July 1992

7/1/92

Rabin still working on coalition, dropped Labor’s promise to freeze settlements, and indeed will cont. construction around Jerusalem

RR judicial appointees supported restrictions on abortion 77%, Carter 12%, Nixon 21%.
-Bush thinks Court allows states to require parental *consent* for abortion

Nightline report on US shooting down 7/3/88 Iranian airplane w/290. The Vincennes has earlier in day been engaged by Iranian gunboats. Nightline says it was w/in Iranian territorial waters, and was still when it shot down the plane, by a good 3 miles. And another ship was further inside. US claimed Vincennes responded to distress calls from a Pakistani vessel, whose capt. denies it, & a Liberian tanker, which didn’t exist but was a US-produced radio phantom designed to lure Iranians out to be attacked. The admiral claimed there were no planes available to visually identify the plane, but there were. And any other # of military activities on behalf of Iraq
-Says there were contingency plans for attacking the Iranian mainland
-The program of luring Iranian navy out, under which US destroyed ½ of it, coincided w/Iraqi offensive

Br churches to be allowed to advertise on tv – and will

Elect a general president and what do you get? A bigger army. Fidel Ramos’s first priority


7/2/92

American Milan Panic (naturalized) goes to Yugoslavia as PM

Bush says critics of Iraqgate are a “bunch of people who want to redefine something that was noble and good – Desert Storm – and make it bad.”

In primaries, 19.6% of total pop voted (in states with primaries – 22.5% 1988). D’s 12%, R’s 8.3%

House panel says Bush was probably not in Paris 1980 for October Surprise but doesn’t say why

House voted to cut all financing for Quayle’s Council on Competitiveness

Bush vetoes Motor-Voter registration bill, citing risk of fraud & corruption, which do not exist in states that have it

Perot’s superiors in Navy found him “emotionally maladjusted” & too immature for leadership. In the Navy?
-1983 EDS fired someone for wearing a beard. He was an Orthodox Jew & won lawsuit

Turkey’s Sup Court rules women don’t have to get husband’s permission to work

SA: COSATU threatens full gen strike to get de Klerk out. Next day he concedes ANC demand that a new const need permission of 70% of an elected const ass. Had demanded 75%, an effective veto. And concedes that lack of agreement wouldn’t just mean him in power forever, as the interim gov in which all parties over 10% have equal seats – now concedes a deadline of 3 yrs before, I guess, referendum. But ANC moves the goal posts...

Coup attempt Iraq, little info. A presidential order evidently allows US forces to assist any Iraqi military commanders who ask

CBS Evening News new policy requiring 30-second min for quotes from presidential candidates. But no one talks that long about anything. Ave. soundbite 1988 = 7.3 seconds.

EPA is not allowed by court to publish new rules under Clean Air Act 2½ months after states supposed to put them into effect


7/3/92

Slovaks secure defeat of Havel as Czech prez

SFPD releasing suspected illegals arrested for drug offenses to INS. INS only gets (immediate) custody if they’re convicted. So we give convicted felons back to other countries?

House votes to ban fed promotion of tobacco overseas. Ag spent $3.5m this yr

Luxembourg Parl oks Eur unity but needs exemption to EC citizens voting in local elections – 1/3 inhabitants are foreigners

EC & US have acceded to Greek position of not recognizing Macedonia under that name

Nixon’s slush fund gave $100,000 to Bush (1970?) who didn’t disclose in campaign reports. The funds were used to blackmail some who took it inc Sen Lowell Weicker. Bush discussed records w/Weicker 1973, wondering whether to burn the papers.


