Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- One in three drug addicts and alcoholics removed from a federal disability program in 1996 failed to make up even half the money they once got from the government, researchers reported Monday. The Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, program gives cash benefits to very poor, disabled Americans. Until 1996, a program called Drug Addiction and Alcohol allowed very poor alcoholics and drug addicts about $500 a month from SSI, plus health benefits through Medicaid, if they were receiving treatment for their addictions. The program started small but grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s as courts ruled that...

Springer starts Senate run June 12 2003 Talk-show host Jerry Springer today moved a step closer toward a US Senate bid, announcing the creation of an exploratory campaign committee in Ohio. The 59-year-old Springer, a registered Democrat and former Cincinnati mayor whose syndicated talk show is produced in Chicago, has been considering a run against Republican Senator George Voinovich in 2004. While an exploratory committee falls short of an official declaration of candidacy, it almost always signals an unofficial start of a campaign. "It's fair to say that we're further down the road than we were six months ago," Springer...

<p>The University of Michigan admissions case now before the Supreme Court is billed as being about affirmative action. It is not. Michigan's legal position does not turn on the status of the minorities who receive admissions preferences. It rests on the benefits to nonminority students who receive a better education because there are more minority students in the milieu.</p>

<p>There may have been hundreds lined up to get a signed copy of Hillary Clinton's memoir yesterday, but the enormous hype over the book has already raised questions a lot more interesting than what Hillary knew and when she knew it about Bill and Monica. Last week, the Associated Press broke the Simon & Schuster embargo on the book, "Living History," six days early, creating a legal sideshow on the protection of copyrights.</p>

Like the proverbial broken record, some of us have been saying for years that only one thing can bring peace to the Middle East: a Palestinian civil war. It should now be as obvious as anything can be that this is the case. A significant percentage of Palestinians do not want peace with Israel; they want peace without an Israel. If these individuals and groups are not fought by those Palestinians who want peace with Israel, peace is impossible. The need for Palestinians to fight one another in order to make a state is hardly unique. Many states, including the...

The resignation of two top editors at the New York Times last week was the journalistic equivalent of bringing down a president of the United States. But the initial reaction from inside the journalism establishment does not augur well for any lessons that it should learn from this affair. The New York Times will investigate, study and examine what happened, but it is unlikely the newspaper will reach the right conclusions. The problem for The Times and for much of "mainstream journalism" is that large numbers of people no longer trust what they read (or see on the broadcast networks)....

Do-it-yourself deportation (by Rich Lowry) June 10, 2003 Quietly, all across America, illegal immigrants are doing an extraordinary thing -- deporting themselves. In response to stepped-up immigration enforcement, thousands of Arab and Muslim illegals are leaving for home on their own. It is a dynamic that offers the first hopeful sign for solving an illegal-immigration crisis that has an estimated 700,000 illegals coming to the United States a year and joining an illegal population of roughly 9 million. Earlier this year, 82,000 Arab and Muslim men registered with immigration authorities in a post-Sept. 11 security program, and more than 13,000...

I was raised to believe that law is the glory of decent society; that the rule of law is the sine qua non of civilization; that international law is the greatest protector of human rights; that lawyers should be coupled with doctors as an elite profession to which a young person can aspire; that making laws is the great work of legislatures; that law schools are among the noble places of learning in society; that the title "judge" was perhaps the highest appellation in society; and that the jury system is an essential component of a just society. Most of...

<p>Calling a bull a bull: It's getting harder and harder to say that stocks aren't in a bull market.</p> <p>NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - With the market resplendent, with all the major indexes up by over 20 percent from their October lows, maybe it's time to think the rally in stocks isn't just a little rebound in the context of a long decline. Maybe it's time to start saying that something new is happening.</p>

My only reluctance to giving Paul Krugman the Fisking he so richly deserves is that I hate to give the guy free publicity. Worse still, I might encourage Krugman imitators. Remember, people line up to make fools of themselves on Jerry Springer, too. Alas, in the words of Jefferson, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." Someone has to shed the light of truth on one of Krugman's latest diatribes, even if it wins him a few more partisan fans. Predictable Princeton Paul called a recent column "Stating the Obvious". The title fits, though not in the way intended. This...

For the Times, liberal advocacy is par for the course, even in the sports pages. | 6 June 2003 The New York Times’s reputation as “the newspaper of record” has eroded fast over the past few weeks, thanks to a continually unfolding saga of reportorial lies, plagiarism, and misrepresentation. Seeking to rescue its good name, the paper has gone to extraordinary lengths—including a 7,200 word May 11 mea culpa—to come clean about even the remotest appearance of journalistic impropriety. But as a growing chorus of critics charge, the real scandal at executive editor Howell Raines’s Times is its substitution of...

