April 1992

4/1/92

Isle of Man legalizes homosexuality

Senate overturns ban on tissue transplants using aborted fetus cells

Carter endorses Clinton

Ger. Defense Minister resigns after Turkey seen using against Kurds tanks supplied by Ger after a supposed ban in Nov91. It is suggested that Defense is out of control, since the Minister also claimed to know nothing about arms to Israel
-US, on the other hand, is giving Turkey satellite info on Kurds

Security Council imposes deadline for sanctions on Libya, refusing to wait for World Court. Libya ordered to turn over 2 nationals by April 15, or arms & air embargo, requirement to cut down on dipl missions. Notably, not an oil embargo. Clinton wants one, and might want military force

Bush admin refuses to admit how much in spends on travel. They’re claiming $29,000 which would pay for 40 mins. of Air Force One. More likely $130m for White House staff. Costs hidden in military

Sup Court 8-0, but w/dueling concurrences, says fed gov can give up on desegregating school districts if demography just recreates segregation. Scalia says should dec victory and go home.

Russia takes over Commonwealth army in Moldova

Aid program finally to Russia, giving Yeltsin more cachet than Gorby ever given, 5 days before a new free-mkt plan planned. But what about other republics?

State Dept report says Israel (not explicit) broke US laws by selling US military technologies to 3rd countries. But says US officials who should have enforced laws shouldn’t be disciplined


4/2/92

But today takes back claim Israel sent Patriot to China

If Clinton has been the education governor, it sure isn’t shown in the numbers, although Ark is up to 46th in teacher pay & 48th per-pupil spending. More have college degrees, but just as far behind nat ave as 1979.
-Has given any number of tax breaks to chicken, paper comps etc but lets them use tax credits to eliminate jobs

Fr PM Edith Cresson forced out, replaced by Finance Min Pierre Bérégovoy. Delors refused the job

Ark lacks a law against discrim in sale & rental of housing (1 of 9 such states) or hiring & promotion (1 of 2). Scandal when a Japanese comp steered to white areas by the Ark Indust Devt Commission, which refused to make its records public — indeed Clinton got Leg to tighten freedom of info law to restrict release. The agency used to give businesses thinking of moving there info on racial makeup
-Clinton 1983 asked state to purchse 10% goods & services from black businesses. Actually under 3%.
-In court appointees, while he has appointed more blacks & ♀, more interested in rewarding friends & allies. He has no interest in role of courts, no judicial philosophy. 1986 chose a woman for Court of Appeals not on the list of 11 qualified women, but wife of an oil dealer who supports Clinton. She wrote letter on court stationery to Workmen’s Comp Board for one of her former clients.


4/4/92

Suit against gov for its 90-day moratorium, which inc listings of endangered species, despite law that econ considerations not to be considered

Kohl says ex-Soviet republics can’t enter EC

Clinton, who supports parental notification, attacking Brown as not really being pr-choice

CNN reporter calling Brown’s 800 number was told how to get around $100 limit through family members

Clinton as governor uses voluntary guidelines for environment, which is why Ark. waters clogged w/chicken shit

David Owen supports Tories in election


4/5/92

Newsday (Long Island) endorses Tsongas. NY may kill Clinton, where no one much likes Slick Willie. People want an open convention
-Clinton evidently got an induction notice in England, which he didn’t think worth mentioning before now.
-Hillary Clinton wonders aloud why the press isn’t going after Bush mistress, then retracts.

Iran bombs Iraq, allegedly attacking Iranian rebels who allegedly raided over border itself. Why not? Turkey got away with it

Where Dukakis wouldn’t even meet gays, Jerry Brown wanders around w/a ribbon for AIDS victim. Tsongas was the most pro-gay, and even brought it up on his own. Clinton says he’d issue exec order against discrim by military & fed employers, but sure never did that in Ark. And Ark’s anti-sodomy law (gays only) is actually enforced by stings, the criminals named in newspapers. He was silent on a bill 1991 to repeal the law.
-Buchanan has been condemned for racism & anti-semitism, but who mentions his homophobia?
-Bush has never mentioned homosexuality in a speech, no position paper, & no position on the Gay Civl Rights bill. Campaign chair Robt Mosbacher met w/Nat Gay & Lesbian Task Force — daughter is a (Democratic) lesbian. White House issued statement that it was a personal decision. Gingrich & other fascists demanded Bush repudiate the meeting — Buchanan did. Quayle made a pt of eating at a restaurant chain (Cracker Barrel, I swear) famous for not hiring gays


