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Toronto Sun Columnist: Eric Margolis July 4, 1999 Kashmir: The world watches, and worries By ERIC MARGOLISContributing Foreign Editor  Heavy fighting between India and Pakistani-supported insurgents in northern Kashmir and Ladakh has raged for the past five weeks in some of the world's most remote and difficult terrain.  Last week Indian ground and air attacks intensified, and spread south to other sectors of the long Line of Control that has divided Kashmir since 1947 into Indian and Pakistani-ruled portions. India admits to losing two warplanes and over 200 dead and 400 wounded or missing.  India claims Pakistan and the ...

At last, I've finally got around to writing about China again. Regardless of any problems America has at the moment, they're nothing compared with the economic and social problems that are facing Beijing. However, the future is as important as the present. What goes around comes around is only a colourful way of saying that actions have consequences. Unfortunately, fate has little to with justice, meaning that it's usually the innocent that pay for the mistakes of the powerful. An example was the absurd Maoist policy in the '60s of ridding the countryside of grain-eating birds. Mobilised like a gigantic ...

The ancient Romans said if you want peace, prepare for war. Somehow this is also the downside of the better-known saying that history always repeats itself. Why? Because it is not that history repeats itself at all, it's just that people tend to repeat their mistakes. The great mistake America is repeating is to forget that wise Roman saying. Under Clinton America has been preparing for defeat. Peace comes through strength. In a pacific world the need for military might would not exist. But we live, as we have done since time immemorial, in a dangerous and uncertain world. A ...

For Editorial and Discussion use only: Political Agendas Diverging At The White House Reuters [OL] Monday, July 05, 1999 1:04AM By Laurence McQuillan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political agendas at the White House are diverging. President Clinton is focused on his legacy, Vice President Al Gore wants to be the next president, and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is intent on running for the Senate. After years of championing a common cause, the political paths of the three are heading in different directions, creating some awkward moments lately. Gore last month declared his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000 ...

For Editorial and Discussion use only: Updated 5:31 PM ET July 4, 1999 CAMP ABLE SENTRY, Macedonia, July 4, (UPI) A U.S. Army soldier has been killed in a traffic accident in Macedonia. The Army says the soldier, whose name was not released, was in a truck that was part of a convoy moving from Thessalonki, Greece to Macedonia as part of NATO operations in Kosovo. The accident occured about 9 miles (15 km) south of Skopje, a major staging area for U.S. operations in Kosovo. No other details have been released. One civilian was also killed in the mishap ...

Dole Visits Mass Grave in Kosovo By JIM HEINTZ .c The Associated Press PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole hoped to draw attention today to the atrocities committed by Serbian troops in Kosovo, with a visit to the site of a mass grave. Dole said Sunday that NATO officials told him they had discovered at least 100 mass graves in the province, each with at least 12 bodies in it. Dole, who was visiting Kosovo as part of his work with the International Commission on Missing Persons, said the commission has asked Belgrade for an accounting of ...

DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON INTRODUCTION AND TABLE OF CONTENTS Revised 7/3/99   Doug from Upland presents "Hello Dolly" (the FreeRepublic welcoming song) The "Downside Legacy at Two Degrees of President Clinton" is the personal cyber-notepad of Alamo-Girl, the unofficial, unappointed secretary/archivist of what is the most active conservative political forum on the world wide web, the Free Republic. Forum participants refer to the list by its initials, DSL. The DSL is limited to the downside (darkside) of William Jefferson Clinton and includes questionable people, circumstances and events surrounding Bill Clinton i.e., two degrees of separation from ...

For Editorial and Discussion use only: Clinton Tours Poorest Areas in U.S. By KEVIN GALVIN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Going where Wall Street traders never tread, President Clinton is embarking on a four-day tour of some of the nation's poorest areas, bringing a message of hope for the needy and of opportunity for corporate America. Clinton wants to extend the country's good economic times to its inner cities and rural areas -- from Appalachia to Watts -- which the administration is selling as an $80 billion untapped market to interested business executives and investors. ``We should have a ...

For Editorial and Discussion use only: Budget Projections Could Wither By ALAN FRAM Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- There are plenty of reasons to think the huge budget surpluses President Clinton and Congress forecast last week are wishful thinking and will fall victim to recession or politicians' penchant for spending. The projections -- with both sides envisioning about $2.9 trillion in surpluses over the next decade -- also could turn out too conservative. Economists for the most part say even if the economy stumbles, the federal budget still would avoid the annual deficits that until last year were a ...

Suspect in Shooting Spree Dead SALEM, Ill. (AP) -- The white supremacist suspected of targeting minorities in a deadly drive-by shooting spree in Indiana and Illinois shot and killed himself late Sunday during a high-speed chase by police, the FBI said. Benjamin Nathaniel Smith dumped his blue Ford Taurus at a truck stop in this southern Illinois town and carjacked a van, said Doug Garrison, an FBI spokesman in Indiana. Smith, 21, shot himself in the chin as police chased him, he said. His car crashed off the road and he was pronounced dead at a hospital. FBI officials said ...

