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Foreign Press Admires as the U.S. Press Criticizes President Bush and Colin Powell The lead story in the South China Morning Post today begins with a quote from Secretary of State, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. military forces, Colin Powell: "Chinese fighter pilots have dropped close-quarters harassment of US surveillance flights since the diplomatic crisis that erupted over a downed US spy plane, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "So far, since we resumed reconnaissance flights we haven't seen anything like the kinds of things we had been seeing before," Mr Powell said on the flight ...

Blanchard continues strong run in polls By George Weeks / The Detroit News Gov. John Engler says he inherited a mess from Jim Blanchard after he narrowly defeated him in 1990. But he cautions that it might not be sufficient baggage to sink Blanchard should he be the Democratic nominee for governor in 2002. I recently heard Engler, before a Republican audience, ridicule Blanchard's assertion that his reign was rosy. He quipped "the only thing rosy" was Blanchard's glasses. However, during our chat after the speech, Engler said it would be a mistake for Republicans to count on making a ...

Fox news is reporting this hour that Little Oscar has just won the prestigious annual Wienerdog Race in Davis, California.Little Oscar was an unexpected victor who essentially took the title because the other wienerdogs declined to run in a straight line.Little Oscar's dedication and focus have paid off as he walks away with this very respectable title.

President Bush’s campaign theme was "compassionate conservatism," and with his faith-based initiative, he is trying to make it happen. He is the first President to try to bridge the financial gap between secular and religious organizations to accomplish an important goal: shared efforts will reap greater rewards when helping the poor and homeless. Imagine organizations of all kinds vying for the same federal grant money, yet working together to assist people in repressed communities meet their daily needs. If Bush could pull it off, that would be quite an achievement. Therein lies the problem. The Democratic Party has been paying ...

I’m a member of the crowd that remembers Ralph Nader as America’s premier consumer advocate, was vaguely aware that he was running for president, then suddenly discovered that he was the most exciting candidate in Campaign 2000. Like Republican candidate John McCain—who easily outclassed both Al Gore and George Bush—Nader champions campaign finance reform. Like McCain, Nader projects integrity, not fuzzy math or chameleonitis. But what really blew me away was Nader’s education platform. He’s light years ahead of Gore, Bush and their cronies in speaking out against the corporatization of education and high-stakes testing! I took a closer look ...

Newly released CIA documents on the Russia In The International System. Extremely long report with graphics and too large to post here but excellent reading and educational material for my fellow freepers. http://www.allsouthwest.com/russia-cia/

Since President Richard Nixon declared the "war on drugs" 30 years ago, the United States has vowed that no ground will be surrendered in its efforts to crush the $400-billion-a-year global industry in illicit drugs. Because of its wealth and power, America's zero-tolerance policies are not limited to its borders but greatly influence the United Nations and its 189 members. Australia and other countries that try to deviate from the U.S. course are yanked back in line by fear of losing U.S. military or economic support. Countries like Netherlands that experiment with different approaches are subject to harsh public criticism. ...

A senior government minister has warned that Singapore could face the chaos that hit Indonesia after the fall of Soeharto if there were too much emphasis on democracy, human rights and press freedom. The powerful Home Affairs Minister, Mr Wong Kan Seng, praised the authoritarian Soeharto era and said Singapore's prosperity could be threatened if its people rushed to embrace the "hollow abstractions" of democracy and free speech. "Excess emphasis on democracy and press freedom to the detriment of good governance and stability have led to chaos and loss of confidence. There are many examples of this happening today," ...

HOW can this country's unemployment rate be so low when so many people are being laid off? The answer: smoke, mirrors - and laziness on the part of the media. The unemployment rate in the U.S. should really be about 5.2 percent right now, a lot worse than what Washington will probably claim on Friday. That view was reinforced last Friday when Washington reported the worst economic conditions in nearly a decade. That higher unemployment number is what you get when you make a guesstimate based on the huge number of people who are now going into their state unemployment ...

"Take that grass hopper!"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In new low-speed bumper crash tests, only one of the seven mid-size sports utility vehicles tested lived up to the claims of rough and rugged. The 2001 Acura MDX was the only one to get high marks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the 5 mph crash tests. "The Acura MDX has the best bumper systems," said IIHS Chief Operating Officer Adrian Lund. "In fact, it has the best bumpers of any midsize SUV the institute has ever tested." The institute also tested the 2001 Toyota Highlander, the 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer, the 2001 Pontiac Aztec, ...