4/6/92

Noriega trial now before the jury. All the interesting bits were thrown out. Gov said Noriega had no right to a fair trial of lawyer-client privilege before he got to US. Witnesses had more charges dropped than ever applied to Noriega, got immigrant status & allowed to keep drug earnings. Most of the original charges in the indictment were ludicrous & were dropped — Noriega insisted on the jury hearing them.

44 House members retired, a near record. The about-to-expire rule that allows them to keep their re-election funds has nothing to do with it, of course.

Peru Prez Fujimori coup. Dissolved Parl, put members under house arrest. Suspends const. Press censorship

Ger Republicans win 11% in Baden-Württemburg & another right party Ger People’s Union got 6% Schleswig-Holstein. CDU loses Baden-W. Kohl does not attack rights, but refugees

Caterpillar threatening to replace all of 13,000 striking workers

CT primary had turnout of 10.5%


4/7/92

Asshole Russian VP recognizes the breakaway bit of Moldova

The CIA’s Openness Task Force’s study is being censored in its entirety

China denies visas to Sens. Pell & Boxer

Ukraine & Russian presidents both unilaterally claim Black Sea Fleet

Sup Court 5-4 said the gov’s repeatedly sending some Nebraska farmer child porn was entrapment. Took 2 yrs to get him to buy. Bare Boys

EC recognizes Bosnia. US finally recognizes Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia. Greece still stalling on Macedonia


4/8/92

Fr to suspend nuclear tests (Greens doing well electorally)

NY: Clinton 41%, Tsongas 29, Brown 6. Turnout 27%, 7% of eligible citizens. Trust Brown to come in 3rd in a 2-man race.

Gov has lost 2,500 files of Haitian refugees inc 50+ accidentally returned to Haiti. US gov insists they have no right to legal counsel because they are held outside US in Guantanamo.

Fed District Judge says Civil Rights Act requires party conventions, which get tax money, not to discriminate in selecting delegates. Repub Nat Cmte has 3 black voting members of 165 — all 3 from Virgin Islands.

Ireland to have another abortion referendum, specifically on women’s right to travel & right to distrib abortion info

Quayle also uses military planes to get to golf games, party fundraisers

Bush gives Wisc. waivers to punish women in welfare who have more than 2 children


4/9/92

Bosnian presidency, w/Croats & Muslims, but boycotted by Serbs, to rule by decree, as Yug. has started war against it.

Tsongas won’t reenter campaign

Wash. state bill subjects anyone selling “erotic” records to minors to $5,000 & 1 yr

Clinton early 1980s supported teaching creationism. Did not veto lag-desecration bill


4/10/92

ABC says Brown as governor had marijuana & cocaine use in his pad

Noriega found guilty of 8 of 10 counts

Commander of Yugoslav army in Bosnia says intend to stay at least 5 yrs. There are 100,000

Gov’s Office of Personnel Mgmt censors “Taking Care of Your Child” edition distrib to the 275,000 fed workers covered by Blue Cross. The missing chapter is on contraception & adolescent sexuality. Its offense was suggesting that kids are sexually active.

