Free Republic

Repeal the Davis Years (The writer represents the 36th Senate District, which includes western Riverside County and northern San Diego County. He is also the Senate Republican whip.) "Whatever happened to the “do-over”? When I was growing up, our neighborhood had a fairly liberal “do-over” policy. Whether we were playing baseball or sandlot football, if there was a play that was disputed by the players, or someone screwed up a game beyond remedy, we could just call a “do-over” and we’d start the play or game over and pretend the incident never happened. The concept doesn’t seem to be used ...

Keep rinsing---

Strange 'Bird'fellows Frequent Fliers. "Overall airline contributions are up 66 percent this cycle from the same period in the 1996 cycle. This jump comes at a time when major airlines and discount carriers are waging air wars over the competitiveness of industry markets. Low-fare airlines argue they are unable to effectively compete with their larger rivals, which have controlled access to most of the takeoff and landing slots at the biggest airports since the 1980s. They also contend that the six biggest airlines -- Continental, American, United, US Airways, Delta and Northwest Airlines -- try to run them out of ...

Everson v. Board of Education Excerpt--- "This Court has previously recognized that the provisions of the First Amendment, in the drafting and adoption of which Madison and Jefferson played such leading roles, had the same objective and were intended to provide the same protection against governmental intrusion on religious liberty as the Virginia statute. Prior to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, the First Amendment did not apply as a restraint against the states. Most of them did soon provide similar constitutional protections for religious liberty. But some states persisted for about half a century in imposing restraints upon the ...

Winnick, Green, and the Clinton Administration? SINGAPORE--"Singapore venture capital firm K1 Ventures on Friday cut some ties with shareholder and Global Crossing Chairman Gary Winnick by announcing his resignation as a company director." "It also squashed speculation over whether it had any interest in the bankrupt U.S. telecommunications group. K1, 41 percent owned by government-linked conglomerate Keppel, is headed by Global Crossing director Steven Green, a former U.S. ambassador to Singapore. Green holds the title of chief executive after buying into the cash-rich Singapore firm last September. Together with Winnick and Singapore businessman Wong Yip Yan, Green invested in K1 ...

Global Crossing Ka-shing In? Excerprt--"The investments would allow Global Crossing, which led the late 1990's frenzy for globe-spanning communications systems, to avoid a protracted bankruptcy filing. But they hinge on delicate negotiations with its senior lenders, a group of about two dozen banks including Citigroup and J. P. Morgan Chase." The banks, which met with company officials yesterday in New York to discuss the plan, need to approve changes to their financing agreements before it can restructure with the new equity. Global Crossing and the lenders hope to work on the plan over the next month. Under the proposal, Li ...

Allowing itself just one more drink from the 'well of corruption', Congress will stop - NEXT TIME!!!. In both admitting and denying the 'soft money' problem, the House, following the Senate's 2001 lead, passed 'Campaign Finance Reform' to stop what it feels, in light of the Enron/Global Crossing influence peddling, are 'offers' that they can't refuse. They decided, however, that going 'cold turkey' would not be in their our best interests. The 'corrupting influences' will be allowed for the 2002 elections to keep them 'fair'???

Li Ka-shing leads bids for Wessex "Asian billionaire Li Ka-shing has put in the top bid for Wessex Water, the British utility put up for sale by bankrupt US energy group Enron. Li's offshoot, Cheung Kong Infrastructure, itself a part of Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong-based telecoms and ports conglomerate, has bid about £1 billion. But its chances of acquiring Wessex may be hampered by an investigation by Ofwat, the British water regulator. Industry sources say Ofwat's director-general, Philip Fletcher, is concerned that the bid must be seen to be 'squeaky clean' to satisfy politicians who could complain that Ka-shing's ...

Li Ka-Shing's China Booty Excerpt-- "According to U.S. Commerce Department materials, in September 1994, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and Loral Aerospace CEO Bernard Schwartz were invited to sail on an evening paradise cruise from Hong Kong with a "who's who" of Triad business families. The official Commerce Department "guest list" for a Sept. 2, 1994 dinner on board the "Pacific Princess" included several family-run businesses closely associated with the Communists in Beijing and the Triad gangs such as Raymond Kwok, C.H. Tung, Walter Kwok, Canning Fok, and Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing. Who are these people?

