I hope I'm not contributing fuel to this flame war, but I'll toss in my thoughts on alignment.
The more the negative camber, the better the car handles. At some point, though, tire wear becomes an issue. Negative camber tends to wear the inside edges of the tire. If you are after tire wear with reasonable handling, try to get camber about -.25 to -.50. When you start to get much over -1.00 you start to get tire wear issues. The wider the tire, the greater the problem. If you are setting the car up for autocrossing or some sort of handling competition, go for as much negative camber as you can get (up to about -2.500), but don't expect good tire life.
Within reason, positive caster is very desirable. It give the car more stability in that the steering wheel tends to center more quickly after turns. It also promotes the car going down the road streight. At some point, too much positive caster will make the steering seem like there is not enough power steering assist. Also, excessive positive caster can induce vibrations under some conditions. The vibration can be so violent that it can break steering and suspension parts. Ford had a recall on F series trucks in the late 80's over this issue and reduced the caster to lessen this tendency. On a Contour, I think it would be hard to get enough positive caster to be harmful. Ideal in my mind would be near +2.00 degrees.
My experience with toe on Contours is that the front should be as close to 0 as possible while still being slightly positive (towed out) and the rear should be as close to 0 as possible while still being slightly negative (towed in).
The concept of the toe setting is that the wheels should be streight ahead when the car is running down the road. On rear wheel drive cars, that usually means slight tow in when stopped. On front wheel drive cars that usually means slight tow out when stopped.
No matter what you do, there is usually some compromises that need to be made when aligning a car. Often there is not as much adjustability as you might like to have. Often you must choose between optimal tire wear and optimal handling. It helps to understand the dynamics of the steering and suspension systems as you sort through it.
