December 1994

12/1/94

Karadzic, pres. of Bosnian Serbs, refuses to meet UN Sec Gen if not on his ground. Dole & Thatcher call for w/drawal of UN, air strikes

Palestinian gov delays distrib of 2 main papers for 3rd day for reporting on Hamas rally


12/2/94

Tony Blair to send his kid to a self-governing school (like his hero Clinton), which Labour official oppose as elitist

Clinton gives in to R’s, announcing $25b military increase over 6 yrs. Evidently, we’re not “ready”


12/3/94

Senate passes GATT 76-24

The ind prosecutor will bring no changes for Bush admin search of Clinton’s passport files

Sen. R’s re-elect Dole leader but defeat his asst Alan Simpson in favor of Trent Lott, associated w/Gingrich & Gramm (who, like Dole, wants to be prez.) Lott defended Nixon on Watergate, RR on Iran-Contra, & tax exemption to segregated schools

UN & NATO suspend slights over Bosnia to conciliate Serbs. And UN leaders in Bosnia went to Pale to meet Serbs – after the snub on Boutrous-Ghali who refused to go there. This week Serbs activated anti-aircraft radar. Br & Fr, whose nationals are most of the UN forces held hostage, refuse to use the word hostage. They just can’t move around at all

Clinton rules out fed money for creating embryos for research (can perhaps use leftovers)

Justice refuses to help Cincinnati defend ordinance against discrim against gays


12/4/94

80 Nat Intelligence Estimate 1950s-80s declassified

Russia in UN vetoes a ban on fuel going from Serbia to Bosnian Serbs & Croat Serbs

Judicial panel wants to drastically limit cases allowed into fed courts, noting that in S California, for ex criminal cases are 85% of fed trials. Disputes over Soc Sec benefits would be resolved in HHS, claims for pensions, health & welfare be restricted to states, EEOC would allow fewer people to sue

Swiss referendum 73% for new powers of search & arrest of asylum seekers & illegal immigrants, & detention up to 1 yr. Gov blaming asylum seekers for drug dealing


12/5/94

Dept Transportation comes to deal w/G.M. not to recall pick-ups whose design flaws will kill 32 more from fires (150 previous) if they fund unrelated safety programs that will save 50 lives


12/6/94

Russia admits those were its planes bombing Chechnya last week. Chechen tv shows battle scenes from Laurence of Arabia to prepare the population. Yeltsin asks Parl for an amnesty

Bettino Craxi sentenced in absentia to 5½ yrs

Drilling for oil will begin on grounds of Windsor Castle

Yeltsin at CSCE conf says NATO trying to split Eur by admitting E Eur, talks of a “cold peace” & stops it releasing any report on Bosnia

Clinton is now officially a foreign policy president, breaking Bush’s record for most travel in a yr

Willie Brown not yet voted out as speaker of Assembly, though R’s have 41-39 sort of. One R. defected to him, saying his party was taken over by right wing. And one R. Somehow got elected to both houses & is trying to keep both seats


12/7/94

Florida sentences Paul Hill who shot abortion dr & helper to death

Major defeated 319-311 on increasing VAT on home-heating fuel. 7 of the 8 suspended Tories voted against gov 7 times abstained

Clinton friend Webster Hubbell pleads guilty on mail fraud (overbilling of c.$400,000+) & tax evasion

Iran tries to name its own Ayatollah Khameni as head of all Shiites – the man declines the honor

Bosnian Serbs promised to release a Jordanian UN peacekeeper w/a heart ailment if got another hostage. So one came, w/an escort, and now... the Serbs have 3 hostages. OK, a day later they let him out. Fr wants UN & NATO to draw up w/drawal plans


12/8/94

Fed Election Commission says Bush campaign owes gov $1.3m for campaigning violations – increasing matching funds by improperly assigning expenses to the primary campaign


12/9/94

Turkey jails 3 Kurdish MPs for up to 15 yrs for being Kurds

Post Office gives up idea of a mushroom-cloud stamp to celebrate the end of WW2

SF voter handbook argument says “Taking BART almost to the airport is like not coming.” A judge rejected registrar’s attempt to remove the wording

Clinton finally pledges troops for Bosnia... to assist in UN withdrawal


12/10/94

Clinton fires Surgeon Gen Joycelyn Elders after a comment that sex ed. should inc masturbation. An excuse to get rid of a Repub target

Sen. Bob Kerrey plan to control costs by raising retirement & Medicare to 70. And this a Dem, and means-tested Medicare, vets benefits, unemp

Chesterton: “Democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but you ought to do it yourself.”

