Free Republic

The New Yorker, now blessedly under new direction, has an important article on the great financial bubble of the 1990s. Writing of the Long-Term Capital Management near-collapse after losing about $4 billion, John Cassidy says: "Long-Term Capital got itself in trouble by borrowing too much money and investing it in fancy ways that it mistakenly believed to be safe." The money came from banks and investment firms that made a similar misjudgment and almost caused a humongous financial crisis or, if you prefer the polite language of the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, "unacceptable risks to ...

Activists fear budget proposals could endanger U.S. aid to Israel By Matthew Dorf WASHINGTON, March 29 (JTA) -- Budget proposals speeding their way through Congress could endanger U.S. aid to Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians. That's the charge from many in the Jewish community, which represents the loudest U.S. supporters of foreign aid. A $1.74 trillion House budget resolution approved last week would cut foreign affairs spending, by some $4 billion, to slightly more than $16 billion. A Senate version of the bill -- also passed last week -- also contains substantial cuts but not as deep. Domestic programs ...

Timothy Leary, the counter-culture guru of the Sixties, who urged his generation to "tune in, turn on, drop out" informed on friends and helpers in order to get out of jail early. That is the picture that emerges from Federal Bureau of Investigation documents now published on the Internet. When Timothy Leary died from prostate cancer in 1996 at the age of 76, obituary writers focused on his experimentation with drugs, his counter-culture history, and how Mr Leary chronicled his slow death via the Internet. The former Harvard professor of psychology had preached anti-establishment slogans all his adult life. ...

Just received this e-mail thought some might get something out of it.Subject: testimony of Darel Scott.TESTIMONY OF DARRELL SCOTT FATHER OF TWO VICTIMS OF COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING LITTLETON, COLORADO BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEUNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESTHURSDAY, MAY 27,1999 2:00P.M.2141 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING Since the dawn of creation, there has been both good and evil in the heart of men and of women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter Rachel Joy Scott and the deaths of that heroic teacher and the other ...

GOVERNMENT: Playing golf with the Assembly speaker will cost you $15,000. He defends his integrity. SACRAMENTO — The price of playing golf — and buying access to the state's power brokers — has just shot up. Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, is holding a $15,000-a-head August fund-raiser and is encouraging twosomes to play through with a $30,000 Platinum Package. Both offer donors two days on the greens at the prestigious Pebble Beach Resorts and a private reception and dinner with the speaker and other Democratic Assembly leaders. Legislators, lobbyists and fund-raisers are gasping at the price tag, saying ...

Reduction in US aid to Egypt and Israel Egypt, Economics, 10/22/98 The draft budget bill approved by the US Congress on Tuesday called for a reduction in the aid provided by the US to both Israel and Egypt by US $100 million for the fiscal year 1999. The draft law states that Washington is to pay Israel $2.94 billion and $2.075 billion for Egypt. US economic aid for Israel will be reduced by US $120 million to reach US $1.08 billion, and military aid will be increased US $60 million to reach US $1.86 billion. Economic aid to Egypt was ...

Freeper's Presidential Straw Poll I thought it would be interesting to see how Freeper's choice for GOP Presidential canidate is versus all the polls we see. The votes will be totaled after 48 hours and only one vote per Freeper. Bump as necessary 'Question 1: Who's your choice for GOP canidate? (GW Bush, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes, Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan, Elizabeth Dole, Bob Smtih, Gary Bauer, Lamar Alexander, other) 'Question 2: What are the most important issues to you in the Presidential Race (Choose and rank top 3) (Cutting Taxes, Reducing Spending, Protecting National Sovereignty, Stregthening Military/Missile ...

AP DAYBOOK, WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30 ------------------------- WHITE HOUSE All times Eastern. White House daily tape: 202-456-2358 White House press office: 202-456-2100 Vice president's press office: 202-456-7035 President Clinton: In Chicago. 8:30 a.m. Marine I departs en route Andrews AFB. 8:55 a.m. Air Force I departs Andrews AFB en route Chicago. 9:35 a.m. Air Force I arrives at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago. 9:50 a.m. Boards motorcade en route Chicago Cultural Center. 10:20 a.m. Arrives at cultural center. 10:45 a.m. Attends Medicare event. 11:45 a.m. Remarks conclude. 11:50 a.m. Boards motorcade en route Chicago Hilton. Noon. Arrives at hotel and proceedds ...

Cal Thomas has written a splendid article entitled ***NOTES FROM INDIANA'S WASHINGTON*** "I TURN ON THE TELEVISION ONCE WASHINGTON, Indiana--While Texas Gov George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore promise, if elected president to restore "family values" from Washington, D.C., I find on a journey to my father's hometown that some people never lost them. Clinton S. Thomas, the first of nine children born to B&O Railroad boilermaker Warren and homemaker Ada Thomas, was elivered on Januaary 10,1908. Things were cheap then, but life was valuable. Now life is cheap and things are valuable. A loaf of bread cost ...

