Whatever It Was, I Was Against It

2011-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

“Whatever It Was, I Was Against It” is a supplement to my blog, “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It,” consisting of notes on the news I started taking down in 1986 in a series of notebooks, along with cartoons, articles and photos clipped from newspapers, like a low-tech blog, except strictly for my own benefit -- until now. I’ve typed up these entries just as they were written in my notebooks, with bad sentence structure, abbreviations and some spectacularly misguided predictions.

You may search Whatever It Was here.

For blog posts from 1996 to the present, check out the archives at “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”.

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The Sopranos conclusion (spoilers)

2007-06-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

The non-climactic series conclusion was foreshadowed in the penultimate episode. Seven years of therapy were simply ended. There was no catharsis, and Tony didn’t grow as a person. Tony never grew as a person, so no stopping point was better or worse than any other stopping point, as Jennifer Melfi and David Chase both realized. Like the onion rings, the best in Joisey, Tony’s life is circular. Admit it, a week from now you’d have looked back on one of those dramatic endings – Tony or Meadow or Carmela gunned down, Tony arrested, etc etc – and it would have seemed cheap and false in a way that this non-ending won’t. Also, and for Chase this may have been more the point, such an ending would have allowed you to draw a line under the show and move on. Now, it’s stuck under your skin forever.

Oh sure, if you can’t live without moral closure, you can imagine that Tony was shot ten seconds after the screen went dark by one of those suspicious-looking characters in the restaurant – suspicious-looking characters in a New Jersey restaurant! what’re the odds? Or that the latest in a rather long line of rats will succeed in bringing Tony down where all the others have failed. But if you need to believe one of those things happened, it probably says more about you than it does about Tony Soprano, The Sopranos, or life.

However, if you’re looking for Tony to get his karmic comeuppance, think of him stuck in Satriale’s with only Paulie Walnuts and that cat for company.

Or imagine what his auto insurance premiums must be like, between Christopher’s driving (and that wasn’t the first of Tony’s SUVs we’ve seen totaled), A.J.’s leaf fire and Meadow’s total inability to parallel park. 86 episodes, and the height of dramatic tension in the final minutes was whether she’d ever fit her car into that spot.

If A.J. had hilariously high expectations about what joining the military would do for him, isn’t Meadow almost equally deluded about the noble work she’s going to do as a lawyer for the oppressed, at $130,000 (or was it $170,000?) a year? Her talk about Tony being oppressed by the FBI because he’s Italian shows that at long last she’s reached her mother’s exalted level of denial and self-deception.

By the way, I’ve been wondering this for years: the supposed rat they killed at the end of the first season, Jimmy Altieri, was he an actual rat or did he just get blamed for Big Pussy’s rat-fuckery?

I just realized something I should have picked up on much earlier: A.J. wanted to go to Afghanistan, and was preparing by learning Arabic. Oh yeah, that’s A.J. alright.

A pure and absolute democrat

2007-06-03T21:25:00.000-07:00

A prisoner in Texas due to be executed later this month is asking people to send him jokes he might use for his last words. He won’t work blue, though.

A Palestinian group, Righteous Sword of Islam, has issued a statement that puppies are nice.

What? It could happen. Just because they’re called the Righteous Sword of Islam doesn’t mean they don’t think that puppies are nice.

Oh, all right, in fact they ordered women appearing on Palestinian tv to wear veils or else they would be killed. “If necessary, we will behead and slaughter to preserve the spirit and morals of our people.” Gosh, there may be some sort of contradiction in there somewhere, but I just can’t put my finger on it...

Speaking of unclear on the concept, Vladimir Putin told reporters, “Of course, I am a pure and absolute democrat. But you know what the problem is – not a problem, a real tragedy – that I am alone. There are no such pure democrats in the world. Since Mahatma Gandhi, there has been no one.” I think he just wants Ben Kingsley to play him in the movie.

Democratic debate: There’s a teachable moment here

2007-06-03T20:00:00.000-07:00

Transcript.

Edwards: The war on terror is a bumper sticker. We are not safer.

Clinton: The war on terror is not a bumper sticker (but it is one of those Garfield dolls stuck to a car window). We are safer.

Kucinich: There’s a teachable moment here.

Biden, yelling (he seemed to be yelling a lot of the time, as was Gravel): We’re not funding the war, we’re funding the safety of the troops until we can get 67 votes to end the war. So that’s okay, then.

Hillary tried to avoid have to admit that she didn’t read the National Intelligence Estimate before voting for the war. But when pressed (good for Wolf Blitzer, by the way) she tried to claim it was irrelevant and that she was “totally briefed” (also: “thoroughly briefed”) (insert your own “boxers or briefs” joke here). By whom she did not say (and it’s important, since the question is whether she knew of the dissent in the full report that she failed to read, and since the dissent turned out to be correct). She also blamed “the Iraqis” for failing to take advantage of the “opportunity” we gave them.

Hillary: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a transition policy. She really can’t admit that anything she or the Clinton administration did was a mistake.

Biden: “No one asked anyone else whether they’re gay in those holes – foxholes!”

Asked how they would use Bill Clinton, every single one wants to send him out of the country. Especially Hillary. Indeed, Hillary says, “I believe in using former presidents.” No one asked what job she would give Chimpy.