Peru Congress voted one of VPs the new president. He’s in hiding in Argentine embassy. Bush wants pressure on Peru


4/11/92

Russian Parl refuses to give Yeltsin power to rule by decree

Right, Kinnock blew it. If you can’t win in a recession against a wimp in an atmosphere of change, you can’t win. Labour is over, they say. Conservs 41.9%, Labour 34.2%, LibDems 17.9%. Major’s campaign manager Chris Patton lost his seat, Glenda Jackson won one. Sinn Feiner Gerry Adams lost his seat, but the car bombs since are no doubt unrelated. Major got away in Scotland convincing politicians it was all or nothing, & the SNP split votes w/Labour. The new cabinet will even have women. Michael Heseltine promoted to Trade & Industry. Thatcherite Nigel Lawson kicked out. Ave age reduced from 54 to 51 (see also May 1)


4/12/92

Cost of Noriega conviction: 15 witnesses excused from crimes, $100,000s, allowed informers to keep $m’s in drug money

One of Mrs Mandela’s witnesses last yr retracts & says she dir assaulted the kid who died. Incidentally, the dr. who examined Stompie died 2 weeks later

A black man was found guilty, in CA, of killing a prison guard (white) & another inmate (black) & given death penalty. But never touched the guard, who was stabbed by the other victim. Prosecution says because he himself was stabbed, so it’s the 1st guy’s fault. That silly theory doubtless had to deal w/race & death penalty. CA Sup Court put aside the 2nd murder conviction but not the death penalty, refused to deal w/race.

Whether or not JFK assassination a conspiracy, there was a cover-up. 3 days after, Justice strategy outlined to convince public that Oswald was sole assassin. Justice got WaPo to kill editorial calling for ind investigation. NBC 12/11/63 promised FBI not to televise anything not in according w/FBI report. NYT pub a book of Warren Commission hearings that excluded witnesses who saw 2 men in Book Depository, 3 Secret Service agents’ observations of autopsy different from official report. Life bought the famed Zapruder film 4 hrs after for $150,000+ & suppressed it until 1975 at behest of publisher C D Jackson, a psywar adviser to Eisenhower & anticommunist, & proceeded to misrepresent the footage in print, explaining away the frontal throat wound by claiming his head turned away. No one could contradict this. 1975 Dick Gregory got Geraldo Rivera to air it — ABC insisted he take on legal liability. CBS documentary 1966, w/a Warren Commission mole on staff (daughter of John McCloy) used a faster rifle to prove Oswald could get off the shots. 1970 CBS was told to delete LBJ doubts. Other footage has disappeared

Europe is finished: Euro-Disney opens


4/13/92

Vatican revokes status of 300 underground Czech priests, but their activities treated as valid, exc for the women...

Since March, Medicare no longer pays fees based on customary rates in the area, but uniform. So in high-cost areas like Manhattan, Miami, doctors refusing new Medicare patients. Could, like Medicaid, force patients who can’t find drs into ERs. The hope is drs will be attractred to rural areas. Money also shifted from specialists to GPs. Based fees on 12-yr old census data on staff wages. For Manhattan, office costs based on rents for apts in n NJ; in LA, same rents for downtown Pasadena as Beverly Hills

NYT dare not use the words “death squad” about Israel, but State Dept says soldiers not in uniform 1991 killed 27 Palestinians, many not armed, but wanted or fleeing, after writing graffiti, or masked. An Israeli civil rights group counts 70

Russian Parl voted to make Yeltsin give up PMship in 90 dys & new one be subj to ratification

Turkey to set up tv broadcast to ex-Soviet repubs, will have 6,000 scholarships. US supports this as counterbalance to Iran.

Brown slogan: “One moonbeam is worth a 1,000 points of light”
-Incidentally, all the articles about Jacques Barzaghi, the man who dresses in black & is always around, I finally realized the stories are suggesting he is Brown’s lover

1988 Alan Cranston hired pollster Patrick Caddell, who found voters wanted a younger candidate. Decided he should run a neg. campaign to disgust voters w/politics so incumbency inertia would prevail. It did.


4/14/92

Palestinians pick someone in jail to lead negotiations

Bush’s family: son John Ellis Bush didn’t repay a loan — fed gov picked up $4m. Brother Jonathan fined $30,000 for violating securities laws. Prescott advised a Tokyo investment comp connected w/organized crime.
-1987 George W Bush, the son, told Newsweek his father had not had affair. What a weird family.
-Bush’s campaign: chair represents corporate clients (ie marketing), inc Ford. Campaign manager on 9 boards. Campaign advisers work for Japanese firms, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (of BCCI fame). White House says ethics laws don’t apply to them because they don’t make policy.