Thousands march to demand U.S. Navy leave island 9.45 p.m. ET (145 GMT) July 4, 1999 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tens of thousands of people descended on a U.S. Navy base Sunday to demand that the military leave a controversial training ground on an island off Puerto Rico. Waving Puerto Rican flags and chanting, "criminal, the Navy is criminal!'' the protesters rallied outside Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in eastern Ceiba to demand the Navy abandon Vieques, an outlying island where a bombing accident killed a civilian security guard on April 19. The Puerto Rico Police Department estimated the ...

Kosovo links with Belgrade 'severed' FROM EVE-ANN PRENTICE IN BELGRADE SERBIA'S hold on Kosovo has been all but severed since Nato troops moved in last month, according to Serb refugees reaching Belgrade. There is no longer any Serbo-Croat language television or radio in the province, Albanian and German currencies have replaced the Yugoslav dinar, postal links have been cut and a legal system is being set up without Belgrade's involvement, press reports say. Nearly a third of Kosovo's 200,000 Serbs have fled, according to the United Nations refugee agency. The plight of those who remain is desperate, say those who ...

0200 GMT, 990705 Russia/NATO – NATO officials traveled to Moscow during the late evening hours of July 4 in an effort to end a standoff between NATO and Russia on the deployment of Russian troops to Kosovo. NATO blocked Russia from using air corridors through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary into Kosovo over the weekend. This prevented Russia from deploying peacekeeping troops to Kosovo. The U.S. ambassador in Moscow said he did not know if talks between NATO and Russia would begin on July 4 or July 5. The Russian Foreign and Defense Ministries declined to comment. 0145 GMT, 990705 Russia/United ...

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., June 29 (UPI) - A nationwide survey by the Lutheran Brotherhood indicates many Americans turn to religion for monetary guidance. The survey says six out of 10 Americans pray before making major financial decisions. Not surprisingly though, people who attend church every week are much more likely to pray before making those big-time financial decisions. People look for their religious guidance in any number of ways, including reading spiritual materials, speaking with clergy members and seeking guidance from religious radio shows, TV programs or Internet sites. All the same, there is no evidence that religious involvement affects people's ...

MARIO CUOMO: Ahead of the Field on a Borrowed Horse By MARIO CUOMO Public opinion polls indicate that George W. Bush is currently the overwhelming choice of voters over all other contenders in both parties, even though most people admit they don't know enough about him to make an intelligent choice. His dominance among Republicans makes sense: the party is adrift, without either a strong agenda or a leader, and his name and electoral success in conservative Texas make him instantly attractive. But his lead over Vice President Al Gore is more puzzling. After all, the Clinton years have so ...

ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE Independents' Day Ready for a little political mischief on a holiday weekend? Let us consider what could upset the seemingly preordained Bush and Gore nominations. An unremarked time bomb called the Reform Party is on the ballot in all 50 states. Based on its vote total in 1996, its Presidential candidate will receive $12.6 million in Federal funds in 2000. If Ross Perot runs again, his vote will again dwindle; if the party chooses an ex-Senator like David Boren or Sam Nunn, it will draw equally from both major parties and have little impact. But ...

Enter Stage Right's Conservative Site of the Day for Conservative Site of the Day Enter Stage Right Link Here Freetrade.org link here About the Cato Center for Trade Policy Studies The mission of the Cato Institute Center for Trade Policy Studies is to increase public understanding of the benefits of free trade and the costs of protectionism. Scholars at the Cato Trade Center recognize that open markets mean wider choices and lower prices for businesses and consumers, as well as more vigorous competition that encourages greater productivity. These benefits are available to any country that adopts free trade policies; ...

July 4 Parade in New Hampshire Becomes Parade of Candidates By CAREY GOLDBERG MERRIMACK, N.H. -- It was so smotheringly hot here Sunday that even the ever-immaculate Elizabeth Dole perspired through the back of her blouse. But the heat did not stop Anna Britton, on the sidelines of the Independence Day parade, from reaching out her arms when she saw Gov. George W. Bush approaching on fast-moving cowboy boots, flashing his Clint Eastwood crow's feet. Despite his own sopping shirt, Bush obligingly hugged her, eliciting an exultant cry from Ms. Britton, a Massachusetts tire company owner, of, "I have Bush ...

Federal Seers, Telling Nation's Fiscal Fortune By FRANK BRUNI WASHINGTON -- Kathy Gramp peered beneath the stacks of paper on her desk and poked through the drawers, an expression of bafflement on her face. Her calculator was at large. "It's here somewhere," she insisted, rolling her eyes. She seemed to appreciate the strangeness of this particular piece of equipment vanishing, given her job. Ms. Gramp is one of the workers at the Congressional Budget Office who crunch the numbers that tell the country's financial fortune. Then again, Ms. Gramp, who refers to herself as "chatty Kathy" and points to the ...