Free Republic

16-04-99 Russian officials have said that the sale of part of the state's holdings in Gazprom and LUKoil would help boost privatisation revenues to 18.5 billion rubles ($ 742 million) in 1999. Moscow hopes to earn some much-needed cash in the privatisation sales, but First Deputy State Property Minister German Gref said that tender committees would also take into consideration bidders' willingness to invest in the companies. Meanwhile, the Russian Federal Property Fund's deputy chief Igor Shuvalov told that his boss Farit Gazizullin would travel to Western Europe to deliver special presentations on Gazprom. The Russian government is sending Gazizullin ...

There must have been something interesting in that Clinton yakathon. But every time the President was asked at his Friday press conference why he is so polarizing, whether he is responsible for coarsening the culture or if it bugs him to be trashed by his Vice President, he vanished into a nattering nimbus of positivism. So let's not talk about Bill Clinton. He is so over. Let's talk about dirty magazines. I'm not referring to Penthouse and Playboy. I have in mind the wildly popular new macho men's magazines. One that is popular here, Maxim, originated in Britain, where such ...

Samuel Johnson, the British wit who lived from 1709 to 1784, would have been wonderfully effective on The McLaughlin Group or any of the other Beltway journalist mud-wrestling TV shows. Johnson created soundbites that have been quoted for over two centuries, such as "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Johnson uttered that last line in regard to the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (who abandoned his children and then proclaimed his love for the whole nation). But it also indicated his feeling toward those who favored a Declaration of Independence 223 years ago: An angry Johnson proclaimed, "I am willing ...

Ducking the "A" word Gore says he will take a forthright stand on the issue of "choice," so why the euphemisms to avoid saying abortion? By Timothy Lamer In 1992, Al Gore scored points with pro-abortion voters in a debate with former Vice President Dan Quayle when he challenged Mr. Quayle to "[repeat] after me: 'I support the right of a woman to choose.' Can you say that?" Maybe this year, the Republican nominee will have to ask Mr. Gore whether he possesses the ability to use the word abortion. In two major speeches last month, including one to a ...

B ILL Clinton is again dragging his feet on relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It's customary for the U.S. to locate embassies in capital cities, but for political reasons the president has refused to sign off on a move. Clinton promised during his 1992 campaign to support the embassy relocation to a city that's been controlled by Israel since 1967 and where Israel's parliament has met since 1980. (Like his tough-on-China policy he quickly abandoned after election, this was another area where he sought to place himself in a "tough" posture, to contrast ...

Since everyone else seems to have a theory about why George W. Bush of Texas has leapt to such an improbable (if informal and pretty meaningless) lead in the early race for the Republican presidential nomination, here's mine: Most of us think and vote with our emotions instead of with our minds. That's not meant as a put-down of the Texas governor. Once he gives us a good bit more to process with our brains, many of us might still conclude he's an outstanding prospect for the presidency. So far, of course, he's only hinted at where he stands ...

How often does the Russian government have to poke Uncle Sam in the eye and rub his face in the dirt before politicians in Washington figure out that Moscow doesn't want to be our good-faith partner? . . . . Vice President Al Gore argued in 1995 that NATO would benefit from having a Russian military delegation set up camp permanently at alliance headquarters in Brussels. It would build trust and smooth relations, Americans were told. When Russia opened its new NATO offices, the United States found an inordinate number of the Russian delegates were GRU military intelligence officers. They ...

ABOARD "FREEDOM THREE" OVER KOSOVO -- As the Canadian Griffon helicopter whirled south of Pristina on an unusually cold and blustery summer's afternoon, a field full of cows appeared on the horizon. As the chopper drew closer it became obvious that all the cows were dead. I volunteered that they might have ventured into a minefield. The Griffon's commander, Capt. Denis O'Reilly of Moose Jaw, set me right. "Tell me, did the cows have legs or did they look bloated?" the boyish-looking 30-year-old pilot and father of three asked. "If it's a minefield there are usually body parts all ...

Public schools and local libraries increasingly have been choosing to make available to children graphic and sexually explicit books that barely can be described in this magazine. Picture your adolescent browsing through the school library. Other than home, it's the one place parents may feel sure their children are likely to be protected from pornography, obscenity, perversion and other vulgarity. But are they? . . . . Innocently scanning the school-library shelves a child chooses It's Perfectly Normal, a book about sex and reproduction by Robie Harris. Flipping through the pages, young readers might immediately be attracted to the drawings ...

The bombing has stopped, Kosovars are returning to what is left of their homes, and Canadian troops are once again peacekeeping. Where does Canada stand after her second war this decade? The messy business of bringing peace to Kosovo is only just beginning. Canada is to provide KFOR with 1,300 troops for three years, but it's going to take Albanians and Serbs far longer than that to learn to live together in peace. Is the world's self-professed No. 1 peacekeeper likely to be out of Kosovo in 2002? No -- we're probably there for the long haul. (Bosnia's peacekeeping mission, ...

