard Wolfson, a Yonkers native who knows the state's political terrain, will give up his job as chief of staff for Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) to work for the committee when it's launched early next month. "I am delighted that Howard will be joining the exploratory effort," Mrs. Clinton said in a statement. "His ...