(Jude Wanniski is an influential analyst of domestic and global/political economics. Formerly Associate Editor of The Wall Street Journal, he founded Polyconomics, Inc., in 1978 to advise corporate and financial clients on the emerging "Supply-Side economics," a phrase he coined in Journal editorials. He was a consultant to President Bush, he advised Ronald Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign and is a close friend and advisor to former Presidential candidate Jack Kemp of New York. He assisted in designing the Kemp-Roth tax-reduction bill that became the centerpiece of the Reagan economic platform.) Re: Economics and War Money is said to ...

AID-USA: Half of US Foreign Aid Devoted to Military By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Jul 28 (IPS) - Half of the foreign aid granted by the United States last year was designed to further military and national-security interests, according to a new report released here Tuesday. As a result, much of the U.S. foreign-aid programme may be working against the stated objectives of the administration of President Bill Clinton, including promoting sustainable development, protecting human health and bolstering democratic government. A report by the Washington-based arms-control group, Council for a Livable World Education Fund asks ''does the United States invest more ...

WHEN THE independent counsel law expires tomorrow, few will mourn its passing. A consensus has developed that the law is worse than the condition it was intended to remedy. This pendulum swing will last until the next time Congress becomes dissatisfied with the way the Justice Department conducts a politically charged investigation. The problem with the current law is that it assumes the department is untrustworthy in a wide array of situations, whereas in fact the number of cases that pose serious conflicts for the attorney general is small. The law strains constitutional norms and creates a class of prosecutors ...

Editor's note: The following is a copyrighted article by H.L. Mencken originally published in 1925 (during Prohibition) by The Evening Sun (where Mencken was editor at the time) and reprinted in the March 1, 1926 issue of The American Rifleman. THE UPLIFTERS TRY IT AGAIN by H. L. Mencken (Copyright, 1925, by The Evening Sun. Republication without credit not permitted.) I. The eminent Nation announces with relish "the organization of a national committee of 100 to induce Congress to prohibit the inter-State traffic in revolvers," and offers the pious judgement that it is "a step forward." "Crime statistics," it ...

Well-heeled HILLARY Clinton must plan to do a lot of stumping in coming months - or she's been taking advice from political sole mate Imelda Marcos. While her hubby was at the G-8 meeting in Cologne, the First Lady took a side trip to Italy - where she shelled out about $2,000 for six pairs of shoes at Bruno Magli, O.J. Simpson's cobbler of choice. Hillary's staffers coughed up another $3000 for 12 more pairs, say spies.

The following two articles are for education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - The largest casino in Phnom Penh grudgingly shut down Tuesday, meeting a government deadline for the closure of all gambling halls within 120 miles of the Cambodian capital. Holiday Club Casino was in disarray, with blackjack and roulette tables dismantled, slot machines unplugged and newly jobless workers milling about with hopes of being among the lucky few to win transfers to two new casinos opening on the Thai-Cambodian border. In a bid to curb violent crime in the capital, Prime Minister ...

Gary Bauer Says George W. Bush is “Operationally Pro-Choice” The Dallas Morning News (6/27/99) reports that Governor George W. Bush’s “status as a strong front-runner already has reporters asking him about a running mate. The governor said it is too early to discuss a vice presidential pick, but he did note that he would not rule out hoosing a running mate who supports abortion rights. That comment by Bush, who [says he] opposes abortion, and an earlier statement that he would not require presidential judicial appointees to share his views on abortion have angered some of the nation’s social ...

A NEW ENTITLEMENT ANDTHE PHONY CLINTON SURPLUS The federal government is about to undergo a reckless and ruinously expensive expansion - and, in what may be the most astoundingly cynical act of the entire Clinton presidency, the president himself somehow found $1 trillion lying around the floor to pay for it. What's worse, the entire political establishment in Washington, both Republicans and Democrats, is going to go along with the White House's Judith Krantz style of accounting - fiction at its trashiest. Why? Because they're all whoring after the senior-citizen vote. And so, for the third time in this century, ...

WASHINGTON -- Webb Hubbell, the longtime presidential friend and former Justice Department official, appears ready to plead guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from two Whitewater indictments brought by independent counsel Kenneth Starr. The move could close the five-year legal battle between Hubbell and Starr that has resulted in three indictments against the former Little Rock lawyer. Hubbell served 18 months in federal custody after a guilty plea in the first indictment but would get no further jail time if a judge accepts the deal between Hubbell's defense team and Starr's prosecutors, sources familiar with the investigation said. It also could ...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's prime minister urged security forces on Tuesday to stem extremism and prevent ``criminals, bandits and swindlers'' from overrunning this year's parliamentary elections. Corruption is rife in Russia, and criminals are widely expected to support parliamentary candidates they believe will advance their interests in the State Duma. The next election is scheduled for December. ``The chief task of law enforcement bodies and the government ... is to erect an effective and reliable barrier in the path of those political parties, associations, and persons that destabilize society and ...

If you want to understand what’s wrong with Salon magazine, read Thor Hesla’s smug, juvenile piece on right-wing pundette Ann Coulter. Coulter recently wrote a column for George in which, according to Salon, she complained "that she was having trouble getting dates in the nation’s capital." Salon’s piece purports to give Coulter dating tips. The problem isn’t just that Salon takes this promising premise and turns it into an extended, locker-room style sexual mockery of Coulter. (Sample witty advice: "Stop being a mean bitch," "Get your head out of your ass"). Nor is the problem that it’s high school-level ...