Orange Cty dec bankruptcy

At meeting of W Hemisphere countries (Cuba not invited) agree to free-trade zone by 2005. Gingrich & R’s say will give fast-track authority in exchange for no environmental or labor conditions in trade bills

Elections in 4 Indian states. Congress had 4, now has a tie in 1, lost to 2 regional parties & to the opposition Janata Dal

Yeltsin orders Chechen borders & air space sealed off


12/11/94

And invade. This is not hugely popular

Bosnian Serbs say UN armored vehicles will no longer be allowed to accompany aid convoys – which will now cease. UN soldiers also out of fuel, & running out of food. W/out fuel, anti-sniper patrols will end in Sarajevo

American fathers cheat children out of 1/3 of $15b/yr child support. 90% of children on welfare are owed child support. Until recently, a man could lose credit status for defaulting on car payments, but not child support

Clinton says suppression of Chechnya is an internal affair


12/12/94

Jacques Delors says he won’t run for president in April. He waited so long, there is no viable PS candidate

The alleged Serb blockade on Bosnian Serbs does not include – and Lord David Owen allows this interpretation – the Krajina Serbs of Croatia. This is the origin of all those SAM missiles and the Krajina Serbs joining the assault of Bihac – coordinated by one Bosnian Serb general

Chile to be admitted to NAFTA

Sup Court brilliantly rules that since Congress failed to mention fault (malpractice) in a 1924 law on V.A., anybody whose medical treatment injures them is to be compensated

Brazil Sup Court acquits ex-Pres. Collor de Mellow who resigned 1992 over corruption charges


12/13/94

FDA says drug comps can wing it in deciding dosages for children, w/out doing any testing, where the diseases are similar as for adults

The bribery bidding begins, R’s wanting to give tax credits for children to those under $200,000/yr, and over the $500 in taxes to be credited. Gephardt meanwhile wants tax cut for all under $75,000. And Clinton?

Russian Parl passes schizo resolution criticizing Yeltsin (hiding out in hospital for a... nose operation?) for using military in Chechnya, while saying it is inalienable part of Russia. Passed 289-4. Only support at all from Zhirinovsky & the Women of Russia Party

D’Amato postpones Whitewater hearings, allegedly to cooperate w/the ind counsel, really to push them into 1996

After Serbs attack the Bangladesh UN troops in Bihac, killing one, UN refuses the peacekeepers’ request for protection by NATO planes, not even overflights


12/15/94

While the war is on, Yeltsin is in the hospital, having his deviated septum repaired. When the chair of Parl Defense Cmte criticized him, he cut his phone. Not all units are obeying orders to attack, and one general has been recalled.

Oct. there was an “incident” between a US carrier off Ch. & a Ch. nuclear sub, in which Ch scrambled flights & has since said orders are next time to shoot to kill


12/16/94

Suit filed against Gov. Wilson for ordering August no participation in motor-voter registration until gov (fed) funds it. Doesn’t affect last election as not in effect yet

Protestors against Br’s new Criminal Justice Bill scaled the Houses of Parl & were arrested for causing criminal damage to a gargoyle


12/17/94

N Korea shoots down a US helicopter

A Russian general commanding tanks says he will not attack Chechnya. The rest of military is moving so slowly Yeltsin had to extend his deadline. Russia orders media to print official account of fighting along regular ones

Clinton speech Thurs. for a “middle-class bill of rights,” viz., $500 tax credit for children under 14 & incomes under $75,000, $10,000 deductions for college, expanding IRA deduction to $2,000 under $100k income (but can be used for almost anything), all paid for out of vague cuts from HUD & DOE, which there is talk of abolishing, a long-time Repub. wish. His plan costs $60b over 5 yrs. R. plan $147b inc capital gains cut. Clinton’s alleged cuts would not go into effect for 3 yrs after the tax cut, & at end of a 2nd Clinton term. He would privatize air traffic control, & emergency petroleum reserve, consolidate job training programs into a voucher scheme. He has lost moral high ground by offering a tax cut he can’t pay for, just like the R’s


