Health Care Task Force in violation of Federal Advisory Committee Act

Statement backing off middle class tax cut promise because economy worse than he thought, used the same figures from his campaign, approx one year earlier.

Concerning data subpoenaed by Starr, Harold Ickes testified about a conference call with other aides on Sept. 9, 1996, because "the president doesn't want any polling data turned ... over to people outside the campaign."

Harold Ickes - Local 100 Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union - Cosa Nostra

Clinton ordered Ravenwood Hospital in Chicago to change their policy and said that all Medicare payments to any hospital that didn't comply with his order would be cut-off

Perkins Coie (PRC legal representative) incorporated both James Carville's Education and Information Project and Lynn Cutler's Back to Business Committee - notorious for attacking Starr.

Bob Barr: "In fact, if the President has been using government-paid lawyers for personal legal matters, it raises a question of conversion of taxpayer resources for personal use."

Community Development Financial Institutions Fund - over $2 million awarded in no-bid consulting contracts, $2.4 million on outside consultants (10/95-10/97,) millions in grants given to institutions with ties to President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton and fund officials reviewing applications from their former employers.

In 1978, Hillary Clinton invested through Ray E. Friedman and Co of Springdale, IL. (a broker who had been sanctioned for mirrored transactions) $1000 in cattle futures which after trading gave her a net gain of $99,537 Robert L. "Red" Bone, who ran the Springdale, Ark., office of Ray E. Friedman and Co. (Refco), allowed Clinton to initiate and maintain many trading positions when she did not have enough money in her account to cover them.

Each President has had a blind trust completed and in the hands of a trustee at inauguration time except Clinton. Vince Foster, as Assistant White House Counsel at taxpayer expense, was working on the Clinton's blind trust up until his death on June 20, 1993. Three days following his death, the trust declarations were delivered to the trustees, with Vince Foster's "signature" on them. It has been alleged that a number of the Clinton assets were not conveyed to the trust as required.

Understatement of income on Clinton tax returns 1978 to 1995 was $49,870. Whitewater Committee: "The Clintons have explained that errors on their tax returns relating to Whitewater were due to mistakes made by their accountants. The Clintons did not fully disclose, however, all of their financial information to their accountants, did not discuss the details of important financial transactions with them, and sometimes simply ignored their accountants' advice .cannot be dismissed as merely mistakes by the Clintons' personal accountants."

Park-O-Meter owned by Seth Ward, Web Hubbell's father-in-law - received the first loan from Arkansas Development Finance Authority ADFA, signed by Clinton. Web Hubbell was secretary/treasurer. Hubbell also drafted and introduced the legislation that created ADFA. The Rose Law Firm (Hubbell and Hillary Clinton) did the audit and evaluation of the application for POM. The first loan of $2.85 million was not paid back. Park-O-Meter was actually building retrofit nose cone compartments that were being shipped to Mena, AR. These nose cones were allegedly being used to smuggle drugs back into the country as part of the Contra weapons/drug smuggling/money laundering operation.

In 1978, the Clintons and McDougals borrowed approximately $203,000 to buy a 230 acre tract of land on the White River for development. The down payment was made with McDougal borrowed funds and repaid with additional McDougal borrowed funds. The remaining loan was renewed 9 times before being paid off in 1992 (Clinton's first run for the presidency.) In 1979, while Clinton was governor, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission approved the use of federal funds to build an access road to the property. Corporate formalities were ignored.

Resulting from Al Gore's previous work in the Senate, it was announced 6/98 that for environmental purposes, the Navy will work with the private sector to release previously classified data once used to hunt submarines.

Tony Blankely " The measure of a man can be most accurately gauged when one is in daily struggle with him for a number of years. From 1993 through 1996, as Newt Gingrich's press secretary, I was in almost daily political battle with Clinton. I observed, close-up, his lack of scruples in matters small and large. I will never forget that day in September 1995 when Clinton told Gingrich and Bob Dole in the White House Cabinet Room that he recognized the demographic problems facing Medicare and he hoped the budget negotiations would be successful. Later, Dole, Gingrich, and I learned through the reporting of Bob Woodward in the Washington Post that while the president was saying this to us, he was also personally designing the ads that would viciously accuse Newt and Dole of trying to destroy Medicare. But Clinton is not only politically dishonest; he is also intellectually dishonest. In August 1997, Clinton signed into law virtually the same Republican Medicare proposal he had so passionately attacked in 1995."

The White House lost $283,000 from its salaries budget to cover a federal judge's fine levied against former health care director Ira Magaziner.

In an explosive argument at the end of the third day of Schaeffer and Williams' trial in U.S. District Court, prosecutors alleged that Tyson Foods Inc. persuaded former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy in 1993 to halt development of a food-safety policy that would cost the company more than $130 million.

The Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service previously required poultry known to be contaminated with bacteria-laden feces to be trimmed away and discarded but currently allows poulty processors (of which Tyson is the world's largest) to rinse the poultry in chlorinated water or cook it without washing. Bacteria found in fecal contamination, are estimated by government scientists to sicken more than 4 million people each year and cause more than 3,000 deaths. The procedure change was approved by Carol Tucker Foreman, assistant secretary for Food and Consumer Services and sister of former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker. Foreman now says the decision was a mistake that the previous policy was ''a penalty that made the plants take greater care.''

What has been dubbed the "Gore tax" is a 5 percent tax on interstate calls imposed by the FCC to fun Al Gore's plans to connect all public schools to the Internet. The Constitution does not allow federal bureaucracies to levy taxes.

Wayne Hage's ownership of a ranch came with vested taxable water and grazing rights on federal lands passed down to him in a line of succession since the mid-1800s. The environmental movement reinterpreted federal land management, water rights and property law Adjudication lasted 10 years bringing Hage to financial ruin. Hage filed suit and the trial is set for September 28, 1998.

Dr. Cynthia Schneider and her husband Tom hosted a $420,000 fundraiser at their Maryland home July 13, 1995 and now she is nominated for the post of ambassador to the Netherlands.

The 1995 Supreme Court decision concerning Affirmative Action is being addressed by the Clinton administration by changes to procedures so that minority and women owned small firms would get "price credits" in bidding based on statistical "benchmarks."

White House argued in appeals that it is proper for the government to pay attorney Lindsey as well as the White House counsel's office for defending the president in impeachment proceedings. Ken Starr responded "The position being advanced by the White House is quite contrary to what it means to be a government lawyer"

7/2/98 The Nashville Scene Liz Murray Garrigan "The Herald newspaper in Monterey, Calif., recently ran a photograph of the environmentalist vice president kayaking alongside a sea otter in Monterey Bay. Unfortunately, as one letter writer to The Herald noted, the picture caught Gore violating a federal environmental regulation..The letter writer pointed out that it is a "federal offense punishable by up to a $20,000 fine and/or one year in jail for disturbing marine mammals in the [Monterey Bay] sanctuary." The writer went on to point out that visitors to the bay are required to keep at least 50 feet away from the mammals.."

The White House database (WhoDB) of 355,000 names was ordered by Clinton in 1994 to be integrated with the DNC database. The effort was headed by Marsha Scott and involved Erskine Bowles and Harold Ickes. On Dec 7 1993 Marsha Scott: "Both the President and the First Lady have asked me to make this my top priority .Bruce [Lindsey] will be kept fully informed." Mrs. Clinton's involvement is noted in a staff memo to Ms. Scott: "During the demo the First Lady mentioned that she would like to see the Miles Rubin rapid response list in the database." Everybody who got favors or gave money was inputted. Lincoln bedroom overnighters, Democratic National Committee . in the Kennedy Center box, private guests at radio talks -- all are still going in at a rate of 10,000 a month, many with children's names, dietary restrictions, special interests, and almost all with Social Security numbers and addresses Coded notations on thousands of files indicate whether somebody on the WhoDB is black, Jewish, Catholic, Hispanic, of Ukrainian or Chinese or other ethnic descent. (Clinton lawyers have written Congress repeatedly that "the Privacy Act [5 U.S.C. 552a] does not apply" to the White House Office.)

7/9/98 Republican National Committee ".As Bill Clinton closed out his Kowtow Summit in Communist China, his top trade honcho, U.S. Trade Rep. Charlene Barshefsky, snuck away from the entourage and bought at least 40 black market Beanie Babies and smuggled the contraband past custom officials on her way back to the U.S.Beanie Babies are made in China for the Ty company in Oak Brook, Illinois, which strictly forbids the sale of the wee critters in China. Ty lawyer James White likened buying Beanie Babies on the black market to "buying a stolen car." Ironically, Barshefsky's main job is to reduce the U.S.'s $50 billion China trade deficit and protect companies, like Ty, from black market pirating."

7/10/98 Washington Times Paul Bedard ".House Republicans are asking whether Mr. Clinton, who Thursday pushed off part of the cost of a two-state fund-raising trip on taxpayers by hosting "official events," is spending too many tax dollars for political travel and carrying political allies on foreign trips. accountants determine down to the hour how much time the president spends attending to official business as opposed to political business and "pro-rates the costs accordingly." Using Thursday as an example, taxpayers will split the cost of the president's travels with the Democrats: Taxpayers will pay for getting the president into Daytona Beach and home to Washington, and Democrats will pay for his trip to Miami for the Stallone fund-raiser."

WorldNeDaily Sarah Foster 7/9/98 "Observers in a Los Angeles County courtroom received a quick lesson in closed government -- increasingly removed from the people or, as in this particular case, the people removed from the government. In response to an outburst by an unidentified woman, Judge Peter Lichtman ordered the bailiffs and sheriff deputies to remove not only the woman who made the out-of-line remark but the entire audience -- some 45 people in all. The incident occurred during a recent hearing over the city of Long Beach's intention to convert the abandoned U.S. Naval Station into a cargo container terminal, to be leased at a discount rate to China Overseas Shipping Company -- the huge transport operation, owned and operated by the Beijing government.Be that as it may, those at the hearing said they regarded the judge's action as "arrogant." To them it was one more piece of evidence that Americans have lost control over their government. All government. From city hall to the White House -- including the judicial system.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BILL CLINTON by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing Company, 1997), page 241: "...Bill Clinton, of course, handled it all with great sensitivity and savoir faire. "My brother has apparently become involved with drugs," he announced. "A curse which has reached epidemic proportions and plagued the lives of millions of families, including many in our state." His spokesman insisted the Governor never knew his Kid Brother had tried drugs. The spin must have been galling for Hot Springs Detective Travis Bunn. A highly decorated Army Special Forces sergeant-major, it was he who had mounted the original case against Roger Clinton. In the spring of 1984 Bunn had recorded Roger Clinton saying: "I've got to get some for my brother, he's got a nose like a Hoover vacuum cleaner." "

7/10/98 Fox News Channel - post by Freeper Bob Ireland "Shawn Hannity of Hannity and Colmes on Fox News Channel just reported that Lucianne Goldberg would say that there is hard evidence that Bill Clinton said he would lie, that Monica should lie, and she should get linda Tripp to lie."

7/98 Online Progressive Review ". From a chronology of the Whitewater scandal: . . . Clinton's Arkansas security chief, Buddy Young, was described by a judge in a 1990 court case as having a "reckless disregard for the truth." The case involved charges made by Young against Contra drug connection whistleblower Terry Reed. The judge declared that "no jury could find by reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty. There are too many holes in the chain of proof." Buddy Young was subsequently named by Bill Clinton to a $92,000 a year job in the Federal Emergency Management Administration."

7/13/98 Washington Times John McCaslin ".During the Lawrences' tenure in Switzerland, where Mr. Lawrence served as ambassador from 1994 to 1996, "the State Department apparently authorized the Lawrences to raise funds, including through a private Lawrence foundation, for the purposes of refurbishing the ambassador's residence," Mr. Zaid notes. "Although items purchased through this effort were considered property of the United States, after the ambassador's death, witnesses reported that Mrs. Lawrence took many of the items obtained through the refurbishment for her personal use," he says. "When she left, they literally had to go out and buy everything again," Mr. Zaid tells this column. It could be a while, however, before he knows for certain.."

7/15/98 Press Release "July long distance phone bills will be five percent higher thanks to a new tax instituted by the Clinton/Gore bureaucracy, U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho) said today. Chenoweth is an original cosponsor of legislation to eliminate the tax, which was imposed by the Administration without congressional aproval.."

Los Angeles Times 7/15/98 "Democratic Party circles are abuzz about the disappearance of gift certificates from a California shopping mall company and the subsequent admission by a Democratic National Committee regional finance director that she used them for clothing and shoes. After mall personnel notified the DNC, committee officials insisted that the offender confess and make restitution. She did so and KEPT HER JOB (ahhhhhhh)."

A Whitewater Researcher 7/17/98 ".Corrupt Chicago Democrat mayor Richard M. Daley has been a crucial, early backer of Clinton since 1991. Daley's brother William is Clinton's secretary of commerce. Richard M. Daley is himself the target of at least five Federal corruption investigations: 1) Silver Shovel, investigating general corruption in Chicago city government; 2) Haunted Hall, probing ghost payrolling in Chicago City Hall; 3) Broken Star, investigating corruption in the Chicago Police Department; 4) Daley and George, probing influence peddling in the Daley family law firm; and 5) O'Hare, probing skimming and kickbacks from contracting and payrolls at O'Hare International Airport. Today, the Chicago Tribune reports on Richard M. Daley corruption at O'Hare. Excerpt: ...after a series of scandals at O'Hare involving juicy no-bid political contracts going to mayoral buddies, City Hall figured out it had a public relations problem.... "

The Washington Times 7/17/98 Doug Abrahms "James Sasser, the current U.S. ambassador to China, received $1 million for helping to secure a government lease on the Portals office building, a transaction being investigated by Congress and the Justice Department for links between the building's developer and Democratic officials. Mr. Sasser was paid $1 million in 1996 by Tennessee developer Franklin Haney, according to documents turned over this week to the House Commerce Committee, which is probing the Portals deal. Mr. Sasser, who served three terms as a U.S. senator from Tennessee before his defeat in 1994, is the second prominent Democrat known to have collected money for work on the Portals, the Washington office."

FoxNews Gary Aldrich on Drudge ".ALDRICH:......"In the early months of the...the fact of the matter was, there was a seven page memo written by the people in the White House counsel's office exploring the notion of getting the Secret Service out of the White House and putting the FBI in instead." DRUDGE: Gary, how many--- I've been told that---it's my understanding about 50% of the detail has asked to be transferred out under Clinton. ALDRICH: I think that's a fair estimate based on my knowledge and what I saw when I worked in the White House until 1995; the summer of '95 I left."

Washington Post John Mintz 7/27/98 "The congressman was under pressure from one of American business's most persistent executives, and he sought then-national security adviser Anthony Lake's help satisfying the businessman. "Can you make Mike Armstrong happy?" then-Rep. Toby Roth (R-Wis.) asked Lake in 1996 as the pair drafted a law affecting satellite exports to China, according to newly released White House papers. Lake and others in the Clinton administration did indeed make C. Michael Armstrong happy. ."

Jerusalem Post 7/24/98 Thomas Sowell "THE ALICE-IN-WONDERLAND QUALITY of discussions about the investigation of Bill Clinton is nowhere better illustrated than in the moral outrage expressed in the media against Linda Tripp for having secretly taped Monica Lewinsky. Many of those who work themselves into a sweat over this show nothing like the same outrage at the attempt to get Ms. Tripp to commit a felony to protect the president. Neither your life nor my life, nor the future of this country, will be affected in the slightest by whether Linda Tripp is naughty or nice. But if any president is able to commit crimes with impunity by using the vast powers and perquisites of his office to cover up, then we will have a danger of corruption and abuse of power that can only grow with the passing years and generations. Those who wrote the Constitution of the United States understood this all too well. That is why they limited the powers of government and then split up those limited powers among three different branches -- making sure that nobody in any of these branches was above the law. Those limitations have already been dangerously eroded over the past few decades."

The Winds Website 8/1998 "The only church in history to have its federal tax-exempt status revoked is a small country church in Vestal, New York called The Church at Pierce Creek. Their crime that resulted in that revocation was simply mentioning the name of then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in an advertisement the church placed in USA Today and The Washington Times. Colby May, the ACLJ attorney representing the church, told The WINDS that the church "ran into trouble with the government...soon after the 1992 election" because of the "rhetorical question they ask at the very end of the newspaper piece...'how can we then vote for Bill Clinton?'. "Does anybody in America really believe," Colby May asks rhetorically, "that churches are NOT entitled to take moral stances on the issues of the day--even though it may cross swords with somebody's politically correct agenda? Churches were used to actually raise money for Jesse Jackson's campaign--but nothing has ever been done to those churches, so you have to ask how come.".When a federal court, according to May, finally ruled that the IRS must submit to discovery, "we found out, as we had thought, that the government had never before revoked the exemption of a church--we're talking about a bona fide, brick-and- mortar church--a 501(c)(3) organization. Not just an exempt organization such as an educational group or animal protection society, or whatever. We're talking about a real church that marries and buries and has worship services and Bible studies and so on. "Along with this we found that the government had engaged in some very disturbing activity. They were doing drive-bys where surveillance was conducted by the IRS of the Church at Pierce Creek to photograph the church building and Pastor Little's residence at various times."It also turns out that according to IRS investigator notes taken during the inquiry, that they had actually begun this action due to an editorial in the New York Times questioning as to whether running such an ad violates the church's political speech restriction clause in their tax-exempt agreement."As a result of the Times editorial the IRS included pejorative language in their reports, such as 'militant right' or 'radical Christian right' to describe the church--terms that were never used in the actual New York Times editorial."To us this revealed that the government really had an ill motive in picking on this church.".Ironically, the IRS tax code Section 508(c)(1)(A) entitled, "Special rules with respect to section 501(c)(3) organizations" specifically exempts churches from the restrictions enumerated under 501(c)(3). "Since only in 501(c)(3) do you have the restrictions about political activity," May elaborated, "churches are exempt organizations, and don't even have to abide by the restrictions of 501(c)(3)."

Freeper followup note on the above: "Pastor John Hagee in Texas, who has 13,000 members of his church is also being defended by the ACLJ. Pastor Hagee calls them the way he sees them, and he has Billie a sinner many times from the pulpit. He wrote a book called Day of Deception He tells about how are government is decieving us and the darkness around us. In Matthew 24 it states that the cardinal indicatorof the terminal generation would be deception. The first 5 chapters are about deception in government. They are about Hillary and Bill--The death of Vince Foster, The village wants your children, etc. This for some reason did not set well with our dictators. So he sent the post office after him. They won't let him mail his monthly magazine under the non-profit status. They claim that taking people on a trip to the Holy Land has nothing to do with religion, nor did a lecture on Matthew, or something similar I can get the exact issue if desired, have anything to do with the church. So he must mail first class postage."

Washington Times Greg Pierce 8/20/98 ".Larry Klayman, chairman of the legal group Judicial Watch, has offered to help out White House staffers duped by the boss. "The White House staff, which in the past has unfairly accused Judicial Watch of being partisan, should now take the following offer into account," Mr. Klayman said yesterday in a prepared statement. "Given claims by the White House staff that they didn't know that the president had lied, and given their claimed large expenditure of legal fees to prepare for and defend recent grand jury proceedings, Judicial Watch will offer to represent any White House official who wants to pursue legal remedies for reimbursement from President Clinton of these claimed expenditures. "As a condition, the White House staff member must not have taken money from political or lobbyist donors or legal defense funds to defray their legal costs, which is prohibited (a federal employee may not accept money or gratuities from the public)." Mr. Klayman added: "Judicial Watch makes this offer in good faith, because if the claims of the White House officials are true --that they were not told the truth --then they were defrauded by the president."."

St. Petersburg Times Philip Gailey 8/23/98 "If it felt a little warmer than usual in Hawaii, where Vice President Al Gore has been vacationing, it may have had less to do with global warming than with the heat being generated by a Justice Department investigation of the Clinton-Gore campaign's fund raising in 1996.This one would focus on political money, not sex, and from the looks and smell of it, it could turn out to be one of the most corrupt fund-raising scandals in decades.According to a report in the New York Times last week, Justice Department investigators have obtained a 1995 memo with handwritten notations by a senior vice presidential aide that appears to contradict Gore's account of his fund-raising role. The notations indicate that Gore and top campaign aides discussed how some of the large contributions he was soliciting could be diverted from general party use to accounts directly controlled by the Clinton-Gore campaign committee, which would be illegal. "Count me in," Gore told his aides, according to one notation.."

Freeper Report Fox News "The O'Reilly Factor reporting that FOXNEWS has obtained information that Starr has proof showing that the White House logs have been tampered with. The logs were doctored to show Bettie Currie checking Monica Lewinsky into the White House rather than Bill Clinton. Salvatore Martoche, a former federal prosecutor says that if this is true, it is OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE and that the White House logs can only be altered AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS.."

The Bulletin's Frontrunner 8/28/98 Business Week (9/7, Dwyer) "Business Week (9/7, Dwyer) reported the year former Sen. Jim Sasser (D-TN) worked for developer Franklin Haney before becoming Ambassador to China "and the $1.8 million Haney paid Sasser during that period, may come back to haunt" him. The Justice Department, the State Department, and House and Senate committees "are all looking into various aspects of Sasser's work for Haney, and whether it was properly disclosed." In August, Sasser " 'unofficially' notified the State Dept. of his desire to leave Beijing at the end of the year." Sources say that Justice is "investigating two of Haney's real estate deals in which Sasser served as an adviser," the Portals II building in Washington, DC and "a Haney-owned building in Chattanooga that is leased to the Tennessee Valley Authority."."

LA Times 9/1/98 Ronald Brownstein "Throughout Bill Clinton's presidency, the steadily rising stock market has both symbolized and sustained a powerful resurgence in broad-based optimism about the United States' direction and economic future. That optimism, in turn, has bolstered Clinton's popularity -- even amid the most damaging scandal of his presidency -- and strengthened incumbents in both parties heading into November's midterm election...

New York Post 9/1/98 "For several years, pundits have been predicting the stock-market correction that now seems in full throttle. So why, we wonder, did the vertiginous slide in the American markets only begin on Thursday? After all, the Asian stock-market collapse began more than a year ago, and the now-toothless Tigers of the once-terrifying Pacific Rim have been bleeding steadily ever since. Here at home, there have been pronounced warning signs of an economic slowdown since June. The answer is inescapable: The meltdown of President William Jefferson Clinton has rattled investors, and done so in a way that troubling economic statistics and Asian crises could not. .."

New York Post 6/96 Steve Dunleavy ". "Now that the Clinton people are going to jail, maybe my husband will finally go free," Mary Lou Dumond told me in Little Rock. Her husband, Wayne Dumond, 49, has just spent his 11th year in an Arkansas jail. Many say that Dumond is the victim of one of the most bone-crunching and infuriating examples of Clinton-clan justice the country has ever seen. .A 17 year-old girl says she was kidnapped and raped on Sept. 11, 1984, in Forrest City, Ark. Dumond, father of six, Vietnam veteran, churchgoer, was convicted in August 1985 of the rape. He was sentenced to life PLUS 20 years..But now the clincher: The father of the girl is a millionaire and one of Clinton's biggest contributors. But guess what? The girl is Bill Clinton's cousin. And her mother worked as part of Clinton's inner circle when he was governor..On March 7, 1985, while Dumond was awaiting trial, two masked men with guns and knives burst into his house. They hog-tied him. They raped him. And then, with surgical scalpels, they castrated him. .The outrageous identifying scam was exposed by a local cop who witnessed it all. Deputy Sheriff Henry Leary had the guts to go against his own and told the world of the scenario. Dumond was still convicted. "Oh yeah," Dumond told me, "she identified two other guys who were the rapists. They had an ironclad alibi. Then it came to me." Dumond was still convicted. Gov. Clinton remained silent. But of course at the time nobody knew that the girl was Clinton's cousin. The Governor didn't mention it. After 4.5 years, with his freedom gone, his manhood gone, a five-person parole board recommended that Dumond go free for time served. John R. Steer, managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, records the following reaction from then Gov. Clinton: "Clinton had a romping, stomping fit. The victim was a distant cousin and St. Francis County [where this all took place] had a lot of votes and he deeply resented the pressure to free Dumond." Clinton refused to sign a release. And Dumond rotted..The Dumond's later won a lawsuit "of outrage." They cleared just $20,000 from the settlement. This money came in handy however, because someone burned down the Dumond house when the couple were in hiding from vigilantes. No insurance was paid on the home..Fred Odam, a retired Arkansas State Police captain told me, "This was and still is a very bad day for justice." Odam witnessed Sheriff Conlee retrieving Dumond's testicles and later investigated the sheriff for the FBI. " I have been working to get that boy Dumond free for a long time. In all my time this is the one case when I know a man is not guilty."."

Citizens for Honest Government Pat Matrisciana 1995 New Clinton Chronicles ".DON HEWITT ( Executive Producer, " 60 Minutes"): And they came to us because they were in big trouble in New Hampshire. They were about to lose right there and they needed some first aid. They needed some bandaging. What they needed was a paramedic. So they came to us and we did it and that's what they wanted to do. When I told Tim Russert that I was persona-non-grata at the White House, he said, "Why?" I said, "The Gennifer Flowers interview." He said, " You got him the nomination." I said, " I know that." As far as I know from the conversations I've had, Bernie Nussbaum knew that, Gergen knows that, Lloyd Cutler certainly knows it 'cause Lloyd had a hand in his coming on that night. You know it was strong medicine the way I edited it but he was a very sick candidate. He needed very strong medicine, and I'm not in the business of doctoring candidates but he got up out of a sick bed that night and walked to the nomination .."

From Freeper noumenon Ayn Rand, Francisco's "Money Speech" Atlas Shrugged "."When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."."

AP Kevin Galvin 9/4/98 "A preliminary Federal Election Commission report has recommended that President Clinton's re-election campaign be required to repay $13.4 million in federal matching funds received during the 1996 primaries for violating rules governing so-called issues advocacy ads."

Newsweek 9/14/98 Daniel Klaidman Mark Hosenball "Dianne Feinstein didn't hold back. At a routine Capitol Hill luncheon for Senate Democrats last week, the conversation was dominated by one subject: Bill Clinton's troubles. Feinstein had begun publicly criticizing Clinton in the days after his admission of an affair with Monica Lewinsky. Now, behind closed doors and in the company of her peers, the usually cool Californian became emotional. Fighting back tears, she said Clinton had looked her in the eye and lied. She was, she said, deeply angered and disappointed. The room went silent.."

Baltimore Sun 9/6/98 C. Fraser Smith "Gov. Parris N. Glendening chastised President Clinton yesterday for failing to provide a positive role model for American youth and confirmed that an invitation to Clinton for a Glendening fund-raiser next month has been withdrawn.."

Washington Weekly 9/7/98 Carl Limbacher ".Appearing Aug. 12 on the Bob Grant Show (WOR Talk Radio Network),Zaccagnini responded to our question about what his client might know regarding matters under investigation beyond Monicagate, saying, "There are other issues that Ken Starr is investigating that Linda has provided testimony on because she was asked - not necessarily by the prosecutors -- but by members of the grand jury. "By some accounts, Tripp spent more than half her time before Starr's grand jury answering questions about Travelgate and Filegate. In her only public remarks since her testimony, Tripp spoke of the "dangerous" information she possessed regarding potential crimes by high administration officials that came to her attention over a period of five years. But the revelation that it was the grand jurors themselves, and not Starr's prosecution team, that drove the non-Monica line of questioning suggests a general lack of interest in these other matters within the OIC -- at least as far as Linda Tripp is concerned..Others knowledgeable about Linda Tripp's experience with Ken Starr do not see it that way. Lucianne Goldberg, who called into MSNBC late Friday to debate the issue with John Gibson's guest Larry Klayman, says Tripp herself changed her mind about testifying before Judicial Watch: "Linda Tripp only said no to Larry Klayman -- for all the good work he's done -- because her testimony would have grossly and dangerously affected all the work that Judge Starr has been doing all these years." For the sake of the country, one hopes Lucianne Goldberg is right. One hopes Starr isn't covering up for the FBI. And that Larry Klayman will be able to get Linda Tripp's full testimony after Starr files his impeachment report with the House Judiciary Committee. Still, even if Lucianne Goldberg's faith in Ken Starr turns out to be justified, Americans are owed an explanation for why Craig Livingstone, who executed perhaps the most massive invasion of privacy in modern American history, and misused the FBI to do it, remains to this day free as a bird. "

2/20/95 Marvin Lee Interview of Judge Jim Johnson Washington Weekly "MR LEE: Judge Johnson, you were instrumental in obtaining and publicizing the statement from Colonel Eugene Holmes, former commander of the University of Arkansas ROTC program, denouncing then presidential candidate Clinton as potential commander-in-chief. What made you decide to get involved? JUDGE JOHNSON: To save my country from Bill Clinton! . MR. LEE: In your assessment, has Bill Clinton committed indictable crimes in Arkansas or in Washington, and is there currently sufficient evidence for an indictment? JUDGE JOHNSON: Yes.. MR LEE: Allegations against Bill Clinton include his use of State Police for personal purposes, even to the extent of framing political opponents. If such activities indeed took place, how could they go on for such a long time? Was it due to a lack of ethic laws, lack of oversight by the legislature, the judiciary, and the media, or was it due to the ability and willingness to threaten dissenters? JUDGE JOHNSON: All of the above..You are not dealing with a normal person when you are dealing with Clinton. He is not controlled by character and truth, but by cunning instincts for survival and political expediency. Give him an inch and he will beat your brains out! He is capable of causing a Third World War, martial law, or whatever to maintain his position of power. Full scale Congressional hearings, on the order of Watergate, should commence tomorrow! MR LEE: Judge Johnson, thank you so much for your time."

Chicago Tribune 9/6/98 William Neikirk Ron Eckstein "Ray LaHood knows how to hit a guy where it hurts. The Republican representative from Peoria said he intends to propose that President Clinton bear part of the $40 million-plus price tag of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation. After Clinton admitted he had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky seven months after his deposition in the Paula Jones suit, LaHood reasoned, he in effect ran up the costs of Starr's investigation. Big time. Besides, LaHood said, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) had to cough up $300,000 as a penalty in the ethics probe against him. "If it is good enough for the speaker, it's good enough for the president," he said ."

Investor's Business Daily 9/8/98 ".Stranger still is who ended up in charge of the federal review of the Teamsters election: Milwaukee lawyer Barbara Zack Quindell. Both Quindell and her husband are members of a progressive fringe group called the New Party. Quindell's husband was also active in Citizen Action. When evidence came to light last summer of a small donation from the Teamsters to the New Party, Quindell stepped down from her post. Still, questions remain. How did a member of a fringe party connected to the Teamsters come to lead the investigation into the Carey campaign? Switch now to a second scandal, involving alleged espionage against the U.S. Two Washington-area residents are being held at a detention center in Alexandria, Va., on charges of spying, awaiting trial in early October. They are the husband-and-wife team of Theresa Squillacote, a lawyer last employed by the Defense Department, and Kurt Stand, an official with an international labor organization and also an officer in the Democratic Socialists of America. The charge? Spying over the past 20 years for East Germany and the Soviet Union, and for shopping their services to the South African Communist Party. For most Americans, any news about the Democratic Socialists of America might seem like a blast from the past. Yet the DSA is alive and well, with at least some of its members ready to act on their desire to substitute a socialist nirvana for American democracy.. At the White House, the spy scandal promises embarrassment or worse. Squillacote's rap sheet may include charges of espionage, but her resume includes a Reinventing Government award from Vice President Al Gore. As a staff attorney with the Defense Department's acquisitions office, she had routine access to classified documents. During one of Squillacote's final meetings with a person she believed was an official of the South African Communist Party - in fact, an FBI agent running a ''false flag'' sting operation - she bragged about having had a job interview with the Office of Management and Budget, which happens to be housed within the White House complex. According to an FBI affidavit, Squillacote told her would-be spymaster that once in OMB, she could work her way into a National Security Council position ''within 24 months.'' Spies in the White House complex, a stolen union election, fringe parties espousing socialism, groups serving as conduits for illegal campaign contributions - it has all the makings of a summer beach novel. But this too-strange-to-be-true tale is bubbling just beneath the surface of official Washington.."

9/9/98 Landmark Legal Foundation "..Landmark Legal Foundation today filed a formal petition with Federal District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright asking the court to hold an immediate hearing into possible contempt of court by President Bill Clinton. .In its filing today, Landmark pointed out several occasions in which the President provided apparently false testimony during his Jones deposition. Moreover, the deposition was unique in that the judge personally presided over it. 18 U.S.C. Sec 401 provides, in part, that: A court of the United States shall have power to punish by fine or imprisonment, at is discretion, such contempt of its authority, and none other, as - (1) Misbehavior of any person in its presence or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice... "

New York Times 9/21/98 Felecity Barringer "The man known as Deep Throat is a singular figure in American culture, credited with being the source of explosive articles written by the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they unraveled the Nixon administration's abuses of power. Named for a pornographic movie, this furtive truth-teller may be the first pseudonymous American hero not conceived in a comic book. Unmasking the man who met Bob Woodward in underground garages in the book and the film version of "All the President's Men" has been an intermittent journalistic quest. Now David Obst, the former literary agent for Woodward and Bernstein, writes in a new book that Deep Throat was a composite, a plot device to fit the narrative needs of the book and the film. Deep Throat's information was often bad, Obst said, and his melodramatic warnings that Woodward and Bernstein's lives were in danger were fantastical.."

Weekly Standard Fred Barnes 9/21/98 "SINCE REPUBLICANS TOOK CONTROL of Congress in 1994, Democrats have pursued a simple strategy in congressional investigations of President Clinton: obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. In 1995, they denounced the Senate Banking Committee probe of the Whitewater scandal as partisan, then impeded its progress. They took their marching orders from White House aides. In 1997, when Republican senator Fred Thompson chaired hearings on campaign-finance abuses, Democrats acted in the same way. Ditto when the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee looked into illegal election fund-raising. But now, as the House Judiciary Committee takes up the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Democrats have promised to be non-partisan and not toe the White House line. Why the change? The reason is Dick Gephardt, the House Democratic leader.. Gephardt concluded the president was on the verge of leading the Democratic party to an election disaster in November's mid- term election, just as he had in 1994. So the smart thing for House Democrats was to declare their independence from Clinton in hopes of minimizing their vulnerability. Which is what Gephardt did. Also, he believes independent counsel Ken Starr's charges against Clinton are serious, will be taken as such by the public, and should be treated seriously on Capitol Hill. ."

Washington Post 9/24/98 Steven Mufson John Berry "A huge private investment fund run by Wall Street legend John Meriwether and two Nobel Prize-winning economists teetered on the verge of collapse yesterday as losses mounted on more than $100 billion of bets it made in financial markets around the world. In an attempt to avoid a new bout of global market turmoil that might be caused by a fire sale of the fund's assets, chief executives and other top officials from two dozen of the world's largest banks and brokerage firms spent six hours hammering out a preliminary agreement yesterday at the New York Federal Reserve Bank to provide a rescue plan of more than $3.5 billion for the Greenwich, Conn.-based fund, called Long-Term Capital Management L.P.."

AP 9/28/98 Jim Abrams "Weak internal controls have led to numerous cases of fraud and embezzlement in the Pentagon office responsible for handling billions of dollars in contracts every year, according to two congressional reports issued today. The reports from the General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of Congress, cited more than a dozen cases of fraud this decade involving the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.."

Cincinnati Enquirer 9/28/98 Patrick Crowley "Like the Democrats needed this, this being the indictments of four people who worked in the 1995 election of Gov. Paul Patton..Piled on top of that is the bombshell news last week that four people who helped get the governor elected -- among them his top aide and three men involved with organized labor and the Teamsters Union -- are accused of breaking election laws.."

New York Post 9/25/98 Maggie Gallagher "Can I tell you a little story? I warn you, I don't know how it ends yet. Maybe I never will. Once upon a time - in fact a day or two after Vince Foster died - a man called the White House Counsel's Office. "This was not a line that kooks typically rang us up on," my source told me. Lunatics call the main office number. This guy called one of Vince's assistants directly. The man said he had some information that might be important. Something had upset Vince Foster greatly just days before he died. Some thing about "tainted blood" that both Vince Foster and President Clinton knew about, this man said. "I'm only telling you this now because Vince Foster was very distressed about this only days before his death," the mysterious caller (whose name I am withholding) said. "I'm not saying this caused his suicide. I'm only saying it might have contributed to his distress and I thought someone should know." The White House Counsel's office didn't pay much attention. "Probably a kook', they agreed around the office. Probably. Except that when his computer name was typed into the computer log of phone calls for Vince, something strange happened. The computer flashed "password required" or some such phrase indicating a special code was needed to open that file. "Aw, probably just a computer glitch, "Bernie Nussbam, then chief White House Counsel, said at the time. And so the matter, as far as I know, was dropped. A strange little memory fragment, meaningless in itself, no? Until last week, when a story published in The Ottawa Citizen suddenly jogged it front and center. "HIV BLOOD CAME FROM ARKANSAS JAIL," the head line screamed. Then, The Ottawa Citizen reports, "A U.S. firm with links to President Clinton collected HIV-tainted blood from Arkansas prison inmates in the 1980's and shipped it to Canada, newly uncovered documents reveal... It is like several hundred, perhaps thousands, were infected by the tainted products."."

WorldNetDaily David Bresnahan 9/25/98 ". The "Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998" sounds uncontroversial, and that is the apparent reason no one objected to it. The story of how this bill passed the House and is now ready to be slipped through the Senate without debate is a lesson on how the game of politics is played. In September 1996, President Bill Clinton, running for re-election, stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and with the stroke of a pen signed an executive proclamation making 1.7 million acres of land in Utah a new national monument. His actions were clearly political, and were orchestrated by former Clinton political consultant Dick Morris. Reaction from Utah Republicans and Democrats alike was immediate. Clinton had acted without prior notice and without public hearings as required by law, echoed every Utah politician. Elected officials from Republican Gov. Mike Leavitt all the way down to the local leaders in the area of the monument banded together. Before long lawsuits and other efforts to reverse the action were underway. On June 24, 1998, the outrage ended when Rep. James Hansen, R-UT, presented H.R. 3830 before only a handful of House members for approval under unanimous consent. There was no debate. There was no quorum. No one asked for a roll call vote. By voice vote of those present the bill was passed and sent to the Senate without any objection. If only one congressman opposed the action it would have been stopped. Preparations are underway for a similar vote in the Senate virtually any moment. House members were told there was nothing controversial about the bill. Senate members are being told that everyone in Utah wants the bill passed. Formerly outspoken opponents are now mysteriously silent, and some have spoken in favor of the bill..There is one other source of high- compliance coal. It is being aggressively mined on the island of Kalamantan in Indonesia. The mine is reported to be owned by the Red Chinese army and the Lippo Group. James and Mochtar Riady, partners in the Lippo Group, have been implicated in the growing Clinton campaign election scandal..The bill has been sent to the Senate where it has been quickly passed through committee and is now waiting to be called for a vote. It is expected that the same quiet tactic that was used in the House will be applied again. A motion will be made to bring the bill forward for approval by unanimous consent at a time when very few members of the Senate are present. "We are not aware of anyone who objects to the bill being passed," said a staff member in Hatch's office. "It's really pretty simple to understand and senators have a lot more to worry about." .

Washington Weekly 5/98 "When young Bill Clinton in 1974 made his first run for political office, a crucial $10,000 loan was arranged for him by his uncle, Raymond Clinton. Uncle Raymond has been tied by Clinton biographer Roger Morris to the Hot Springs Mafia. But it was not until 1984, when Clinton was elected for a second term as Governor of Arkansas, that Mob money really started pouring in.. Among the "legitimate corporations" that noticed the possibilities with the rapidly ascending governor thirsting for power and money were front corporations for the intelligence services of the People's Republic of China. The Lippo empire came to Arkansas that year. By then, Bill Clinton's ties to organized crime had become well- known. His half-brother Roger Clinton was convicted of cocaine distribution in association with Mob figure and Clinton money man Dan Lasater. In the years that followed, Arkansas became a major cocaine trans-shipment point for the Mafia, crossing paths with the famous CIA Contra resupply operation at Mena. Bill Clinton had found a most successful formula in U.S. politics: financial backing from a coalition of organized crime and hostile foreign governments...Harold Ickes proved his value to the Mob when he held his hand over Mob puppets Arthur Coia and Ron Carey who were under separate RICO investigations by the Justice Department. Patsy Thomasson, in charge of White House drug testing policy, saw to it that criminal figures on the White House staff would not be bothered about past and current drug use. The People's Republic of China, in return for at least a $3 million loan through Worthen Bank, won a slot for its spy John Huang at the Commerce Department. Later followed access to advanced U.S. military technology, access to the Long Beach Naval Base, MFN trade status, and more campaign contributions. Peripheral Mob figures Nathan Landow, Richard Ben-Veniste, and their associates Terry Lenzner and Paul Begala became part of the secret police that would keep Clinton in office despite multiple revelations of criminal offenses. Ironically, the only member of the Clinton enforcement team who has threatened the use of Mafia methods in public is James Carville.If China made illegal donations to the Clinton campaign in return for mercantile and military strategic advantages, then what illegal donations have been made by Russia? The favors Clinton has made towards China pale in comparison to the favors he has made towards Russia. Billions of dollars in economic support and the maintenance of a strategic advantage in favor of Russia through the obstruction and delay of modernization of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal and the development and deployment of a U.S. national missile defense. Lest gestures as these be interpreted as prudent engagement of a fledgling democracy, one should consider that it has rarely been the democratic forces in Russia, or the Russian people, that have been the beneficiaries of Clinton administration support."

Fox News 9/30/98 John Hanley Reuters "U.S. stocks may fall another 5 to 10 percent in a volatile fourth quarter amid what some analysts are calling the world's worst financial crisis in decades. That would snap the Dow Jones Industrial Average's three straight years of gains of more than 20 percent - the most powerful run in its 101-year history. Investors are concerned about the worst third quarter for earnings in seven years, Asia's economic turmoil and the growing crises in Latin America and Russia, and the exposure of U.S. banks and trading groups to those fragile markets.."

Newsday.com 10/6/98 KEVIN GALVIN AP " The Clinton administration's efforts to help the Teamsters end a bitter strike in 1995 came under renewed congressional scrutiny today when former U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor appeared before a House panel. A House Education and the Workforce subcommittee has been probing the extent of administration activity around the strike at Diamond Walnut Growers Inc. and whether the officials involved were motivated by the pursuit of union campaign contributions. The administration's actions in the strike at the Stockton, Calif.-based agriculture cooperative is a critical issue in a Justice Department inquiry. The department is weighing whether to request an independent counsel to probe testimony by Harold Ickes, a former White House deputy chief of staff, to a Senate panel that examined Diamond Walnut earlier. Kantor told the committee that a phone call he placed to a company official at Ickes' behest wasn't motivated by fund raising and that the administration never acted to punish the company on behalf of the Teamsters.."

PR Newswire 10/6/09 Gary Bauer "President of American Renewal, strongly criticized Washington, DC television stations Tuesday ``for employing a double standard'' in refusing to run his television ads which call on President Clinton to resign while agreeing to run ads by the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way (PAW) which effectively call on Congress to shut down their investigation of possible wrongdoing by the president. ``These so-called bastions of free speech seem to have a very selective view of how that fundamental principle should be applied,'' Bauer said. ``We approached DC television stations in September with a request to run ads calling on the president to resign. Our message was very simple. We urged the president to put our country and our children first by resigning.'' .."

Manchester Union Leader 10/5/98 Richard Lessner "Miss a few payments on your car loan, and the bank will send out the repo man to tow the family buggy. But if you're an unregulated, high-risk, multi- billion hedge fund set up by international bankers to get around government controls, not to worry; the Federal Reserve will step in to save you from collapse, no matter how reckless or irresponsible your practices. And the American taxpayers, of course, will be left holding the bag. If the Fed-brokered $3.6 billion bailout of Long Term Capital Management LP, a so-called "hedge fund," looks suspiciously like the Savings and Loan fiasco of the 1980s, it should. The same government mischief is at work.."

Capitol Hill Blue 10/2/98 "In accepting gifts and favors from businesses that he helped regulate as U.S. agriculture secretary, Michael Espy was guilty of mistakes, forgetfulness and being fooled by friends -- but not criminal corruption, his attorneys told a federal jury Thursday..``He knew how the government worked. He knew the Washington political scene,'' independent counsel Donald Smaltz told the jury. ``He was easy pickings for companies that wanted to slip him something special.'' ."

Reuters 10/7/98 "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday the outlook for the U.S. economy had weakened significantly and noted lenders were staging a dramatic pullback from even relatively low-risk loans. In a speech to the National Association of Business Economics, Greenspan said he had "never seen anything quite like" the rise in yields on certain bond issues when compared with more low-risk issues like U.S. government bonds. "It's pretty obvious I think that the outlook for 1999 for the U.S. economy has weakened immeasurably in the aftermath of the Russian devaluation and debt moratorium," Greenspan said.."

New York Post 10/8/98 Ray Kerrison "A MAJOR casualty of President Clinton's impeachment siege is the near collapse of the Democratic Party as a viable political force in American life. The party is bankrupt because it has no strong, credible leadership, no mission, no vitality and, worst of all, no faith. The Democratic disaster has occurred wholly on the president's watch. In his six years in office, he has led it over the cliff. The numbers are shocking. Since Clinton became president, the Democrats have lost 52 seats in the House of Representatives, 12 seats in the Senate, governors in 13 states and uncounted hundreds of seats in state legislatures. The only real power base the party holds today is the White House - and it is paralyzed by scandal. Clinton, singlehandedly, has all but snuffed the life out of the Democratic Party. Even more amazing is the party's pathetic response. It has sat by, watching its own slow destruction without lifting a finger to help itself.."

Coffee Shop Times 10/7/98 Douglas Barricklow ".Throughout the last ten months, the nation has become increasingly familiar with a small clutch of analysts in the national media whose embarrassingly unapologetic brand of advocacy for the Clinton Administration would make former employees of Pravda blush. Noteworthy among their number are CNN's Greta Van Susteren, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift and Salon's David Talbot. No matter how ridiculous the argument may be, if it's written on White House letter head, then you can count on this group of sell outs to parrot it ad nauseum. In fact, if these guys witnessed President Clinton molesting a squirrel on the D.C. mall, they'd immediately gather his record on environmental issues and then try to beat deadline."

WorldNetDaily 10/7/98 Joseph Farah ".What Clinton is talking about are new controls -- but not control by the sovereign people of the United States, guided by a Constitution and the rule of law. Rather he wants to set up new global mechanisms controlled by the elite, the select, the insiders, the privileged, the enlightened ones. He wants to repeat globally all of the mistakes the New Deal wrought on the United States -- regulations, welfare, government-provided housing, government medical care, unemployment benefits, Social Security, government subsistence on a worldwide basis. And guess who will pay for it all?."

AP 10/8/98 Jeannine Aversa "Federal law enforcement officers will find it easier to tap any phones used by suspected criminals under a bill passed Thursday by the Senate. The measure involving ``roving'' wiretaps is contained in a bill authorizing intelligence programs. The House passed the bill Wednesday and Clinton is expected to sign it..``Law enforcers now have a substantial burden to show the court before they can engage in a roving wiretap,'' Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a former U.S. attorney, said in an interview. ``This would make it substantially easier.'' A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, disagreed, saying the bill only clarifies existing law. ``It would not make it easier. There is no expansion of powers here,'' the official said.. ``The effect of it will be to allow many more of these roving wiretaps,'' said Alan Davidson, the center's staff counsel. ``This is a real expansion of roving wiretapping authority.'' .Davidson and Barr said the new measure will make it more likely that innocent people would unknowingly have their conversations listened to by federal police agencies. ."

New York Post 10/13/98 Ray Kerrison " WHEN President Clinton pulled into New York yesterday for yet another fund-raiser for Chuck Schumer, it was his 100th money-grubbing trip of the year. Incredible as it may seem, in this year alone, Clinton has made 100 forays out of Washington just to shake the money tree for contributions to prop up his collapsing presidency and party. That means he is spending almost no time on the job. The record is truly scandalous. In the 285 days of this year, Clinton has spent 152 days traveling, fund-raising or on vacation. And he's doing it all at taxpayer expense. If any other worker ran up a no-show job record like this, he'd be fired on the spot.."

