Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- Democrats accused House Majority Whip Tom DeLay and other Republican leaders Thursday of violating federal campaign laws by funneling money into several independent groups to avoid campaign donation and spending limits in next year's elections. In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, lawyers for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asserted that DeLay of Sugar Land and the National Republican Congressional Committee had devised an illegal "scheme" to create and fund "a web of organizations" that are not required to disclose their donors or how they spend their money. The plan, the complaint said, would allow ...

Phoenix-area police departments have teamed with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to develop a central system for tracing ownership records of guns used in crimes. The purpose is to root out people who sell firearms to criminals and minors. "There was no question that there was a need to find a unifying approach (across the Valley)," Phoenix ATF firearms inspector Marvin Richardson said. A survey Richardson conducted indicated that in fiscal 1998, law-enforcement departments across the Valley recovered 8,579 guns used in crimes, but traced the ownership of only 1,397 of them. "That tells you that roughly ...

A recent Nando Media report chronicled the continuing downward spiral of America’s public education systems. According to the report: "High school isn’t preparing children for college or the work force, an education research groups said Thursday. "Employers and college officials alike say graduating students don’t even have to learn basic algebra or other lessons they need to be successful, a report by the Washington-based Education Trust said." Contrast today’s results with yesterday’s and the comparison is shocking. Founding Father, John Quincy Adams, was reading Shakespeare by the age of ten. Before age seventeen, he was fluent in Latin, Greek, ...

Last week, Brooklyn Firefighter John Farina broke down in sobs as he watched his brethren in Massachusetts sift through a smoldering building for six dead comrades. The search for phantom victims, the children left without a father — it was eerily reminiscent of Dec. 18, 1998, when three of Farina's colleagues at Ladder Co. 170 died while searching for a woman who had escaped. "My thoughts flew to last Christmas," Farina said yesterday at the Canarsie firehouse where he worked alongside Firefighters Christopher Bopp and James Bohan and Lt. Joseph Cavalieri, who died in the Brooklyn blaze. "I know what ...

White House ambulance chasing By David Limbaugh 12/10/99 The Clinton administration has just outdone itself with its latest outrage of the week. It has announced plans to file a class action suit on behalf of public housing residents against gun manufacturers. You may be asking yourself, "Why public housing residents?" The official reason is that the government is entitled to reimbursement for the $1 billion it spends annually on security because of the inordinate number of shootings in public housing projects. But the real reason is that the federal government would have no jurisdiction in this matter without using the ...

Megiddo warns of millennial violence: Critics fear government may cause, not prevent, violence By David M. Bresnahan The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a hornet's nest of controversy over a document issued to law enforcement agencies warning of potential violence by conservative religious groups. Project Megiddo, distributed by the FBI in late October to police chiefs internationally, is described by the FBI as a study of potential criminality "by individuals or domestic groups who attach special significance to the Year 2000." A 32-page redacted version of the report can be viewed on the FBI's website. The name "Megiddo" comes ...

The Hitler Letter = 3 )) || ((navigator.appName == "Microsoft Internet Explorer") && (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 4 ))); function MSFPpreload(img) { var a=new Image(); a.src=img; return a; } // --> The Hitler Letter  .by Rabbi Daniel Lapin Mercer Island, Washington I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands. There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. (Preface to ...

Bradley Lauds Black Church Members By MICHELLE DeARMOND The Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bill Bradley lauded black churchgoers as the champions of the 1960s civil rights movement and urged them to join his presidential campaign, vowing to fight racism with their support. ``It was the black church that saw the tenets of our Scriptures as the model for our civil rights movement,'' the former New Jersey senator said Thursday at a meeting of the Congress of National Black Churches, Inc., where his remarks were greeted by ``amens'' and applause. ``I want you to know that this is the ...

STOCKHOLM--A Nobel Prize is scarcely an invitation to modesty, least of all with the turn of a millennium only weeks away. So Robert Mundell, the 1999 laureate in economics, took as his memorial lecture subject "A Reconsideration of the Twentieth Century." The point is that the economic dislocations of the century, and the political dislocations they produced or advanced, flowed from ill-understood perturbations in international economics. In particular, the 20th century began with a highly efficient international monetary mechanism operating smoothly to facilitate trade and capital movements, but the traditional gold standard broke down with World War I. After confusions ...

The grandmother of an AIDS-infected 12-year-old -- who allegedly assaulted five children sexually in a bid to spread the disease -- knew what he was doing, but did not report it, sources say. After the suspect, whose name is being withheld by The Post because he is a minor, was arrested Wednesday morning, he told Brooklyn detectives he attacked the young kids -- including two relatives -- because he wanted to infect them, sources say. The attacks started two years ago, when the suspect began sodomizing a male relative, who was then 7. Sources said the grandmother, with whom the ...

