October 1992

10/1/92

Perot back in. Putz. He asked his “volunteers” & they told him to

Russia begins issuing vouchers to public worth 10,000-rubles (2 mos salary) to bid for privatized firms. 60-70% will be. Trading starts Dec. 1 but people selling off early. Considering inflation, why not? Comps over 1,000 employees or fixed capital 50m rubles forced to privatize

1 House or another sustains vetoes of family leave, restraints on Ch. trade, abortion counselling

Bush to implement an air exclusion zone over Bosnia over objections of Gen. Colin Powell


10/2/92

Perot hired a detective when daughter wanted to marry a Vanderbilt professor & claimed he was a drug dealer (w/out proof), wrecking the impending marriage – because he was Jewish.
-Perot says he won’t answer q’s “not directly relevant,” like about the above, presumably. Not that he’s dealing w/issues either. He keeps telling questioners to read his book, w/out talking specifics. It is thought he hasn’t read it either. Perot says Amers. tired of “ego-driven power-hungry people”, which is his image, or if not, it’s because he’s already eaten.

The Ind Counsel Act was allowed to die unrenewed, 28 R senators threatening to filibuster it, Bush to veto

Checkpoint Charlie to be a shopping center

Senate report says the guy who sold dope to Quayle was illegally put in solitary, which was on grounds his safety in danger (it wasn’t) & he violated phone privileges (no evidence of it)


10/3/92

UN Sec Council to seize Iraqi assets abroad

Elections in Angola. MPLA wins what 800 internat observers call a free & fair election. UNITA’s Savimbi thinks not.


10/4/92

Bush blames Iraqgate on Clinton, who he says wanted grain credits for Iraq. White House refuses to elucidate

A Louisiana congressman had to beat his brother


10/5/92

Greece cuts off oil to Macedonia because it wants end-user certificates not to say “Macedonia.” Serbia is blocking food

On his 36th veto, Bush is finally & belatedly over-ridden, on cable tv rates. Bush failed to persuade any R’s to change over from 1st vote. Bush blames the media

Kuwait has election. If there was a campaign, no one bothered mentioning it. No women. Only those who lived there 1921. 84,000 of 606,000

Negotiations over format for VP debate: Quayle people wanted to be allowed props, like, say, reading from Gore’s book Earth in the Balance. Gore’s people said fine, and Gore will hold up a potato. There will be no props.

Bill for fetal tissue research opposed by only 12 senators, plus Bush, blocked by filibuster threat

Brady Bill killed by Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho

After losing the election in Angola, UNITA pulls out of army, preliminary to re-starting the civil war


10/6/92

Fed judge said gov obstructed trial of Lavoro bank, heads of Justice, State, Ag, intelligence w/held info

JFK actually did have Addison’s disease, adrenal insufficiency, which had actively lied about

UN est a war crimes commission for Yug., the 1st since WW2


10/7/92

Israel gets its $10b loan guarantee

Kuwaiti opposition (disunited) gets 31 of 50 seats, inc 19 for Islamics

Azerbaijan Parl refuses to ratify Commiewealth treaty

Safire says that Bush on Larry King admitted Iraq diverted materials to build nuclear capability. And says it was unknowingly, but D of Energy warned about nuclear planning, & Commerce approved dual-use technology & altered documents

Bush’s big issue today: Clinton protesting against VN while in Eng


10/8/92

Gorby has refused to testify on activities of CP so Yeltsin blocks him leaving country (Gorby calls himself a refusenik), he’s been fined 30¢ & Yeltsin took back buildings that had been assigned Gorby’s foundation, & took back a country retreat. Part of deal where Gorby got all this was he’s supposed to shut up, which he hasn’t

UN Sec Council bans flights over Bosnia. And if Serbs violate it, we’ll darned well consider how to enforce it

Peru judge wearing a hood sentences Guzman, head of Shining Path, to life. The hoods are a post-coup innovation. Tried by military, unable to call witnesses

RU-486 also good as a morning-after pill. Overdoses of the Pill also work, but w/nausea & vomiting

FDA is now to collect fees for reviewing new drugs & cut time in ½

Serbia has completed conquest of n. Bosnia up to the Croatian border. They’re using napalm now. [Update: really?]

Willie Brandt dies. 78.