7/4/92

“Ethnic cleansing” continues by Serbs, people being herded onto trains to Hungary, Austria

32 of the ambassadorial corps gave campaign money to Bush, 10 over $100,000


7/5/92

Croats form a state w/in Bosnia

Nicaragua passes 1-3 yr sentences on sodomy, over Sandinista votes. Co-habitation can be 2-4 more yrs for people in authority. In Latin Amer., only Ecuador & Chile forbid sodomy

Ukraine is playing a role in the CIS that Br plays in EC. Has also replaced elected regional councils w/old CP apparatchiks, w/allegiance to the president. Has kept KGB archives shut & controls press & tv in time-honored fashion


7/6/92

Bush & Baker claim didn’t know about Lavorno when approved more credits. Bush claims he didn’t know about a memo Oct89 by a foreign service officer. Wording of NSD 26 suggests Bush wanted to help Iraq’s nuclear program. And that was 58 dys after FBI raided Lavorno’s hq. An Oct89 note by someone in Treasury says: “Baker is insisting on being informed.”
-Admin also keeping secret evidence of Iraqi war crimes in Kuwait

Yes, Bosnia has been betrayed by Croatia. The new Croat autonomous state is 1/3 of Bosnia (Herz. actually) – Serbs hold 2/3. Croat prez Tudjman claims the 2m Muslims are Croats & was pressing Bosnia to join (be swamped in) a confed. And cut off arms to Bosnia to this end (the head of the “community of Herzeg-Bosnia, one Mate Boban, is an arms dealer). And there were talks last yr between Tudjman & Milosevic, which were rumored to be a partition deal.
-Meanwhile, Serb “ethnic cleansing” has driven ½m Muslims out


7/7/92

Bush spends his 4th of July in all-White SC town, the site of KKK events


7/8/92

A former ambassador to Bahrain 1986-9, 2 others indicted for not registering as agents for Kuwait in effort to start the Gulf War. Also didn’t pay tax on it. And kept $5.7m of the $7.7m

Perot employed a former Army commando to work w/customs on drug interdiction when headed Texas Drug Commission 1981. Meadows worked for Singlaub in VN cross-border raids, part of Iran bust-out. A model of an off-the-shelf intelligence operation of Iran-Contra type. Perot offered to buy a refueling station in Caribbean to photograph drug pilots, but wanted a profit – wanted legally seized drug money


7/9/92

Pakistan, busy Islamifying its laws, institutes death penalty for insulting the Prophet, whatever that means

Clinton picks Prince-Albert-in-a-Can Gore. Jesse Jackson is not pleased

Perot says he won’t bar gays from Cabinet. And today sort of says he’d end ban in military, if it didn’t turn out to be necessary

Ex-PM of Bulgaria arrested for mismanaging the economy

Gulf War, laser-guided bombs hit targets only 60%, not 90 & Tomakawks ½, not 85%. And those were the smart bombs. Pentagon has yet to show any video of a bomb or missile missing its target


7/10/92

In Florida, an 11-yr old is suing parents for divorce

Bush will do “no matter what it takes” to get humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia, but won’t intervene

Though Gore also a rightist Southern white male, he is distinguished from Clinton by being interested in environment, having gone to VN, and inhaling when he “experimented”

Floyd Brown, who created the Willie Horton ad, is distributing the Gennifer Flowers tape


7/11/92

Kuwait barred US Republican party holding seminar on pol campaign strategies for Kuwaiti opposition

Alaska appeals court overturning Valdez capt’s conviction, based on a bit of Clean Water Act giving immunity to those who report oil spills, meant for spills that would otherwise be missed

Noriega sentenced to 40 yrs. And a $100 fine.

Bush advice to LA: sell LAX

The fed death penalty in a pre-election 1988 bill failed to specify how carried out, so fast was it drafted. Only 1 person is on fed death row, but can aa sentence specified now be retroactively applied?
-Justice is prosecuting cases in absence of a law, using pre-1972 fed statutes on murder of Fed law-enforcement personnel, that sort of thing, but those laws went in 1972 with everyone else’s. Sup Court insists on a separate sentencing phase in which aggravating factors or mitigating can be brought up. Gov insists pre-1972 crimes are so heinous that aggravating factors are built in, so no penalty phase needed

Russian-Ger treaty to resettle ethnic Gers on Volga & re-est an autonomous region for ethnic Gers

Christopher Hitchens wonders have anyone thinks the super-rich (Perot) are too wealthy to steal. Says of the “Ross fanciers, I found that despite their many charms and courtesies they want a revolution that is painless to them. They have the self-pity of the self-satisfied. They have no conception of self-criticism. They are, for the most part, those who thought Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were the tribunes of the little guy. One might call this the elitism of fools. The summa of this foolishness is to be found in Perot himself: a man who proudly and unoriginally shouts for the United States to be run like a private corporation without having the wit to appreciate that, as his own mediocre career testifies, it is run like one already.”


