Free Republic

Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll CHAPTER XI. Who Stole the Tarts? The King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne when they arrived, with a great crowd assembled about them--all sorts of little birds and beasts, as well as the whole pack of cards: the Knave was standing before them, in chains, with a soldier on each side to guard him; and near the King was the White Rabbit, with a trumpet in one hand, and a scroll of parchment in the other. In the very middle of the court was a table, with a large dish of...

Why we should be worried about George W Bush29jun02THE world outside the US is now getting used to the fact Americans have a fraudulently elected nitwit as their president, but George W. Bush excelled himself this week with a "long-awaited" definitive speech on Middle East policies that stretched even the weirdest imaginations. BRUCE WILSON in London reports: US embassies around the world moved to "explain" the batty future Bush saw for Israel and Palestine, but nothing could disguise that the bedbug was running the White House and anything could happen next.Hey, look. Even Tom Cruise is worried. In London this...

July 1, 2002 Israel Begins to Dismantle Unofficial Settler OutpostsBy JOHN KIFNER and IAN FISHER SAHEL OUTPOST, West Bank, June 30 — The outposts, as they are called here, are often no more than a mobile home or two, sometimes not even occupied. Asahel's population is three: a trio of young Israelis on a desert hilltop with four dogs, a generator, a water tank, a television and a stuffed deer head, but not too much else. "We don't want to bother anyone," Tuvia Smotrich, 25, who helped build this outpost and has lived here for nine months, said today. "We...

July 1, 2002 Without Fanfare or Cases, International Court Sets UpBy MARLISE SIMONS HE HAGUE, June 28 — Over strong objections from Washington, the new International Criminal Court opens its doors here on Monday, ready to receive complaints about gross abuses of human rights anywhere in the world. In a modern steel-and-glass office block on the edge of The Hague, the first legal team will begin preparing the machinery necessary for the court to carry out its mandate. Created by the Rome Treaty of 1998, the court has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The organizers say...

July 1, 2002 U.S. Vetoes Bosnia Mission, Then Allows 3-Day ReprieveBy SERGE SCHMEMANN NITED NATIONS, June 30 — The United States, refusing to budge in its demand that American peacekeepers be exempted from the new International Criminal Court, cast a veto today against a Security Council resolution extending the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, but then agreed to a three-day extension. The display of brinkmanship was the sharpest demonstration to date of the Bush administration's determination to preclude any possibility that the new court, which formally comes into being at midnight, could be used to prosecute American peacekeepers. Other...

July 1, 2002 Judges Catch Up, With Some CrammingBy SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY OSCOW, June 30 — The crumbling yellow-brick building of the Moscow Regional Court is not what one might expect of the main courthouse of Russia's most important region. Chipped tile and peeling linoleum line the hallways. The smell of meat and potatoes cooking in the shabby cafeteria wafts up to the courtrooms. But on Friday, it was a scene of frantic preparation for what some are calling a revolutionary change in the Russian legal system. Nearly 200 judges from across the Moscow Oblast gathered for a seminar on the...

July 1, 2002 Russia Glances to the West for Its New Legal CodeBy STEVEN LEE MYERS ERGIYEV POSAD, Russia, June 27 — For 13 years, Pavel P. Khovrachyov has been a criminal prosecutor, investigating and convicting people for crimes large and small. Everything about his job is about to change. "It will be more complicated to prove someone's guilty," he said, somewhat wistfully, during a break in an assault trial in this town north of Moscow. On Monday, Russia will adopt a new legal code that governs the prosecution of criminal cases and protects the rights of those accused. In...

July 1, 2002 Live, From Washington, It's the Daily Press BriefingBy ELISABETH BUMILLER s cable-TV news watchers know, Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, conducts a lunchtime news briefing on most days that moves rapidly from serious to redundant to absurd. Its audience includes political junkies, retirees — and the president of the United States. "If he's having lunch by himself, he'll be more inclined to channel surf, and if the briefing comes up, he'll tune in," Mr. Fleischer said last week. He asserted that the practice is useful for the president, who watches in his private dining room...

Jack Grubman, the telecom analyst, told a reporter from CNBC, "stop harassing me" when asked about WorldCom. Get real, Jack! After getting paid tens of millions a year for foisting fraud-ridden telecom stocks on unsuspecting investors, you should have the decency to answer any question anyone wants to ask. And while you're at it, you should apologize for letting greed blind you. I would also like to hear a round of mea culpas from corporate execs who absconded with billions in shareholders' money. I remember watching Jeff Skilling, the control freak who ran Enron, acting like Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's...

Justice David Souter broke from the Supreme Court majority yesterday, arguing that his colleagues' decision to allow school vouchers will undermine basic American rights and breed social unrest. Souter, of East Weare, cast one of four votes opposing yesterday's decision, which concerned vouchers in Cleveland. In a 34-page opinion quoting Jefferson, Madison and 50 years of precedent, Souter argued against compromising the constitutional separation between church and state, even for the sake of helping kids in one of the nation's worst public school systems. Conflict is certain, Souter argued, if more public money helps students pay for religious schools. Protestant...

