Free Republic

Democrats Vulnerable on Trade By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 8, 1999; 10:19 PM The outpouring of opposition to the World Trade Organization has severely shaken the free-trade wing of the Democratic Party, threatened grass-roots union support for Al Gore's presidential campaign and potentially undermined the party's hopes of retaking the House. The spectacular collapse of last week's WTO talks in Seattle could have a major impact on American politics next year, particularly within the Democratic Party, where trade has become a major fault line in a party struggling to unify before crucial national elections, according ...

US Orders Russian Diplomat Expelled December 8, 1999 WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States ordered the expulsion of a Russian diplomat Wednesday after he was detained by the FBI in connection with a listening device discovered hidden at the State Department, U.S. officials said. The male diplomat, whom officials would not name, was caught trying to use the listening device, one official said. The diplomat may also be a suspect in planting the device, which was found some time before the arrest, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering informed the Russian embassy ...

Analysis: A Handshake and 'a Major Step' By Lee Hockstader Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, December 9, 1999; Page A1 JERUSALEM, Dec. 8 – Middle East peacemaking is full of tortuous twists and turns, and the currency of diplomatic breakthroughs has been devalued by nearly a decade of advances and setbacks. But President Clinton's announcement today that Israel and Syria will resume peace talks after a four-year hiatus is a genuine breakthrough, and the fillip that negotiations will be launched next week in Washington – at a higher level than they have ever been conducted – has sparked a burst ...

Reno Weighs Charges Against Nuclear Scientist TONY KARON Despite some resistance at Justice, the FBI wants to lean on Wen Ho Lee over missing secrets She charges him; she charges him not; she charges him... Attorney General Janet Reno is caught up in the middle of a bureaucratic-political tug-of-war on whether to indict former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. "The FBI and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson strongly favor indicting him under the Atomic Energy Act and a statute in the espionage laws that outlaws mishandling classified information," says TIME Washington correspondent Elaine Shannon. "But some of the attorneys ...

Russian Diplomat Arrested: Apprehended While Monitoring Bug Planted in State Department ABCNEWS.com W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 8 — Federal authorities have arrested a Russian diplomat caught monitoring a listening device planted in a sensitive area of the State Department, ABCNEWS has learned. The diplomat was apprehended by FBI and State Department diplomatic security agents about a block from the State Department around noon today and has been turned over to the Russian Embassy, for expulsion within 10 days. The diplomat was caught monitoring a bug planted within a high-level conference room, according to ...

Has everyone noticed that (very)wellfed lady on the Rosie O'Donell Show keeps rattling on against the constitution and other conservative issues (whenever there is nothing close by to eat). If so maybe you would like to join me in my boycott of anything Rosie. I started by getting my daughter to agree not top watch the show, then when I was at my local Big K-Mart tonight when I left I asked to see the manager an proceeded to inform him that this was my last visit to this store until the afore named person was no longer seen to ...

There's a fine column in the current NY Press on Linda Tripp. Too bad I know not how to post such stuff (see NY Press link on Drudge, and then go to Taki).

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A man identified by authorities as a militia leader was arrested Wednesday on charges of plotting to burglarize National Guard armories and steal explosives to blow up transmission towers and power lines. Donald Beauregard, 31, leader of the Southeastern States Alliance for the past three years, was picked up without incident after a federal grand jury indicted him on six charges of conspiracy, providing support or resources to commit terrorist acts, and four weapons violations. Investigators said Beauregard was the brigadier general of the alliance, a coalition of state militia groups in the Southeast U.S., ...

Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on. The first surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered." The second responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color-coded." The third surgeon says, "No, I really think file clerks are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order." The fourth surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes ...

I have been a visitor to Free Republic Website for over a year. I have valued the conservative news, opinions, and discussions that have made this site distinctively refreshing. However, it seems to have deteriorated into becoming a propaganda outlet for the ambitions of Alan Keyes. If one points to any faults or failings of Keyes and/or his campaign, you are immediately designated an evil "disrupter" and dangerous. You call THIS the workings of a FREE REPUBLIC?!? It almost feels like you are in a totalitarian state and you have dared speak that most dreadful of all known things- your ...