To: xxxxx@nytimes.com From: Adam Clymer (xxxx@nytimes.com) Subject: The Times Colleagues, I think it's time to take a deep breath and think about the New York Times. I share your contempt for Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg. And I share your anger at some of the failures of management that enabled them. I agree with a lot of what Times people have told outside reporters, either directly or in internal E-mails that have quickly found their way to the Internet. In particular, Peter Kilborn made the case against Bragg's excuses with telling effect. But I think by now we have hit...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) --A Vanity Fair article "misrepresents" statements made by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz about U.S. justification for the invasion of Iraq, Pentagon officials said.</p> <p>The quotes in the article were shortened and thus out of context, one said.</p>

The Myth of Media Concentration: Why the FCC's Media Ownership Rules Are Unnecessary by James Gattuso WebMemo #284 May 29, 2003 On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to modify or even repeal its restrictions on ownership of broadcast stations. Opponents argue that changes to these rules would reduce diversity in an already concentrated market – warning that big media “monopolies” are already limiting what Americans see and hear. They are mistaken. Despite many mergers in the media industry in recent years, Americans today actually enjoy more diversity and competition in the media than at any...

Ashes to assets (by Debra Saunders) May 31, 2003 This much is clear: Among the casualties of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, you won't find the Spirit of Greed. Within days of the attacks, Congress created a Victim Compensation Fund to compensate victims' families, while discouraging them from suing airlines, airports or other potential litigation targets. The intent was both compassionate -- in providing money to the injured and to grieving families who had lost their loved ones' income -- and savvy, as Washington wanted to minimize the damage to the other Al Qaeda target: the U.S. economy. Guess what?...

<p>Remember the Annika Sorenstam storm? No? Come on, it was just last week. Annika Sorenstam, from Sweden, is the world's best woman golfer, by far. She accepted an invitation to play in a men's tournament, the Colonial, and Vijay Singh, an excellent golfer from Fiji, objected, setting off a storm of press support for Annika, who played one round well, collapsed in the second round, missed the cut and said she was going back to the women's tour, "where I belong," but not before about 20,000 inches of sports writing proclaimed her courage, pluck and contribution to . . . to what?</p>

Why Do We Put Up Yellow Ribbons During Wars? Yellow ribbons first emerged as a national symbol in January 1981, when they sprouted like weeds to welcome home the Americans held hostage in Iran. The whole thing was started by Penelope (Penne) Laingen, wife of Bruce Laingen, U.S. charge d'affaires in Teheran. Ms. Laingen says she was inspired by two things: (1) the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," written in 1972 by Irwin Levine and Larry Brown and made famous by Tony Orlando and Dawn, and (2) the prior example of one Gail Magruder. Ms....

Eventually, there does come a time when it's worthwhile to question things. There is eventually a worthwhile outcome to exploring the endless "why" behind any troublesome situation. Iraq is no exception, and even though the world is in the midst of its worry and despair over the US / British / Australian / Polish war against Iraq, there are things happening that demand an exploration of the "why" behind the "wherefore". Why is France so adamant that the world shouldn't disarm Saddam? Why has the progress, so shining and hopeful, experienced earlier between Russia and the United States, falling quickly...

Dec. 9, 2002 Peacenik Warmongers Pacifism necessarily invites escalating acts of war against anyone who practices it. By Alex Epstein There is an increasingly vocal movement that seeks to engage America in ever longer, wider, and more costly wars—leading to thousands and perhaps millions of unnecessary deaths. This movement calls itself the "anti-war" movement. Across America and throughout the world, "anti-war" groups are staging "peace rallies" that attract tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of participants, who gather to voice their opposition to an invasion of Iraq and to any other U.S. military action in the War on Terrorism. The...

(snip) Financing U.S. Funding for UN System (CY2001, actuals): $3.5 billion. Components: Assessments for UN regular budget and UN specialized agencies: $612 million; Assessments for UN peacekeeping: $716 million; Voluntary contributions to UN-affiliated organizations and activities (largely humanitarian programs): $2.2 billion. The UN system is financed in two ways: assessed and voluntary contributions from member states. The regular two-year budgets of the UN and its specialized agencies are funded by assessments. In the case of the UN, the General Assembly approves the regular budget and determines the assessment for each member. This is broadly based on the relative capacity of...