The Ottawa Citizen 10/4/98 Mark Kennedy ".The controversy over how a U.S. firm collected tainted blood from Arkansas prison inmates and shipped it to Canada has spread to Vince Foster -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's personal confidant who committed suicide in 1993..Now, five years after his mysterious death, two developments have prompted questions about Mr. Foster's knowledge of the U.S. company's prison-blood collection scheme: - There are signs that Mr. Foster tried to protect the company called Health Management Associates (HMA) more than a decade ago in a lawsuit. - And a major U.S. daily newspaper recently reported that Mr. Foster may have been worried about the tainted-blood scandal, which was just emerging as a contentious issue in Canada, when he killed himself in July 1993..Indeed, on Sept. 16 -- eight weeks after Foster's death -- the federal government announced the public inquiry, to be headed by Justice Horace Krever. During the course of his work, Justice Krever unearthed the Arkansas prison- blood collection scheme and wrote about it in his final report last year. However, no mention was made of Mr. Clinton until last month's story in the Citizen, which drew on documents obtained from Arkansas State Police files."

The Washington Times 10/14/98 Jennifer Harper "..Some Boy Scouts in Utah do not want Bill Clinton to sign their Eagle Scout awards, saying this president of the United States is just not worthy. Last month, Scott Farnsworth and six fellow Scouts were ready to receive their much-esteemed Eagle certificates -- a rank achieved by only 2.5 percent of Scouts nationwide. Just as long as Mr. Clinton did not sign the certificate, that is. The seven boys, ages 14 to 17, have asked that Mr. Clinton's signature be deleted from their Eagle Award certificates, which prove they earned at least 21 merit badges. "The president's signature should be a thing of high honor," the Farnsworth youth, who is 14, told the Salt Lake Tribune. "But if your president is not worthy, if he has done something that is not worthy, it's not representing Scouting morals."."

Toronto Sun 10/15/98 Peter Worthington ".As the Clinton impeachment case blunders on amid charges and counter-charges, the one media outlet that has never wavered, digressed or lost perspective is the Wall Street Journal. In fact it is so confident of the quality of its reportage, analyses and assessments that it has compiled its coverage of all the Clinton scandals into three volumes and is selling them to the public at around US$50 for the set. To those unfamiliar with the WSJ this may seem mildly arrogant. And perhaps it is. But as one who has paid attention to events as they've evolved around Clinton, the WSJ coverage is in a class by itself - not so much in breaking new facts or unravelling fresh scandals, but in sizing up and appraising what is known.."

St Petersburg Times 10/16/98 David Dahl "Not even done with this year's business, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott on Thursday threw cold water on what President Clinton hoped would be next year's top agenda item: preserving Social Security for retiring baby boomers. Lott, a Mississippi Republican, told reporters that Clinton's political posturing on Social Security made it unlikely a GOP-controlled Congress would sit down with him to come up with a solution next year. "I don't think there's a sufficient level of trust to be able to do something this important, the way they have demagogued this issue," Lott said. "The Democrats are such horrible demagogues on this issue. And he led the way on this until I think he soured the well on doing what I think needs to be done to preserve Social Security for my daughter." Lott said he would rather wait until "we get another president" -- who he hopes will be a Republican elected in 2000 -- before taking up the complicated reform of Social Security.."

Washington Post 10/19/98 David Segal Freeper highlights ".The spectacular payoff: the Fundacion's $1 million endowment could soar by as much as 1,600 percent in just 60 days. Though the returns sounded far-fetched, the charity's leaders signed on after a well-connected Washington lawyer, Lewis Rivlin, offered them a money-back guarantee. Where would the profits come from? Rivlin claims the Treasury Department oversees a "trading program" from a small room known to only 30 employees. The room is "highly confidential, in a locked section of the Treasury, one little section of a floor which is completely discreet, the existence of which is never revealed," he testified in a June deposition. Rivlin said he isn't surprised that the Treasury denies that it oversees high-yield trading. A small, amiable man with a Santa Claus-like beard and a warm smile, he clings to the notion that only a select few know about these deals, and those who do are instructed to deny that they exist. "Are these people going to tell The Washington Post about these programs? I don't think so," he said, in an office filled with mementos of his years in Democratic politics. "But there's no question that there are people in the government who are totally and comprehensively aware of every detail and nuance of these programs."."

Bloomberg News 10/27/98 ".The dollar fell Tuesday against the mark and the yen after a report showed that consumer confidence slumped this month in the United States, raising expectations that the Federal Reserve Board may cut interest rates a third time this year to support the economy..U.S. consumer confidence, as measured by the Conference Board's index, fell more than expected, to 117.3 points from September's revised reading of 126.4. The index has not been that low since December 1996."

Washington Times 10/28/98 Freeper tgiles report "Said a senior White House advisor, "Never in history has there been a president, a vice president and a first lady who have spent more time raising money."."

Investor's Business Daily 10/28/98 ".When both sides met last week to begin setting ground rules for impeachment hearings on President Clinton, the White House left no doubt about its strategy. It's the same as it has always been: spin and delay, delay and spin. Even as lawyers from both sides met for the first time, White House hired gun Greg Craig sniped about fairness. Somehow that's what he got out of a meeting in which White House and House Judiciary Committee lawyers were merely being introduced to each other. That's nothing new. Craig began conditioning the country for the ''unfair'' gripe weeks ago. That first meeting just provided him with a platform to spout the company line. Expect Craig to stay on message. And expect the message to sell. This White House has one of the most effective political propaganda machines in history. There's little for Craig to cry ''unfair'' over, though. Clinton is getting better treatment than President Nixon received. Jerome Zeifman, chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment inquiry of Nixon, is a Democrat. He points out that Democrats were introducing impeachment resolutions, and the Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon even before there was evidence of presidential wrongdoing. Few remember the ''smoking gun'' tapes were released several days after the committee vote."

Fox News Wires 10/28/98 AP Anne Gearan ".A friend from former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy's college days testified today that he tried to cover up for Espy after the FBI began investigating Espy's personal and business relationships. Richard Douglas said he lied to an FBI agent in 1994 because Espy asked him to do so. Espy is on trial for taking allegedly illegal gifts from businesses he regulated and then trying to cover it up.."

UPI 10/28/98 ".President Clinton announced (Wednesday) the budget surplus in the last fiscal year was ''exactly $70 billion.'' In revealing the figure, Clinton again urged the money be saved until the Social Security system is fixed, ''hopefully next year.'' The final figure was lower than previous estimates of an expected $80 billion surplus."

DNC Homepage, KMOX 1120 AM St. Louis, Freeper Ymani Cricket Rebuttal 11/1-2/98 ".Because the GOP is stepping up efforts to make sure elections are fair, the DNC issued a release on Oct, 31 accusing Republicans of intimidation. Question is - How can it be intimidating to make sure elections are fair unless those being intimidated are the cheaters? ..The truth is, that the Democrats are upset because Republicans are making it more difficult for them to cheat..Besides, if anyone feels like they may be intimidated at the poll, they can simply request an absentee ballot!! So the DNC argument is Bogus." and ".Today on KMOX Am1120, St. Louis Radio Station, Charles Jaco had on as guests John Hancock, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party and Bekki Cook(D) Secretary of State of MO. John Hancock noted that the hidden cameras being taken various undisclosed polls will be OUTSIDE the polling places to make sure the same people do not come in twice. That is a far cry from an invasion of privacy in your polling booth. HE also said that there would be poeple to make sure ID is checked, and to make sure the ballot counts are fair. In 1996 in The Southern Bootheel of Missouri a Democrat was caught on video buying "votes for beer". The video tape was was used by the justice department to prosecute. Bekki Cook (sec of State) Balked and said the justice department is involved and that it may be illegal for poll watchers to use video. The Irony? Justice department used the tape in 1996 to prosecute but now says taping may be illegal. Fair elections only scare those who cheat.."

AP 11/7/98 ".Authorities raided a counterfeiting ring that churned out phony driver's licenses, Social Security cards and other documents for use nationwide. Nine people were arrested in raids in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said Friday. Federal, state and local authorities seized 141,000 counterfeit documents, a high-grade printing press, 40 plates used to produce fake documents, $13,500 in cash and a number of weapon.Immigration authorities said the ring is tied to previous INS seizures of 307,000 fake documents in California, Utah, Texas, Florida and New York."

NY Post 11/6/98 John Crudele ".The Federal Reserve is just dying to admit that it has been doing brilliant - but alas, questionable - things to keep the stock market bubble inflated. A Wall Street Journal article on Monday is the closest the Fed has ever come to making this admission, although the newspaper apparently didn't know what it was on to. The Journal story was about the bailout of the hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management, and how the Fed stepped in to save the day. The story gets interesting in the seventh paragraph, when it starts talking about Peter Fisher, the 42-year-old, No. 2 man at the New York Fed, whose official job is running the Fed's trading operation..What exactly does he give to these traders and dealers he talks to at 5 a.m. in the morning? Swaps, which is the word the Journal reporter came away with, implies a give-and-take. What is Fisher, the second highest person in the New York Fed's hierarchy giving to traders? Just gossip? Or is Fisher giving away what Wall Street calls inside information. And why are Fisher and the Fed concerned about the stock market? The Fed has jurisdiction over the dollar and, as an extension, bonds. It would be a big expansion of the Fed's powers to suddenly have authority over stocks. But since this nation's economy has become so dependent on the stock market's success, the Fed's current interest in equities would not be surprising. I asked to talk with Fisher. I said I wanted to know about his interest in the stock market and the swapping of information. The Fed wouldn't allow it."

Investor's Business Daily 11/12/98 Joel Mowbray ".Analysts have pointed to an ironic twist in President Clintons plan to hire 100,000 new teachers. To do it, he's going to raid the assets of Washington D.C.'s teacher pension plan, "reform" the district's pension fund so that it no longer invests in stocks and bonds, and give it the same pay-as-you-go structure as Social-Security-- meaning no assets will remain in the trust fund. How did it happen? Critics note President Clinton needed $1.1 BILLION for this teacher-hiring plan. Rather than cutting spending to offset new spending--as required in the 1997 balanced budget agreement-- he found it in the D.C. fund, which is available because the federal government took over Washington's city government in 1997.."

Freeper George Zimmerlee reports 11/19/98 ".President Clinton has authority under Section 706 of the Communications Act to suspend the Act and enforcement of law pertaining to illegal radio jamming. The FBI has admitted the illegal jamming, H. Alan Holmes of DOD has admitted jamming by the US Air Force, FCC Chairman Kennard is violating the Freedom of Information Act to hide evidence and may go into federal custody before the end of the year on various charges, particularly failure to execute and enforce the Communications Act and the most shameful crime scandal in FCC's 64-year history. Since agencies have claimed that no laws were broken, since White House will not deny that the President signed Section 706 orders, and since Congressman Gingrich stopped his investigation after it led to the President, it appears that Clinton executed the order. This is an abuse of power to authorize jamming against licensed broadcasters during peacetime for patently political reasons.."

Freeper Plummz reporting 11/21/98 on WABC - 770 AM Steve Mosberg ".Jerome Zeiffman, (Democrat) Majority Counsel for the House Watergate Committee has written, with Bob Barr, a proposed article of impeachment regarding bribery. Zeiffman will be on this talk show later. As will ReJoyce Smith..Zeiffman says he and Dash both went to teach at Jesuit law schools, and in his day, the Jesuits didn't let their law professors take so much money on the side. Ripping into law professors in general now. Says Dash and Lenzner have been buds since Watergate. Lenzner was a chief investigator under Dash's supervision at the time of Watergate. Says Dash and Lenzner have remained friends ever since. Says Dash and Lenzner are doing everything for the Dems and Clinton. Hosts asks, "Is it a left wing conspiracy?" JZ quotes Sen. Russell Long [the Cajun connection again] - "I'm against all conspiracies I'm not a part of!" JZ sees no Dem on house judish with the stature of Robert McClory (Whom I belive was a GOP HJC anti-Nixon during Watergate.) JZ says he's looking for a publisher for a new edition of "Without Honor: Impeaching Nixon and The Crimes of Camelot." New edition called "Withour Honor: The Impeachment of Presidents Nixon and Clinton." [subtitles paraphrased] .

Freeper Ogle reporting more 11/21/98 on Steve Malzberg ".Steve has been urging everyone to listen to TalkSpot.com at 1AM EST Sunday (Monday morning actually) night to hear Jerome Zeifman of the Senate Watergate Committee discuss the crimes of Clinton. Flash* Terry Lenzner and Sam Dash have a relationship going back to the Senate Watergate Committee, when Dash was Chief Investigator. Zeifman thinks Clinton is impeachable for bribery in the case of the Utah coal land which was turned into a "nature preserve" so Moctar Riady would own the single world-wide source of this clean coal.."

USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/ 11/23/98 Edward Pound ".EXCERPTS: "...Government investigators are exploring whether a senior Treasury Department official who provides vital funds to law enforcement agencies across the USA used her position in an effort to enrich a close associate....investigators are examining...Jan Blanton, 47, the director of Treasury's Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture. She is one of the highest-ranking female law enforcement officials in the government....Her agency receives about $250 million each year from currency and property seized in government investigations...Investigators from the Justice and Treasury departments are exploring whether Blanton used her position to steer government business to a close friend, Clifford Quinn, a systems analyst in her agency who also is associated with a private software company...the inquiry focused on contract awards made by Treasury...Blanton and Quinn were placed on administrative leave, with pay...after agents from Treasury...served search warrants at their offices and homes...."

CNN ALL POLITICS 11/25/98 ".A Miami businessman charged with making illegal campaign contributions to President Bill Clinton and other Democratic candidates is believed to have fled the country, according to the Justice Department. Justice Department spokesman John Russell said Mark Jimenez is considered a fugitive, but would not say what steps were being taken to locate him, The Tampa Tribune reported Wednesday. Mitchell Fuerst, a staff attorney for Jimenez's company Future Tech International, said he doesn't "hold much hope that he is coming back."."

12/1/98 Jonathan Salant AP ".Federal Election Commission auditors recommended today that President Clinton's campaign repay $7 million in taxpayer assistance it received during the 1996 election, and said that his Republican challenger Bob Dole's campaign should repay $17.7 million. The auditors alleged both candidates' campaigns illegally coordinated and benefited from issue ads run by their political parties..To back up its recommendations, the auditors cited three ads paid for by the Democratic National Committee that were the same as ads aired by the Clinton campaign. In other cases, the Clinton campaign and DNC shared production expenses and coordinated the broadcast of party and campaign ads so they didn't run at the same time, auditors said. The auditors said that 37 DNC ads clearly identified Clinton and ``appeared to contain electioneering messages.'' ``While it is true that the advertisements in question were run at times and in locations which suggest that the purpose of the advertisements was something other than garnering support for President Clinton, it appears that this is true because of a deliberate effort to conceal the actual purpose and strategy behind the advertisements.'' . The FEC auditors concluded the ads caused Clinton to exceed the primary spending limit by $46.4 million.. The FEC auditors said Dole exceeded the primary spending limit by $9 million, and should repay $2.9 million based on the formula. The auditors said Dole should repay an additional $14.8 million for excessive spending and other problems in the general election.."

USA Journal 12/3/98 Jon E. Dougherty ".About 87 years ago federal lawmakers and the bureaucracies they created still had some semblance of patriotism and constitutionalism. That is about the time that the federal government forced John D. Rockefeller's gas and oil monopoly called Standard Oil to break into smaller pieces so that others could compete in the free market system as the Founders envisioned. Today, however, most of that patriotism and constitutionalism has been replaced in Congress by people who are as unfamiliar with the terms as President Clinton is with the word `honesty'. Avowed Socialists walk the halls of power today as traditional qualities of self-government have been replaced by a bastardized version of self-destructive capitalism. These people now call themselves `Globalists' or `Free Traders' but really they're nothing but greedy Socialist scumbags who object to your success and are working as hard as they can to see that we all make the same low wage while toiling to make them richer. That's what Socialists do..Meanwhile U.S. consumers are hard pressed to find anything in our own department stores that was made in this country. And all of this follows similar trends from the previous decade... We can't expect American corporations to stick around if we allow our government to tax and regulate them to death. And we can't expect to find many `Made in the U.S.A.' products if all of our factories are in Malaysia, China, and Thailand. Finally, we cannot continue to expect to make $20 bucks an hour to screw a bolt on a car if the whole system has been set up to allow our corporations to get out of paying competitive wages by moving their factories overseas - then importing the same product back here for nothing. In the end the corporate blue bloods make even more money, the politicians get the kickbacks and the campaign support, and the American worker [and eventually the U.S. economy] loses. Fewer workers also mean fewer people paying taxes, but I don't suppose those brainy boys and girls on Capitol Hill have figured that one out yet. I am utterly ashamed of us as a nation for what we have allowed but a few elite power brokers to get away with in the past 87 years. The Justice Department will let a few major food corporations run the family farm out of business but then they'll take Bill Gates to court on a so-called monopoly violation. It's absurd.."

Jewish World Review 12/3/98 Thomas Sowell ".SINCE VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING is called a "crisis" these days, perhaps we should not be surprised to hear about a health care "crisis."....Are we getting worse health care than in the past? Worse than the rest of the world? Worse than we would like? The answer to the first two questions is clearly "no." ....Virtually every aspect of the so-called health care crisis boils down to the fact that everybody wants somebody else to pay for health care....The basic underlying fact that is not going to change is that medical care is costly, whether those costs are paid by HMOs, the government, the patients or anybody else. We can try to pretend that these costs don't exist or hope to force somebody else to pay them, but none of that changes the costs or the fact that they have to be paid.."

Progressive Review 12/3/98 Sam Smith ".Independent prosecutor Dan Smaltz brought 15 criminal or civil prosecutions against 14 persons, seven companies and one law firm. He obtained 15 convictions and collected over $11 million in fines and civil penalties. Offenses for which convictions were obtained included false statements, concealing money from prohibited sources, illegal gratuities, illegal contributions, falsifying records, interstate transportation of stolen property, money laundering, and illegal receipt of USDA subsidies. The largest corporate offender, Tyson Foods, paid the government $6 million in settlement of its case. Net cost of investigation: $6 million or 3% of what Tyson Foods receives annually in federal government contracts. Because of the acquittal of former ag Secretary Michael Espy, however, one would never guess that Smaltz had done anything right. In fact, the Washington elite, led by the major media, has leaped on the acquittal as evidence of the gross failure of the independent prosecutor statute..Smaltz' work demonstrates precisely what such a position is essential. No one else in Washington - - not the Justice Department, not Congress, not the media wanted to look into the Ag Department scandals which were, at their heart, not about sex nor about tickets to footballs games but about the safety of food that appears on your dinner plate. For example, last spring Consumer Reports revealed significant levels of contamination in chickens purchased from a number of different sources, including Tyson and Holly Farms. Although the precise number of food poisoning cases is impossible to come by, US officials say the reported cases of chicken poisoning rose three-fold between 1988 and 1992.."

Freeper LYNXcry reports on O'Reilly on FOX 12/3/98 ".I didn't see this posted earlier, but on watching the repeat of the O'Reilly Factor, two new (to me) items serviced. First O'Reilly read from a Fox News Flash, that sources close to the GOP Judiciary have said that Schippers and Hyde saw information in the memo that is very very damaging to the president, HOWEVER it would take longer than they have right now to persue it. They plan to investigate the information they saw in the memo, when the new congress is sworn in. The other, more relevant thing that was brought out, was from Chris Cannon, a GOP Judiciary member. He was talking about witnesses for the hearings, and mentioned John Huang's name. O'Reilly came to life immediately and pounced on him with "is Huang sceduled for the hearings, you guys just put the China stuff to rest didn't you?" Chris Cannon said "not necessarily,I am not at liberty to say what is going to happen at the hearings right now". He sure sounded as though John Huang may testify as he made reference to the evidence that had been brought forward recently from Starr, the last 4 boxes. Hmm, wonder if this was the "secret wittness" Hyde was asked about? The last question asked of Cannon by O'Reilly was whether or not he believed the president would be impeached, and he said he was pretty confident he would be."

Jewish World Review 12/4/98 Larry Elder ".WHO PAYS FOR THE RECENTLY announced record hike in the price of cigarettes? The poor, that's who....According to Investors' Business Daily, nearly 40 percent of poor men smoke vs. approximately 15 percent of men who earn more than $50,000 a year. Poor women smoke at a 30 percent rate, while women earning $50,000 a year or more smoke at a 15 percent rate....In California, Proposition 10, designed to create a fund for child development programs, adds 50 cents per package. And effective Jan. 1, California plans an additional 37 cents tax hike on cigarettes. That's 45 cents, plus 50 cents, plus 37 cents....According to "Uncle" Rob [Reiner], Proposition 10 creates up to $700 million for child development programs, justifying the measure because kids are "impressionable." You know, the children, the children.."

Washington Post 12/7/98 ".President Clinton is suggesting a series of changes that will save the federal government at least $2.1 billion by cracking down on waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare program.. The plan includes eliminating markups in the prices Medicare is charged for drugs, a White House official said. Under Clinton's plan, Medicare would pay what a drug costs the provider. Medicare covers only certain drugs that must be administered by a doctor or in a hospital, such as those used for dialysis or organ transplants.."

Reuters 12/7/98 Isabelle Clary ".Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is troubled by his current dilemma of trying to keep the U.S. economy growing without contributing to a ``bubble'' in which U.S. stocks and other financial assets may be dangerously inflated, former Fed Gov. Lawrence Lindsey said Monday...Lindsey said Greenspan sees some eerie similarities between the current economic climate and the situation that existed in the years before the stock market crash of 1929 that triggered the Great Depression. But Greenspan remains optimistic a Depression is not in the cards today because policy makers are better informed than Fed officials were in the 1930s when they underestimated the magnitude of the problems America was facing..."

Freeper Physicist reports on 12/9/98 Dom Giordano Show, WWDB 96.5 FM in Philadelphia ".It has been announced that Philly Teamster beating victim Don Adams is going to be charged with three misdemeanors, including simple assault, for ostensibly beating two women while he was having the crap kicked out of him.."

NYT/AP 12/9/98 ".The Federal Election Commission unanimously told its auditors Wednesday to reduce the amount Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole could be asked to repay if his campaign is found to have exceeded spending limits during the 1996 campaign. Auditors had counted Republican Party ads in support of Dole as general election expenditures, which require a dollar-for-dollar payback. But the six-member FEC said those ads ran during the primary season, where the payback is much smaller. As a result, Dole's potential liability would be reduced by $11.6 million, from $17.7 million to $6.1 million. The auditors also have recommended that President Clinton's campaign repay $7 million, counting the Democratic ads against the primary spending limit.."

FOX 12/15/98 ".A South Korean medical research team said Wednesday it has succeeded in cultivating a human embryo using human cells in one of the first cloning experiments of its kind. Researchers at the infertility clinic of Kyunghee University Hospital in Seoul said they had cultivated a human embryo in its early stages using an unfertilized egg and a somatic cell - those that make up most of the body - donated by a woman in her 30s. Lee said the human embryo in the Kyunghee University experiment was last seen dividing into four cells, before the operation was aborted.."

PR Newswire 12/16/98 SOURCE: Family Research Council ".The liberal elites are spewing hateful speech from a new song sheet regarding the impeachment process,'' Family Research Council's Gary L. Bauer said Wednesday. ``Five days ago, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (Dec. 11), actor Alec Baldwin spoke words that, if uttered by a conservative, would have destroyed him. He fantasized about living in a country where we could 'stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes (members of Congress who vote for impeachment) and we'd kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families.''' ``Where are the outcries from the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, People for the American Way, Kate Michelman, and Frank Rich for the hateful speech emanating from Alec Baldwin? The silence is frightening and telling. This speech is intolerable, and the President of the United States, Members of Congress and Baldwin's colleagues in Hollywood should say so.'' Baldwin worked himself into a lather on the late night show: ``I am thinking to myself in other countries they are laughing at us twenty four hours a day and I'm thinking to myself if we were in other countries, we would all right now, all of us together (starts to shout) all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death. We would stone him to death! (crowd cheers) Wait! Shut up! Shut up! No shut up! I'm not finished. We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes (members of Congress who vote for impeachment) and we'd kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families. (stands up screaming) What is happening in this country? What is happening?'' ``Baldwin appears to be so hysterical he can't see straight,'' Bauer said. ``Neither Henry Hyde nor any other member of Congress is on trial. The truth is on trial. Americans know that our beloved Constitution and our laws rest on pillars of truth. We must tell the truth when we take an oath. This vote is about a violation of the oath of office that includes a promise, before God, to faithfully execute the law -- not break it.."

Associated Press 12/10/98 Jonathan Salant ".The Federal Election Commission today unanimously refused to order the campaigns of President Clinton and Republican Bob Dole to pay back millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for violating spending limits. The commissioners voted 6-0 against their auditors' recommendation that Clinton and Dole repay millions because they illegally coordinated advertising run by the Democratic and Republican parties, causing their 1996 presidential campaigns to exceed spending limits. The decision wiped out most of the original recommendation that the Clinton campaign repay $7 million and the Dole campaign $17.7 million. The commission had already decided Wednesday to reduce any possible Dole repayment by millions of dollars by considering Republican ads as expenditures for the primary rather than the general election, changing the repayment formula.."

NewMax 12/14/98 - Gerard Jackson ".First the bad news: America will go into recession. Now for the good news: I expect this to happen under Clinton. (I don't hold him responsible, I just consider it ironic justice.) The editorial in issue No. 92 (19-25 October 1998) predicted, using Austrian analysis, that the US economy would slide into recession and that the symptoms were already emerging. Despite claims to the contrary Greenspan's rate cuts can do nothing to reverse the situation ...The Austrians show that by forcing down the rate of interest the Federal Reserve misleads businesses, especially in the higher stages of production, into thinking that the fund of real capital has expanded. They therefore embark on projects for which the capital goods necessary for their completion do not exist. This makes itself felt through various shortages and bottlenecks. As these start to appear many businesses begin suffer a cost-price squeeze as prices are no longer sufficient to maintain expansion or even cover factor costs. Nevertheless, the so-called service sector, the one closest to consumption, undergoes a boom with rising demand and employment. There is no paradox here..."

Washington Weekly 12/14/98 Wesley Phelan ".It is clear from the record that the number of those who knew why McDougal was having difficulty providing urine on demand included at least four prison personnel. These are: the psychologist; the Medical Officer; the Captain to whom the Medical Officer sent the psychologist's memorandum; and the member of the Unit Team who informed McDougal that the psychologist's recommendation was not in his central file. By March 7 the psychologist, the Medical Officer, the Captain in charge, and at least one officer in McDougal's Unit Team knew that he was supposed to receive dry cell status. At least two of these staff members knew that the recommendation had not made it to his central file, and that the recommendation had not been implemented. It fell to McDougal himself to take the responsibility for getting a copy of the recommendation to his Unit Team. Unfortunately for him, he could not force the BOP to comply with its own policy recommendations in time to avoid the events of March 7. That trained prison personnel should fail to place an important recommendation from qualified medical staff into McDougal's central file is negligent. That they should fail in responding to his request that the document be resubmitted in a timely manner is inexcusable. That all those aware of the recommendation should stand by while he was required to give urine samples in violation of the recommendation is unspeakable. The Focus Review report concluded its assessment of these failures with the following statement: "The staff misconduct allegation, which was unrelated to inmate McDougal's failure to provide a urine specimen, had been investigated and closed in accordance with Bureau of Prisons policy regarding staff investigations." This statement and finding is, to put it bluntly, self-serving. The simple fact is the Bureau of Prisons failed to provide James McDougal a level of care its own staff recognized as required by his condition. The extent to which this failure contributed to his death in the hole on March 8 remains to be determined..."

LA TIMES 12/24/98 Mark Fritz ".Justin Arango wants a gift this Christmas that isn't necessarily cool, computerized, flashy or furry. The degree of his desire became obvious Saturday, when he climbed aboard Santa's knee. "Can you find my dad a job?" the 5-year-old asked the local St. Nick, breaking every heart within earshot inside Weirton's crowded community center. Justin's dad, Troy Arango, chokes up just a little when he tells this story. "Santa said it about tore him up," he says. Arango recently lost his job at the company where his father and grandfather had worked until retirement. He is among the roughly 900 steelworkers who have been laid off for the holidays in a small town carved into the hills of the Ohio Valley. They comprise almost one-fifth of the work force of the Weirton Steel Corp., the main employer for miles around..The situation is somewhat special here, however, because it demonstrates how public support for President Clinton can change when his most potent asset, the generally strong economy, suddenly vanishes. Or, in this case, collides with questions about his credibility.."

12/31/98 The White House "..Today, President Clinton announced a new child support crackdown aimed at the nation's most egregious child support violators. Despite record child support collections, there are still too many parents who flagrantly ignore their obligations to their children, and the President will propose to spend $46 million to identify, investigate, and prosecute these deadbeat parents. The President took this action today as he released new evidence that his Administration's child support efforts are working: child support collections have gone up a record 80 percent since he took office, from $8 billion in 1992 to an estimated $14.4 billion in 1998.."

Dawn (Karachi Pakistan) 1/3/99 Ghada Khouri ".Since the passage of new anti-militancy and immigration regulations in 1996, government prosecutors are increasingly relying on classified evidence to deport aliens suspected of supporting militancy. Some 25 individuals - almost all of them Arabs - are currently incarcerated as they battle deportation proceedings based on evidence neither they nor their attorneys can examine. None of them has been charged. Legal experts say secret evidence violates a defendant's due process rights. "It's virtually impossible to defend yourself if you can't confront the source of the allegations against you," said attorney David Cole, who has represented many people targeted by secret evidence.."

Washinton Calling Scripps Howard Washington Bureau by Freeper chugalug 1/10/99 "."The Immigration and Naturalization Service is throwing in the towel on punishing businesses for employing illegal aliens. Caught between congressional Democrats who don't want the agency harassing immigrants and congressional Republicans who don't want it harassing businesses, the INS has drafted a new enforcement strategy that calls for increased enforcement of every law under its jurisdiction except the law against hiring illegal aliens (.). The agency asked Congress for 130 more inspectors for its work site enforcement operations in fiscal 1988 (1998?), but Congress said no. For fiscal 1999 it didn't ask for any. The INS sanctioned about 2,000 employers a year in the early 1990s. In fiscal 1997, it sanctioned fewer than 900. Fines fell from $17 million a year to $8 million in 1997.".."

Insight Magazine 2/1/99 Jennifer Hickey ". Almost a month after Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr told Congress that he had found no evidence implicating the president in the improper gathering by the Clinton White House staff of more than 900 FBI files on key Republicans credentialed for the Bush and Reagan administrations, Tripp was under oath before a camera delivering answers to questions Starr did not ask. Subpoenaed by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group representing several former Bush and Reagan administration officials in a $90 million lawsuit against the FBI, the White House, the Department of Defense, former White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum -- and Hillary Rodham Clinton -- Tripp offered both damning and enlightening testimony...The news is that from her front-row seat in the White House counsel's office, Tripp saw much more than she or the administration wished she had. . . . . Flanked at the Judicial Watch deposition by her attorney, Anthony Zaccagnini, and by lawyers representing the government, Nussbaum and Hillary Clinton, Tripp dropped a bombshell. While she had testified at length to what she later would come to believe were FBI files in Vince Foster's safe, Tripp also revealed that she saw "what I now believe to be the infamous billing records in that safe.".. The document, bearing the handwritten notation, "Linda, just thought you might find this of interest," allegedly was placed by Lewinsky on Tripp's office chair at the Pentagon shortly before October 1997. It was a list of people with connections to the Clinton administration who had died of unnatural or unexplained causes during the last two decades.. . . . Tripp testified that Lewinsky also left on her chair a longer, more detailed list of suddenly deceased Clinton "troublemakers." While the handwriting on the note was not Lewinsky's, according to Tripp, she never directly asked who had provided the former Clinton sex partner with the list..."

Associated Press 1/15/99 Hans Greimel ".An abortion case erupted into calls for a mistrial Friday when a federal judge chided a witness by saying: "Truthful means truthful. ... This is not a Clinton deposition!'' Judge Robert E. Jones quickly apologized for his angry outburst in front of the jury and portrayed it as a comment made in jest at the end of a long week of testimony. "May the record reflect that the court is smiling and the witness is smiling,'' a flustered Jones told a courtroom echoing with both gasps and laughter. ."

The Intelligencer 1/18/99 Tracy Carbasho ".An insider trade publication in Washington said President Clinton warned Japan to cut its steel shipments in an attempt to appease Senate members who will act as ``jurors'' in his impeachment trial. Clinton warned Japanese leaders a week ago to slash the heavy volume of steel products being sent to U.S. markets. The threat was issued a day after the president revealed his plan for addressing the serious import crisis which has disabled many domestic steelmakers.."

AP 1/19/99 David Bauder ". Never before had a president's State of the Union address been described as just another form of defense in an ongoing impeachment trial. But that was how television commentators sought to tie Tuesday's extraordinary events together: Lawyer Charles Ruff opening President Clinton's defense in the Senate impeachment trial hours before Clinton was to make his annual agenda- setting address to Congress. CBS, ABC, NBC and the cable news networks pre-empted afternoon programming to air Ruff's opening arguments and were to return later for prime-time coverage of Clinton's speech. ``Tonight another attorney will pick up Bill Clinton's defense -- Bill Clinton himself,'' CBS's Dan Rather said when Ruff had finished speaking. NBC commentator Tim Russert said Clinton could help inoculate himself against removal from office by ingratiating himself with the American people during his speech.."

AP 1/20/99 Martin Crutsinger Freeper Brian Mosely ".While calling the economy's current performance ``outstanding,'' Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan expressed worries today that the high-flying stock market could be headed for a tumble that could spell serious trouble down the road. Greenspan, in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, said nothing to directly indicate whether the Fed would be changing interest rates any time soon.."

Freeper Stand Watach Listen on Clinton Buffalo speech ".here's an excerpt from the Buffalo speech... ...Now, we're going to have a big argument about this. And we should, and I hope it will be a good debate. But I believe, since we have -- as the Vice President said -- this $70 billion surplus from last year and a bigger one coming this year, since it's projected that over a 25-year period we will average substantial surpluses on an annual basis -- now, they'll go up and down with the economy, but the point is we have no permanent deficit anymore, the natural condition is a surplus, okay -- so the question is, what do we do with it? We could give it all back to you and hope you spend it right. (Applause.) But I think -- here's the problem. If you don't spend it right, here's what's going to happen. In 2013 -- that's just 14 years away -- taxes people pay on their payroll for Social Security will no longer cover the monthly checks. So we have to get into the Social Security trust fund, the savings account. By 2032, it will be gone. After that, if we haven't done something, we can only pay a little over 70 percent of the benefits. By then, the cost of living will be higher and it will be devastating.."

Boston Herald 1/19/99 ".The easiest way to beat the bullies of the Clinton administration is Davy Crockett's advice: Be sure you're right, then go ahead. That's what former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter discovered when the Defense Department tried to browbeat him into letting it censor the book he has written about his time in Iraq. ."

Washington Times 1/21/99 Freeper Nick Danger ".It is a measure of Bill Clinton's love of governmental programs and his contempt for the people whose taxes finance those programs that he could not find room for any net tax cuts in the face of such overwhelming surpluses.."

The Common Sense American 2/99 Gene Wirges Freeper A Whitewater Researcher ".In the early 1970s, an Arkansas State Administration proposed a plan to protect thousands of its citizens...office operation...turned over...to the corrupt Arkansas Political Machine....Many...forwarded payments to the Department -- often in cash....An audit showed hundreds of thousands of dollars missing...The State Administration filed no charges...nor was a single penny repaid....Especially avoided was how a Machine lackey had been appointed to handle all that cash...Head of that State Administration was Gov. Dale Bumpers, who stayed silent when the Machine lackey was appointed, and remained silent when no charges were filed. He also remained mum when that Machine lackey was transferred...in the State Auditor's Department, watching over most state funds....This is the same Political Machine which has "run things" in Arkansas for the last half century. It launched Clinton's political career, once removed him (1980), then reinstated him (1982) and finally financed his presidential campaign (1992). ."

newsmax 1/21/99 Robert Novak ".That Bill Clinton delivered a State of the Union address Tuesday night in the midst of his impeachment trial was a sign of Republican disorganization and weakness. The kind of speech he gave was proof of his political mastery. This constitutionally mandated message to Congress has deteriorated under President Clinton into a poll-driven political pep rally, and he showed this week that he has perfected the art form..."

AP 1/22/99 ".Democratic fund-raiser Yah Lin ``Charlie'' Trie may be headed to jail if prosecutors can prove he filed a false police report in order to illegally obtain a new passport. Trie, a longtime friend of President Clinton, faces charges he obstructed a U.S. Senate investigation by ordering an employee to get rid of documents that had been subpoenaed. He pleaded innocent to those charges and others in Washington and has been free pending trial. ..In papers filed in federal court here on Thursday, prosecutors said Trie initially reported his home was burglarized last November and that $2,200 worth of property -- including his Taiwanese passport -- was stolen. The facts he alleged then are different from those Trie presented in court papers in December, prosecutors said, when he violated the terms of his release by applying for a substitute passport. Trie said he didn't know that was a violation, the papers said, though his passport and other travel documents were seized when he was arrested.."

on Times 1/22/99 Bill Sammon ".President Clinton's State of the Union address contained initiatives that, if enacted, would increase federal spending by 20 percent, or $288 billion a year, according to an analysis by a taxpayer watchdog group. That would wipe out the entire budget surplus and create a $100 billion deficit in the plan's first year alone, said Tom McClusky of the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation, which performed the analysis. "He's trying to please everybody, but he'll only make people happy until they realize they're going to pay for all of these proposals," Mr. McClusky said. "An across-the-board tax cut would let people decide how to spend the money." ."

New York Post Crudele 1/22/99 Freeper SamAdams76 ".Over the past year, the federal deficit - which is money owed by our government - rose from $5.486 trillion to $5.618 trillion. Those are government numbers right out of Barron's. That means the federal debt climbed by $132 billion. Which means the federal budget DEFICIT last year was $132 billion. There was no surplus of $70 billion, or any other amount, as Washington is claiming. When the economy weakens - as it always does - the true deficit numbers will increase. The surplus claim is wrong. It's a fraud. Washington is able to pretend there is a surplus because it has been raiding the Social Security trust fund, which, you have to understand, isn't a pile a cash sitting somewhere in the Treasury. It's really a pile of government IOUs (Treasury bills, really) Washington puts into Social Security in exchange for the cash it steals... Right now the Social Security system is running a surplus because more money coming in than going out. It's demographics at work - more employees than retirees. That pleasant situation, however, will not last long. But this surplus belongs to people like me and you, who'll need it to retire someday. So Washington shouldn't pretend that it belongs to the country and part of the budget. The president wants this non-existent "budget surplus" pumped back into Social Security. What does that mean? Washington will steal $200 billion from Social Security (turning a real $132 billion deficit into a $70 billion surplus), so that it can proclaim a budget surplus, then it will return the excess money to Social Security from where it was stolen in the first place.."

Whom Have We Elected? - The New American 1/22/93 William F. Jasper Freeper Rodger Schultz ".Father Richard McSorley, a radical Jesuit priest and professor from Georgetown University -- and one of Bill Clinton's anti-war comrades. Father McSorley's "testimony" comes in the form of his book, Peace Eyes, published in 1977. It is an account of his anti-war activities and travels in the U.S. and Europe. "When I got off the train in Oslo, Norway," Peace Eyes begins, "I met Bill Clinton of Georgetown University. He asked if he could go with me visiting peace people. We visited the Oslo Peace Institute and talked with conscientious objectors, with peace groups, and with university students." On November 15, 1969, I participated in the British moratorium against the Vietnam War in front of the U.S. Embassy at Grosvenor Square in London," Fr. McSorley recorded. He described the demonstrations: The activities in London supporting the second stage of the moratorium and the March of Death in Washington were initiated by Group 68 (Americans in Britain). This group had the support of British peace organizations, including the Committee on Nuclear Disarmament, the British Peace Council, and the International Committee for Disarmament and Peace .... The next day I joined with about 500 other people for the interdenominational service. Most of them were young, and many of them were Americans. As I was waiting for the ceremony to begin, Bill Clinton of Georgetown, then studying as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, came up and welcomed me. He was one of the organizers [emphasis added]. The British Peace Council, with which "organizer" Clinton was involved, is the British branch of the World Peace Council, a Soviet-front directed by the KGB. These demonstrations were not merely "anti-wary they were anti-American, pro- Vietcong, pro-Hanoi. and pro-Ho Chi Minh. They were used as propaganda by the communist and liberal media to undermine American morale.."

Insight 2/6/99 Paul M. Rodriguez/Timothy W. Maier ".February 1, without any warning, the White House made available to selected media outlets a "declassified" version of the recent 700-page congressional report that critisizes the Clinton administration and previous ones for laxity in the sharing of missile and satellite technology with Red China.. The White House version, which includes the panel's 38 recommendations for action, sheds little light on why the panel concluded U.S. national-security interests were damaged by the technology transfers, and its release has infuriated both Cox and Dicks. Neither lawmaker was told in advance of the planned release of the decoy. Both lawmakers are preparing to protest directly to the president -- and they have the backing of the rest of the special committee.."Chris (Cox) was mad as hell," said one source. "They've been hammered for not releasing any information even to other members about what's in the report and suddenly, without advance notice, the NSC releases a statement about it plus the recommendations. .."

Washington Times 2/5/99 Greg Pierce ".Now that the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's college course was just that -- a college course -- all those Democrats who claimed it was an illegal political scheme owe the man an apology, says Republican Chairman Jim Nicholson. After all, the House forced Mr. Gingrich to pay a $300,000 fine over the issue. And Mr. Nicholson has a question: What took the IRS so long? "The Clinton administration Internal Revenue Service owes an explanation why it took 3- and- a-half years to determine that Newt Gingrich's college course wasn't political, something they should have known after watching 20 hours of tapes," Mr. Nicholson said.."The trumped-up charges by congressional Democrats, led by David Bonior, were politically motivated attacks from the outset," he said. "Bonior and the Democrats owe Newt Gingrich an apology, and all Americans should demand an explanation of why the Internal Revenue Service became a weapon for 41 months of political water torture against the most prominent opponent of the Clinton-Gore Democrat agenda." ."

Cspan2 1/28/99 U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearings Alan Greenspan Senator Hollings Freeper A Whitewater Researcher "....HOLLINGS: ...we're still running deficits. 'Cause I'm not going along with this monkeyshine about unified. 'Cause unified is not net, the debt still goes up, is that correct?...The simple fact is the debt has been going up at least $100 billion for the last several years....GREENSPAN: Outside, on budget, that is correct....HOLLINGS: That's right, on budget, you're spending a hundred billion more than you're taking in....GREENSPAN: Correct....HOLLINGS: And this (Clinton) president's budget spends another hundred billion more than we take in...you know his plan. Look you think he's going to spend less than a hundred billion more?...What we've been doing, Mr. Chairman, in all reality, is taken a hundred billion out of the Social Security Trust Fund, transferring it over to the spending column, and spending it....we continue to spend a hundred billion more than we take in....That's the reality...I'm trying to get this government back to reality...We owe Social Security 736 billion right this minute..."

Orlando Sentinel 1/29/99 Charlie Reese ".The first thing to keep in mind when evaluating Bill Clinton's laundry list of promises, made in his State of the Union speech, is that Mr. Clinton is a proven liar.. Two main lies underlie his speech. One is the lie that Social Security needs saving. Well, only from politicians. The current tax brings in more than enough money to keep the Social Security Trust Fund solvent, but Congress and presidents use the surplus to offset deficits in other places in order to promulgate the second lie -- that the budget has a surplus. .So, starting with two lies, Clinton then proceeds to spend a nonexistent surplus stretching 15 years into the future. Even if this year's surplus were real, there is no way to predict that the surpluses will continue for 15 years into the future. That is pure fantasy.."

WorldNetDaily 2/15/99 David Bresnahan "."End runs were done around various community leaders," San Antonio Chief of Police Al Philipus told Austin radio talk show host Alex Jones, on assignment from WorldNetDaily. He was asked to host the exercises last May, but refused."Once I said no, they went to various individuals in the community to bring pressure to bear to get me to change my mind," explained Philipus. "For example, there was a community leader who I have a great deal of respect for, and we have a very good relationship. I get a call from him and he says, 'Chief, there's some people in here. They're in town and it's part of their role here, they need to meet with the mayor and the police chief.' "Of course, this gentleman, who I've worked very closely with on a number of projects, I told him to have them give me a call. Now I'd already said no. Well now I find out they're the same group. So they identified somebody that I know that's very high in the community to make an approach to me and get me to change my mind. Then when we said no, some elected officials were contacted to bring pressure to bear," said Philipus. "Then offers were made to give money, cash money to elected officials' charities if they could get us to change our minds. As one of my deputy chiefs said, in some circles, that's called bribery." Operation Last Dance began Feb. 8 with an explosive exercise in Kingsville, Texas, near Corpus Christi. Community leaders have come under heavy criticism from residents who were badly frightened when Knight Stalkers fired live rounds and set off explosions very close to innocent civilians. Army spokesmen have confirmed plans to continue with additional exercises in the Corpus Christi area until Feb. 20. Several reports of military activity throughout the area have been received by WorldNetDaily.."

(UPI Spotlight) 2/16/99 ".Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced (Tuesday) nearly $1 billion more in disaster aid to Central America in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch and Hurricane Georges.."

Jewish World Review 2/17/99 Walter Williams ".Try this: Ask one of these Constitution- talking politicians how much respect we should have for the 10th Amendment, which reads, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution ... are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The 10th Amendment simply and clearly says if the Constitution does not permit the federal government to do something, then the federal government doesn't have the right to do it. You tell me where in the Constitution is there delegated authority for federal involvement in education, retirement, health, housing, transportation, handouts and other activities representing more than three-quarters of federal spending. You say: "Williams, lighten up. Congress gets authority to control our lives through the "general welfare" clause of the Constitution.".. Thomas Jefferson, always fearful of the perversion of the general welfare clause, wrote, "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." In 1794, Madison wrote disapprovingly of an appropriation to assist French refugees, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." If Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were around today, their enunciation of constitutional principles would be greeted with derision and contempt by no less than 520 of the 535 members of the House and the Senate.."

New York Times 2/17/99 Michael Weinstein ".Congressional Republicans are finding all kinds of suspicious elements in President Clinton's budget plan. First, they accused the administration of double counting the surplus in the Social Security program -- the amount by which payroll taxes in a given year exceed payments to retirees -- by adding it twice to the Social Security trust fund. Though the charge is technically accurate, it lacks, according to many economists, the nefarious purpose or impact implied by its critics..Herger asks, ``If, as the administration claims, the budget is balanced and saves Social Security, why is federal debt still rising?'' The administration's answer also lies on page 389 of the budget, two lines below the figures Herger focuses on. The table shows that under the Clinton plan, federal debt held by the public -- let's call it external debt -- falls from about $3.7 trillion today to about $3.3 trillion in 2004. But, as the Republican critics note, total federal debt rises from about $5.6 trillion to about $6.8 trillion during the same period. Total debt equals debt held by the public (external debt) plus debt held by various government agencies or trust funds (let's call that internal debt). The answer to Herger's question is that the two debt figures move in opposite directions because the president proposes to use surplus revenue from the Social Security payroll tax to buy back government bonds held by the public. External debt would fall. The president would then, in effect, deposit the purchased bonds into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Internal debt would rise, because the bonds represent loans from the trust funds to the Treasury. Some day the funds will return those bonds for cash.."

UPI 2/18/99 ".A company trying to amass a nation-wide listing of drivers licenses photographs benefited from nearly $1.5M in federal funds and technical advice from the U.S. Secret Service. .."

Daily Oklahoman 2/18/99 Editorial "..It has been 7 1/2 months since Clinton held a formal press conference. His last solo meeting with reporters was April 30 last year, and the grilling Clinton received -- 16 of 36 questions concerned Monica Lewinsky -- no doubt is the reason there hasn't been one since. Questions remain unanswered. A recent CBS poll showed 84 percent of Americans believe Clinton committed perjury and obstruction of justice (55 percent think he did wrong but shouldn't be removed from office; 29 percent said he should be removed). Clinton deflected queries from the House of Representatives with a blizzard of half-truths and state-of-the- art hairsplitting. He refused to testify before the Senate. How long can he go on stiffing the American people?."

PRNewswire 2/18/99 ".With President Clinton in New Hampshire planning a celebration tonight of his post-impeachment "comeback," Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson today decried cuts in the Clinton-Gore budget that Nicholson called "a secret war on senior citizens with cancer." .Nicholson explained that the Clinton-Gore budget proposal contains a reduction in Medicare Part B reimbursement for cancer drugs provided to patients in doctors' offices and outpatient clinics. The reduction, Nicholson said, will likely force patients into more expensive and inconvenient inpatient settings, a move he called "shortsighted, cruel and counterproductive." Many doctors' offices and outpatient treatment centers rely on these Medicare drug reimbursements to provide cancer patients using Medicare with high quality specialists that the disease requires, he explained, citing a number of studies compiled by the General Accounting Office and the Health Care Financing Administration over the past decade.. Bill Clinton and Al Gore want to cut the one source of funding that allows them to remain a viable option for senior citizens with cancer." ."