7/12/92

FBI to keep & distribute juvenile criminal records known to be even more inaccurate than the average, which are 33% inaccurate


7/13/92

The networks have halved convention coverage, doing less than the Comedy Channel

A memo in Quayle’s Competitiveness Council says reasons for opposing Biodiversity Treaty not so much protecting patents but that would require gov to broaden environmental legislation, Endangered Species Act, and benefit Amerinds.

Perot at NAACP keeps referring to “you people” and tells heart-warming stories of how his father paid old black sharecroppers & helped hobos

In Miss., Wy, Ohio, spouses can’t testify against each other. In 14 states, the target controls their spouses’ ability to testify. 1933, wives deemed competent to testify for but not against husbands in Fed court. The question is status on day of trial, so one could divorce in order to testify. In many states, there is an exception for plea-bargaining if both committed the crime. 20 states have no spousal immunity.

Newsweek 7/13 issue says cover-up approved by Adm Crowe, then Chair of Joint Chiefs. In war games, Capt Rogers had always broken rules of engagement. Had tried a month before to order a frigate to close provocatively on an Iranian warship – the commander refused & was backed up by hq. The Omanis ordered Vincennes out, as it was moving too fast to be innocent. Officers, on film, smirk & fail to reply. HQ ordered it out, too, but Rogers decided to go in when his helicopter, dogging Iranian gunboats back home, was fired on. Rogers demanded permission to fire, claimed gunboats attacking, though just bobbing around in own waters. The Aegis computer, designed for all-out nuclear war, tracking up to 200 enemies, is supposed to be used on automatic; Rogers decided to use his crew; possibly, no one could handle all that data. The Navy trials of Aegis were rigged, said GAO in 1988, by telling crews what enemies would be coming. All communications in CIC were on same circuit & power was fueled by crewmen listening in on Walkmans. Sent electronic query which came back as military because someone forgot to reset its range, so it probably picked up a plane on the ground. Incidentally, an F-14 couldn’t have hurt the Vincennes much. The guy who was supposed to fire hit the wrong key 23 times before someone else did it.
-Newsweek says Bush didn’t know he was lying when defended in UN that Pentagon knew but didn’t tell him. But the cover-up cont. 4 yrs. It seems to have come out now only because a lawsuit by Iranian gov has forced US to admit Vincennes was in Iranian waters.
-Covert war started w/CIA sending spy planes & copters over Iranian bases from July87. US friendly fire taking out a copter, capture of minelayers, was kept secret. US AWACs acted as air controllers for Iraqi raids. US may have bombed missile sites.

Christopher Hitchens, on Comedy Channel, compares the Convention to a sauna-full of carrion in Romania 5 yrs ago. And says Clinton looks like he’s wearing a mink jock-strap, like he’s smirking about something only he knows is going on.
-Jim Hightower says when you try to straddle a fence, as D’s do w/business & labor, in Texas, you get a barb wire in your butt, and Perot is that barb wire.
-Gore & Clinton both think they’re Elvis, but went to better schools
-The 1st delegate has been mugged (conv in NY) (from VT). As Mayor Dinkins said, “Walk the streets of this city, and feel the pain of an entire nation.” If you do, you will.
-Best lines: “Let Jerry speak” over & over by Brown supporters; and “we’ve got us a race between an aristocrat, an autocrat and a Democrat” (Gov. Zell Miller)

Croatia to refuse further Bosnian refugees. Will send them on to Slovenia, Aust., It.


7/14/92

Clinton: “Being pro-choice is very different from being pro-abortion.” Someone tried to hand him an aborted fetus.

US to stop making plutonium or enriched uranium

Bush campaign to put its ads only in programs reflecting Bush’s moral values.