12/18/94

Br Tories lose another safe seat at by-election, Dudley West. Tories down from 34,729 1992 to 7,706. Labour 28,400. A 29% swing, the biggest since Fulham East 1933

LA Times says there are people you can hire to trim your Xmas tree

Jimmy Carter accepts last Wednesday’s offer to mediate from Bosnian Serbs

Russia withdraws offer of summit w/Chechnya, says it will bomb capital Grozny into submission. 5 anti-war MPs stay in the city. Upper house of Parl demands peace talks & cease-fire

Clinton’s tax proposal would double in 2nd 6 yrs & R. plan would triple

Some Ger states (Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony until it was exposed) charging refugees $64-84/day for jail stay before deportation. If no cash, they seize valuables

Israel has been breaking the agreement, expropriating 20,000 acres of W Bank in 15 mos, trying as usual to obliterate Green Line


12/19/94

Drunk Russian troops fire on refugees fleeing Grozny, killing 9

Someone else shoots at White House, uncaught this time


12/20/94

Br unbans Natural Born Killers

Russians bombing civilian parts of Grozny


12/21/94

12 days later, N Korea still hasn’t returned the dead or the living helicopter pilot

And, yes, you can now e-mail Santa

Judge throws out Fla. lawsuit to make feds pay for all its illegal aliens. So much for Wilson’s only idea on how to handle CA budget

Carter claimed to have gotten Bosnian Serbs to agree to an immediate cease-fire. It wasn’t, and in fact there was heavy shelling of Bihac today. Now he says it’s Friday. Even if so, yet another ceasefire at the cost of recognition of Karadzic, which is what this amounts to


12/22/94

Clinton Admin again gives up on raising grazing fees on pub lands

Clinton has retracted a 3-star general as head of prospective UN force in Haiti because that would require confirmation, while a 2-star wouldn’t


12/23/94

Gingrich book deal, $4m advance from HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch, for a book of his, heh, ideas, & to edit an anthology. Murdoch trying to get law changed to allow foreigners to own tv stations, as he now illegally does

Berlusconi resigns, facing desertion by Northern League. He wants new elections. His brother gets suspended sentence for paying bribes

Russia deputy commanders refused to take command of assault on Chechnya, resigned. Yeltsin refuses to address jt session of parl


12/24/94

The 2nd largest CA HMO, Health Net, requires ♀ to stay w/in 30 mi of their home clinic in 9th month of pregnancy. What about jobs? They should be on maternity leave anyway.

Judge says Gov. Wilson & Lege diverted $160m over 2 yrs from Prop 99 tobacco taxes into the gen fund

Bankrupt Orange Cty to cut Alternate Defense Fund (cases that would be conflict of interest for pub defender, investigators, expert witnesses, etc) 29%, sheriff & DA 1%. Guess who was on the cmte

“Cynical is the name we give those we fear may be laughing at us.” Stephen Fry, Hippopotamus


12/25/94

L.A.’s bad drafting means it is rejected for fed empowerment zone money, originally started in response to LA riots

Bosnian cease-fire sort of in effect, unless you count Croatian Serbs, who Carter presumably forgot about, still attacking Bihac


12/26/94

US bought parts of advanced Russian air defense system for $50m so we can figure out how to defeat it, I guess

Iran bans satellite dishes

Israel again bans PLO. Actually, new law bars Palestinian Authority operating in Israel. 56-6. Annoyed by all the offices in Jerusalem & meetings there w/foreign leaders

Yeltsin appears in public showing no sign of his alleged nose surgery. He is preparing peace talks, I guess led by Depy PM Yegorov, who is calling for bombing the shit out of Grozny. Yeltsin may dec a victory he does not have & quit. He appoints an alleged new leader, who will not be able to set foot there

Signature Products Corp producing next mo an armor-piercing bullet, getting around the law by using polymers rather than teflon

