Free Republic

Judge: Felons Can Hold OfficeUpdated 5:23 AM ET December 3, 1999 (CHICAGO) -- A judge has ruled that an Illinois state statue prohibiting convicted felons from holding municipal office is unconstitutional. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Aaron Jaffe (jaf'-ee) dismissed a lawsuit seeking to remove Country Club Hills Alderman Victor Watts from office because he was convicted of armed robbery in 1975, when he was 18-years-old. The judge said the statute violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it failed to differentiate between youthful offenders and hardened career criminals. The state attorney general's office says it has ...

Aborting Self-respect President Clinton this week signed a waiver lifting a restriction on U.S. funds for international family planning organizations that promote abortion. The waiver "allows us to pay our U.N. dues finally, and fund international family planning at 97 percent until the new fiscal year," one administration official said. The waiver is one of a series of moves negotiated with congressional Republicans that will make the United States a member in good standing of the clique of post-civilized First World nations taking responsibility to ensure that the rest of the world is as corrupt as Clinton's America. Is it ...

President Clinton this week signed a waiver lifting a restriction on U.S. funds for international family planning organizations that promote abortion. The waiver "allows us to pay our U.N. dues finally, and fund international family planning at 97 percent until the new fiscal year," one administration official said. The waiver is one of a series of moves negotiated with congressional Republicans that will make the United States a member in good standing of the clique of post-civilized First World nations taking responsibility to ensure that the rest of the world is as corrupt as Clinton's America. Is it a good ...

My family has decided the spend the lion's share of our Christmas budget on Pro-Family and Pro-2nd Ammendment organizations this year. It is our hope that our gifts help to insure a positive and decent culture for our children and their children in the years to come. This thread is to invite you to do the same. My wife and I are blessed with 7 and 1 year old daughters. Last year, we each bought a gift for the Toy's for Tots program, sharing a portion of our overall budget. After speaking with my wife and oldest daughter recently, we ...

Critics fear increased cooperation between the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund will spawn an 800-pound gorilla. Dec. 2, 1999 | SEATTLE -- There's nothing like the smell of tear gas in the morning. Paired with the sight of riot-ready troops marching from the sickly yellow fog, the acrid scent evokes Orwellian visions of a New World Order among even the least paranoid citizens. Even the most optimistic might raise an eyebrow at one deal that went down behind the barricades during the Battle of Seattle this week. As critics besieged the third ministerial meeting of ...

HOW WOULD GEORGE W. BUSH govern as President? It is an important question that most Republicans seem afraid to ask. While most Republican governors, congressmen and state lawmakers have jumped on the Bush bandwagon, few have examined Bush's record as Texas governor - perhaps the best predictor of Presidential performance. Maybe they are afraid of what they might find. If the past is prologue, conservatives can expect symbolic defeats on social issues, puny tax cuts, double-digit spending hikes and little progress on hot buttons like school reform, affirmative action, abortion or gun rights. Purists point to a handful of symbolic ...

Ontario Hydro's Y2K warning The power utility suggests customers 'be prepared' and stock up on supplies in case the lights go out on New Year's Eve. Jake Rupert reports. Jake Rupert, with files from Christopher Lacroix The Ottawa Citizen Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen / Mark Zavitske, 11, demonstrates some of the supplies that would come in handy in the event of a Y2K power failure: water, non-perishable food, garbage bags, candles and a sleeping bag. Ontario Hydro's list also includes blankets, extra batteries, a battery-operated radio and a cellphone. Ontario Hydro says it is convinced there won't be any ...

As a Conservative Republican, I am very distressed by the tenor of the articles and comments lately. I want more than anything to keep Gore and Bradley out of the White House. We also must keep the Democrats from re-taking Congress. We must re-elect the House Managers. The problem is that there is so much infighting between Republicans - both on the national stage and amoung those of us who want conservatism to win in 2000. I bet Gore and Bradley and Clinton are standing on the sidelines laughing and rubbing their hands about all of this. There is a ...

Alan Keyes the Clear Winner of the Debate Last Night, Poll Shows If I were going to do a poll about who won last night's debate among the Republican Candidates, there would be only one question on it: When you decided you wanted a snack, during which candidate's comment did you run to the refrigerator? George W. Bush probably would have the most votes. The best that was said about George Bush's performance, by media commentators who are pushing his candidacy, was that "he didn't make mistakes" in his first debate with the other Republican Candidates. Based on the ...

Scrubbing the Blood Supply Business Week (11/15/99) No. 3655, P. 120 by Licking, Ellen About 50 Americans are still infected with HIV each year through tainted blood transfusions. The tough screening methods for blood are not perfect, mainly because the antibodies tested for in blood may not show up for weeks or months in the newly infected. To make transfusions safer, researchers are studying three new technologies: nucleic acid testing, blood cleaners for hepatitis C or syphilis, and a blood filter system. Nucleic acid testing can detect small amounts of infectious particles in the bloodstream; however, the filters and nucleic ...