HE'S baaaack. Depending on how you voted, many people believe that Bill Clinton couldn't run a straight administration or organization if he were a steel spear. But when it comes to putting on a show, Clinton must have studied Barnum and Bailey when he was at Oxford. Boy, can he bring them in. And once there, he plays the crowd like a Stradivarius. Harlem opened its doors yesterday and the old swing gates came tumbling down. Mention Monicagate, Filegate, Whitewatergate, Paulagate or even Grand Jurygate, and all you got was a smile from the jubilant thousands. Said David Licorice, ...

Tuesday July 31 2:13 AM ET Welfare Rules May Have Negative Effect By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Teen-agers whose mothers participated in welfare-to-work programs appear to do worse in school and have more behavior problems than teens from other welfare families, research suggests. Considerable attention has focused on the affect the changes in the welfare system have had on younger children, and some research has suggested that they can benefit when their mothers go to work and earn more money. But there's been less attention on the impact on adolescents. Three studies - in Florida, Minnesota ...

Tony Blair has challenged Britain's European partners to practise what they preach by embracing agricultural reform and opening up the European Union's protected markets to outside competition. In an unexpectedly strong speech in Brazil on Monday night during a six-day tour of Central and South America, the British Prime Minister urged Latin America to embrace the global economy - while admitting that Europe cannot dodge necessary reforms indefinitely either. Mr Blair's crucial passage explicitly linked expanded free trade to agricultural protectionism, embodied in the EU's costly common agricultural policy. A relic of the 1950s, the European Common Agricultural Policy ...

Germans' taste for beer is drying up 07/31/01 BY BURT HERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS BERLIN -- Germans are losing their taste for their national drink, with cloudy skies over the country's beer gardens and a growing concern about beer bellies leading to fewer drinkers. Beer consumption dropped 4.3 percent in the first half of the year to 1.4 billion gallons -- 63.4 million gallons less than in the same period last year, according to statistics released yesterday by the government. Bad weather was partly to blame, with a belated summer keeping drinkers away from outdoor beer gardens. But also cutting ...

     We read that Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the nation, numbering some 35 million. A recent study in New York City showed that another rapidly growing group, Asians, now make up 10 percent of that city's people.      To sum up, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) reports that almost 3 out of 4 new immigrants are either from the Americas or Asia. The flood of immigrants from 1991-8 (the last recorded year) numbers 7.6 million, rivaling the 8.8 million who came to the United States during the 10-year peak period from 1901-1910.      To some, the new ...

OHRID, Macedonia, July 31 (AFP) - The ethnic Albanian representatives in Macedonia's peace talks are deliberately making impossible demands so that fighting and the rebel grab for territory can continue, a Macedonian official in the negotiations charged Tuesday. "It's more than obvious that the talks are controlled by (Ali) Ahmeti," the political leader of the ethnic Albanian rebels, Macedonian National Security Advisor Nikola Dimitrov told AFP during a break in the talks. The comment came after Ahmeti, who is not a participant in the talks, told AFP in a separate telephone interview that the talks, now in their fourth day, ...

Condoms are an "immoral and misguided weapon" in the fight against AIDS and could be one of the main reasons for the spread of the disease, says the Catholic church in southern Africa. According to a statement released late on Monday by a conference of bishops from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, the use of condoms fuels the AIDS epidemic by contributing to "the breaking down of self control and mutual respect". It concludes: "Abstain and be faithful is the human and Christian way of overcoming HIV/AIDS." The strong re-affirmation of the church's ban on artificial contraceptives has dashed ...

Don't expect the hemp convention to hold its next gathering at Dell Diamond up in Round Rock. When thousands of people showed up for a modified car show called the Texas Heat Wave, opportunistic Department of Public Safety troopers set up shop near the ballpark entrance. Then they handed out tickets for such minor infractions as wrong-colored directional signals, funny suspension systems, tinted windows and no front license plates. At up to $200 a pop. Maybe this is part of a new Williamson County economic program to make up for the downturn at Dell Computer Corp. Troopers managed to write ...