Edwards was a little worrisome on foreign policy issues. He talked about driving a wedge between the Iranian people and its leaders, but seemed to support Pervez Musharaf as being better for us than the results of democratic elections.

Hillary said that Musharaf has “become” anti-democratic. I was going to ask what her first clue was – his seizing power in a military coup? – but then realized this was another example of her refusal to admit past mistakes, since Musharaf came to power when Bill was in office.

Bill Richardson suggested pressuring China to pressure Sudan by threatening to boycott the Olympics. People tend to forget how damaging to his reputation Carter’s decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics was. I’d go so far as to say he would have been re-elected but for that.

Asked what they would do in their first 100 days, several of course said pull troops out of Iraq. Richardson would establish pre-school for every American. Well, I’m looking forward to that. I haven’t finger-painted in a really long time. Edwards would travel the world re-establishing America’s moral authority. He didn’t say how. Gravel would yell at people. Dodd would restore constitutional rights. Yay, Dodd!

Everything you need to know about the Democratic debate

2007-06-03T16:56:00.001-07:00

CNN’s deputy political director Paul Steinhauser reports this on CNN’s blog on the Democratic debate: “MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) — You didn’t see it on TV, but Dennis Kucinich just dropped his pen. The congressman from Cleveland quickly bent down and quietly picked it up. I doubt any tv cameras caught him in the act, but we did. Call it a quick comeback by Kucinich to reclaim his pen.”

I’m recording it and may even watch it and might possibly even blog about it later, but now that you know about the pen thing, really, isn’t the suspense ruined?

I’d do lots of things

2007-06-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

WIIIAI in exile, day 3. Now I know how RCTV feels.

From the Haditha hearings yesterday, possibly the most nauseating sentence yet, from Major Sam Carrasco: “Why would we leave one of our fallen angels out in the street unless you’ve had a lot of contact?” The argument he’s making is that the fact that the Marines didn’t remove the body of the, um, fallen angel who was killed by the IED proved that they believed they really were in a firefight with insurgents. Alternately, it proves that they gave a higher priority to exacting revenge.

Fred Thompson has been doing interviews. Asked by the AP what his priorities as president would be, he responded “I’d do lots of things.” He did not elaborate. And he told the NYT that he’s just testing the waters about entering the Republican primary, but “The waters feel pretty warm, to tell you the truth.” Must... not... make... McCain... incontinence... joke...

A spitting contest, and the Iraq War. But I repeat myself.

2007-06-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Injury of the Week: “A 43-year-old German man was taken by helicopter to hospital in a critical condition after he fell off a second-storey balcony during a spitting contest with his 12-year-old son. The man lost his balance after thrusting too far forward, according to police.” (Reuters)

A point I’ve made repeatedly about the Haditha massacre cover-up, is that the military higher-up’s decided not to look too closely at the story that the civilians were all caught in cross-fire ignored the fact that that story came only after the first story, that they’d been killed by an IED, fell apart. Now we find out that many were not killed by grenades as Marines “cleared” houses, as was previously reported, but were shot execution-style, close enough to leave powder burns.

Haditha residents tried several times to inform the US military what had really happened. One did so the day after the massacre to a Capt. James Haynie, who “explained to him that whoever had told him this had lied, that Marines do not execute innocent civilians.” Haynie was the battalion’s... wait for it... “information” officer.

Acting democratically

2007-06-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

The idiot robots at Blogger have decided that Whatever It Is I’m Against It is a spam-blog and locked me out, so I’ll put the new posts here until they fix it, then move them back.

Seems like not much more than a century that we were at war with Spain over who got to tell the Cubans what to do. And today Condi Rice was is in Spain, which she chided for not shunning Cuba like the anti-democratic pariah it is. En route, she told reporters, “I think democratic states have an obligation to act democratically, meaning, to support opposition in Cuba.” “Acting democratically,” is that what they’re calling it these days?

She also met the king, who she said “obviously is an important historic figure in the role that he played in allowing the transition of Spain from authoritarianism to dictatorship.” The transcript explains that she meant to say democracy, but I suspect that little glitch arose because she couldn’t remember the current official position on Francisco Franco, a dictator the US supported. Might get that straightened out before the plane lands and you start lecturing Spain about acting democratically, Condi.

In Spain, she held a joint press conference with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, shown in this not-at-all-awkward picture,

and in this I-don’t-know-what-the-hell-is-going-on picture,

who said that he thought that over time Condi would become more convinced that the Spanish approach could work. According to the AP, “As Moratinos continued to speak, she looked at the crowd of reporters and silently mouthed what appeared to be the phrase, ‘Don’t hold your breath.’” Our chief diplomat, ladies and gentlemen.

From that press conference, here’s Condi pleasantly responding to a question,

but as scary as that picture was, I think if you stare at this next one for several seconds, you’ll agree that it’s quite a bit more disturbing.

If you accidentally looked at that picture for more than a few seconds, breathe steadily, in through the nose, out through the mouth, and click here.