In about 10 days the U. S. will formally relinquish control of the Panama Canal, completing a process that began with the Carter-Torrijos treaties in 1977. These documents--ratified by the U.S. Senate and by the Panamanian people in a nationwide plebiscite in 1978--were designed to bring closure to the U.S. presence on the isthmus in a quiet and dignified fashion and until recently the process has gone smoothly. Over the past 22 years Panama has gradually received all of the territory surrounding the Canal (the old Canal Zone), including hundreds of millions of dollars worth of buildings, equipment and facilities. ...

The debate of Republican presidential contenders featured Gary Bauer; Texas Gov. George W. Bush; Steve Forbes; Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Alan Keyes, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. It was moderated by Fox News Brit Hume and Karen Brown of WMUR-TV in New Hampshire. Brown: We have the privilege of casting the first votes for president in the nation. It also affords the opportunity for extensive interaction with the presidential candidates every four years. Hume: The Presidential Primary is less than two months away and issues have begun to emerge both from and about the candidates. Issues both political and personal. ...

Nobody can question that tobacco has become democratically unpopular, so much so that 45 million smokers might as well not exist as far as politicians are concerned. But we're still a country of laws, thank heaven. This week the Supreme Court heard arguments on the Food and Drug Administration claim that, because the cigarette companies knew about nicotine, Congress must have intended the FDA to regulate cigarettes as a "drug" all along. In other words, the tobacco industry has escaped regulation until now only by fooling everyone about the nature of its product. This is another argument about the meaning ...

King Monument to Be Built at National Mall WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A monument to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. will join those of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson on the grounds along the National Mall after a commission on Thursday unanimously approved it. The National Capital Planning Commission gave the final approval to begin the process of constructing the first memorial on the mall commemorating an African-American. ``This memorial really gives America an opportunity internationally to finally show our approval of a great man and his message,'' John Carter, project chairman and vice president of the ...

Tonight I'm flying into Austin Texas and will be attending the Royal Masset Campaign School this weekend.I'm also meeting with Republican Party officials. While in Texas, any ol' FReepers that want to get together are all invited down to the Capital La Quinta Hotel. I'm anxious to see some FReeper faces in the Lone Star state. How about it? God Bless Texas, Dr.Mike

Those searching for an answer to the "Is Dubya stupid?" question would do well to look past the obvious evidence. So George W. Bush flunked the pop quiz on the presidents of Chechnya, Pakistan, India, and Taiwan. Does that really matter? After all, the reporter was out to get him, and a whole lineup of media heavies confessed that they would have failed the test, too. Then there was Bush's Yale report card, helpfully published by the New Yorker (we're still waiting for them to reveal Al Gore's grades at Harvard). We now know for a fact that Bush ...

Tonight I'm flying into Austin Texas and will be attending the Royal Masset Campaign School this weekend. While in Texas, any ol' FReepers that want to get together are all invited down to the Capital La Quinta Hotel. I'm anxious to see some FReeper faces in the Lone Star state. How about it? God Bless Texas, Dr.Mike

LINK Trade Theory Collides With Angry Reality By Steven Pearlstein Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 3, 1999; Page A01 SEATTLE, Dec. 2—If there is any clear message coming through the clouds of tear gas and the broken glass in Seattle this week, it is that the terms of debate about free trade have changed in the United States. It is no longer a debate about trade at all, but rather a debate about globalization, a process that many now understand affects not only traditional economic factors such as jobs and incomes but also the food people eat, the air ...

Most Boring Celebrities of 1999 By Alan Caruba CNS Commentary from the Boring Institute 03 December, 1999 Hillary Clinton has been named the most boring celebrity of the year on The Boring Institute's 16th annual list of The Most Boring Celebrities. "She's the perfect example of someone who cannot take a hint to go away," says Alan Caruba, the Institute's founder. The annual list is devoted to celebrities and events that have received massive media attention "and, by the end of the year, even if we like these people, we're sick of them," says Caruba. Here's the 1999 list: 1. ...

Bill Clinton, the U.S. president, has nearly managed to derail the already shaky launch of global trade talks here by calling for sanctions on countries that fail to follow international labour standards. "There is bit of a crisis," said Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's Minister of International Trade. "Let's just say we had to do some damage control today." Mr. Clinton threw the poorer countries in the World Trade Organization into a major flap during his visit after he called for sanctions Wednesday and then yesterday by signing an international agreement to ban child labour. U.S. trade officials were told only moments ...