KATV 2/18/99 ".THE SOUTHEASTERN LEGAL FOUNDATION SET A LETTER TODAY TO THE STATE BAR OF ARKANSAS, FOLLOWING UP ON A COMPLAINT MADE SIX MONTHS AGO.. THE S-L-F CLAIMS THAT PRESIDENT CLINTON BROKE HIS OATH TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION BY LYING REPEATEDLY IN HIS DEPOSITIONS. THE GROUP WANTS CLINTON DISBARRED. AND IN TODAY'S LETTER, THE S-L-F DEMANDS ACTION ON THEIR COMPLAINT.."

Arkansas Democrat Gazette 2/18/99 MARK WALLER Freeper gocowboys "."I'd be disappointed if it's not in the six-figure range, a quarter of a million dollars or more." "If the judge does find him in contempt, however," DiGenova said, "it will underscore the validity of the impeachment process." DiGenova, who led the investigation into the Bush administration's search of Clinton's passport records during the 1992 campaign, said Wright needs to do something to protect the honor of her court. "If she doesn't do something, she'll look like a fool," he said. "If she does nothing, she will be sanctioning some of the most egregious, brazen behavior ever seen in the United States legal system. She was used by the president of the United States."."

Washington Times 2/19/99 John McCaslin ".Since 1990, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been on the General Accounting Office's "High-Risk List" due to severe management problems. But that's not stopping President Clinton from overwhelming HUD even more. Among the 77 new programs Mr. Clinton has proposed in his budget, 18 are to be administered by HUD at a cost of $890 million. Concerned that HUD might not be up to the task, the House Government Reform Committee summoned HUD Inspector General Susan Gaffney to Capitol Hill.."HUD is struggling," she admitted. "I don't understand why we want to make that struggle worse until we get the situation under control."."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 2/20/99 ".Local lawyers contacted in recent days about the contempt possibility lean heavily toward the belief that it is criminal contempt, not civil contempt, to which Wright's order referred. . Similarily, since the purpose of a contempt finding in the now-settled Jones case could only be to punish, the consensus among legal observers is that criminal contempt is what Clinton faces.. she has the authority to imprison the president - period - because of the separation of powers issue," Hall said. Little Rock lawyer Sam Perroni said the fact that Wright raised the contempt issue on her own, without a request from one of the parties, "indicates to me she's got some real concerns about this and feels perhaps a judicial obligation to look into this. What becomes of it is anybody's guess." .Though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a civil case could proceed against the president while he is in office, that was partially based on the fact that the subject of a civil action doesn't have to be present during a trial, thus presidential responsibilities wouldn't be interrupted. But a criminal defendant cannot be tried in absentia. ."

NY TIMES 2/20/99 "...Seven Republican senators have written to Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, to protest a ruling that permits federal financing of research into human embryonic stem cells, the primordial cells from which all the body's tissues are derived....The two letters refer to three-year-old law that forbids federal money to be used for any research in which an embryo is destroyed. Last year, researchers using private financing managed to culture human embyronic stem cells from frozen embryos created in fertility clinics and from aborted fetuses...Shalala's department ruled last month that federal grants could be awarded for research on the cells already obtained, though not for obtaining additional cells. A profusion of cells can be grown from the existing cultures....Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is chairman of the subcommittee that sets biomedical research financing, said that plans to award federal money for stem cell research should continue while the House letter to Shalala was under consideration...."

Seattle Times by Freeper UnBubba 2/22/99 reports "..[Clinton] has held only one press conference since December 16, 1997. This was 433 days ago! On April 30, 1998, [Clinton] answered reporter questions for 55 minutes..."

Associated Press 2/24/99 Pete Yost "…For all the current excitement of a possible Senate bid, Hillary Rodham Clinton also faces unwelcome attention in federal courtrooms from a familiar problem: Whitewater. Mrs. Clinton is referred to 36 times in a fraud indictment against her former law partner, Webster Hubbell, signifying that her name will be brought up repeatedly in her old friend's trial, scheduled to begin June 14. She could even be called as a witness. The first lady's name also could come up in next month's criminal contempt trial of former Whitewater partner Susan McDougal, who is accused of obstructing Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation. The indictment against Mrs. McDougal details a series of grand jury questions about Mrs. Clinton that Mrs. McDougal refused to answer…."

Insight Magazine 3/15/99 Aimee Howd Freeper Stand Watch Listen "...But the American people went ballistic when President Clinton took this idea to its logical conclusion and proudly displayed a sample national health-care I.D. card during the nationally televised summary of his health-care plan in 1993. Few consumers could stomach the thought of allowing even the most altruistic federal bureaucrat to assign them a "unique health identifier" -- a computerized code that could be used not only to track the medical records of every citizen from birth, but potentially could link those records to financial data, tax information, employment history, educational databases and anything else of interest to a would-be Big Brother...."

Jewish World Review 2/25/99 David Corn Freeper Marcellus "...Adultery has been good for Hillary Clinton: Her husband's caddish behavior has won her sympathy, and embarrassment has given her a political future....Hillary...parlayed an investment of $1000 in risky cattle futures into a net gain of $100,000....Before we learned that the account was arranged by Clinton crony Jim Blair and managed by a firm with a questionable track record, Hillary...claimed she'd picked her own investments after perusing The Wall Street Journal-about as bold a lie as could be. From that moment on, she proved she was a scoundrel....Forget all the Whitewater shenanigans, or her sellout of universal health-care coverage, the commodites deal provides sufficient information for rendering harsh judgment...."

Freeper Always Right 2/25/99 reports Geraldo "…G. Spence says Juanita holding Charge over Clinton is Worse then Rape! …"

Hannity & Colmes Freeper LYNXCry 2/25/99 reports "…Dick Morris on Hannity said "We should count the Jane Does in Roman Numerals, Jane Doe VI , Jane Doe VII, Jane Doe VIII etc. He said, "When a man does this once, he does not stop"...Also Lucianne on Hockenberry right now "I am saying THIS MAN IS A RAPIST and I want him to come forward and sue me if its untrue"..Lucianne said she has been in contact with Jaunita, she is totally telling the truth. Lucy said "I will take the heat, let him slam me with liable, I will spend the rest of my years left making sure this man is known to be her rapist." Lucy is MAD!!…" Freeper Senator Pardek adds "…Trixie just said, "..they'll be more (rape victims coming forward), I guarantee it!"…"

CNN Larry King Live 2/25/99 Freeper AnnO reports "…Coverage of the Tucson Freeper Protest at the beginning and again at this break with quite a long pan of the wonderful gang with great signs and a chant 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 who are you going to rape!…" Freeper aligyrl-02 adds "…David Gergen is stuttering. He can't come up with any words to defend his WH rapist…" Freeper Rumple adds "…I'm amazed that Patricia Ireland hasn't called the woman trailer trash yet and actually seems to be bothered by a sense of right and wrong. Could the women's group actually be considering defending women against rape? …"

2/28/99 David Westphal / Star Tribune Washington Bureau Chief Freeper DonMorgan "...When President Clinton persuaded Congress to raise taxes on the rich as part of his 1993 deficit-reduction plan, he hoped the nation's wealthiest families would provide part of the revenue needed to end three decades of deficit spending. Little did he know that the rich would practically do it all themselves. Federal income taxes are soaring for the wealthiest Americans. Between 1993 and 1997, the percentage paid by individuals with adjusted gross annual income of $200,000 or more increased 83 percent, according to a Congressional Budget Office study. That means 1.5 percent of taxpayers paid 37 percent of all the taxes collected in 1997. And among those making $1 million and higher, federal income-tax payments more than doubled. By comparison, taxes went up 28 percent, on average, for those making less than $200,000 -- 98.5 percent of the taxpaying public...."

Reuters 3/7/99 "…``We accomplished, and he accomplished, more than I ever thought humanly possible. But he lost the battle with himself, tarnished his presidency and all of us associated with it,'' Stephanopoulos told Newsweek. ``The shame of the whole Clinton experience is that it was a story of a man who confronted his weaknesses and who became a better president every day. And then he threw it all away,'' he said…."

FoxNews Sunday 3/7/99 Freeper acanales "…During an interview with Tony Snow and Brit Hume on FoxNews Sunday, Senator Trent Lott indicated concern that the President's proposal to send troops to Kosovo was counting on a "surplus" money to fund the sure-to-be permanent deployment. But Senator Lott appears to be making the case that this money is really Social Security money that should be locked away to make Social Security solvent and any excess after this should be returned to the taxpayers in the form of an across-the- board rate cut or a cancelling of the marriage penalty…"

AP 3/07/99 "…The showdown over bananas between the United States and Europe has put the future of the World Trade Organization at risk, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said Sunday. ``If the Europeans don't start dealing with us more honestly in complying with WTO decisions, I don't know that WTO is going to exist or amount to anything,'' Lott, R-Miss., said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' The WTO has become the battleground for a dispute between the United States and the European Union over European restrictions on imports of Central and Latin American bananas. The WTO ruled against the Europeans in 1997. But the United States, saying the EU had not adequately redressed the issue, announced plans to impose $520 million in retaliatory tariffs on European goods…."

Associated Press 3/7/99 Bert Wilkinson "…Angered by the U.S. position in a trade dispute over banana exports to Europe, Caribbean Community nations have agreed to suspend a treaty of cooperation with the United States to fight drug trafficking, an official said Sunday. The treaty signed in Barbados by President Clinton in May 1997 calls for cooperation by Caribbean nations in anti-drug trafficking measures and extradition of suspects. But regional leaders have increasingly complained that Washington has ignored its end of the bargain by failing to address economic issues so important to the Caribbean…."

Sun-Times 3/8/99 Robert Novak "…Speaking in Buffalo, N.Y., the day after his State of the Union speech, an unusually candid President Clinton declared that the government knows better than individual citizens how the federal surplus should be spent. New polling data show that this time, the president is running counter to what Americans believe. A question asked for me by pollster John Zogby in his national survey last month discloses overwhelming opposition to Clinton's insistence that tax cuts should be targeted to good purposes rather than an individual's personal desires. Another question revealed disagreement that Washington is better equipped than individuals to invest Social Security funds. These libertarian yearnings appear strongest among lower-income workers, young people and minority groups. Such grass-roots sentiment contradicts defeatist rhetoric by Republican members of Congress who are intimidated by the president's apparent sway over public opinion. While they mutter darkly about Clinton's comments in Buffalo, the GOP is drifting toward targeted tax cuts--whose premise is that government knows best…."

Reuters 3/10/99 "…With memories of last August's U.S. embassy bombings in Africa still fresh, congressmen Wednesday faulted Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for not seeking more new funds for security upgrades. `We were anticipating ... a fairly large increment for embassy security'' in the 1999-2000 budget, especially since a review panel recommended $1.4 billion a year for 10 years, Rep. Harold Rogers told Albright at a committee hearing. ``I was shocked frankly ... you didn't request a penny'' for new construction, said the Kentucky Republican, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on state, commerce and justice. ``And I don't understand that ... There is no money for fiscal year 2000 for new construction and yet we have got problems all over the world in terms of security,'' he said…"

Stephanopolous, on 20/20 Freeper Taliesan 3/10/99 "…Diane Sawyer's interview of George Stephanopolous just aired on 20/20. At one point, she asked him (I'm paraphrasing) "Considering all that has happened, all that you now know, do you think Clinton should have bveen elected." His answer: "No." …"

Houston Chronicle 3/11/99 John Henry "…President Clinton expressed regret Wednesday that the United States supported government military forces responsible for killing an estimated 200,000 civilians during Guatemala's 36-year civil war…. The U.S. "support for military forces or intelligence units which engaged in violence or widespread repression described in the report was wrong," Clinton said. "The United States must not repeat that mistake." …Newly declassified U.S. intelligence documents surfaced in Washington on Wednesday that indicate the United States was intimately involved in the equipping of those security forces and that the CIA retained close ties to the Guatemalan army in the 1980s. The documents, obtained by the Washington Post, showed that U.S. officials were aware of the killings at the time…"

PRNewswire 3/11/99 The Sovereign Dineh Nation "…Rena Babbitt Lane, whose horse was taken from her corral on February 22, had her wrist broken when she tried to stop a previous impoundment. Others have been beaten or arrested when they tried to resist confiscations in the past. Targeted are Dineh (Navajo) families who were made trespassers on their own land by a 1974 congressional law passed at the urging of the coal-fired power industry. Over 12,000 people have been forcibly relocated since then, but about 3,000 still remain. They survive by herding sheep as their families have done for hundreds of years. Their livestock is central to their daily lives, in which culture and religion are interwoven with land and animals. The herds have a different significance to the government. They are the key to the people being able to sustain an independent lifestyle in remote areas without electricity, running water, telephones, or government assistance. Under terms of a 1996 law intended to complete the evictions ordered in 1974, the U.S. government aims to expel these people within the next 12 months. The government hopes that destroying their herds will turn them into helpless dependents, unable to resist expulsion. The Sovereign Dineh Nation urges members of the press to come to Black Mesa and witness what the BIA is doing to the poorest and most vulnerable people in this country. When the U.S. government embarks on a program of terror under the guise of law, the media have a responsibility to make these actions known to all…."

Houston Chronicle 3/11/99 Editorial "…In between these sets of concerns is a confusing and incomplete mass of details that requires some serious sorting and sifting. Why, for example, does the Commerce Department, which was given authority for some of the deliberate technology transfers, not know how many supercomputers have been sold to the PRC and who is controlling them for what purpose? …"

Capitol Hill Blue 3/13/99 Doug Thompson Teresa Hampton "…In confidential interviews with more than a dozen White House staffers over the past week, Capitol Hill Blue has learned that life on the President's staff is a study in stress, paranoia, regret, disillusionment and distrust of the boss…. "The problem is that nobody really knows this man," one White House aide says. "We thought we knew him. We thought he had his demons under control. We were wrong." Staffers paint a picture of despair at the White House, including: * Frequent shouting matches between Bill and Hillary Clinton…* Internal investigations every time a news story breaks about problems within the administration… * Gallows humor…. * A constant job search. White House staffers are departing the Ship of State at a historical rate. The Executive Vice President of one trade association in Washington said he advertised for a new chief lobbyists and got 39 resumes from members of the White House staff. "People are willing to work for less money just to get out of here," one aide says. * Fear of the unknown. Most Clinton aides now feel there are more scandals waiting to break around the President. "I've worked here four years and realize the President is still an unknown quantity," says one aide…. * The China spying scandal. Revelations that sensitive nuclear secrets and missile technology have fallen into Communist Chinese hands clearly has senior White House aides worried. Three years ago, Clinton ignored warnings from career intelligence officials and approved the sale of technology to China by Loral, a company run by millionaire Democratic campaign contributor Bernard Schwartz. "That's just the tip of the iceberg," says one White House aide. "This may be the one that really ends up biting us in the ass." * Fading support from Democrats… "The amazing thing is that some Democrats won't take the President's phone calls," says one aide. "Imaging that. Refusing a phone call from the President of the United States."… "I went to work for Bill Clinton because I believed in him," one aide says. "He let me down. He let his party down. He let his country down. I'm sorry I was ever a part of it. You should be able to be proud of working for the President of the United States. I'm ashamed." …"

Cincinnati Post 3/13/99 Editorial Freeper starlu "…Better think twice before you deposit that big Christmas bonus or the nest egg you inherit from Aunt Gertrude. If the FDIC has its way, Big Brother will soon be watching your bank accounts...The Libertarian Party aptly describes Know Your Customer as 'a law that only the KGB could love.' It has the potential to turn your friendly bank teller in a secret government informer and make every bank customer a suspected criminal - guilty until proven innocent....Given the public opposition, the FDIC has acknowledged that Know Your Customer can't go through in its current form. The agency is expected to announce later this month whether it will try to revise the proposal - or withdraw it altogether…"

Drudge 3/14/99 "…AID is funding programs that endorse or legitimize what amounts to witchcraft The paper is reporting that Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a Feb. 8 letter to Secretary of State Albright that the committee had spent a lot of time recently reviewing U.S. aid programs to Haiti and it has found that US taxpayers are "funding programs that endorse or legitimize what amounts to witchcraft." Helms cited as the basis for his concern a recent exchange between U.S. AID and the Foreign Relations Committee, in which AID was asked if it provided "any assistance to any group, like IPPF's affiliate PROFAMIL, which, according to IPPF's 1995 Annual Report, undertook 'a campaign to reach voodoo followers with sexual and reproductive health information... by performing short song-prayers about STDs sexually transmitted diseases and the benefits of family planning during voodoo ceremonies.'" AID acknowledged providing $295,000 from April 1998 to March 1999 to PROFAMIL. The agency said many AID "partners and implementing organizations use this important social network voodoo ceremonies as the medium for disseminating health sector messages and information."…"

Washington Times 3/12/99 Tom Carter Freeper Bayou City "…Former U.S. officials who helped prosecute the war on communism in Central America during the 1980s were stunned Thursday by President Clinton's apology for U.S. involvement in Guatemala's 36-year civil war. "It is outrageous, outrageous," said Oliver North, the retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who helped finance and equip the anti-Sandinista Contras in Nicaragua during the 1980s.Elliott Abrams, who was assistant secretary of state for Latin America during the Reagan administration, said Thursday that Mr. Clinton's mea culpa was based on "ignorance" and a continuing "left-wing mythology" unsupported by the facts…."

Judicial Watch 3/16/99 "…Yesterday, the members of the Commission of the European Union, who were found to have engaged in the hiring of friends and relatives, and other misconduct, were forced to resign. The members of the European Commission, which included its President, Jacques Santer of Belgium, did what President Clinton refused to do. Ironically, the firing of The White House Travel Office, in order to hire the friends of the Clintons, Harry and Susan Bloodworth Thomason, evoked no such response by the majority of the American populace. Nor have the myriad of other Clinton scandals, including Chinagate, IRS-Gate, Filegate, Monica-gate. The European Commission is the body of the European Union -- the organization that governs Europe -- which implements the law, rules and regulations of the European Union…"

The American Cause 3/19/99 Pat Buchanan Freeper yankee66 "…In 1980, Ronald Reagan went to Youngstown, Ohio, stood on a flatbed truck, and pledged to the struggling steelworkers, "I won't forget. The United States is going to be restored industrially as it should be." President Reagan kept his word. On July 19, 1992, Bill Clinton told steelworkers in Weirton, "I want to make sure we enforce strictly the antidumping laws and the laws against unfair subsidized steel being dumped into our country." President Clinton did not keep his word; and 10,000 U.S. steelworkers have paid the price of his dishonoring of his pledge…."

Freeper ohmlaw98 observes 3/17/99 "…When Clinton was being pressured by Loral to approve the satellite waiver, Berger wrote a memo that focused on the political damage that could result from the decision…."

The Associated Press http://wire.ap.org/ 3/17/99 Freeper A Whitewater Researcher "…EXCERPTS: "...Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., and Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., are the main sponsors of bills to ``sunset'' the 5.5 million-word tax code by Dec. 31, 2003...The National Federation of Independent Business, which represents 600,000 small businesses, is launching a media campaign in the next month to highlight inequities in the current tax code....Several GOP leaders have introduced legislation that could replace the tax code, including House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who is sponsoring a bill that would tax all income at a flat 17 percent rate. A flat tax also is championed by Republican presidential hopeful Steve Forbes....Business federation president Jack Faris said his group favors a national referendum in which voters would be asked to decide among the current code, a new kind of income tax or a national sales tax. Congress would then vote on the choice without amendments....``Surely we can produce a better evil than the one we have now,'' Faris said." …"

AP 3/17/99 Laurie Kellman "…Democrats who once supported the independent counsel law are moving to cut off funding to Kenneth Starr and other outside counsels and shift their probes to the Justice Department at the end of the year. "It is time to bring this to a close, not just in terms of the end of the statute, but the end of their jurisdiction,'' Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday. The Democratic measure would cut off federal funds for Starr's investigation and four other independent counsels as of next Dec. 31. With no Republican sponsors, it has little chance of passing.. Allowing the law to expire as scheduled on June 30 would allow Starr and other special prosecutors to continue their investigations to their conclusions…."

Village Voice richard goldstein 3/18/99 "… "It starts with lesser-evilism, which is the advertised willingness to be fooled. Then there's political correctness, the bogus surrogate for politics. Clinton is a genius at this. If you take the Chinese soft-money scandal, his reaction was to say it's Asian bashing. Then there's the strong woman by his side, who fucked up health care and seems to be the bodyguard of a serial rapist." (Hitchens says he knows of three other women who are ready to make the same allegation as Broaddrick.) Are Clinton's crimes greater than his predecessors'? "I don't think we know yet. Suppose there's a crisis in North Korea, which would also be a crisis with China. Suppose, on that day, Kathleen Willey comes to trial and Clinton has to weigh whether a certain action would be precipitous. I don't want to be around for that. When I point this out, people say, 'Didn't Reagan invade Grenada?' Yes, but he didn't do it to distract attention from the fact that he couldn't get it up with Nancy." …"

Drudge Report 3/18/99 "…Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin told a congressional panel that he suspected that much of the $4.8 billion in loans sent to Russia last summer by the International Monetary Fund "may have been siphoned off improperly." Rubin's comments marked the first public confirmation by the Clinton administration that much of the bailout money the U.S. Treasury Department organized last year went to wealthy Russian oligarchs who move billions of dollars to Switzerland and other safe havens…."

Time3/18/99 Freeper pea eye "…A mutiny by House Democrats and Republicans over steel imports signals trouble for both parties. A House bill limiting steel imports passed by 289 votes to 141 -- despite concerted opposition by both the White House and the Republican congressional leadership. 91 Republicans followed Pat Buchanan's call to mutiny, while 197 Democrats marched with Dick Gephardt (leaving only 13 voting with the White House). Wednesday's victory will boost Buchanan's guerrilla campaign in the Republican primaries. And for Al Gore it's a signal that his support from Gephardt and the labor unions is far from unconditional…."

Savannah Morning News 3/21/99 "…THE INCESTUOUS nature of Washington's Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner was never more sickeningly obvious than last Thursday night, when hundreds of members of the Beltway media laughed and applauded President Clinton for joking about breaches of national security…What is funny about China having the capability of launching nuclear missiles at the U.S. mainland? By now no one should be surprised at Mr. Clinton's shamelessness. Perhaps we should feel fortunate that he didn't make any rape jokes. But what's really appalling is the response of the assembled media and celebrities. A group that routinely denounces politically incorrect remarks by radio shock jocks apparently finds nothing inappropriate about a president making light of what one intelligence officer has called the most serious breach of national security since the Rosenbergs. Alas, the audience saved its disapproval for an ABC News producer who, after winning an award for investigative work on Whitewater, publicly thanked the late Jim McDougal, the Clintons' former business partner in Arkansas who cooperated with Kenneth Starr's investigation. That elicited plenty of nervous tut-tutting from the fourth estate's glitterati. Bad form, you know, embarrassing the president like that…."

Samizdat News Richclem 3/28/99 "…It's more than a little frightening how steadily and quietly Americans are losing their freedom under a corrupt but glib president. We have a Constitutional Right to free assembly and a right to free speech. Clinton is in clear violation on both. I mean, is there any form of speech more sacred than protesting against an unpopular president? White House uses "Security Threat" Ploy to Keep Clinton Protesters at Bay . . . Citing "a threat to the President's safety," White House officials are using Secret Service agents to keep protesters out of sight of both Bill Clinton and news media. The Secret Service has been instructed to remove any and all protesters from any immediate proximity to the President," a White House aide confirmed Wednesday. "The 'official' reason cited is the protesters pose a threat to the President. The eal reason is to keep them away from the television cameras." Which is a vioilation of their Constitutional Rights. My gosh, if Americans can't assemble to express their discontent with a corrupt rapist/felon/traitor, what can they do?…"

Miami Herald 3/27/99 Yves Colon "…In a move that could alter the fate of a young man who says he was wrongly deported to Haiti, U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek is urging immigration authorities in Miami to reopen their investigation of his case. ….Meek said the report raises ``serious questions about the completeness and thoroughness of the investigation'' by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. ``If he's a U.S. citizen, he should not be deported to another country, and we want to make sure the INS is fair and just in the decisions that they reach,'' said Ken.Nealy, Meek's legislative director in Washington…."

Freeper LarryLied 3/31/99 observes "…Loral filed a 10k with the SEC yesterday and in legal liabilities is this interesting statement: …Several Congressional committees have held hearings on U.S. satellite export policy toward China, alleged influence of campaign contributions (including contributions made by Loral's Chairman and CEO) on the Clinton Administration's export policy toward China, and related matters. One of the House committees investigating these matters, chaired by Representative Cox, recently issued a classified report that is said to be critical of past government and industry technology transfer practices and policies. This report is also said to contain 38 proposals for legislative and executive action to address perceived concerns. It is possible that adoption of some or all of such proposals could have an adverse effect upon the ability of U.S.-based satellite manufacturers such as SS/L, and possibly other U.S. exporters, to market their products abroad in competition with foreign-based manufacturers, and might adversely affect their ability to perform existing contracts. In addition, the portions of the report that have not yet been declassified could contain negative comments about SS/L's compliance with the export control laws…."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Freeper A Whitewater Researcher "...EXCERPTS: "The U.S. government can't balance its books and can't properly explain how it spent $1.8 trillion last year or account for $1.6 trillion in such assets as parks, buildings, missile launchers, tanks and paper clips....That's 1,800,000,000,000 in dollars and $1,600,000,000,000 worth of things -- a grand total of $3,400,000,000,000....The upshot is that, "once again, billions of taxpayer dollars were lost to waste, fraud and mismanagement," says Rep. Steve Horn, California Republican....Mr. Horn, chairman of the House government reform and oversight subcommittee on government management, information and technology, gave that assessment yesterday as his subcommittee reviewed the government's attempt to produce a Consolidated Financial Statement....It was the second time in U.S. history that the government has tried to comply with a 1994 law requiring it to account in a businesslike way for the revenues, expenditures and assets of the 24 Cabinet-level departments and agencies -- a total of 70 agencies with some 2,000 components....And for the second time, the statement failed to meet accounting standards acceptable to the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm and the government's official auditor....The accounting failure means the government doesn't employ common business safeguards to know how much money actually has been wasted or stolen. Some lawmakers believe the figure could be in the billions...." ..."

Wall Street Journal 4//2/99 Rodger Schultz "...We would like to know where this establishment--the politicians, pundits and Beltway press--has been the past six years, when some of us were pressing the argument that Bill Clinton's handling of Whitewater, Gennifer Flowers, the draft, Filegate and all the rest were relevant to the character and conduct of his Presidency. We were told, long before Monica and even before the Lincoln Bedroom rentals, that it didn't matter...."

NewsMax 4/7/99 "…The Clinton Administration, for all its foibles, may have actually accomplished something in the field of "re-inventing government", according to a new book by Paul C. Light of the Brookings Institute entitled The True Size of Government. The Clinton/Gore team promised to downsize government in the inimitable style of Corporate America, and they seem to have done a grand job. While cutting a record 350,000 civil service jobs, they further "streamlined" government by adding 16 new administrative layers; as many as were created by the previous seven administrations combined…."

RNC.org 4/99 "...The Clinton/Gore reelection campaign and Democrat National Committee (DNC) officials funneled millions of dollars in campaign donations to state Democrat parties in 1996. They did this two ways: by asking donors to give directly to the state parties so that the money would not have to go through the DNC, and by the DNC sending at least $32 million to state parties. The DNC concealed big contributions from tobacco, gambling and other special interests to avoid criticism for accepting embarrassing contributions and hid donor names who did not want the fact or magnitude of their contributions known. (Sources: The Washington Post, 4/13/97; The [New Jersey] Trentonian, 5/12/97; The New York Times, 10/2/97; The New York Daily News, 9/29/97) Additionally, it was reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether the transfer of money from the DNC to the states was an illegal attempt to evade the limits of campaign spending set in presidential races. Much of the money was used to pay for issue ads that many consider actually candidate ads. It is illegal for the DNC to buy candidate ads. (Sources: The Washington Post, 4/13/97; The [New Jersey] Trentonian, 5/12/97; The New York Times, 10/2/97; The New York Daily News, 9/29/97) The DNC has continued to do this in 1997 and 1998 by exchanging "soft money" for "hard money." Typically they will skirt campaign finance law by paying state parties to gain access to "hard money" which is more valuable than "soft money." (Sources: The Washington Post, 4/24/98; Star Tribune [Minneapolis, MN], 4/27/98) Some critics of the Democrat money-funneling activity, such as the Center for Responsive Politics, say the dollar diversion was a legal - but sleazy and underhanded - attempt to hide big favor-seeking donors. (Source: The [New Jersey] Trentonian, 5/12/97) ..."

The New Republic 2/3/97 Hanna Rosin "…As he learned that night, his dad had taken the book to work that morning. "It has a great diagram of nuclear fission," Dad explains feebly, "where the atoms look like kernels of popcorn, lumpy, like they should be, instead of the usual boring pool balls." John has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics and has worked at the Department of Energy for over ten years. He really cares that pictures of atoms look like popcorn? Actually, he didn't need the diagram for himself, exactly. He needed it for a "Physics 101" packet he was helping to prepare for his boss, the new Secretary of Energy, Federico Fabian Pena--last term's Secretary of Transportation, best known for rushing to the Everglades to vouch for the safety record of ValuJet….. John is merely one humble cog. Over the past two weeks, he and his colleagues at the Department of Energy have transformed themselves into a kind of Cabinet-level Princeton Review, with the single goal of cramming enough science and policy into Pena's brain to let him pass his confirmation hearings at the end of the month…… "

Investors Business Daily 4/12/99 "...Vice President Al Gore has raised nearly $9 million to finance his campaign for the presidency. But that's only a fraction of the $12.8 billion of taxpayer money Gore's used already to campaign. Gore has handed out almost $13 billion in new programs and spending since the 1996 election, meant to elicit the gratitude - and the support - of the American people. For example, on June 13 last year, Gore stopped in San Diego to announce $3.6 million for a new police station. He then traveled to the San Fernando Valley to announce $8.4 million for school earthquake preparedness. Next he journeyed to Texas on June 25 and 26 to attend the state Democratic convention. But he also took time to stop in Houston to announce $14 million in juvenile-justice grants. El Paso rang up $45 million for dislocated apparel workers. In San Antonio he pitched $80 million for job training. As a final encore, he announced $1.8 billion for school construction bond guarantees throughout the state. He didn't rest there. The vice president was off to Florida on June 29 to announce $35 million for job training and welfare-to-work grants, and Louisiana on July 3 to present $44 million for a comprehensive school reform program. Just what do California, Texas, Florida and Louisiana have in common? They're important primary states: California, Texas and Florida because they are so big, and Louisiana because it has an early caucus...."

Electronic Telegraph 4/24/99 David Sapsted "...THERE was mounting evidence yesterday that police and school authorities ignored warnings that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been planning a massacre for more than a year. The father of a Columbine High School student claimed that in April last year he twice sent print-outs from Harris's website to a Jefferson county deputy sheriff in which the boy threatened to bomb and kill. "I will rig up explosives all over a town and detonate each one of them at will, after I mow down a whole area full of you," said one of the entries. "I am the law, and if you don't like it, you die. If I don't like you, you die." ....Meanwhile, the family of Isaiah Shoels, the only black student fatally shot, continued to insist that he had been threatened by the Trenchcoat Mafia but that their complaint to the school had been ignored. And the father of Brooks Brown - whose name appeared last year at the top of Harris's website list of people he wanted to kill but survived the massacre - said his complaints to the sheriff's department had twice been ignored. Mr Brown said he had given print-outs to a deputy to support his claim that Harris had threatened to kill his son and had smashed the windscreen of his son's car. "No action was taken so we filed a second complaint," said Mr Brown. "They never called us." ..."

World Net Daily 4/30/99 Joel A. Ruth "....It was five days before Christmas, 1969. A time of year when Americans are busy converging on family, celebrating Chanukah, offering prayers of thanksgiving, out caroling, trimming trees, or, as Christians, preparing to rejoice in the birth of their Savior. But while most Americans were wrapping gifts and worshipping before God, the future President of the United States was standing in silent tribute and awe before the mummy of Vladimir Lenin. How did this happen? On December 19, 1969, Bill Clinton had boarded an Aeroflot flight from London for the USSR to Moscow, the center of world atheism and the capital of the Soviet-Marxist state. William Jefferson Clinton's pilgrimage to the Soviet Union was the climax of a busy fall semester as a "Rhodes Scholar" at Oxford. It should perhaps be mentioned to those impressed by such presumed status that Rhodes Scholarships are granted to individuals passing ideological muster whose sentiments during the interview process are reflective of acceptable left-wing views to the selection committees, and not because of good grades..... While Bill Clinton has never explained who paid for his trip to Moscow, he was accompanied by a friend and fellow Oxford student, Czech Jan Kopold. They were to attend a meeting of the War Moratorium Committee to be held January 2, 1970. Upon arrival, Clinton did not check into a youth hostel, but rather stayed at the Hotel National, the most exclusive and expensive one in Moscow of that time -- a ritzy place usually reserved for foreign ambassadors and high-level Communist Party apparatchiks. In today's terms, that trip would probably cost several thousand dollars. Clinton only had his tiny $275 Rhodes stipend to live on and never held a job. Thus, it is easy to believe that this tab and the arrangements could only have handled by the KGB, which during that epoch limited no expenses in its attempts to recruit promising American students in Europe. Clinton has also never accounted for the 11 days spent in Moscow before the actual meeting of the War Moratorium and has never revealed who paid his expenses or what he did or who he met with during that time..... Even more telling was Clinton's January 4 return trip from Moscow on another Aeroflot jet. The flight terminated in Prague, then the capital of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Socialist Republic (CSSR). There, Clinton was a guest of Jan Kopold's father, Bedrich Kopold and Jan's maternal grandmother Maria Svermova, who was the original founder of the Czech Communist Party in the 1930s. During his visit, she took a liking to young Bill; they walked and talked. Svermova's deceased husband was the original editor of Rude Pravo, the Czech Communist Party paper before the War. ..... The entire Kopold clan was a significant part of the ruling Communist party elite and was responsible for those murders and deportations either by the act or as formulators of policy. In fact, 11 out of 12 Politburo leaders of the Czech Communist Party were apostate Jews who had taken refuge in Moscow just prior to the German occupation of the Czech rump state in 1939. It was easy for the Communists to seize control in 1948 without popular resistance because the Germans had confiscated all private weapons during the War. ....Years later, when Clinton was President, he again flew to Moscow, this time on Air Force One, to meet Boris Yeltsin. Then, on his return flight he had the plane stop in Prague, where, besides playing the saxophone -- important stuff -- he went to visit the parents of his Oxford friend Jan Kopold. By then, Maria Svermova had died of old age. As for Jan Kopold, he had been killed earlier in an "accidental fall" in Turkey in 1970, becoming perhaps the first of a long string of former Clinton friends and associates to meet an untimely end. ....After Clinton's short-lived tenure at Oxford -- he never finished his second semester there -- he remained a member of The Mobilization Committee, a Communist-front organization dedicated to undermining the strength of the United States and opposing American initiatives against the communist world movement, for another three years..... Clinton's youthful affiliations explain many of his recent actions. Why, for example, the International Socialists were able to hold their annual conclave in February 1995, as guests of Papa-Marx Aristide at Haiti's National Palace in Port-au-Prince after Clinton restored the volatile voodoo priest to power. This explains why I stood in dismay observing a huge banner in front of the Palace proclaiming that event, while non-comprehending U.S. soldiers stood guard outside protecting it and the delegates inside, those very persons sworn to destroy everything most Americans revere. ...."

Electronic Telegraph - UK 4/27/99 Christopher Lockwood and Tim King Freeper chainsaw "... THE European Union yesterday banned oil sales to Yugoslavia, but in a development that will be regarded as scandalous in Europe, America confirmed that it had no plans to follow suit. This means that while it is now illegal for any EU country to export oil to Slobodan Milosevic, it remains perfectly legal for American companies to continue to fuel the Serb war machine..."

Michael River 5/1/99 observes "...Most Americans, when hearing arcana about gyroscopes and neutron bombs, may be forgiven a certain emotional distance from the problem of China's acquisition of Amefica's high tech secrets. But perhaps their anger would be more forthcoming if Americans stopped to take a minute and think about the fact that these technology transfers represent a theft from their own pocket. The American taxpayer footed the bill for the development of the atomic bomb. We paid for all those labs, and all those scientists. We The People paid the costs to design the W-88 warhead. The technology that Hughes and Loral utilize was developed by the military and by NASA at taxpayer expense. The codes and encryption systems developed by the NSA and CIA are paid for by the taxpayer. Americans were told for decades that they had to endure a higher tax burden to pay for all of these developments, because it was essential for America to maintain a technological lead over other nations...."

New York Post 5/1/99 "...The Republicans in the House and Senate did the only thing they could do last week, announcing the death of any possibility of serious Social Security reform this year. But though the GOP issued the death certificate, don't be fooled: The fingerprints on the murder weapon belong to President Clinton. Not that you'd ever know that by listening to Clinton or Vice President Al Gore. Both had the effrontery to denounce the GOP for having "abandoned the effort" at reform and being "unable or unwilling to face up to the challenge." Of course, the reason the Republicans chose to shut down their effort was that the White House consistently refused to put forward a realistic plan of its own. The GOP had every reason to believe that Clinton's vague declarations of interest in reform were just a gull designed to lure the Republican Party out in the open - where Democrats could ambush them with heavy political artillery..."

AP 5/2/99 "...Alleged war criminals have found a safe haven in the United States in recent years, under the noses of immigration officials and sometimes with help from the U.S. government, The Boston Globe reported Sunday. The newspaper said it found evidence that people from countries including Haiti and El Salvador, and people involved in the breakup of Yugoslavia, have settled in this country and begun new lives, despite evidence of their involvement in serious human rights abuses. The list includes three alleged participants in ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia; several former associates of Somali strongman Mohammed Siad Barre; 16 Haitian military officers; and a Salvadoran general accused of covering up the massacre of four American churchwomen in 1980, according to the Globe...."

CNN Interactive 4/28/99 AP "...Surgeon General David Satcher called for a comprehensive program to combat youth violence, calling it a public health problem because it is preventable and predictable. Although he declined to address the Littleton, Colorado, shooting last week, Satcher said violence is placing an annual burden of at least $4 billion on the nation's health care system...."

Washington Times 5/6/99 George Archibald "...President Clinton's special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke was paid $24,000 by Siemens AG for a speech the State Department said yesterday he never gave. "Ambassador Holbrooke canceled his trip to New York and never gave the so-called Siemens speech that was mentioned in the article," State Department deputy spokesman James Foley said as he categorically denied a report yesterday by The Washington Times. "He canceled the speech. He never left Belgrade to go give a speech in New York. He canceled the speech," he said. But in financial disclosure forms obtained this week by The Times and signed by Mr. Holbrooke under penalty of criminal prosecution if false, the special envoy to Kosovo reported receiving $24,000 in "speaking fees" from the international electronics firm on Oct. 13, 1998. While Mr. Foley said Mr. Holbrooke never left Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in October, records from the State Department's Oct. 13 press briefing quote spokesman James P. Rubin as saying: "Ambassador Holbrooke is en route to New York by air." At a separate press briefing in Pristina, Yugoslavia, before Mr. Holbrooke left in the midst of a four-day NATO air-strike deadline, a department transcript quotes him telling reporters, "We have very, very limited time. . . . I have to go home." Mr. Holbrooke was in New York City Oct. 14, where he appeared on NBC-TV's "Today" show at 7:07 a.m. the day after he reported receiving the $24,000 speech honorarium from Siemens AG. An NBC spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that Mr. Holbrooke was physically present at the show's New York City studio....Said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, "I am more concerned he would leave very important negotiations, if that is the case. He should put the interests of the country first, instead of his own pocketbook." Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has decided that Mr. Holbrooke's nomination to the U.N. post "is not going to move" until the Justice Department provides all documents regarding various ethics probes already completed, said committee spokesman Marc Thiessen...."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 5/3/99 Frank J. Murray Freeper Normally a Lurker "...Gunpoint confrontations in which armed private citizens turn the tables on violent criminals occur with explosive swiftness hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times each day in the United States. This guerrilla shooting war is almost invisible to the public, experts say, because combatants on both sides have qualms about publicity. Its biggest victories prevent serious crimes and don't seem newsworthy one at a time...."

Cato Institute 4/15/99 Dean Stansel "...One of the most confounding economic trends in the United States during the past 20 years has been the relative stagnation of workers' real wages. One of the primary reasons for flat wages is that taxes and other government mandates on employers have been expanding steadily, crowding out worker take-home pay. Today an average manufacturing worker costs his employer $14.89 an hour (not including fringe benefits). But the employee's take-home pay is only $10.79 an hour. The government takes $4.10 per hour in taxes--federal and state income taxes, payroll taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, and workers' compensation--thus reducing the worker's take-home pay by 28 percent. Or to put it another way, abolishing income and employment taxes would raise the manufacturing worker's take-home pay by about $4.00 an hour. For a worker earning $60,000 a year and living in a state with average taxes, the government's share rises to 36 percent. That counts only the employment-related taxes that come directly out of the worker's paycheck or are paid by the employer on the worker's behalf. Workers still must pay a host of other taxes with their remaining take-home pay. The overall federal, state, and local tax burden is now at an all-time high...."

Insight Magazine 5/3/99 Jamie Dettmer Freeper starlu "...In short, chickens are coming home to roost. But impeachment isn't the only chicken. "The White House should get off its political horse about impeachment," says Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Curt Weldon. "Impeachment is one reason why Congress doesn't have confidence in the administration, but there are others -- from the debacle in Mogadishu to the 33 troop deployments we have had from Clinton, and on to what now is coming out in bits and pieces about Chinese espionage. Right across the board we are learning that this administration is not to be trusted on national-security issues. And if we had any further doubts, all we have to do is look at the state of our military's unreadiness."..."

Wall St. Journal 5/18/99 Editorial "..."Ludicrous," yelped someone from the Sierra Club when a federal appeals court on Friday struck down the Clinton Administration's new clean air standards. Actually a lot of us--perhaps umpteen million Americans who've tried to comply with any old rule someone in Washington dreamed up--have been wondering when the courts would rediscover the "non-delegation doctrine" cited in Friday's decision.Fashioned by the Supreme Court in 1928, here's one of the things it said in way back when: A key function of the non-delegation doctrine is to "ensure to the extent consistent with orderly governmental administration that important choices of social policy are made by Congress, the branch of our Government most responsive to the popular will." Sounds sensible to us.... The three-judge panel unanimously questioned the Environmental Protection Agency's selective use of science in formulating its rule, and in a 2 to 1 decision ruled that Congress had violated the Constitution's separation of powers by delegating too much of its authority to the EPA. If upheld by the Supreme Court, the decision could have far-reaching effects.....The core opinion, written by Judges Stephen Williams and Douglas Ginsburg, found that the EPA had interpreted the Clean Air Act so as to give it carte blanche authority to issue ozone standards and to regulate microscopic soot particles. Examining these rules, the court identified a certain "indeterminacy." It concluded that the agency "offers no intelligible principle by which to identify a stopping point." We suspect that more than a few independent businessmen visited over the years by the ghostbusters from EPA, OSHA and the rest have themselves marveled at the variability of any such "stopping point." An EPA spokesman says the agency will appeal because the ruling is one of the "most disturbing" it has ever faced. It's about time....."

Charleston Post and Courier 5/19/99 PAUL GREENBERG Freeper newsman "... How would America be changed if a kid born today in East Harlem, or in the barrios of South Texas, or in a shack in the Ozarks, had the same pick of schools as little J. Wexwroth Pennington III of Park Avenue and Nob Hill? Answer: America would be changed infinitely for the better - and our schools would be, too. Because they would compete. Because it would be harder for poor schools to exploit poor kids. School vouchers could prove the most effective instrument of democracy since the secret ballot...."

New York Post 5/3/99 David Gelernter "...THIS country would never have elected Bill Clinton if it had been paying attention. Even if you like the president, two things are clear. First: In moral and spiritual terms, he is the quintessential lightweight. That anyone will ever regard him as a great man is a laughable idea; not even his closest supporters or his very favorite girlfriends could possibly make such a claim with a straight face. He has no deep thoughts, big ideas or majestic plans. Like most unimportant people and many household pets, he lives only to please, and to enjoy approbation. Second, public interest in the president and the presidency has hit a low for modern times, and possibly an all-time low. Ever since he assumed office, the public's consistent response to Bill Clinton has been ''don't bother us.''...Of course, in polite society, cultural decline is a forbidden topic. You will be attacked immediately, if you bring it up, for ''nostalgia'' and for ''living in the past.'' But the attackers are exactly wrong. People who dwell on the accomplishments of our past are the only ones, so far as I can tell, who have any concrete faith in the future. Our cultural mainstream is smugly left-wing, but nowadays ''left-wing'' means''status quo''; the only progressives I know are conservatives. T HIS is my last column for The Post....My advice, for what it's worth: Say the prohibited words loud and clear and often, think the prohibited thoughts, and never believe even for a moment that this society is the best we can do. ..."

ABCNEWS.com 5/13/99 Ann Compton "....White House spokesman Joe Lockhart tried to bury the news in his daily press briefing Wednesday, casually mentioning that a public relations veteran in Washington, Leslie Dach, had offered to "come in for 30 days or so" and "help think through some of these communications aspects of Kosovo." ....."

AP 5/14/99 Freeper HAL9000 "...Congressional bargainers killed $40 million the Senate had approved for families of victims of last year's accident in which a Marine jet sent a gondola plunging onto an Italian mountainside...."

Worldnetdaily 5/20/99 Joseph Farah "...Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire, a possible GOP presidential candidate, is warning that 1999 is a pivotal year for the Republican Party if it seeks to avoid turning off activists and pushing them into a new third party. "I believe you may well have seen the beginnings of a third-party movement in this country, which will spell the end of the Republican Party,'' Smith told the Washington Times. "If it happens, I'm not leaving my party -- my party is leaving me,'' he said. My question to Sen. Smith is: Third party? What are the other two? ..."

Worldnetdaily 5/20/99 Joe Dougherty "....In the conservative world, there is a saying that goes, "The only thing worse than a liberal Democrat is a Republican who thinks like a liberal Democrat." That little colloquialism rang true again yesterday, compliments of GOP House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert, proving once again that there is no constitutional party in control of Congress. Hastert, for whatever reason, further weakened constitutional protections on firearms Wednesday by proclaiming that he not only now supports background checks at gun shows, but he also wants to raise the legal age of handgun ownership to 21 in all states...."

AP 5/20/99 AP "...With Vice President Al Gore casting a tie vote, the Senate today approved a Democratic proposal to slap fresh restrictions on gun transactions at gun shows and pawn shops. The vote came a month after a killing spree at a Colorado high school and only hours after a second shooting at a high school in Georgia. The proposal, which would require mandatory background checks for all transactions at gun shows, was tied, 50-50. Gore, who had come to the Capitol in case his vote was needed to break a tie, did so in favor of the Democratic provision...."

Press Conference, Philadelphia 5/25/99 Don Adams "...It has been almost 8 months (Oct. 2, '98) since my sister, Teri, and I were brutally beaten to the ground by a mob of pro-Clinton Teamsters at the direction of their leader, John Morris, during a Presidential fundraising visit to Philadelphia's City Hall. Even though other Clinton protestors were viciously attacked, not a single Teamster has yet to be successfully prosecuted and District Attorney Lynne Abraham has turned the tables on one of the victims - her office is forcing me to stand trial July 8. Since DA Abraham has refused to aggressively prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes as Mayor Ed Rendell promised, we are announcing the founding of the Philadelphia Campaign for Justice and the First Amendment. The campaign will begin with a petition drive directed at the DA and the announcement that my sister and I, with the assistance of Free Republic Attorney, Brian Buckley, of California (nephew of editor and author William F. Buckley, Jr.), are pressing criminal complaints against 3 additional Teamsters. Mr. Joe Roach, another victimized Clinton protestor, is also filing a complaint against a Local 115 member..."