10/9/92

Latest debate on whether Clinton went to Moscow on a Eur tour. Bob Dornan suggests he was a KGB agent of inf. Bush says it’s wrong to demonstrate against your country when it’s at war. Personally, I think Clinton was just trying to get laid
-Mark Shields says an apology owed to Roger Ailes & Lee Atwater. This campaign just as nasty & the only constants are Bush & Baker. Remember 1988 they started a rumor that Dukakis had undergone psych. care, assisted then as now by Wash Times

Israel to accept Palestinians from outside Occupied in discussions on regional issues.


10/10/92

CIA officials tell Sen. Intel. Cmte that Justice ordered them to w/hold info about the Lavoro bank fraud from fed prosecutors. CIA said they had no secret info, when it did
-And CIA says it sent a statement to Justice on extent of its knowledge of fraud last mo. but Justice suppressed it

Iraq refuses to save Bush. There is a bit that Iraq says is its, the UN says is Kuwait. While the UN puts down marker stones, the area has Iraqi police, customs & 12-foot portraits of Saddam. 3 Swedes & a Br caterer have been arrested over the last couple of months & sentenced to 7 yrs. But they gave back the American taken yesterday. But what *was* an American doing in such an area?


10/11/92

11/9/90 Sununu: “There’s not a single piece of legislation that needs to be passed in the 2 yrs for this president. In fact, if Congress wants to come together, adjourn & leave, it’s all right with us. We don’t need them.” And Bush stuck to that and the 102nd Congress, now adjourned, accomplished zip. No leg. on health care got to the floor. Nothing on S&Ls or banks. Energy bill didn’t increase domestic oil produc or raise auto mileage standards

Slovak gov renationalizes tv, fires its director. PM Meciar had wanted a reg 10-min. slot & was only offered a reg. interview slot. Meciar says state must guarantee the press tells the truth. Gov refuses to give interviews. Gov trying to block approval of comps to run former CP-owned papers, the ones hostile to him

Bush Sept. claimed Clinton had written a letter condemning the US military as immoral. He didn’t. Mary Matalin said Clinton may have been recruited as an “agent of inf” in Moscow.
-Bush: “I don’t want to tell you what I really think, to go to Moscow, 1 year after Russia crushed Czech., not remember who you say there...”


10/13/92

The bit about missing pages from Clinton’s passport file is interesting, since it’s illegal for State to look in it w/out Clinton’s consent

Quayle accuses Bush... no, I mean Clinton & Gore, of waffling about abortion.

In pres. debate, Bush defends status quo & then promised Baker would be domestic czar & has since promised to fire Treasury Sec, budget director & top econ adviser. Just last week he had said Baker would return to State. Many think Perot’s homilies won him the debate. Certainly no one challenged him on anything

Justice, FBI & CIA fighting each other over who covered up Iraqgate & obstructed a trial, and over who will investigate their own illegalities. Safire says neither can be trusted & ex-CIA Atty Gen Barr illegally refused a special prosecutor

Mark Shields comments that Jefferson never ran on “Better the devil you know.”

Quayle has said that R’s “understand the importance of bondage between parent and child”

Shevardnadze wins 90% of votes as speaker of GA parl, gearing up for a full-scale war in Abkhazia

Quayle in debate said Gore called for giving $100b to 3rd World for environment. Actually his book called for a global Marshall Plan & parenthetically notes that the real Marshall Plan was $100b in current dollars
-Gore’s claim that gov subsidizing export of industries seems to be true. AID gave money to a textile comp that moved from Tenn. to El Salvador
-Anna Quindlen asks Bush (in print): if the answer to our problems is to make Baker domestic policy czar, why do we need you?

Bush campaign spending $1m on focus groups this yr

WaPo says Oct. 1 a senior State official asked embassies in Eur to look for dirt from Clinton’s Oxford days. Gov claims it’s because media requests under FOIA

Br Coal closing 31 mines, laying off 30,000, leaving 19 & 13,000. Will increase imported coal from 20m tons this yr. $1.7b in severance pay, retraining & threatening to screw miners who strike, as Scargill insists, from severance


10/14/92

Perhaps to get FBI to back down from Iraqgate, FBI director Sessions is being investigated for using gov transport for priv use, phone calls, that he used a lapsed country club membership in Texas to exempt him from DC income tax, and wife tried to beat a ticket. The long-distance calls were on a WATS line anyway

Atty Gen Barr also refusing to appoint ind prosecutor on Inslaw software theft, as House Judiciary Cmte demanded. A fed bankruptcy judge ruled that Justice used “trickery & fraud & deceit” to steal it, but appeals court threw out the judgment

Serbs are being resettled in Krajina region of Croatia – & kept from leaving by a pass system
-US is refusing to take Yug. refugees, as UN High Commission asked

Despite the election results, Kuwait Emir again names the Crown Prince PM


10/15/92

Yeltsin turns over the order of Stalin to execute 20,000 Poles at Katyn, accused Gorby of covering up. It specifies the number (actually 25,700), specified as officers, officials, landowners, police, subversives, factory owners, clergy...