Khmer Rouge now says won’t come in until gov dissolves

Jesse making a 29-min. long impassioned speech that fails to mention Clinton.
-Convention dealt w/AIDS when everyone could safely be assumed to be watching the All Star game

Panama has 20 public defenders. Most of those in jail are still awaiting trial, which can take 5 yrs, 18,000 now

Tsongas says Brown should endorse Clinton, but should be allowed to speak. Of course, Tsongas was the guy who did a deal to keep Brown’s positions out. Brown will speak, but Clinton spent a day trying to extort an endorsement 1st.
-“Murphy Brown” did better in ratings Monday than convention. There must be a lesson there. Or course, so did “Revenge of the Nerds, Part III”

Fed judge overturns FDA’s seizing RU-486 pills from a pregnant woman entering country, saying she could use them for personal use. But temp overturned by RR & Bush appointees on Appeals inc... Bush’s cousin

Turns out 1986 Clinton wrote a letter to head of Ark Rgiht to Life that he opposes abortion & gov funding of it.
-Speaking of that jog, Clinton took 25 minutes to run 1.58 mi., ave 4 mph, under NY walking speed

Hungary doesn’t want more Bosnian refugees


7/15/92

Bush trying to head off Congressional nuke test limits, limiting US to 6 per yr, 3 over 35 kilotons

D. platform mentions “law & order” but Clinton’s people vetoed mention of corporate crime. Says we should be “sensitive” to Greek protests about Macedonia

Bush focus groups show he is believed if says 7 words or fewer.

Rio Summit: gutted global-warming treaty, ignored econ reform, exonerated multinationals (by making all environmental ills “global”), silent on nuclear testing, condoned conspicuous consumption by N & made it a recipe for global environmental salvation. Bush: “growth is the engine of change and the friend of the environment.”

Jeb Bush is a power in Florida politics. He was in real estate speculation w/Alberto Duque, who lied to Fed to be allowed to buy a Miami bank w/Libyan money, used that bank to borrow over $100,/ 1983 bankrupted, eventually sentenced to 15 yrs. Jeb failed to find his partner lived in club owned by Meyer Lansky associates. When FBI investigated him, stepped down in favor of Donald Beazley of Nugan Hand fame. Pol contribs come to his funds from cocaine smugglers, ex-Batista intelligence people. Jeb raised money for Contras in Miami. Jeb lobbied regulatory agencies on behalf of Miguel Recarey, who had largest Medicare fraud scheme, w/$30m/mo. contribs to Dade Cty GOB of $2,000 & $25,000 to Bush PACs 1985-6, & “hiring” Jeb at $75,000 to find him a corporate hq (Jeb failed, but kept the money) got him an extra 2 yrs of fraud. And gov bailed out an office building of Jeb’s & let him keep the building (paid over $4m)

Barney Frank on Perot: “It’s presumptuous to think we should know what a man thinks before he does.”

Judge orders Operation Rescue leaders arrested. Evidently, the fetus thing yesterday was a conspiracy, and contravened judge order

NYT compares Cuomo to Hannibal Lecter: “he has a taste for stirring up trouble from his Jesuitical cell on the sidelines.”


7/16/92

Perot, realizing he wasn’t going to be crowned by acclamation, leaves the race. Clinton must be desperately rewriting his acceptance speech. Bush is more interested in talking about fishing. If Perot supporters felt betrayed before... Actually his volunteers were already pissed when the paid campaign people started shoving them out. Perot fell out w/the top managers – Ed Rollins left 2 dys ago. Perot says he go the others talking about his issues – like Brown said, like Buchanan, like Tsongas said. And throwing it into House would be bad for US

1.1m are in jails & prisons, up 6.8% since 1989 to 455/100,000 at $20.3b. And 1 of 43 are in jail, probation, parole. 69% in fed prisons by 1995 will be drug-related
-Of 210 judges nominated by Bush, 11 black, 12 Hispanic, 6 Asian. 3/4 worth over $500,000, ¼+ over $1m.
-Of 27,000 fed inmates w/drug problems, 364 get treatment