Korea Herald 5/27/99 "....The Clinton administration certainly has a lot of explaining to do. Many Americans will inevitably wonder about a possible sinister connection between the administration's inexplicable slowness to respond to reports of Chinese espionage and campaign funds that flowed from China to Democratic political campaigns in 1996. No wonder the Republicans are finally starting to feel chipper about the prospects of nailing the ever-elusive Clinton. The GOP should be almost worshipful over the careful handling of this sensitive issue by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), in many respects the coolest Republican cucumber on Capitol Hill. He was able to get his committee's five Republicans and four Democrats to work in a bipartisan style. This is no minor

achievement given the report has inherently explosive content and hairpin timing - less than a year before America's presidential campaign. By handling this as a national-security issue, Cox has managed to avoid it being perceived as a purely partisan issue. This rising politician may be far more threatening to China than America's vastly superior nuclear arsenal; he is certainly more threatening to the Democrats than any Chinese missile....Unless the Cox report leads to a better, more realistic, less delusional Sino-U.S. relationship, many Asians will probably wish it had never come to be. So, too, the Clinton administration, which has put so much emphasis on better Sino-U.S. relations. Although the technological leakage originates in the Reagan era, the scandal has surfaced on Clinton's watch. It is his administration which will take the fall for this scandal. If Sino-U.S. relations continue to deteriorate, it will be Clinton who will have "lost" China...."

Orlando Sentinel 5/27/99 "...Paul Weyrich, a decent Washington conservative, sent out a private letter after the Senate failed to impeach Bill Clinton. In essence, he stated that conservatives have lost the political war. The reason "is that politics itself has failed. And politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture. The culture we are living in becomes an ever-wider sewer. In truth, I think we're caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great that it simply overwhelms politics," he wrote. I think that he's right. I've long believed that the assertion that there is a conservative majority in America is a myth....You can't impose on a people by law values that they don't already have. I think this is one of the things Weyrich has realized. Culture comes first, and politics are a byproduct of culture, an effect not a cause. Therefore, you cannot use politics and legislation to create a culture. A culture produces the politics, not the other way around...... Any hope for America's future will come from church and hearthside if it comes at all -- not from politics. Extant traditional Americans have indeed lost the political war...."

WND 5/29/99 Dr. Alan Keyes "...I cannot understand how any American can be complacent about this. America has indeed been a shining city, but that city has had a defensive wall around it. This wall was our national security, much of which depended on our hard-won technological advantage. Our enemies have just ripped a huge hole in that wall, and we are now waiting to see what they are going to pour through it in order to destroy us. We will be struggling to deal with the consequences of this devastating blow to the integrity of our national security situation for the next 20 and 30 years. And yet many Americans are still just sitting and watching. We should have a deep sense of outrage, and our political leaders should have the fear of God in them right now as they sense the determination of a great people to call to account those who have been on watch. But I have not seen this fear on the faces of the people in Washington who have the most explaining to do. Perhaps more ominous than the damage to our national security is the arrogant assumption of the Washington establishment that even these revelations are not a fundamental threat to their power. The confidence our elites now have in the stupid apathy of the American people is chilling....."

Reuters 6/1/99 "...The United States should not respond to the alleged Chinese theft of nuclear secrets by closing its research facilities to scientists from other countries, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Tuesday. "There are some who are proposing that in the name of national security we should restrict our ability to attract the world's finest scientific minds to our laboratories,'' he said in a speech dedicating a new particle accelerator at Fermi National Laboratory. "This would be unwise and we would fight it all the way,'' he added. "It is critical that our laboratories, which hold so many of our important research facilities, and our finest scientists do not become isolated from the world.''..."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. 6/4/99DONALD WEATHERMAN Freeper eleven "I wrote one of my most widely condemned columns in January of 1998. In that column, I called on President Clinton to resign. The year that followed my call confirmed all the reasons I gave for Clinton resigning: His family would have been spared considerable grief, the Democratic Party would be stronger, Vice President Al Gore would be running as an incumbent in 2000 and our nation would have been spared the 14 months of political hell it was subjected to between January 1998 and February 1999..."

Reuters 6/5/99 Freeper LN Smithee "...Remember how Clinton's approval numbers soared days after Monica hit the fan by saying "Save Social Security first!"? A year and a half later, nothing has been solidified, and the GOP has a rare opportunity to take over a Democratic wedge issue. "Senate Democrats should pass a Republican-backed bill to prevent Social Security's surpluses from being absorbed by the federal budget, Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said in the Republican weekly radio address Saturday....Clinton administration officials say a lockbox for Social Security funds could jeopardize the government's ability to borrow and fund emergency government activities, like the bombing campaign in Kosovo."..."

INSIGHT Magazine 6/28/99 Kelly Patricia O'Meara Freeper Stand Watch Listen "...Though shocked by bizarre shootings in schools, few Americans have noticed how many shooters were among the 6 million kids now on psychotropic drugs.. . . . There was, however, complete silence from the president when it came to including representatives from the mental-health community, whom many believe can provide important insight about the possible connection between the otherwise seemingly senseless acts of violence being committed by school-age children and prescription psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin, Luvox and Prozac...."

Sunday Times 6/6/99 Paul Ham "...The revolutionary Relenza flu treatment can be sold in Europe but not in America. Paul Ham reports on the regulatory battles over a potential blockbuster drug Flu cure A CURE for influenza is a Holy Grail of modern medicine. The companies that find effective flu drugs will make vast profits out of products that will become global blockbusters, generating sales worth hundreds of millions of pounds and possibly billions annually. Last week finding that Holy Grail moved closer when European Union drug regulators approved the commercial exploitation of Relenza, a treatment that when inhaled has been shown to reduce the severity of flu-related congestion and headaches and help flu sufferers recover more quickly. It is expected to go on sale this autumn, in time for this year's flu season....."

Mercury News 6/4/99 AP "...Anti-nuclear activists said Friday that corruption was behind personnel changes on a panel overseeing safety at a planned nuclear research reactor in Thailand. The Bangkok Post reported on Friday that Darakant Mongkolphantha, a nuclear safety expert who was in charge of the panel, had been replaced with a non-nuclear engineer by Thailand's Office for Atomic Energy for Peace, a government agency...... The paper said three other safety experts on the panel had also been replaced with engineers.....According to her group, General Atomics recently asked the OAEP to change its contract to allow it buy uranium from Russia instead of the United States. ``If the OAEP buys fuel from the U.S., we have an agreement that allows us to send nuclear waste back to the U.S. for disposal. But we have no deal with Russia,'' she said....."

Boston Herald 6/9/99 Don Feder "... Here's a delicious irony: Bill Clinton, who six months ago was impeached for lying under oath and obstruction of justice, could end up appointing more judges than any of his predecessors. To date, Clinton has put 306 of his soulmates on the bench, close to President Reagan's record of 385. By the end of his second term, the perjurer in chief could have appointed 40 percent of the entire federal judiciary. But in the twilight of his tenure, the confirmation process has slowed to a crawl. The usually compliant Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hasn't held a confirmation hearing this year - which has set the establishment to whining about the unfairness of it all..... This president's judicial nominations are diverse where it matters least - gender and race. Intellectually, they reflect all the variety of Stalinists at a party congress, not to mention the same political leanings....Other Clinton judges have: enjoined the enforcement of a state ban on partial-birth abortions, rejected a student-initiated graduation prayer, forced an Ohio municipality to remove a cross from its city seal and voted to overturn a federal law restricting the broadcast of obscene material to the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m...."

AP News Service 6/9/99 "...Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin told Senate Democrats on Wednesday that the nation's economy does not need the large tax cut envisioned by Republicans in Congress. Meeting behind closed doors in the Capitol with seven key Democrats, Rubin said paying down the nation's debts would be a better use for projected surplus money left over once Social Security and Medicare are safeguarded, according to participants. ``I think it's fair to say they would like nothing to happen,'' said Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. ``The economy is in full employment, with low interest rates. This economy doesn't need any stimulus ... that's their view.''.....``Our biggest problem with the Republican tax bill is that it's so large that it's forcing deep cuts ... they're going to have to cut veterans programs, housing, education, all sorts of things,'' Kerrey said. Republicans, however, believe the existence of the surplus is a golden opportunity to reduce taxes without trimming spending and say tax cuts are second in priority only to guaranteeing Social Security....."

6/12/99 Washington Times Inside Politics Freeper Thanatos "..."Remember all the questions about the White House Travel Office and the Clinton-Gore camp's use of government perks for politics? Funny, but Gore is using the taxpayer-funded White House Travel Office to set up press travel for his June 16 campaign kickoff," the New York Post's Deborah Orin observes. "Gore aides insist it's ethically OK because reporters pay their own way, but they won't say if they plan to keep doing it. GOP rivals like front-runner George W. Bush pay campaign staff to set up campaign travel. So does sole Dem rival Bill Bradley," Miss Orin writes. "Asked if ex-Veep Dan Quayle used the White House Travel Office to set up travel for reporters, his ex-spokesman David Beckwith (who works for Bush) replied: 'Definitely not.'...."

The Congressional Record, Vol. 145, No. 83 6/14/99 Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. (D-OH) "...Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, China spies and buys our secrets. Then China points their missiles at American cities. Now if that is not enough to put trigger locks on Chinese missiles, a White House spokesman said, and I quote, `We will grant China swift admission to the World Trade Organization.' Swift admission no less. Beam me up here. I am firmly convinced those experts at the White House are smoking dope. I yield back the fact that there is no 5-day waiting period on Chinese nukes. Think about that...."

Associated Press 6/16/99 "…Powerful and destructive armor-piercing ammunition is being sold as surplus to the public through a government program, the Chicago Tribune reported today. More than 100,000 rounds of .50-caliber shells, designed for long-range military sniper weapons, have ended up in the hands of civilian weapons dealers in the last year through the Conventional Demilitarization Program, said the newspaper, which obtained a summary of a federal report to be released today. The government report relies heavily on the findings of an undercover investigation conducted by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. It shows that the Pentagon is selling excess and obsolete stocks of the brass-covered shells for $1 per ton to a West Virginia company…."

AP via FoxNews 6/16/99 Alan Fram "…With both parties eyeing the 2000 elections, Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed bill Wednesday that Republicans say would make it harder to spend Social Security surpluses. The GOP effort came even as Congress illustrated the spending pressures felt by lawmakers, including Republicans. One Republican senator lost an attempt to win an extra $70 million for solar energy, other senators were seeking guaranteed loans for steel, oil and gas companies, and the House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to boost aviation spending…."

AP 6/20/99 "...Russian President Boris Yeltsin came to Sunday's meeting with President Clinton bearing one gift - a report on declassified Russian information relating to the assassination of President John Kennedy. Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser, termed the report a "very interesting gift.'' But he refused to speculate on whether it contained any new information on the Kennedy assassination, saying it was in Russian and U.S. officials had not reviewed it. The documents will "be reviewed carefully and all interesting elements will be made public,'' Berger told reporters traveling with Clinton to the economic summit in Cologne...."

Bloomberg / Newsweek 6/28/99 Newsweek "...Two U.S. nuclear weapons labs have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for safety violations over the past three years, Newsweek says, citing a U.S. General Accounting Office draft report.... The labs, run by the University of California, won't have to pay the fines due to a law exempting such nonprofit facilities and Energy Department officials say safety at the labs has improved, Newsweek says in its June 28 edition, on newsstands tomorrow...."

Washington Post 6/27/99 Robert O'Harrow Jr. "...As part of a new and aggressive effort to track down parents who owe child support, the federal government has created a vast computerized data-monitoring system that includes all individuals with new jobs and the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and wages of nearly every working adult in the United States. Government agencies have long gathered personal information for specific reasons, such as collecting taxes. But never before have federal officials had the legal authority and technological ability to locate so many Americans found to be delinquent parents -- or such potential to keep tabs on Americans accused of nothing. The system was established under a little-known part of the law overhauling welfare three years ago. It calls for all employers to quickly file reports on every person they hire and, quarterly, the wages of every worker. States regularly must report all people seeking unemployment benefits and all child-support cases.... Enforcement officials say the coupling of computer technology with details about individuals' employment and financial holdings will give them an unparalleled ability to identify and locate parents who owe child support and, when necessary, withhold money from their paychecks or freeze their financial assets...... But privacy experts and civil libertarians say the scope of the effort raises new questions about the proper line between aggressive public policy and intrusive government snooping. In pursuing an objective that is almost universally applauded, the government has also created something that many Americans have staunchly opposed: a vast pool of fresh personal information that could be used in a variety of ways to monitor their lives...... Already lawmakers, federal agencies and the White House have considered expanding the permitted aims of the system to include cutting down on fraud by government contractors, improving the efficiency of the government and pinpointing debtors, such as students who default on government loans..... Supporters of the system note that Congress explicitly restricted access to it. Those authorized to use the information include the Social Security Administration, which can use the directory of new hires to verify unemployment reports; the Treasury Department, which can use it to cross-reference tax-deduction claims; and researchers, who gain access only to anonymous data. Next month, financial institutions that operate in multiple states -- such as Crestar Financial Corp., Charles Schwab & Co. and the State Department Federal Credit Union -- will begin comparing a list of more than 3 million known delinquents against their customer accounts. Under federal law, the institutions are obligated to return the names, Social Security numbers and account details of delinquents they turn up...."

Wall St. Journal 6/25/99 "...In the wake of the Supreme Court's end-of-term decisions issued this week, we can't help but think of the message we've heard over and over again through the years from mayors and governors, CEOs and small businesspeople who visit our offices. Deliver us from Washington, they plead. Give us back the freedom to make the decisions about what's best for our own communities and businesses. Indeed, the biggest shift in American society over the past 50 years has to be the gradual federalization of so many aspects of life. Today Washington has its nose in almost every nook and cranny of our existence--including whether a trucking company can require its drivers to have two good eyes or whether a state must pay its workers federally mandated overtime, two of the cases decided by the Court this week. Altogether, there isn't much left that's exempt from Washington's scrutiny. Nor, of course, from the concomitant scrutiny of the legal system. The Court's three state's-rights decisions Wednesday make a stab at fixing that; they represent an important effort to restore the balance between state power and federal power. As Justice Kennedy put it in the overtime-pay case: "Congress has vast power, but not all power. Congress must accord states the esteem due to them as joint participants in a federal system." In short, the Constitution doesn't permit Congress to order the states around willy-nilly...."

Reuters 6/25/99 Patrick Connole "...President Clinton likely would veto compromise legislation on nuclear waste storage pending in the Senate because it would cut out the Environmental Protection Agency from setting radiation regulations, a Department of Energy official said Friday. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week approved a bipartisan bill aimed at ending years of wrangling between the federal government and nuclear utilities by having the DOE assume control of radioactive spent fuel at reactor sites. About 38,000 tons of waste currently are stored at U.S. reactor sites. That amount is expected to double in the coming years....However, the DOE official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Senate bill remained troublesome mainly due to the EPA being replaced by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the steward for setting radiation standards...."

MSNBC Jay Severin 6/29/99 "...BILL CLINTON and Al Gore have been as close as people holding these two jobs get. That is why some were surprised when Gore not only began his campaign for the top job, but also defined it, by proclaiming how unlike Clinton he is. Usually, this is run-of-the-mill stuff: a vice president stakes out his own turf and his own identity. An implicit criticism of the boss is part of the process. ....But something queer happened. Gore came out of the gate seemingly eager not merely for a separation from Clinton, but a divorce. The VP repeatedly condemned Clinton for his, ahem, personal shortcomings, and in personal terms. On Saturday, Bubba fired back. Team Clinton leaked to the news media the fact that the president was "hurt" and, in no uncertain terms, "angry" about Gore's criticism...."

Reuters 6/29/99 Mark Egan "...House Republican Leader Dick Armey Tuesday denounced the proposed sale of International Monetary Fund gold to help reduce poor countries' debt and said he would back legislation to block the proposal.Under the plan, up to 10 million ounces of the IMF's 104 million ounce gold reserve would be sold and proceeds used to offset debt owed by poor countries.``Just a way for the IMF to acquire liquidity for more mischief without being accountable,'' said Armey of Texas...."

The Detroit News 7/2/99 "...The Michigan Court of Appeals has abolished the tort of "wrongful birth." In so doing, it has strengthened the right of the disabled to a presumption that their lives are as valuable as the lives of the nondisabled. A "tort" is a wrongful action. The court's majority, Judges William Whitbeck and Michael Smolenski, essentially said the birth of a child, even a disabled one, cannot by itself be considered a wrongful action. This is an important statement of the value under Michigan law of all human life. The case arose, as such cases usually do, out of unhappy circumstances. After the birth of a child with physical deformities, the parents brought suit against the hospital and the radiologist on their case. The couple contended that the radiologist should have disclosed the deformities. Failure to do so, the couple complained, deprived them of "their right to make a reproductive decision." The couple also sued for medical malpractice and emotional distress...."

AP CNN.com 7/1/99 "...The Clinton administration is threatening to veto a $12.7 billion foreign aid package that slashes many international programs, including the Peace Corps, while providing unrequested funds for a Kosovo security force. Before passing the overall spending bill late Wednesday, the Senate rejected, 55-43, a proposal that would have eased restrictions on American citizens who want to travel to Cuba..... The White House is threatening a veto of the overall bill, mainly on grounds that it cuts too much from what it views as critical programs, including the Peace Corps. The legislation makes a $50 million, or 19 percent, reduction to President Clinton's request for the organization. ..."

AP 7/1/99 Pierre Thomas "...The Immigration and Naturalization Service detained and released serial killer suspect Rafael Resendez- Ramirez in June, even though the INS had been told by Texas police last year he was wanted on murder and burglary charges, Justice Department officials said Thursday. The new details were revealed one day after INS Commissioner Doris Meissner requested her own agency be investigated by the Justice Department's top watchdog. Meissner said the agency's failure to identify the 38-year- old drifter charged in two murders and linked to six other slayings, "has raised serious questions about the INS' knowledge of the case and procedures used in encounters with" him. The investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general will examine why Resendez-Ramirez was released repeatedly after being caught entering the United States illegally. The inspector general's office investigates waste, fraud and abuse...."

Freeper Angelwood 7/1/99 Reports "...However, hanging around outside the Tantrum Gate was productive today. I was given the opportunity to ask Joe Lockhart a serious question. A group of about half a dozen people came out of the gate and turned in my direction. In front and to my right was Mr. Lockhart, himself, sans coat, and talking with the others around him. When he was next to me, I said, "Mr. Lockhart. How can Hillary and Bill afford $3.8 million for a house in New York when they're supposed to be broke?" I think I surprised them all, but Joe recovered. He said, "that's a good question; that's a good question" -- as he kept walking quickly away. I spoke up loudly. "I've heard that answer before in your press conferences and you ignore the questions. Very good, Mr. Lockhart. You are the press secretary who knows nothing...."

AP 7/16/99 "…The emotional partisan Senate debate over patient protections is over but the battle for public opinion labored on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott accused President Clinton of refusing to look for a compromise with the GOP over a patients rights bill it pushed through the Senate on nearly total party-line vote Thursday night. "If the president will quit whining, griping and threatening, and come up and engage, we'll work with him and see if we can find a bill he'll sign,'' Lott, R-Miss., told reporters…."

AP/Fox News On-line 7/15/99 HJ Hebert "…The government acknowledged for the first time Thursday that thousands of workers were made sick while making nuclear weapons and announced a plan to compensate many of them for medical care and lost wages. Congress must still approve the compensation, which would end years of litigation over claims by the workers that they became sick while employed by private contractors at federal nuclear weapons facilities during the Cold War…."

Drudge Report 7/16/99 "…Just as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is trying to determine how many public television stations had swapped donor lists with the Democratic National Committee, after reports that stations in Washington, New York and Boston had done so, congressional investigators have started to point suspicious fingers at the White House! ….The White House is now working to limit any damage that could come from the developing situation -- damage that could hit Hillary's oldest friends in Arkansas! On June 28, 1993, President Clinton nominated Diane Blair to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Blair, who was 'best person' at the Clintons' wedding and has been one of Hillary's oldest friends, was later nominated by the president, in 1998, to serve as a Member of the Board of Directors of the corporation. Blair was later elected vice chair of its board of directors. Blair is very close to the Clintons and is said to have spent more nights at the White House than just about anyone except the first family….. PBS station KQED-TV in San Francisco on Friday admitted to list-swapping not only the Democratic National Committee but also Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, whose daughter, Nicole, married Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, in the White House Rose Garden in 1994…."

AP 7/8/99 "…Senate confirmation continues to look like a receding target for Richard Holbrooke in his long quest to be U.N. ambassador. Four senators, including Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., are now known to have placed ``holds'' on the veteran diplomat's nomination, putting off a floor vote for an indeterminate period…..Lott spokesman John Czwartacki declined to comment on the holds. By tradition, any senator can block, at least for a time, any nomination, anonymously if he or she chooses. However, on the subject of the FEC vacancy, Czwartacki said presidents traditionally give leaders of the other party the prerogative of picking their party's FEC representatives. ``I've never seen a White House that tried to pick the other party's nominees,'' Czwartacki said…."

7/12/99 The Associated Press via NewsEdge Corporation "…Members of Congress concerned that China and other countries may be learning U.S. scientific secrets by rocketing civilian satellites into space want the United States to expand its launch capabilities. There's one key problem with the plan: Upgrading Air Force launch pads at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., could cost up to $600 million and, for now, there's little money in the federal budget to do the work….U.S. policy makers are divided on whether to upgrade Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg and keep them under U.S. government control or to privatize them. Retired Lt. Gen. Richard Henry, who led a study for the Air Force space command into launch problems, said many aerospace companies use foreign launch sites instead of U.S. government ones because of a ``general frustration'' with scheduling delays, ``antiquated equipment and budget constraints

Chattanooga Free Press 7/18/99 "...Like millions of other Americans who are either voluntary or captive members of labor unions, Sherry and David Pirlott of Green Bay, Wis., have been shaken down by political union bosses who have taken some of their earnings to finance partisan political campaigns. But the ruling of the United States Supreme Court in the Beck case provided that workers have a right to get a refund of their money that is used for political and other purposes. not for collective bargaining. (In the case of Harry Beck, he was entitled to 71 cents back from each dollar he was forced to pay.) Sherry and David Pirlott want their money back, too. So they filed suit against Teamsters Local 75 in Green Bay to try to get it. But that was in 1992. This is 1999. And they, like workers in many other cases, have not gotten justice yet...."

CNSNews.com 7/21/99 Paul McNamara "..- Many cultural conservatives have lamented the liberal slant of television, but one Hollywood expert says it's inherent with the medium and any effort to remedy the bias "is not going to work." ...."Americans see problems resolved time after time in 30 minutes or an hour, and when that doesn't occur in their life, they begin to feel sorry for themselves," Medved noted. "They're absolutely convinced we're all victims." Medved said this feeling of crisis cements television's liberal bias, observing that "liberalism would be nothing without a crisis to exploit." ....Research cited by Medved indicated that the average American teenager spends an estimated 33 hours talking with parents each year, 700 hours a year in a classroom and 1500 hours watching television, prompting Medved to recommend less television viewing. "The real problem is not low quality, it's high quantity," said Medved. "We suffer from too much TV, period." ..."

Washington Times 7/21/99 "...America's trade deficit burgeoned by 15 percent in May to another record -- $21.3 billion -- as exports shrank and U.S. consumers soaked up purchases of oil, cars and other goods from every corner of the world. Deficits with nearly every trading partner widened -- and America's rare trade surplus with Latin America disappeared altogether --as imports climbed to a record $98.9 billion. Exports fell to $77.6 billion, adding to the woes of U.S. farmers and manufacturers of cars and aircraft...."

Capitol Hill Blue Bruce Sullivan 7/15/99 (CNS) - A bipartisan bill was introduced in Congress Wednesday that would, among other things, end federal income taxes, capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, and the marriage penalty tax by replacing them with a one-time, 23 percent, national sales tax on all goods and services traded at the retail level. According to the Fair Tax Bill's sponsors, Reps. John Linder, a Georgia Republican, and Minnesota Democrat Collin Peterson, the Internal Revenue Service would no longer be needed and would be eliminated by Jan. 1, 2001. "One hundred thousand people at the IRS know more about me than I'm willing to tell my own children," said Linder...."

Washington Times 7/22/99 Frank J Murray "...Cops and prosecutors call it punishing the crooks when and where they'll feel it most. Lots of other people, honest and law-abiding, call it police piracy...... Most forfeitures -- by which the government seizes property that officers merely suspect was used in a crime or bought with the loot --never reach the point of criminal charges. Up to 80 percent never go to court. Seized properties range from a doctor's savings to a private prison in Louisiana with all 400 inmates, a Houston hotel, a 4,346-acre Florida ranch, a church's Spanish-language radio station and Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss' $550,000 Beverly Hills mansion..... Mr. Hyde told the senators it's difficult for him to accept that a law that permits and in fact encourages violations of the rights of innocent citizens could go unchallenged. He entreated the senators to accept the tough reform legislation he steered to overwhelming bipartisan acceptance in the House last month...."

National Post 7/22/99 Brad Evenson "...The germ that causes pneumonia, bacterial meningitis and inner ear infection has grown resistant to the synthetic drugs that doctors once hoped would contain the spread of so-called "superbugs," Canadian research has shown. As a result, new strains of bacteria have multiplied across Canada that can no longer be destroyed by fluoroquinolones, drugs developed in the mid 1980s to combat resistance to such medications as penicillin and tetracycline. Researchers have found that 3.7% of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains taken from Canadian patients have grown resistant to fluoroquinolones....."

Reuters 7/21/99 "...Even with its proposed sweeping tax cuts, congressional Republicans' 10-year budget would leave larger surpluses and provide more money to pay down the nation's debt than President Clinton's plan, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.....The CBO calculated that under Clinton's budget debt held by the public in U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds would fall to $1.8 trillion, or 13 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, through 2009. With the Republican plan, it would fall to $1.6 trillion, or 12 percent of GDP, it said. The reason, the CBO said, is that Clinton would use most projected surpluses, excluding Social Security reserves, to boost government spending, while Republicans would slash it...."

AFP 7/24/99 "…The US Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Customs service on Friday announced a joint initiative aimed at stamping out intellectual property crime. The campaign will include domestic and international components aimed at increasing the prosecution of intellectual property theft. The Business Software Alliance in a recent study found that software theft in 1998 resulted in 991 million dollars in lost US tax revenue and 109,000 fewer US jobs…."

Washington Times 7/20/99 Balint Vazsonyi "…When something is forbidden, a right to do something is taken away. All right, I hear some people say, but along with all the new prohibitions, we have gained a whole battery of new rights. Indeed. The Bill of Rights contains not a single provision which grants or concedes a right to anyone by taking something from another. It does not even grant rights, really, it rather affirms their pre-existence. All restrictions in those first ten amendments to our Constitution are placed on government -- not a single constraint on individuals or The People at large…."

New York Times 7/26/99 William Safire "…We have stumbled into the era of no-fault government. Blamelessness is next to godliness; nobody in authority is held responsible for blunders, no matter how costly. Take last week's case of the cell biologist at a Berkeley, Calif., lab who was found to have faked his research findings -- supposedly linking electric power to cancer -- to win his lab $3.3 million from three Federal agencies. A whistle-blower alerted the Office of Research Integrity, which found him "falsifying and fabricating data." The swinging scientist, Robert Liburdy, avoids prosecution by not contesting these findings, though he admits nothing. Is the lab being forced to return the money to taxpayers? No. Its lawyer tells William Broad of The Times that the unused portion is "being used for other science."…."

Washington Post 7/26/99 "…MONEY FOR international family-planning programs, whose work includes contraception and basic women's health services, has long been held hostage in Congress to the more divisive matter of abortion. Off and on since the early 1980s, and again last year, antiabortion forces in Congress have blocked any U.S. contribution to the U.N. Population Fund and other international family-planning efforts, arguing that those agencies also fund abortions and that this makes the U.S. contribution an indirect form of abortion funding. That case suffered a setback last week when the House voted to authorize $20 million for the U.N. Population Fund, up from zero last year…."

Washington Post 7/26/99 Helen Dewar "…When Democrats tried last month to tuck their health care legislation into a farm spending bill, Republicans decided they had made a mistake--a really big one--when they voted four years ago to allow members to write policy into appropriations bills from the Senate floor. So today, Republicans will try to revive the Senate's old ban on legislating on spending bills, and they appear to have the votes to overcome complaints from many Democrats that they are simply trying to find one more way to keep from having to vote on Democratic initiatives…."

Los Angeles Times 7/27/99 Patrick J McDonnell "...Gov. Gray Davis has quietly ended efforts to deny pregnancy care for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants--a battle that became a hallmark of the administration of former Gov. Pete Wilson and a symbol of the state's hardball immigration politics earlier this decade. Deep in a budget bill signed by the new governor late last week is a provision authorizing a state-funded prenatal care program for undocumented women. The move effectively preserves the 11-year-old aid program that was targeted by Wilson for extinction...."

New York Times 7/27/99 Jeff Gerth "...The Senate inquiry intensified after a General Accounting Office report last December found that executives at Citibank Private Bank ignored one of the bank's own safeguards in helping to move up to $100 million for Raul Salinas while his brother, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was president of Mexico..... "

New York Times 7/27/99 Jeff Gerth "...Another case under review by the Senate committee, aides said, involves Pakistan's corruption investigation of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, and her husband, Asif Ali Zadari. The two were convicted of corruption earlier this year in Islamabad, Pakistan. Documents show that Citibank Private Bank in Geneva handled tens of millions of dollars for Zadari...."

WorldNet Daily 7/27/99 David Limbaugh "...It seems that on those few occasions that I stand up for congressional Republicans, they always make me eat my words. Last week, under cover of darkness, and with the anonymity of voice vote, the Senate passed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.....Hate-crime legislation establishes stiffer penalties for violent crimes motivated by hatred against certain protected classes of individuals. Currently, federal law covers race, color, religion or national origin. The new Senate bill adds the categories of sexual orientation, gender and disability. So if you criminally assault a person because he/she is a member of a protected class you are not only guilty of assault, but of a hate-crime as well. ... Hate-crime legislation is foreign to our system of criminal jurisprudence. Why, for example, is battery worse if motivated by hatred of one's sexual orientation than, say, his wealth. Is it more acceptable to beat a man because he is rich than because he is homosexual? How about a poor man? A stupid (but not disabled) man? The possibilities are endless...."

The Wall Street Journal 7/27/99 Rebecca Buckman "...Jeffrey R. Bedser does some of his best work at home, at about 2 a.m., when he logs on to the Internet pretending to be a woman. The clean-cut father of young twins isn't sampling X-rated Web sites. He's putting in overtime as head of the new Internet-crimes group of International Business Research Inc., a corporate-investigations company based in Princeton, N.J..... To help round up cybersuspects, IBR and rivals Kroll Associates and DSFX LLC, based in Falls Church, Va., have all formed special groups to tackle Web-related assignments. "This is hot stuff," says Michael Cherkasky, president of New York-based Kroll Associates, one of the largest investigation firms. Before the Internet, these corporate sleuths mostly performed "due diligence" checks on acquisition targets or investigated embarrassing internal thefts. Now, tactics are more high-tech........ After striking up an online conversation, the investigators (posing as a friendly young woman named Terry) suggested the suspect click to a separate home page to see a snapshot of Terry. It was a trap. The amateur-looking page had family photos -- including one of a smiling woman wearing shorts, said to be Terry. Staking out the site, IBR watched as the visitor clicked on, then followed his electronic tracks back to a local Internet-service provider in Miami...... IBR once helped a large pharmaceutical company find a Canadian pharmacist, using the name PharmaFool, who had criticized one of the company's new anti-inflammatory drugs on a message board. Once it found him, the drug company ended up leaving PharmaFool alone after discovering he wasn't a competitor or an insider, as it had suspected. The man IBR believes to be PharmaFool didn't return calls for comment. IBR's big break in the case? The man used the same PharmaFool screen name on another message board, where his public "personal profile" also included his town, his favorite hockey team and his real name. ...." Freeper Elle Bee adds By Bradley A. Stertz and Richard A. Ryan / Detroit News Washington Bureau "...New York state elections officials said they will look into the sources of contributions a federal Teamsters overseer received in his bid five years ago for a district attorney's post. At issue are nine donations newly installed Teamsters election supervisor Michael Cherkasky took in during his 1993 Democratic campaign for the Westchester County, N.Y., office..... Cherkasky's firm, Kroll Monitoring Services, never got the union's business. Cherkasky also told Edelstein he had "never met nor spoken to Davis" but used his name only at the suggestion of Kroll's chairman...."

Reason website 7/28/99 Cox Reports Interviewed by Michael W. Lynch and Jeff A. Taylor 8/9 99 "...Cox sat down with Washington Editor Michael W. Lynch and Reason Express writer Jeff A. Taylor in early June, as he was busy passing an amendment to the Pentagon budget which requires the administration to report to Congress by November on the status of China's missile technology.... Reason: What caused the bipartisanship to break down after the report? Cox: The reason that our report was unanimous was that we stuck to the facts. Because the facts spoke so loudly for themselves, there was no need to spin the report with inferences. But anyone reading the report will be led to his or her inferences very rapidly. Once the report was published, demands were made for the resignation of the attorney general, the national security adviser, and others. Apparently there will be significant firings in the Department of Energy. The Clinton administration is under fire--that has changed the political calculus...

Associated Press 7/30/99 David Espo "...Republicans pushed their $792 billion tax cut through the Senate on Friday, courting a classic veto struggle this fall with President Clinton and Democrats who claim the measure shortchanges Medicare and other domestic programs.,,, The 10-year measure includes broad-based tax relief as well as provisions designed to address the so-called marriage penalty and make it easier to accumulate retirement savings and pay for education...."

Wall St. Journal 7/29/99 Glenn Burkins Greg Hitt "...Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan again warned Congress that it should neither rush to enact large tax cuts nor use the budget surplus to fund new spending. In his semiannual report to the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Greenspan said the growing surplus would be best used to pay down the federal debt, now at $3.6 trillion. But that didn't stop Democrats and Republicans from trying to use the Fed chairman's admonitions to buttress their respective positions on the surplus ..."

NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 7/29/99 George Getz "...Hundreds of banks around the USA have started turning their complete customer database -- including Social Security numbers and account balances -- over to government agencies to comply with federal child support laws, the Libertarian Party warned today. "Politicians are now using the Deadbeat Dads law to violate your financial privacy -- even if you've never had children," said Steve Dasbach, national director of the Libertarian Party. "And if that's not bad enough, the law also prohibits your bank from notifying you that your account information has been turned over to the prying eyes of bureaucrats." The Financial Institution Data Match program, an outgrowth of the 1996 Deadbeat Dads law, requires banks to search their databases every three months for matches against state-provided lists of parents who have fallen behind in child support payments. But banks without the resources to comply have been forced to turn their entire customer database over to state agencies -- and allow government bureaucrats to do the searches instead...."

Sacramento Bee 7/28/99 Blair nthony Robertson "..This is the land where he was born, where he grew up, married, taught his five kids to be good stewards of the land..... Bierwagen is one of many frustrated landowners in California and throughout the United States joining the ranks of the private property rights movement. By some estimates, there are 2,000 or more groups large and small, with names like Defenders of Property Rights and American Land Rights Association. Sacramento is home to one of the key players in the movement, the Pacific Legal Foundation, which for years has battled government agencies in court on behalf of property owners. Bierwagen started Concerned Citizens for 174, a reference to the highway the Nevada County Board of Supervisors wanted to designate as scenic, placing new restrictions on property owners in the process.....Courts have generally ruled that landowners must be compensated when new regulations remove all practical use for the property. But the property rights camp says that isn't enough. Bill Craven, of Sierra Club California, says that property ownership is not absolute and that governments must often impose land use laws for the greater public good, whether it's to protect endangered species, save trees, maintain scenic vistas or regulate population density. To require compensation for every new regulation, argues Michael Bean, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund, would put landowners in the position of demanding ransom to not develop on the property...."The California courts have historically been more supportive of local government regulation and less supportive of private property rights than anywhere else in the nation," said Michael Berger, a Santa Monica attorney representing Buckley and a nationally recognized authority on land takings...."

New York Post 8/2/99 "...The law of unintended consequences strikes again - and this time at the Environmental Protection Agency. When Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1990, one of the law's targets was gasoline. The law obliged oil companies to add an "oxygenate" - a substance that contains oxygen and allows gas to burn more efficiently - to gasoline. To comply, the companies relied on a chemical known as MTBE. When critics warned of health risks from MTBE, the EPA scoffed. But last Tuesday, an EPA-appointed panel announced that, while cutting air pollution, the chemical can also cause severe water pollution..... It also turns out to be a carcinogen...."

Reuters CNETnews.com 8/2/99 "...A U.S. Appeals Court upheld a $2 billion annual federal program to subsidize Internet connections for schools and libraries. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Friday backed the Federal Communications Commission's decisions to allow the subsidies to be used to pay directly for Internet access as well as needed internal wiring at schools and libraries. Major telephone carriers such as GTE had argued the money could only be spent on telecommunications services. Thousands of schools and libraries around the country connected to the Internet thanks in part to the program created in the 1996 Telecommunications Act and known as the education rate or e-rate...."

NewsMax.com 8/2/99 Christopher Ruddy "...The illegal release of information from Linda Tripp's files for political reasons, and her subsequent prosecution, are just the latest of a long series of danger signals of a country at risk. When you add in ... the political prosecution of Billy Dale of the White House Travel Office; the illegal seizure of a thousand FBI files (many likely used for political blackmail); the cover-up of Vince Foster's death; Clinton's endless stream of executive orders circumventing Congress; Clinton's illegal and murderous "wag the dog" war in Yugoslavia, which killed thousands of innocent civilians and employed such police-state tactics as bombing radio stations, hospitals, and orphanages; political attacks and death threats against Congressmen and other officials who voted for impeachment or who sought to blow the whistle on Fostergate and Chinagate; and the fact that the Congress, by failing to remove Clinton from office despite the fact he committed one or more felonies, concluded the rule of law did not apply to him, you are driven to one frightening conclusion: Our Republic itself is in danger...."

Knight Ridder 11/06/98 Frank Greve "....A wealthy friend of the Clintons offered Linda Tripp help finding a private-sector job and treated her to lavish weekends, according to Tripp, at the same time last year that Monica Lewinsky sought job help from Clinton ally Vernon Jordan. Tripp's reputed benefactor, New York philanthropist Norma Asnes, is a widow, author and theater producer who hit it off with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her mother when they met during the1992 campaign, according to a former aide to the first lady. Until recently, Asnes kept a Georgetown townhouse where she occasionally played hostess to the Clintons and White House staff. Over the last four years she has contributed $59,500 to Democrats, according to federal records, and is listed among ``longtime friends'' of the Clintons in a tally provided by the White House last year of Lincoln Bedroom guests. Asnes' offers of help were accompanied by penetrating questions about what Tripp knew of White House flirtations involving the president, Tripp told Lewinsky in a phone call that Tripp tape-recorded and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr turned over to Congress....Tripp told Lewinsky after the first visit that Asnes had urged her to come up every two months, ``so she can get me out.'' In her recorded conversations with Lewinsky, Tripp said Asnes offered to introduce her to several business executives Asnes knew, including the president and CEO of Becton Dickinson and Co., a big New Jersey-based medical technology company that Asnes' late husband, Marvin, had commanded. Asnes also pressed Tripp to join her and her friends on a private charter cruise, and invited Tripp to Washington theater parties and receptions...."

Investor's Business Daily 8/3/99 "...For 200 years, Americans elected their lawmakers without the help of government. Enter the Federal Election Commission in 1975. In less than 25 years, that agency has tried to turn the First Amendment on its head. And it looks like the FEC's chokehold on speech is going to get even tighter. The agency is considering whether small, independent Web sites that endorse (or oppose) candidates should register with the FEC and comply with federal spending limits. When the slow-moving FEC gets around to issuing an opinion, it won't be a rule. But it might as well be. In lieu of a rule, the FEC expects candidates to follow its advisory opinions. And they usually do..... More to the point, the FEC's Web-related opinions have put the squeeze on free speech. Corporations can't set up neutral candidate forums on their Web sites. Election-oriented Web sites must register with the FEC; they cannot operate anonymously. Campaign-oriented independent Web sites that spend $250 or more must also register with the FEC..... And that's why so many lawmakers and bureaucrats want to chain the Internet. The information flow over the Web threatens their grip on power. They don't find it as easy to effectively ''fix'' elections so they remain in power...."

San Jose Mercury News 8/3/99 Howard Mintz "...A sharply divided California Supreme Court, struggling with an unprecedented clash between free-speech rights and workplace discrimination, decided Monday that the First Amendment can take a back seat to preventing harassment on the job. In a case with national implications, the state's high court held that government has the power to regulate words in the employment setting, at least when there is a proven need to correct harassing conduct and discrimination. The ruling, written by Chief Justice Ronald George, essentially permits a judge to muzzle an employee found to have created a hostile work setting by directing racial slurs at colleagues. ....Lawyers for the Latino workers, with backing from groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that the need to keep the workplace free of harassment outweighs any restraint on free speech....."

European Stars And Stripes 8/4/99 AP "...The Defense Department may have lost more than $1 billion from health care fraud and abuse during the past three years, according to a congressional report that criticized the Pentagon for lax oversight. From 1996 through 1998, companies providing health care services for Pentagon employees reported 100 potential fraud cases, a fraction of the 50 million claims filed during the three-year period, said the report issued by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. No precise accounting could be made, but the GAO said more accurate estimate of the amount of fraud would be 10 percent to 20 percent of the $5.7 billion in managed health care claims - or between $570 million and $1.14 billion. The report said $14 million in fraudulent payments was retrieved...."

www.independent.co.uk/atp/INDEPENDENT/BUSINESS/P18S1.html 8/7/99 "... CONCERN IS growing in the financial markets that a major hedge fund is in difficulty, prompting fears of a repeat of last year's crisis when the Federal Reserve in the US had to mount a $3.5bn bail-out of Long- Term Capital Management (LTCM) in order to stave off a global financial collapse. The market for swaps, complex interest-rate derivatives which are widely used by hedge funds and the proprietary trading desks of the big investment banks to fund their high-risk trading strategies is, say traders, showing the same signs of distress that was seen after the Russian bond default last August...."

Reuters 8/5/99 "...The Republican-controlled U.S. Congress approved the biggest tax cut in nearly two decades Thursday despite a veto pledge from President Clinton, drawing battle lines for next year's election. The $792 billion tax cut, proposed by Republicans but opposed by Democrats, would trim all five income tax rates by one percentage point, lower capital gains taxes for individuals, eliminate estate taxes and ease the so-called marriage-tax penalty. Clinton has repeatedly promised to veto the 10-year bill...."

New York Post 8/6/99 Deborah Orin "...President Clinton will award the nation's highest civilian honor to former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, the White House says - but not to onetime rival George H. Bush. That leaves Bush - father of Republican 2000 front-runner George W. Bush - as the only living ex-president who doesn't hold the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bush awarded the medal to Ronald Reagan. ..."

AP Breaking News 8/12/99 "... A McDonald's fast food restaurant was burnt to the ground today, and police believe the fire was the work of a militant animal rights group that has claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past. ``The letters ALF were painted at the scene,'' said Jan Poels, a spokesman for the Antwerp prosecutor's office, referring to the group Animal Liberation Front. ``The restaurant was completely destroyed after the roof collapsed.'' ``It was the worst destruction we have seen so far,'' he added ..."

WorldNetDaily 8/11/99 Jon Dougherty "...A group opposed to the provisions of the 1934 National Firearms Act is planning a lawsuit to force the federal government to amend or repeal the 65-year-old law. According to the 1934 Group, a provision of federal firearms law known as the CLEO, or Certified Law Enforcement Officer sign-off provision is being challenged as an illegal unfunded federal mandate and tax requirement. The provision requires local law enforcement officials to approve the purchase of fully automatic weapons and, once approved, requires the purchaser to pay a $200 tax on each weapon purchased....."

Associated Press 8/11/99 Kevin Galvin "... President Clinton offered on Wednesday to commute the sentences of 16 members of a Puerto Rican independence group if they sign agreements renouncing the use of violence. Their group staged some 130 bomb attacks on political and military targets in the United States from 1974 to 1983. One administration official, who spoke on condition anonymity, said the prisoners were not involved in any deaths. ..."

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 8/11/99 Paul Greenberg "... What's this, Webb Hubbell asked to address the American Bar Association? Yep, he was a guest of its White Collar Crime Committee at the ABA's convention in Atlanta. Well, he does have an undeniable expertise in that field. It's as if the American Bankers Association had asked Willie Sutton to share his wisdom. Clearly it was a mix-up: With his remarkable record at managing not to pay his taxes, Mr. Hubbell should have been asked to conduct a seminar in tax law instead. Doesn't the American bar respect a man's legal specialty any more?..."

Flight International 8/11-17/99 Peter La Franchi/Canberra, Paul Lewis and Graham Warwick/Washington DC "...Boeing is being investigated by the US Government for alleged breaches of US restrictions on the release of stealth technology as part of its bid for Australia's Project Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) contract. Investigations by Flight International show the inquiry is concentrating on the alleged release to the Australian Department of Defence between November and January of classified low-observable/counter low-observable (LO/CLO) radar signature and verification cross reference indexing data. US Department of Defense officials and Boeing have acknowledged to Flight International that the investigation is under way. Information provided by sources suggests, however, that a draft report may have been provided in April to US Undersecretary for Defense Acquisition and Technology Paul Gansler...."

Newsweek 8/13/99 Jane Bryant Quinn "... Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will. As an example of what's going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called MemberWorks with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-account and credit- card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits. With these customer lists in hand, MemberWorks started dialing for dollars-selling dental plans, videogames, computer software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 30 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U.S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues....."

AP 8/13/99 "....Donations to President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton's legal defense fund have slowed in recent months, and organizers say they will not be able to cover all the bills by the end of the president's term unless the pace picks up. The trust has raised $6.3 million in a year and a half, but the Clintons' bills total $10.5 million and are rising, the fund's trustees said yesterday. The fund has paid $4.5 million toward those bills for legal expenses of the president and Mrs. Clinton. The fund also has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailed solicitations...."

Reuters 8/14/99 "...Democratic fund raiser Johnny Chung, a key figure in the 1996 campaign finance scandal, said Saturday Democrats told him how to plead the fifth amendment before he testified to Congress in 1997. Speaking in an interview to air on the Fox News Channel Monday, Chung said he received a package on "how to plead the fifth" from the chief counsel for the Democrats on the Government Reform and Oversight Committee where he was set to testify. "At the very beginning of 1997, the Democrat side of the Government Reform Committee sent a package to my office, to my attorney's office," Chung said in the interview, adding that the package, "Tried to teach me how to plead -- take the fifth."...."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) 8/15/99 "...Chung said in the interview, adding that the package "tried to teach me how to plead -- take the Fifth." The U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment gives individuals the right against self-incrimination. Philip Schiliro, Democratic staff director of the House Government Reform Committee, told Reuters that Chung's assertions are "regrettable and categorically wrong." "At no time did a staff counsel make any effort to discourage Mr. Chung from cooperating with the committee. At no time did any staff counsel try to influence Mr. Chung's decision on whether to assert the Fifth Amendment to deny Chung's allegation," Schiliro said. Chung, a Taiwanese-born businessman, appeared before the congressional panel in November 1997. He was called to testify again in May of this year after claims that his account differed from press reports of what he told federal investigators. Before Chung invoked the Fifth Amendment, Chung's attorney asked Democratic staff members for a packet of information regarding the rights of all witnesses before any U.S. congressional committee, Schiliro said. "That information, including the materials on Fifth Amendment procedures, was provided," he said. "Mr. Chung asserted his Fifth Amendment right for the purpose of the committee deposition, but provided six hours of off-the-record testimony with Republican and Democratic committee members," Schiliro added...."

Washinton Times 8/10/99 "...Mr. Rubin was asked by a reporter late last week for department reaction to legislation introduced by Mr. Gilman to cap U.S. spending in the Balkans. Mr. Rubin replied: "I'm not familiar with the bill, and they seem to have a bill a day, so I try not to be put in a position to respond to every one." Insert knife. "Very few of which become law, I might add." Twist. "I was dismayed to read . . . your remarks," Mr. Gilman fired back in a letter to Mr. Rubin. ... "I would also note that you may be uninformed about the work of the International Relations Committee, a body that has direct oversight responsibilities over your department and your office in particular. "Since becoming chairman of this committee, we have enacted over 30 statutes, including the Foreign Affairs Reform Act (restructuring your very office) . . . "We also joined with the administration to fully fund . . . the American Embassy Security Act. The administration supported that measure, but in light of your unusual comments, I wonder if we will have continuing cooperation." Mr. Gilman sent a copy of his letter to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright....."