OPPORTUNITIES AND OBSTACLES FOR MAYOR By DAVID SEIFMAN Every day he's at City Hall presents Mayor Giuliani with a series of incredible opportunities -- and equally potent land mines -- on the road to the Senate. Take the possible transit strike. If the subways and buses stop, residents and commuters alike would face havoc. The city would be in crisis. But Giuliani? Well, he could be riding high as the man who rides to the rescue of stranded New Yorkers. Giuliani has no role in contract negotiations between the MTA and the transit union, so there's little political downside for ...

Vieques counterattack President Clinton’s decision last week to block the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower battle group from training on Vieques Island has prompted Republicans to consider playing hardball with Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rosello, a political ally of Vice President Al Gore, adamantly refused to approve even limited naval exercises. Instead of overriding the opposition, Mr. Clinton caved. Military sources said he feared the spectacle of U.S. marshals forcibly removing squatter protesters on Vieques and its effects on U.S. Hispanic voters. Republican congressional staffers view Mr. Clinton’s action as Vieques’ death knell. Although more talks will be ...

GAY IT AIN'T SO! HILL EYES ST. PAT'S MARCH By ROBERT HARDT Jr. Gay rights took center stage in the Senate race yesterday as Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, while Mayor Giuliani remained mum on the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy." Appearing with a group of Irish-American leaders at a Manhattan restaurant, the first lady raised eyebrows when she said she would likely march up Fifth Avenue in next March's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Since 1989, the event has been boycotted by many Democratic officials because organizers have barred gay and ...

BORIS BLASTS BILL OVER CHECHNYA & WARNS: 'WE STILL HAVE NUKES' By NILES LATHEM A furious Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned President Clinton to stop criticizing his brute-force offensive in Chechnya yesterday -- reminding him that Russia still has nuclear weapons. The physically ailing Russian leader made the outburst in a meeting in Beijing with China's hard-line legislative chairman Li Peng, infuriating Clinton and plunging U.S.-Russian relations to their lowest levels since the Cold War. "It seems Mr. Clinton has forgotten Russia is a great power that possesses a nuclear arsenal," Yeltsin said in a low growl. "We aren't afraid ...

THE GEORGE W. MYSTERY: WHAT'S IN THOSE BLANKS? By RICHARD COHEN IT says something about George W. Bush that when his fellow Republican governors asked him -- after only one term in any political office -- to run for president, he did not say, "Why me?" This is evidence of either a stunning self-confidence or an equally stunning naivete. With time, it's becoming clear that it's both. Bush has the impregnable confidence of someone who does not know what he does not know. I am not suggesting the man is a dope. Clearly, he is not -- and he has, ...

Gay rights took center stage in the Senate race yesterday as Hillary Rodham Clinton said she would march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, while Mayor Giuliani remained mum on the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy." Appearing with a group of Irish-American leaders at a Manhattan restaurant, the first lady raised eyebrows when she said she would likely march up Fifth Avenue in next March's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Since 1989, the event has been boycotted by many Democratic officials because organizers have barred gay and lesbian groups from marching. Protesters have been arrested every year. When asked if ...

Chinese acrobats On Nov. 30, President Clinton dismissed concerns about a Chinese company’s acquisition of ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, saying: “I think the Chinese will, in fact, be bending over backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and able manner. . . . “I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal,” Mr. Clinton concluded. Does the president mean to say that the Chinese will control the entire 50-mile waterway? “The problem for Mr. Clinton is that this is no small mistake in which he ...

Unstable jungle Concern runs high in several corridors of Congress as the United States completes its pullout in Panama. It centers on whether Panamanian troops can be entrusted to guard the strategic 50-mile-long Panama Canal, port facilities, which are being turned over to a Chinese company. Why the skepticism? At a congressional hearing this week, “Panama Canal Year 2000” calendars were available for the taking, which like calendars in this country mark historic dates in Panama. Take Jan. 1, for instance: “1885: Revolution disturbance in Panama. “1931: Revolution in Panama quelled by U.S. troops.” January 2: “1989: Riot in Panama.” ...

U.S. OFFICIALS WAITING TO MEET WITH RAFT BOY'S DAD By DOUGlAS MONTERO, MALCOLM BALFOUR, MARIA ALVAREZ and WILLIAM NEUMAN Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched yesterday in the largest demonstration yet to demand the United States return 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez -- as American officials in Havana hoped to meet with the boy's father. "The ball is in their court. Let's see what happens now," the top American diplomat in Havana, Vicki Huddleston, told The Post. U.S. officials said a letter to Elian's dad was handed to Cuban diplomats in Washington and Havana Wednesday night -- asking him to provide documents ...

Why did Vice President Al Gore drop out of law school in 1976 after only two years of study? Was it to get a head start on his political career? Or was there some other reason he decided to become one of Washington's few politicians without a law degree. Florida attorney Jack Thompson went to Vanderbilt Law School with Gore. In November Thompson wrote their alma mater to request a copy of Gore's transcript, "including dates of matriculation and departure, classes taken and their dates, all grades achieved, and any and all other portions of his law school record, including ...