Free Republic

The Americans, The Unites States dollar took another pounding on the German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people in all the Earth. As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did. They have helped ...

MOSCOW -- With a week to go before Russia elects its next Parliament and rushes headlong toward next summer's presidential election, the national political debate can be summed up in two words: mud and war. If Russians turn on their television sets, they can watch scenes from the battlefields of Chechnya, where the Russian military has flattened much of the landscape in pursuit of separatist guerrillas, or they can be treated to a steady barrage of televised insults and slugfests, as Russia's warring political camps do their best to discredit one another with accusations ranging from ordinary theft to ...

At the ready Buckle up your seat belts, Philadelphia. When the Grand Ol' Party comes to town next July, there could be the kind of raucous and even violent protests that rocked Seattle at the recent World Trade Organization conference. At least that's what Philadelphia police are anticipating. "You'd better be prepared, and you better not be naive about the possibility of having trouble," said Deputy Police Commissioner Robert Mitchell, who will be in charge of security for next year's Republican National Convention. "Seattle," added Mr. Mitchell, "was a wake-up call." So the administrations of Mayor-elect John F. Street ...

Deferred judgments allow gun purchase Law raises eyebrows as it applies to felons By Carla Crowder Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer Anne Coakley can never have another daughter. But Forrest Leigh can buy another handgun to replace the one he misfired, killing Coakley's only daughter. That's because Leigh, 65, received a deferred judgment and sentence after pleading no contest to criminally negligent homicide in the death of 27-year-old Tara Coakley, a clerk in the Boulder District Attorney's office. He had been preparing to clean his .45-caliber handgun when it misfired, and a bullet hit Coakley as she sat ...

On Fox News Sunday, John McCain stated that he opposes abortion, except for the cases of "the life of the mother and rape." He also said that he would not use abortion as a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees.

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Teen held in family killings Longmont boy arrested in slayings of his adoptive mother and grandmother By Hector Gutierrez and Manny Gonzales Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer A 14-year-old boy was held Saturday in the slayings of his adoptive mother and grandmother at their home in an affluent Longmont neighborhood. The teen-ager was being held at the Boulder County Juvenile Detention Facility for investigation of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of assault. Thomas Engel called police to his home at 2141 Indian Peaks Circle in the Creekside subdivision about ...

In the future, police may not have to read criminal suspects the now-famous Miranda warning, which protects those accused of crimes from giving involuntary statements when being questioned by authorities. The Supreme Court agreed to hear a case from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding an obscure anti-Miranda law known as 3501 that Congress enacted in 1968. It says failure to issue Miranda warnings doesn't automatically exclude evidence from prosecutions. If the court decides to uphold the lower court's decision, Miranda might be out the door. But area law enforcement officials said the court's decision will not affect ...

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FALN Clemency Aftershock By EDMUND MAHONY The Hartford Courant December 12, 1999 The Puerto Rican activist who lobbied the White House for years before winning the release in August of 14 members of violent Puerto Rican independence groups is himself a leader of the terrorist group, the FALN, according to a congressional report distributed Saturday. The report shows that the activist, Luis Nieves Falcon, a lawyer and university professor in Puerto Rico, corresponded and met with senior White House officials about the release as the coordinator of the Puerto Rican Committee for Human Rights. U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, who ...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. December 12, 1999 NGC 4314: A Nuclear Starburst Ring Credit: (U. Texas) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA Explanation: Is this old galaxy up to new tricks? The barred spiral galaxy NGC 4314 is billions of years old, but its appearance has changed markedly over just the past few millions of years. During that time, a nuclear ring of bright young stars has been evolving. The inset picture of ...

HOUSTON...We Have A Problem(with hidden taxes) Recently, the Washington Post did a break down of dry cleaning one shirt for $ 1.10, analyzing each component of the total price. Their analysis looked like this: Cost   Labor 43 cents Payroll taxes 4 cents Rent 12 cents Supplies 9 cents Depreciation 9 cents Utilities 7 cents Insurance 4 cents Office & administration 4 cents Repair & maintenance 3 cents Advertising 3 cents Interest/bank charges 3 cents Claims & miscellaneous 3 cents Profit 6 cents TOTAL $1.10 In response, economists Gary and Aldonna Robbins of the Texas-based Institute for Public Policy ...

