Free Republic

Look who's discovered family values. Ever since six-year-old Elian Gonzalez washed up on the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day, Fidel Castro has been leading mass demonstrations in Havana thumping for the boy's return on the grounds that a child should be with his father. Of course, Fidel knows firsthand the pain of family separation. His own daughter, Alina Fernandez, escaped from Cuba in 1983 and has been a thorn in her father's revolution ever since. "I know what this is like, because I had to make an international incident to get my own daughter out of Cuba," Ms. Fernandez told ...

Turns out Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did not plan their massacre of fellow students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, as a homage to the memory of Adolf Hitler. They just did it to be famous. That's all. Time Magazine is reporting this week that the two young misfits in Colorado made videotapes abut their plans to off hundreds of students at Columbine, an act they felt would make them famous so Hollywood "directors will be fighting over this story." Hell of a statement. Kill your fellow man. Get famous. Sell the book rights. Get rich. Have a ...

First place in the race to market a "smart gun" will go to a Swiss-owned pistol maker that is introducing a handgun with a lock requiring the owner to punch in a personal identification code in order to pull the trigger. SIG Swiss Industrial Co. Holding Ltd. hopes the pistol will appeal to parents and others who want to arm themselves while thwarting children, criminals and other unauthorized users from firing their weapons. The Model P229 Electronic Personal Lock System, expected to sell for about $950 when it reaches gun stores early next year, features an electromagnetic locking system ...

Just what might a settlement of the gun lawsuits look like? The White House jolted the firearm controversy last week by threatening to add its own class-action suit to legal actions by 28 municipalities against gun companies. The surprising thing about the gun-foe wish list is that it contains a number of demands that industry officials concede they would be willing to agree to. Other proposals, however, have sparked ferocious industry opposition. While many gun executives condemn the new White House threat to sue on behalf of violence-ridden public housing projects, others tentatively welcome the administration joining nascent settlement ...

AllSouthwest News Y2K Watch December 31, 1999 3:00 PM CST - January 1, 2000 3:00 PM CST BOOKMARK THIS PAGE! With all of the hype and concern over Y2K Bug we have decided to ride it out and post any happenings or urgent news as it may happen during our 24 hour Y2K marathon. From 3PM to 3PM we will be right here watching more than 50 News wires, 200 Internet websites, Television, AM-FM Radio, Short-wave Radio and HAM. We also have volunteers from across the world to relay any troubles that may arise that the mainstream media is not ...

As you may know, FR will be sponsoring a booth at the upcoming DC CPAC conference in January. The booth will mainly be an exhibit of what the Forum-Insitute-Network is about but we will also be showcasing our DC Rallys, FR Highlites, the Downside Legacy, China Project and more! We would also like to put up pics of our various protests around the country! If you have pics of these events (don't forget the FReeper Airforce, Gene and Pete!), please send enlarged 8x10 photos and we will mount and display them at the conference! Please be sure to note the ...

The Justice Department is bracing itself for the release early this month of the results of a two-year inquiry by Inspector General Michael Bromwich into Justice programs tasked with training foreign police and prosecutors. Department insiders suspect the report — there is considerable interest in its contents, too, on Capitol Hill — will prove highly embarrassing for Attorney General Janet Reno and her senior criminal-division officials. They predict it will excoriate endemic mismanagement at the programs, citing instances of serious security breaches, sexual favoritism in hiring practices and awarding of contracts and even possibly an attempt at visa fraud ...

Tony is likely just one of we "uniformed, unqualified" citizens who are forced to rely on common horse sense to handle life's problems. His letter to the Editor suggests - Design a crash-proof 'black box' that will handle both flight parameters and voice/noise, powered by a rechargeable set of batteries. It would be built with provisions for separation from wreckage AND would float, as well as signal it's location. Don't these seem to be remarkably common sense improvements in air commerce safety.

The Clinton administration’s Big Brother computer cost taxpayers more than $1.7 million and an exemplary federal employee her job. Sheryl Hall won’t take it sitting down. This is a story about a modern-day David and Goliath. But instead of two men, it involves two women — one a career civil servant and the other the first lady of the United States. It begins about 18 months before Insight began reporting in 1996 about a sophisticated computer system at the White House designed to collect data on virtually everyone who did, might, or had come into contact with the president ...

If a suspected bank robber in police custody makes an incriminating statement that a judge finds he made voluntarily, should the jury be allowed to hear that statement at the suspect's trial? The answer ought to be obvious. Why would anyone (other than the bank robber) want to hide such important and reliable evidence from the jury? Last week the Supreme Court agreed to review a case, Dickerson v. U.S., that presents that very question. Legal scholars herald it as one of the most controversial questions before the court this term, and the Clinton administration warns that it could ...

- We’re rude, we’re crude and we’re not going to take it anymore. Life in the old millennium made us real angry, and we’re taking aim at who’s to blame. It began on a rural road in Wisconsin when my rusty 1982 Datsun nearly was broadsided by a truck. Fortunately I quickly hit my horn and the driver slammed on his brakes. Checking the rearview mirror while continuing down the road I could see the truck was accelerating rapidly until it was tailgating dangerously at a 50 mph clip.        A stoplight was ahead, maybe 50 yards. Should I run it ...