Washington Times 8/9/99 Bill Sammon "...President Clinton extolled the Constitution and rule of law yesterday in a speech to the American Bar Association, which was widely criticized for hosting the president 11 days after he was fined for lying under oath. "I understand he was the second choice because John Gotti wasn't available," said Mark Levin, president of Landmark Legal Foundation, a Washington public-interest law firm. "As a member of the ABA for more than four decades, I am ashamed," wrote lawyer Gerald Walpin in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. "[This] sends a message to lawyers that it is OK to lie and obstruct justice, so long as you maintain political allies in high places in the ABA." The Southeastern Legal Foundation, which is based in Atlanta, where the president addressed the ABA, said the association forfeited its "ethical authority over the legal profession" by hosting the president...."The invitations to Clinton and Hubbell show that lawyers will now have a new benchmark to measure their ethics, a level even lower than prostitutes," Mr. Klayman said. ABA President Philip Anderson, a longtime friend of the president's who offered a job to Mr. Clinton after he lost the Arkansas governor's race in 1980, yesterday defended his choice of keynote speaker for the ABA's annual meeting. ..."

New York Post 8/16/99 Jerry Zeifman "...IN December 1974, as general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, I made a personal evaluation of Hillary Rodham (now Mrs. Clinton), a member of the staff we had gathered for our impeachment inquiry on President Richard Nixon. I decided that I could not recommend her for any future position of public or private trust. Why? Hillary's main duty on our staff has been described by her authorized biographer as "establishing the legal procedures to be followed in the course of the inquiry and impeachment." A number of the procedures she recommended were ethically flawed. And I also concluded that she had violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons...."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 8/18/99 Pauk Greenberg "…Why, why, would the American Bar Association honor a scandalous leader who has just been found in contempt of court, and whose disbarment is being considered even now? Like the adept advocate he is, Little Rock's Philip Anderson now has explained why, as president of the ABA, he invited Bill Clinton to address its annual convention: "Whenever the president of the United States--who is the leader of the free world as well as our country--wishes to discuss the nation's business with the members of the American Bar Association, we should listen. We have always done so, most recently in 1985, when then-President Ronald Reagan spoke at our annual meeting." Always? Then-President Richard Nixon wouldn't have been welcome at the ABA's convention when his disbarment was pending. Even before a House committee recommended his impeachment, the ABA resolved that the whole Nixon Gang be disciplined. Which spoke well of the bar….."

CNSNews.com 8/18/99 Alasdair Denvil "…What, then, does a hate crime involve that merits further punishment? Well, the story goes, hate crimes are done out of hate, and that makes them particularly heinous. They are committed in the belief that certain people are inferior, and the act is intended to send a message to that group as a whole: "Your kind aren't wanted around here." Hate crimes, then, are based on beliefs that are repugnant to the ideals upon which this nation and its constitution are based. This is all true, but it fails to provide us with a reason to give these crimes extra punishment. The mere fact that these are acts of hate is no justification; non-violent actions inspired by hate, such as marches by the KKK, are legal and ought to remain so, even though they send the same message as hate crimes. No matter how distasteful their message may be, such groups have every right to express it, so long as they do so peacefully. Besides, I can think of no better antidote to such groups than to allow their stupidity to be widely publicized. Moreover, it is wrong to punish people for their thoughts. As reflected in our right to freedom of the press, religion and so forth, we should be free to believe anything we please, no matter how foolish or offensive others might find it. So if it is not the thought or acting on the thought that is punishable, what is it?…"

Yahoo via Reuters 8/19/99 Adam Entous "…- The U.S. trade deficit ballooned to a record $24.62 billion in June as imports from major trading partners Western Europe and Mexico soared to all-time highs and gaps with Japan and China widened, the Department of Commerce said Thursday.The trade gap, driven by imports that broke $100 billion for the first time, was much wider than the $20.5 billion deficit forecast by Wall Street analysts, and grew from a $21.17 billion deficit in May…."

Washington (AP) 8/20/99 "…The Clinton administration reportedly plans to ask Congress to give police authority to secretly go into people's personal computers and crack their security codes. Legislation drafted by the Justice Department would let investigators get a sealed warrant from a judge to enter private property, search through computers for passwords and override encryption programs, The Washington Post reported Friday. The newspaper quoted an Aug. 4 department memo that said encryption software for scrambling computer files ``is increasingly used as a means to facilitate criminal activity, such as drug trafficking, terrorism, white-collar crime and the distribution of child pornography.''…"

USA Today 8/19/99 Walter Shapiro "…Sometimes a social trend comes along and bites you in the leg. Take "animal law," the new legal theory that's the cat's meow for activists who believe that any creature that can bark, oink or whinny has rights that are enforceable in the courts. I'm not horsing around. According to a front-page story in Wednesday's New York Times, Harvard and Georgetown law schools will offer courses this fall in animal law. Lawyers are eagerly producing new legal arguments, writes William Glaberson in the Times, "to chip away at a fundamental principle of American law that animals are property and have no rights." ….Gary Francione, who teaches animal law at Rutgers University, believes that lawyers should sue on behalf of sentient beings such as gorillas. Francione told the Times that gorillas "should be declared to be 'persons' under the Constitution" with full legal rights….. I normally don't share conservative concerns about legal activism, but this latest twist in animal-rights zealotry is ridiculous. It is one thing to oppose cruelty to animals. But it is blasphemy to mimic the legal tactics of the civil-rights movement on behalf of zoo creatures barely able to worry where their next banana is coming from…."

Washington Post 8/27/99 Ceci Connolly "…A criminal investigation into charges that Russian mobsters and politicians may have laundered money -- including diverted international aid funds -- through accounts at the Bank of New York has revived a long-standing debate in Washington over whether the Clinton administration has given too much support to a Russian government known to be plagued by corruption. As the chairman of a joint commission on bilateral ties with former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin -- a role Gore once proudly embraced -- the vice president has been one of the targets of past attacks….. The Gore team has responded to the emerging issue with uncharacteristic speed, offering one of the most detailed accounts to date of the vice president's conversations with Russian leaders about the country's crime problems. At the same time, aides have stressed that Gore, although touted as the "most involved vice president in history," had no idea federal investigators were looking into allegations that the Bank of New York laundered billions for Russian criminals, including some with close connections to the government of President Boris Yeltsin…. Among those caught by surprise, officials said, was White House national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger. A senior administration official said Clinton aides are pressing to learn more about the investigation, and hope to be briefed soon…."

Associated Press 8/27/99 Seth Sutel "…The Bank of New York has fired Lucy Edwards, one of the two executives it had suspended amid allegations that Russian mobsters had used accounts at the bank in a major money laundering operation…. Dow Jones Newswires, quoting sources close the matter, reported that Edwards was fired for alleged gross misconduct, violations of the bank's internal policies, falsification of bank records, and failure to cooperate. So far no one has been charged with any wrongdoing in the affair, in which up to $15 billion was reportedly funneled through the Bank of New York by Russian mobsters. Authorities in the United States, Russia and Britain are investigating. Edwards was a senior official at the bank's London office in charge of Eastern European operations. Her husband, Russian businessman Peter Berlin, reportedly had authority over some of the suspect accounts at the bank. The other Bank of New York official suspended pending the investigation, Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky, is a senior vice president in New York who also supervised the bank's business in Eastern Europe. Law enforcement authorities reportedly are investigating the activities of Ms. Kagalovsky's husband Konstantin, who was Russia's representative to the International Monetary Fund from 1992 to 1995 and later worked as a senior executive at Russia's Menetap bank. He now is vice president of Russian oil giant Yukos…."

Associated Press 8/26/99 Greg Myre "…Wealthy Russians, whether their money was earned legally or not, have established a pattern of moving their money outside Russia, a place where your bank can go belly-up at any time. The Russian mob, which is believed responsible for much of the capital flight, sends money abroad to hide its illicit profits. Genuine businessmen face the uncomfortable choice of paying extremely high taxes or sending the money on a trip to Europe where the tax man won't find it….. "We know there is money missing from the government coffers, but no one seems to care," said Nikolai Gonchar, an independent member of parliament, who has been pushing for a more detailed investigation of the Central Bank. "For four-and-a-half months I've been urging the prosecutor general to investigate, but he has been doing his best not to open a criminal case," Gonchar said. In an effort to boost the struggling economy, the government has limited the amount of money Russians can take out of the country so moving funds abroad is often illegal. …."

Washington Post 8/27/99 Cecil Connolly John Harris Dan Balz "…New revelations about Russian money laundering through a major U.S. bank have presented Vice President Gore with a potentially difficult campaign issue, and once again illustrated the pitfalls of running for the White House from the vice president's chair. ….As the chairman of a joint commission on bilateral ties with former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin -- a role Gore once proudly embraced -- the vice president has been one of the targets of past attacks. ….The Gore team has responded to the emerging issue with uncharacteristic speed, offering one of the most detailed accounts to date of the vice president's conversations with Russian leaders about the country's crime problems. At the same time, aides have stressed that Gore, although touted as the "most involved vice president in history," had no idea federal investigators were looking into allegations that the Bank of New York laundered billions for Russian criminals, including some with close connections to the government of President Boris Yeltsin. …."

Reuters 8/27/99 David Lawsky "…The Federal Communications Commission Friday gave the FBI new authority to tap digital and wireless phones, delighting the Justice Department and bitterly disappointing privacy advocates and local phone companies. FCC Chairman William Kennard declared his agency's actions "will help ensure that law enforcement has the most up-to-date technology to fight crime." Traditional wiretap techniques do not work with digital technology, which would be impenetrable without assistance from the phone companies…."

WorldNet Daily 8/26/99 Jon Dougherty "…A former defense contractor who once had his life threatened by a defense contracting official in the presence of government lawyers says, Washington is "too corrupt to fix" and is being "run by a bunch of 22-year-old staffers who think the whole thing's funny." Bill White, who has spent 18 years in and around Washington, D.C., told WorldNetDaily he has witnessed the corruption "up close and personal" after the Department of Defense (DOD) "squeezed" his defense firm out of business….His experience began in 1989 when his company -- an electronics manufacturing firm -- began applying for -- and winning -- modest defense contracts. White said he bid on military projects because, as a minority firm, his company qualified for an accelerated payment program. White was qualified for the program because he is ethnically Hispanic, though he adopted his stepfather's Anglo name years ago…. In a series of bids won by Logics, the government provided White's company with "flawed" technical data packages -- packages of information listing the government's particular specifications for the construction of key system components….But the Pentagon and the Defense Department were slow to reimburse Logics for the unnecessary development costs. So slow, in fact, that before Logics received reimbursement on their first claim -- some 19 months later -- the company had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection…."

San Diego Union-Tribune 8/26/99 Tom Raum "…Navy bookkeeping is so lax that the service lost track of $54 million paid by Kuwait for three F/A-18 jets and billed Greece and Japan for seaborne services it actually provided to Canada, congressional auditors said yesterday. The report by the General Accounting Office said the Navy's bookkeeping in the government's foreign military sales program included inaccurate information, "making it difficult for Navy managers to accurately account for and report on the . . . program."…Navy records showed that, as of October 1998, about $582 million in delivered goods and services had not been charged to the appropriate foreign customers, the GAO said…."

TIME 8/23/99 Jack E White "…Many civil rights lawyers agree that the University of Michigan could be the Alamo of affirmative action, the place where they make their last stand. Michigan's affirmative-action programs, especially at its prestigious law school, are among the best in the country--designed not only to produce diverse student bodies but also to withstand the sort of right-wing onslaughts, in the courts or at the polls, that have outlawed the use of racial preferences in California, Washington and other states. That's why so much is riding on two lawsuits filed by whites who claim that they were denied admission to Michigan because of their race, pointing out that some black applicants with lower test scores and grade-point averages were admitted. If affirmative action at Michigan can't survive these assaults, it's probably doomed at every other state campus in the nation…."

New York Times 8/28/99 Timothy O’Brien"…A powerful Russian industrialist whose empire is under investigation in the money laundering inquiry at the Bank of New York said Friday that a large part of the billions of dollars moved through the bank was controlled by Russian officials protecting their fortunes by shipping their money abroad before Russian markets collapsed last year. In in his first interview since the money laundering investigation became public last week, the industrialist, Mikhail Khodorkovksy, said by telephone from Moscow that many Russian officials began selling Government securities in 1998 because they had inside knowledge about Government deliberations in the months leading to a decision to permit the devaluation of the ruble. That move occurred in August 1998, and caused the Russian economy, and the value of Government debt, to spiral sharply downward. …"

New York Times 8/28/99 Raymond Bonner "…The Bank of New York said Friday that it dismissed a vice president who is involved in a federal money laundering investigation. The bank officer, Lucy Edwards, was fired for "gross misconduct," violating the bank's code of conduct, falsification of bank records, and failure to cooperate with the investigation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the dismissal. A bank spokesman declined to provide any details. People with direct knowledge of the investigation said this week that documents found in Ms. Edwards' London home indicated that she used the Bank of New York name for dealings unrelated to her job at the bank…."

Associated Press 8/25/99 "….The chairman of the House Banking Committee said Wednesday that Congress must investigate whether the Bank of New York was duped or willingly aided a money-laundering scheme that federal investigators say involves the Russian mob. In Moscow, Russia's finance minister denied his government was linked to the multibillion-dollar scheme, which has been described as potentially one of the biggest cases of money-laundering ever uncovered in the United States. ``I have no information indicating that Russia has anything to do with this problem, so there is no need for the government to interfere in this situation,'' Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told a news conference….. Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, the House Banking Committee chairman, said the panel will hold hearings next month on the alleged activities at Bank of New York, the nation's 15th-largest bank. Federal investigators believe as much as $10 billion was laundered through the bank in an operation run by Russian organized crime. Some $4.2 billion passed through a single account in more than 10,000 transactions between October and March, The New York Times reported last week, citing unidentified investigators…."

Fox News 8/21/99 AP "…Federal investigators reportedly raided the Wall Street office of the Bank of New York in connection to a major international money-laundering scheme that authorities say involves the Russian mob. During Friday's raid, investigators seized the files of Natasha Gurfinkel Kagalovsky, a senior vice president who supervised the bank's East European division, a source close to the bank told The New York Times in Saturday's editions. She and a bank vice president in London, Lucy Edwards, were suspended on Wednesday. Both women are married to Russian businessmen. British authorities also searched Ms. Edwards' home and office. Her husband, Peter Berlin, had authority over some accounts at the bank. Neither she nor her husband has been accused of any wrongdoing. However, investigators told the Times that the couple may be involved in one of the largest money-laundering operations ever conducted in the United States. As much as $10 billion allegedly was laundered through the bank in what investigators say is an operation run by Russian organized crime, the Times reported…."

Timothy O’Brien Raymond Bonner 8/22/99 "…At the intersection of illicit Russian money and the Bank of New York is Bruce Rappaport, a Swiss banker who has had brushes with governmental investigators in the past and who has long had an important connection to the bank. Together with the Bank of New York, Rappaport owns a bank in Switzerland that helped provide the American bank with important business contacts in Russia, according to Western bankers familiar with the operation. And millions of dollars that were channeled through the Swiss bank, known as Bank of New York-Inter Maritime, are linked to what Federal investigators describe as possibly one of the biggest money-laundering schemes in the United States, according to a person close to the investigation. …. The interest of investigators is heightened, one official said, because Rappaport, who is 76 years old and lives in Switzerland, was recently appointed Antigua's Ambassador to Russia. Antigua, this official noted, has been a major center of Russian money-laundering for many years. Rappaport has long had close business, banking and political ties to Antigua, where the Government once granted him a near-monopoly on the fuel-oil market…."

Fox News Wire 8/26/99 Reuters "…Russian organized crime figures laundered at least $15 billion through two New York banks at the direction of President Boris Yeltsin's government, USA Today reported Thursday. Quoting unidentified senior U.S., British and Russian law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the money might include $10 billion in International Monetary Fund loans. The money was laundered through four accounts at the Bank of New York and one account at the Republic National Bank, also based in New York, according to the report. The officials said they do not know where the money is. The new figure is $5 billion more than previously reported. The officials told the newspaper all the accounts were under the name of a company called Benex Worldwide Ltd., which was founded by a leader of Russia's largest organized crime group….."

BREACH OF TRUST

Investors Business Daily 8/23/99 "…How much does federal red tape cost? Congress didn't even ask itself that question until 1997. Now some believe it's time to answer it. Since 1997, Congress has required the White House to report the costs and benefits of federal rules. Congress requires the report before it will approve funds for the Office of Management and Budget. Now many lawmakers from both parties want to make the yearly reports permanent. And they want to strengthen them. Between April 1, 1996, and March 31, 1999, the feds issued more than 12,925 new rules. Of these, 188 were final rules that cost the economy at least $100 million each. That's a total of at least $18.8 billion in new regulatory costs for the economy. And that doesn't even count the remaining 12,737 rules.

In 1998, some 53 federal departments and agencies - and 126,146 federal workers - spent $17 billion writing and enforcing federal rules. ''The size and frenetic pace at which the federal government produces new regulations strongly suggests the need for accountability and common sense,'' said Angela Antonelli, an economist at the Heritage Foundation…."

Investors Business Daily 8/23/99 Charles Oliver "…American workers keep getting more productive. That's been the case, off and on, since settlers landed at Jamestown. But how fast will their productivity grow? That's a crucial question for the American economy. Unemployment is near a record low. With manpower so scarce, the U.S. will find it hard to fuel economic growth by adding more bodies. The only other way to keep the economy surging is to get more from the workers we already have. Productivity growth is key. It helps fight inflation by putting more goods into the economy to sop up excess dollars. That makes interest- rate hikes by the Federal Reserve less likely.

''As the growth of the labor force slows, the only way to maintain strong economic growth is to increase Productivity,'' said economist Dale Jorgenson at Harvard University. So some were worried when productivity numbers turned softer in the second quarter. Growth of output per hour fell to 1.3% from 3.5% in the first quarter.

Was this the start of a downward trend? Or just a blip? …."

Investor's Business Daily 8/24/99 "…Our tax burden is at a record high. Both Social Security and Medicare are headed for collapse. Regulation still strangles our freedom. Yet with all that and more looming over Congress, the Senate wants to dabble in culture shaping. Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, reports that the Senate hopes to probe the ''decline of America's culture'' in response to the recent violence that the media have made sure no one has missed. A special committee could be created as early as next month. Does America really need the government molding society any more than it already does? The Senate proposal sounds eerily similar to the ministries of culture found in totalitarian states. They use police to enforce the state's capricious version of culture. The proposed panel would be limited to a year. After that the real danger starts: The committee would recommend legislation to Congress. Once Washington's mad scientists create a monster, they can never kill it. The committee is potentially a catalyst for more government growth. Think of the possibilities. …"

New York Times 8/24/99 Tim Weiner "…For years, members of Congress have slipped millions of dollars into spending bills to build dams and highways back home. Increasingly, the money is going to academic studies of papaya viruses, wood pulp, auto safety and the aurora borealis. Universities are lobbying to get money directly from Congress, rather than from federal foundations and institutes, in a process that critics say often sacrifices good science for politics. By getting provisions -- called earmarks -- inserted into spending bills, universities and their lobbyists have obtained over $7 billion since 1980. Earmarked legislation in this year's federal budget was a record $797 million. …. Federal money for research traditionally has come from institutions like the National Science Foundation after proposals go through a rigorous process of review by scientific panels. Supporters of that process call it a meritocracy run by scientists and academics, rather than a struggle for political pork. But defenders of earmarking, like John Silber, chancellor of Boston University, one of the largest beneficiaries of such money, say it merely allows academics to appeal directly to the source of financing…."

WorldNet Daily 8/23/99 Geoff Metcalf "…. An often-quoted 1759 line from Benjamin Franklin is, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ….In 1994 (only 235 years from Franklin's admonition, and a nanosecond in geological terms) FBI Director Louis Freeh said, "The American people must be willing to give up a degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security." Wait a sec Louis, ole Ben said if we do that we don't deserve either what you want us to give up, or what you claim will be our reward. This usurpation of privacy, liberty and freedom has remained a consistent goal of the Clintonistas. The national ID tool returns again and again with lunar reliability... They routinely lose the national ID battle, and come back. They lose the privacy battle, and come back. They abuse power under the color of authority, consistently and routinely, only to occasionally get slapped down, but they come back. I find myself hating their objectives, but admiring their determination. The latest assault includes administration plans to ask Congress for police authority to secretly enter folks' personal computers and crack their security codes. According to last week's Washington Post, the so-called Justice Department has drafted legislation (the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act) which would permit investigators to receive a sealed warrant from a judge to enter private property, search through computers for passwords and override encryption programs. The plan calls for a judge to sign sealed search warrants as an administrative forward to obtaining further court permission to wiretap, extract information from computers or conduct further searches….These anti-constitutional, anti-privacy, anti-liberty, and anti-freedom SOBs (supporters of Bill) have, since landing, been trying to create law to require computer companies to give police a "back door" key into computers regardless of any encryption software. This isn't new, and it is not original to Clinton's gang. PROMIS software was stolen by the government, converted to government use, and is currently in use in hundreds of banks globally…..

Reuters 8/26/99 "…Russian organized crime figures laundered at least $15 billion through two New York banks at the direction of President Boris Yeltsin's government, USA Today reported Thursday. Quoting unidentified senior U.S., British and Russian law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the money might include $10 billion in International Monetary Fund loans. The money was laundered through four accounts at the Bank of New York and one account at the Republic National Bank, also based in New York, according to the report…."

Wall Street Journal 8/26/99 Bob Davis "…Al Gore and the International Monetary Fund are among those who have the most to lose as a result of an alleged scheme by Russian mobsters to sneak billions of dollars into U.S. accounts. Vice President Gore's vulnerability comes by virtue of his co-chairmanship with Russia's prime minister of a commission that oversees U.S.-Russian relations. The IMF is on the hot seat because of allegations that $200 million of its funds may have been diverted into the banking accounts of Russia's organized-crime families. The money-laundering questions deepen an already bitter debate about whether Clinton administration and IMF policies worsened Moscow's post-Cold War plight, and thus should be blamed for "losing" Russia. Foreign-policy issues rarely dominate presidential campaigns. But billionaire Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes, who has the financial wherewithal to spend millions of dollars on television advertising, says he intends to put Russia front and center in the coming campaign. "Gore has been the point man with Russia," says Mr. Forbes. "His policies have been an unmitigated disaster. They have piled billions of dollars into the hands of kleptomaniacs."…."

Washington Post 8/25/99 David Ignatius "…You can see the question rumbling toward Al Gore like a freight train in the night: What did the vice president know about the looting of Russia by organized crime, and why didn't he do more to stop it? That issue -- what the heck, let's call it "Russiagate" -- has come into sharper focus this month, thanks to some powerful reporting that has highlighted the lawlessness of modern Russia and the acquiescence of the Clinton administration in the process of decline and decay there. …"It was all laid out for Gore . . . and he didn't want to hear it," says one knowledgeable former government official, describing 1995 reporting on Chernomyrdin's activities. "Our government knew damn well what was happening." …."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_btl/19990908_xcbtl_the_green_.shtml 9/8/99 Joseph Farah "...In March, 40 officers divided into 10 four-man teams swooped in with helicopters in a pre-dawn raid to seize six suspects in Dorchester County, Md. The principal suspect, Robert Gootee, was hauled from his bed and led away in chains. His wife was not allowed to call anyone, nor were her neighbors allowed to come in to comfort her, for four and a half hours. What was the offense that precipitated this action? Was the four-year investigation that led to the armed raid concerned with terrorism, serial homicide or a major drug ring? What type of criminal offenses were involved? Who were these brave law-enforcement agents who defied death to make the arrests? You had better sit down. Gootee was charged with possession of an undersized striped bass, striped bass out of season, untagged striped bass, possession of summer flounder out of season, failure to tag and check deer within 24 hours and possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle. The agents involved were from the state and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And the target for the raid was the Golden Hills Hunt Club. Gootee, the club treasurer, was hauled away with such "evidence" as deer and duck mounts and a framed photograph of his retriever bringing in a duck. Eventually, 24 other club members were charged with related offenses, including failure to wear sufficient fluorescent orange while hunting. We're in serious trouble, folks....."

Washington Times 9/8/99 Mike Farris ".... Jill Floyd, a social worker for the Yolo County (Calif.) Department of Social Services (DSS), had the "goods" on the Calabretta family. An anonymous tipster had heard a child's voice yelling "No, Daddy, no" late at night. Another time, the tipster had heard a child's voice yelling "No, no, no" from the back yard. Additionally, the tipster knew that the Calabrettas home-schooled their children and were very religious. . . . . Ms. Floyd went to the home four days after DSS received this report. She demanded entry. Shirley Calabretta, a member of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) who had been instructed in her rights under the Fourth Amendment, graciously said "No." The Calabretta children were observed by the social worker when Shirley opened the door. Later that day, the social worker wrote that the children "did not appear to be abused or neglected." . . . . Officer Nicholas Schwall knew nothing more than that children had been heard crying in the home when he coerced Mrs. Calabretta to open her door with the threatening words, "We will get into your home one way or another.". . . . Once inside, Ms. Floyd insisted on segregating the two girls, then-aged 12 and 3. She asked the 12-year-old whether the children were spanked. The girl gave a remarkably mature description of biblical discipline and said that they were sometimes spanked with a short, thin dowel and other times with a Lincoln Log roofing piece. The girl denied any abuse or bruises.. . . . Nonetheless, Ms. Floyd insisted on strip-searching the 3-year-old. She demanded that the 12-year-old remove the younger sister's pants. The older girl refused, and the little girl began to scream in the tug of war that ensued. Mrs. Calabretta came into the bedroom, despite having been told to stay out. . . . . When she found out what the social worker was demanding, Mrs. Calabretta removed the little girl's pants to show the social worker a perfectly normal child's bottom without a hint of bruising. . . . . HSLDA filed a civil rights lawsuit for the Calabretta family in the federal district court in Sacramento... . . . The federal trial court ruled in favor of the Calabrettas on all points. Unsurprisingly, the government agents appealed this decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.. . . . On Aug. 26, the 9th Circuit issued an extraordinarily strong decision affirming parental rights and the right of privacy of the family home. The court held that neither social workers nor police officers can coerce their way into a home unless they have a warrant or probable cause that there is an emergency situation. Anonymous tips such as the one here simply do not qualify....."

Cato Institute 9/1/99 Daniel Griswold "…The August 19 Commerce Department report of another record monthly trade deficit, this one reaching $24.6 billion in June, will probably spur the usual round of complaints that the trade deficit has become "a drag on growth." In fact, the trade deficit has been blamed for a host of economic ills, from unemployment and deindustrialization to a rising gap between rich and poor. Beyond dispute is the fact that, in nominal terms, America's trade deficit is soaring into record territory. The annual deficit on the current account, the broadest measure of America's international transactions, could top $300 billion this year. What is fraught with misunderstanding is the trade deficit's impact, if any, on the U.S. economy. Those who agonize about the trade gap have confused cause and effect and compounded their mistake by turning the empirical evidence on its head. The trade deficit is not the cause of bad things, but the result of good things in our economy. It reflects an economy ripe with investment opportunities and flush with consumer confidence. …."

Washington Post 9/1/99 "…Immigrants are a large and growing factor in the stubborn level of poverty seen in the United States over the past two decades because newcomers to the country are more likely to be poor and to remain so longer than in the past, according to a new study. The report, to be released today by the Center for Immigration Studies, says the number of impoverished people in the nation's immigrant-headed households nearly tripled from 2.7 million in 1979 to 7.7 million in 1997. During that same period, the number of poor households headed by immigrants increased by 123 percent while the number of immigrant households increased by 68 percent, according to the study. The share of immigrants living in poverty rose from 15.5 percent to 21.8 percent, the report notes, a change that some analysts say holds troubling implications for the nation's future. About 12 percent of the nation's native-born population lives in poverty, a figure that has hardly changed in 20 years. "Each successive wave of immigrants is doing worse and worse," said Steven A. Camarota, the report's author. "Each wave of immigrants has a higher poverty rate, and a much larger share of their children will grow up in poverty." …."

Atlanta Constitution 8/31/99 Mark Bixler, Staff "….The fax instructed the captain of the Prince Nicolas, a 42,000-ton ship hauling iron from China: Go to a spot in the South China Sea to pick up spare parts. At the rendezvous point, the captain found no spare parts; instead, three men from a smaller vessel boarded his ship. "The captain stated that the three men were armed with knives and clubs and took him (into) the hallway, where they made him get on his knees, threatened his life and the life of his family and the lives of his crew," according to a federal affidavit. They ordered the captain to take 132 Chinese nationals from the smaller ship to the United States. Sixty-seven days later, federal agents in Savannah found the stowaways in a secret compartment of the Prince Nicolas. They arrested seven people, who are due in court Wednesday, and detained at least seven more as material witnesses….."

Judicial Watch 8/30/99 Tom Fitton "...Judicial Watch today called attention to recent press reports in The Washington Post which imply that the Clintons' Legal Expense Trust Fund will allow Bill and Hillary Clinton to qualify for a mortgage on a multi-million dollar home in New York. By law, neither the President of the United States, nor any other federal employee, can supplement his income with cash gifts. So Bill Clinton, as President, can't use cash gifts to pay off his legal bills or supplement his income. Therefore he cannot use cash gifts to qualify for a mortgage. It is also improper for banks or other lenders to count the Clintons' future earnings potential when considering them for a mortgage. One qualifies for a mortgage based on current earnings and savings, not pie-in-the-sky future earnings "estimates." "If traditional lending practices are followed, Bill and Hillary Clinton simply cannot get the million dollar mortgage they require to move into the mansion they're considering in New York," stated Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman. "And they certainly shouldn't be able to use illegal cash income from their Legal Defense Fund to supplement their income, such that other revenues can be used to buy a mansion."..."

Washington Time /Inside Poiltics 9/2/99 Greg Pierce "…You didn't have to be a high-priced political consultant to see that White House Deputy Press Secretary Jake Siewert stumbled badly when he suggested that $10,000 -- what GOP-proposed tax cuts would save the average family over a decade -- was hardly worth the bother of sticking into a bank account. "Well, $10,000 -- I don't know what that buys you here," Mr. Siewert told reporters who were following the president and first lady around New York on Tuesday. Jim Nicholson, the Republican National Committee chairman who has been dogging the Clintons on the tax-cut issue, did not wait for Mr. Siewert to remove his foot from his mouth. "When you live in public housing, spend your holidays in somebody else's donated multimillion-dollar vacation villas and fly around in taxpayer-funded military jets, it's no wonder that Clinton and Gore and their staffs don't know what $10,000 will buy," said Mr. Nicholson, who offered some examples yesterday: "The $10,000 Republican tax cut will buy almost three full years' tuition at the State University of New York, which costs $3,400 a year -- but you'd have to be a New York resident, which leaves the Clintons out. …."

Investors Business Daily 9/10/99 "....The biggest offender was the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The liberal group used Congressional Budget Office data to back a familiar complaint: The rich are getting richer while the poor are falling behind. Meanwhile, the United Nations' International Labor Organization released a report that says Americans' working hours are the longest in the industrialized world. In 1997, the year from which the latest figures are available, Americans worked an average of 1,966 hours a year. That's up from 1,883 hours in 1980. The implication? That's just too much work, and something must be done about it. The University of California, San Francisco, joined the chorus by releasing the results of a survey that indicates the booming, high-tech economy means workers move around a lot -in California, at least. Four in 10 workers have been at their jobs for less than three years. These reports carry a not-so-subtle message: Government must narrow the income gap through wealth redistribution, cut work time by mandating a shorter work week and stabilize the turbulent labor market. None of those actions would make life better for the poor. Government interventions simply don't work as intended. .... Government also keeps the poor down with programs that promote dependency. Incentive to improve one's financial condition is dulled when the public trough offers food, housing, health care and some spending money.

Even the government's ''free'' education keeps many in a permanent disadvantaged state. The monopolistic school system has little reason to provide a quality service - especially in poor areas - because the children have no other place to go. Yet liberals continue to defend government schools, rather than help the poor lift themselves out of poverty with better education. And despite all these obstacles, the poor do lift themselves. Today's poor are often tomorrow's rich. That undercuts the liberal nostrum that only the government can really help the working man ascend in a world controlled by the evil rich. The Census Bureau shows that more than 80% of low-income workers -those making $5.70 an hour or less -move into higher income brackets within two years. In a free society even those with mediocre skills and modest ambition can climb the income scale. Only 5% of Americans who were in the lowest income bracket in 1975 were still there in 1991. Most had achieved middle-class status. Nearly a third made it to the highest income bracket....."

Reuters via NewsEdge Corporation 9/13/99 "...The U.S. Senate failed Monday to limit debate on a controversial measure to delay for one year new federal rules requiring oil companies to pay higher royalties on crude oil drilled from public lands. The new rules would raise an extra $66 million for the federal government by requiring oil companies to value their crude oil based on true market prices, instead of on internal prices posted by the firms themselves. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, wants to add the amendment to the Interior Department's $14.1 billion spending bill to prevent the department from using any money to implement the higher royalty rules during the 2000 spending year, which begins Oct. 1. ..."

Washington Post 9/5/99 George Wil "....President Clinton's reluctance to nominate Bradley Smith to serve on the Federal Election Commission illuminates more than Clinton's aversion to anyone who respects the Constitution. His reluctance also reflects the strength of the people trying to eviscerate the First Amendment with the knife of campaign finance reform. ..... Courts frequently and approvingly cite Smith's scholarship concerning why regulating campaigning is constitutionally problematic. He believes that the rationales for regulating political giving and spending--preventing corruption, or the appearance thereof, and promoting political equality--usually cannot survive the strict scrutiny that courts give to laws which seem to conflict with the constitutional proscription of laws abridging freedom of speech. Which is why the anti-First Amendment forces, led by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, oppose Smith: He thinks the way the Supreme Court and other courts increasingly do. Indeed, Smith thinks like Justice William Brennan, the saint of liberalism for whom the Brennan Center is named...."

Washington Times National Weekly Edition 9/6-12/99 Deroy Murdock "...Impeachment? Rather than show remorse, Mr. Clinton defiantly joined Democrats on the White House lawn Dec. 19 for a veritable pep rally. Never mind that the House of Representatives made him only the second president to be so dishonored. Senate trial? Majority Leader Tent Lott of Mississippi headed the rush to acquittal With live witnesses and entire areas of inquiry barred from discussion, the Senate swiftly dismissed the entire question so that the United States could "move on" Six months later, Mr. Clinton's trial is a distant memory. Rape accusation? In March, Juanita Broaddrick claimed that Mr. Clinton raped her in a Little Rock hotel room in 1978. Her compelling accusation earned about a paragraph worth of U.S. attention span. Contempt citation? On July 29, U.S. Judge Susan Webber Wright found Mr. Clinton in contempt of court for lying under oath in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Americans yawned briefly before fleeing to the shore for the weekend. As he smiles from one photo opportunity to another, life is a day at the beach for the president. The Arkansas Supreme Court should peel the smirk off Mr. Clinton's face by disbarring him. Mr. Clinton has violated the Arkansas Bar's induction oath to "exhibit and... seek to maintain in others the respect due courts and judges." By perjuring himself and conspiring with others to stymie both the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky cases, he has relinquished his privilege to be an officer of the court. ....."

Corporation for Public Broadcasting 9/8/99 Kenneth A. Konz, Inspector General of CPB "...Today's CPB Inspector General's report found no evidence that public broadcasting stations intended to benefit any political organization through donor list transactions. The IG report confirmed that the motivation of stations that engaged in list rentals or exchanges was financial and not political or partisan in nature....... Audit Assignment No SR 99-07 Report No 902 "... Freeper HAL9000 objects "...The CPB Inspector General's report is a total sham. It fails to even mention the two chief perpetrators of the PBS-DNC list swaps. CPB Chairman Diane Blair, Hillary's best friend, was chairman of the Arkansas Educational Television Network when it began swapping lists with the DNC. The DNC then passed those lists on to the Clinton/Gore campaigns, the DCCC and DSCC, and eventually, the Clinton Legal Expense Trust and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Senate campaign. The Inspector General also conveniently overlooks the fact that Bill Clinton appointed Diane Blair's husband, James Blair of Tyson Foods, to the post of Democratic National Committeeman from Arkansas. James Blair stupidly admitted to a UPI reporter that he funnelled illegal campaign contributions from Tyson Foods to candidates for federal office, but he was never prosecuted for the felony. James Blair was also Hillary Clinton's cohort in Cattlegate, where Hillary received a $100,000 "profit" (bribe) on a $1,000 investment. This IG's report that claims to investigate PBS-DNC list swapping without reporting on the corrupt DNC connections of PBS Chairman Diane Blair is a travesty...."

Los Angeles Times 9/10/99 "....It's bad enough that a few renegade law enforcement authorities take advantage of the innocent from time to time through illegal searches and seizures. It's worse when the law explicitly allows these violations of basic civil rights. That is why it is important for Congress to approve HR 1658, the proposed Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 1999, sponsored by Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. By passing successive tough asset forfeiture laws since 1970, Congress has virtually given the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and other authorities a blank check to seize property of suspected drug law violators even though they might never actually be charged or convicted....."

Washington Times 9/10/99 Patrick Fagan "...The creation of a nanny state from "cradle to grave" continues to take shape. Buried in one of the spending bills Congress will take up soon is a seemingly harmless new benefit for federal employees and their children: government-run day care. But the legislation goes beyond the language needed to extend such a benefit-and could hand liberals the tools they need to orchestrate federal control of all day care. The day-care benefit can be found in the Treasury/Postal Appropriations Bill, which funds most government operations. It contains two provisions -- one from the House, one from the Senate -- stipulating what government-run child care would entail. The House portion, sponsored by Rep. Connie Morella, Maryland Republican, establishes on-site day care for federal workers. The Senate portion, sponsored by Sen. Jim Jeffords, Vermont Republican, spells out the definitions that would govern the Morella bill. Separately, the two provisions look innocuous. Put them together, and you find what liberals have been advocating since the early 1970s -- the makings of a federal bureaucracy with the power to regulate the entire child-care industry. Without elaboration, the Morella bill grants the Office of Personnel Management the power to "issue regulations necessary to carry out" establishment of "an executive agency which provides or proposes to provide child-care services for federal employees." Under the Jeffords bill, this agency would be able to regulate such things as the design of the facilities, personnel qualifications and training, the "developmental appropriateness" of educational activities, and staff accreditation. There's even a vaguely worded "outside monitoring" apparatus, leaving the door wide open for special-interest influence and control. ...."

Congressman Ron Paul "....The other day, I made a huge "gaffe" on national TV: I told the truth about the crimes of the U.S. government. As you can imagine, the ceiling fell in, and a couple of walls too. Congressmen are supposed to support the government, I was told. Oh, it's okay to criticize around the edges, but there are certain subjects a member of the House of Representatives is not supposed to bring up. But I touched the real "third-rail" of American politics, and the sparks sure flew. I was interviewed on C-SPAN's morning "Washington Journal," and I used the opportunity, as I do all such media appearances, to point out how many of our liberties have been stolen by the federal government. We must take them back...... So, on that TV interview, I emphasized not only the attacks on our property, but also the decline of our civil liberties, at the hands of the federal police. There are not supposed to be ANY federal police, according to the Constitution. Then I really went over the line. I talked about the Waco massacre. Bill Clinton and Janet Reno claim those 81 church members, including 19 children, burned down their own church and killed themselves, and good riddance. So they put the few survivors on trial, and threw them in prison for 40 years. ...... Whatever the truth, there's no question that an irresponsible federal government has innocent blood on its hands, and not only from Waco. And the refusal of corrupt and perverse liberals to admit it means nothing. In my TV interview, in answer to a caller's question, I pointed out that Waco, and the federal murders at Ruby Ridge -- especially the FBI sniper's shot that blasted apart the head of a young mother holding her baby -- caused many Americans to live in fear of federal power. Then I uttered the sentiment that caused the media hysteria: I said that a lot of Americans fear that they too might be attacked by federal swat teams for exercising their constitutional rights, or merely for wanting to be left alone. Whoa! You've never seen anything like it. For days, in an all-out assault, I was attacked by Democrats, unions, big business, establishment Republicans, and -- of course -- the media, in Washington and my home state of Texas. Newspapers foamed at the mouth, calling me a "right-wing extremist." (Say, isn't that what George III called Thomas Jefferson?) I was even blamed for the Oklahoma City bombing! And by the way, I don't believe we've gotten the full truth on that either. ....."

New York Post 9/19/99 Steve Dunleavy "....AS FALN terrorists inhale the sweet smell of freedom, tomorrow night at 8, former NYPD Lt. Patricia Feerick will tuck into bed for the last time for two years her two sons, John, 4, and Joseph, who is 7 weeks old. "They give clemency to people who maim cops, but they lock up cops for doing their job," said Patricia from her Long Island home. At 9:30 on Tuesday morning, she will appear at 111 Centre St. in the court of Judge Bonnie Wittner who has given ample proof that she should be judging cat and dog shows. Patricia will be in court to start a two-year jail sentence in Rikers Island after she and three other cops were convicted on the say-so of a man called Ben Stokes, a man who gives a good name to sewers. Judge Wacko Wittner believed Stokes, a convicted drug dealer and admitted underboss of the notorious Purple City Gang, which claimed at least seven lives in homicides - not to mention the crack fatality toll in East Harlem. Other skels gave similar testimony that had three great cops locked up and another's life ruined. These skels accused the cops of an illegal search and unlawful imprisonment, which turned out to be as truthful as Bill Clinton's grand-jury testimony...."

The Houston Chronicle 9/20/99 Deborah Tedford "....The Mexican and United States governments collaborated on a plan to pay $ 3 million to capture drug kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego - then hid the details from the jury that convicted him in a 1996 trial hailed as a triumph for the bi-national drug effort, according to court documents. ....Attorneys for Garcia Abrego filed a motion Friday asking for a new trial on grounds that federal prosecutors encouraged perjury from star witness Carlos Resendez Bertolocci and hid crucial evidence about financial agreements they made with him prior to his testimony. The allegations are based on statements by Resendez and Mexican attorney Raquenel Villanueva Fraustro, who said she brokered a deal with U.S. prosecutors in which Resendez agreed to lie in exchange for millions of dollars in payments by the U.S. government. The deal soured when the United States paid Resendez only $ 1 million - only a part of what he was allegedly promised, the motion said. It said the Mexican government paid $ 1 million in U.S. currency to Resendez's former mistress, Noema Quintanilla, who attorneys said actually arranged Garcia Abrego's capture at a ranch near Monterrey in mid-January 1996....."

Wall Street Journal 9/22/99 "....The U.S. trade deficit hit another record in July, swelling to $25.18 billion on a flood of imports from Japan, China and Europe. The deficits in goods and services, seasonally adjusted, increased by $579 million from June's revised $24.6 billion, which itself was a record, the Commerce Department reported. July's showing was the worst U.S. trade performance since the Commerce Department began compiling monthly trade statistics in 1992. ..."

New York Post 9/23/99 ".... OK, how fast can you spend $40 million? Last year, Clinton administration partisans screamed bloody murder about Ken Starr and his "out-of-control" $40-million investigation - $40 million spent over four years. Well, it turns out the Clinton administration can spend $40 million in 10 days - on nothing but hot air and first-class travel. The General Accounting Office has done an analysis of the president's travels and the results are eye-popping. Three Clinton trips last year - to Africa, China and Chile - ran up a bill of $72 million. ..."

Reuters 9/23/99 "....President Clinton vetoed the Republican-backed $792 billion tax cut plan Thursday, setting the stage for an autumn budget showdown and giving each side a campaign issue for the 2000 elections. ``At a time when America is moving in the right direction, this bill would turn us back to the failed policies of the past,'' Clinton said as he signed a veto statement in a Rose Garden ceremony. ...."

LA Times 9/22/99 Art Pine "....Environmentalists are bracing for a fierce end-of-session battle with congressional Republicans over a spate of GOP proposals aimed at limiting enforcement of some environmental regulations, including several affecting California. The measures seek to block or limit federal action on a raft of environmental matters, from growing pollution by gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles to increased timber cutting in national forests, without thorough review. Critics said one provision would impede restoration of damaged wetlands in California's Central Valley. And they warned that another could pave the way for operation of a large open-pit mine in the Imperial Valley. Environmental groups said about 40 such provisions are attached to appropriations bills moving through Congress, and they predicted that as many as eight more may be added before the session ends. Moreover, because the bulk of the proposals are riders--slipped into the bills quietly at the request of individual legislators--they have avoided the kind of public spotlight that ordinary legislation gets when it moves through the appropriations process...."

Washington Times 9/21/99 Frank Gaffney, Jr. "....The Clinton administration is out of time. There are only 15 months left in President Clinton's tenure, and the president and his senior subordinates are not just thinking about legacies. With the prospects growing that Vice President Al Gore will not be given a mandate to continue Mr. Clinton's policies, officials throughout the government seem determined to "change the facts on the ground" - creating new realities that no new president will be able easily to alter. This determination has particularly ominous implications in the foreign policy arena. Consider, for example, Mr. Clinton's decision last week to embark on a "roadmap" laying out a series of U.S. concessions aimed at fully normalizing relations with an unreformed, malevolent North Korea. An unidentified spokesman backgrounded the press about this decision, saying it charts a path future administrations could follow "with steadiness and persistence even in the face of provocations" - in other words, a program of appeasement, no matter what the North does...... Of course, the Clinton team blithely asserts that, should the North fire its missile after all, the roadmap would be suspended. Unfortunately, the DPRK knows better. These roadmaps chart only one-way streets; breaches by the other party are met by more U.S. concessions - if only because the American authors of these plans typically have too much political capital invested in their realization to accept failure....... The same can be said of similar, ill-advised Clinton rapprochements now in the works with Moammar Gadhafi's Libya, Hafez Assad's Syria, Fidel Castro's Cuba, the mullahs' Iran and the Vietnam of Ho Chi Minh's successors. Who is next in the queue - Saddam's Iraq? Should this president be allowed to saddle the next occupant of the Oval Office with such portentous faits accomplis? Then there is the matter of the president's sympathetic tolerance, if not actual endorsement, of China's belligerence toward Taiwan and its ominous takeover of U.S. facilities being vacated in Panama. And his administration continues to make excuses for Russian behavior at home and abroad - from rampant corruption and diversion of multilateral aid flows to official complicity in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction - that augurs ill for U.S. interests. Will the next president be able to undo the damage made possible by such American complicity? .....With luck, we will survive the Clinton presidency. The question is, will we survive its legacy? ..."

Human Events 9/24/99 Scott Park "...A study by the Republican majority staff of the House Budget Committee reveals that after almost seven years of "Reinventing Government" the Clinton Administration is preparing to leave behind a federal welfare state as riddled with waste and corruption as it ever was. The study found that the government could save billions of dollars annually simply by cleaning up the administration of selected major federal programs, including Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income, Housing and Urban Development and Medicare.... Food Stamps have become an underground currency for crime, abused both by beneficiaries and by the vendors who accept the stamps.....The Supplemental Security Income program (SSI), run by the Social Security Administration, was created to subsidize the income of elderly and disabled people. It loses more than $1 billion every year to fraud....Since 1965, the Department of Housing (HUD) and Urban Development has spent $500 billion purportedly to put poor people in safe housing. In many cases, HUD projects have done the opposite: destroying existing neighbor hoods and creating crime-ridden slums...... Medicare provides federal health insurance to people over 65. Medicaid provides medical care to poor people. The General Accounting Office estimated that these two programs made $12.6 billion in improper payments during 1998...... At the end of last year, the U.S. government had more than $1 trillion in credit outstanding--$217 billion was in direct loans and $882 billion in loan guarantees. More than' 5% of this loan portfolio was delinquent: Write-offs of uncollectible loans were up from $5 billion in 1996 to $6 billion in 1997...."

WorldNetDaily 9/22/99 Walter Williams "...Worrying about bacteria, New Jersey banned restaurants from serving eggs sunny side up. The ban has since been lifted. Some New Jersey localities have a ban on people pumping their own gasoline. Policemen issue citations for driving without a seatbelt. By law, new cars must be equipped with air bags. Federal law mandates that all new toilets flush using a paltry 1.6 gallons of water. Georgia's governor mandates that classical music be given to all new mothers so as to aid infant I.Q. development. California has banned smoking in bars. Clinton wants a law passed banning smoking within 100 feet of a federal building. In parts of Ohio, children going trick-or-treating must obtain a special permit. These intrusions and more were recently revealed by television journalist John Stossel on ABC's 20/20. The stated motivation behind this gross intrusion and criminalization of private behavior is to protect us from making unwise choices..."