The search of consular records for dirt on Clinton was indeed a response to FOIA requests from media, but it was jumped 4,000 up to top of list & overseen by an asst secy of state. And nothing has been released to the requesting news agencies

Denmark says it doesn’t want to be part of a single currency

Debate marathon, part 3. Bush was considered too passive Sunday, so Quayle did his pitbull imitation Tues., repeatedly saying that Clinton has a problem telling the truth. Bush failed to carry through today, because the Phil Donahue format faced him w/uncommitted voters, sick of personal attacks – and they didn’t ask about VN or whatever. Or about Vps, though Perot’s future-Trivial-Pursuits-question VP was a disaster.
-No wins, no losses, no errors, no specifics

Sup Court will decide on a fed court ruling that employers can cut insurance coverage when a worker gets an expensive disease (in the case, the guy w/AIDS had his cut from $1m to $5,000) if employers serve as own insurer. Solicitor Gen asks Sup Court not to review the ruling. ½ employees are now under self-insured comps, though may not know it, as a real insurance comp often handles paperwork. The 1990 Amers. w/Disabilities Act may prohibit this as discrim, but Congress too wimpy to make that decision, so left it vague [followup: Court allows it]

Peru’s courts w/judges in hoods & secret witnesses follows Colombia & Bolivia. The US pressed them to do it. Colombia uses special courts against organizers of nonviolent rallies. Peru will reintro death penalty soon

Br decision to kill the coal industry, even the announcement, came before Cabinet discussion. Some Tories threatening to vote against – only 11 are needed. The regions bishops, & the Times, oppose this. This may be Major’s equivalent of the poll tax for Thatcher


10/16/92

The Bush campaign sent a fax to campaign workers telling them to call media and dec Bush the winner of the debates. The fax was sent before the debate.
-In that debate, Bush said “This is supposed to the women’s – the Year of the Women in the Senate; let’s see how they do.” Not clear if he meant the next line, “I hope a lot of them lose” to be heard. Of the 11 women running for Senate, 10 are D’s

Bush invited R’s running for Congress to photo op at White House. Only 26 of 413, none incumbent, wished to be seen w/him
-Bush today for 1st time personally said Clinton was a draft dodger. Of course he also called college-age students “draft dodgers” – current ones.

Nigerian military gov to “purge” the 2 pseudo-parties, after dissolving highly corrupt primary results

Bush’s auto insurance plan would require a cheap coverage not covering pain & suffering. So those under it couldn’t sue or be sued for them. Those w/normal policies would have to get this from their own comps, even if not guilty. Great for bad drivers.


10/17/92

Atty Gen backs part-way down, appointing a dependent investigator for Iraqgate, under same law as Archibald Cox was appointed

SA extends pol amnesty to state officials, amnesty to be given by DeKlerk after secret review by a commission, whose records would be destroyed. And the crimes given immunity wouldn’t be specified

Russia selling Ch. missile-guidance tech, rocket engines, etc, which Ch. hoping to resell to 3rd World, that is build their own. Russia may be more destabilizing now, w/no foreign ambitions, than when it did have them.


10/18/92

The Lavoro investigation seems to have prematurely absolved It. gov, partly to make a better case, partly because CIA kept info back

Bush is getting loans from US for his campaign in form of waiting mos to reimburse gov for campaign travel. Has reimbursed $500,000 so far (v. Clinton’s $150,000/week) & will pay months from now. And gov only charges 1st-class airfares, though Air Force One costs $26,250/hr


10/19/92

ANC admits having tortured dissidents & that some responsible still in authority. Mandela says they’ve taken collective responsibility, so indiv don’t matter. And it was inexcusable but must be understood in context

Major has backed down on coal mines, now plans to close only 10, w/7,500 jobs. May still not win vote


10/20/92

3rd debate yesterday, w/highest ratings yet. Perot claims VN once sent hit-men after him. There is no evidence of this. Perot demanded Bush release instructions to Ambassador to Iraq Glaspie. He says we gave Hussein go-ahead to take N. Kuwait. House has also ben refused the cable. But he also made silly charges, like presence of foreign lobbyists in other campaigns – “I have a list of 52...” When asked about lack of women advisers, Bush said the (female) reporter was being defensive. And repeated the comment about hoping women candidates lose. Clinton says he won’t raise taxes on middle class