43% workers covered by pension plans 1991, 49% 1979. Drop esp for younger blue-collar men, also worst hit by real wages & employment. Also shift from plans w/defined benefits to ones based on investment performance. Now, pensions = 17% income to people 55+, SSI 38%, savings 25%.

The Mandelas splitting up. Hopefully, even if she doesn’t wind up in jail, we’ll never hear from her again

Bush orders Fed contractors to post notice that non-union workers can’t be forced to pay union dues used for pol purposes. This bit of pettiness forced AFL-CIO to endorse Clinton.

Kinnock has stepped down, 2nd non-PM party leader in a row. There will be a special conf July (postponed from June as some thought they were being rushed into supporting John Smith). “New” actor: Amalgamated Engineering Union to merge w/Electrical, etc union to = 1m, quite a block vote.


4/15/92

Will OAS sanction Peru for coup? It begins to look not. US not really calling for them; have been portraying Fujimori as some kind of tragic hero

US, Br, Fr order Iraq to move anti-aircraft missiles & stop tracking allied patrols on radar, oh and end blockade & shelling of Kurds

FDIC’s problem hist. contained banks w/assets of $400b June91, $600b Jan92

Yeltsin & Parl fought a little war, Cabinet pretending to resign. Anyway, Y. got his econ reforms & powers. Y. hasn’t been seen in public — off drunk I guess.

The White House Fed Credit union has a a loan delinquency rate of 3%. Gear up the scandal machine!

Bush’s 1987 book earned $2,718 in royalties last yr, Millie’s book $889,176.


4/16/92

Iran expels Arabs on island in the Gulf it’s supposed to administer jointly w/UAE
-Also, those planes Iraq flew to Iran during the war: some of them turned out to belong to Kuwait, but Iran isn’t returning them yet. Wants $95m in parking fees

State Sup Court NY refused to endorse Br libel judgment, the 1st such refusal, saying Br libel law contrary to 1st Amend

List of offenders in House bank overdrafts headed by Ron Dellums

UN has settled Kuwait-Iraq border, giving Kuwait more of the oilfield & town around Iraq’s only port, a sure cause of the next war

Under election pressure, Bush plans to expand student loan program to part-timers.


4/17/92

1st sexual harassment case won Japan

Afghan prez. Najibullah overthrown by army turncoats for rebels, who are attacking Kabul. The UN peace plan was indeed a fraud.

42% DC blacks 18-35 in criminal justice system, 15% in jail, 21% probation or parole, 6% on bond or wanted. 85% arrested at some pt. in life.

Mexico registers trade unions, which are usually therefore dominated by PRI. Non-registered unions’ strikes met by army. Rigs elections, as at Ford plants, where gov allowed comp to threaten to fire workers who didn’t vote for a PRI-controlled union. Free trade agreement, anyone?


4/19/92

44m women in prison, military or on Medicaid have little access to abortion.
-Clinton never announced support for abortion until last yr — signed parental notification & did not speak out against a successful referendum to amend state const to protect unborn children from [ ? ] exc to question its “relevance” since there was no state funding


4/20/92

RR Admin secretly allowed Saudis to provide US bombs to Iraq 1986. Failed to inform Congress. And Bush did same for Syria, Bangladesh after Gulf War.

Bush admin to restore disability benefits to many of those kicked off by RR. Social Security had ignored lower court decisions & said it wouldn’t apply the legal principles of a decision to any other case. 1989 Justice said exec not subordinate to judicial branch, not required to follow circuit court ops, “merely a weather vane, showing which way the wind is blowing.”

-1989 Energy Dept killed warning about Iraq nuclear program. US now blaming Saudis

Of 36,027 PhDs 1990, 320 to black men, 508 to black women. ¼ black PhD students got support, as opposed to 42% generally & 69% for foreign grad students

1989 richest 1% accounted for 37% priv net worth (31? 1983). Had net worth $5.7t, compared to $4.8b for bottom 90%.

