Free Republic

The battle for Seattle over the World Trade Organization's meetings was the embryonic stage of the struggle against global "timocracy." As defined by Plato, timocracy is a state in which love of wealth and power is the guiding principle of the rulers. It was also Aristotle's idea of a state in which political power is in direct proportion to property ownership. To the uninitiated in the globalism phenomenon, timocracy appears to be rearing its ugly head. The three executives at the top of the Microsoft ladder are now worth more than 170 million Americans. There are 60 new millionaires each ...

A summit - and three challenges By William Hague TODAY I will be flying to Helsinki to take part in a summit of centre-Right party leaders from across the whole of Europe. I will sit down with prime ministers and party leaders from many of the Central and Eastern European countries who still, 10 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, find themselves shut out from the councils of the European Union. Opening up those councils and enlarging the EU will be at the top of our agenda, because that is the greatest challenge now facing our continent. What ...

U.S. Laying Groundwork in Bid for Safeguards on Weapons By DAVID STOUT with RICHARD PEREZ-PENA WASHINGTON -- In a move to force the firearms industry to adopt safer ways of making and selling weapons, the federal government said on Tuesday that housing authorities around the country were planning to file a class-action lawsuit against gun makers. The White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have been laying the groundwork in recent months for the suit on behalf of the three million people who live in public housing projects, where shootings have taken a heavy toll for years. ...

An investigation into New York schools has uncovered what is being described as the biggest cheating scandal in the history of the United States. Investigators say at least 52 teachers and head teachers across the city helped pupils cheat in public exams in an attempt to improve their schools' overall results. The special schools' investigator spent 17 months looking into the conduct of public exams and exam results in New York. He found that at least 52 teaching staff, assistants and school heads from around the city colluded with pupils to help them pass public exams. Some handed out questions ...

Conservatives See New Threats From Latin America By George Gedda Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A decade after the Cold War, conservatives are perceiving new threats to U.S. security in Latin America, ranging from the impending turnover of the Panama Canal to a rise in anti-democratic forces in much of the Andes region. As conservatives see it, the most serious threat emanates from the transfer of the Panama Canal to local control on Dec. 31 after 85 years under U.S. tutelage. Former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger on Tuesday warned that China may be preparing to assume control of the ...

WASHINGTON, DC--After refusing comment on the matter for days, President Clinton finally admitted Monday that he blew his most recent paycheck, failing to deposit it into the joint checking account he shares with his wife and instead spending it on a variety of items of dubious necessity. "My fellow Americans, I stand before you to confess that it is all gone," a contrite Clinton said in a televised address. "I honestly did not think I was buying all that much stuff; it just somehow added up. But I want to assure you that I am still deeply committed to ...

TALLAHASSEE--Peter Warrick is the best football player on the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, but a late September 'discount shopping spree' cost him any chance of being recognized as one of the best players in the country.Warrick, who was the leading contender for the Heisman Trophy heading into the month of October, was not among the five finalists invited to Saturday night's trophy presentation at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York."I'm very hurt," said Warrick. "I know I made a mistake. But what does something that happened off the field have to do with what you do every ...

If you are able and have any thing left after Christmas shopping for those you love, please put a little in FR's stocking. In November 68 Freepers donated $3485 to the Free Republic. $875 of which, was for the legal fund. This is the best we have done since last May when we were working on the Hero's Rally. I thank each and every one of you for your help in keeping the Free Republic up. DONATE to THE FREE REPUBLIC AND HELP KEEP OUR REPUBLIC FREE. To donate by mail send check to Free Republic LLC PO Box 9771 ...

Bush brought to book over foreign policy THE intellectual credentials of presidential contender George W. Bush have been brought into question again during his second public debate, after he claimed to be reading a heavyweight book about foreign affairs, but then failed to provide any specific details about what was in it. Last week Mr Bush, the Texas Governor and favourite to win the Republican nomination, replied to a question about his reading habits by declaring that he was reading a biography of Dean Acheson, the United States Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. When Mr Bush was asked ...

Is George Bush a 'Texas Democrat'? Richard Miniter December 7, 1999 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, ...

Chemical weapons used in Chechnya - claim The Chechen Republic Online website claims Russian forces have begun using chemical weapons as the conflict intensifies. Unconfirmed reports in its news archive section claimed a 47-year-old man and his teenage daughter were the first fatal victims of bombs which release clouds of inflammable gas. The report said: "Today, at 8 am Oktyabrskiy and Staropromislovskiy districts of Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic, were shelled with special chemical bombs, which release clouds of inflammable gas creating massive blasts that incinerate buildings and people. "37 people have died, more than 200 people were ...