WorldNetDaily 9/22/99 Walter Williams "...Stossel interviewed Yale University's Professor Kelley D. Brownell, director of the Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, who thinks Americans eat too many hamburgers and French fries. Brownell wants government to tax fatty foods and those with little nutritional content and use the proceeds to subsidize fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods. He's suggested that some of the tax proceeds be used to build bike and hiking trails...... Those who believe government should be in the business of making us take care of ourselves should tell us where it all ends. Should government decide what time we go to bed? After all, sleep is vital to good health. Should government force us to exercise, read wholesome literature and bathe regularly? The people who advocate a nanny government (a better term is Nazi government) are cowards...."

Associated Press 9/20/99 "....A lawyer who lied to a grand jury about leaking to the press taped conversations between himself and a murder suspect was sentenced to four months in prison on Monday. ``To have an officer representing the bar calculatingly lie and commit perjury to the grand jury is the worst thing I can think of,'' U.S. District Judge Dennis W. Shedd told attorney Jack Duncan. ``I want to send this message: If you commit perjury in federal court ... you go to jail.'' ..."

AFP 9/20/99 "...The United States on Monday weighed its options, including an appeal, following a WTO ruling that tax-incentive provisions accorded US exporters violated global trade regulations. The office of the US Trade Representative said Washington was "examining the next steps," adding that an appeal remained a possibility. The World Trade Organization has ruled in favor of the European Union and told the United States to end tax advantages that serve as subsidies for US exporters. A WTO arbitration panel gave Washington until October 2000 to eliminate its foreign sales corporation act, which allows US companies to ship goods via offshore subsidiaries -- such as the Virgin Islands or Barbados -- and thereby partially avoid taxes on export profits....."

Investor's Business Daily 9/21/99 "....In the name of establishing a drug-free society, overzealous police have too often failed to notice the difference between the innocent and the guilty. As a result, the war on drugs has gone beyond keeping the peace. It's become a threat to liberty. From asset forfeitures to home invasions to military involvement, the war on drugs has taken disturbing turns. Among the more recent incidents, a SWAT team broke into a Compton, Calif., home at about 11 p.m. on Aug. 9. They killed a retired grandfather by shooting him twice in the back. His widow - handcuffed and wearing only a towel and panties, according to the Los Angeles Times - and six others were taken into custody. All were questioned. None was charged...... In the summer of 1998, Houston police shot to death Pedro Oregon Navarro during a drug raid. The problem: Navarro was not a drug dealer. But police wanted to believe he was. A man arrested for public drunkenness told officers he would give them the name and address of a drug dealer if they let him go. They agreed. Without corroboration - and without a warrant - six officers stormed the home of a sleeping Navarro and shot him 12 times. Self-defense, they said; Navarro was going for a gun. Well, who wouldn't grab a gun if they were awakened at 1:40 in the morning by what amounts to a military raid? ....."

AP 9/24/99 "….A Republican bill to renew expiring tax credits and protect millions of middle-class taxpayers from what the GOP called a tax ``time bomb'' began moving Friday in the House. It drew a fresh veto threat from the Clinton administration. The individual items in the five-year, $23.3 billion package have strong bipartisan support, but Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told Democrats privately he would recommend a veto because the measure would consume part of the projected budget surplus before other priorities are met. That infuriated House Republicans, who accused President Clinton and Democrats of using the ``extenders'' package as a bargaining chip in larger spending and tax battles. The president vetoed the GOP's centerpiece 10-year, $792 billion tax cut a day earlier, but said he might sign a smaller package……"

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/09/24/money.laundering/ 9/24/99 CNN "…The Clinton administration has unveiled a new national strategy to fight money laundering with a package of proposed new laws and rules aimed at interrupting the flow of billions of criminal dollars through the U.S. financial system. Money-laundering occurs when criminals seek to make illegally obtained funds look legitimate by funnelling them through a string of banks and businesses until the money's origin is obscured. The announcement is being given special attention in light of a current inquiry into allegations of a huge money-laundering scheme involving the Russian mob and a major U.S. bank; but government officials denied the strategy is aimed at Russia or any other specific country….."

Reuters 9/24/99 "….A U.S. appeals court Friday reinstated an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit by a House Republican accusing a Democratic colleague of leaking a tape of a 1996 cellphone call of top Republicans in Congress. The appeals court panel, by a 2-1 vote, ruled that the lawsuit by John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who formerly was a member of the House Republican leadership, against Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington, may go forward. The lawsuit originated from a Dec. 21, 1996, conversation among Boehner, then House Speaker Newt Gingrich and others in the final days of a two-year ethics investigation of Gingrich. A Florida couple taped the conversation and they have said they turned the illegally obtained tape over to McDermott. A copy of the tape then was leaked to the New York Times and other news organizations. The Times said it obtained the tape from a Democratic congressman who did not want to be identified. Boehner sued McDermott in 1998, alleging that the Democrat knowingly violated his privacy by disclosing unlawfully intercepted communications. The lawsuit seeks $10,000 in damages under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act….."

Orlando Sentinel 9/24/99 Tamara Lytle "….NASA officials, testifying before a House panel Thursday, brought along duplicates of the small twist of wires and inch-long screw that have grounded the entire space shuttle fleet. They also brought along an update and cost estimate on plans to inspect and repair hundreds of miles of wiring. And they told skeptical members of Congress that the drop in shuttle flight rates would not endanger safety. The wiring problem was brought to light during the July 23 launch of Columbia. A wire with damaged insulation contacted metal and caused a short circuit during the most dangerous part of the launch. Computers for two of the shuttle's three engines were knocked out, but the engines continued to function on backup computers. NASA and its contractor, United Space Alliance (USA), decided to stand down the entire fleet of shuttles. Wiring problems have since been found on other orbiters. …."

Center for Reform 9/23/99 John Culbertson "….Federal law enforcement is under attack. It is under attack from criminal elements hoping to exploit the current scandal over Waco. It is under attack from politicians seeking to make a statement in the wake of the current scandals. It is under attack from administrators who have no respect for the law or the people of the United States. It is also it's own worse enemy. Into this universal gloom comes House Resolution 809, The Federal Protective Service Reform Act of 1999. HR 809 may be the light at the end of the tunnel, it certainly is a move in the right direction for reforming Federal Law Enforcement……. The bill crafted in the wake of the World Trade Center Bombing and the Oklahoma City Bombing recognizes reality. Written by Rep. James A. Traficant a former sheriff with real law enforcement experience, the bill is designed to change a failed system by restructuring the bureaucratic mess that has taken mismanagement to new heights or new lows, depending on how you want to look at it. ….."

ABC Radio News Freeper Alissa 9/23/99 "…."I heard Phil Gramm (Senator R-TX) make this quotation on the radio as I was driving home today. I don't know if it made national news, but I did a fist wave (right-on!!) when I heard it! Phil Gramm's comment (slightly) paraphrased: "Let him (Clinton) send a spending bill up to Congress and it will be passed over my . . . cold . . . dead. . . body." Those ". . ." (pauses) were exactly how he said it! Awesome, Senator Gramm!!!! Glad I voted for you! " …."

The Associated Press, via News Plus 9/23/99 H Josef Hebert "….Over objections that oil companies are ripping off taxpayers, the Senate voted Thursday to block the Interior Department from revamping the way it collects royalties on oil and gas taken from federal land. By a 51-47 vote, oil-state senators won a weeklong struggle to put a provision into a $14 billion Interior Department spending bill that directs the department not to impose the proposed fee changes for a year…."

The Associated Press, via News Plus 9/23/99 Matt Kelley "….A Senate proposal to abolish the Immigration and Naturalization Service and replace it with a new, reorganized Justice Department agency got a cautiously positive reception Thursday from the head of the INS. Doris Meissner told the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration panel that she agrees her agency needs an overhaul, even though she disagrees with some details of the proposal. She said the current INS structure that blends keeping illegal aliens out and processing legal immigrants is ``a strained structure designed for a different era.'' ``I am committed to change,'' she said. The panel's chairman, Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., is sponsoring a bill that would replace the INS with a new Immigration Affairs Agency that would have two bureaus -- one to enforce immigration laws and patrol the borders and another to handle the cases of legal immigrants. The new agency's leader, and the heads of both bureaus would be appointed by the president and approved by the Senate….."

The Associated Press, via News Plus 9/23/99 "….The tax-cut veto was President Clinton's 26th. A sampling: …

--Nov. 13, 1995: Clinton vetoed a bill that would have temporarily extended the government's ability to borrow money beyond the debt limit. The veto led to a standoff with Congress over balancing the budget that resulted in a government shutdown…..

-- April 10, 1996: Clinton vetoed a ban on certain late-term abortions. In September, the House voted to override, but the Senate sustained the veto a week later.

-- Oct. 10, 1997: He vetoed another late-term abortion ban. In July 1998, the House voted to override, but the Senate sustained the veto in September.

-- June 20, 1998: Clinton vetoed the D.C. Student Opportunity Scholarship Act, which would have provided vouchers for poor children to attend private or religious schools. ``We must strengthen our public schools, not abandon them,'' the president said. The veto stood.

Oct. 21, 1998: Clinton vetoed legislation to pay $1 billion in delinquent payments to the United Nations because it contained an unrelated provision on abortion. The veto stood. …"

AP 10/6/99 ".....The American Psychiatric Association plans to investigate a report that the head of Brown University's psychiatric department failed to disclose more than $500,000 in consulting fees, most from pharmaceutical companies whose health benefits he praised in journals and at conferences. Dr. Martin Keller, a noted researcher on depression, could be banned from APA-sponsored conferences if he did not follow the group's policies for financial disclosures, association spokeswoman Lynn Writsel said Wednesday...."

10/7/99 Daniel J Murphy ".... A trail of missing funds, lost records and charges of not cooperating with congressional overseers have led some to wonder if Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's agency is a major scandal in the making - one that could add an unwanted taint to the department's policies. One situation in particular stands out. Interagency e- mails reveal that, after taking over at Interior in 1993, Babbitt remained active in a project even after he had formally severed ties with its private-sector side, a recent report in The Washington Times noted. The project is Canyon Forest Village, an Arizona development just outside Grand Canyon National Park. The planned housing, lodging, retail and transportation complex sits on U.S. Forest Service land. A memo Babbitt's office sent to IBD stresses that the Agriculture Department (the Forest Service's parent), not the Interior Department, has legal authority over the land. But Interior's National Park Service oversees work with the Forest Service on the Grand Canyon's general management plan. The National Environmental Policy Act requires that the Park Service draw up such plans. A May 1997 Forest Service memo detailed Babbitt's direct involvement. Legal experts say Babbitt's insertion into the process governed by the National Environmental Policy Act merits closer scrutiny. What's more, Babbitt's family has ties to the Canyon Forest Village project......"

Washington Post 10/6/99 Juliet Eilperin Eric Pianin "....House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) surveyed his colleagues at the hastily arranged GOP conference meeting last Friday and launched into a blistering speech about why they need to support Republican-drafted spending bills coming to the House floor. To underscore the point, he passed out sheets of paper listing who had broken with the party on key procedural votes. "I want to tell you all that I'm sick of reading members' quotes about leadership letting them down. It's gotta stop, and it's gotta stop right now," DeLay declared, according to participants. "Take a look around this room. They are the people who are letting this conference down, and they're sitting right next to you. And in case there's any confusion as to who they are, this will help you figure it out." The in-your-face admonition--a classic DeLay tactic--highlighted the fiery whip's leading role in the congressional budget showdown with President Clinton. Having led the successful drive to impeach Clinton last year, the Texas Republican has lined up his caucus behind a confrontational strategy aimed at finally trumping the president in the year-end budget battles that congressional Republicans have invariably lost. The strategy is fairly straightforward--and risky. DeLay wants to avoid the kind of open-ended negotiations with the White House that in years past have resulted, he is convinced, in Republicans making too many concessions to the administration. And he wants to use the 13 annual spending bills to take Social Security away from Democrats as a political issue, to convince the public that the Republican Party is the more responsible protector of the giant federal retirement program....."

San Diego Union-Tribune 10/3/99 Gregg Vanhelmond "....Whether industrial pollution is creating holes in the Earth's ozone layer is open to debate, but one thing is certain: The climate-change programs President Clinton wants Congress to fund to prevent "global warming" promise to blow an industrial-sized hole in the U.S. economy. The president is determined to implement the terms of the 1997 "Kyoto Protocol," a global-warming treaty mandating Draconian emissions reductions from developed nations such as the United States. (Despite its dedication, though, the White House has yet to forward the treaty to the Senate for ratification.) If fully funded, the president's climate-change programs will cost almost $11 billion from fiscal years 1998 through 2000. While funding for America's overextended and underfunded military continues to decline, spending for the White House's climate-change agenda is expected to grow by 30 percent above 1999 levels. President Clinton wants this money because he pledged during the Kyoto negotiations to reduce U.S. emissions by 7 percent below 1990 levels -- which could prove to be an expensive proposition. An economic analysis released last month by the American Council on Capital Formation (ACCF), a group that promotes cost-effective environmental regulation, shows the restrictions would reduce America's gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as $2 trillion between 2008 and 2012. So much for budget surpluses......"

Congressman Barr 10/4/99 ".....U.S. Representative Bob Barr (GA-7) hailed the inclusion of language in the Transportation Appropriations Conference Report for FY 2000 that permanently repeals a statute authorizing the creation of a national identification card. Today's action permanently deletes a law passed in 1996 which would have mandated specific requirements for state drivers licenses, and required that they be linked to Social Security numbers. In effect, the 1996 provision aimed to create a standardized national I.D. system. ....."

Fox News Online 10/6/99 Tom Raum "....Congress Wednesday sent a $12.6 billion foreign aid bill toward an expected presidential veto - one that is likely to be sustained. President Clinton is unhappy with the measure because it cuts nearly $2 billion from his request. The House narrowly approved the bill 214-211 on Tuesday. The Senate approved it Wednesday by a 51-49 margin....."

San Diego Union-Tribune 10/6/99 Cary Savitch "....Public health authorities have never waged a legitimate public health battle against the spread of HIV. Instead, they have engaged in political wars over rights, privacy and sexual freedom. The AIDS virus has been a mere spectator. Over a million Americans have already become HIV-infected by this killer virus. More than 300,000 gay men in our nation have so far died of AIDS. What is left are the dying, the sick, the about-to-become-sick, and the about-to-become-infected. Before Randy Shilts died of AIDS, he left the world a gift. Unwrap his book, "And The Band Played On," and learn from his message: "AIDS didn't just happen to America. Instead, it was allowed to happen by an array of public institutions." The Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, recommend reporting HIV by name to public health officials in order to optimize partner notification. A Brown University study points out that over 40 percent of HIV-infected individuals do not alert their sexual partners......AIDS has killed more gay men in the past two decades than the next four leading causes of death combined. By one estimate, the life expectancy of a gay man in America is now 42 years. This is unacceptable......Late-stage HIV infection (AIDS) is already reported by name in all 50 states, and with no objection. Once health authorities are given a name, partner notification must start promptly. But, if officials have to wait for the diagnosis of AIDS, which may take 10 years from onset of disease, a decade of prevention is dangerously lost. This is why the CDC now urges all states to report HIV by name and initiate early partner notification Further, a CDC study conducted in six states demonstrated there was no drop off in HIV-testing once name reporting was adopted..... "

Investor's Business Daily 10/13/99 Kevin Butler "….Wanda Sue Bower's lawsuit seems typical at first glance. She was allegedly exposed to dangerous toxins near her West Virginia home. Bower and five others blame two light bulb manufacturers. But her suit has a unique twist. Unlike plaintiffs in a typical toxic suit, Bower doesn't claim to show any signs of injury. She's suing to get periodic medical tests to detect the possible onset of disease. …."

The San Diego Union-Tribune 10/13/99 "…."We will clean out the House. That's a promise and a commitment I intend for us to keep." So said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, during the opening session of the labor federation's biennial convention in Los Angeles. The nation's largest union plans to spend a whopping $46 million to defeat Republicans in 35 congressional dis-tricts in 15 states. To put this into perspective, George W. Bush has raised $56 million for his presidential campaign that he intends to spread over not just 15 states but all 50……Organized labor has as much right to support the party and candidates with which it agrees as industry-bankrolled political action committees have to support the party and candidates with which they agree. The problem is when union officials use the compulsory dues of union members to back political candidates and causes that many members of the rank-and-file do not support. In effect, the union uses the dues of politically dissenting members to negate their votes. Indeed, 29 percent of union workers voted for Republicans in the 1998 congressional races, according to a survey by Peter D. Hart. In 1994, 40 percent of union members voted Republican. So, then, by pledging $46 million in union dues to defeat Republicans next year, the AFL-CIO is disenfranchising roughly a third of its membership. And as no less a figure than James Madison declared: "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical." …."

Daily Republican 10/10/99 Tony Arter "….President Clinton announced yesterday in San Francisco $4.7 million has been allocated to Hawaii and to Guam for his "welfare-to-work" programs. Guam is getting about $545,000 of it to help pay for a second year of what Mr. Clinton calls his "welfare-to-work" training programs.He says the money will get Guam off public assistance and into the work force. Many people here have come to realize, however, that no matter how much taxpayer money the Clinton administration dips into, he will never be able to get welfare state socialism to work on Guam. Too much blood has been spilled by us in fighting for this land to sell out our birthright of freedom for a handful of food stamps. This land is our land but violations of our property rights by government officials has compromised the integrity of the economy and the will to work to improve one's economic conditions. The people of Guam have been forced to prostitute themselves in order to obtain a welfare handout. With the passage of time this terrible wrong has compounded. Today, the people on Guam are torn between their moral belief in honest hard work and the coercive influence of the government handout for not working……"

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 10/12/99 "….. A new Senate task forced headed by Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter last week was given subpoena powers to dissect the plea agreements reached with Clinton fund-raising pals Johnny Chung, John Huang and Charlie Trie. Sen. Specter's panel also will attempt to learn why espionage charges weren't filed in a case (or cases) that might be linked to the fund-raising scandal. But wait. There are legitimate questions about Mr. Spector's impartiality, and from myriad sources: Judicial Watch, the Washington, D.C., watchdog group, notes that Arlen Specter's wife, Joan, secured a Clinton appointment to the National Council on the Arts (an advisory panel to the National Endowment for the Arts) at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. That wasn't long before the Clinton impeachment vote. It's the vote in which Specter invoked Scottish law to say the president was neither guilty nor innocent but that the allegations were ``not proven.'' The American Spectator magazine questions Spector's ties to Arthur Coia's Laborers International Union. While Clinton and the Democrats got millions in direct and indirect campaign contributions from Coia (and, we add, Coia seemed to get preferential Justice Department treatment for it), Specter got $8,000 from Coia and his union, the magazine reports. The Washington Times reports Specter also received $10,000 from Ron Carey's Teamsters Union for the year ending in June 1997. It found no Teamsters donations in the five years prior, based on a review of Federal Elections Commission records. As chairman of the Senate Labor Budget subcommittee, Specter played a role in securing $22 million in public financing for the scandal-torn 1996 Teamsters election. In August 1997, the elections results were thrown out, based on violations in Mr. Carey's campaign. ….."

Washington Post 10/14/99 Eric Pianin Juliet Eilperin "…..In an effort to defuse a White House call for boosting the tobacco tax, House Republican leaders may stage a vote next week on President Clinton's entire $90 billion package of tax increases, knowing that it has no prospect for passage. As they step up their efforts to complete work on the remaining fiscal 2000 spending bills without dipping into the Social Security surplus, Republicans appeared determined yesterday to shift some of the pressure to the Democrats to choose between higher taxes and increased spending. Administration officials have argued that Congress could solve many of the remaining spending problems and help discourage teenage smoking by increasing the tobacco tax by 55 cents a pack and raising $7.8 billion next year. But House and Senate GOP leaders say they would oppose any tax increase and instead will push for additional savings, possibly including a 1 percent across-the-board spending cut totaling nearly $6 billion. ….. Clinton has proposed 75 different tax increases totaling a net $89.7 billion over 10 years to generate the revenue needed for more spending on health, education and other areas…."

AP Wire 10/13/99 Russ Bynum "....The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention apologized Wednesday to people with chronic fatigue syndrome, saying the agency was wrong to divert millions of federal dollars earmarked to study the mysterious illness. CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan promised a "reinvigorated effort" to study chronic fatigue, which leaves some people so drained they can't perform simple tasks. Some rarely leave their beds. Earlier this year, an audit showed the CDC had received $22.7 million from Congress for chronic fatigue research, but less than half the money was used for that purpose. At least $8.8 million was spent on other programs and $4.1 million could not be accounted for. ....."

Wall Street Journal 10/16/99 "…..President Clinton was spoiling for a budget fight yesterday in his news conference, saying any budget the Republicans send up that doesn't have his spending increases on education will be shot out of the sky: "I would veto a bill if they want to gut education. . . . His remarkable partisan belligerence on the budget suggests to us that he may be listening to House Democrats, who are the ones now calling for a budgetary train wreck, presumably to tag their opposition with the blame again for a government shutdown. Republicans ought to help themselves this time. They should promise to send the White House a continuing resolution making it explicit that it is their intention to keep the government's doors open until a compromise on funding is reached. If Mr. Clinton then wields his veto pen it will put into sharp focus who blocked the funds to keep government employees at their jobs and why….."

WorldNetDaily/Human Events 10/18/99 Scott Park ".... A special report prepared by the General Accounting Office at the request of Republican Sens. Larry Craig, Idaho, Jeff Sessions, Ala., and Craig Thomas, Wyo., indicates that Bill Clinton will go down in history not only as the most traveled U.S. president, but also as the president who spent the most tax dollars per trip. Critics say that, while it is necessary for the leader of the world's last superpower to travel overseas, it is not necessary for him to drag along the massive entourages of bureaucrats, aides and businessmen that Clinton did -- the net result being a wasteful depletion of resources from an already diminished U.S. defense budget. Clinton's jaunts were so frequent and so large that the GAO could audit only three 1998 trips for its review: trips to Africa, Chile and China. These three alone cost a staggering $72 million..... After seeing the report, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness, announced he would hold hearings to examine how Clinton's frequent junkets and swollen travel rosters have drawn down funds appropriated for military readiness. ....."

Fox news Reuters 10/18/99 ".....President Clinton vetoed a bill to fund foreign operations Monday, saying it was "the next big chapter in the new American isolationism.'' "I vetoed the foreign operations bill this morning because it seems to me to be the next big chapter in the new American isolationism, right after the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,'' Clinton told reporters..... "There's no money to fund the Wye peace accord for peace in the Middle East, no money to fund our continuing work with the Russians to reduce their nuclear threat, no money to help us with debt relief for the poorest countries in Latin America and Asia and several other problems,'' Clinton said. "We can't not fulfill our responsibilities to the rest of the world,'' he said....."

FNC 10/19/99 Curt Anderson AP "....Making an anti-tax political statement, House Republicans engineered the resounding defeat Tuesday of $19.2 billion in tax and fee increases proposed by President Clinton, including sharply higher cigarette taxes. "The idea is to get this question settled once and for all, so there is no one who believes we will raise taxes,'' said House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. Although they derided the measure as a stunt and a bald-faced attempt to embarrass the president, Democrats joined Republicans in the 419-0 tally against the fiscal year 2000 taxes-and-fees package, which would raise about $100 billion over five years. Clinton's overall budget proposal mustered only two House votes in favor earlier this year, and in September the president vetoed the GOP's signature 10-year, $792 billion tax cut....The defeated tax package, brought to the floor by GOP freshmen Reps. Lee Terry of Nebraska and Jim DeMint of South Carolina, included a 55-cents-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes, a $1.5 billion reinstatement of a corporate Superfund tax and user fees on meat, poultry and egg inspections....."

Washington Post 10/20/99 Eric Pianin Charles Babington ".... Congressional leaders and President Clinton agreed last night to try to solve their budget differences without using surplus funds generated by the Social Security program, a path that may commit them to a more austere spending plan than the administration has advocated. ..... "The president accepted our parameters--not touching Social Security, not raising taxes," said House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.). "He . . . committed every bit of effort he and his staff can make towards the completion of the work, and hope that we can do so by Tuesday night of next week." Both Clinton and congressional leaders have said they would not dip into Social Security trust fund surpluses, although budget experts say such claims rely heavily on creative accounting tactics. The trust fund has become politically sacrosanct, however, so the congressional leaders and Clinton's top aides agreed they would resolve their budget differences without relying on the program's surpluses. The Republicans' "key goal is to not spend the Social Security surplus," White House Chief of Staff John D. Podesta said after the meeting. "We said that we share that, notwithstanding the fact that we question whether their gimmicks and numbers add up." Hastert said consideration of tax increases was "off the table," adding: "Specifically we talked about tobacco tax, but I think it was generally any taxes." Clinton has proposed an $8 billion increase in cigarette taxes, or 55 cents a pack, to pay for extra spending. The plan has found little support in Congress, as dramatized by a floor vote staged yesterday by House Republicans on all of Clinton's proposed tax and user fee increases. The $19.2 billion of proposed tax increases, as expected, went down--by a vote of 419 to 0....."

CNSNews.com 10/19/99 Jim Burns "....A comment Monday by White House spokesman Joe Lockhart about Republicans and the Social Security surplus has irritated House Speaker Dennis Hastert. At the daily news briefing, Lockhart said, "I read everyday and I see everyday, coming from Capitol Hill, Republican after Republican saying we're not spending the Social Security surplus, when the budget office says they are." House Speaker Dennis Hastert Tuesday accused Lockhart of perpetuating a "myth." In a statement from Capitol Hill, Hastert said Lockhart's "latest fiction is that we have spent $46 billion of the Social Security surplus, an imaginary number pulled either from thin air or from the White House wish list. [The Congressional Budget Office] has not concluded that we have dipped into Social Security for any amount, because we have not dipped into Social Security." Continued Hastert, "In fact, CBO's only accurate analysis thus far is that in 1999, we did not dip into Social Security." ....."

ABC NEWS - WORLD 10/20/99 Edward Mazza ".....Your retirement fund may be helping to fund the slave trade and civil war in Sudan. So say activists who want investors to drop what they call a "morally tainted" stock. A number of U.S.-based investment funds - including the New York City Pension Fund, Teacher Retirement System of Texas, and TIAA-CREF, the largest pension fund in the world - have a stake in Talisman Energy, a Canadian company that funds an oil field development and pipeline project Sudan. The Sudanese government owns 5 percent of the project. And that government has been cited by the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International and Congress, among others, for alleged human rights violations such as slave-taking and killing civilians in a lengthy civil war that has killed more than 2 million people....."

Washington Weekly 10/12/99 James Traficant "...Mr. Speaker, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words. The Declaration of Independence is 1,322 words. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage is 27,000 words. Mr. Speaker, now if that is not enough to stuff your cabbage roll, regulations cost taxpayers $400 billion a year, $4,000 per every family each and every year, year in and year out. Unbelievable. It is so bad, if a dog urinates in a parking lot, the EPA declares it a wetland. Beam me up, Mr. Speaker. I yield back 2,800,000 words in our Tax Code....."

USA TODAY 10/17/99 Mimi Hall "....When Hillary Rodham Clinton sweeps through the Catskill Mountains today at the start of a three-day campaign swing across New York, she'll do it in a Secret Service-protected motorcade with a government-paid aide and photographer by her side. When she heads back to Washington Wednesday, she'll do it in an at-her-disposal, rarely delayed jet flown by government-paid pilots. And wherever she goes, chances are she'll show up on the local news that night, even if she's had nothing particularly newsworthy to say. Everyone knows the president's wife is not your typical first-time political candidate....."

Conservative News Service 10/18/99 ".....The US Census Bureau is tinkering with the definition of poverty - a move that could drop millions of additional families below the statistical poverty line. The New York Times reports the Census Bureau may change the "poverty line" for a family of four to $19,500, up from the current $16,600 threshold. The newspaper says the change would put 46 million Americans - 17 percent of the population - below the poverty line, compared with the 12.7 percent defined as "poor" last month. ..."

Roll Call Magazine 10/21/99 Eathan Wallison "....Convinced that Democratic leaders are playing games on the budget, a group of conservative House Democrats is poised to break with party leadership and call for using money from the Social Security surplus to fund the government. The move by the 28-member Blue Dog Coalition, which has been meeting secretly on the plan for at least two weeks, would be the first significant break in a months-long rhetorical showdown that has left Congressional Republicans and Democrats at loggerheads over spending......"

CNSNews.com 10/20/99 Jim Burns ".....A public opinion poll released by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) Wednesday shows that two-thirds of Americans polled, support an across the board spending cut as the one solution to resolve the federal budget dilemma. The poll found 68.6 percent of respondents chose to "cut spending by 4.3 percent for all programs except Social Security and Medicare. Another 8.1 percent opted to "use money in the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for current federal programs" while 9.4 percent thought taxes should be raised. ...."

CNSNews.com 10/21/99 Justin Torres "....GOP congressmen rallied today on Capitol Hill to defend their record on Social Security and drive home their message that the Social Security surplus should not be spent. "For the first time in 40 years, this Congress has created a budget that did not raid Social Security," said Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ). "Mr. President, when it comes to touching the surplus, no means no." Hayworth also called for a constitutional amendment to take Social security off-budget, which would keep the funds in a separate "lockbox" so that Congress could not use trust fund monies to balance the yearly federal budget. Republicans also disputed the notion that balancing the budget would require using Social Security funds....."

New York Times 10/23/99 Stephen Labaton ".....The Clinton administration and top Republican lawmakers said early Friday that they had reached an agreement to overhaul the nation's financial system, repealing Depression-era laws that have restricted the banking, securities and insurance industries from expanding into one another's businesses. The agreement was announced at about 2 a.m. after a compromise was reached over the measure's effect on lending rules for the disadvantaged, the source of months of partisan bickering between the White House and Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who heads the banking committee. ..."

CNN/TIME 10/24/99 "….CNN/TIME just broke a story on the Center For Disease Control in Atlanta. The CDC has just been busted by a whistleblower to Congress for diverting 9 million dollars (half of their CFS budget) to "other purposes." The whistleblower said that he had to step up and expose the fraud when his superiors asked him to lie on his report to Congress regarding his department's expenditures. A CDC director apologized on camera, admitted that staff members had lied, and swore that this would never happen again. The reporter breaking the story said that the CDC had "other projects" that weren't getting enough Congressional funds, and that those projects should have recieved priority……"

Capitol Hill Blue 10/27/99 "….. In a move that's more symbolic than substance, Congressional Republican leaders are offering to cut their salaries as part of across the board budget cuts. But even that doesn't give them the votes they need to get the plan through a contentious Congress. GOP leaders decided Tuesday to include lawmakers' pay in the reductions after rank-and-file Republicans, President Clinton and radio talk-show hosts chided them for not doing so. They now want agencies' budgets cut 1 percent, savings they say can come from paring federal waste...."

Chicago Tribune 10/26/99 Stephen Franklin "…. In a major policy turnaround, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday will announce a new rule giving undocumented workers more protections against workplace abuses than ever before. EEOC Chairwoman Ida L. Castro, who a year ago became the first Latin female to run the agency, told the Tribune that the change reflects "a second look" at the workplace rights of illegal immigrants….. Now, Castro said, in what is likely to prove a controversial change, the agency will seek all protections and legal remedies for undocumented workers regardless of their immigration status. These include getting workers their back pay, getting workers reinstated to their jobs if they were wrongly let go and asking the courts to order employers to pay damages as well as attorney's fees….."

Conservative News Service 10/26/99 Lawrence Morahan "….US lawmakers are calling on the Clinton administration to immediately release a copy of a letter by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi which they believe lets Gadhafi off the hook for his suspected role in ordering the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988. The letter, which may have been approved by representatives of the Clinton administration and the Blair government in Britain, reportedly gave assurances to Tripoli that the trial of two Libyan suspects by a Scottish court in The Hague will not "undermine" Gadhafi's regime. This is widely viewed as an immunity deal for Gadhaffi - a vow not to hold him responsible for the terrorist act, sources familiar with the case told CNSNews.com….."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 10/27/99 Audrey Hudson "….Members of Congress and three conservation groups yesterday called for the resignation of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Jamie Clark, saying there is widespread waste, fraud and abuse inside her agency. House Republicans and Mrs. Clark yesterday clashed over the legality of her diverting money from popular hunting and fishing programs to pay for environmental programs, questionable staff travel, bonuses and alcoholic beverages. Her resignation was called for by Rep. Bob Schaffer, Colorado Republican, and Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, Idaho Republican, the National Wilderness Institute (NWI), Texas Wildlife Association, and Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania..."

NewsMax 11/2/99 Michael Savage "....Unelected, largely invisible, a secret society of lawyer-gangsters has waged a merciless war against America. Let us look at what the ACLU, in its devious machinations, has done just recently. The police in California enjoyed a unique protection for about 17 years. A law, passed in 1982, allowed them to sue citizens who file false complaints against them. I like that law because most of the complaints against the police - most, not all - that I have followed are by paid activists who work for criminal enterprises and criminal businesses, seeking to throw out cases against drug dealers and their ilk. Of course, there are also those on the looney left who sue cops for a living. But now the ACLU has struck this law down. At the bidding of the ACLU, the Superior Court of San Francisco ruled against this law protecting the police from frivolous and malicious suits...."

Investor's Business Daily 11/1/99 "….Workers pay more in Social Security payroll taxes than is needed to fund retirees' benefits, creating a surplus. Clinton's plan is to use that surplus to pay down the national debt. Doing that means the federal government would pay less interest on the debt than has been budgeted in future years. Beginning in 2011 - this is where it really gets bizarre - the government would issue bonds to the Social Security trust fund for the amount of the interest saved (about $100 billion in 2011 by one estimate). ….Mind you, there is no money in the trust fund now, nor would there be any more money in 2011 when the government tosses in the additional bonds. It's all accounting. As a result, nothing really changes. Now here's the catch. The Social Security trustees project that the program will start paying out more money than it takes in from payroll taxes in 2014. That doesn't change under the president's plan, because he isn't putting real money in the fund. Of course, the trust fund would have bonds, but the government will have already spent the money backing those bonds, just as it does today. As a result, the government will have to use general revenues to cover the shortfall….This is the insidious part: If the president can create a link between regular tax and fee revenue, and Social Security, he undermines any discussion of the trust fund's impending financial crisis. In short, general revenues would be used to bail out the insolvent system…..Funding the trust fund's black hole could create such a demand on general revenues that there would be no money for tax cuts, much less new spending, for years to come……"

WorldNetDaily.com 10/29/99 Joseph Farah "…. Just when you think you've heard every bone-chilling totalitarian proposal from the U.S. government and its orbit of unaccountable, quasi-official satellite agencies, along comes something straight out of Orwell. How else can you categorize Federal Reserve official Marvin Goodfriend's plan to track possession of dollar bills in private hands? That's right. Goodfriend, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, delivered a paper to a Federal Reserve conference in Vermont that calls for U.S. currency to include tracking devices that would allow the government to tax private possession of cash, according to a report by Declan McCullagh in Wired News. I'm not kidding. The Goodfriend plan suggests that the longer you hold currency without depositing it in a bank account, the less that cash would be worth. In effect, the cash would be tagged with expiration dates. "The magnetic strip could visibly record when a bill was last withdrawn from the banking system," Goodfriend wrote. "A carry tax could be deducted from each bill upon deposit according to how long the bill was in circulation." Ingenious, huh? …."

AP 10/29/99 Kevin Galvin "….President Clinton criticized GOP budget writers Thursday for ignoring his education goals and accused lawmakers of engaging in "frivolous" battles for short-term political gain. The president suggested that Congress was making a mistake by assuming that good economic times and the absence of an international threat presented an opportunity to ignore long-term domestic concerns. "If we were being attacked by space aliens, we wouldn't be playing these kinds of games," he said…..Clinton cited the film "Independence Day" - in which aliens destroy the White House - as an example of how crisis forces citizens to work together, and suggested that good times had prompted some to postpone planning for future domestic needs……"

Atlanta Journal-Constitution 10/27/99 Julia Malone "….The U.S. military keeps such poor track of inventory that one branch can buy equipment, such as radar or engine parts, even as another branch discards identical items as surplus, federal auditors said Tuesday. More than two decades after this problem was first exposed by the Defense Department itself, the Pentagon has yet to change the way it manages $4 billion in spare parts used by more than one branch of service, the General Accounting Office said in a report to Congress. Fixing the problem would bring ''considerable savings,'' said the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. …."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 10/29/99 Lance Gay – Scripps Howard News Service "….President Clinton's much ballyhooed program of putting 100,000 more cops on the street by 2000 will fall 40,000 police officers short of its goal, Justice Department officials said Thursday. Further, a Justice Department survey predicts that about 40 percent of the police officers who have been hired under the $8.8 billion federal program will face layoffs because local governments don't have the funds to pick up salaries when the three-year grants expire….."

REUTERS 10/28/99 "….The House Thursday approved sweeping spending cuts sure to face a White House veto as the Republican-led Congress and President Clinton wrestled for a political victory in the battle over the federal budget. The House passed 1 percent across-the-board spending cuts in federal programs -- excluding such benefits as Medicare, veterans' pensions and food stamps -- to save about $4 billion and help meet the Republicans' pledge of balancing the fiscal 2000 budget without draining Social Security reserves.. ….. The spending cuts, tucked into $327 billion legislation to fund labor, education and social services programs that Clinton said he would veto, were Republicans' last-ditch strategy to send Clinton spending bills that did not tap Social Security surpluses to make ends meet….."

AP 10/28/99 "….Republicans pushed the last and biggest spending bill of fiscal 2000 through the House on Thursday despite a promised veto by President Clinton, even as the president abandoned efforts to overhaul Social Security and Medicare for the year……. Even so, Republicans claimed a triumph as they moved toward finishing the last of the new fiscal year's 13 annual spending bills. They also rallied around twin themes - protecting Social Security and not boosting taxes - that they hope will propel them in next year's elections. "Today's vote is a victory for the American taxpayer and America's seniors,'' said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, as dozens of GOP lawmakers gathered on the Capitol's East Lawn. A four-piece jazz band played "Pennies from Heaven.'' "Mr. President, please make the responsible decision for American taxpayers and American seniors and sign this important bill into law,'' said Hastert, R-Ill. But Clinton stood ready to veto the measure because of the damage he said the spending cuts would inflict on defense, schools and other programs. …."

The New Australian 11/8/99 Gerard Jackson "..... Some economic commentators claim to have observed an ominous parallel between the present state of the US economy and the Japanese economy in the late '80s, just before it went into depression. While others have dismissed the parallel I'm of the opinion that it contains a considerable truth for the simple reason that the policy that caused Japan's '80s boom is basically the same one generated the US consumer boom. That policy, of course, is one of massive credit expansion...."

Republican National Committee 11/9/99 ".....Asked yesterday what's wrong with letting local school districts decide how best to spend federal education dollars, President Clinton replied, "because it's not their money" - and Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson is hopping mad. "Mr. Clinton, it is too our money," Nicholson reminded the President. "If those dollars don't belong to local parents, teachers and principals, just whose money is it?" asked Nicholson. "Bill Clinton's latest remark crystallizes the difference between the parties - not just on balancing the budget, but on everything. Republicans know that the resources of this great country belong to the people - while Democrats think everything belongs to them and the Washington bureaucrats, except what little they let us keep....."

Laissez Faire City Times 11/8/99 Sunni Maravillosa "....As if the public school system isn't proof enough that the United States federal government officials are working hard to indoctrinate young people with their collectivist mindset, the Internal Revenue Service has really provided the last straw. It's a beauty, too-a more blatant propaganda than one usually finds. The IRS has developed an "online interactive web site", Taxi (http://www.irs.gov/taxi/), that is targeted at teens. Slickly presented, with eye- catching graphics and the latest slang, the goal of the site seems to be to make taxes cool....."

FoxNews 11/5/99 Tom Raum AP "…Former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun drew warm praise from members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today as she defended herself against the allegations of ethical misconduct that have clouded her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to New Zealand. Moseley-Braun, the nation's first black female senator, denied any misuse of campaign funds and said she used her own money to pay for two trips to Nigeria while she was a senator. Committee members of both parties pronounced her exonerated. …."

Tampa Tribune 11/3/99 "…..``You're too happy,'' former Labor Secretary Robert Reich told business executives last week. ``Let me subdue you.'' Speaking at a forum in South Florida, he warned that good economic times are coming to an end, mostly because of a shortage of skilled workers. He sees inflation ahead and predicts a 15 percent drop in the Dow. The news story about his speech called him an economist, but he's a lawyer by profession and has always preferred the liberties of Democratic politics to the rigors of economic science. He may not always be wrong, but he's definitely always Reich. He first preached the necessity of federal aid for favored, emerging industries and didn't anticipate today's global economy. Realizing he was both economically and politically ridiculous, he changed his sermon and began stressing the importance of more federal aid for education and job training. He was saying things the newly elected President Clinton wanted to hear, and Reich joined the Cabinet….."

New York Times 11/4/99 Robert Pear "….Organized criminal groups have infiltrated Medicare and Medicaid, and are skimming hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the programs, federal investigators said on Wednesday. In a report to Congress, the General Accounting Office said the criminal groups had formed or corrupted scores of "medical entities" -- clinics, physician groups, diagnostic laboratories and medical equipment suppliers -- for the purpose of bilking Medicare and Medicaid, the insurance programs for people who are elderly, disabled or poor. The companies, many of which "existed only on paper," billed the government for services and equipment not provided or not medically necessary, the report said. In some cases, beneficiaries died before the dates on which the services were supposedly provided….."

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX 11/3/99 "……**Exclusive** The White House on Wednesday started blocking all incoming e-mails originating from a new website produced by former Clinton adviser Dick Morris! The White House has bounced back more than 20,000 e-mails from the new Morris site VOTE.COM during the past 24 hours -- swamping computer servers on both ends, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. ..."

Washington Post 11/4/99 Robert Samuelson "…..I used to argue that Bill Clinton's great legacy would be the overhaul of the American welfare state. By that, I did not mean reducing spending for the poor (a tiny portion of the welfare state) but scaling back benefits for retirees--the true welfare state whose relentless growth needs to be restrained before baby boomers reach 65 early in the next century……I was wrong. Clinton has moved the other way. He has proposed expanding retiree benefits (drug coverage for Medicare) and made it politically impossible to suggest any cutbacks--no matter how modest or distant. The present budget debate shows the consequences. Details are baffling, and the disputed amounts--in a $1.8 trillion budget--are small. But the essential conflict is clear. No one wants to be seen touching retirement benefits, including funds flowing into the Social Security trust fund. So all the pressure to cut spending or raise taxes falls on the rest of the budget--from defense to education…….. "

Washington Post 11/7/99 Kathleen Day "….Citigroup's secret transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars for wealthy foreign politicians or their relatives during the 1990s through a global web of bank accounts will be scrutinized this week at Senate hearings on the lucrative world of private banking. A major accusation to be explored at the hearings is that top Citigroup officials, including chief executive John Reed, knew about but paid little heed to internal bank audits in the 1990s warning that the private banking unit was vulnerable to money laundering, according to congressional investigators. Questions about possible money laundering by Citigroup have been raised in official reports and news accounts since 1995….."

Washington Post 11/7/99 Daniel Williams "….Russian military commanders have launched a concerted campaign against negotiations to end the war in Chechnya, or any other action they believe might tie their hands in reclaiming the breakaway region. Hardly a day goes by without a commander warning leaders in Moscow not to end the war before all of Chechnya is pacified. Today, Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and armed forces chief of staff Anatoly Kvashnin issued an unusual denial of reports of a government-military conflict. They signed a statement calling the stories "lies" meant to "cause a split in the state and military leadership." The declaration followed newspaper reports that Kvashnin threatened to resign over government plans to open talks with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov….."

American Lawyer 11/9/99 Bernard James "….What makes good law may not make good policy. Public controversy highlights this occasional disjunction between law and policy--none more so than the cries for censorship that are periodically launched at the worlds of art, theater and literature…… Public funding as a policy tool has always been controversial, particularly in the minds of those who can be threatened. However,it is fine for government to influence and encourage community activities through funding and subsidies, rather than by regulation…….. The arguments with respect to public funding of the arts all bear some element of truth. Art is inherently provocative, but it is an expression protected under the Constitution. Our tolerance for expression we find disagreeable is itself an expression of our support for constitutional principles. Yet citizens should not be expected to subsidize community activity that is found to be incompatible with the general public interest……"

Reuters via FoxNews.com 11/10/99 "….The Clinton administration unveiled proposals Wednesday for toughening enforcement against money laundering, saying it did not want U.S. banks to become international criminals' choice for the illegal activity. The Treasury and Justice departments sent proposed legislation to Congress that would extend the United States' power at home and abroad to seek punishment for efforts to disguise, or launder, money from drug dealing or other illegal activities by moving it through the United States. "We do not want the United States to become the world's repository of criminal proceeds,'' Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat said at a news conference. Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said the goal was to ''make it increasingly difficult for those who attempt to launder money through financial institutions to derive profits from their illegal acts.'' …."

Eagle Forum 11/10/99 Phyllis Schafly "…. It isn't often that federal bureaucrats admit to embarrassment, but the New York Times reported on October 23 that it was "highly embarrassing to federal health officials" to have to admit the "causal association" between the RotaShield rotavirus vaccine and the painful condition called intussusception. The embarrassment was aggravated "in part because the vaccine was 23 years in development and much of the work was done at the National Institutes of Health." It isn't enough, however, that these health officials admit they are embarrassed. They should be apologizing and expressing deep and sorrowful regret for the terrible damage they have done to infants. Intussusception is a bowel obstruction caused by one portion of the bowel sliding inward, like a telescope, into another part of the bowel, causing a previously healthy infant to scream in terrible pain, and often requiring surgery to repair……"

The Wall Street Journal. 11/16/99 Glenn Burkins "….The Teamsters union has taken over one of its Philadelphia locals, alleging that leaders there used union money to buy two shotguns, 20 stun guns, a supply of pepper spray and paramilitary gear. Union officials said they found eight tractor-trailers loaded with military fatigues, combat boots, ski masks and other items they described as "survivalist gear." Teamsters spokesman Chip Roth said the union was still trying to determine who owned the trucks, which were parked at a building owned by the local. Mr. Roth said he wasn't sure how the equipment was used, but he said union officials would notify law-enforcement authorities. Before the takeover, Local 115 had been run by longtime Teamster John P. Morris, who couldn't be reached for comment. Union officials said he had been relieved of his duties, which paid him more than $184,000 last year. ….In 1998, Mr. Morris and several other Teamsters were accused of assaulting two people who were protesting against President Bill Clinton at a Philadelphia fund-raiser. Two of the men pleaded guilty, but the city's district attorney said there was insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Morris. …."

INSIGHT Magazine 12/6/99 Kelly Patricia O’Meara "…. Insight has more details on an alleged slush fund for the L.A. Superior Court Judges Association and the possible extortion of civil litigants by some officers of the court.. . . . The interconnectedness of Bryer's and Pentoney's cases came to light during a raid by the Los Angeles district attorney on the finance office of the Los Angeles Superior Court, supposedly to obtain evidence related to the Pentoney case. Not only were numerous boxes of documents seized in Schonbach's finance office and taken into custody, but a secret file that the finance office kept on Bryer was taken as well. In fact, the secret Bryer file is the first seizure listed by the district attorney's office. . . . . Bryer says he believes the records that were removed -- and now are unavailable pending the outcome of Pentoney's criminal case -- will finally nail down his allegations about the Superior Court judges' bank account. "I believe," he says, "that these records could provide the information that will unravel this case.". . . . According to the documents provided to Insight, plaintiffs and defendants apparently are being required to pay for the lunches of jurors and bailiffs on days they are in deliberations. In one instance a plaintiff, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, was advised by counsel that plaintiff "had to pay for lunch for the jury." This case was a civil lawsuit and the jury was not sequestered. According to the plaintiff, "I felt like I was being extorted, but I was unaware of court rules and the law so I complied with the attorney's request.". . . . "We've learned from discovery that they have 100,000 files that date as far back as 1984 involving more than $13 million held by Garcetti," says Fine. "We've got to request that the files be matched up -- the payer and payee -- and then require Garcetti to distribute the money. This is one of the greatest human tragedies I've ever handled. People are knocking on his door asking for money owed to them and he's basically saying forget it. People have lost their homes and gone hungry and he couldn't care less. This is a prime example of bureaucratic laziness. If we changed the structure and paid the employees of his department based on the number of cases that got paid, I guarantee that all $13 million would get paid out in 30 days."…."