January 1996

2006-05-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

1/1/96

Russian Dec. 17 parl elections: can’t tell until it meets, but it seems upwards of 1/3 are CP, w/Nats, Our Home is Russia & (lib) Yabloko dividing the rest, and the only parties represented as parties. ½ were district seats, ½ party lists w/a 5% threshold. There were 43 parties, so some generals have no footsoldiers. Literally, in the case of Gen. Lebed, the would-be Pinochet, elected to a seat and thinking about taking over the CP and running as its prez. Candidate in June. Yeltsin says a little thing like an election won’t make him change any of his policies. Solzhenitsyn boycotted. Zhirinosky’s Nats won just 1 indiv seat. The gov party only got its 10% of the vote because of the miliary vote – 73% voted for the gov after officers told them to do so – ¼ of Our Home is Russia’s total support. Lebed & Rutskoi said the elections were fraudulent (neither got 5%).
-In Chechnya, elections imposed unilaterally, Russia bypassing the peace process, so it was boycotted. So the peace is over, the voters, the few who showed up, allowed to vote a bunch of times

1992 1/3 of female board members in Fortune 1,000 comps from women’s colleges, which account for 4% total graduates, & 24% women in Congress

1/2/96

Were 56 executions 1995, highest since 1957. 16 states did it, Texas 19, Missouri 6. None in CA

May45, US captured a U-boat heading for Japan w/uranium oxide. It may have been used in the US a-bombs.

House, rather than resolve budget stalemate, would allow fed workers to return to work – for no pay. Stalled in Senate by attempt to limit debate on budget in same bill to 10 hrs. Unions would probably stop it in courts anyway.

Sw. ends establishment of Lutheran Church; 2000 state stops appointing bishops, king no longer required to be a minister. But will still get tax money & have monopoly of funeral homes & cemeteries

US has refused to inc E Slavonia (Croatian Serb territory) in peacekeeping, left it to UN, and wants it ltd w/no war powers exc self-defense, which worked so well in Bosnia. And not many of them.

Arafat’s spokesman called editor of Al Quds, telling him to put story about Arafat meeting the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem on front page. Didn’t, so was detained 6 days. And Palestinian press ignored the detention

Bosnian Serbs kidnapped 16 Bosnians trying to drive on a road reopened under the Dayton peace accords. NATO, allegedly there to enforce the accords, say it’s not their problem – it’s a police matter

Arafat decides the elections will have just a 2-week run-up, on Jan. 20, and there will be more seats than planned. Israel had to be convinced to allow internat monitors

Seychelles to allow anyone who invests $10m there protected from extradition & asset seizure

1995 Fr Army officially admitted Dreyfus was innocent of treason

Labour lost no by-elections 1946-51 while Tories now have lost the last 24 seats they defended

1/3/96

Emma Nicholson, MP, defeats from Tories to LibDems. Majority is now 3. Nicholson, like Howarth who defeated to Labour Oct95, a one-nation Tory. Major will shortly be dependent on Ulster Unionists

Chun Doo Hwan says his interrogation, so soon after his hunger strike, is a human rights violation

NY Mayor Guiliani ignored the Advisory Commission on Judiciary to demote 2 judges, citing quality. His other recent choices, all v. political, inc one w/7 2nd-chair prosecutions & one who flunked out of Brooklyn Law School twice but passed bar

25 felony charges against RR’s Interior Sec James Watt, for inf peddling at HUD, bargained down to a misdemeanor charge of influencing a fed grand jury (7 charges had been dismissed). He’ll probably be fined $5,000. He got $500,000 for clients who got housing awards 1984-6. He also lied to Congress.

30-Yr Br documents show Harold Wilson wanted to w/draw all currency (or certain denominations?) to thwart the Great Train robbery

CA Repub legislators blocking bond measure for Mar96 ballot unless there’s also a prison-bond measure

Br wants to deport a Saudi dissident to Dominica & admits, admits, it is solely to appease the Saudis. Military sales are at stake, after all

1/5/96

Palestine detains for 24 hrs a human rights activist who publicized last week’s detention of an editor – and denied holding him

US let loose a Haitian who murdered Aristide’s cousin. The man was caught in US, returned to Haiti, where was just let loose. US also at least monitored a junta pol police unit that liaised w/FRAPH

1/6/96

Serbs release 16 Bosnians kidnapped off the road, little thanks to NATO. Sec Defense Perry insisted it was not NATO’s job, though freedom of mvmt is in Dayton accords. Say responsibility belongs to the internat police force – which doesn’t exist yet. So NATO falls on 1st challenge. Indeed, NATO forces watched some of the kidnappings. Serbs said they were spies, or black marketeers or travelled w/out permission (which is not required).
-1992 Lt. Col. Vespelin Sljivancanin became a Serb hero, doing a George Wallace at a hospital in Vukovar, keeping Red Cross out saying “This is my country.” It was shown endlessly on Serb tv. At the time, 300 men were being taken out the back & killed. He has been indicted but is at large in Montenegro. Cooperation w/war crimes tribunal also in Dayton accords, but Serbia still refusing an office to open in Belgrade, much less turn over 3 Yug. Army officers

A memo shows Hillary Clinton behind the 1993 firing of White House travel office & replacement by an Ark. firm. Something about life being if they didn’t accede.