A gay male couple in Seattle win suit to adopt 4-yr old whose mother changed mind when she found out. 6 states allow gay adoption, 6 outlaw it

Archdiocese of Milwaukee suing insurance comps that fail to pay out for victims of sexual misconduct by priests. Yes, there really is sexual-abuse coverage

22 of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves escaped to fight on side of British

New Ger minister of family is a 28-yr old Cath opponent of abortion
-Of 16 in Ger cabinet, 3 ♀ & 2 from E Ger. She is a two-fer. Other E Ger is also a two-fer, she gets environment


12/28/94

Tom Carson on Clinton: “You’d think that someone with this much experience of unpopularity would at least have learned to be good at it, but he’s got no talent for contentiousness.”


12/29/94

N Korea gets the US pilot to confess to violating its territory (but not to spying)

Yeltsin on tv Tuesday (finally) said he’d stopped bombing of civilians in Grozny (th e1st time Russia admitted attacking civilians). He said pol opponents of the war were motivated by ambition & negative news was from Chechen bribery. The man is now a lunatic who only listens to his bodyguard, who sends advice to the PM on econ matters. Anyway, the bombing did not stop by any means & the largest orphanage was destroyed (everyone was in bomb shelters).

Br new lottery for charity. The $28m winner refused to be named. The tabloids offered rewards for his name. Eventually he was named & fled the country for his native India (where else?)

Serbia takes over the only ind newspaper. There have been rival editions all week, one of which is illegal

And Croatia arranged for an opposition paper to be bought & its editor fired

R’s want to replace money for disabled children w/more restrictive vouchers

Br ends 1937 law that requires queuing for buses

The comp w/the plastic armor-piercing bullet puts it on hold – but experts say it couldn’t possibly do all the comp claimed

Court denies Clinton’s claim to be immune from civil suits in the Paula Jones sexual harassment claim, but postpones the trial until after his presidency, saying she waited a long time to file anyway. Discovery, inc, questioning of Clinton, can go on

CIA director James Woolsey resigns. He was attacked for being coopted & for not punishing those who let mole Aldrich Ames get away w/it. He had ltd access to Clinton & daily briefings were ended.

Workers for the Transport & Gen Workers Union in Br go on strike. They are represented by the TGWU

Former State Dept official Robert Oakley fined $,5000 for being hired by Middle E. Airlines to lobby for removal of ban on them he instituted 1985


12/30/94

N Korea releases the pilot

Dole criticizes Gingrich for the $4.5m book deal

Clinton Admin says Repub welfare plan would drop 5m children of the 9.7m. R’s do not deny it. 5-yr limit & denial of benefits to children whose paternity not est. Donna Shalala says the savings would pay for 9,000 orphanage slots.

UN gets rebel Bosnian Muslims to accede to Bihac truce. But not Croatian Serbs

2 senior aides to It’s Justice Minister in outgoing gov under investigation for Mafia links, inc trial-fixing

US will send Haitians held at Guantanamo home. 4,000. No deadline. We’ll give them an $80 bribe (up from $16) if leave by Jan. 5. This will free up room for Cuban refugees we’re holding in Panama, which will kick them out March 6

Yelena Bonner resigns Yeltsin’s human rights commission in protest to Chechnya

Br deregulation to allow children into pubs (but no booze)

Fed district judge in Baltimore says not illegal to sexually harass someone of same sex

It. president rules out early elections

Gingrich to forgo the $4.5m, he’ll just take the usual percentage (and then some)

Someone shoots up 2 abortion clinics in Brookline, Mass, killing 2 receptionists, wounding 5


12/31/94

Tries a 3rd one today in Norfolk & is caught. He is a failed hairdressers at Eccentric Hair. Cath. Atty gen says there are not enough marshals to protect abortion clinics

Bosnian gov & Bos. Serbs sign 4-mo truce, leading to negotiations. They are so close together, hah, that there are 2 versions of the accord, the gov referring to Contact Group plan as “basis of negotiation for all pts”, Serbs as “a starting pt”

Clinton withdraws nomination of a gay man as ambassador to Fiji, either a pre-emptive surrender to Helms, who hadn’t even noticed, or to Fiji’s anti-gay laws (14 yrs gay sex, 7 yrs attempted gay sex)