Free Republic

OK, I was thinking about Pat Buchanan's dilemma: Commit to the race for the GOP nomination or take the Reform Party nomination and run third party in the general. The BIG PROBLEM for Pat is that if he does well in the GOP nomination race but fails ultimately to win the nomination, he will be barred in many states from running as a third party candidate. Then it occurred to me: Buchanan and Keyes working together can insure that BOTH will be on the ballot in November! Here's how: Keyes agrees to not run for the GOP nomination and throws ...

Taiwan Military Ready to Take Fight to Chinese: Report TAIPEI, July 5 (AFP) - The Taiwan military's latest wargames have shown the nationalist island could switch rapidly from defence to attack if communist China ever invades, a report said Monday. The China Times quoted top military sources as saying the "Han Kuang 15" exercise from late May to late June had demonstrated for the first time the Taiwan armed forces' "offshore warfare" capability. The high-technology exercises, by heading out to waters more than 24 miles (38 kilometers) off Taiwan, "marked a dramatic turning point in military capabilities," the newspaper quoted ...

The military service of Texas Gov. George W. Bush has come under intense scrutiny by the Los Angeles Times, which reports he may have gotten "highly favorable treatment" in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam era. The son of America's 41st president -- and 2000 presidential contender himself -- did not evade service, the Times reported, but he may have gotten a helping hand because of family connections.

HOPKINTON — Former White House aide Patrick Buchanan yesterday won a Presidential straw poll of conservative Granite Staters attending a Fourth of July picnic, providing a show of grassroots support. "This is a tremendous turnout of New Hampshire conservatives," Buchanan said after an afternoon of shish kebabs, potato salad and speeches at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds. Buchanan's victory, rumored for days, should give his campaign at least a momentary boost. "The winner of this will have demonstrated good tactical capacity," former state Sen. Jim Rubens, R-Etna, said. Buchanan, who won the Republican New Hampshire Primary in 1996, garnered 646 ...

In the last two years, Jose Luis Pena has had four vehicles seized by Los Angeles police, the price of driving without a license. The refrigerator repairman has also paid thousands of dollars in fines, towing fees and storage costs.Yet Pena continues to drive the streets in his battered pickup, always worrying about seeing flashing police lights in his rearview mirror. That would signal yet another loss to the impound lot another battery of fines.But Pena, a 31-year-old father of four from Mexico, remains locked in the driver's seat. "To work, to sustain my family," he said, "I have to ...

Everybody said he was the next Bobby Darren and, true to his dramatic style, he went out with a bang. He is shown here at his last appearance, singing his hit single, "I'm a Patsy." Seen with him are his keyboard man, Jack "Fessup" Leavelle, and lead guitar, Jack "The Whack" Ruby. Said Leavelle, "More wasted talent. Now he'll never sing."

For the past few years, I taught a course in US Constitution at a private high school and local community college. Over the years I had to develop a study-guide/exercise-book for the course. Photocopies are being used by home-schoolers across the country, but I finally found an interested publisher. Now the task is to find the market. I assume Freepers represent the market I’m looking for. This is a survey to find out what you think vis-a-vis a high school Constitutional study-guide. I hope you'll take the time to answer. 1) What kind of people would want such a study-guide/exercise ...

Guns for Ma and Pa? THE whirlwind tossing the GOP about reasserts the need to define a position on guns that has inherent credibility. But right away one runs into the implications of the Second Amendment. If the Bill of Rights was saying that all Americans had the right to own weapons without any qualification, we need to ask--why? The National Rifle Association, acknowledged as the spokesman of what they call the gun lobby, reads that article in the Bill of Rights as guaranteeing the right to gun ownership. Again, why? NRA president Charlton Heston has named that right to ...

RUSSIA OFFERS UNIQUE RADAR TO INDIAMOSCOW: Russia has offered to India unique mortar and artillery tracking radar, ``Zoopark-1,'' which is capable of pinpointing enemy firing positions for their subsequent suppression, defence sources said here on Monday. Produced at the Vektor plant of Yekaterinbug, Zoopark-1 needs to track an enemy mortar or a shell for just eight seconds to project its the full trajectory from the firing position to the place it is going to land, allowing pinpointing and thereby suppression of enemy firing positions within a range of 20 kms, the sources said. Vektor plant sources said the radar, mounted ...

A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL America's double-edged sword he air campaign against the Serbs has been touted as a harbinger of things to come - waging war for human rights rather than to defend traditional national interests. Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic said: ''This is probably the first war that has not been waged in the name of national interests but rather in the name of principles and values. Kosovo has no oil fields to be coveted.... [NATO] is fighting out of the concern for the fate of others.'' Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said: ''This is a just ...

