Free Republic

Bush asks Republicans to take stand on farm bill The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Bush asks Republicans to take stand on farm bill Dave Boyer THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/1/01      President Bush yesterday urged Senate Republicans to hold the line on spending, starting with an emergency farm bill that Democrats want to pass this week.      "I intend to work with them to make sure we spend within the limits of the budget," Mr. Bush said after the private luncheon at the Capitol.      But a little over an hour later, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and his fellow Democrats defeated 52-48 ...

CNN face lift The Washington Times www.washtimes.com CNN face lift Chris Baker THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/1/01      CNN, the once-mighty cable-television news network that critics say has grown "stale" and "stuffy," will lighten up in an attempt to lure away the viewers tuning into its flashier rivals.     The Cable News Network plans to introduce bolder graphics and new shows and anchors in coming months.     Sister channel CNN Headline News is getting a similar makeover, which will debut Monday.     The changes will allow the 21-year-old CNN to spice up its storytelling and draw the young viewers advertisers crave, executives say. But they stress ...

Futile treaty the germs can penetrate The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Futile treaty the germs can penetrate Steven Chapman CREATORS SYNDICATE Published 8/1/01  In 1972, the nations of the world approved a treaty outlawing biological weapons. It was a commendable document with a major omission: It had no enforcement mechanism. A few years ago, the signatories decided they needed to come up with a system to prevent and detect violations. But it turns out they may have had it right the first time.      Last week, the Bush administration announced it would not sign a draft protocol intended to police the ...

The Treaty Making Power of the Executive For the Independent Journal Author: Alexander Hamilton To the People of the State of New York: THE President is to have power, ``by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur.'' Though this provision has been assailed, on different grounds, with no small degree of vehemence, I scruple not to declare my firm persuasion, that it is one of the best digested and most unexceptionable parts of the plan. One ground of objection is the trite topic of the intermixture of ...

Wages of foreign aid The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Wages of foreign aid Bruce Bartlett CREATORS SYNDICATE Published 8/1/01      In a recent article in the Economist magazine, Harvard Professor Jeffrey Sachs took the United States to task for the miserliness of its foreign aid budget. He noted that U.S. foreign aid has fallen steadily from the early 1960s, from 0.8 percent of gross domestic product to a current level of about 0.1 percent. Mr. Sachs urged Congress and the Bush administration to triple U.S. foreign aid spending, to bring it in line with that of other industrialized countries.      The Sachs ...

EDITORIAL • August 1, 2001 Costa Rica's trees-for-debt request      Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez listened closely when George W. Bush said last year, at Florida International University, that if elected president, he would ask Congress for $100 million to go towards the debt relief of countries that bolster the protection of their rain forests. So when the Costa Rican president recently met with Mr. Bush, a trees-for-debt-relief request was at the top of his list.      Mr. Rodriguez's proposal to have $54 million of Costa Rica's $200 million debt to the United States forgiven could benefit Americans in a ...

Making a federal case out of health care The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Making a federal case out of health care Tom Miller Published 8/1/01      This week, the federal doctor makes another House call. Proposed "Patient's Bill of Rights" legislation cleared the Senate in June. If the House approves a similar version, it promises to further centralize and politicize private health insurance decisions.      You may recall that Capitol Hill's race to regulate health care at Club Fed received one of its biggest booster shots nearly five years ago. We're still suffering from the side effects.      When Congress passed the Health ...

August 1, 2001 Thinking energetically Spencer Abraham and Chris John      We all saw the scary headlines this spring warning us that an energy crisis was on the way: "The Surging Price of Power," "3 Dollar a Gallon Gasoline," "Senators Warn Energy Crisis Could Triple U.S. Power Costs." Following on the energy troubles in California, these headlines convinced many people that energy prices were certain to skyrocket. And then, quicker than you could say "rolling blackout," we started seeing an entirely different kind of headline: "What Crisis?" "Has the Madness Subsided?" and "Drop in Fuel Prices, May Weaken Push for ...

Wednesday August 1, 1:16 AM Registration suspended for displaced Kosovo voters in Serbia BELGRADE, July 31 (AFP) - The registration of displaced people so they can vote in Kosovo's November 17 legislative elections was suspended in central Serbia on Tuesday over a dispute between Belgrade and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a Serbian official said. "All the registration bureaus for the displaced from Kosovo were closed," Natasa Mandic of the Serbian refugee committee told Beta news agency. She said the OSCE had failed to respond to Belgrade's demand for copies of the registration lists once they ...

EDITORIAL • August 1, 2001 At home in Hong Kong?      Hong Kong tested its authority under the "one country, two systems" rule of China when it allowed deported professor Li Shaomin to return with his family Monday. Mr. Li, an American citizen, had not been in Hong Kong since February, when he had left his family and apartment for the evening to have dinner with a friend, and was arrested by police just over the Chinese border in Shenzhen. He was convicted of spying for Taiwan, ordered expelled from China and arrived in the United States last week. After ...