U.S. Abandoned Its Hmong Friends Washington - Aging rock stars and Hollywood has-beens made Tibet's Dalai Lama a trendy cause celebre. Buddhism is so very "in." But in a Buddhist-dominated country on the other side of the world, there is an unsung minority of Christian freedom fighters suffering in silence: the Hmong. If you've never heard of the Hmong people, and the heroic battles they waged to help America combat communism in Vietnam, there's a good reason. The U.S. State Department doesn't want you to know about the past history and present betrayal of our hidden allies in Southeast Asia. ...

December 12 1999 Thousands trapped in city that may fall block by block. Mark Franchetti , the only western reporter on the Russian front line, reports Mark Franchetti IT WAS only 9am but Stanislav, a hardened deputy commander of a Russian paratrooper battalion, was already exhausted. He had just returned from a clash with rebels a few miles southeast of Grozny, the bombed-out capital of the breakaway republic of Chechnya. Dressed in combat fatigues with a Kalashnikov and anti-tank grenade launcher strapped to his back, the 28-year-old officer was dispensing the latest souvenirs taken from Islamic militants on the front ...

December 12 1999 This is the end of the line, folks Jonathan Leake and Guy Dennis WE are as good as it gets. The human form has reached evolutionary perfection, according to one of Britain's most respected geneticists, and has nowhere else to go. Research by Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London, suggests that Darwin's theory of evolution no longer works in modern society. Natural selection - the process described by Darwin where nature favours society's fittest and weeds out the rest - does not apply now, he says, because the weak reproduce just as efficiently as ...

Israeli Police Arrest U.S. Cult Members JERUSALEM, Israel (EP) -- Israeli police raided two homes in suburban Jerusalem Jan. 3, arresting 14 members of a Denver-based apocalyptic cult. Authorities said they feared the group planned to provoke a shootout at the end of the year, believing that their own deaths would help bring about the Second Coming of Christ. "They planned to carry out violent and extreme acts in the streets of Jerusalem at the end of 1999 to start the process of bringing Jesus back to life," said national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Elihu Ben-Onn. Nearly 80 members of ...

r Navy chiefs have brought almost all the fleet's ships into dock to save money, according to reports. The service is facing a reported £500m budget deficit which is forcing it to reduce operations around the world. Drug-enforcement patrols in the West Indies have been cancelled, while all ships have been withdrawn from the Pacific and Mediterranean. Spare parts The Indedependent on Sunday reports that the captains of navy frigates have been ordered to sail at 15 knots to save fuel. And it says Armed Forces Minister John Spellar has confirmed that 14 ships have been withdrawn from exercises. It ...

Copyright 1999 Houston Chronicle (page A-1) SUNAPEE, N.H. -- Outside, moonlight glistened off a scenic mountain lake, and a crispness in the Saturday night air hinted at the winter that would soon grip this state, presidential candidates and all. Inside the community lodge, magazine publisher Steve Forbes stood before a fire, explaining to 150 people what was wrong with the politicians in Washington. "They sort of practice there what you might call the rooster method of government," he said. "You know, roosters feel that they cock-a-doodle-do and the sun rises each day. In Washington, they do the same thing. ...

Racism once again has raised it's ugly head. But it's coming from a source you wouldn't expect. I am referring to the race for the Republican nomination for president. Alan Keyes is a candidate. Mr. Keyes is black. He is an incredibly intelligent man and an excellent speaker. He has the credentials to be a serious contender. And Mr. Keyes participated in the New Hampshire Republican debate. All the candidates were present, including Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Steve Forbes, Arizona Sen. John McCain and Gary Bauer. When I watched news coverage of the debate, all these people were mentioned, ...

Y2K Bunker for the Elite Riding out Y2K In Framingham bunker, a full alert on New Year's Eve By Michael Crowley, Globe Staff, 12/12/99 On Dec. 31, as citizens around Massachusetts begin arriving at New Year's Eve parties, about 200 officials - legislators, police, National Guardsmen - will descend 40 feet underground into a concrete-walled bunker to monitor the coming of the year 2000. Inside the bunker's atomic blast-proof walls, the group will watch over power grids and global maps and 24-hour news reports, and stay in telephone contact with Australia and Europe, to see how the date rollover to ...