UN made deal w/Iraq to get humanitarian aid into country, US to block the agreement, claiming there would be a smaller UN presence, which is untrue


10/21/92

Russia temp suspending pullout of troops from Baltics, saying there was no place for them to live. Yeltsin has threatened them re ethnic minorities, VP Rutskoi threatened sanctions on Estonia

2 days after the Beirut paper reported on Iran-Contra Nov86, a debate occurred in gov over whether to lie. Poindexter lined up behind him (says a newly leaked memo) Weinberger, Casey... and George Bush. A mo. later Bush made a speech saying the gov should come clean

SEC allows Cracker Barrel restaurant chain not to have shareholders vote on its ban on gay employees – NYC Employees’ Retirement system wanted the vote

SA amnesty plan (10/17/92) rejected by Parl, so deKlerk uses his rubber-stamp President’s Council


10/22/92

Bush said in Monday debate that Iraq used no US products in its nuclear program. Admits now he was wrong

The mass grave is found in El Mozote, El Salvador, where RR insisted there was no massacre of 800 to 1,000 1981

Bush has been campaigning hard against Clinton’s actually rather weak endorsement of fuel efficiency standards. He uses auto industry figures that 300,000 jobs would be lost, a figure which comes from figures on all workers on cars under 40 mpg

Perot’s like the Yugo – small, funny-looking & you never know when he’ll quit on you

A 5-yr delay under RR in labeling aspirin led to deaths of 1,470 children from Reye’s syndrome

Thousands of Turkish soldiers have invaded Iraq to fight Turkish Kurds, who Iraq Kurds have also been fighting

More evidence of Bush’s knowledge of Iran-Contra (who’s leaking this?): a Nov85 memo about gov plans to use Terry Waite (C of E envoy, later hostage) to get hostage-holders to drop demand for release of people in Kuwaiti jails & take “blood money” instead


10/24/92

Fr convicts 3 officials of “fraudulent description of goods,” meaning AIDS-infected blood that infected 1,250 hemophiliacs, got 2-4 yrs

List of Salvadoran military to be purged evidently inc defense minister, his deputy, 110 officers & numerous officers moved safely into dipl posts


10/25/92

Bush accuses Clinton of causing the GATT talks to break down

Days before Iraq invaded Kuwait, Bush sent a very weak message of concern. Seems the Pentagon tried to block it to firm it up

Commission on LA riots said there was no plan to deal w/it. Darryl Gates now says they should have gone in & “blown a few heads off”

Perot claims he dropped out July because of R dirty tricks, wire-tapping & intention to disrupt his daughter’s wedding & print fake photos of her (he has, of course, no proof) – evidently to show she was a lesbian

Tajikistan communists return in coup. Russian troops hold airport, RR & broadcast
-Authorities get communists out


10/26/92

Jeff Greenfield says that if you have $3 & strange opinions, you’re a lunatic, if you have $3m you’re a mild eccentric & if you have $3b you’re a credible candidate for president. Actually, paranoia & delusions of grandeur seem par for the course
-Even his own ex-security officer doesn’t support the story of 5 men w/rifles coming to kill him 1970 & being chased off by his dog. These were the Black Panthers NVN hired.
-And he looks like a wimp for pulling out over something rather minor
-Said today on the 1970 thing that he didn’t have to prove it & told press it was none of their business
-Incidentally, he got back in based on a rigged phone poll in which all calls were tallied as support

Pope beatifies 122 clergy killed by Republicans in Spanish Civil War

July86, New Yorker says, Bush, after briefing by Amiram Nir, got a message to Iraq to bomb deep inside Iraq [Iran?]. In exchange for tactical intelligence from US military satellites, Iraq flew 359 missions in 2 dys. Reason? Well, Iran came to US for Hawk anti-aircraft missiles in exchange for hostages.
-The late 1989 grain credits to Iraq seem to have been in exchange for their intervention to get Palestinians to participate in peace talks. Iraq diverted that money to weapons & demanded kickbacks