"WORTH FIGHTING FOR" . . . "In his new book, 'Worth Fighting For,' the Republican presidential candidate expands his attack on TV's Murphy Brown to include the decade of the 1960s and its 'free drugs, free love, free lunch and freedom from responsibility' . . . In the book, he attacks the liberal values of the 1960s and an 'opinion elite' of baby boomers in the media, universities and entertainment business who grew up during the decade and now are in positions of influence. 'We continue to pay a price for the excesses of the crowd that preached free drugs, ...

RISTINA Yugoslavia -- Refugees are flocking back to Kosovo, which has been increasingly plagued by deaths and violence, leading the top NATO commander to call for an international police force to keep order in the province. "NATO is doing all that it can to grip the situation on the ground," the commander, Gen. Wesley K. Clark, told Reuters in an interview in which he called for an acceleration of plans to bring in United Nations police. "We're very much aware of the challenges in an environment in which whatever authority there was has departed, and new structures and institutions ...

ASHINGTON -- President Clinton acknowledged Friday for the first time that he had underestimated Serbia's ability to withstand the NATO bombing campaign. In a lengthy news conference, Clinton said he had believed that President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia would submit to allied demands after "a couple of days" of bombing and halt the Serbian assault on Kosovo. NATO and the administration were initially criticized for that miscalculation of Serbian stamina, and then for failing to have a strategy for a prolonged air war, a campaign that ultimately lasted 78 days. Until Friday, Clinton and his top advisers did not ...

Sunday, June 27: (2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.)- [all times Eastern] Guest: Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch with an eye witness account of the deposition of former White House lawyer and Clinton apologist Jane Sherburne and a discussion of Bob Barr's just filed law suit against the White House. Plus the news since the Sunday papers. Dish and doings with guest co-host Chris Bauer sitting in while Ronni Ashcroft climbs the fence at Los Alamos. Helpful Links: CLICK HERE The White House always monitors the show. Shouldn't you?

Huge Net for Deadbeat Dads Catches Privacy Criticism... Page A01 As part of a new and aggressive effort to track down parents who owe child support, the federal government has created a vast computerized data-monitoring system that includes all individuals with new jobs and the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and wages of nearly every working adult in the United States. Government agencies have long gathered personal information for specific reasons, such as collecting taxes. But never before have federal officials had the legal authority and technological ability to locate so many Americans found to be delinquent parents -- or ...

Officers see Kargil '( current battlefield of Kashmir conflict) as chance of a lifetime Dinesh Kumar * ``I should like to appeal to you, sir, to please not hold my medical category against me to prevent me from being where the action is. You will appreciate that I have a strong emotional bond with Kargil as I received my battle wound there. I shall be a most discontented officer were I to be held back from any action against the marauders...'' NEW DELHI: This is just a sample of the many letters from officers that have flooded the Military ...

At a swank Democratic fund-raiser this month, Ann Richards, the mischievous former governor of Texas, warmly welcomed Hillary Rodham Clinton as "the next junior senator from New York." Then, after a pregnant pause, Richards added, "and of course, her lovely husband, Bill." It was a brief glimpse at a state of affairs that, Hillary Clinton herself acknowledged at that event, "just brings an enormous smile to my face": the perpetual-pol Bill Clinton as a second-fiddle political spouse. Will the former president of the United States soon be attending senatorial-spouse tea parties? Will he stand silently and smile adoringly behind ...

Reported by 1-Eagle: Saturday, June 26th, Republicans throughout Alabama were invited to attend delegate selection meetings held in their respective counties today, for the purpose of selecting those delegates who will attend the states first Republican 'straw poll' to be held in Birmingham, August 26-27. The event was a remarkable success with many counties having solid turnouts in an 'off' political year and in poor weather conditions. Speakers at the Montgomery County event included the current Chief of the Alabama Supreme Court, and Winton Blount, State Chairman. I'm proud to report to my fellow FReepers that I became a delegate ...

President Clinton said that he has decided to mount a concerted campaign to remove Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from power and is harnessing an unusual range of tools to do it, from international aid to CIA action, officials say. Among the actions that have been launched are a CIA-led operation aimed at exposing and disrupting Milosevic's financial dealings abroad -- including a plan to use computers to hack into his accounts; secret contacts to encourage Yugoslav military leaders to move against him; clandestine meetings with Serbian opposition leaders to forge an anti-Milosevic coalition; and a proposal to provide political ...

Annan: Do not punish Serbs twice The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned against the creation of "another humanitarian disaster" in Yugoslavia. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Annan said aid should be offered to Yugoslavia, irrespective of whether President Slobodan Milosevic stays in power. Nato countries like the US and the UK have ruled out any money to rebuild Yugoslavia without a change of government. But Mr Annan said: "We have to make sure that the Serbs, who in some ways are victims of their own leadership, should not be twice punished." London says Serbia would ...