Bush admin thieves & inside-traders: ARCO ($862,000) to R’s since 1988 got to intro reformulated gas, which is more polluting & requires more fuel.
-Allan Hubbard, head of Competitiveness Council & Quayle’s deputy chief of staff, who owned stock in banks while working to eliminate bank responsibility for pollution. Since 1974, 47% of senior Trade Office officials registered as foreign agents after.
-The USTR textile official who negotiated agreement w/Pakistan quit 1990 & was immediately hired by Pakistan textile interests to represent them in Washington.
-Wm Brock & Clayton Yeutter who pried open Asian mkts for tobacco, held tobacco stock.
-Current Trade Rep. Carla Hills worked for Korean firm, Canadian & Br lumber, and several of her relatives are registered lobbyists.
-Bush gave 11 waivers for conflicts of interest to Cabinet before Gulf War. Nat Sec Adviser Scowcroft, ex-Vice chair of Kissinger & owner of stock in Kissinger Clients, one of whom is Atlanta branch of Banca Nazionale del Lavorro. Dep Sec State Eagleburger met ITT defense officials before writing memo to embassies telling them to help defense firms make sales. Gerald Jacob, gen counsel of Resolution Trust Corp formerly a real estate lawyer for a comp accused in a $1.3b RTC lawsuit. Comptroller of currency Robert Clarke traded $millions in junk bonds while in office, many when also on RTC board; and worked for & invested in a bank controlled by a man convicted of big fraud in a different bank. Deborah Stedman who chaired gov advisory panel on health care reform (w/out pay, so exempt from conflict-of-interest rules) also a lobbyist for Aetna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Assoc. Jim Courter, chair of commission on military base closures, was getting $3,000/mo from Grumann & was negotiating w/Northrup. EEOC atty John Milton indicted for stealing $70,000+ he was supposed to channel to victims of hiring discrim. Drug Czar Bob Martinez routed over $63,000 in campaign refunds from 1990 Fla. governor race, to Bush-Quayle, ordering this on official stationary

Pentagon consumes 200b barrels of oil/yr. Armed forces use ¼ of world’s jet fuel. And use more aluminum, copper, nickel, platinum than whole 3rd World. W Ger Air Force accounted for 58% air pollutants of air traffic. Military accounts for 6-10% of air pollution, 2/3 of CFC-113

US has 101 billionaires

Democratic Convention: Al Gore says he’s fulfilling his dream of being warm-up for Elvis.
-Gore tag line: “It’s time for them to go.” He asks the crowd, “What time is it?” Uh, well, Mr. Doody...
-Tonight is child exploitation night. Hillary is talking about when little Chelsea learned to roll over. Earlier, we heard about Gore’s kid playing dead. This is overcoming-personal-adversity week. Quayle is busily arranging an accident for one of his kids, in a sort of escalating Corleone thing. After Gore’s kid being run over & brought back by the power of prayer, CNN ran an ad showing a tire that avoids running over a kid.
-Special guest today: the 10-yr old who could spell potato but was too polite to correct the VP.
-The Clintons have a cat, & no dog.
-The New Covenant. Indiana Jones & the New Covenant. Don’t think so.


7/17/92

Letters are found from 5 Czech Politburo figures 1968, handed to Brezhnev essentially asking for an invasion. The only survivor of the 5 says they may be a “possible forgery.” Surely a confession unless something is added in translation

The film in Conv on Clinton’s life, which only C-SPAN & the Comedy Channel ran, the latter to “crap on it,” failed to mention in 14 minutes his Rhodes Scholarship, which is less important than his outhouse. Last night was combination of relig confession & psychotherapy.
-Today, Perot’s supporters are really pissed by his “cheesy” (NYT) exit. Perot never named a platform. Perot was simply unwilling to spend money on polls or commercials, wouldn’t appeal before groups, just hard-core supporters. Refused to read briefings, wanted it boiled down to Reagan-memos. And never tried to find VP. Perot has always quit when doesn’t get his own way: the Navy, President’s Foreign Relations Advisory Board, search for POWs, Wall St., GM


7/18/92

Sup Court refused to order the RU-486 pills returned to the woman, 7-2

“King Michael” of Romania to run for president, maybe

Vatican urges Cath bishops in US to oppose laws protecting gays... it fosters acceptance of homosexuality, and favors discrimination in teaching, military, foster care...