Congress put new conditions on a fed program of scholarships for students to study abroad in non-W Eur countries, that they commit to gov defense or intelligence work after graduation

VA executes guy w/IQ of 68. His confession was allowed though his request for a lawyer had been denied. US Court of Appeals said it didn’t affect outcome

Deal finally to pay Fed workers after 3 week shutdown. Pay, but no money to allow them to work. R’s were getting the lion’s share of the blame. Vets & Meals on Wheels & Centers for Disease Control couldn’t track a flu, & home mortgages, etc all screwed up. So workers to be paid to Jan 26 (+ back pay). Some programs (park service, passports, Meals on Wheels) etc through Sep. 30. The language has gotten v. nasty. And now they can take their vacations uncriticized & Dole can go to NH.
-For Justice Dept, bill covered immigration, prisons, prosecutions, FBI & DEA but not civil rights or anti-trust divisions. R’s talking about reshaping the gov in this way.
-EPA Head Start, SEC not restarted

Ch’s state-run orphanages starve thousands to death, over 1,000 Shanghai alone 1986-92, says Human Rights Watch. The Bureau of Civil Affairs runs both orphanages & crematoria, so...

States spend $25,000 per prison inmate, $200 per probationer

1/7/96

Honduran court stops trial of military officers for torture of 6 students 1982, saying they are immune under amnesty laws

In its contribution to the Palestinian elections, Israel assassinates a Hamas bombmaker called the Engineer, and seals off W Bank & Gaza

After a yr “in charge,” CA Assembly R’s finally elect their own speaker, following Willie Brown’s 2 choices

1/8/96

Talking about the Saudi dissident he’s trying to deport to Dominica, John Major calls him an illegal immigrant, says he’s abusing Br hospitality by trying to disrupt relations w/a “natural ally”

Amer. troops in Bosnia not allowed to drink, another way of making sure not a air on their heads is hurt.

Mitterrand dead.

White House suddenly discovers Rose Law Firm records inc Hillary’s billing forms, proving her involvement in working for Madison Guaranty, from which she had previously distanced herself. The discovery came after other copies turned up – and 2 days after the statute of limitations. And the people lying for her are beginning to face jail terms for perjury. The papers showed up in the White House basement

1/9/96

Walesa, who refused to attend inauguration of the new PM, said he was a suspected Soviet spy. The tax office has impounded his bank accounts – he owes taxes for $1m from Warner Bros for his life story. The new prez took tv reporters into the parts of the prez palace Walesa had upgraded

Guatemala does not elect the beard for Ríos Montt president, but he does get 48.8%

Ch. denies letting orphans die, though ex-director of largest orphanage in Shanghai admits 20+% death rate. It was opened to the press & shown shiny new (hint: new) computers & furnishings. The 2nd on has not opened, and no mortality figures released

Sup Court allows fed law banning indecent programming in tv & radio in prime time

Part of deal re-opening gov (or it would have, but DC is snowed in), Clinton to submit a plan to balance budget in 7 yrs. Of course, it was then dec DOA. Most of its cuts are 2000-2

1/10/96

James Ledbetter says top underplayed news story 1995 that Archer Daniels Midland again found price-fixing. ADM the largest recipient of corp welfare. ADM made illegal contribs to CREEP 1972, its CEO bought Carter’s peanut farm, now lets Dole use its corp jet @ his intro bills to aid ethanol

Yeltsin finally fires the foreign minister he’s been publicly belittling for mos & replaced him w/Yevgeny Primakov, director of foreign intelligence service, whose pub statements have all been tough on NATO & the near-abroad

Simon Wiesenthal Center asks Internet comps to censor anti-Semites

New legal thing: “futures settlements” in which lawsuits initiated by comps against themselves to limit exposure. They come to agreements w/plaintiffs’ lawyers, who get rich, cover people who will get sick & limit their damages & future lawsuits. An asbestos case in 1994 limits # of claims to be paid per yr & only allow a specified # of future people unsatisfied to go to court

S Korean Prez Kim Young Sam admits he too took donations, but says not after becoming prez

Fed appeals court rejects Clinton’s claim that he’s too busy to be sued for sexual harassment. But appeals will no doubt keep him out of court until he is no longer prez in a yr. Hell, even Madonna was made to go to court, & she’s much more important

Phil Gramm: “Have you missed the government?” Clinton vetoes R. welfare plan

Wilson proposes school vouchers for those in worst 5% of state schools

Ark. puts a boy of 17 on death row

New Japanese PM Ryutaro Hashimoto, nationalist who headed the Japan War-Bereaved Families Assoc until recently, which believes Japan fought WW2 in self-defense

A Ger minister wants surveillance of Scientologists, just like terrorists

Israel settles w/family of a Moroccan waiter they murdered in Norway 1973, mistaking him for someone connected to Olympics. Did not, however, admit having done it

1/11/96

Major called for party unity, so Thatcher kicked him in the balls, publicly attacking – in 1st speech on domestic policy – for straying from her principles. Calls one-nation Tories no-nation conservs

Progressive on dumbest Congresscritters inc Rep. Martin Hoke, Ohio, who once called for reform of FSLIC, abolished 3 yrs before, Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who once put his hand in a steel-jaw leg trap during a hearing to show it wasn’t cruel, and talks about how offensive buttfucking is, in a discussion of NEA. Sonny Bono, nuf said. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (Arizona ‘94) who says logging good because forests a fire hazard. Rep. John Hostettler (Indiana ‘94) who thinks 2nd Amend allows priv ownership of nuclear weapons. Rep. Frank Cremeans (Ohio ‘94) said Greece & Rome fell from AIDS. Sen. Larry Pressler who once decided to stay in a closet he’d mistaken for an exit. Rep. Helen Chenoweth (Idaho ‘94) who believes in black helicopters & served endangered sock-eye salmon at fundraisers. Rep. Jon Christensen (Neb. ‘94) who lived off interest income of his wife, twice failed the bar but couldn’t get a job exc selling insurance & selling fertilizer from his garage (or, as his resume has it, Fertilizer Holding Comp. Exec); he once planted questions at a HS q&a, afraid of difficult q’s – his people held pens so he’d call on them – others found out and... He attacks welfare but has outstanding student loans of $30-100,000. Once had press conf on plans to reduce deficit, calling for $1½t cuts – a reporter told him that was the entire budget & he changed topics

