Free Republic

Bush's Tax Timing By E. J. Dionne Jr. Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A31 Not for one instant should anyone doubt the shrewdness of George W. Bush's presidential campaign. Sure, the guy may flunk some pop quiz on a TV show. But when it comes to the big things, W. and his operatives know exactly what they're doing. Why did Bush choose to release his whopping tax-cut plan on the eve of Thursday's debate in New Hampshire? The obvious reason was that in the tax-cut-friendly Granite State, he needed a big plan to counter Steve Forbes's endless talk about flat ...

Did Clinton Take a Dive in Seattle? By Jagdish Bhagwati Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A31 Seattle sizzled on Monday and fizzled on Friday. The third ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization was expected by many to witness the launch of the WTO's first multilateral trade negotiation. But despite upbeat press briefings by U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, who insisted that things would come together in the end, the representatives of 135 nations returned home declaring failure. What went wrong? Serious and irreconcilable differences among the member countries on the conventional trade agenda may have derailed the talks. Or ...

STD aka Dr. Mike will be Oliver North's guest on his radio talk show on Tuesday to discus the grassroots Keep the Canal Committee.KCC is sponsoring thousands of radio ads in all 50 states while Congress is out of session. Michael Curtiss MD Co-Chair of KCC is also a candidate for the US House in Illinois' 17th District.

China Reform Monitor No. 261, November 30, 1999 American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC http://www.afpc.org PLA tests state-of-the-art laser weapons, developing TMD; US DIA chief: PLA "info warfare" a serious future threat Editor: Al Santoli November 12: Beijing has successfully tested state-of-the-art laser weapons to intercept incoming missiles, the Hong Kong Standard reports. The People's Liberation Army [PLA] is also conducting laser weapons research as part of its theater missile defense program, a Beijing source claims. The laser experiments to intercept low-flying [cruise] missiles were conducted in the Qinghai and Tibet region. Unlike traditional anti-missile defenses where missiles are sent ...

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _____________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release December 6, 1999 PRESS BRIEFING BY JOE LOCKHART The Briefing Room 1:15 P.M. EST MR. LOCKHART: One quick announcement. On Wednesday, December 8th, the President will hold a press conference at the State Department Dean Acheson Auditorium, 2:00 p.m. To reserve a seat please call Jennie in my office by 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. Questions. [snip] Q Joe, the Chairman of the State Department's Advisory Board on Arms Control is Dr. Richard Garwin, who the New York Times just recently reported is taking along opponents of the Comprehensive ...

How I Got Myself Tossed From a Bill Bradley Fundraiser By Matt Taibbi "Eggheads unite: you have nothing to lose but your yolks." - Adlai Stevenson At the first sight of him, my shoulders sagged from relief, and a broad, joyful smile came across my face. He was all the evidence I ever needed. There was a God after all! I first saw him this past Sunday, on the sixth floor of Madison Square Garden, in the building's grim concrete-walled security office. At the time I was flanked by four security guards in maroon sportcoats, who had escorted me ...

High Court Will Decide On Miranda Key 1966 Decision Facing Challenge By Joan Biskupic Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A01 The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will decide whether its 1966 Miranda decision, the legendary ruling that requires police to tell suspects in custody their rights, is still good law. At stake is one of the best-known principles of the American legal system: that police must tell suspects of their right to remain silent, that anything they say can be used against them, and that they have a right to have a lawyer present during ...

Back to the Future - United States of Socialist Republics Dear fellow white Americans, I came to the United States in the 70's from the very possible future of America - Russia. The longer I live in this country the more ominous signs of the Soviet Union I see around me. I feel like I am on the trip "Back to the Future" - The United States of Socialist Republics. Most of the social and political "experiments," new "trends" and developments that have taken place in this country over the past 35 years are not new at all because ...

U.S.-China Tension Growing: Human Rights, Trade Remain Contentious Issues By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A21 BEIJING, Dec. 6—Despite a landmark deal on China's accession to the World Trade Organization three weeks ago, ties between the United States and China appear to be getting more tense across a range of issues, including trade, Western diplomats and Chinese analysts say. In some areas--most notably human rights--relations between the United States and China have soured since American and Chinese negotiators clinked champagne glasses on Nov. 15 to celebrate the end of 13 years of negotiations over ...

Doctor Fired After Challenging Navy Diagnoses By Vicki Smith, Associated Press Writer Dec 6, 1999 - 09:58 PM MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - A doctor who went public with his belief the Navy may have misdiagnosed hundreds of sailors exposed to potentially lethal mineral dust says he was fired late Monday for insubordination. Dr. Philip Jajosky, an outspoken medical investigator and 23-year veteran of the U.S. Public Health Service, was ordered to pack up his belongings, then escorted out of his office at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health here. The termination was characterized as an "involuntary retirement," Jajosky ...

