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WASHINGTON — From Ruby Ridge to Wen Ho Lee, a decade of blunders and missteps by the FBI have left the agency's image in tatters. The job of rebuilding it belongs to Robert Mueller, a former federal prosecutor who promises a new era of introspection and accountability.  ``I believe the FBI can and must do a better job of dealing with mistakes,'' Mueller said prior to his confirmation Thursday by the Senate. No one expects the job to be easy. Those who have watched the FBI's struggles closely say Mueller's most critical task is wresting control of the agency's insular culture, ...

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Next stop for a patients' bill of rights: conference committee. House and Senate negotiators will have to iron out differences in competing bills. The differences are really just substantial over just where you can sue an HMO and just how much you might be able to collect. CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett joins us this morning this after ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate handed President Bush (news - web sites) his third big legislative win of the week on Friday as it passed a $5.5 billion farm bailout rather than risk a veto of costlier plan.Senators adopted a U.S. House of Representatives bailout package by voice vote after they failed to shut off debate on their own $7.5 billion dollar plan, which Bush had threatened to veto as excessive.The action, which ensures growers will receive payments by the end of September, followed victories this week for the president on energy policy and a patients' bill of ...

Senate Votes To End Gun Buybacks Next Move Toward Pulling Plug On $15 Million HUD Program Administration Claims There's No Evidence Program Is Effective Critics Call Move Latest Example Of Bush Effort To Erode Gun Laws WASHINGTON, August 3, 2001 AP (AP) Pro-gun forces have won their latest congressional skirmish as the Senate endorsed President Bush's plan to eliminate a 2-year-old program that has helped local police buy firearms from the public. By a 65-33 vote, the Senate rejected on Thursday a proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to provide $15 million for Buyback America. The program was created ...

Fed Criticizes Cattle Owners By SCOTT SONNER, Associated Press Writer FALLON, Nev. (AP) - A federal official criticized cattle owners embroiled in a grazing dispute with the government over the seizure of their cattle, calling them nothing more than ``trespassers.'' The Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites) confiscated the cattle owned by John Vogt and Ben Colvin because the Nevada ranchers have allegedly overgrazed tens of thousands of acres of federal range without a permit. ``I don't really even care to characterize these people as ranchers. They are trespassers,'' Bob Abbey, the agency's Nevada director, said Wednesday. Vogt ...

THE LIBERTARIAN War: Our Proudest Export by Vin Suprynowicz It’s a good thing the Social Security and military retirement programs are actuarially solvent; the armed forces don’t need any more money for live-fire training; and Americans have seen their taxes fall till they can pay the remaining federal levies with pocket change (leaving them vast sums to invest in the modernization of private industry, not to mention pricey prescription medicines.) Because if that weren’t the case, one might wonder if our delegates to Washington had temporarily taken leave of their senses, as the House of Representatives this week voted to ...

TAIPEI: Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has not yet decided when to apply for a visa to visit Washington at the invitation of a US journalists' group, the presidential office said yesterday. ``Related evaluations and considerations of the situation would be made before taking the action [to apply for a visa],'' presidential office spokeswoman Chang Yao-chi said, declining to elaborate. Mr Chen accepted an invitation last week to speak at the Washington-based National Press Club in September or October, according to the group's president Richard Ryan. In a letter dated July 25 and made available by the club, Mr Chen wrote: ...

On Society 7/23/01 By John Leo Is there an echo? Real stories often get lost in the maw of media groupthink News stories about the 2000 census have been arriving with heavy spin attached. A front-page article in the Washington Post reported "huge increases" in the number of gay and lesbian households in the District of Columbia and across the country. The story leaves the impression that a major demographic shift has occurred, with heavy political implications. Indeed, one activist told the Post that the numbers are "a political weapon." But the numbers are small, though percentage increases from a ...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - A man who took his three daughters at gunpoint from child welfare workers this week was arrested Friday in Montana, but his children were not with him, police said. The man's wife, whom authorities had believed was traveling with him, was also missing, along with the couple's fourth child. Brian Christine, 28, was stopped by the Montana State Patrol for speeding, said Lt. Kurt Barthel, an Oregon State Police spokesman. A warrant check revealed he was wanted in Oregon, Barthel said. The daughters - Miriam, 3 Lydia, 4, and Bethany, 6 - were not in ...