The Center for Media and Public Affairs has discovered something sure to ruin the lunches of Al Gore groupies. In studying the evening news shows for the first five and a half months of 1999, they've discovered presidential candidate George Bush has attracted 20 network stories. Presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole drew 14 stories. Presidential candidate Al Gore was the subject of 14 stories. But Hillary Clinton trounced them all with 33, or almost the same as Bush and Gore combined. Sure, a first lady running for federal office after her tenure in the White House is unprecedented. What does it ...

There is a well-established tendency in literature, both serious and comic, to portray the Balkans as a land of utter surrealism. From Gregor von Rezzori's "Maghrebinia" - ruled by the aptly named Karakriminalowitch dynasty - to the land of Syldavia, to which Tintin travels in "King Ottokar's Sceptre," writers have enjoyed inventing fictitious lands which epitomise all the grotesque characteristics of the Balkans rolled into one. One of the classic playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd, Eugène Ionesco, extended the same principle to another part of Eastern Europe, when he began his "King Ubu" with the famous stage ...

Visitor From The Past by Thelen Paulk I had a dream the other night that I didn't understand. A figure walking through the mist with a flintlock in his hand. His clothes were torn and dirty, as he stood there by my bed. He took off his three cornered hat, and speaking low to me he said: We fought a revolution, to secure our liberty. We wrote the Constitution, as a shield from tyranny. For future generations, this legacy we gave. In this, the land of the free and the home of the brave. The freedoms we secured for ...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Bill Bradley received a key endorsement today from Sen. Bob Kerrey, who decided late last year not to seek the Democratic nomination for himself. ``Bill has the vision to challenge America to greatness and the integrity to restore the nation's faith in our public institutions,'' the Nebraska senator said at a breakfast in which he and Bradley shared pancake-flipping chores. Bradley, a former senator from New Jersey and former New York Knicks basketball star, is making a solid fund-raising run against Vice President Al Gore. Bradley has raised about $11.5 million to Gore's ...

Following a pattern of supplying future foes with high-tech weapons, the United States furnished Yugoslavia with nearly $1 billion in arms during the past five decades, according to the Pentagon's Security Cooperation Agency.After Slobodan Milosevic came to power in 1987, the United States continued the flow of weapons, including fighter aircraft, tanks, and artillery. In all, $960 million in arms and training was provided for the Milosevic government before 1991, when war in the Balkans brought the program to a halt. The U.S., which dominates the world's arms trade, sold or gave away more than $21 billion in weapons to ...

July 3 1999 - Europe CALIAS CONNECTION CUT From Adam Sage in Paris FRENCH authorities are to close a centre for Kosovan refugees in Calais because they say it has become a magnet for the Albanian mafia. The centre has attracted criminal gangs offering to smuggle Kosovans over the Channel into Britain for a fee of up to £600, according to the region's sub-prefect, Yannick Imbert. Albanian drug smugglers also prey on the refugees at the centre in the search for "mules" prepared to carry their narcotics. The centre was opened six weeks ago in a warehouse at the Calais ...

Clinton Poverty Tour Opens In Rural Kentucky By Laurence McQuillan HAZARD, Ky. (Reuters) - President Clinton visited portions of rural Appalachia Monday to begin a four-day tour of poverty-stricken areas of America to promote public and private efforts to help the nation's estimated 36 million poor. Clinton plans to present Congress with details of a $15 billion plan to invest in economically depressed rural and urban areas over the next five years. The proposal was part of the budget proposal he submitted in February, but no legislation was drafted until now. Clinton began his trip with a visit to Tyner, ...

LONDON (AP) -- A British judge ruled today that gay prisoners should be supplied condoms when necessary to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Former prisoner Glen Fielding, jailed for eight years for offenses ranging from robbery to drunken driving, had waged a long campaign for access to condoms. Technically, Fielding, 37, lost his case when Justice David Latham refused his request to declare the current Home Office policy on the distribution of condoms ``irrational.'' But Latham also ruled that the policy had been misinterpreted. ``It seems to me that whenever a prison medical officer is satisfied that ...

Ragged Old Flag by Johnny Cash I walked through a county courthouse square. On a park bench, an old man was sitting there. I said, "The old courthouse is kind of run down." He said, "No, it will do for this little town." I said, "The old flag pole is leaned a little bit, and that's a ragged old flag you got hanging on it." He said, "Have a seat," and I sat down, "Is this the first time you've been to our little town?" I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag, but we're ...