1/12/96

NATO inc Bosnia will expand mission to protect genocide investigators & maybe seize some of the mass graves, inc a mine the Serbs used for 1000s of bodies
-Russian troops finally show up. Parl delayed approval until last week

Steve Forbes has spent his way into #2 after Dole – w/damned little real support on the ground
-Most candidates skipping Louisiana as well as Deleware, out of deference to NH & Iowa

S Korea indicts Chun Doo Hwan for bribery. 1980 a Korean Airlines plane crashed. The chairman brought $1.3m when he visited the prez, and $4m when KAL 007 shot down, to protect against the investigation

1/13/96

At debates, everyone piles on Forbes. Lamar Alexander says flat tax a nutty idea in Jerry Brown tradition. Gramm asks Dole if he has a secret budget deal w/Clinton. Alexander says the only thing Forbes ever ran is a magazine he inherited – & he raised the price

Several days ago Chechen rebels (again) seized hostages in Russia at a hospital, then took 130 on trip home. Were halted ½ mi from Chechnya. Russian troops blew up a bridge & a siege is ongoing for days. Russia gives a deadline to release the hostages

NYT headline: “Bush Says He Erred in Assuming Hussein Would Fall After War.” Duh.

Ivory Coast jails editor & 2 reporters 2 yrs, suspend their paper, for saying President’s attendance at Af. football match brought bad luck

Governors commuted 10 death sentences 1991, 1 1994, 0 1995

1/14/96

Socialist Jorge Sampaio elected prez Portugal

Russia extends the deadline for the Chechens. The spokesman for the not-the-KGB, asked if rebels could leave unharmed if released hostages, & give up guns as demanded, says “That’s their problem.”

Bosnian troops to be trained by US civilian contractors, ex-soldiers, maybe in Turkey. Saudi Arabia & such are expected to pay

Christian Right promoting a “parental rights amend”, into in 20 states (for state consts) so far. Usually says “The rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children should not be infringed.” At one stroke would require parental notification of abortion, stop schools giving kids psych tests, etc etc

Homosexuality still illegal in Tasmania

1/15/96

Rep. Helen Chenoweth (Idaho) failed to report a loan on disclosure forms – or secure it w/collateral. She likes to be called Congressman & says white males are an endangered species. Still supports Confederacy as states’ rights & will intro a bill to require fed agents w/firearms to get sheriff’s permission to enter a county. Still believes in secret gov black helicopters & sees environmental laws as step to 1-world gov, citing the UN designating Yellowstone a world heritage site. Idaho’s white separatists love her.

Bookstore chains sell display space, another way publishers pay them to undercut indies

For once, the US army in Bosnia is being nice to media & allowing total access, even to ordinary troops (unlike Gulf), which is gutsy considering the mission’s unpopularity, which is actually the reason for the change

Hubble Telescope shows 50b. galaxies in the universe

Russians attack the village in which the Chechens are holding hostages, w/grenades, machine guns, helicopter gunships, bombers, missiles. They claim it is not indiscriminate. Russians failed to take the town, but have mostly destroyed it.

Papandreov, on life support for 2 mos, finally steps down

1/16/96

Mitterrand’s doctor says he hid his prostate cancer, which had metastasized in 1981.

The UN computers w/data on human rights violations in Croatia are stolen. Some of the data not backed up

1/17/96

Dole aggressively challenging the signatures for ballot access in NY of Forbes & Buchanan, the only R’s willing even to try. He is accusing them of fraud and, gasp, failing to inc hard numbers

Sierra Leon’s 30-yr old military leader (a captain) ousted 6 weeks before elections were scheduled. Replaced by a 33-yr old

Ch. to “supervise” wire agencies (Reuters, Dow Jones), i.e., vet their info

No death commutations 1995, but one 1996. We execute the retarded, the innocent & juveniles – but no chicks. Only 1 since ‘77, 12 yrs ago. Naturally, it was a woman who wanted to be executed. Governor says she didn’t intend to kill her husband. She was 4 yrs out for smothering her 11-mo old daughter (got 10 yrs)

Hubble has found ½ the missing mass of the universe, in form of burned-out white dwarfs

Russia still for 3rd day pounding the town w/the Chechens. Meanwhile, Chechens grab 165 hostages on a ferry on Black Sea, & 30 in a Grozny power substation. Russia has admitted its pretext for the attack – execution of 2 hostages – was false. Yeltsin: “We must punish them.”