Though Polish const guarantees free health care, now charge $80 for abortions
-Poland institutes mandatory religion or ethics classes in pub schools, the former taught by Cath priests & to begin w/a prayer

Death watch, 4:14 am. CA working on its 1st execution since 1967, 502nd. 3 stays since yesterday, all overturned by US Sup Court. Decisions made by septuagenarians after pulling an all-nighter, a great way to run a country. The 4th stay came when he was strapped in the chair. Everything today is happening w/unseemly haste. Robert Alton Harris is a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome, massive child abuse, possible brain damage. And his brother may have been more culpable than hitherto suspected, exc by prosecutors, who may have suppressed it. But what the hell, huh? One question is whether gas chamber, used by 3 states, is cruel & unusual. The 4th stay requires any execution to be videotaped for use in class-action suit on the subject. 6:05am. Sup Court has vacated 4th stay & ordered that no other stays be issued. Is that legal? All Sup Court decisions 7-2. Never have so many been so anxious to do something so unpleasant


4/21/92

After much debate, the name of the place is Russia *or* Russian Federation

MI5 trying to take over anti-IRA activities from Scotland Yard

Thatcher says Thatcherism lives & there is no Majorism

NATO tells former Soviet republics to give up nukes & join Non-Proliferation Treaty

Sup Court 6-3 shields fed agencies from fines for violating fed laws on water pollution, hazardous waste. Congress has to be specific about waiving concept that “the king can do no wrong” inherited from common law. Will be overturned by bills now in Congress

SA’s Democratic Party, very little from of late, loses 5 legislators to ANC. Yes, ANC now represented in white-only Parl (166 members)

Voice says abortion language is that of legalistic principle of privacy. Roe never said the privacy right was absolute; indeed Court said opposite — “A pregnant women does not have an absolute const. right to an abortion on her demand” (Doe v. Bolton —same day as Roe), giving state an interest. Roe written in terms of doctors’ right, not woman’s. Says it is a medical decision, basic responsibility resting with... the dr. Medical & neo-Malthusiam, not feminist justifications for abortion prevail.


4/22/92

1985 a shadow Bush campaign est, called Fund for America’s Future, which spent $11m 1988, obvious circumvention of the law. FEC failed to subpoena its records before the 3-yr per. for retention of documents expired. By then, they were gone.

Algerian Islamic group, underground, calls for armed resistance

Bush asks Congress for aid to Afghanistan — $12m, nothing compared to money spent on destroying country, & rather amazing for a country whose capital is surrounded

Tsongas was covering up a 1987 relapse of his cancer. Had he become the candidate... Says he forgot.


4/23/92

Seems in Gulf War, US faced 183,000 Iraqis instead of the 500,000 claimed at the time. And much less damaged when war ended. We had 700,000.
-Iraq insists must give 48-hr permission for the mvmt of UN relief vehicles. Idiots.

Abortion case heard by Sup Court. ACLU argues Penn’s imposed notification a violation of equal protection, benefitting only men. Penn. couldn’t give good reason for it — not protecting unborn like they say because only applies in marriage. And said compelling speech of drs. (have to talk of risks, stage of fetal devt, alternatives, etc etc) ok as regulation of commercial speech (normally = ads). A woman who falsely certifies having notified husband faces 1 yr in jail. O’Connor got state to admit might under same principle apply to ordering ♀ to tell anyone she has sex with using an abortifacient.
-In Webster, Rehnquist, Kennedy & White advocating “rational basis” for restrictions. US says this means any restriction exc life of mother.

Bush tightens embargo on Cuba, closing ports to ships that go to Cuba. Nothing yet on Peru.

Moscow May Day parade will sell billboard space to W ads.

