Free Republic

Clinton to Penelas: `Alex, what are we going to do' about the boy? AMY DRISCOLL, BETH REINHARD AND JAY WEAVER adriscoll@herald.com President Clinton bragged about the nation's prosperity and defended affirmative action during a Democratic fund-raising swing through South Florida on Saturday night -- but local politicians, protesters and a Cuban exile leader tried to bend his ear about Elian Gonzalez. Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas lobbied Clinton about the young Cuban boy just before the President departed from Miami International Airport on Saturday night. ``Alex, what are we going to do about this 6-year-old boy?'' Clinton asked the mayor. Penelas ...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- In a convention hall filled with farm families from every corner of Iowa, Steve Forbes recently came face to face with George W. Bush and was treated to a vision of his coming task in Iowa's caucuses next month. Wherever Bush went, cameras and flashes heralded his way, and teen-age girls squealed with delight to be near him. A sea of John Deere-green baseball hats labeled "Bush Farm Team" bobbed on farmers' heads as they surged forward for autographs and a closer look at Bush, the governor of Texas and the front-runner in the race for ...

Clinton Pins 'Don't Ask' Failure on Top Brass 12/12/99 MARK COATNEY The President admits that his gays-in-the- military strategy isn't working. But he blames the generals, not his policy. The first step is acknowledging that there is a problem. President Clinton did that Saturday when for the first time he allowed that his famous "Don't ask, don't tell" solution to the question of gays in the military wasn't working out as hoped. At this point, he may be the last person in America to have come to that conclusion. He was beaten to the punch, certainly, by two high-profile developments ...

Hatch's Plans Revealed: Would Curb Abortion Counseling, Revoke Five Clinton Executive Orders By Jennifer Jose ABCNEWS.com W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 12 — If he’s elected president, on his first day in office Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would immediately revoke a 1993 executive directive allowing federal clinics to offer abortion counseling, according to a copy of Hatch's plan for a new administration obtained by ABC News. In all, Hatch would revoke five executive orders already signed by President Clinton, including the directive on abortion — one of Clinton’s first presidential decisions, which caused a ...

PARIS -- By deciding to equip itself to send up to 60,000 troops to a crisis zone like Bosnia or Kosovo, the European Union aims to become a strategic player the United States and other countries will have to reckon with. French officials, chafing under what some of them call American "hyperpower," have long wanted to make Europe a political and military power as well as an economic colossus. Now other European leaders have adopted the military goal, agreeing at a meeting Friday in Helsinki to build the command and planning staffs, intelligence bases, and the decision-making and deployment apparatus ...

While many blue chip stocks and indices struggled throughout the week, we will nonetheless pronounce today "Day 31" of the "mother of all stock market speculations." For the week, the Morgan Stanley High Tech index rose 4%, increasing its year-to-date gain to 98%. The meltup continues in the Internet sector, with The Street.com Internet index rising 10%. For the year, this index has gained 179%. The NASDAQ 100 rose 1% this week, as its 1999 gain increased to 74%. The NASDAQ Telecommunications index jumped 4%, as its year-to-date gain increased to 76%. The small cap Russell 2000 index rose ...

Panamanians Have Mixed Feelings About Canal Transfer By DAVID GONZALEZ PANAMA CITY, Panama -- With the zest of salesmen and the zeal of patriots, Panamanian officials tout ambitious plans to convert sprawling acres of formerly off-limits properties along their famous canal into bustling commercial hubs and tropical tourist oases. Smooth and practiced, they vow to create more jobs than the U.S. military presence here ever did, eagerly projecting millions of dollars in revenue to benefit social programs in health, education and housing. But for a nation about to receive what amounts to a $5 billion bonanza, there have been few ...

This one has the FDA stumped. Is it a snack food or a beauty aid? Should it post new rules and regs for this hot new product? Snack Food or Beauty Aid?

Old Beast rears its head By MARTIN A . LEE AUSTRIA'S far-right Freedom Party sent shock waves through Europe when it won 27 percent of the vote in recent national elections. Joerg Haider, the Freedom Party's youthful, charismatic fuehrer, is now in a strong position to contend for the Austrian chancellorship, despite his penchant for expressing pro-Nazi sympathies. While Austrian officials struggled to put together a viable governing coalition, Switzerland's extremist right-wing People's Party, led by Christoph Blocher, scored a major electoral breakthrough, winning 23 percent of the vote in late October. Blocher, like Haider, is a tub-thumping, xenophobic multimillionaire ...

WASHINGTON -- For the first time since their fateful friendship and taped conversations set off the investigation of a president, Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp will confront each other, this time in court. Ms. Lewinsky is on the witness list for a pretrial hearing, scheduled to begin on Monday in Howard County, Md., where Mrs. Tripp faces charges that she illegally taped their telephone calls. In July, Mrs. Tripp, who had brought her secretly recorded conversations with Ms. Lewinsky about Ms. Lewinsky's affair with President Clinton to the attention of the independent counsel Kenneth Starr, was indicted on two ...