Russia’s last reformer, Anatoly Chubais, deputy PM, resigns, unwilling to take the pub chastisements Y. handing out lately. Russing for president after all, I guess. Y scolded PM Chernomyrdin on live tv for failing to increase salaries & pensions

Repub. cmte calls for a flat tax. Meanwhile Gramm bids Forbes’ 17% flat tax down to 10%.
-Meanwhile, R’s call off budget talks w/White House until it comes up w/another budget closer to them
-Where 58% of Clinton’s savings are in 2001-2, 48% of Congressional plan passed Nov95

Russians fail to take the town, so pull out & really really go after it, declaring the hostages dead. Launching block buster missiles on a town w/no blocks...
-Few are criticizing Y. in Russia or US

SF’s new DA is a former defense lawyer who doesn’t believe in death penalty, 3 Strikes, jailing drug users or prostitutes

1/18/96

Ch. arrests brother of the doctor who blew the whistle on Shanghai orphanage starvation. She is not in Ch.

A son kidnaps his father & is seeking custody to keep him from assisted suicide (69 yrs old)

Russians finish destroying/capturing the town. Hostages say no one was executed by Chechens

1/19/96

Turkey gets its Chechen hostage-takers to give up. Russia was pushing for a massacre. In fact Yeltsin criticizes them for being slow & says he’s not satisfied w/their approach, presumably because it didn’t lead to dozens of deaths like Russia’s.
-In Russia, Y. claims they saved most of the hostages & killed ½ the “mad dogs.” Also says 300 Chechens held off the Russian army by digging a network of labyrinths under the village

In Iowa, Dole is nagging Forbes to release his tax returns. Dole’s ads say Forbes doesn’t support 3 Strikes, leaving out the bit about his actually wanting 1 strike. Alexander differentiates himself – he was a governor, not a senator. Gramm equates Dole & Clinton. Buchanan, in a post-‘74 1st, uses Nixon in his ads. Forbes commercial says Dole voted to raise own pension.
-Ralph Nader to run as Green in CA

Sp. offers citizenship to those who fought in the Sp Civil War

Bosnian sides completed pullback on schedule, but not prisoner exchange

Strom Thurmond’s father was a DA in the most violent SC cty (higher murder rate 100 yrs ago than NYC now), murdered a man, was acquitted as an “affair of honor” – he was insulted by the man – and was made US Atty for SC

1/20/96

Fr court bans book by Mitterrand’s doctor after 400,000 already sold. It says he was sick in 1981 & too sick to do his job by ‘94

Israel making Jerusalem Palestinians, exc 5,000, vote in Palestinian elections outside the city (and stopped many of those at roadblocks) (and polling stations named only 2 days before). The 5,000 can vote in post offices, but Israelis insist slots be on side not on top, to maintain myth they are mailing ballots rather than casting them. Also banned campaign posters (which ignored). Israeli right-wingers put out leaflets falsely telling them if voted, would lose Jerusalem residence permits. Police videotaped voters & maintained v. high profile. Carter said they were trying to intimidate Palestinians & they backed off.

1/22/96

Dick Armey, threatening a default if he doesn’t get Commerce abolished & preventing Treasury Sec borrow from trust funds in future. They’re using this rather than threat of gov shutdown

Nat Review calls for legalizing drugs

Hillary subpoenaed by grand jury on Whitewater, specifically on obstruction of justice relating to her records

Sup Court refused to hear a case of a mother of a dead 11-yr old & the kids’ stepfather & a Christian Science nurse who read hymns & took notes until he was dead. They lost a $1.5m lawsuit to the father. He had diabetes. 1st successful case against Christian Scientists. Court refused to reinstate jury’s $9m against the church itself (which was based on state law – not the court’s business)
-New Minn. law requires a parent to call authorities when child ill if they won’t provide medical care. The law lets state override parent’s objection

Sup Court turned down Gov. Wilson’s challenge to Motor Voter

Court affirmed the ridiculous drug sentencing guidelines in an LSD case where weight of blotter paper added in. Since then, the rule has changed & a dose of LSD is given an assigned weight

Speaking of drugs, evidence that Serbs used a hallucinogen in Srebrenica

Clinton order bars fed contracts w/comps hiring illegal aliens

Burundi burns refugee camp for Rwandan Hutus, who are now barred from Tanzania

Arafat gets 88.1% of vote for prez & 75% of council seats, rest going to Islamists & ex-Fatah inds inc Hanna Ashrawi, one of 4 women of the 88 inc a widow of Abu Jihad, who Israel murdered. Participation 80% Gaza, 40% Jerusalem

1/23/96

The State of the Union is strong. Yeah, right. He wants a balanced budget & the v-chip & no marketing of ciggies to children. Dem. family values, I guess. Challenges families to stay together – challenges fathers to do so by appealing to wife’s desire to be 1st Lady & wear suits in terrible colors w/really big buttons. Even Chelsea is in a power suit. Nat. standards for school but flexibility. Huh? School uniforms. Does he have no national agenda? Gingrich won’t even stand for the anti-crime statements. Hillary has yet to smile. Calls for line-item veto. Still, he’s gotten Gingrich to sit down & shut up for a whole hour, so.... “The era of big gov is over.” He tried to look presidential, which meant pretending he wasn’t facing a vicious Congress. Calls for use of FBI against gangs, making criminals serve 85% of sentence, prosecute teenagers as adults. Is appointing a general as drug tsar. In one of those Reaganesque moves, he pointed out a gov worker in the Okl. City bombing thrown out of work by the gov shutdown

So far 13 senators & 25 Reps retiring, inc all moderates in both parties. Good luck next yr

Colombian Prez Samper’s campaign manager says Samper knew of drug money. Samper refuses to resign

Ch. threatens a military attack on Taiwan if its current prez Lee Teng-hu wins the 1st demo election for prez in March. Lee trying to get back in UN, buying Africa’s votes

1/24/96

Virginia executes a man who defended himself. 2 jurors said they wouldn’t have voted for death had they known he was ineligible for parole

R’s want to climb down from default to extent of only requiring modest budget & tax cuts

Compared to Clinton’s conciliatory State of Union speech, Dole’s response which he couldn’t get networks to give him 24 hrs on, was downright vicious, calling Clinton “the last public defender of a discredited status quo.”