TO have PLA officers on board the flagship of the United States Seventh Fleet is a far cry from not too long ago when China and the United States stopped all sorts of exchanges, including those of the military, after the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.To Hong Kong, the increasing intimacy of the two armies _ the largest and the most sophisticated on earth _ occurring in its jurisdiction carries special significance. In a way, the acceptance of several officials from the Hong Kong garrison of the PLA for a reception today aboard the USS Blue Ridge ...

Dispute Derails Mideast Talks On Eve of Albright Visit, Palestinians Balk Over Jewish Settlements By Lee Hockstader Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A21 JERUSALEM, Dec. 6—With Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright en route to her latest mission in the Middle East today, peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians appeared to crumble. The chief Palestinian negotiator, angry about accelerated construction plans at Jewish settlements in the disputed West Bank, said he would no longer discuss anything with Israel except the settlements, which the Palestinians and much of the international community consider illegal. His comments came just two ...

First there was the special prosecutor of Watergate fame. Then came the independent counsel, of which there have been many, and now we have the energizer prosecutor, Ken Starr, who keeps going and going--unable to rest, it seems, until Bill Clinton admits his guilt. You could get better odds, anyone in Vegas will tell you, on Saddam Hussein converting to Judaism. Starr not only knows this, he has said as much. Yet he persists in making the rounds of interview shows, editorial boards and breakfast meetings with reporters, saying Clinton ought to "get himself right with the law." This, he ...

U.S. Held Liable for Lost Indian Papers By Bill Miller Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A08 A court-appointed special master released a blistering report yesterday accusing federal government lawyers of failing to preserve potential evidence in a class action lawsuit brought by Native Americans and then keeping the destruction of 162 boxes of documents a secret for more than three months. The documents, apparently shredded as part of a routine housecleaning at a Treasury Department facility in Hyattsville, included papers that could have been relevant to a suit challenging the government's management of Indian trust funds, ...

New Jersey woman arrested in campaign finance probe By Terry Frieden/CNN December 6, 1999 Web posted at: 5:53 p.m. EST (2253 GMT) WASHINGTON -- A New Jersey businesswoman was arrested Monday on a perjury charge for allegedly denying knowledge of document-shredding in the ongoing government investigation of campaign finance abuses. The Justice Department announced Audrey Yu of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, was taken into custody following an indictment on charges she lied to a federal grand jury investigating campaign finance law violations. Following an initial appearance in federal court in Newark, Yu was released on $50,000 bond. She will be ...

Gridiron Grins Long-shot Republican presidential candidate Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was the unexpected star of Saturday night's Gridiron Club winter dinner at the Capital Hilton. And power broker Vernon Jordan, speaking for the Democrats, displayed his knack for knife-edged humor. The Post's David S. Broder reports that Hatch laughed to the point of tears at his own jokes, to wit: "I have a reputation for being strait-laced, but actually I come from a very tough state. In Utah--you think it's easy raising money from people who are all sober?" Calling Steve Forbes "the human metronome," ...

Mexican generals linked to Juarez drug cartel [Boy, I hope the Drug Czar don't see this one!] SIX generals and other members of the Mexican military are part of the huge Juarez drug cartel, it was reported yesterday. La Jornada made the claims as FBI agents and 600 Mexican soldiers continued searching mass graves holding as many as 100 victims of the cartel at Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The newspaper said the information about military corruption came from a confidential report by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and the Mexican attorney-general's office. The report ...

Russians Leaflet Chechnya: Get Out or Face Death By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, December 7, 1999 MOSCOW, Dec. 6 – Russian planes dropped leaflets today over the ruined Chechen capital of Grozny, delivering a stark ultimatum: Civilians must leave by Saturday or face death under intensified jet and artillery strikes. Officials also warned that new armaments will be employed to batter the city, including half-ton bombs designed to crush buildings from the air. "Those staying in the city will be regarded as terrorists and gangsters and will be destroyed by artillery and air force . . . ...

Independents Use the Internet to Research Candidates By Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 7, 1999; Page A05 Political independents are more likely than Republicans or Democrats to use the Internet to learn about candidates, according to a large study of computer users released yesterday. The finding is important for politicians and strategists, since independents tend to tune out traditional forms of political communication, including mailings and broadcast ads. The poll, which included 1,205 likely voters who use the Internet at least once a week, was conducted for the Democracy Online Project, at the Graduate School of Political ...

Academics are taking a second look at Ronald Reagan, and they like what they see. "Reagan's treatment by academics is far better than many people--especially many conservatives--might surmise it to be," writes Grove City College professor Paul Kengor in this month's Heritage Foundation Policy Review. He says conservative politicians generally don't have a sympathetic audience among the professors who create their historical legacies. He cites surveys showing the nation's social scientists to be a liberal bunch who, even on a good day, were disinclined to give Reagan's presidency anything better than a gentleman's C. "It is therefore all the more ...