July 1, 2002 'Under God' Iconoclast Looks to Next TargetsBy EVELYN NIEVES ACRAMENTO, June 27 — There is so much about society that Mike Newdow would like to change. He does not understand, for example, why the English language allows itself anything so cumbersome and awkward as masculine and feminine pronouns. The Mike Newdow dictionary would replace "he" and "she" with "re," "his" and "hers" with "rees" and "him" and "her" with "erm." "Come on, try it out," he says. " `Re went to the store.' It's easy." Of course, it was another one-syllable word — God — that gave...

July 1, 2002 Oklahoma Republican Weighs Whether to RetireBy JAMES DAO ASHINGTON, June 30 — Representative J. C. Watts Jr., an Oklahoma Republican who has told colleagues he is strongly considering retiring at the end of the year, has scheduled a news conference for Monday in Norman, Okla., to announce his decision, Congressional officials said today. Early last week, Mr. Watts, the lone black Republican in Congress and chairman of his party's House conference, had been leaning toward not seeking re-election in November, the officials said. But he began to rethink his plans at the urging of Republican leaders, including...

July 1, 2002 Lawmakers Are Pouring Their Politics StraightBy ADAM CLYMER ASHINGTON, June 30 — Much of the Congressional debate this year has really been about politics and elections, not about laws. On Friday, with neither the House nor the Senate dealing with legislation, the speechmakers poured their politics straight, undiluted by detail and the fine points of bills and amendments. The Democratic message was clear: back home this week, when not marching in parades, eating ice cream or watching fireworks, candidates should emphasize corporate corruption and the Bush administration's failure to prevent it. Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota,...

July 1, 2002 Some Conservatives Question the Value of Reorganizing Domestic SecurityBy DAVID FIRESTONE ASHINGTON, June 30 — He has no realistic hope of stopping the proposed Department of Homeland Security — a reorganization of federal agencies that official Washington suddenly considers vital to the prevention of terrorism — but John J. Duncan Jr. says he is seriously considering voting against it. Representative Duncan, a Republican from Tennessee with a record of trying to knock down government projects, says the department will become another overgrown garden. He has no illusions, though, about why his colleagues will probably pass it overwhelmingly....

July 1, 2002 Irking Democrats Is Part of Job for a House LeaderBy ROBIN TONER ASHINGTON, June 30 — Maybe all the complaints about the confrontational, partisan style of Representative Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, come with the territory. That, at least, is what he suggests. "If they spend a lot of time complaining about me, maybe that means I'm doing my job," Representative Thomas said last week, between a fight with Democrats over trade and a fight with them over prescription drugs. After all, Mr. Thomas's defenders say, the chairman of Ways and Means,...

NEW YORK - The homeless families continuing to spill into the overcrowded US shelter system are helping prompt a major rethinking of the nation's strategies to attack the problem. From the streets of the Bronx to the halls of the federal bureaucracy, the focus is shifting: from simply providing emergency shelter and transitional housing, to creating permanent, stable homes for families and individuals forced out of an increasingly expensive and competitive housing market. At the same time, policymakers are calling for the development of more supportive housing – with services like counseling and drug treatment – for the most vulnerable...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court's decision to let Cleveland parents use tax dollars to take their children to private schools is opening up a battle nationwide to give others the same choice. Within hours of last week's historic 5-4 decision, supporters promised a fight for new voucher plans or tax credits for parents in at least a dozen states, including Texas, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Florida, as well as in the District of Columbia. While opening a constitutional door, however, the court's ruling does not sweep away the practical and political obstacles to the rise of voucher plans nationwide....

This is the day we celebrate Canada and there is much to celebrate. The time since Confederation has been pretty good for Canada, give or take four wars and a few depressions along the road. Measured against the world, Canada has done damn well. We live in a largely free country, economically and politically. The overwhelming majority of our citizens live in prosperity compared with most of the world. This year, in drought-stricken Edmonton, we will have to celebrate our good fortune without the usual river valley get-together for fireworks. I always think of this display as, primarily, an experience...

WASHINGTON - In June 1990, US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens sat down and wrote a dissenting opinion in a death-penalty case. At issue was whether the defendant had a right to have his sentence determined by a jury rather than by a judge. The majority held that capital defendants had no such right. Yet Justice Stevens wrote: "I am convinced that the Sixth Amendment requires the opposite conclusion." Last week, in a case from Arizona, six other members of the high court embraced the exact position taken by Stevens 12 years ago. As the justices ended their term...

WASHINGTON - For a few weeks there, it seemed as if America – especially its political leaders – had forgotten about the country's economic woes. The talk in Washington was about the "inevitability" of another terrorist attack, the shortcomings of its intelligence agencies, and the president's proposal for the new Department of Homeland Security. Not surprisingly, terrorism reappeared as Americans' No. 1 concern. But along came telecommunications giant WorldCom and its misplaced $4 billion. Suddenly, Washington is snapping to attention. President Bush is planning a major address on corporate responsibility when he visits Wall Street July 9. Congress is wearing...