Chechens release 46 hostages, which is interesting since Russia says it got them free

Sp. Interior Minister 1982-8 indicted for the anti-Basque death squads (where is Fr, where most of the murders took place?)

A soldier thrown out for refusing to accept UN command

100 Congresscritters inc Dole sponsoring leg to make it illegal to order soldiers to wear UN insignia

Internat commission N Ireland says Sinn Fein should be allowed into peace talks before IRA turns in arms. Major immediately calls for an elected negotiating body, which should kill the talks dead

Polish PM resigns under charges of spying for USSR. Thank you, Walesa

Fr admits radiation leaks at Muranoa, but says it’s not important

1/25/96

Nigerian dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa’s brother tried to get Shell to intervene to prevent his execution. He says they wanted him to call off protest & issue press release that there had been no environmental damage

Yeltsin thinks new top econ official, the director of the auto industry, and supporter of tariffs, not even an economist
-Yeltsin orders 50% increase in pay to pensioners & invalids

Forbes says it’s time for a president from the real world. His $15m payout so far is a loan, to be paid back from donations

Fr gov has tolerated polygamy by Afs, even 1980s letting wives in under family-reunification policy – a letter points out that Mitterrand’s wife & mistress attended his funeral

A Br arms dealer Paul Grecian being held by SA for extradition to US. He sold arms to Iraq on behalf of Br intelligence. He provided false end-user certificates for artillery fuses made in US. Got away w/it in Br courts. Br gov knew & a memo from FO suggested he be kept quiet by threat that Iraqis would kill him for leaking their supergun plans

1/26/96

Leg for budget for another 7 weeks, at lower levels, kills 10 programs, banning embryo research & foreign family aid to July. Kennedy’s efforts to preserve ed. spending killed
-Clinton will sign defense budget inc Dornan’s provision to fire the 1,049 known to have HIV (military testing means this is caught early), even though he vetoed an earlier version for this. There are 4,000 on similarly restricted duty for cancer, heart disease, etc, who are not being fired. The discharged will get medical benefits but not disability, or the med. benefits for dependents normally given to those thrown out for Med. reasons

After 3 yrs, Senate passes Start II. The Russian Duma has of course lost interest

1/27/96

Coup in Niger, parties banned

A 13-yr old Br girl, in Turkey, married an 18-yr old Turk, now in jail in Br

1994 certain Russian banks loaned gov $2b @ 1st crack at privatized industries. They ran & rigged the auctions, cheated the gov of $1b, excluded foreign investors

Throughout his career, Dole has raised $70m

Before running for prez, Forbes settled lawsuit w/a personal sec he fired 3 weeks before her 65th b-day

Compared to Hillary’s billing records mysteriously reappearing, note George Bush asked for document by Iran-Contra prosecutor in 1987, and 1992, his diary suddenly found, turned over to presidential counsel, and eventually released 6 yrs after the request. Bush & counsel refuse to testify about the delay

Delaware to allow the candidates who didn’t dare run there be on its ballot. Personally, I think those who don’t run for the primaries shouldn’t be on the Nov. ballot

1/28/96

The 1992-3 deal to buy Russia’s enriched uranium somehow led to Russia doing the diluting to make it ready for US plants – which means no one can confirm that the stuff is really taken out of weapons

Strikes 1995 at lowest rate since WW2, 32 strikes w/1,000 or more workers

Ethiopian Jews riot in Israel after disclosure that their donated blood was thrown out for fear of AIDS. Their high rate of AIDS seems to have been from the Israeli money supporting them in Addis before the airlift, which was spent on prostitutes

Fort Worth Star-Telegram transferred a gay editor of a weekly children’s section who also works for a gay paper, after 1 complaint

Ger now trying to censor Internet for Neo-Nazi materials

1/29/96

(Baptist) Baylor U. to lift ban on dancing, but no vulgar gyrations allowed

UC Prez apologies for trying to delay the end of affirmative action 1 yr

1/31/96

Nat Reconnaissance Office lost track of $2b last yr, perhaps hidden in slush funds

Fr ends its nuclear testing at 6 (98 since 1960)

A Mexican “policeman of the yr” detained w/436 pounds of marijuana

Dole loses Alaska straw poll coming 3rd behind Buchanan & Forbes & a poll puts him only slightly ahead of Forbes in NH. Dole blames the media, says maybe Forbes owns stocks in the networks & Time & Newsweek
-Forbes wants more judges like Scalia
-Buchanan wants Congress to restrict jurisdiction of courts

Judge voids Alabama law barring official support of money to gay college groups

Ill. puts a 12-yr old in the pen, the nation’s youngest inmate. When 10, he & a friend tossed a 5-y old off a building. His IQ is below 60