Washington Weekly 11/5/99 Rep Traficant "….Mr. Speaker, in 1995, the EPA came crying to Congress saying they needed more money to clean up our air and our water and our Superfund sites. Shortly after that appeal for cash, records show that the EPA gave a $160,000 grant to facilitate wind energy technologies in China. Unbelievable. While American taxpayers are busting their buns to pay the bill around here, the EPA gave our hard-earned taxpayer dollars for projects in China. Mr. Speaker, this is out of hand. Electric bicycle technology, wind energy technology, American taxpayer dollars? The EPA should be handcuffed. Beam me up. I yield back all the flatulence in China paid for by the EPA….."

St. Louis Journalism Review 11/99 Don Corrigan "…. A little more than 10 years ago the high school press took it on the chin with the Supreme Court's infamous Hazelwood decision. Now the judicial system has struck a blow against the college press with a Sept. 8 decision. In the 1988 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said the content of a student newspaper at a public school could be censored by a school's administration for the flimsiest of reasons, including the potential for mere "embarrassment." …."

Associated Press 12/2/99 "…..The U.S. government is preparing to pay $6 million to Iran despite a claim to the money by a New Jersey couple whose daughter died in a suicide bombing blamed on Iranian terrorists. The family of Alisa Flatow contends the White House is preventing them from carrying out an anti-terrorism law President Clinton himself signed. The $6 million in question was the subject of a dispute between Iran and a Connecticut defense contractor, Avco Corp., one of many U.S. companies that did business with Iran in the 1970s. Iran won a judgment against Avco at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands. After Avco refused to pay, the tribunal ordered the U.S. government to satisfy the judgment. That's when the Flatow family stepped in. Alisa Flatow, a Brandeis University junior, was killed in an April 1995 bus bombing on the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which Israel and the United States maintain is backed by Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack….."

Washington Post 11/20/99 Nat Hentoff "…. On Oct. 23, 18 silent Ku Klux Klan members gathered at Foley Square in New York City to exercise their First Amendment right to demonstrate. They could not vocalize their views because the courts had denied them sound equipment. They were allowed to wear hoods but not masks because the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had upheld an 1845 New York state law forbidding masks at public demonstrations -- as if anonymous political speech were not part of the nation's tradition from pre-Revolutionary times on. ….."

Republican National Committee 11/19/99 "….With a New York federal jury this afternoon having convicted former Teamsters Political Director William Hamilton of 7 counts of conspiring with the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton-Gore '96 campaign to embezzle nearly $1 million of workers' money from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee today challenged Vice President Al Gore to sever his ties with leading figures implicated in the scandal, including some of his biggest union supporters and fundraisers. ``This is a stunning verdict, but it should be just the beginning,'' said RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson. ``Al Gore knows that the most significant figures in this trial weren't at the Defense table, they were raising money for his campaign, delivering AFL-CIO endorsements for his candidacy, even drawing checks from his campaign payroll.'' ``The jury obviously believed the testimony that implicated Terry McAuliffe, the former Finance Chairman of the Clinton-Gore '96 campaign, along with his then-deputy, Laura Hartigan, and Richard Sullivan, the former DNC Finance Director, of participating in an illegal swap scheme involving the Teamsters, the DNC and Clinton-Gore '96. McAuliffe is still out there vacuuming up money for Al Gore. In fact, he hosted a fundraiser for Gore just last night. Meanwhile, Sullivan and Hartigan are still on the payroll of the Gore Presidential campaign.'' …."

CBS Market Watch 11/18/99 Dr Paul Farrell "…. The facts about the rest of America are very disturbing. The net worth of the typical American household is less than $15,000, excluding home equity, zero if you factor out cars and other possessions. Less than 25 percent own any stocks, bonds or even a money market account. Most have reserves so small they couldn't survive more than a month without a paycheck. And half of the elderly over 65 would live in poverty without their meager Social Security payments….."

Sacramento Bee 11/26/99 AP "…..California's prison guard union is blaming several high-ranking state Democrats for killing a plan to have the state foot the bill for a $2 million correctional officer legal defense fund. The union recently mailed a brochure to its 28,000 members and labeled those Democrats as "powerful enemies" who were a threat the union's salary gains. The tersely-worded mailer took to task California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Democratic Sens. John Vasconcellos of San Jose and Richard Polanco of Los Angeles, and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for their comments on cutting prison spending and expanding inmate rights. The union's top officer said the brochure was meant to be informative….."

American Partisan 11/18/99 Douglas Newman "…. For several years, the American Library Association has celebrated Banned Books Week as a condemnation of censorship….. I cannot help thinking this in the aftermath of my experience with a "filtered" internet service. …. I have no quarrel with people who want to promote decency on the internet or, for that matter, in any aspect of society. I have considerable fears, however, about the implications of state control of the internet. Ostensibly, this ISP's filtering policy was directed at pornographic sites and sites promoting hate and violence. I do not visit sites of either genre. However, after signing up with the service I realized that their blocking criteria were far more comprehensive, and included "politically active" sites. They had a "report a site" link on their home page, where anyone who objected to a certain site could report that site for blocking consideration….."

USA TODAY 12/6/99 "…..The National Institute of Mental Health uses just over one-third of its budget for research into severe mental illness and spends more to study AIDS than schizophrenia, according two advocacy groups. A study being released Monday cites what the groups contend are examples of money misspent on vague behavioral research by the premier mental health agency of the National Institutes of Health. ….."

Wall Street Journal 12/14/99 June Kronholz "…..Kirkwood Meadow Elementary School sits near the top of the Sierra Nevada range -- six children and a teacher in the cheerful basement of a ski-resort condominium at 8,500 feet. Less amiably, Kirkwood Meadow and five other schools in the Alpine County school district also sit in the middle of a battle between environmentalists and timber companies over -- of all things -- the future of logging in the national forests. "I'm just trying to stay alive as a little school district," pleads James Parsons, the superintendent. But because of the struggle, Alpine's Bear Valley Elementary has gone from two teachers to one, and may close next year. Diamond Valley Elementary has one bus to collect 102 youngsters, down from three…."

AP 12/14/99 Lauran Neergaard "….- The Food and Drug Administration must find new ways to learn when Americans are injured or killed by prescription drugs because doctors and hospitals don't alert regulators to problems quickly enough, concludes a new report by a government oversight agency. Studies have estimated that 2 million Americans are hospitalized annually from drug side effects, and 100,000 die. Part of the FDA's job is to track side effects of the medications it approves for sale so that health officials can take action if unexpected problems arise and hunt ways to prevent drug-related injuries. …."

The Washington Post 12/10/99 Charles Krauthammer "…..What did Bill Clinton think he was doing in Seattle last week? He invites leaders from all over the world to a new round of talks on lowering trade barriers. They find themselves besieged by anti-trade demonstrators: environmentalists, protectionists, anarchists, lunatics. The president-host then shows up--and makes the demonstrators' case! Startling his own negotiators (and pleasing Big Labor), Clinton goes way beyond the official U.S. position about tacking environmental and labor standards onto tariff talks. He declares publicly that he favors imposing sanctions on countries that violate such standards. …."

National Review 12/8/99 Jonah Goldberg "....."News flash, Rudy - it's not good to arrest the homeless people," declared TV "personality" Rosie O'Donnell on her version of Firing Line for the crayon set. News flash, Rosie - shut up. No seriously, just be quiet. I was over-served last night, and my hangover can't take any shrill, thoughtless, liberal bleating about homelessness. And when I hear it in that over-accented Epcot Center New Yorkese, I feel as if I just drank a glass of warm bourbon with a cigarette in it or ate some day-old fried eggs with James Carville's hair in them. By trying to make your accent both authentic and cute, it comes across as a Twinkie wrapped in a piece of bad pastrami. Homelessness was the issue of the 1980s and, as is so often the case, it is more of a nostalgia trip for mindless liberals who feel guilty about the success of their mutual funds......"

Houston Chronicle 12/15/99 "....The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that states may withold any and all information about the people that police arrest. The ruling ostemsibly allows states to protect the privacy of those who are arrested, but it also gives states the option of letting local police forces behave like a dictatorship's secret police....."

Washington Post (via Reason Express) 12/31/99 Cindy Skryzcki "….What set them off were the Environmental Protection Agency grants promoting the use of electric bicycles and wind power in China. These payouts totaled $180,000--a drop in the bucket, considering EPA spent $4 billion, or half its fiscal 1999 budget, on grants. Nevertheless the China-related grants caught the eye of staffers at the House subcommittee that oversees the environmental regulator, and they were featured at an oversight hearing last month. And there's going to be a lot more oversight over the course of the new year……. Conservative groups allege that EPA grant money goes to finance favored Clinton administration projects, such as advancing the ratification of the Kyoto treaty, which contains many pollution-control initiatives to reduce global warming..Some of the problems the IG turned up include giving the same recipient grant money twice for the same project; not monitoring grants to states, resulting in state work that is substandard in inspection and enforcement; not knowing how money awarded for training was being spent; awarding grant money for jobs that should be done by the agency; and grantees performing only part of the work they were paid to do…."

Houston Chronicle 1/5/00 Cal Thomas "….When English jurist Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) observed that "a man's house is his castle," he could not have foreseen the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The other day that unaccountable regulatory beast within the Department of Labor claimed briefly the authority to regulate the surroundings of the nearly 20 million people who have a home office and work at least part time at home. But threats of a political uprising prompted Labor Secretary Alexis Herman to say, "Never mind." Before withdrawing a federal interpretation that was made following a request from a Texas employer, OSHA asserted jurisdiction over home offices if employers allow employees to work at home. Employers might have been charged with making sure home offices had ergonomically correct furniture, "proper" lighting, ventilation, heating and air conditioning, safe staircases, working toilets and other things required of more traditional workplaces…..The media played this up as "helping" people. This is the view the media take of all government programs and regulations, even those that fail, because it isn't success that matters, only intent. One network interviewed an employer who had discovered a home office in which wooden beams were unevenly placed on file cabinets to serve as support for a computer. Extreme cases are always used by government to force change on the public, which then must succumb to whatever the government wants us to do. Once a precedent is established, it is difficult to stop further government intrusions. …"

Orlando Sentinel 1/6/00 Charley Reese "…. There are a few things Americans who care about their country should be concerned about. Of course, they are not the things the politicians and news media are telling you to worry about…..Another concern is the record immigration, both legal and illegal. This flood of immigrants, now greater than it was at the turn of the century, is colliding with automation and offshoring of manufacturing jobs. That's a formula for social conflict as the people at the bottom of the economic ladder must fight each other for the remaining service jobs that don't pay a living wage to begin with. Furthermore, Americans had better wake up to the fact that if you change the people, you change the country. Talk to some American Indians. They can tell you firsthand what effect uncontrolled immigration of non-native people will do to your country, your culture, your religion and your liberty……"

Worldnetdaily.com email 1/6/00 Julie Foster "…..Key government officials, including California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, are currently being served a complaint filed in the United States District Court in Oakland, Calif., claiming the defendants have no right to act with the authority of law since they did not properly file their oaths of office. According to the California State Constitution and federal law, late filing renders the office vacant and requires immediate removal of the elected official Greg Willis filed the suit after years of research, during which he uncovered the fact that California Governor Gray Davis, Attorney General Bill Lockyer and 38 individuals in four California counties had filed their oaths too late. The legal consequences of late filing are drastic. …..Once the office-holder is removed, all actions taken in an official capacity are considered null and void, any wages or other payments received by the official are to be paid back in full and the official may be subject to a prison term. Willis' complaint is simple: "Why is it that public officials force us to comply with the law, but they see themselves as above the law?" …."

The Washington Times. 1/7/00 Benjamin Tyree "……The Immigration and Naturalization Service deferred a pre-Christmas hearing on Elian's case until Jan. 21, while stipulating it could make a decision "at any time," presumably obviating the need for any hearing. But suddenly on Wednesday, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ruled that the boy should be returned to Cuba by a week from today, evidently without further ado. Elian, rescued at sea after the refugee boat carrying him capsized with the loss of life of his mother and stepfather, has spent six weeks with relatives in Miami, who wish him to remain with them. ….. So the timing of the Meissner ruling seems a gesture of accommodation to the conditions set out by the Cuban government. In this, the U.S. government sets itself up to play the "heavy," at least in the perceptions of much of its own public at home and perhaps of the Gonzalez boy himself….."

WORLD MAGAZINE 1/8/00 "….A year that began with Bill Clinton on trial in the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors ended with one of the key witnesses against him, Linda Tripp, on trial in Maryland for tape-recording phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky. The president was acquitted; Ms. Tripp lost an early motion in December and faces trial. Miss Lewinsky appeared on television with ABC's Barbara Walters and described in shocking detail her sexual encounters with President Clinton. More shocking, Juanita Broaddrick appeared on NBC's Dateline in February with credible allegations that 20 years ago, then-Arkansas attorney general Bill Clinton raped her. NBC executives had the story in hand even as the impeachment drama played itself out-prompting some to accuse the network of playing politics, sitting on a story that might have affected the outcome of the Senate trial. "But I can close that chapter. I can work with the president." -Influential Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia on why he voted to acquit President Clinton of impeachment articles, despite his conclusion that the president was clearly guilty. Said Sen. Byrd: "The question is, does this rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors? I say yes. No doubt about it, in my mind. But the issue is, should the president be removed? ... And the Constitution requires that if he is convicted.... There's no second chance. So it comes down to the question, to remove or not to remove? …"

INSIGHT Magazine 1/7/00 Kelly Patricia O’Meara "…. Alleged reforms to the U.S. patent system recently were slipped through the back doors of both houses of Congress to benefit foreign competitors at the expense of America. Albert Einstein, Nobel laureate, patent holder and recently crowned Time magazine "Person of the Century," has been credited with saying, "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." This remark from the father of the theory of relativity seems particularly fitting when discussing the recent battle waged between independent inventors and lawmakers over legislation that many believe could destroy the U.S. patent system and severely damage the nation's economy…… Opponents of the patent legislation say the change began when a clause reducing the U.S. patent term was sneaked into the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. Rather than respect the centuries-old U.S. patent term of 17 years from the time of granting, the GATT internationalists changed the length of a patent to 20 years from the date of application. Because application approval may take up to five years, the change had the effect of reducing the time of ownership. Obtaining U.S. conformity to international patent "reform" had to be carefully planned, say Capitol Hill insiders, since harmonization of patent laws to assist foreign economies at the expense of U.S. inventiveness was not seen as a politically popular cause. The push for "reform" was led by Lehman and late Commerce secretary and alleged Clinton bagman Ron Brown when, in 1994, they began making deals with representatives of the government of Japan…."

Washington Post 12/18/99 Charles Babington "….President Clinton is strongly considering making a request for government reimbursement of several million dollars in legal expenses associated with the Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky investigations, a move the independent counsel's office is already preparing to challenge, knowledgeable legal sources said yesterday. If successful, Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton could eliminate most or all of their $5 million in unpaid legal bills, the balance of a sum that once exceeded $10 million…."

Washington Times 1/6/00 Kenneth Smith "….The Occupational Safety and Health Administration stunned almost everyone outside the agency this week by announcing that home offices would have to meet government standards once reserved for potentially dangerous workplaces. In a letter to a California company, which had requested information about home-workplace rules more than two years before, the agency said, "Ensuring safe and healthful working conditions for the employee should be a precondition for any home-based work assignments." So sweeping a dictate covers hazards ranging from the toy left on stairs leading to the home office in clear violation of OSHA's rules - arrest that toddler - to the number of illuminated exit signs over doorways to the adequacy of furniture in reducing musculoskeletal disorders, sometimes referred to as back or neck aches. The letter further stated that employers were responsible, and therefore potentially liable, in the event an employee suffered a work-related injury while working at home….."

CNN 12/16/99 Keating Holland "…..Although only a third of the country supported Bill Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives last December, nearly half today approve of the House's decision to send Clinton's case to the Senate for a trial, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll. That doesn't mean the public has turned against Clinton in the past year -- 57 percent approve of the Senate's decision to allow Clinton to remain in office. A majority also believe that Clinton should not be charged with a crime in a court of law after he leaves office……
House of Representative's Decision to Impeach Clinton
Now Approve 50%
Now Disapprove 49%
Dec 98 Approved 35
Dec 98 Disapproved 63….."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 1/5/00 Audrey Hudson "…..A congressional study shows government programs are losing tens of billions of dollars annually to fraud, abuse and mismanagement of federal agencies, prompting House hearings when Congress returns later this month. The study, conducted by the House Budget Committee, shows the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is losing $1 billion a year to fraud. The Medicare program made "massive overpayments" totaling $12.6 billion in one year, according to the study, obtained yesterday by The Washington Times. In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) wasted $18 billion and let public housing neighborhoods "fester with crime and drugs."..."

Washington Times 1/5/00 Audrey Hudson "…..A congressional study shows government programs are losing tens of billions of dollars annually to fraud, abuse and mismanagement of federal agencies, prompting House hearings when Congress returns later this month. The study, conducted by the House Budget Committee, shows the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is losing $1 billion a year to fraud. The Medicare program made "massive overpayments" totaling $12.6 billion in one year, according to the study, obtained yesterday by The Washington Times. In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) wasted $18 billion and let public housing neighborhoods "fester with crime and drugs." The House Budget Committee based its study on inspector general and General Accounting Office investigations, as well as independent sources. The initial draft contains figures from 1998 investigations, but the committee plans to update the study with 1999 figures before releasing it to the public. The release will coincide with the February announcement of President Clinton's budget for fiscal 2001, and hearings will be held by John R. Kasich, Ohio Republican and Budget Committee chairman….."

CNSNews.com 1/6/00 Ben Anderson "…..Numerous conservative and liberal organizations have joined forces in an effort to combat the Federal Elections Commission's proposal to regulate political speech on the Internet. The Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Free Congress Foundation and People for the American Way are urging the FEC to back away from its attempts to determine whether certain Internet activities constitute political contributions. According to the FEC, the agency is "currently examining the issues raised by the use of the Internet to conduct campaign activity. ..."

Christian Coalition of America Weekly News and Updates 1/20/2000 "….The Department of Education cannot account for how it spent almost $32 BILLION in taxpayer funds and BILLIONS more in student loans according to an ERNST AND YOUNG AUDIT report. The audit report from the Department of Education for fiscal year(FY) 1998 was released on November 18, 1999, more than eight months after the March 1 deadline. Numerous examples of financial mismanagement were cited by the report. It was concluded that the Department's books are in such disarray for FY 98, they cannot be audited….."

The Wall Street Journal 1/9/00 "....If you think some of our Presidential candidates come across as syntactically challenged, don't tell Kirk Hazen. Professor Hazen teaches linguistics at the University of West Virginia, and we caught a glimpse of him the other night on one of the highest-rated shows on cable, Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor." There, Professor Hazen was trying to persuade a dubious Bill O'Reilly that anyone who corrects someone else's bad grammar is guilty of "dialect discrimination." Alas, this is no joke. Today, everything from reading to writing has become infused with the latest in sensitivity etiquette. One teacher's manual for a popular reading textbook states, "To help students begin to develop cultural awareness and understanding, they first need to know who they are--their ethnicity, gender and social class--and how they are viewed by society." Even the National Council of Teachers of English has advised banning the word "English" as exclusionary. The group recommends "Language Arts" instead....."

INSIGHT Magazine 1/14/2000 Sheila Cherry "….In an age of computerized data collection, the Social Security number has become a centralized identifier - a national ID card with serious implications for privacy…… In 1998, the SSA began testing an online database designed to give Internet users access to the personal earnings and benefits records that workers accrue throughout their careers. The idea was to allow users to track their benefit estimates in a user-friendly format. One month into the test, however, public fears about the risks of improper disclosure of SSNs forced the agency to suspend the test until concerns about privacy and information security could be further evaluated……. When Ida Mae Fuller, a retired legal secretary in Ludlow, Vt., received the first monthly retirement check from the new SSA on Jan. 31, 1940, the SSN was intended only to track earnings and administer retirement benefits to workers. That restriction changed quickly. In 1943, federal agencies were given use of the SSN for record-keeping purposes. In 1961, the IRS began using it to identify taxpayers. In 1976, the states were granted authority to use the SSN to identify taxpayers as well as to track welfare recipients, driver's licenses and motor-vehicle registrations. Upon discovering that states had begun selling driver's-license information to raise revenue, Congress enacted the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994. …… "

WorldNetDaily 1/2000 Paul Ciotti "….In one of the more infamous instances of alleged law enforcement misconduct -- the killing of the reclusive Malibu millionaire and rugged anti-government individualist Donald Scott in his ranch house by Los Angeles sheriff's deputies in 1992 -- county and federal government officials tentatively agreed last week to pay Scott's heirs and estate a total of $5 million in return for their dropping a wrongful death lawsuit…… Early on the morning of Oct. 2, 1992, 31 officers from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, Border Patrol, National Guard and Park Service came roaring down the narrow dirt road to Scott's rustic 200-acre ranch. They planned to arrest Scott, the wealthy, eccentric, hard-drinking heir to a Europe-based chemicals fortune, for allegedly running a 4,000-plant marijuana plantation. When deputies broke down the door to Scott's house, Scott's wife would later tell reporters, she screamed, "Don't shoot me. Don't kill me." That brought Scott staggering out of the bedroom, hung-over and bleary-eyed -- he'd just had a cataract operation -- holding a .38 caliber Colt snub-nosed revolver over his head. When he pointed it in the direction of the deputies, they killed him. Later, the lead agent in the case, sheriff's deputy Gary Spencer and his partner John Cater posed for photographs arm-in-am outside Scott's cabin, smiling and triumphant, says Larry Longo, a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who now represents Scott's daughter, Susan. "It was as if they were white hunters who had just shot the buffalo," he said……. Despite a subsequent search of Scott's ranch using helicopters, dogs, searchers on foot, and a high-tech Jet Propulsion Laboratory device for detecting trace amounts of sinsemilla, no marijuana --or any other illegal drug -- was ever found….."

The China Daily 1/23/2000 "…..The US economy is booming and unemployment is at a 30-year low, but the number of hungry Americans has not decreased over the past four years, a study released on Thursday said. "For the first time in modern history, the prevalence of hunger seems stubbornly impervious to economic growth," said Larry Brown, director of the Centre on Hunger and Poverty at Tufts University. "At the peak of the longest economic boom in our history, over 30 million people live in households that experience hunger and food insecurity -- about the same number as four years ago," he said….."

World Net Daily John Doggett "….Well, I question whether the ACLU deserves to be a tax-exempt organization, because I do not believe that it treats all Americans fairly…… The ACLU claims that it does not "... choose sides according to financial criteria. Nor do we take political sides; we are neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democratic. The ACLU is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 275,000-member public interest organization devoted exclusively to protecting the basic civil liberties of all Americans, and extending them to groups that have traditionally been denied them…." …… The ACLU says that it is nonpartisan. However, when you read the ACLU's list of its greatest accomplishments from 1983 to today, nonpartisan is the one word that doesn't fit. Here, straight from its website, are examples of the ACLU's nonpartisanship: 1987, Block Bork: The ACLU, changing a 51-year-old policy of neutrality on Supreme Court candidates, mounted a national campaign to defeat the nomination of Judge Robert Bork…. 1993: Resurgence of the Radical Right: Though the end of the Reagan-Bush era brought improved prospects for civil liberties at the federal level, numerous right-wing extremists saw opportunities for local organizing. The ACLU opposed the agenda of school boards dominated by extremists and challenged anti-choice anti-gay ballot initiatives….."

CNSNews.com 1/20/2000 Ben Anderson "….Even though President Bill Clinton has yet to formally announce his 2000 budget proposals, White House leaks about his final spending plans for the next fiscal year have amounted to more than $9 billion according to the House Budget Committee. The committee has developed a website to keep track of what they call "Clinton's Budget-Busting Trial Balloons," which have so far come only in the form of a "steady stream of White House 'leaks.'" "Already there have been an estimated 36 leaks totaling $9.5 billion for increased spending and new government programs in fiscal year 2001," according to a statement released by the committee. …."

Newsmax 1/11/2000 Dick Boland "…. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman has withdrawn an advisory letter to a Texas company requiring them to extend OSHA rules and regulations to at-home workers. This overnight turnaround is a lot like Hillary Clinton's involvement in national health care: Now you see them, now you don't. Secretary Herman is going to set up an interagency task force to study just how far the government can intrude into your castle. They are already telling us what we can and can't do with our land……"

Associated Press 1/11/2000 Philip Brasher "….. Consumer advocacy groups are criticizing the Clinton administration for writing a plan for improving food safety without proposing to consolidate the dozen agencies that now have some responsibility for the issue. The draft strategic plan released recently by the President's Food Safety Council instead offered several consolidation alternatives for discussion at a public hearing Jan. 19. The council, which is made up of officials from the agencies, ``seems to be designed to fend off efforts to get a single food safety agency,'' Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said Monday. ``The council is comprised of exactly the people whose ox would be gored if an independent agency were to be formed.'' …"

The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1/9/00 Jim Lakely "....DEFENDING the indefensible isn't easy. Just ask O.J. Simpson's lawyers or Al "my-boss-will-go-down-in-history-as-one-of-our-greatest-presidents" Gore. So it gives me no pleasure to defend a racist, gay-hating schmuck like John Rocker, but it has to be done. Injustice, even if it's done to a despicable person, must be opposed...... The things that Rocker said can't be taken back, no matter how many times he apologizes. They will follow the 25-year-old fool for the rest of his career. But it raises the question: What is to be done about it? An Atlanta City councilman and the director of the Atlanta AIDS Survival Project have called for Rocker to be fired. That's unlikely considering left-handers who throw 95-mph fastballs and unhittable sliders are hard to come by. But what we have here is a situation where people are calling for Rocker's head because of what he said-because of what his thoughts are. Sure, the Braves are free to fire Rocker for this, but he's also free to sue them for unlawful termination. What if he was a member of the Nation of Islam and spewed the kind of anti-Semitic, anti-white garbage preached by Louis Farrakhan? Would he be fired for that? Freedom of speech, like all freedoms, comes with the inseparable sidecar of responsibility. But it is anathema to the concept of freedom to attach punishment to the use of that freedom by those who don't go along with the program....."

Denver Pest 1/10/00 Jason Blevins "..... A report from a private investigator, delivered to the special prosecutor looking into the death of a man shot by Denver police in a "no-knock" raid, paints a different picture than the version provided by police. Jim Kearney, a private investigator hired by the family of Ismael Mena, said the unarmed 45-year-old father of nine was holding his bedroom door closed as hooded SWAT officers shot through the door, striking him six times. "These officers had shot from the blind, never having seen their target before shooting," Kearney told The Denver Post on Saturday. "Incredible," said Denver SWAT Capt. Vince DiManna, who led the "no-knock" raid at Mena's northeast Denver home Sept. 29 after obtaining a warrant based on information from a confidential informant who told police he or she had purchased drugs at the home. "That is flat full of lies and misinterpretations and totally erroneous. I would call (Kearney) absolutely not credible." Authorities say they shot Mena eight times after he drew a handgun, whose ownership later could not be traced, and fired on police......"

LewRockwell.com 1/10/00 Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr ".....It was an appalling spectacle. Sleek officials lounged around in fancy hotels while rioters swung from lampposts, the national guard dropped tear gas, traffic was barricaded, and looters attacked 1,000 retailers as the cops stood by. The meeting of the World Trade Organization was the sort of political spectacle we haven't seen in years..... Ever since the WTO was proposed five years ago, the Mises Institute has denounced the notion that world trade somehow needed world government management. Even before this bureaucracy was created, we worked to get the message out with our WTO Reader, which took this perspective that no one else was willing to take. In the years since, we've defended the classical ideal of free trade in our teaching conferences and publications, against both WTO bureaucrats and the sort of open anti-capitalism on display in Seattle. We have shown that on trade policy, there is only one option compatible with liberty. The WTO must never meet again while nations, on their own, seek to remove trade interventions......"

U.S. News & World Report 1/17/00 "..... How many ways does President Clinton love China? How about 297,832? In a rare accounting, the State Department reveals that it stuck taxpayers for that amount to pay the check of the 1997 state dinner for Chinese President Jiang Zemin-Clinton's most elaborate. ...."

U.S. News & World Reports 1/17/00 ".....They're not the most popular couple in town, so it shouldn't be shocking that critics are muttering about the cost to taxpayers for making the Clintons' political perch in Chappaqua, N.Y., safe from bad guys. What is surprising is the unashamed White House spin and queasy Republican reaction. Pressed to address the extra cost of protecting the 1-acre estate, administration officials tell Whispers that taxpayers have gotten off easy so far: Unlike every past president, the Clinton's didn't own a home when they came to Washington. As a result, they didn't need costly Secret Service protection of a second residence......"

Associated Press 1/10/00 ".....Spending on machine tools in November fell 18 percent from the previous month and was down 7 percent from the year-ago November, according to two industry groups..... "As the machine tool industry concludes one of the weakest sales years of the decade, it appears U.S. manufacturers will continue their limited investment in capital equipment," said Ralph J. Nappi, AMTDA president. "Only a slight increase is forecast for 2000" as metalworking companies have already enhanced their equipment and productivity and because of smaller demand for manufactured goods. Analysts consider demand for machine tools a reliable indicator of the strength of the manufacturing sector and the overall economy. ...."

CNSNews.com- 1/19/2000 Ben Anderson "….A new congressional report is calling into question the reliability of the Treasury Department's claims about which taxpayers would benefit more from a tax cut. The Treasury Department's "tax distribution numbers are statistically compromised and include conjectures and guesswork making their reliability unknowable," according to a new Joint Economic Committee (JEC) study released on Tuesday. "Simply put, the Treasury is releasing statistics in such a way that it is impossible to evaluate their quality and integrity despite their often-explosive policy impact," said JEC Chairman Jim Saxton (R-NJ). "It appears quite possible that the Treasury itself does not know how reliable these statistics are." The Treasury Department, under which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) operates, routinely gathers data on which taxpayers pay their share of the federal budget. But the latest JEC report suggests that the agency, in compiling its data, neglects to adhere to federal information dissemination rules implemented to ensure the accuracy of such reports….."

The Wall Street Journal 1/27/2000 Lawrence Lindsey "….Bill Clinton is sure to take credit tonight for what is about to become the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history. But when historians look back, they will date the current expansion from 1982--not 1991, when the last, brief recession ended, and certainly not 1993, when Mr. Clinton took office. It was in late 1982 that a sea change occurred in the American economy. True, this 17-year expansion was briefly interrupted by two successive quarters of economic contraction in 1990-91, the shortest period that meets the definition of recession. But in terms of economic performance, government policy and effect on the thinking of professional economists, the 1980s and 1990s form a continuous era radically different from what preceded it. How this expansion ends will no doubt shape economic performance, policy and philosophy in the new century. The power of this 17-year expansion is as impressive as its durability. The level of real per capita consumption has risen 36%. Almost 35 million jobs have been created. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 13-fold. Economic optimism reigns supreme……"

WorldNetDaily - Exclusive 1/24/2000 Mike Catanzaro ".... When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, one of the pillars of their reform agenda was vigorous oversight of federal programs. But after nearly five years of a GOP majority, Congress has allowed some of the most liberal federal programs to go unauthorized for years, while continuing to feed them with taxpayer dollars. That was the troubling conclusion highlighted in a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, which shows that Congress provided nearly $101 billion in fiscal year 1999 for 198 government programs that either have never been authorized or whose authorization expired. In the following year, Congress provided $129 billion for 137 unauthorized programs. CBO's report also found that 49 program authorizations, totaling $293 billion, will expire before the end of FY 2000. Supposedly, there can be no money appropriated for unauthorized purposes. "This is simply an outrage," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R.-Colo., who, along with members of the Conservative Action Team and the Citizen Legislators' Caucus, is trying to make Congress do its job....."

Wall Street Journal 1/24/2000 Yochi Dreazen Deborah Lohse "....Law-enforcement agencies are gearing up to investigate allegations of widespread corruption in the nation's largest union of civil servants, officials said. Investigations into members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees could be formally launched as early as Monday. The probes come just days after the release of a confidential internal union audit that uncovered evidence of millions of dollars of embezzlement and fraud allegedly committed by union officials throughout the country. "This certainly warrants preliminary investigations by law enforcement," said John Russell, a spokesman for the Justice Department's criminal division....."

Newarl (NJ) Star Ledger 1/25/2000 Ted Sherman David Wald "….Sen. Robert Torricelli -- stung by disclosures of his involvement in a series of insider stock deals made after a 1994 pledge to forgo such investments -- acknowledged yesterday he had changed his mind about limiting his involvement with Wall Street. He said he should have publicly announced that he planned to make investments in the stock market after abandoning his blind trust a year ago. At the same time, he defended the investments as legal, ethical, and available to every other client ..."

Associated Press 1/25/2000 "….A former detective who was found innocent by reason of insanity in the deaths of his wife and children 25 years ago has confessed to killing his second wife and their son last fall, authorities said. Paul Harrington was ordered Monday to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder in the Oct. 15 deaths of his second wife, Wanda, 45, and their 3-year-old son, Brian. ``The same thing happened in 1975,'' Harrington said in a statement to police. ``They should have put me away then.'' …."

NewsMax.com 1/25/2000 Michael Savage "….. Californians can welcome to our fair state a brand-new citizen. An illegal immigrant gave birth to a baby girl in the back of a Border Patrol van. The woman had slipped in from Mexico, was abandoned by her smugglers, and then apprehended by the Border Patrol. She popped one out while inside the van, and presto, the baby is a U.S. citizen by law! I think that is so touching. The child is a full U.S. citizen with full benefits, SSI, welfare, childcare, medicare, ACLU-care. It is unlimited. Do you realize that child has more benefits than you? Let's say your great great great grandfather fought slavery in the Civil War. It means absolutely nothing. That child has instant access to affirmative action. That child has greater access to the best university than your child. That's right, born in the back seat of an INS van; but we don't want to discriminate, do we? …."

AP 2/3/00 Martha Irvine "……A census worker at the front door often means one thing to illegal immigrants.

``A lot of people think, `Hey, who's this guy coming to my door? Probably Immigration,''' says Alejandro Lopez, a Chicagoan who is one of many people being asked to spread the word about the census in the nation's often undercounted minority communities. The word is this: Whether you are here legally or not, you should fill out the questionnaire when it arrives in April. Officials at the Census Bureau say they don't care if you're here illegally. In fact, they won't even ask. ``The Census doesn't exist to do law enforcement,'' says Dianne Schmidley, a census demographer. ``Our job is to get a body count.''….."

Williston Daily Herald 2/1/2000 AP ".....The state's two largest grazing associations have defied a deadline to turn over hundreds of records to the U.S Forest Service, calling the agency's demand unlawful.'' Attorneys for the Medora Grazing Association and the McKenzie County Grazing Association told the Forest Service in a letter Monday that the groups would continue to oppose the order, despite threats that their contracts to manage grazing on the national grasslands would be canceled. It is our position that the Forest Service's demand is an unlawful order,'' Dennis Johnson, the lawyer for the McKenzie County Grazing Association, said ..."

Jewish World Review 2/2/2000 Walter Williams "..... MEMBERS OF CONGRESS take a sworn oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic" and "bear true faith and allegiance to the same." I'm guessing that if congressmen actually "bore true faith and allegiance" to the Constitution, we wouldn't have a federal budget of $1.7 trillion, not to mention those congressionally mandated 1.6 gallon flush toilets. Just about every one of the 535 members of Congress have contempt for or ignorance of our Constitution. What's worse is, if they knew they routinely violated their oaths of office, they wouldn't care. Getting elected and re-elected is what counts....."

Newsday.com 2/2/2000 Curt Anderson AP ".... The Clinton administration is expressing strong opposition to a House Republican bill cutting taxes by $182 billion over 10 years for millions of married couples, saying it is too much, too soon. Although he did not use the word ``veto,'' Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said he would not recommend that President Clinton sign the bill being considered today by the House Ways and Means Committee. That bill would ease the extra tax -- the ``marriage penalty'' -- paid by 25 million couples compared with what they would pay if single..."

Reuters 2/1/2000 Tabassum Zakaria ".....A U.S. intelligence report warned Americans Tuesday they were under growing threat from infectious diseases brewing in the rest of the world. "Senior policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about the implications of growing infectious disease threats for U.S. citizens at home and abroad, for U.S. armed forces deployed overseas," said John Gannon, chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

He released a new National Intelligence Estimate report, "The Global Infectious Disease Threat and Its Implications for the United States," at a symposium at the Smithsonian Institution. Asia was likely to see a major increase in infectious disease deaths driven by the spread of HIV and AIDS, replacing Africa as the epicenter of the disease before 2015, he said. At least 30 previously unknown diseases have appeared globally since 1973, including HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C, Ebola hemorrhagic fever and the encephalitis-related Nipah virus that emerged in Indonesia last year, Gannon said. "Many are still incurable," he added. Twenty well-known infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera have reemerged or spread since 1973, some reappearing in "deadlier, drug-resistant forms," Gannon said. Americans were at risk because the United States was a major hub of global travel, immigration and commerce and had a large civilian and military presence overseas, the report said. ....The probability of a "bioterrorist attack" against Americans was likely to grow as more countries and groups developed biological warfare capability, the report said. ......a'

news.bbc.co.uk 2/1/2000 ".... Hundreds of failed gene therapy experiments, including a number of deaths, have been revealed in the US. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has confirmed that only 39 of the 691 "serious adverse events" now logged had been reported to them "immediately", as required by federal rgulations. The late reports have flooded in since the death of a teenager undergoing gene therapy last year. This prompted the NIH to send stern letters to researchers reminding them of their duty to report problems...... One prominent US researcher said he was worried that poor results were being kept secret because of the financial damage they could cause to the funding companies. ....."

Reuters 1/27/2000 Belinda Goldsmith "…..European leaders called for international cooperation on Thursday to stop the Internet's use as a tool for spreading neo-Nazi and other racist propaganda. Many of the 700 delegates from 46 countries attending a conference on the Holocaust expressed concern about rising neo-Nazi activity in Europe, and the growing role of high technology in spreading messages of hate. ''Unfortunately the Internet is ... a cross-border vector for racist theories and the fermentation of hatred and discrimination,'' Ruth Dreifuss, head of Switzerland's Federal Home Affairs Department, told the conference on Thursday. ``Worse still, the Web enables those who support such ideas to network and promote their products, books and so-called 'scientific' and other reports by means of e-commerce, or even to coordinate their subversive activities,'' she said. …."

Reuters 1/30/2000 Tom Doggett "….The U.S. Energy Department has proposed putting millions of barrels of crude oil from the national Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on the market through oil swaps with energy companies, a government official said on Sunday. While the long-term goal of the plan is to eventually put more oil back into the reserve, a short-term side effect of the additional supplies from the proposed swap could be to lower crude oil prices, which have recently hit nine-year highs, said the official, who asked not to be named. Under the department's plan, oil firms would submit bids to take oil from the reserve and then sell it in the market. Instead of paying the government cash for the reserve oil, the companies would replace the crude at a future date with more product. …."

Investor's Business Daily 1/31/2000 "…..From Mexico and Ecuador to East Timor, many nations are considering dropping their own currency and adopting the dollar. Economists generally hail dollarization as the antidote to inflation and monetary mismanagement…… IBD spoke with economist George Selgin, an expert on monetary policy, to find out what impact dollarization will have on the U.S. and the world. IBD: Why do other nations want to adopt the dollar as their currency? Selgin: If a country has had a record of devaluation or inflation in its past, the easiest way to establish a credible monetary policy is take advantage of the relatively good reputation of some other currency. ...... "

AP 1/31/2000 "…..A new do-it-yourself program is coming to television in Oregon, but it's not about cooking or home repair: It's a video guide to committing suicide based on the best-selling book ``Final Exit.'' Even some right-to-die advocates are uneasy about this week's broadcast on cable television in Eugene and Springfield. ``I think it's reckless,'' said Barbara Coombs Lee, executive director of the Portland-based Compassion in Dying Federation. ``It can give people the means to act on impulsiveness.'' ``Final Exit'' author Derek Humphry said his goal in making the video was to help desperately ill people and their loved ones, not all of whom are accustomed to seeking help from libraries or books. He said his Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization has sold hundreds of copies of the video. The print version of ``Final Exit'' has sold more than 1 million copies and has been printed in 12 languages……. In the video, Humphry lists the top three lethal drugs, in order of potency, and offers tips on where to find them with or without a doctor's prescription. Then he shows how to mix them into an easy-to-gulp pudding. ….."

AP 2/12/00 Jim Abrams "…The Senate impasse over federal judge nominations was partially lifted when Majority Leader Trent Lott overrode the objections of his own party members and allowed votes on two judges. Democrats applauded the votes but urged the Republican leadership to make a more concerted effort to fill the 77 vacancies, nearly one-tenth of the total, in the federal judicial system. The votes Thursday on two largely non-controversial nominees, Thomas Ambro to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the 3rd District and Joel Pisano to be U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey, came despite a campaign by some Republicans to stop all votes on President Clinton's federal judge nominees. …..The effort was led by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who said Clinton violated an agreement with the Senate by making a recess appointment, a constitutionally approved way for the president to appoint someone temporarily when Congress is not in session. Lott, R-Miss., said he was ``not one to get all weepy-eyed about having more federal judges of any kind, anywhere.'' …."

AP 2/10/00 Jim Abrams "….Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott pushed through the confirmation of two federal judges Thursday, defying an effort by his fellow Republicans to block all nominations put forward by the Clinton administration. "I don't think we should, or would, be able to go all year without confirming any nominations," Lott, R-Miss., said in explaining his decision to press ahead with the votes. "Some of these are good men and women ... and in some of these states, there truly is a need for more judges." The Senate voted 96-2 to confirm Thomas Ambro as U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit and 95-2 to approve Joel Pisano to be U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey. The long-simmering standoff between the administration and Senate Republicans over federal judges boiled over at yearend. That's when Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., accused President Clinton of violating an agreement on making temporary recess appointments, a method of bypassing the Senate confirmation process. Inhofe said 19 Republican senators had joined in deciding to put "holds" on all judicial nominees. ……. Under Senate tradition, a single senator can block further floor action on a nominee by putting a "hold" on the nomination. But in this case, with Democrats accusing Republicans of playing politics in blocking worthy judicial nominations, Lott decided to move ahead with votes on the two non-controversial judges. ……"

AP-Washington 2/4/00 Sonya Ross "…..President Clinton will consider a request that he suspend federal executions, the White House said Friday. A spokesman said Clinton is ``certainly concerned'' about Illinois' decision to halt executions and evaluate how that state handles the death penalty. The suspension request, made in a letter from Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., is being reviewed by White House counsel, spokesman Joe Lockhart said. But he said that does not guarantee that Clinton would act on the matter soon. ``The president was certainly concerned by the issues raised by the governor of Illinois,'' Lockhart said. ``If there are legitimate concerns that are brought to us, we will look at the concerns. But I can't predict anything beyond that until we've had a chance to study the issue.'' ….."

Hardball 2/5/00 Freeper the Wiz reports "….. I was as stunned as Chris Mathews when his guest, Professor of Political Science,Clemson Univ, SC. David Woodard Stated flatly: "The word is that the constituency of DEMOCRATS, SCHOOL TEACHERS, TRIAL LAWYERS, COLLEGE PROFESSORS ALL WANT TO SEE MCCAIN WIN THE NOMINATION"
CM:"Why do you think?"
DW: "Well, because I think they think he's BEATABLE by Gore or Bradley, where they DON'T THINK THAT BUSH IS" …."

The Washington Times 2/6/00 Audrey Hudson "…..President Clinton's plan to eliminate road building through the nation's forests will be reviewed by a federal agency to see if it hampers the Forest Service's ability to fight fires. The forest roads are used for several purposes, including access for firefighters to extinguish forest fires. The General Accounting Office review was requested by Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage, chairman of the House Resources Committee's subcommittee on forests and forest health, and Sen. Larry E. Craig, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources's subcommittee on forest and public land management. A GAO spokesman told The Washington Times on Friday it would look at maps detailing catastrophic fire areas to see if they overlapped with forest areas that would become inaccessible under Mr. Clinton's proposal. …"

San Francisco Examiner 2/7/00 Ilene Lelchuk "….On the last day to register to vote in the presidential primary election, hundreds of Bay Area residents were rushing to switch their party affiliations so their votes will count in March. Residents in San Francisco were lining up Monday morning at the Election Department in the basement of City Hall, where many voters said they are Democrats signing up to become Republicans. The plan, many of the liberal voters said, is to foil conservative Republican George Bush's chances at winning in California on March 7. "I just want to make sure (Republican candidate John) McCain has a shot in California," said David Lowe, 46, who describes himself as a gay Democrat. …."

The American Spectator 2/10/00 Byron York "….So now it's official -- the New York Times says so. Democrats all across the country -- in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, in Massachusetts, in California -- are crossing party lines to vote for John McCain in the presidential primaries. This morning's paper tells the story of Samuel J. Tenenbaum, a longtime Democrat who is planning to vote for McCain in South Carolina's open primary on February 19. "It's not an easy thing for a yellow-dog Democrat like me to do," Tenenbaum told the Times. "But McCain has a moral compass, a real sense of maturity." Very nice. But the paper goes on to say that Mr. Tenenbaum is not pledging to vote for McCain in the general election. Oh no; at that point, it appears likely that the yellow-dog Democrat in him will come back to life and he will pull the lever for Al Gore. So the net effect of his primary vote for McCain will be a vote against George W. Bush. It's a scene being repeated over and over in major primary states. "In Massachusetts, where state officials have been flooded with calls from voters wanting to change their party affiliation or register as a Republican for the first time," writes Times reporter David Firestone, "many voters have made it clear they plan to switch back immediately afterward."…..What's going on here? Some might call it sabotage. But others say not to worry -- it's a good thing, reminiscent of all those Democrats who voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. But didn't the Reagan Democrats vote for their man in the GENERAL election? The one that really counted? ..."

The Michigan Citizen 2/9/00 "…. Governor John Engler wants George Bush to win the Republican nomination for president. Engler is pushing Bush in the hopes of getting a job for himself in the Bush cabinet, because Engler is term limited out - he cannot run for governor again. He needs a job. If Engler can deliver Michigan for Bush - and he expects he can - then Engler thinks he has a job in Washington. But Detroit has the votes and the motive to smash Engler's plans…… With the February 22 primary election, Detroiters have a chance to get Engler. How? Vote for McCain. There is no Democrat on the Democratic ballot - only Lyndon LaRouche - so there is no loss there. Detroiters should be out in great numbers voting for the library millage. While we are at the polls, let's vote for McCain and upset Engler's little red wagon. We would thereby deflate Engler's prestige and image within the Republican Party. Think about it, do we need Engler occupying a cabinet seat in Washington, D.C.? No. Vote February 22 for our best interests. Vote John McCain on the Republican ticket. Go to your regular polling place and vote in the Republican primary. You need not declare you are Republican. You can do your Democratic picking in the March 11 Democratic caucus. In the meantime, plan to vote McCain, Republican on February 22….."

LA Times via AP 2/9/00 Terence Hunt "…..President Clinton, trying to bring pressure on Congress, said today that a patients' rights bill should cover all Americans and allow them to sue health providers for inadequate care. The president spoke up as congressional negotiators prepared to meet Thursday to begin reconciling differences between House and Senate versions of legislation to expand the rights of patients in dealing with HMOs. The House bill, passed last year with the support of Democrats, provides the right to sue HMOs for denial of care. The GOP-crafted Senate plan does not….."

Orange County Register 2/9/00 "…..A lawsuit filed this week on behalf of three California university employees - two of them from Orange County - illustrates the coercive nature of many union activities and the depths to which even 'moderate' politicians will sink to tap into union donations. The class-action lawsuit, filed by the Virginia-based National Right to Work Foundation on behalf of David Friedman, Marion Smith and Pat Ames, seeks to ameliorate the effects of a mandatory unionization law signed by Gov. Gray Davis at the behest of his union supporters. The law, S.B. 645, effective Jan. 1, forces 75,000 non-unionized faculty and staff at the Cal State University system and non-faculty staff at the University of California campuses to pay an 'agency fee' to the unions, even though they are not members of the union. This will enhance the California State Employees Association's coffers by at least $45 million annually...."

The Washington Post, Page A09 2/8/00 AP "….Forest Service employees in Nevada have been intimidated and harassed by local residents but are not in danger, according to an investigation by the agency released today. Disputes over Forest Service policies have created such hostility in some areas that Gloria Flora, the supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, cited concerns about her employees' safety when she resigned in November. ….."