CA Atty Gen Lungren has ordered that all employees will have to take death penalty cases regardless of their beliefs & willingness to do so will determine hiring & promotion.
-All R & D Senate candidates in CA support the death penalty, even Barbara Boxer
-½ US executions since 1930s non-white. 83% since 1976 killed a white person
-32 convicted people sentenced to death in CA 20C were exonerated, some after as long as 45 yrs
-Robert Alton Harris’ parents both drank heavily (though state likes to claim mother only started after he was born). Father thought he wasn’t his & beat his pregnant wife; didn’t induce miscarriage but Harris b. 2 mos early & 3 pounds, 14 ounces — didn’t walk until 19 mos, talk till 2. Beat viciously from around birth. Father eventually arrested for sexually assaulting his daughters. Mother abandoned him at 14. AT 16 diagnosed as pre-psychotic. Shouldn’t have been turned loose on society then, or 2 yrs after he set a neighbor on fire. Every school, jail, court, soc service agency failed him


4/24/92

AZ drops gas after a guy takes 10½ min. to die unpleasantly. Leaves just us & MD

Bush never pulled “anti-drugs” planes out of Peru after the coup. Peru just shot one down.
-Peru’s only success against Sendero Luminoso, the raison d’etre of the coup, is shutting down its newspaper

Afghan rebels split along ethnic, tribal & a dozen other lines, agree to an interim council. Price of chadors has tripled.


4/27/92

De Klerk proposes an interim program of an elected exec council w/rotating presidency — i.e., De Klerk gets presidency back after 6 mos.

Of money spent by insurance comps to settle Superfund claims, 10% goes to environment, 90% to legal fees. Problem is that Superfund calls for costs to be divided among dumpers

Yugoslavia re-created: Serbia & Montenegro

Since 1989, gov has known that Iraq exchanged food provided by US for arms, inc nuclear technology. And demanded bribes from agric comps. Law-enforcement investigators were surprised when gov gave another $500m loan guarantees, on which Iraq defaulted. By 1989, was getting $1.1b annual loan guarantees, largest recipient. $4b, $1b of it US-guaranteed, flowed through the Atlanta branch of an It. state bank. A lawyer for an Iraqi front comp which skimmed money was later made US Atty, the indictment delayed for a yr.
-US kept exchanging intelligence right up to the invasion, & lied about it to Senate

Syria to let its Jews out


4/28/92

Bush admin wants to change rules on objections to timber sales in US Forest Service. Members of public have been able to delay by objections. Bush wants it to be by lawsuits only after initial period.
-Bush to extend the freeze on regulations. So far it has stopped identifying endangered species, delayed rules to carry out Clean Air Act, delayed rules to protect workers from exposure to toxics, allowed more radio concentration, stopped labeling of toys children can choke on, proposing a loophole in pollution permits to allow increases w/out pub scrutiny, illegally. Bush has broken the Clean Air Act 75X in failing to issue regs

Justice Dept complains about bill to release JFK assassination files, something about president’s “const authority to protect confidential info”


4/29/92

Long-time Ger Foreign Min Genscher quits. Kohl doesn’t get his choice for replacement, as Free Dem party members overruled their leaders. New Foreign Min Klaus Kinkel has headed Secret Service & Justice, pushed for Honecker’s return & made a deal w/Red Army Faction which will let their people out of jail @ end of violence

The LAPD cops who beat the shit out of Rodney King on video acquitted after change of venue to all-white Simi Valley, by an all-white jury. And this state wants to execute people based on jury decisions. LA Is being burned & looted, and quite right too. King was kicked & was hit 56 times by batons. One cop tried to distance himself from his “out of control” confrères, & he only kicked King in the neck to shield him from further harm.
-Daryl Gates is still *chief* of police, since it turned out only god can fire him. They have hired the replacement, though.

Israel, cont. the divide & rule policy, offers to let Palestinians run hospitals. The Israelis will cont., under this division of labor, to fill the hospitals

Bush fundraising dinner raised $8m. $15,000 gets you a seat next to a Congressman, $92,000 a photo w/Bush. One company fired an employee who wouldn’t fork out the $1,500 for a min. ticket


4/30/92

Gov. Wilson justifies taking so long to get Nat Guard out by citing shortage of ammo. Terrific.

SA sentences a white police capt. to death for leading massacre of 11 blacks in Natal 1988.
-But a Zulu black cop released under the pol amnesty for killing people after 9 mos of 27-yr sentence