Neil Bush. George Bush: “if it weren’t for me, Neil would not be getting this heat.” Ahem. 1983, put $1,000 into JNB Exploration, his partners put up $160,000. In 5 yrs, got at least $550,000 salary. One partner in Texas’s “rent-a-bank” scandal. JNB never found oil but Neil got paid $150,000 for his interest & a huge line of interest in bank of a partner. Other partner wrote off $100,000 loan Neil lost in commodities mkt. Why? On Silverado board, he approved $132m in loans to those 2 partners, never repaid. 1985-8 (when Neil left Silverado), it go 126 cease & desist orders from thrift supervision, mostly on conflicts of interest, insider abuse, but 1984-7 got $500m from Topeka Fed Home Loan Bank Board – on whose board partner Wise & Neil himself sat. Justice Dept waited 3 yrs for any indictment. FHLBB’s local president was ordered to delay shutting down Silverado till after 1988 elections, but doesn’t remember who gave the order. Gov tried to keep $50,000 fine on him for Silverado a secret – his friends paid it for him. Formed Apex Energy, putting in $3,000, investment capital coming from Small Business Admin. Got $160,000 salary & $150,000 for oil & gas lease. By time he left 1991, $1.8m value of its stock was worth $10.


7/19/92

David Mellor, Br’s Heritage Sec, responsible for review of newspaper self-policing, is boffing an actress, says the press. And this follows on discovery that Health Min had an illegitimate kid young, in same week gov announced target of halving illegitimacy

A month before the Soviet coup of Aug91, several coupsters signed an Appeal to the People by nationalist & anti-Semitic organizs. And evidently had prepared an editorial: “The Plot of Zionists & Masons Foiled...” 300,000 arrest warrants were ready to be used for Moscow alone. Factories got orders for 100s of 1,000s of handcuffs


7/20/92

LA riots have resulted in a so-far 3-mo gang truce. Dozens fewer have died. Of course, police are less than thrilled

Bush says hunting (on pub lands) is a “sound environmental practice.”

Labour elects John Smith leader. Another Celt. The next internal election, everyone says, must not have bloc votes.

A Nov89 CIA NIE mentioned Lavoro. It details Iraqi network of comps in Eur to acquire chemical, bio, nuclear & missile programs

Russian Parl voted to take control of Izvestia, which dec itself ind of Soviet Parl after 1991 coup. Yeltsin to protect it.

Cal State has cut 5,000 classes, raised fees 40% & campuses will accept no students in spring

Of Clinton’s 4,250-word acceptance speech, 141 were on foreign policy, 40 minutes in

A Perot volunteer sues him for breach of promise. Wants him to be forced to run if put on ballot in all 50 states

Israel has allegedly frozen new settlements, for a whole week. I suspect Rabin intends to compete the 11,000 units under construction. (Update: yup)

Gers to allow in more Bosnian refugees. Austria has closed its borders, ditto Hungary, Belg, Luxembourg, Neth., Finland


7/21/92

Perot’s budget to balance budget & cut deficit in 5 yrs inc screwing SSI, 50¢/gallon gas tax

Jimmy Carter, after signing bill ending Medicaid funding for abortions: “Life is unfair.” (1977)

Roe v Wade also ended involuntary sterilizations, & spousal notification for women to be sterilized

Br Sun newspaper says a Cabinet official tried to smear Lib leader Ashdown w/false info during election

UN says both sides in Yug. broke cease-fires by firing on themselves

Russia offers to sell US uranium for fuel in reactors (and Fr & Japan)

James Baker to quit as Sec State to run Bush campaign. Will be replaced temp by Lawrence Eagleburger (can get away w/out appointing someone for 120 dys)


7/22/92

Adm. Wm Crowe says Vincennes was in Iranian waters but no one ever asked him where it was before. Said Congress was told this in the classified version, but not told the public because it would give away our rules of engagement, which allowed intrusion on Iranian waters and might provoke Iranians. Denied sending fake ship signals – said shipping sometimes used fake names – but fake distress calls? Ridiculous.

