Free Republic

Buchanan: 'Send China Packing From Panama!' Today Pat released the following statement: "A generation ago, along with Ronald Reagan, I opposed Jimmy Carter's surrender of the Panama Canal. We insisted that the Canal was U.S. property, its retention vital to U.S. security, and its transfer an unacceptable risk. History proved us right. To secure the Canal from a potential threat, a decade ago, President Bush invaded. "Tuesday's transfer of all U.S. bases in the former Canal Zone, as well as the Big Ditch itself, now leaves this strategic asset in indifferent, and perhaps even hostile, hands."The U.S. bases from which ...

'Toilet Tax' in Popular Tourist City VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Pity the Weak-Bladdered Tourists Caught Short in Central Venice. In a bid to tap deeper into its rich stream of non-resident revenue, the watery city overtaken by millions of visitors is saddling them with a controversial ``toilet tax'' -- a steep surcharge on the price of using public lavatories. The reason is simple. Just 50,000 people live in the center of the city but some 10 million invade it every year, making heavy use of public services but paying little toward their upkeep. ``We are a tiny population compared to ...

Behind the Headlines by Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com December 13, 1999 SPY SCARE USHERS IN NEW COLD WAR So, you thought the cold war was over, eh? Not so fast. Suddenly, the specter of Russian spies is haunting Washington, with the revelation that a Russian "bug" was planted in a State Department conference room, and a Russian attaché expelled because he was caught monitoring the bug from a parked car near the building. The bug, buried quite professionally in the wall paneling, was almost certainly an inside job, executed at leisure and with great care. The Russian spy scare is ...

Gun Lobby and Senate Republicans Want Back Door Implementation of Law To Allow Individuals to Carry Handguns in Their Cars CHICAGO, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- ``There is one reason and one reason only for the extremist efforts we are seeing to roll back our felony gun misuse laws,'' according to Mark Karlin, Chairman of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. ``Senate President Pate Philip and the gun lobby want to allow citizens to carry concealed handguns in the glove compartments of their cars, under their car seats, and on the streets of their towns and cities. When caught breaking ...

* From Des Moines, Iowa: * Remember a couple of weeks ago when George W said, in a major foreign policy address - why is there no such thing as a MAJOR foreign policy SPEECH or a MINOR foreign policy ADDRESS - that we had to change our relationship with the Russians and the Chinese? * Remember how the White House howled in protest that our newest and bestest friends - the Russians and the Chinese - might be offended by calling them "rivals" instead of "strategic partners"? * Now, it turns out, one of our "strategic partners" - Russia ...

In the spirit of the season, and Rush's penchant for naming candidates supporters, I think we should put a name to each one of our favorites.Keyes=keyesters is goodBuchanan=brigadeers is also How about Bush=bushitters, or Hatch=hatchlings, I can't think of a catchy name for Bauer or McCain, but in the case of McCain, I can think of things to call him.Cmon you try it, maybe your nickname will help to define a candidate, and give us a few laughs.

Does anyone know if VOLPE said who was with him in bathroom?? Ex-NY cop gets 30 years for stationhouse assault By Jeanne King NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former police officer Justin Volpe was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment Monday for the 1997 sexual torture of a Haitian immigrant, an assault that raised racial tensions in New York and became a symbol of police brutality. Victim Abner Louima and his disgraced torturer came face-to-face again at the sentencing in a Brooklyn federal courtroom crowded with emotional relatives of both men, more than two years after Volpe shoved a broken stick into ...

Here they are folks, those who've been "honored" after appearing on yesterday's news shows PROFESSIONALS' MONTHLY Be sure to check out the "THINKING MAN" cartoons at the bottom of the page. (One of the cartoons deals with Rosie O'Donnell.) Thanks."

UPDATE: WHITE HOUSE USED IN BLUMENTHAL SUIT AGAINST DRUDGE... DEVELOPING...Headline only for now.Not a surprise in this day and age. What hasn't the White House been used for is the real question.

NEW YORK, Dec 10 (Reuters Health) -- A study of Los Angeles suicides and homicides indicates that individuals under the age of 21 and males are more likely than others to use a firearm to kill themselves or someone else. The findings suggest that ``reducing (young people's) access to firearms'' may be an important means of reducing gun-related deaths and injuries, according to Drs. Susan Sorenson and R.A. Berk of the University of California, Los Angeles. Their report is published in the December issue of the journal Injury Prevention. Using 1990-1994 data, the authors compared the demographic characteristics of over ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling that a state may not pay the tuition for students to attend a religious school, refusing to be drawn into the voucher issue that has sparked debate in Congress and the presidential campaign. For the third time in little more than a year, the high court passed up an opportunity to consider a case involving school vouchers, an issue that has divided the top presidential candidates along partisan lines. Republican presidential contenders Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain generally have supported school ...