NewsMax.com 2/9/00 Carl Limbacher "….On the same day that his name came up five different times during the federal criminal trial of his Buddhist Temple fundraiser, Maria Hsia, Vice President Al Gore spent the afternoon yesterday courting New York City's giant AFSCME District Council 37, identified just two weeks ago in an internal union report as one of America's most corrupt -- and the Chairman of the Republican National Committee is demanding to know why. "Al Gore wore a hardhat for his meeting at AFSCME District Council 37, and it's a good thing," said RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson. "At DC 37, you need a hardhat to dodge the falling Indictments and dropping dimes!" Nicholson noted that two dozen officials of District Council have been indicted, and that $2.2 million in members' dues is known to have been stolen in one single instance of fraud. "What was Al Gore doing at AFSCME DC 37 just two weeks after an internal report identified widespread corruption within AFSCME, and pointed to District Council 37 as the source of more than half of the fraud in the entire union nationwide?" Nicholson asked. …."

Associated Press 2/18/00 Martin Crutsinger "…..America's trade deficit, the major blot on an otherwise sterling economy, surged to an all-time high of $271.3 billion last year. Deficits with Japan, China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union all set records. The Commerce Department reported today that the 1999 trade deficit was up a sharp 65.1 percent from a 1998 deficit of $164.3 billion, the previous record. ..."

The Washington Times - National Weekly Edition 2/14-20/00 David Limbaugh "….. President Clinton, they said, was a visionary, deftly embracing the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and saving his party from the death throes of extreme liberalism. Third Way governance is the wave of the political future, and unless the GOP climbs aboard, it will be relegated to permanent minority status. I think the opposite is true……. The Mc Cain effort to remake the GOP in his liberal image represents a capitulation to Clintonomics and a repudiation of Reaganomics that must not stand. Recently a number of economists have written that this robust economy began in the early 80's as a result of supply-side tax cuts and has continued to the present, interrupted only briefly by a minor recession. Though these economists are mostly conservative, their evidence is objective and their conclusions are quite difficult to refute....."

World Net Daily 2/17/00 Richard Stevens "….. News sources report that at the end of January, Northwest Airlines (NWA) had begun searches of the home computers of up to 20 flight attendants. A federal court authorized the searches as part of "civil discovery" in a labor dispute. NWA was allowed to download the contents of personal computer hard drives to look for private e-mail and other evidence which might show the employees helped to organize a "sickout" at the airline over the New Year's holiday. Legal tactics in labor disputes usually interest few people outside of the players, but this recent ruling should worry all Americans. A federal court has allowed a private party to do what the government is forbidden to do: search private property without a warrant. Under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, individuals have a right to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures." To conduct a search or seizure, the government must have a "warrant." A judge can issue a search warrant if there is evidence to show "probable cause" to believe a crime has been committed and that specific evidence exists in the particular location to be searched. What is missing in the NWA computer search case? Sworn evidence of a crime. Probable cause. A search warrant. The federal judge allowed the search of personal home computers without a warrant. ….."

Stratfor 2/14/00 "……Last week, U.S. bond markets saw the emergence of a strange yield curve with the yield of 30-year Treasury bonds falling below earlier maturities. While there is argument over what this meant - whether it meant anything at all - the yield curve is one of several indicators suggesting that a recession is in the making. At the very least, the yield curve has flattened dramatically, and it seems to us that most market forces are driving toward an inverted yield curve. There are other signs, too. The performance of major stock indices has diverged. Commodity prices have risen, giving investment some place to go other than stocks. We remain bullish on the long-term prospects of the American economy but a short, sharp recession appears to be shaping up for late this year. ….."

Bloomberg 2/17/00 Michael McKee Noam Neusner "…..Interest rates will have to rise to slow U.S. consumer spending and keep the economy from overheating, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said. His comments to Congress today suggest the Fed will boost borrowing costs to the highest level in at least five years. There is little evidence the economy is slowing after four Fed interest-rate increases since last June, Greenspan told the House Banking Committee. Surging stocks are contributing to consumer demand rising faster than the economy's ability to produce goods and services, he said. "The profoundly beneficial forces driving the American economy to competitive excellence are also engendering a set of imbalances that, unless contained, threaten our continuing prosperity," Greenspan said. ….."

New York Times 2/17/00 Garey Goldberg "……Energy Secretary Bill Richardson stood penitent here today before a crowd of regional politicians, truckers, industry representatives and consumers at the first New England Heating Oil Summit, and confessed, "We were caught napping." "It's obvious the federal government was not prepared," Mr. Richardson said, for the recent jumps in oil prices that have brought cries of distress from residents of the Northeast and elsewhere who have found their home fuel bills doubling this winter, to as much as $2 a gallon. "We got complacent." No one among the scores of people who nearly filled a Faneuil Hall meeting room disputed a need for better monitoring to anticipate rising prices. ….."

Union Leader 2/17/00 Bernadette Malone Connolly "….Gary Bauer has done something strange again. He has endorsed John McCain, which makes no sense at all unless he is positioning himself for a Cabinet post in 2001. Why so cynical, when McCain is obviously a good man and good candidate? Because there were only two reasons Gary Bauer gave voters in New Hampshire for taking up their time, and they were abortion and China. Bauer poured his soul into railing against Republicans who were insufficiently pro-life and who were less than absolutely opposed to Most Favored Nation trade status for China. Bauer, now apparently soulless, chose to endorse the Republican candidate least committed to the pro-life movement and most committed to business as usual with China. McCain has many fine policy positions, but the two that were most important to Bauer are not among them. ……"

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism 2/14/00 Joe Schembrie "…… Hey, Republicans! How does it feel to have your party's presidential nomination stolen right out from under you? Politically-naive little waifs that you were, you never even saw it coming. In Iowa, you gathered in your cozy enclaves to philosophically discuss whether George W. Bush was conservative enough for your tastes -- unaware of the Big-Media bandits lurking in ambush. In New Hampshire, they sprang their trap and hijacked your political party. In mere days, so-called McCain Mania pushed Bush from twenty points ahead to five points behind in the South Carolina primary polls. McCain began to look unbeatable in California and even Michigan, and the media hinted he might grab it all and become the Republican Party presidential nominee by acclamation. Polls say that the electorate is sixty percent conservative, but now the polls are also saying that conservatives will be shut out of this year's presidential election. Conservatives may even be locked out of the Republican National Convention -- which is likely to be packed instead with McCain delegate slates of Independents and Democrats, cheering on the hand-picked puppet of the Big Media Establishment……"

Cato 2/25/00 Randal O’Toole "…..Randal O'Toole is senior economist with the Oregon-based Thoreau Institute and the author of the Cato Institute study, "Smart Growth at the Federal Trough: EPA's Financing of the Anti-Sprawl Movement." Should government agencies with hidden agendas be allowed to carry out those agendas by giving money to special interest lobbies? Government funding of lobby groups subverts democracy, especially when those groups pose as grass-roots organizations. A year ago, Vice President Al Gore announced the administration's war on sprawl, meaning low-density suburbs. Since then, what appears to be a grass-roots movement against sprawl has sprung up all over the country. But it turns out that most of those anti-sprawl groups are either funded by the Environmental Protection Agency or supported by EPA-funded groups. The EPA has a mandate to reduce air pollution from automobiles and other sources. Clean technologies such as catalytic converters and improved fuels are the proven way to reduce automotive pollution. …….. As a General Accounting Office report recently concluded, there is no evidence that federal subsidies or policies promote driving or low-density suburbs. The war on autos and low-density suburbs is a war on the lifestyles freely chosen by the majority of Americans. EPA-funded groups promote congestion by opposing new road construction, even when those roads are funded exclusively by highway users. They also encourage higher density housing, which leads to more driving on roads that are already filled to capacity. They call these policies "smart growth" even though they are anything but smart. ……"

World Net Daily 2/24/00 Julie Foster "…..Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said yesterday it is critically important to keep the Internet from becoming a tax haven for Web entrepreneurs who do not charge sales taxes as required by brick-and-mortar merchants. Summers' comments on the Internet reflect an effort by the Clinton administration to find a middle ground between one group, which includes GOP presidential candidate John McCain, who has called for the Internet to be totally tax-free, and state and local government officials who want to tap into revenues being generated by the fastest-growing part of the economy. "There should not be any penalty taxes on the Internet, but at the same time cyberspace should not become a tax haven that promotes evasion or avoidance of the basic taxes in our system," Summers said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. His argument is an echo of Internet tax proponents' mantra: fairness. ….."

Virginian Pilot 2/24/00 Marc Davis "……Short of a jury verdict, the owners of the Jewish Mother restaurant say they have won a near-total victory over the Internal Revenue Service and the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Department in their six-year legal battle. Armed with a scathing 102-page opinion from U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar, owners John Colaprete and Ted Bonk say they have finally been vindicated. Doumar ruled last month that one IRS agent and one ABC agent may be liable for violating the constitutional rights of the Jewish Mother's owners and manager with massive, unsuccessful armed raids in 1994. Doumar ripped the agents for basing their raids largely on the word of one convicted liar, a disgruntled former bookkeeper who had been fired for embezzling. ….."

Associated Press 2/23/00 Samuel Maull "…..A judge has ruled that New York City cannot force homeless adults to accept workfare jobs in exchange for city shelter, a decision immediately criticized by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. A law cited by city officials in support of the requirement violates a consent decree requiring the city to shelter every needy adult who seeks it, Justice Stanley Sklar said in Tuesday's ruling. Giuliani, who has pushed to put the workfare rules into effect, denounced the decision, saying, "I expect the Court of Appeals to reverse it pretty quickly." "Justice Sklar is clinging to his desire for a city of dependents," the mayor said. ….."

Reuters 2/23/00 "…… Arizona Sen. John McCain is doing the country -- and Democrats -- "a real service" by cutting up Republican front-runner Texas Gov. George W. Bush and proving a Democrat-style agenda can win, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle said Wednesday. After a White House meeting, Daschle of South Dakota told reporters he found the Bush-McCain battle for the Republican nomination for president "amusing, helpful and, ultimately, very encouraging" because it was consuming money and energy that otherwise would be trained on Democrats. ….."

Nando Times 2/22/00 Dan Thomasson Scripps Howard News Service "…..There is something inherently wrong with primaries that permit crossover voting, risking the selection of a candidate by those who belong to an opposition party. Sen. John McCain clearly is the favorite of Democrats for the Republican presidential nomination…….Until some 35 years ago when the primary system became the predominant method for choosing nominees, there was little question that the candidates actually were selected by Republicans and Democrats and represented the views of majorities of their parties. While there were several primaries that played a role, a large number of states held their own conventions with candidates fighting over delegates to the national convention. …..The current primary system is a mess that badly needs reforming. States like Iowa and New Hampshire take up far too much money and time and are unrepresentative of the nation. The crossover voting in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan further tarnishes the system. Bush seized on that issue to persuade Republicans in South Carolina to pick their own nominee. The fact that many South Carolina Republican voters are conservative and label themselves Christians is no different than the fact that a large number of New York voters are liberal Democrats and Jewish. It just happens to be the makeup of those states and requires candidates to understand the importance of these voting blocs. The answer to the current haphazard selection process for presidential nominees is relatively simple. It is time to adopt the long-proposed primary concept that separates the nation, perhaps along time zones, into three or four regions……"

Investor's Business Daily 2/23/00 Matthew Benjamin "……New York-based DoubleClick Inc., the titan of online ad firms, is looking to put names with faces on the Internet. The firm has pieced together some 100 million profiles of Web users. If you've spent time online, odds are you're among them. In November, DoubleClick bought Abacus Direct Corp., a direct marketing firm based in Broomfield, Colo. Abacus owns an offline consumer database with profiles of more than 85% of U.S. households. DoubleClick now has the resources to match your name and address with your online and offline behavior, sending privacy advocates into a frenzy. Adding fuel to the fire, last month DoubleClick unveiled plans to share its data with some sites on which the firm places ads. In the last month, six class-action lawsuits have been filed against DoubleClick. The online ad agency also is the subject of an informal inquiry by the Federal Trade Commission. ….."

CNSNews.com 2/23/00 Susan Jones "…..According to a Detroit News survey based on exit polling, "party crashers" offset Michigan's Republican base to give Senator John McCain the Michigan primary victory over Texas Governor George W Bush. The poll found that without Democrats, Bush would have won Michigan with 48 percent of the vote to McCain's 44 percent. Fully half of the voters taking part in the open Republican primary were Democrats and political independents. As it turned out, McCain captured 77 percent of the non-GOP votes, including 66 percent of Independents and 86 percent of Democrats. But Bush clobbered McCain among the GOP faithful, winning those votes by a 66 to 27 percent margin….."

Associated Press 2/21/00 Don Babwin "……Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr blamed President Clinton on Monday for the years and millions of dollars spent on the investigation that ultimately led to Clinton's impeachment. He said Clinton could have spared the country the ordeal by being forthright about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. "It could all have been (avoided) simply by saying, `There was this activity, I shouldn't have done it, let's get it behind us as reasonably as we can,"' Starr said in a speech at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. ……"

Media Reserach Center –MediaNomics 2/18/00 Rich Noyes "……For a while this week, the nightly news could have been "That '70s Show," as consumers griped about skyrocketing oil and gasoline prices, and TV journalists wondered what the Democrat in the White House would do to fix the situation. It's not 1979, of course. For one thing, oil prices finally were completely de-regulated in January 1981, shortly after President Ronald Reagan took office. That means that even if it wanted to, the federal government couldn't tell oil companies how much they can charge, although there are a variety of indirect ways the government can influence oil and gas prices. And measured in constant dollars, crude oil prices are only about half as high as they were at their peak twenty years ago, which makes the current spike in prices more of an inconvenience than a full-blown crisis……"

Orlando Sentinel 2/27/00 Charley Reese "…..The first step in reforming the country is to repeal earlier reforms that have proven to be worse than the ills they were designed to correct. The primary election is one of them. Originally parties chose their nominees through conventions, but during the period that is called the Progressive Era, reformers said that nominees should not be chosen in smoke-filled rooms but by the voters in primary elections. On the surface it seemed good, as many reformist ideas do, but it has turned out that the people in the smoke-filled rooms knew more about politics and politicians than the relative handful of people who wander into the voting booths during primary elections. More important, the people in the smoke-filled rooms had some leverage over the politicians after the candidates were elected. The average voter has none. Today, the primary-election system has gotten plain nutty, with several states authorizing so-called open primary elections that allow Democrats to vote for Republicans and vice versa, as well as participation by independents who have rejected party affiliation. ….."

Washington Weekly 2/28/00 Edward Zehr "…..The myopic savants of the mainstream press failed to notice George W. Bush's 2-to-1 win over John McCain in Delaware; they were far too preoccupied lighting votive candles to St. John the divine, but the double-digit drubbing that Bush meted out to their hollow hero in South Carolina caught their attention. After a brief interlude of noticeable dejection, followed close on by a fit of childish pique (CNN cut Bush off halfway through his victory speech), the media mavens threw themselves into the breach, spinning like dervishes on behalf of the "twisted sister" (to use Camille Paglia's tart description of the senior senator from Arizona) they have selected to replace the psychopath they gave us in 1992. Grimly determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory the Stupid Party waved "independents", Democrats and oh, just anybody into the Michigan polling booths to rack up another phony "victory" for "Republican" turncoat McCain. The Republicans obligingly throw open their primaries to anyone who can fog a mirror; the Democrats cancel their vote in favor of the smoke filled room method of selecting delegates to their convention and then put out the word for all their minions to vote for their favorite "Republican" in the other party's primary. Our treacherous, muckspout media pronounce the predictable result to be a triumph of democracy and poor, feckless Gov. Engler tells the press with a big, dumb grin, that the GOP intend to do the very same thing next time as well. This guy really seems to enjoy giving away elections. …….."

Reuters 2/29/00 "…..A spike in oil prices and rising interest rates dented Americans' optimism in February, pushing the U.S. Consumer Confidence Index off its record highs to 141.8, down nearly three points from January, the Conference Board said on Tuesday. "Declining consumer confidence over the next six months was the major reason for the overall dip in confidence," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, in a prepared release. ..."

NewsMAx.com 2/29/00 Dr James Hirsen, JD PhD "…..Millions of people who openly and intentionally violated federal law have been granted a pardon. The United States government has given full amnesty, citizenship and voting rights to all illegal aliens. Whether the fictional headline elicits feelings of sheer delight or total dismay depends upon one's civic, political and national perspective. Unbeknownst to much of the public, U.S. immigration policy is being shrewdly manipulated. What was once a controlled flow of newcomers that furnished strength to America has become an unregulated torrent of settlers that threatens to undermine the nation. The ability to immigrate to the United States clearly is, and always has been, a privilege, not a right. When we fail to acknowledge this premise, the concepts of private property and nationhood become instantly irrelevant. If a people who have joined together as a nation cannot rightly prevent outsiders from entering their country, no single individual can expect to maintain the capacity to stop a neighbor from moving onto his or her private property. …."

THE WASHINGTON TIMES 3/2/00 John Godfrey "…..The House unanimously approved legislation yesterday that would let seniors in the work force receive full Social Security benefits. "This is an exciting day for me personally and a great day for hundreds of thousands of seniors around the nation," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer, Texas Republican, before the 422-0 vote. The "earnings limit" dates from 1939, when Congress hoped to encourage seniors to retire and make room for younger workers, or at least prevent seniors from tapping Social Security while still able to support themselves. Then, seniors lost all benefits if they worked. Today, more than 800,000 Americans from 65 to 69 lose $1 of their Social Security benefits for every $3 in outside income they earn above $17,000….."

Rediff 2/29/00 J M Shenoy "…… A high-powered meeting called by a congresswoman in Silicon Valley last week faulted the Immigration and Naturalization Service of spending little time and effort in investigating H-1B fraud complaints. While the INS spent much of its energy in deporting convicted felons and raiding low-tech industries -- such as construction facilities and restaurants -- it neglected the operation run by Lakireddy Bali Reddy and his son Vijay Kumar, the meeting was told. Multimillionaire landlord Reddy and his son are charged with smuggling several people from India using fraudulent information on work visas. The two have denied charges. The duo petitioned immigration officials for H-1B and other visas on behalf of workers they said would be employed at Active Tech Solutions in Berkeley. Instead, the workers were employed at Reddy's apartment buildings, office buildings and restaurants, according to the indictment. ….."

NY Times 3/2/00 AP "…..Medicare has paid $4.2 million to HMOs for patients who were dead, according to a new report federal auditors. About $1.2 million of the misspent money so far has been recovered by the program, said Health and Human Services Department Inspector General June Gibbs Brown, in a report released Thursday. Medicare pays HMOs a monthly fee for each beneficiary enrolled. The fees are supposed to stop with the month following the month in which someone dies. However, the Inspector General's report said Medicare does not always find out about the deaths or stop payments in a timely manner. As a result, the program paid HMOs $3.1 million through April 1999 for 102 beneficiaries who died before February 1994. ….."

Chicago Tribune 3/1/00 Frank James "….. The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered Trans Union Corp., the Chicago-based credit reporting giant, to stop selling personal information to companies that use the data to target consumers--a move some hailed as a victory for personal financial privacy. In a unanimous decision, the five commissioners told Trans Union, one of the nation's three largest credit-reporting agencies, that its sale of consumers' private financial information violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. In doing so, the FTC upheld a series of earlier decisions made by the federal agency and its administrative law judges. …."

Christian Science Monitor 3/3/00 "……The United States had its biggest trade deficit ever last year - $347 billion. That sum was 41 percent worse than in 1998. The American border, clearly, is highly porous to imports. And though the US does have an armful of devices to discourage imports and promote exports, its tariffs are a bit lower on average than those of the European Union. So the US can't be accused of being especially protectionist. Thus it may have seemed a low blow when an appeals panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva ruled last week that the US must scrap a law allowing companies to avoid paying taxes on some overseas sales by channeling them through overseas subsidies. Repeal of the law - if it happens - might add $4 billion or so a year to the taxes American companies must pay Uncle Sam. …."

Houston Chronicle 3/3/00 AP "…..The military's money managers last year made almost $7 trillion in adjustments to their financial ledgers in an attempt to make them add up, the Pentagon's inspector general said in a report Friday. The Pentagon could not show receipts for $2.3 trillion of those changes, and half a trillion dollars of it was corrections of mistakes made in earlier adjustments. Each adjustment represents a Defense Department accountant's attempt to correct a discrepancy. The military has hundreds of computer systems to run accounts as diverse as health care, payroll and inventory. But they are not integrated, don't produce numbers up to accounting standards and fail to keep running totals of what's coming in and what's going out, Pentagon and congressional officials said. "These ($6.9 trillion in) entries were processed to force financial data to agree with various data sources, to correct errors and to add new data," the inspector general said. ….."

The Hartford Advocate 2/17/00 Edward Ericson Jr Dan Levine "…..Along with our own research, we relied heavily on analysis done by the Center for Responsive Politics and the Center for Public Integrity, both non-partisan research groups based in Washington. The results illustrate the radical shift taken by the Democratic Party under the Clinton Gore administration, a shift that began in the mid-1980s with the founding of the Democratic Leadership Committee. Put simply, the party has moved decisively away from its traditional constituents: while labor unions, minorities, environmentalists still support the party and its candidates, and while the candidates still say nice things about their causes, the largest sums of money comes from people with radically different interests……"

Washington Post 2/28/00 "…..Remember Zoe Baird and her nanny problem? Remember Kimba Wood? Well, it turns out former CIA director John M. Deutch also had a bit of a foreign domestic help problem while he was at the agency. Not that he didn't pay Social Security taxes. Instead, either Deutch or the CIA turned over his home alarm deactivation code to his housekeeper, a non-citizen at the time. She was "permitted independent access to the residence while the Deutches were away," says the agency inspector general's report on Deutch's security lapses. And the IG found that, shockingly enough, "CIA security data base records do not reflect any security clearances being issued to the alien." The alarm system included an alarm on his study closet, which contained a safe for classified documents. …."

Associated Press - Via - EXCITE News 2/27/00 Alice Ann Love "…..The Labor Department has issued a promised policy statement that says it will not hold companies responsible for the safety of telecommuting employees' home offices. "Family-friendly, flexible and fair work arrangements, including telecommuting, can benefit individual employees and their families, employers, and society as a whole," said the written directive, sent to regional offices Friday by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The directive says the government:
-Will not inspect employees' home offices, expect employers to inspect them or hold companies liable for the offices' safety conditions.
-May pass complaints received from workers about home office safety on to employers but will do no follow-up. Under the new rules, companies can be held responsible for safety problems with at-home jobs other than office work. That could include things such as manufacturing piecework involving "materials, equipment or work processes which the employer provides or requires to be used in an employee's home." …."

National Post 3/11/00 "…….To this day, however, the full report has never seen the light of day. Ms. Reno has repeatedly rejected any outside investigation of White House campaign finance wrongdoing -- in defiance of the opinion of both Mr. LaBella and Louis Freeh, the FBI director. And she has kept a tight lid on the LaBella memo. In September, 1998, Ms. Reno did allow a small group of congressmen to review a version. But 64 of the memo's 94 pages had been blacked out in advance, and each copy was collected following their review in order to prevent public dissemination. Recently, however, the Los Angeles Times obtained a copy of the redacted LaBella report. And yesterday, the newspaper published details of its contents. ….."

The New York Times 3/12/00 David Rosenbaum "……Republicans in Congress have begun to blame the Clinton administration generally and Vice President Al Gore in particular for the recent jump in the price of gasoline, and that seems sure to become a hot issue in the presidential race. When prices started to rise, "the administration was asleep at the wheel," Representative Dick Armey of Texas, the House majority leader, said this week. The Senate Republican leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, referred to the 4.3-cents-a-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax enacted in 1993 as "the Gore gas tax" and told reporters it should be repealed. Senator Frank H. Murkowski of Alaska said flatly what was on the minds of many of his fellow Republicans: "This is going to be a big issue in the political campaign." …….. "

AOL News profile/Scripps News Service 3/9/00 Michael Hedges "…..More than 35,000 criminal aliens have been released from custody in the United States in the past five years, and an average of about 37 percent of them have committed new crimes, according to government documents. At least 1,376 criminal aliens _ non-citizens in custody for a crime _ committed a violent crime after being released, such as homicide, rape, armed robbery or kidnapping, according to Immigration and Naturalization Service figures. Several thousand others were charged with drug offenses or fraud, burglary, car theft and other "non-violent" crimes. In addition to the 35,318 criminal aliens released, another 245,000 aliens who committed crimes were deported between October 1994 and May 1999, the INS said. ……Under the law, all criminal aliens are supposed to be deported, but for a variety of reasons ranging from plea bargains to the refusal of a few governments to take back their criminals, that doesn't always happen, an INS spokesman said. …."

World Magazine 3/10/00 Cal Thomas "……In the final Democratic debate before the Super Tuesday election, Vice President Al Gore responded to a question about the type of Supreme Court justices he as president would select: "I would look for justices of the Supreme Court who understand that our Constitution is a living and breathing document, that it was intended by our Founders to be interpreted in the light of the constantly evolving experience of the American people." ……. A "living" Constitution, notes constitutional attorney John Whitehead, means the Constitution is "up for grabs," and it becomes whatever the justices decide, not the people through their elected representatives. The proper way to resolve inequities such as slavery or women's suffrage is the way these issues were, ultimately, resolved-through the amendment process. We wouldn't need a Constitution at all if unelected, elitist judges could decide everything. The Founders intended that the amendment process would cool the hotheads who want to inflame public opinion to do certain things that may not ultimately be in the public's best interest….."

NY Post 3/10/00 Danielle Crittenden "……Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan tells this poignant story in her new book, "The Case Against Hillary Clinton." At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, she met a Secret Service agent she knew from the Reagan days: "I asked him how things were going. And he stood there, and looked me in the eyes, and barely, just perceptibly, shook his head back and forth. As if he didn't have words; as if the words he had should not be spoken. And then I said, 'It's bad, isn't it?' "'You have no idea,'" he said softly. "'You wouldn't believe.' And then he said good-bye." ……"

FOX 3/9/00 Philip Brasher "…… Hoping to cut the amount of fat that kids are eating, the government today approved the use of tofu and other soy products in federally subsidized meals in schools and day-care centers. The Agriculture Department is dropping a restriction on how much soy can be used in meals. Until now, soy could only used be used as a food additive and only in amounts of less than 30 percent. The change will also apply to some other products such as fruit purees and whey protein, which is derived from milk. In announcing the move, USDA officials said they were trying to "enhance the flexibility of menu planners in finding ways to reduce fat and saturated fat in the meals they plan as well as ... to meet the increasingly varied dietary demands of students.'' …."

Wall Street Journal 2/23/00 Amity Shlaes "….It would have been easy to overlook a small item folded into the Clinton administration's budget for 2001: a $769 million increase in the Internal Revenue Service's $8 billion budget. But there it was, $769 million, the purpose of which is "an increase in audit coverage for individual returns with over $100,000," to be accomplished with 633 new auditors …… The administration must think that the most productive members of history's most productive economy have been insufficiently taxed. What made this news somehow worse was that the IRS didn't even feel the need to break it gently. Instead, commissioner Charles Rossotti went straight to the newspapers with his vision of a new aggressive IRS, one that would not brook "declines in enforcement." Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers added that "we need to begin increasing (enforcement) capacity" so as "to maintain people's confidence that this is a tax system that works." ….."

Reuters via Excite 3/9/00 "……The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) repeated Thursday its warning that U.S. gasoline stocks are in a precarious position for this summer, and indicated pump prices could average $1.80 a gallon across the country. "EIA expects to see high refinery utilization rates on top of precariously low gasoline stocks. This combination leaves little room for the unexpected," said John Cook, director of the EIA's petroleum division, in testimony at a congressional hearing. "Unplanned refinery outages, import delays or demand increases can create price surges above levels shown in the EIA forecast." ….."

NY Times 3/9/00 Louis Uchitelle "……Salvador Silva often used to worry that immigration agents would raid the commercial laundry where he works. If they did, he had a plan. He would jump onto a table, hoist himself into an air-conditioning duct, and hide there until the agents left. He practiced this more than once. "We lived with the uncertainty of raids," said Mr. Silva, who is 26 and has worked illegally in this country for 10 years, ever since he walked across a bridge from Juárez in Mexico to El Paso and flew to Chicago to join a brother. Only now is he beginning to relax. "For the first time," he said, "I don't fear the raids." Such raids have all but stopped around the country over the last year. In a booming economy running short of labor, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants are increasingly tolerated in the nation's workplaces. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has made crossing the border harder than ever, stepping up patrols and prosecuting companies that smuggle in aliens or blatantly recruit them. But once inside the country, illegal immigrants are now largely left alone. Even when these people are discovered, arrests for the purpose of deportation are much less frequent; such arrests dropped to about 8,600 last year from 22,000 just two years earlier, the I.N.S. reports. ......"

Washinton Times 3/8/00 Thomas Jipping "…..The Senate this week will vote on two of the most controversial judicial nominations in recent memory. The result may well demonstrate whether Republicans deserve their majority status. President Clinton has nominated U.S. District Judge Richard Paez and labor lawyer Marsha Berzon to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Nearly twice as large as other circuits, it may also be the most influential, which is unfortunate because even the liberal New York Times calls it "the country's most liberal appeals court." Two-thirds of its judges are Democratic appointees. The Supreme Court has reversed its decisions nearly 90 percent of the time over the past six years, far more than any other circuit. In 1996, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote that "some panels of the Ninth Circuit have a hard time saying no to any litigant with a hard-luck story." ….."

The New York Times 3/6/00 DAVID M. HALBFINGER and DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI "…..Refocusing a wide-ranging inquiry into the finances of Senator Robert G. Torricelli's 1996 election campaign, federal prosecutors have issued subpoenas ordering some of New Jersey's most prominent Democratic fund-raisers to testify before a grand jury. Federal agents appeared in the offices of influential lawyers and business executives across the state on Thursday with court orders demanding that they turn over all correspondence with Mr. Torricelli, his campaign and two related political committees, as well as any checks, tallies, invoices or other records pertaining to Mr. Torricelli's 1996 fund-raising operation. Among other things, the Justice Department's campaign finance task force is specifically seeking records of any instructions to fund-raisers about how to solicit donations and any information from the Torricelli campaign concerning federal rules limiting contributions. …."

New York Times 3/7/00 David Stout "…..Gasoline prices will continue to rise sharply, hitting an average of $1.56 a gallon in the peak summer driving season, but they will come down by this time next year, the Energy Department predicted today. Because worldwide crude oil supplies are so low, a steep increase in gasoline costs is unavoidable in the near future even if oil-producing countries agree soon to significantly step up production,..."

Houston Chronicle 3/5/00 Ron Nissimov "…..Mild-mannered Dr. Thomas Cleary doesn't try to hide his contempt when he describes his first reaction to proposed pediatric care guidelines he was asked to review in the spring of 1998. "I said, `Kids might die because of these guidelines, they're dangerous,'" recalls Cleary, head of pediatric infectious diseases at University of Texas-Houston Medical School. To his stunned disbelief, the next time Cleary saw the guidelines, in September 1999, he discovered they had been published for nationwide consumption with him listed as a "contributing author." "I was mad as hell, I was furious," Cleary said in a recent interview. "I've been practicing medicine for 28 years, and this is the most outrageous thing I've seen in medicine so far." ..."

Boston Globe 2/29/00 Ross Kerber "….. Cyberspace has become less anonymous as companies use libel suits to find and unmask their online critics, but now some cyber-chatters are fighting back. The chatters claim a First Amendment right to post messages on electronic bulletin boards using pseudonyms. They have scored some success in challenging attempts to pry loose their identities from Internet service providers. The legal battle may alter the balance of power on the Web as chatters try to extend a tradition, dating back to the Federalist Papers of 1787, which respects unsigned opinions. Yet never before has anonymity applied to an arena as broad as the Internet, where commercial interests are swamping the network's libertarian roots. ….."

Republican National Committee 3/11/00 "……Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson issued the following statement today in response to the president's radio address on the budget: "You may think so, Mr. President, but working married couples are not 'special interests', and giving them tax relief is not risky. Keep talking, Mr. President, and Americans will realize what they'll get with Al Gore -- Bill Clinton." …."

Town Hall 3/14/00 R Emmett Tyrrell Jr. "……The First Amendment's freedom of speech clause has come to sanction such arty stuff as feces on canvas, but not public disagreement with various inflamed groups, for instance, with militant homosexuals. How very odd. Artists such as Chris Ofili are defended unto death for putting elephant manure on an otherwise pedestrian painting of the Virgin Mary. Viacom's Paramount Television Group is being importuned by militant homosexuals to drop Dr. Laura Schlessinger's television program from its fall offerings. Neither conservative writers nor liberals are heard to complain. The American Civil Liberties Union is degage. No one complains on behalf of the First Amendment…….. Obviously respect for free speech is in a state of confusion nowadays. That calls for silencing opposition come more frequently from the Left than from the Right is particularly alarming. After all the Left has historically been the defender of free speech, at least in this century. Now the Left silences dissent on campus. It organizes against the likes of Dr. Schlessinger, and resorts to the Owellian expedient of using such perfumed terms as "diversity" to eliminate disagreement. Examples abound. In Florida the National Organization for Women is trying to ban vanity plates on cars that carry the slogan "Choose Life." Why they do not reply with the liberty-loving response of buying their own vanity plates proclaiming "Freedom Of Choice" is a mystery….."

Reuters 3/26/00 "……The Senate may vote in the next couple of weeks on a plan to repeal the 18.4 cent federal gasoline tax temporarily if gasoline prices go above $2 per gallon, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said on Sunday. ``We need to find some short-term help, and I think the gas tax holiday, without it affecting the highway trust fund, would be a good idea,'' the Mississippi Republican said on NBC's ''Meet the Press.'' ``We will have a vote on this issue ... unless something dramatic happens with OPEC.'' ….."

The Straits Time 3/26/00 "……The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is expected to boost its crude-oil production quota by about 1.5 million barrels a day on April 1, officials and analysts said, as more members respond to US pressure to let oil prices fall. The 11 members of the OPEC meet in Vienna to decide members' production quotas for the next six months. When asked on Sunday, whether OPEC would agree to boost output, Venezuelan oil minister Ali Rodriguez said, "We are nearing a consensus." "The meeting will decide on an increase of about 1.5 million barrels a day," Kuwait's official news agency KUNA quoted Omani Oil Minister Muhammed bin Hamed al-Rumhy as saying on Saturday. The Middle East Economic Survey, an oil-trade weekly newsletter, is meanwhile predicting a 1.5 million barrel a day increase, according to an advance release of Monday's edition. ……"

New York Times 3/26/00 Robert Pear "….The Clinton administration improperly forgave hundreds of millions of dollars of debts owed the government by health care providers for Medicare overpayments and allowed them to continue billing Medicare for some of the questionable expenses, federal investigators have found. The investigators, from the General Accounting Office, said Medicare officials had ignored their own rules and procedures in negotiating secret deals to settle the debts -- the three largest Medicare overpayment cases of the last decade. Two of the deals involved health care organizations in New York, and the other was with the county health department in Los Angeles. Medicare said it had overpaid the providers by $332 million. It settled the cases for a total of $120 million. ……"

American For Tax Reform (atr.org) 3/23/00 Chad Cowan "……Citing the need to protect the privacy of Internet users, Americans for Tax Reform today blasted Vice President Al Gore and the White House for directing Administration representatives to abstain on a critical privacy vote at the final meeting of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. At the meeting, Administration representatives abstained from the only vote taken on a resolution offered to ensure that taxpayers are protected from snooping government bureaucrats and tax collectors. The measure passed with 12 votes in favor, none opposed, 5 abstentions (including one Administration representative), and the 2 other Administration representatives not present in the room……….."

House Appropriations Committee 3/22/00 "…….. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:……. Department of Justice says 11,605 have committed new crimes after their release WASHINGTON, D.C. - Flanked by a towering stack of reports detailing years of failure of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), U.S. Representative Harold "Hal" Rogers (KY-5) today sharply criticized the head of the agency for its release of 35,318 criminal aliens into the general population. Rogers, the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary, says new figures provided to him by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) estimate that 11,605 - or roughly one-third of those released by the INS - went on to commit serious crimes including 1,845 violent crimes. "The Attorney General has told this subcommittee that over a five-year period the INS has released 35,381 criminal aliens - instead of deporting them," Rogers told INS Commissioner Doris Meissner at a hearing before Rogers' subcommittee today. "Ordinarily, if something of this severity had happened to another agency, I would consider calling for the resignation of that agency's top official. But I'm sorry to say that in the case of the INS, that action would not result in an improved INS. More serious reform is now, more than ever, necessary."…….

Crimes Committed by Criminal Aliens
Released by the INS:
5,913 Non-Violent Crimes
3,847 Drug Crimes
1,845 Violent Crimes

Of the Violent Crimes Committed by the
11,605 Criminal Aliens Released by the INS:
98 Homicides
142 Sexual Assaults
44 Kidnappings
346 Robberies
1,214 Assaults

UPI via Virtual New York 3/23/00 "…..A lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in Houston challenging the constitutionality of the 2000 Census. The census forms include "numerous, extreme, and outrageous" questions that go far beyond the simple population count required by the U.S. Constitution, the plaintiffs alleged, asking that the 2000 Census be declared "null and void." "When you think about it, all these questions would be illegal to be asked in any other context," said J. Mark Brewer, the lawyer who filed the suit. "No employer, even the federal government, could ask your age, your ethnic background, or any of this information." ….."

Scripps-McClatchy Western Service 3/24/00 David Whitney "…… Battle lines are being drawn once again in Congress over a move by Alaska lawmakers to press for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. In a repeat of their last effort in 1995 after Republicans took control of Congress, the Alaskans are pressing for a provision in a 2001 budget bill to open the refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to leasing. The plain is regarded as the country's best spot for a major oil discovery, but environmentalists and the Clinton administration say the area is too precious for birds, caribou and polar bears to disturb. A budget rider is the smoothest congressional path because budget bills are not subject to Senate filibusters that can indefinitely delay a bill unless proponents can round up 60 votes to stop it. The last time the budget tactic was used, a drilling rider survived by a narrow 51-48 vote, but the budget bill ultimately was vetoed by President Clinton. It takes two-thirds of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto, and the margin of victory for the budget measure in both houses fell far short of that in 1995. The stimulus for the renewed offensive is high gasoline prices. If prices remain in the $2-a-gallon range later this summer when a final budget bill could be written, drilling advocates believe that election-year consumer outrage will improve their odds. ……"

AP 3/23/00 "…….A man whom the Defense Department had recently offered a job on its police force was charged Thursday with falsely claiming to be an officer of the U.S. government after being arrested with weapons, ammunition and bomb-making manuals in his car, Pentagon officials said. The man, identified in a Defense Protective Service affidavit as Anthony Premo of Granada Hills, Calif., was arraigned in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The affidavit said the man, who was arrested after running a stop sign in a Pentagon parking area on Wednesday evening, had two rifles, two knives, an unspecified quantity of black powder, 20 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition and an empty manufacturer's box for a 1911-model Colt .45-semi-automatic pistol. The affidavit said Premo also had in his car survivalist literature, freeze-dried food and manuals for manufacturing and using bombs and booby traps, according to Navy Capt. Timothy Taylor, a Pentagon spokesman. ......"

AP Breaking News via Tampa Bay Online 3/24/00 Katherine Vogt "…….The city of Denver has agreed to pay $400,000 to avoid a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of a man killed by police during a raid on the wrong house. Ismael Mena, 45, was fatally shot Sept. 29, 1999, after officers mistakenly broke into his bedroom in a so-called "no-knock" raid. Police said he threatened them with a handgun. The Menas had asked for $5.5 million. "I think the settlement is fair for everyone," said Mayor Wellington Webb, who announced the agreement Thursday evening. "I don't think you can put a price on someone's life anyway. But we did the best for both parties." ……"

Upi 3/21/00 "…..Attorney General Janet Reno Tuesday hailed a judge's decision that allows the Federal government to reunite 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez with his father in Cuba. "It is time for this little boy, who has been through so much, to move on with his life at his father's side," Reno said. The attorney general did not say how the boy would be returned to his father. Earlier, a Justice Department spokeswoman indicated that officials will be moving carefully. "We're not going to be taking any precipitous action," spokeswoman Carole Florman said. "....We are not going to be sending any 'jackbooted thugs'...to pick up Elian." …."

The Associated Press 3/22/00 Leon Drouin Keith "……About one-third of drinking water wells in 31 states may be contaminated with the gasoline additive MTBE, according to a study released today. The federal government already is acting to ban use of the chemical. Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oregon Graduate Institute's Department of Environmental Study found about 9,000 of 26,000 wells looked at were within a kilometer of a leaking fuel tank, head researcher John Zogorski said. But Zogorski said it's likely that not all of the 9,000 wells are contaminated with MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether. ….."

Washington Post 3/23/00 Amy Goldstein "….. The Senate yesterday voted 100 to 0 to allow Americans who want to keep working once they turn 65 to collect their full Social Security checks, no matter how much money they earn, guaranteeing an end to one of the hallmarks of the nation's retirement system. With both parties eager to strut their sympathies for elderly voters, the Senate voted to abolish the Social Security program's unpopular income limits for people age 65 to 69 just three weeks after the House adopted the legislation with its own unanimous vote. President Clinton yesterday reiterated his promise to sign the measure. By repealing the earnings limit, lawmakers can claim to have addressed an aspect of the Social Security system at a time when most members appear reluctant to undertake broader - and far less popular - steps to help prevent the program from running out of money in a few decades after the enormous baby boom has reached old age......."

FoxNews.com 3/22/00 Reuters "……A 33-year-old man's strict vegetarian diet may have caused him to go blind, a report by French doctors says. The report, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, underscores the need for people who decline to consume any animal product to take supplements. "Vitamin supplementation is essential in persons who adhere to a strict vegetarian diet, especially because vitamin deficiencies may cause severe, irreversible optic neuropathy," says the report by a team led by Dr. Dan Milea of the Groupe Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris. Their patient had cited "improved health" as the reason he had eschewed meat, eggs, dairy products, fish and all other sources of animal protein for 13 years. ……"

Newsday.com 3/14/00 Jonathan Slanat AP "……The Federal Election Commission is urging Congress to pass a law saying foreigners cannot give any money to federal campaigns -- a subject at the heart of the scandals involving President Clinton's 1996 re-election effort. Commissioners want Congress to enact such a measure during its current session, saying it is one of the FEC's top legislative priorities. An existing law specifically bans foreign contributions to candidates and the FEC has ruled that the statute also applies to unregulated soft money given to the political parties. The commission, citing court cases that ruled otherwise, has recommended in the past that Congress pass a new law, but this is the first year that the FEC has made it a priority. U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in 1998 threw out several Justice Department charges against Democratic fund-raisers Maria Hsia and Yah Lin ''Charlie'' Trie, ruling that the law applied just to donations that directly support individual candidates. An appeals court reinstated the charges. ….."

Newsday.com 3/15/00 Randolph Schmid AP "…….With the census well under way, federal immigration officials have unveiled revised guidelines designed to get more questionnaires back from illegal immigrants wary of revealing information to the government. Immigration and Naturalization Service executive associate commissioner Michael Pearson, in a memo this week to regional directors, said that while the agency would continue to enforce immigration laws during the census period, ''steps will be taken to avoid adverse effects on census participation.'' ''The willingness of illegal aliens to participate in Census 2000 depends much on their confidence that INS will not be able to access the information collected,'' Pearson said. So far, 2.4 million people have sent in their forms, Census Director Kenneth Prewitt said Tuesday, urging the rest of the country's citizens to do the same. ….."

World Net Daily 3/15/00 Jon Dougherty "……The Internal Revenue Service has threatened to evict an infirm elderly couple from their home of many years for non-payment of back taxes that the couple says they don't owe. On Feb. 25, U.S. District Court Judge James B. Zagel ruled in favor of the government, despite his legal authority to rule out the IRS' conviction request because of the couple's special medical conditions. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Stout of Chicago, 81 and 82 years old respectively, were not represented by legal counsel because they couldn't afford it, they told WorldNetDaily. The Stout's "foreclosure suit" stemmed from an IRS lien "covering taxes from 1973 through 1980," Mr. Stout told WND, and was "affirmed by the tax court and supposedly assessed in 1982." The taxes allegedly owed, Stout said, including penalties and interest, amount to around $500,000. "This is much more than my entire cash flow for the years in question. The value of our home is also much less than this," he said. However, what most frustrates the couple, Mr. Stout said, was the hypocrisy and confusion built into the IRS codes. On the one hand, IRS code forbids the agency from assigning a levy to "a principal residence." But on the other hand, said Stout, "the IRS district director and others are given the power to levy, under IRS Code 6334(e)(1) anyway." ……"

World Net Daily 3/15/00 Sarah Foster "….. Seven years after its unannounced raid on his home, the Internal Revenue Service is still demanding that an Alabama inventor fork over $2 million it says he owes in back taxes. The problem: Robert C. MacElvain, a retired engineer as well as inventor, hasn't got $2 million and, according to Vicki Osborn, a forensic accountant in Colorado Springs, Colo., who is helping him with his case, he doesn't owe it anyway…….. The MacElvains were allowed to continue living in their home. The following year a family member bought it from the government so they would have a roof over their heads…… His next action was, MacElvain admitted, "a mistake." Distraught at what had been done to him, in September he filed commercial liens against those who had seized his property, including Fran Keith who led the action and four local contract vendors who helped: the locksmith, the mover, the appraiser and the towing company. The IRS was brutal in its response, apparently worried that leniency might encourage what it perceived as a "trend." "This kind of activity is consistent with advice that is passed along by tax protester groups," said the IRS in a press release. MacElvain denies being part of any such organization and eschews the "tax protester" label the revenue service has hung on him…….He was indicted on six counts of "corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the Internal Revenue laws." In February, 1994, a jury convicted him on the charges relating to the contractors, but cleared him of criminal wrongdoing for filing a lien against Keith. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison, which he served. ……. According to Osborn, the master file is the only thing that carries greater weight than an agent's word in administrative and court proceedings. Yet even in his master file, fraud was apparent as evidenced by the removal of significant codes and the backdating of transactions to make them appear to fall within the statute of limitations, she said. Here are a few of her findings regarding his case: The day before the raid on the MacElvain home, agent Fran Keith gave a sworn affidavit to the court in order to obtain an order of entry. In her affidavit she asked that Mr. MacElvain not be notified ahead of time because the IRS knew he was had been concealing his assets for years and might attempt to hide his possessions if he got wind of the raid. "This was a false charge," said Osborn, "made without any supporting documentation." In her affidavit, Keith swore that notices and demand were sent on certain dates -- after assessments had been made. "But this is what the trick is," said Osborn. "The law requires that a notice of deficiency must be sent prior to an assessment. Those were not sent. Instead, they made the assessment, then they sent the notices and demands. But notices of deficiency were never sent." In her sworn testimony at MacElvain's criminal trial, Keith said she knew nothing about the statutory notices. "Once I receive a case, an assessment has been made so I cannot testify to any notices that were sent or in any assessments that were made prior to my receiving the case," she testified. ……. In obtaining a grand jury indictment against MacElvain for filing liens, John Thomas, Jr., was the sole witness for the IRS. He never told the grand jury that the agents had violated federal bankruptcy laws by continuing with the seizure after Mrs. MacElvain's attorney had obtained an automatic stay. He also described MacElvain as a tax protester and told the grand jury that he never filed tax returns, that he never paid taxes. "That was every bit a lie," says Osborn. "The master files clearly show that Mr. MacElvain paid his legitimate taxes. And there is nothing to indicate he was a tax protester." ……. "

CNS News.com 3/15/00 Jim Burns "……House Speaker Dennis Hastert Wednesday blasted the Clinton administration over foreign policy, its proposed budget, and gun control. He said "six years of laxity" in foreign policy account for the current run-up in oil prices. Noting that the United States has bailed out oil-producing countries such as Kuwait and Mexico, Hastert said "Those countries certainly are turning on us when it comes to OPEC rationing of fuel." Hastert criticized the Clinton administration for not allowing the development of more energy sources in the United States. He said that unwillingness has created shortages of natural gas in the northeastern United States, where it is needed for home heating. ….."

CNSNews.com 3/15/00 Jim Burns "……The House International Relations Committee on Wednesday approved the Oil Price Reduction Act which calls on the Clinton Administration to adopt a multilateral strategy with other oil consuming countries and take the steps necessary to reduce fuel prices. The bill now goes to the floor for consideration by the whole House and a committee spokesman told CNSNews.com that action on the legislation could come early next week. The act proposes that the Clinton Administration should adopt a multilateral strategy with other oil consuming countries and to take steps to reduce, suspend or terminate assistance or even arms sales to oil exporting countries that engage in price fixing……"

Newsmax 3/16/00 Deroy Murdock "……Free speech is not what it used to be. Slowly but surely, government officials, plaintiffs' attorneys and political activi