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Bush's Right-Hand Man Is a Friend With a Midas Touch By DAVID FIRESTONE AUSTIN, Tex. -- Back in Midland, in the harrowing, exhilarating oil days of rising gushers and falling prices, they all had nicknames: Dennis Grubb was "Wemus," George W. Bush was "Boosto" or "the Bombastic Bushkin," Joe O'Neill was "Spider" and Donald L. Evans was usually "Evvie" or "Donnie." But sometimes, just to annoy the future politician in the rambunctious Mr. Bush, the friends used to call Mr. Evans by another name: "Governor." Back then, in the 70's and 80's, it was Mr. Evans' earnest, organized demeanor that ...

Nation's Economic Boom a Faint Echo in Appalachia By FRANCIS X. CLINES MANCHESTER, Ky. -- "The economic boom?" asked Donna McDonald at her roadside flea market rack of used clothes -- humbly frayed offerings that she has been buying more than selling lately as local customers survive until their welfare checks next week. Ms. McDonald stared wide-eyed at the question of the boom, as if directions were being sought to some Nirvana far beyond the green highlands and idle coal mines in this hard-core heart of Appalachia. "Not here," she noted of the whirring economy. "Right now a lot of ...

Tomorrow's New York Times identifies www.creator.org as the web page for the "church" of serial racist killer Benjamin Nathanial Smith. Here are a few items from the site's FAQ: 5. Q. But doesn't the Christian religion teach love and understanding, in fact, love your enemies, and yet it has survived? A. The Christian religion is a good case in point when we talk about liars and hypocrites. Whereas they talk about love. the history of the Christian movement shows that they Were as vicious and brutal in savagely hunting down their enemies, labeling them as "heretics" and burning them at ...

U.S. Expecting Kashmir Pullback by Pakistani Side By JANE PERLEZ WASHINGTON -- After three hours of hastily arranged talks here between President Clinton and the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, administration officials said Sunday that they expect that Pakistani-backed forces would withdraw from their mountain redoubt on the Indian side of the cease-fire line in Kashmir. But the officials, who participated in the sessions with the two leaders, seemed uncertain how or even if Sharif would be able to guarantee a withdrawal of the forces, who the administration believes are controlled by the Pakistani military and include some of its ...

Nearly 1500 NH voters turned out for a Presidential strawpoll in the state with the first Primary. Anyone who bought a $25 ticket could vote. BUCHANAN: 646 BAUER: 235 SMITH: 104 KEYES: 74 QUAYLE: 16 BUSH: 15 KASICH: 9 FORBES: 8 MCCAIN:6 ALEXANDER: 4 DOLE: 3 BILL BRADLEY (D): 2 AL GORE: 0 ORRIN HATCH: 0 BUCHANAN WON THE NH PRIMARY IN 1996. ELIZABETH DOLE AND GEORGE W. BUSH WROTE THEIR SUPPORTERS AND ASKED THEM NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STRAW POLL BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN SUSPECTED FOR SOME TIME THAT MR. BUCHANAN WOULD HAVE A STRONG ADVANTAGE WITH THE ...

Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.British Memo Warns of Russian Y2K Catastrophe NewsMax.com July 4, 1999 The British embassy in Moscow has warned diplomats about inviting friends and family to Russia during the upcoming New Year, Britain's Sunday Independent reports today. Fearing the implications of the Y2K millenium bug, an internal embassy memo leaked to the Independent underscored British concerns that Russia is "considered one of the countries most vulnerable to Y2K problems." The report notes that Russia has recently increased efforts to fix the Y2K problem. Experts, ...

2050 GMT, 990702 – The June 29 edition of Russia’s Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a newspaper controlled by close Yeltsin ally Boris Berezovsky, offered a detailed account of the flight of two Russian strategic bombers down the Norwegian coast which differed somewhat in perspective from the version of events being carried in the Western press. The Los Angeles Times reported that the two Tu-160 "Blackjack" bombers "flew down the coastline of Norway, also a NATO member." The report continued, "The move set Norwegian fighter planes scrambling. But the Blackjacks headed east before they could be intercepted." Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s version of events is ...

Teachers Wary of New Exams: Poll Finds Support For D.C. Program By Victoria Benning Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A01 Second of two articles Washington area teachers are divided on the growing use of standardized tests to evaluate public schools, and suburban teachers are more troubled than those in the District about the high stakes that the student exams now carry, according to a poll by The Washington Post. The teachers' ambivalence contrasts sharply with the wide consensus among area policymakers that test scores are essential in judging how much students have learned and how well ...

Salute to Our Everyday Heroes By Eric K. Shinseki Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A21 The bombing has stopped. The negotiations are over. And as tough as this phase of peacemaking has been, the hard, dangerous work of peacekeeping has just begun. Paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division led deploying NATO forces as the peacekeepers began establishing themselves in the bombing range that was Kosovo. Within hours, tensions between Serbian and Albanian Kosovars flared into scattered bloodshed. Three German journalists were killed. In the weeks and months to come the likelihood of violence is as high as the ...