James Botkin (Transcript, Wednesday, Dec. 8) suggested that gun owners should be held to the same levels of regulation and liability that car owners are. I agree, because the rules and regulations which govern the sale, possession, and use of guns are much more restrictive than those on automobiles. There is no age restriction on the purchase of motor vehicles, nor any requirement for registration if the vehicle is to be operated solely on private property. My four-year-old son can walk in with cash and buy a Chevy Suburban (surely an assault vehicle if ever there was one) and ...

By Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY NEW YORK - Imagine first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan running on the same political ticket. Couldn't happen? Well, then you don't know New York politics. Join the discussion on Hillary's Senate candidacy. If Buchanan wins the Reform Party presidential nomination, he will be atop the Independence Party's ticket in New York. The Independence Party is the state affiliate of the Reform Party and looms large in its ability to swing an election. And if the Independence Party endorses Clinton as its Senate nominee -- an endorsement she and President Clinton ...

Rush just read an e-mail he received from a freeper. It was objecting to Rush using the term "Keyster" last week. Rush said we should lighten up and laugh at ourselves. Bob

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. –– In the first days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a local prosecutor said she was under political pressure to investigate Linda Tripp for illegal wiretapping, one of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's deputies testified today. Former Starr prosecutor Jackie Bennett was the first witness at a pretrial hearing where Maryland authorities must demonstrate that their case against Mrs. Tripp was untainted by her immunized statements to Starr's office. Bennett said he assured Mrs. Tripp and her attorney that it would be very difficult for Maryland authorities to prosecute her since by law they couldn't use the evidence ...

In the column entitled “Reports of genocide in Kosovo exaggerated?” Gwynne Dyer shares an imaginative recipe for Kosovo war apologists (Sunday Telegram, Dec. 5). First, take the 2,108 bodies exhumed by war crimes investigators. Assume all were ethnic Albanians, in contradiction to investigators’ statements that some were Serbs. Assume, despite press reports about numerous KLA mass reburials for their “martyrs,” that all were ethnic Albanian civilians and no KLA fighters were killed in battle. Second, take the number of bodies per investigated gravesite and multiply by the number of reported sites not yet investigated to estimate bodies to be exhumed ...

     (CNSNews.com) - A criminal justice expert and author of the best selling  book More Guns, Less Crimes argues that a possible lawsuit by public  housing authorities against gun manufacturers may do more harm than  good.  Dr. John Lott told CNSNews.com, "I think these suits are going to result in  more deaths rather than fewer deaths. . . . It's an abuse of the legal system."  President Clinton, during a White House news conference last Wednesday,  said the public housing authority litigation against gunmakers has a good  grounding in fact.  "There are 10,000 gun crimes every year in ...

Dec 13, 199912:02 PM Local Prosecutor Said She Was Under Pressure to Probe TrippBy Greg ToppoAssociated Press Writer ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) - In the first days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a local prosecutor said she was under political pressure to investigate Linda Tripp for illegal wiretapping, one of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's deputies testified today. Former Starr prosecutor Jackie Bennett was the first witness at a pretrial hearing where Maryland authorities must demonstrate that their case against Mrs. Tripp was untainted by her immunized statements to Starr's office. Bennett said he assured Mrs. Tripp and her attorney that ...

SPRINGFIELD - State lawmakers convene today for what was once supposed to be a brief emergency session, but has now turned into a shoot-out between gun-control advocates and those backing gun-owners' rights. The debate puts Senate President James "Pate" Philip of Wood Dale in a familiar position: balking at proposals backed by his fellow Republicans in the House and governor's office, not to mention opposition Democrats. Philip, reflecting the views of some conservative members, opposes re-enacting a law passed in late 1994 that makes carrying a concealed weapon an automatic felony even for first-time offenders. Philip has significant support. The ...

Founding member of the Band, solo artist and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Rick Danko passed away Friday morning in his Woodstock, N.Y., home. His wife, Elizabeth, found him in his bed, where he'd apparently died peacefully in his sleep -- one day after his fifty-sixth birthday. Although no cause of death was known by Friday afternoon, Danko's publicist, Carol Caffin, said that she spoke to him Thursday and that he had been in good spirits. "I just spoke to him yesterday, and he was in a great mood," said Caffin. "I told him I had some interviews ...