Gore in Congress 1977-84 voted against Medicaid funding & to prohibit financing under Fed employees’ insurance. 1984 voted for amend to Civil Rights Act dec an “unborn child” a person at conception, Prohibited financing for it in Fed prisons. Then changed, 1986 voted against DC spending

Ed Carnes, the Prince of Death, nominated for fed judgeship. An Ala. atty gen who blocked state providing legal aid to poor murder defendants. Responsible for 8 executions, 6 black. One had IQ of 65 but his lawyer too incompetent to mention it. And Carnes falsely said on appeal that judge & jury did know. And blacks routinely excluded from Ala. juries. 115 on Ala. death row, ¼ of them sentenced to life by jury, but bumped up to death under the law Carnes wrote. At sentencing hearing of one, prosecutor lied, saying the defendant belonged to Black Muslims, had murdered a woman in NJ & was dishonorably discharged. Since defense atty failed to mention this to Ala. Sup Court, Carnes said prosecutor’s misconduct was waived by defense – he was executed.

A member of Bush campaign sues under DC laws for anti-gay discrimination

Fla. judge says Fla. Sup Court decision that minors have right of privacy means statutory rape law unconst


7/23/92

Quayle yesterday said if his daughter wanted abortion, he’d support her. Marilyn said no today. She’s 13. Quayle now says he meant if she were an adult, otherwise he’d force her to give birth

Bush says Clinton wants to encourage children to “haul their parents into court,” evidently quoting legal writings of Hillary Clinton about giving courts recourse for abuse or neglect.
-Fitzwater says Gore’s going to Rio Earth Summit & condemning Bush’s refusal to sign treaty on endangered species was saying “The heck with the economy; sell it out to the environment.”


7/24/92

Israel to stop settlements on drawing board (6-7,000 units) but not those in progress (8,700) or 1686 around Jerusalem. Should increase Jewish pop 50% Occupied Territories

Lots of talk about resuming war w/Iraq, which is being bitchy about inspections for documents. US says that cease-fire being broken, so can resume war w/out a UN vote, or indeed from Congress (John Warner & Sam Nunn had press conf to agree on latter) (Nunn also says targeting Hussein ok)


7/25/92

Bush says he has a great record for constrictive change. Bush also yelled at families of missing soldiers who were heckling him. He told them to shut up.

Dole accuses Gore of trying to trade his vote on Gulf War for a prime-time speaking slot.

Okl., NC, don’t recognize marital rape as a crime. 30 treat it as lesser crime by reducing sentence or limiting definitions. In CA., prosecutor can decide to charge w/felony or misdemeanor (nonmarital rape always a felony), & wife must report it w/in 90 dys

Justice Dept goes over state criminal drug cases to send people back to jail. They can do that because double jeopardy only applies to a single sovereign. A guy who served 1 yr from 1985 for owning 900 marijuana plants was sent to prison forever last yr, allegedly for teaching a pot ring its trade, but actually for the same 1985 charge. Gov, by slashing help to local police while offering drug-enforcement grants, & 1986 offering a cut in confiscated assets in joint operations (which always go to state court) (and since then confiscations rose 17X to $½b/yr of which states & locals got ½) – by all this local police are bribed to send people into fed systems. In fed courts there is no parole, defense gets only 70 days to prepare a case, & gov can confiscate in advance money to be used for defense

Bob Fitch, whoever that is, in Tikkun: the Democratic Party is “the Roach Motel of progressive politics. The radicals come in but they can’t come out.”

Abortion. Strict scrutiny actually gone since 1983, when O’Connor in Akron v Akron Center for Reproductive Health, created a ltd fundamental right, based on undue burden. So what is that? In Lyng v N.W. Protective Indian Cemetery Assoc, gov was allowed to permit logging of sacred tribal lands. It effectively destroyed their ability to worship there, but O’Connor saw it as ok, being less than prohibition

Only Estonians can now vote in Estonia, those resident before 1938 + descendants. 1/3 pop now disfranchised.
-Ethnic Russians rapidly leaving Cent. Asia, esp after Islamic demonstrations changed Tajikistan gov
-Russian nationalists being promoted in military. Thus the new commander of 14th army in Moldova, which has been intervening, calls Moldovan gov “fascist.” Defense Min Grachev says army is only source of stability in CIA


7/26/92

Anyone who dies in Duchy of Lancaster loses possessions to the Queen (£7m in last 10 yrs)

Clinton-Gore: the all-Stepford ticket


7/27/92

US refuses to amend extradition treaty w/Mexico to ban kidnappings

Bosnian gov has evidently done a deal w/Croatia to increase latter’s inf in military & everything else. Both to allow dual citizenship. Bosnia running out of ammo. Bosnia is supposed to turn over 17 senior officers who were part of Yug. army in Croatia last yr

Army lets stand the conviction of the doctor (Mudd) who set John Wilkes Booth’s leg

Linda Chavez says the reason Chelsea Clinton has been so little seen is that there should be more: “The one-child family is still the exception in America, and I think that this whole image again sort of looks like the Democratic liberal version of what a family looks like.”