School choice opponents have come up with an ingenious explanation for the growing acceptance of vouchers, charter schools and other alternatives to government schools. It amounts to this: Parents don't know what they are doing. Public Agenda, described as a non-partisan opinion research group, did a poll that anti-reform groups see as evidence that vouchers are popular solely because of ''a well-financed, right-wing policy apparatus.'' Public Agenda concluded that parents, even where vouchers and charter schools are well established, ''don't really understand those alternatives to regular public education.'' Vouchers allow parents to choose the school their child attends, public ...

Adios, Panama As the finality of the Canal hand-over nears, an air of uncertainty pervades country BY GLENN GARVIN ggarvin@herald.com PANAMA -- It seemed a simple question to the gringo in the back seat of the cab, but the staccato burst of Spanish from the taxi driver, as harsh and angry as a machine gun, made it clear he was wrong. ''How am I doing?'' the cabbie snapped. ''How am I doing? I've been at the airport all day, 12 hours, and you're my second customer. Nobody's coming to Panama. Everybody's leaving with the Americans.'' He paused, then practically spat ...

Why won't the "When they come for you" thread load? I got in once but when I tried to reply it would not load again. All other threads load fine. Any help is appreciated.

Reno (Finally) Ups the Pressure on Wen Ho Lee 12/12/99 MARK COATNEY The attorney general indicts the former Los Alamos nuclear scientist on espionage charges. What took her so long? Never let it be said that Janet Reno can't make up her mind. After an interminable interagency debate, the attorney general Friday indicted former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee on espionage charges. What's surprising isn't the indictment — after all, we've known the story for nine months now — it's the time it took. So why did it take Reno so long to come to a decision? She ...

Drudge made a point that hate is propagated more efficiently by Hollywood liberals such Tarantino and Spielberg rather than Hitler's Mein Kampf as the Colombine shooting teaches us in Time magazine's latest reported piece. The author of the piece has been criticized by the media as a sensational reporter in an apparent preemptive media strike to avoid criticism and responsibility. I'd like to make comparison of our situation with the situation in Israel, because what is happening over there in terms of media hatred of the right and the religious is very similar to the one here. Although it is ...

That Was The Race That Wasn't By J. PETER MULHERN The Washington Post is all atwitter with the news that John McCain continues to gain on George W. Bush in the supposedly all-important New Hampshire primary. Some polls have McCain leading in New Hampshire. The Post is almost equally gleeful about Bill Bradley's rise from obscurity to the status of a genuine contender. Bradley too is ahead in the Granite State, at least according to certain pollsters. All this excitement about the posturing that precedes the anointing of a new President is the ultimate proof that entertainment has subsumed ...

ORLANDO -- The 2,300 delegates to the state Democratic convention were revved up. They were waving balloons, shouting "Amen!" and chanting their new motto at a fever pitch: "We're on your side!" All that was before the first notes of "Hail to the Chief" rang out over the loud speaker, before President Bill Clinton sauntered onstage and told the party faithful just what they wanted to hear: "You can win again here." In separate appearances at the Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa, Clinton and Vice President Al Gore led party activists in a massive pep rally Saturday. [Ha! alphagore ...

Gore in Your Face 12/20/99 Issue Bradley finds it hard to stay high-minded in a week of cheap shots, missteps and an irregular heartbeat BY ERIC POOLEY If Bill Bradley ever really believed that running for President in 1999 could be a virtuous, high-minded mission--a journey to "a world of new possibilities, guided by goodness," as he likes to say--last week should have rid him of the notion once and for all. Bradley spent the week fending off cheap shots (and effective politics) from Al Gore, his rival for the Democratic nomination, and spending big in New Hampshire to keep ...

Analysis GOP agenda puts squeeze on Detroit Some call legislation racist. Lawmakers say they're helping city By Mark Hornbeck and Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau     LANSING -- Detroiters are growing increasingly resentful about what they see as Republican legislators from the suburbs and beyond telling them how to run their city.     Republicans insist they're simply trying to advance Detroit's revival.     But the legislation they're passing is driving a deeper wedge between the state's largest city and the rest of Michigan.     Just last week, the Republican-led Legislature passed bills that strip ...

High stakes in Monday’s debate GOP contenders wage war before Monday night battle on MSNBC By Tom Curry, MSNBC AMES, Iowa, Dec. 12 — With Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses just six weeks off, GOP rivals readied for a key debate to be broadcast on MSNBC Monday at 8 p.m. ET. In the run-up on Sunday, contenders were working to shake the confidence of George W. Bush, the favorite for the Republican nomination. Waging a campaign of psychological warfare, Bush’s adversaries portrayed the Texas governor as a man “programmed” by advisors, not in command of the issues, and unable to say ...