Br trial of 2 execs of a comp, Matrix Churchill, shows Br gov allowed illegal sales of arms-manufacturing equipment to Iraq. They then passed on info to MI6. 1987-90. Evidently, they went further than gov wanted, or something, thus the trial, since gov admits it all.
-And US approved export of military computers sent Feb91, used to test Iraqi rockets. The guy who set up the deal was Gerald Bull of the “supergun” fame, assassinated Mar90


10/27/92

The relig right is/has been using “stealth candidates,” 1st to win 60 San Diego Cty offices 1990, since to take control of R party in Iowa, Wash state, where platform would ban abortions, abolish NEA, institute Bible readings, creationism & corporal punishment in schools, bar gays from teaching & health care, return to gold standard & reclaim Panama Canal. Such candidates stay out of public, refuse to talk to press, then show up at their 1st school board meeting toting a Bible.
-And CA platform says “monogamous heterosexual marriage... the only stable relationship upon which to build a society.”

Ex-Communists win 44.7% Lithuania, a plurality


10/28/92

Canada voted against a new const, Quebec, which was given the farm, decided by 56.6% it wasn’t enough. And everyone else (exc the Atlantic provinces), thought it was too much, 68% BC. Total 54% no.

In Salvador Nat Ass, ARENA moves to block rebels being legalized as a pol party

Mr. Democracy, Boris Yeltsin, talking about disbanding the right-wing (nationalist/CP) opposition group
-Meanwhile, Parl sends guards to assert claim over Izvestia, as its inheritance from the Soviet Sup Soviet

A mother in CA gets 6 mos for passing drugs to her baby in her breast milk

And US also allowed export to Iraq of computers used in the “super gun,” giving licenses to that dead guy, who had a record of aiding Iraq. Also Ag Dept reputedly shredding documents. Nightline says US didn’t even try, that devices used only in the air, for missiles, were supposed to be used in tractors.

Oregon will vote on initiative against gays. Neither Bush nor Clinton have denounced it

Safire cites Bush’s Iraqgate cover-up as reason he isn’t voting for him

Labour to vote against Maastricht, treating it as a motion of confidence


10/29/92

Last Russian troops pull out of Poland

Bush is desperate. Calls opponents bozos & crazy. He’s been calling Gore Ozoneman & says we’d be up to our necks in owls, and they’re “far out, man.”

Chair of Russia’s military intelligence archives says Alger Hiss was innocent

Yeltsin attempts to ban 1) the nationalist Nat Salvation Front, 2) the armed guard est by rival, chair of Russian parl. Both bodies resisting. Yeltsin also trying to postpone convening of Congress of People’s Deputies, scheduled for Dec. Now he has issued decree suspending withdrawal from Baltics and turning it back into an occupation. Housing for troops no longer mentioned, just about Russians in the Baltics, demanding agreements.

Bush is bragging about a 2.7% growth, which came from selling arms abroad & people dipping far into savings

It. Parl ratifies Maastricht quietly, 403-46-18

Bush radio ads have accused Clinton of advocating gas taxes & a “farm operations tax.” He hasn’t. They say Clinton’s desire to reduce CO2 emissions can only be done by a tax

Frank Snepp on Atty Gen Barr in Voice: 1976 at CIA helped Bush fend off Pike & Church cmtes, and has supported Imperial Presidency ever since. Drafted opinions as Asst Atty Gen justifying invasion of Panama & seizure of Noriega. These documents haven’t been released even to Congress. For Gulf War, said there was a “gray zone” between a declared offensive war & an emergency defensive action when US vital interests threatened
-At confirmation hearing Nov91, Barr admitted Justice gathered evidence against Anita Hill.
-Thwarted BCCI investigations, stonewalled Judiciary Cmte on Inslaw, made a plea agreement w/BNL (Lavoro) manager for him to clam up & make no statement in court

Governor of VA decides whether to make death row wheelchair accessible. Last yr, Texas wheeled in a man who’d had a stroke 8 dys before, on a gurney


10/30/92

Eur Court of Human Rights tells Ireland it can’t ban distrib of info on abortions abroad. There will be a referendum on that subject in a month.

Vatican reader to forgive Galileo; must be the end of the Cold War

8/18/60 a group of 25 Protestant leaders met in Switzerland to block JFK’s election, host was Billy Graham, & Norman Vincent Peale was there


10/31/92

Croatia has been sending back Bosnian refugees. Serbs have been attacking columns of fleeing refugees
-Bosnia threatens to use poison gas

Lib Dems pull Major’s chestnuts out of the fire, voting for Maastricht next week

Far-right candidate for Senate in CA admits going to a nude bar, but he didn’t inhale