A little-known Australian, who has spent the best part of 30 years selling soft drink in Asia, has landed one of the business world's most powerful jobs - running the Coca-Cola corporation. Douglas Daft, 56, will take the helm of the Atlanta-based global beverages empire in April, following the surprise resignation of chairman and chief executive Douglas Ivester. Mr Daft, who joined Coca-Cola's Sydney outpost in 1969, faces one of the great challenges of corporate America: putting some fizz back into one of the best known brands on the planet. He will be spectacularly rewarded for his efforts. Mr Ivester, ...

'Republic' donation rejected Texas A&M declines paper's apology gift Related Article Apology (11/22) By Kathleen Ingley The Arizona Republic Dec. 8, 1999 Texas A&M University has turned down a $10,000 contribution that The Arizona Republic sent in apology for a controversial editorial cartoon about a November Bonfire accident. In a letter dated Dec. 6, President Ray M. Bowen wrote that "it would do violence to our ethical standards" to accept money from the newspaper for the victim fund. He called the donation "a calculated effort to manage the public relations problem now confronting your newspaper." Keven Willey, editor of The ...

Air Bag, Oil Tanker Cases Test U.S. Law's Reach Into States The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in the case of a District woman who was seriously injured in a car accident and claims she should be able to sue the carmaker for not installing air bags. The woman's attorney, Arthur H. Bryant, urged the justices to reverse a ruling that said such lawsuits were preempted by federal law, which did not require air bags at the time. But Malcolm E. Wheeler, representing American Honda Motor Co., said Congress could never have intended the "chaos" that would occur if automakers ...

MEMPHIS, Dec. 7—It has been the trial that never was, and the trial that will never be. For the past three weeks, in a small Shelby County Circuit courtroom, without fanfare and without much public notice, a jury has been trying to get to the bottom of one of 20th-century America's most troubling puzzles: Who was responsible for the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.? James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the crime more than 30 years ago, then quickly recanted, died last year, insisting that he was innocent and deserved a trial. The closest thing to ...

Here's how to defeat this wannabe King Klinton's effort to enact by fiat what Congress refused him; this method worked a couple weeks ago to defeat his demand for an amnesty for illegal aliens. Fax or email your congressmen - and tell them that if they don't defund this lawsuit or otherwise block it and the city suits, you and a lot of other social conservatives will vote Buchanan and go home without voting in any other race on Election Day, because social conservatives will no longer support a GOP that doesn't support us. Leading immigration-reform activists say that a ...

The failure of the world's most powerful governments to launch a new round of global trade talks last week is not likely to slow the pace of globalization, but it could usher in a period of trade friction and cause the already burgeoning U.S. trade deficit to climb even higher. That's the consensus of trade experts, economists and business leaders polled since the meeting of the World Trade Organization collapsed Friday night. They predicted that any further liberalization of the world's trading rules would have to wait at least two years, until after a new U.S. president and Congress ...

Atomic Holocaust - Japan, 1945 ATOMIC HOLOCAUST (red letters on yellow) This is the minimum ELS occurrence of this phrase (-3133) in the Torah. 27 AV (black letters on light blue) The Hebrew date "27 Av" corresponds to the 6th of August in 1945. On this day, a B-29 Superfortress bomber nicknamed "Enola Gay" dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 30 AV (light blue letters on blue) The Hebrew date "30 Av" corresponds to the 9th of August in 1945. Another B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed "Bock's Car," dropped the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. 5705 (white ...

Atomic Holocaust - Japan, 1945 ATOMIC HOLOCAUST (red letters on yellow) This is the minimum ELS occurrence of this phrase (-3133) in the Torah. 27 AV (black letters on light blue) The Hebrew date "27 Av" corresponds to the 6th of August in 1945. On this day, a B-29 Superfortress bomber nicknamed "Enola Gay" dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. 30 AV (light blue letters on blue) The Hebrew date "30 Av" corresponds to the 9th of August in 1945. Another B-29 Superfortress, nicknamed "Bock's Car," dropped the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. 5705 (white ...

VICE PRESIDENT Gore is attacking Bill Bradley on grounds that Mr. Bradley's health care plan would require a tax increase. It's the wrong attack for a candidate with what we take to be Mr. Gore's aspirations. He feeds the notion that a tax increase is an illegitimate policy tool that, at least in present circumstances, no presidential candidate should countenance. "Read my lips," he almost says. Yet if Mr. Gore intends, if elected, to face up to some of the basic problems confronting the country, he -- no less than any other occupant of the office -- will have to ...