Not this August The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Not this August Jacob Sullum CREATORS SYNDICATE Published 8/1/01      The New York Times has discovered basic economics. Sort of. In a front-page story the other day, the paper noted that gasoline and natural gas prices have dropped substantially in recent months. "In both cases," the Times reported, "high prices spurred fresh production."      The thrust of the story was that the Bush administration, having pushed for new energy policies based partly on alarmingly high fuel prices, looks pretty silly now that the alleged crisis seems to have passed. "America in the year 2001 ...

EDITORIAL • August 1, 2001 Reopen Pennsylvania Avenue      Every day since spring 1995, 29,000 motorists have been channeled away from the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue NW thanks to a presidential order from Bill Clinton on the heels of the Oklahoma City bombing. Since then, the vortex of democracy has seemed to retreat cautiously away from the people, growing ever more remote and widening the gulf between citizen and government. The latest thinking on the subject recycles an old proposal to build a tunnel underneath the avenue for vehicular traffic, with the possible concession of a pedestrian walkway above ...

NRA Live That's the link for NRA Live which has a video of the SAS/TRT protest at the UN. Featuring some of our very own Freepers: pro2AMom and RaceBannon among others. Sorry if this has been posted before......I looked for it and didn't find it.

Social Security demagoguery The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Social Security demagoguery David Limbaugh CREATORS SYNDICATE Published 8/1/01      Democrats market themselves as the party of the common man, but actions (and inactions) speak louder than words.      This week, President Bush's bipartisan Social Security commission (eight Democrats and eight Republicans) issued its preliminary findings confirming that the system is in dire straits and will need a major overhaul, likely including partial privatization, to survive into the foreseeable future.      Adding insult to injury, the report said the system was particularly unfair to minorities because their life expectancy is lower and they are unable ...

Guess which gun-loving New Jersey Republican leader uttered the following words: "I believe in the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. You have to understand the kind of society we live in today and the public does have a right, everyone has agreed, to some form of protection." Was it: a) Bret Schundler in 2001 or b) Christie Whitman in 1993? The correct answer is b) Christie Whitman. That would be the same Christie Whitman who was quoted the other day in the Washington Post taking some shots at Schundler on the gun issue. Whitman told the Post's editors ...

Costa Rica, Past & Present Part 1: Drug Trafficking by the US National Security Council by Zola We call it the Ollie North International Airport. I have flown in and out of it many times. It lies out on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, near Nosara. It is a tiny airstrip for small planes, originally constructed for training (touch-and-go exercises) and for refueling. It is one of about eight airstrips built by Oliver North in Costa Rica for support of the Contras. And, as it turns out, it is one of the reasons that three individuals working for the ...

Inside Politics The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Inside Politics Greg Pierce THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published 8/1/01      Conflicts of interest      The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a preliminary inquiry into whether energy consultants advising California Gov. Gray Davis used inside information to trade stocks of power companies doing business with the state, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing "a source with knowledge of the matter."      "The federal agency began its review late last week, the source said, in response to a request from California Secretary of State Bill Jones. A Republican rival of Mr. Davis, Mr. Jones charged that stock ...

Crying for reform The Washington Times www.washtimes.com Crying for reform James L. Martin Published 8/1/01      White House critics are shocked, just shocked, that President Bush has named people who agree with him to a new commission that's supposed to redesign Social Security so the program provides a decent retirement for future generations.      What's the matter with the president? Doesn't he understand that the only purpose of a presidential commission is to "study" a problem, and that the rules of engagement require him to appoint enough people from the "other" side so the problem never, ever goes away?      Apparently, the ...

Wednesday August 1, 2:37 AM Turkish shopkeeper on brink of bankruptcy seizes bank hostages ANKARA, July 31 (AFP) - An armed shopkeeper on the brink of bankruptcy held staff hostage for seven hours in a Turkish bank Tuesday after bank officials had earlier seized goods from his shop to recover part of a loan. Anatolia news agency said the man had held seven clerks before giving himself up peacefully to police following negotiations. A lawyer acting on his behalf persuaded the 40 year-old man to end the hostage-taking in the town of Payas in the southern province of Hatay. The ...

I love the Doug McIntyre show. KABC in Los Angeles recently moved it to 9PM to midnight from the red-eye midnight to morning show he had. He's had me as a guest in studio for a great Clinton bashing session and I've been a frequent caller. On my FReeper page are two names he coined for me --- "Clintonoligist" and "The Bard of Upland." But now, as he goes on vacation to Italy, KABC has lost its mind. On Monday and Tuesday of next week, BILL MAHER, yes, the disgusting Bill Maher will be hosting the show. Let's give him ...