Stars for Afghanistan Los Angeles -- Could this be magic? "On a recent night at the Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center, a gathering of stars of big and small screen turned out to hear speeches about Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan -- Soviet atrocities, committed by Russians against women and children in the Panjshir Valley and in Pol-i-Charki Prison. Dennis Prager, a local rabbi [incorrect] and radio talk show host, told the audience that the Russians had killed one million Afghans, and that this was a real genocide, ". . . and not just any genocide, but ...

Another Big Donor Files Bankruptcy "When Washington’s fund-raising season hits its peak later this election year, the receptions will be missing one of Capitol Hill’s biggest financial boosters of recent years, and this time, it’s not Enron. Global Crossing, a Bermuda-based telecom outfit that emerged from virtually nowhere two years ago to become a huge donor to both Democrats and Republicans, filed for bankruptcy this week. During the 1999-2000 election cycle, Global Crossing ranked No. 23 on the list of top overall donors to federal parties and candidates, giving more than $2.8 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions. ...

Global Crossing insiders sell $278 million in shares "Directors and managers of the telecommunications-network operator who sold from April 10 to April 13 included chairman Gary Winnick; Barry Porter, senior vice president of corporate development; and president David Lee, according to the Washington Service, which tracks insider trading. The shares, including some sold to exercise options, fetched $31 to $33.20 each. Winnick sold stock valued at $149 million. ...*****... The company is suing Tyco International, once its main fiber-optic cable supplier, accusing the company of stealing trade secrets."

A portfolio of Bermuda based international businesses Introduction "Bermuda is the business jurisdiction for many international or exempted limited liability companies or corporations in Bermuda's International Business industry, a profile. Their areas of business activity are hugely diversified. Thousands more like these are based in Bermuda. There are also many partnerships based here. Bermuda is also a popular location for registering hedge funds as its legislation allows the flexibility needed by this type of fund. Most are aimed at either high net worth individual investors or institutional investors."

California GOP Remains Gray Davis' Best Friend "California Gov. Gray Davis (D) apparently has survived the state's energy crunch only to find himself facing an even more threatening political problem: an expected $12.4 billion state budget shortfall over the next two years. But California's Republican Party is only now starting to recover from years of ineptness and financial inadequacy, and it finds itself facing another potentially divisive primary that could help Davis win a second term. The race for the GOP nomination pits a trio of hopefuls - former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, California Secretary of State Bill Jones ...

Rush Talking Football!!! Limbaugh on ESPN Radio Live

"Global Crossing Cries Foul to FCC As Carriers Choose Cable Rival" WASHINGTON -- In just two years, Global Crossing Ltd. has emerged as a major player in global telecommunications. And with one little-noticed lobbying campaign, the upstart also has proved itself a player in Washington politics. Global Crossing has taken on a consortium of more than 30 telecommunications companies, including MCI WorldCom Inc., AT&T Corp., SBC Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp., and delayed government approval of the group's plan to build an undersea telephone cable to Japan -- a cable that would compete with one being built by Global Crossing. ...

Underseas Cable Investigation "The US government has launched an investigation into anti-competitive practices in the undersea cable business. The DoJ’s concerns focus on the way in which a consortium of large international telecoms companies led by AT&T sells voice and data transmission services over its undersea cable networks. Members of the consortium, including AT&T, Sprint, Level3Communications, MCI Worldcom and three of Japan’s biggest telecoms companies – NTT, Japan Telecom and KDD – received an 18-page civil investigative demand from the DoJ in late June. Those close to the industry believe that the inquiry has also come as a response to ...

Excerpt from page 71 and 72-- Mr. WAXMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Kucinich, for yielding to me. The Arthur Andersen Consulting firm is not a fly by night operation, it's a very highly regarded organization, isn't that accurate? Mr. APGAR. Yes, they do very good work for us and many other Government agencies. Mr. WAXMAN. In fact, the new head of the General Accounting Office was a partner at Arthur Andersen. That was, I think, one of the reasons that many people thought he would do a good job. He had the credentials for assuming the GAO position. Mr. ...

Here is an online petition to Depict the WTC Flag Raising as it Actually Occurred! VIEW SIGNATURES ---------- SIGN THE PETITION To: The New York City Council, The New York City Fire Department We the undersigned citizens of the United States, and concerned citizens from other nations, hereby petition the New York City Fire Department and the City of New York as follows regarding the proposed statue depicting the raising of the US flag at ground zero of the WTC attack by firefighters on September 11, 2001.

Welcome Back, Rush to the land of the hearing.