When Bush vetoed fetal-tissue research, announced a plan to collect tissue from miscarriages, but wildly exaggerated the amount that could supply – could only come up to their figures if there were SWAT teams in every hospital, all miscarriages took place in hospitals, most fetuses uninfected, gov spends 100s of millions/yr, all ♀ agreed to donate tissue, & be tested for AIDS etc. Instead of 2,000, under the pilot program, should manage 8/yr

The latest confrontation w/Iraq ends as it allows UN inspectors into Ag Min (but no inspectors from the Gulf War coalition). Bush mentions are violations of cease fire. Cheney says Hussein would be a “legitimate target” of military action.

Convicted felons used to be prohibited from owning a gun. But in 1965 the comp which owns Winchester was guilty of kickbacks so an exemption made for that comp, worded so indiv felons could also get reinstated. NRA 1986 got it extended to more felons. We pay 40 people to process claims. 300+ approved/yr, inc one who shot a cousin while drunk, one for rape, one for trafficking in machine guns


7/28/92

Ch’s shift to free mkt accompanied by discrim against women. Inc selling women. No ♀ in Politburo. When commune land distributed, it went to men

Bush attacks Clinton for suggesting force be used to get relief into Bosnia

Budget director Darman says Bush totally blameless for bad economy. It’s Congress’s fault

Scottish court says fetus should be treated as persons under law (in case of medical malpractice)


7/29/92

NJ & Colo. ban illegal immigrants getting drivers’ licenses

In fed courts, 1st ♀ 1934, 1st black 1949. Eisenhower appointed no blacks to courts of appeals, JFK 1 (Marshall), LBJ 2, Nixon 0, Ford 0. Nixon & Ford appointed 9 to district courts, RR 6, Bush 9, Carter 28. In 83 appellate appointments, RR appointed 1, Bush 1 of 32 (Clarence Thomas)

After Roe, 36 states dropped viability to 20 weeks, other states considering

Kevin Costner & James Brady have refused to do ads for Bush

Miss. trying to close 2 of 4 abortion clinics for performing abortions beyond 16 weeks


7/30/92

Mario Biaggi, the Bronx Congressman convicted for accepting bribes from Wedtech & the mob 1989, was released last yr for his health. Now he’s running for Congress. He still owes a $500,000 fine. [Update: loses]

Delay in S&L bailout now costing $4b/day (gov ran out of money April 1)

A UN inspector says the 3-week stand-off by Iraq’s Ag Min because of misunderstanding. Monitors didn’t know what the building was when demanded immediate access. And there was never real evidence that there were documents there. There aren’t now, surprise surprise.

Clark Clifford indicted for BCCI

Br’s poorest those living on under ½ ave income, 12m 1988-9, from 5m 1978-9

MD. to require 75 hrs community service for high school graduation

GOP trying to spend money before Conv, but questionable whether allowed to after primaries

Clinton is being supported by an alien, says Weekly World News

Utah executes a man who during a robbery made victims drink Drano which would have killed them, but his partner shot them 1st. The jury was all-white & a note was passed saying “Hang the niggers.”

Tehran to keep the Iraqi planes that came for safety during the war, 132 of them


7/31/92

NJ Sup Court says rape needn’t entail force or threats, just absence of permission. The girl consented to kissing & petting, got naked on a bed with him, but didn’t consent to sex

A “Gladio” agent confessed 40 yrs later to assassinating Belgian CP leader 1950 when CP had 40% of vote

Br’s Channel 4 at some point alleged collusion between Royal Ulster Constabulary & paramilitary in death squads. Has been fined for not revealing sources