I have been a visitor to Free Republic Website for over a year. I have valued the conservative news, opinions, and discussions that have made this site distinctively refreshing. However, it seems to have deteriorated into becoming a propaganda outlet for the ambitions of Alan Keyes. If one points to any faults or failings of Keyes and/or his campaign, you are immediately designated an evil "disrupter" and dangerous. You call THIS the workings of a FREE REPUBLIC?!? It almost feels like you are in a totalitarian state and you have dared speak that most dreadful of all known things- your ...

editorial                                                        Wednesday, December  8                      A dozen years of evidence                    concerning media bias                    By Marvin Olasky                    American-Statesman                    Wednesday, December 8, 1999                    Last week's teapot tempest in Washington                    concerned ABC reporter John Cochran, who                    invited Al and Tipper Gore over to his house for                    dinner last Thursday, and was described by the                    vice president as a friend. That's only significant                    because Cochran is covering the Gore campaign,                    and critics raised the question of how a friend can provide tough coverage.                    Cochran defended himself against charges of ...

Concerns About Panama Canal Turnover By DAVID BRISCOE Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- With ceremonies symbolically handing over the Panama Canal scheduled next week, several members of Congress and former military officers tried Wednesday to stir interest in protecting against Chinese control of the waterway -- a threat the Clinton administration says does not exist. Rebuffed by the administration, Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., completed two days of hearings stacked with testimony against the 1978 treaty that gives up the canal on Dec. 31. Bachus said the administration ignored his requests for testimony from State, Defense and Justice department ...

Buchanan Seeks Fed Matching Funds \ WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pat Buchanan's decision to run for president as a Reform Party candidate has raised doubts as to whether he will receive the hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds he was entitled to as a Republican contender. The issue is before the Federal Election Commission, which is expected to reach a decision this month, in time to tell the Treasury Department how much money to distribute after the first of the year to candidates accepting federal matching funds. Buchanan campaign officials said they expect to get the same amount of ...

Trooper: Partial truth helps FBI By SARAH HUNTLEY of The Tampa Tribune TAMPA - A state trooper testifies he and other officers try to protect federal agents by misleading state judges. Florida Highway Patrol troopers have intentionally misled state judges by routinely telling them partial stories and filing incomplete reports in federal drug cases, according to a trooper's testimony Tuesday. Members of the highway patrol's elite drug interdiction teams do that to conceal the involvement of the FBI in traffic-related drug arrests, said Trooper Douglas Strickland. The goal, he said, is to protect undercover agents andal informants. But defense lawyers ...

Clinton-Gore Administration Proposes Federal Sponsorship of Experiments That Kill Human Embryos Under guidelines being proposed tomorrow by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "For the first time, human embryos would be deliberately killed under the sponsorship of the federal government," said a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "This proposal would result in federal sponsorship and funding of experiments in which living human embryos are dissected and killed B a clear violation of federal law and of ethical standards governing non-consenting human subjects," said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. NIH today posted on its website proposed "guidelines" ...

New Energy-Efficient Chinese Refrigerator To Have Global Impact BERKELEY, CA — China’s refrigerator industry is the largest in the world. As such, it contributes a significant share of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the environment. Now, an internationally funded, award-winning project to improve the energy efficiency of Chinese refrigerators, developed by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has received a green light from the government of China and international funders, and is set to start in early December. The five-year program -- the CFC-Free Energy-Efficient Refrigerator Project -- consists of a series of market-oriented measures for manufacturers and consumers ...

Air Pollution From Asia Could Violate New Federal Ozone Standard A plume of pollution that crossed the Pacific Ocean from Asia earlier this year contained ozone at levels high enough to violate a new federal ozone standard. "This is air that has health implications," said Daniel Jaffe, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, Bothell, whose team of researchers discovered evidence of the high pollution content in data collected during a research flight off the Washington coast on April 9. He will present his findings Monday (Dec. 13) at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco. Equipment ...

You want my Guns? Come and get ‘em! December 8, 1999 A few months ago, California passed a law requiring the owners of certain semi-automatic rifles to register those guns with the state. They were assured this was not a first step toward outlawing the guns. Guess what? The state lied. Shortly after thousands of honest gun owners complied with the new law they were notified that their rifles were now illegal. The state ordered the gun owners to turn in their guns and even offered to pay for the rifles. A few turned them in. Most refuse to comply. ...

Beautiful Maria, Harry Potter and Huck Finn have more in common than they could ever have imagined. They’re under siege, beset by ignorance parading as piety. Barbarians are at the gate. In Amherst, Mass., a liberal college town, the Amherst Regional High School planned to perform “West Side Story” as the spring play. That was before parents and students got into the act to protest the play as demeaning to Puerto Ricans. About 140 of the 1,400 students at Amherst High are Hispanic, and most of those are Puerto Ricans. The 1957 musical, written by Leonard Bernstein and based on ...