Census as Pawn, Again Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A20 WHEN THE PARTIES were arguing in the last Congress and earlier this year about the use of sampling in the 2000 census, one of the issues was cost. Democrats said sampling was the only affordable way to correct the undercount of minority groups and poor people that increasingly has affected the census in recent decades; after taking the normal head count, the bureau would make adjustments to reflect the results of elaborate recounts in sample census districts. Republicans, who oppose the use of sampling, which they fear could cost them ...

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- The man suspected in a deadly shooting spree targeting blacks, Jews and Asians told a student newspaper last year that the American government favors minorities at the expense of whites. ``I think it is pretty clear that our government has turned against white people,'' Benjamin Nathaniel Smith told Indiana University's student newspaper in an article that appeared July 4, 1998. Smith -- a wiry, unassuming English major -- spoke to the newspaper after he tucked leaflets touting his white supremacist beliefs beneath the windshield wipers of about 1,000 cars at the Bloomington campus, about 60 miles ...

GOP Presidential Hopefuls Work N.H. Crowds Amid July 4th Hoopla, Candidates Play Down Bush Lead in Polls, Money Race By Leslie Gevirtz Reuters Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A04 AMHERST, N.H., July 4—For most Americans, July 4th is a holiday, but it's a workday for presidential aspirants, and four spent it greeting crowds at Independence Day parades in New Hampshire. Republican hopefuls -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush, former Cabinet officer and Red Cross president Elizabeth Dole, conservative activist Gary L. Bauer and conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan -- crisscrossed the state walking in parades and pumping voters' hands. Front-runner ...

Lobbyists Get Aggressive on Health Care Issue Interest Groups Use Ads and Other Tough Tactics to Target Lawmakers and Shape Arching Debate By Dan Morgan Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A03 Five Republican senators returning to their states for the July 4 recess are in for a surprise welcome home next week: a barrage of television and radio ads aimed at rallying opposition to key provisions in "patients' rights" legislation due for floor debate when Congress reconvenes. The week-long, $750,000 media blitz, paid for by a coalition of businesses and health insurers, takes aim at Democratic ...

  Clinton blindsides Dems on Y2K bill July 4, 1999 BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Democratic senators who opposed a bill limiting Y2K lawsuits after being told it would be vetoed complained that they once more had been forced to "walk the plank" by President Clinton after he abruptly changed course Tuesday and accepted a compromise. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee's senior Democrat and a Clinton loyalist, publicly grumbled about "triangulation" (the president splitting the difference between Republicans and Democrats) and privately said much worse. Particularly bitter were a dozen Democratic senators pressed into voting against the ...

GOP Presses Tax Plan to Revive Deprived Regions Reuters Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A02 As President Clinton prepared to visit depressed parts of the United States, Republican lawmakers yesterday announced tax proposals to encourage investment in communities left out of the current economic boom. Incentives designed to boost reconstruction and employment in poor areas will be included in a tax package backed by House Republicans, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told Clinton in a letter dated July 4. "Before you embark on a tour of economically distressed areas tomorrow, I urge you to support [the] strong, bipartisan . . ...

Clinton Begins Tour of Poor Areas to Push Economic Incentives By Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A02 President Clinton begins a four-day, six-state tour to some of the nation's most impoverished areas today, saying that the government and private sector should do more to bring the benefits of a booming economy to regions that continue to struggle. The president--who regularly touts the economy's bright spots from Silicon Valley to Wall Street--will focus attention on places synonymous with persistent poverty and high unemployment: Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, the Watts area in Los Angeles and an ...

Bradley's Bid Takes Off Money, Strategy Begin Elbowing Gore By Thomas B. Edsall and Ceci Connolly Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A01 What the experts said wouldn't happen apparently has happened: former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley has collected enough money and positioned himself strategically to mount a credible challenge to Vice President Gore for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to strategists from both parties. Bradley's surprise performance in raising $11.5 million so far this year -- almost two-thirds the amount raised by the incumbent vice president -- has given him the respect crucial to elevating ...

  Monday, July 5, 1999   People and Politics Refugees and the uprooted   By Akiva Eldar Like most Israeli government ministers, the people in the White House do not understand exactly what the difference is between the "refugees" (from 1948) and the "uprooted" (from 1967). Outgoing Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon happens to be one of those people who do understand the difference, and certainly better than United States President Bill Clinton. Imagine the uproar at the Foreign Ministry and in the American Jewish community if the president of the United States were to distribute a document declaring that ...

Lost opportunities are at the heart of the Clinton legacy By Richard N. Goodwin, 07/04/99 erhaps the most notable characteristic of the Clinton administration has been the belief that to talk about a problem is to deal with it or, at least, to persuade others that you are dealing with it. Thus, we have been treated to passionate discussions of race or education unaccompanied by any substantial measures, almost as if to name a problem were to solve it. The president's latest proposal to expand Medicare, although welcome, is a poignant reminder of how much time and opportunity have ...