AUSTIN - Somewhere on George W. Bush's national race toward the Republican nomination, he began hearing variations on a tune that had hounded him back in Texas. Is he smart enough to handle the job? Across the country, pundits and political foes say the governor hasn't proved he has the depth to be president. They say he relies too heavily on advisers and scripts to deliver his vision for America. The Bush camp has rejected the criticism. They said that the brightest minds in academia and public policy are helping in the campaign but that Mr. Bush isn't a fledgling ...

Experts expect many Y2K errors, moderate impact Updated 1:40 PM ET December 13, 1999 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 2000 computer glitch will cause many errors in automated systems worldwide but their combined damage will be "moderate," a United Nations-created information clearing house said Monday. In its final report, the Washington-based, World Bank-funded International Y2K Cooperation Center said most critical systems "will function about as well as they normally do in the first days of the new year." It said computer errors that stop short of triggering shutdowns will lead to "degraded performance in many infrastructures," such as electricity generation ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –– Jailed scientist Wen Ho Lee pleaded innocent today at a detention hearing crowded with friends and supporters, while prosecutors urged Lee's continued detention, describing him as a danger to the community. Lee, accused of improperly handling national nuclear weapons secrets, "poses a substantial risk of flight," assistant U.S. attorney Robert Gorence told Magistrate Don Svet. Svet was expected to rule later today whether Lee, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, would be detained or released on bond. Dr. Stephen Younger, director of nuclear weapons program at Los Alamos, testified that Lee had downloaded key files from ...

MenWeb - Men's Issues: Facts and Myths About Domestic Violence A:link {color: 9999CC; text-decoration: none} A:visited {color: 9966CC; text-decoration: none}        Battered Men - The Hidden Side of Domestic Violencehttp://www.vix.com/menmag/batfact.htm Facts and Myths about Domestic Violence   Myth95% of the domestic violence is by men against women Fact The National Institute of Justice and the Center for Disease Control estimates that 1.3 million women and 835,000 men are the victims of domestic violence each year. According to this NIJ/CDC National Violence Against Women Survey, 37% of the domestic violence is against men. 100% of the federal domestic violence funding ...

I'm not sure what to make of this billboard spotted yesterday in west Michigan. It is located north of the westbound lanes of I96 just west of the Marne exit. This is west of Grand Rapids about 20 miles. If there weren't so many fast semis passing me I would have gotten out of my car to take this picture. Maybe someone can figure out what it is all about.

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (Reuters) - Linda Tripp, whose secretly recorded phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky led to President Clinton's impeachment, was never guaranteed protection against state charges she violated Maryland's wiretap laws, an independent counsel's office lawyer said Monday. Investigators from the office of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr instead offered the former White House secretary a grant of immunity that they believed would make it difficult for any state prosecutor to use her recorded conversations as evidence in a criminal proceeding. "We told her the state of Maryland was a separate sovereign (from the federal government) and that ...

These are Senators who voted against the military pay raise. Bayh (IN) Graham (FL) Robb (VA) Boxer (CA) Harkin (IA) Voinovich (OH) Feingold (WI) Kohl (WI) Wellstone (MN) Fitzgerald (IL) McCain (AZ) (This guy is running for President) Good response by Senior NCO on Senator's vote against pay-raise. -----Original Message----- Mr. Voinovich, Unless you are planning on this being your last term in the Senate, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would attempt to undermine a much deserved although paltry 4.8 percent pay raise to military men and women that make sacrifices that you cannot ...

Yahoo - Y2K Browser Bomb to Harm Online Sales?Home - Yahoo! - Help[ Business | US Market | By Industry | IPO | AP | S&P | International | PRNews | BizWire | CCN ]Related Quotes^DJI^IXIC^SPC^IIX^PSE11225.623657.901419.01542.88835.44+0.92+37.66+1.97+10.13+7.94delayed 20 mins - disclaimerMonday December 13, 12:05 pm Eastern TimeCompany Press ReleaseY2K Browser Bomb to Harm Online Sales? DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 1999--An unexpected Y2K bug, related to popular Web browsers, was revealed today in a popular e-mail newsletter, ``Poor Richard's Web Site News.'' Published by best-selling Internet author Peter Kent, and distributed to over 40,000 subscribers, the newsletter reveals a problem with a significant ...

White House Pops Susan Estrich for USA Today Op-Ed on Drudge By Susan Estrich Matt Drudge keeps claiming that he's being sued by the White House and much to my dismay, I've got proof that he's right. It might even take care of his lawsuit for awhile. Drudge is the Internet boy-wonder who is being sued for libel by White House adviser Sidney Blumenthal based on an item, retracted a day later, reporting on GOP-spread rumors that Blumenthal was a wife beater. Blumenthal hired a lawyer and brought suit, supposedly as a private citizen. But Drudge has argued that it ...