Plan Colombia: drugs or OIL?U.S. Military Aid to Latin America Linked to Human Rights Abuses Few Americans know it, but the United States is currently embroiled in the biggest guerrilla war since Vietnam. Hundreds of American troops, spies and civilian contract employees are on the ground in Colombia and neighboring lands, helping to coordinate a $1.3 billion counterdrug program that will probably continue for many years. It is a bigger U.S. commitment?in personnel, cash and risk?than the previous leading post-Vietnam counterinsurgency campaign, the 1980s war in El Salvador. In light of the growing U.S. military involvement in Latin America's building ...

Bill Clinton and his brother Roger are expected to beat the rap in Pardongate, according to a source close to the investigation cited by NY1 late Friday. Investigators with the office of U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District Mary Jo White are said to have been unable to find any "proof" that the disgraced ex-president traded pardons in exchange for donations to his library and his wife's senate campaign from fugitive financier Marc Rich. Instead, prosecutors in White's office are said to believe that Clinton accepted hundreds of thousand of dollars from Rich's ex-wife Denise because of "lapses in ...

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: ABC's ''This Week With Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts'' -- Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. CBS' ''Face the Nation'' -- Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. NBC's ''Meet the Press'' -- White House chief of staff Andrew Card; Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga.; Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. CNN's ''Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer'' -- White House chief of staff Andrew Card; Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and ...

Aug. 3 — The hard-hit manufacturing sector continues on its long decline, payrolls are shrinking and spending on new office construction has fallen through the floor. The economy is teetering between slow growth and no growth, with few clear signs of an upturn anytime in the near future. Yet many economists see reasons for optimism as they sift through the latest mounds of data for a few precious nuggets in the slag. LET’S START WITH Friday’s employment report, the government’s first indication of how the economy performed in July. Certainly there is little to cheer about in news that ...

We'll Tell You What Your Values Are Last week we noted that the California Assembly had rejected an innocuous resolution honoring the Boy Scouts on their 85th anniversary, because Democrats object to the Scouts' constitutionally protected ban on open homosexuals. Now Assemblyman Tim Leslie, a Republican from Tahoe City, has posted on his Web site a transcript of the debate over the measure, including this fascinating statement from West Hollywood Democrat Paul Koretz: It pains me greatly as a former Boy Scout to have to speak against this resolution. The Boys Scouts were a great experience for me. I ...

Senate and House Republican leaders have begun meeting each week to synchronize their efforts and improve party harmony. The meetings reflect a need on the part of President Bush and the Senate GOP hierarchy to look more to the House, where the Republicans hold a six-seat majority, to take the lead in promoting Republican initiatives and beating back unwanted Democratic legislative thrusts. “There is more pressure on them,” Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said. Lott said the top GOP figures from both chambers would continue to meet every Wednesday afternoon. He and Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) will ...

How much do you want to be that the commies will use the recent death of a couple of football players due to the heat to support their anti-capitalist campaign against so-called global warming?

For Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), it’s déjà vu all over again. The chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee once again finds himself working to placate conservatives — including some members of the GOP leadership — in negotiations on the education bill. The bill, which is in the preliminary stages of a House-Senate Conference Committee, is not in jeopardy of failing, and Boehner is not scrounging for new supporters. Instead, he’s working to prevent another conservative rebellion. “[Conservatives] know as well as I do this is a difficult bill,” Boehner said Tuesday. “Their concerns are important, and ...

AP National Bioterrorism Summit Mulls Scenarios by ANNE GEARAN Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) -- In an America that guards its civil liberties, police can't just shut down cities, make mass arrests and quarantine thousands of people. Or can they? Current and former federal officials said Friday that if there is a terrorist attack with biological weapons, private rights would quickly be swamped by the need to protect the public. State borders could close, vaccines could be rationed or commandeered, the Army could even take over cities within weeks of a deadly attack, an American Bar Association panel predicted. ''To ...

ARNER, N.C., Aug. 1 — The roofer climbed down from the scaffolding around the new strip mall, pulled out his wallet, and fondled the little plastic card inside as if it were enchanted. Though he does not speak English, he was delighted to point to the words on the card: "State of North Carolina Driver License," and underneath, his name, Alejandro. "I used to have a Mexican license, which the police didn't like," he said through an interpreter, declining to give his last name because he is in this country illegally. "But here in North Carolina they said I could ...

Welcome to BaseCamp In the world of mountaineering, BaseCamp is where a climb begins. It's where the big tents get set up; where the food and fuel are stored. It's the fallback point in case of bad weather - the place everyone agrees to gather. So it is at FreeRepublic. Thanks to JR, we immigrants from TOS have been blessed with this space to launch our individual summit bids on the Mt. Everest of the world's political websites. If you run into a storm on the Forum, fall back to BaseCamp ! Stock up on nourishment, advice, or asbestos ...