Yeltsin announces free funerals, student stipends, $3.4b to Chechnya. Yes, he is running for prez, probably killing IMF loans in the process. Parl to raise min wage 20%

Ch. suggests there is a timetable for taking back Taiwan. US sent carrier Nimitz through Taiwan Strait Dec. – allegedly for weather reasons

December 1995

2006-05-03T03:10:00.000-07:00

12/1/95

Canadian gov has autonomy plan recognizing Quebec as district & giving it veto over const change

US has granted pol asylum to 55 Mexicans in past 14 (19?) mos. 1990-3, none were, 5 1994. Inc 1 gay, some relatives of the guy who assassinated PRI prez candidate, but mostly political

GM made to recall Cadillacs, 1st recall for pollution. They installed chips to inject extra fuel when climate control on, then tested it w/climate off. Also $11m fine

The 7th Dem. Rep. since 1994 switches to R’s
-And 11 senators to retire next yr (Mark Hatfield now), the highest since 1896, and more to come. Hatfield saw Hiroshima right after the bomb & fought UN in Senate & 1 of 2 Repub. Senators to vote against Persian Gulf War

On-line Services agree to a self-censorship plan in absence of Congress doing it to them. Latter plan to affect no-redeeming-features material only. If they use a warning label that parents can use to block access. They’ll be protected

Chair of the ethics panel investigating Newt & Gopac is herself linked to it as a recruiter of candidates, as is another on the panel

Mexico’s ex-Prez Salinas’s brother amassed at least $84m, 12 houses, 15 apts, a ranch & a young mistress w/amazing books. He is currently in jail for assassination fo #2 in PRI in ‘94.

NATO finally picks a Sec Gen, Sp’s foreign minister, after US blocked one in a pique for not being consulted. & Fr blocked one for not speaking good enough French

Special prosecutor reports on the passport scandal, Bush admin looking in Clinton’s files. He absolves them & links their boots too. Actually, James Baker only said it would be “nice to know” & Lawrence Eagleburger told Baker he’d lie to the prosecutor about it

12/2/95

Mladic rejects Bosnian peace plan, brings spectre of US soldiers being... gasp... fired on.
-Fr also being obnoxious. Chirac wants more guarantees for Serbs & maybe more importantly, so does the Fr commander in Sarajevo region, who said it was unworkable & solely for Clinton’s electoral interests. And Sarajevo supposed to be the Fr zone. And the gen. helped along a rally by Serbs by opening a road for them, giving them fuel to bring people in. Bosnia now wants the Fr out

FEC releasing internal Gopac papers which show it was thinking about a Contract with America (1st called An Agenda Worth Voting For, Buying Back America, Buying Back Congress.) Get focus groups to set an agenda, exclude abortion... NYT notes how Gopac cared about strategy & mkting, not substance, constantly referred to message as “product.” Bush refused a nat manifesto 1992, so it died.

Kentucky, at least, shows that Motor Voter does bugger all for actual turnout. Of those who registered at DMV, 7% voted for gubernatorial primaries, 5% social services, compared to 25% of the normal walk-ins at registrar’s office in same period

12/4/95

Emmanuel Constant of Haiti’s Fraph says, from jail in US, on 60 Minutes that CIA paid him 1991-4. Also says that when his people scared off a planned landing by US, he gave guarantee no US lives would be endangered.

S Korea arrests Chun Doo Hwan for the 1979 coup

7% black adult males in jail or prison 1994, 1% white adult males. Total number has tripled since 1980. The rate for whites same last 10 yrs, not blacks. Just 1994, prison pop. rose over 10% in ½ the states inc 27% Texas, 26% W VA, 18% NC

A man in PA ordered to provide child support for a girl not his, born to his common-law wife

A Georgia death penalty case where the inmate suing to prevent electrocution since wants to donate his organs

12/5/95

Fr recalls the general who criticized the Bosnian accord

Dole keeps trying to sneak amends imposing trade sanctions on Costa Rica & Colombia for having a deal on bananas w/EU. Chiquita lets Dole use their planes. No American jobs are at stake, since we don’t grow bananas

Sp awards citizenship to those who fought Civil War

Perot’s party gets its 1st elected officials, a CA Assemblyman subject to term limits 1996 (will run for state senate)

In NY’s 1st capital punishment case, judge lets prosecutor renege on plea bargain. The guy would lead them to a kidnapped girl, possibly still alive, for 10 to life if alive, 15 to life if dead. Of course it’s bad public policy to accept extortion, but what about the next case of kidnapping like this?

12/6/95

Fr rejoining NATO military structure

Minnesota Pub Safety Dept bans Crazy Horse beer – it is illegal to use a “false or misleading” characterization of “a living or dead Amer. Indian leader”

Fr undergoing major strikes of pub sector workers. The gov plans to reduce its deficit to Eur single currency rules, at expense of pub worker pensions, welfare

Russian elections Dec. 17. Chechnya heating up over it. In Russia, Chernomyrdin’s Our Home is Russia party is violating election rules to put “documentaries” & “pub service messages” on state tv, & anti-CP documentaries – some paid for by the party. Its financial statements claim it spent nothing.
-And office of extreme rightie MP blown up in the Parl building. This guy makes racist comments about the Caucasians, tore up a Ukrainian flag in Parl & ripped a crucifix from a fellow MP ex-priest

NYT headline: “Proponent of Continental Drift Is Found Slain in Motel Room.”

NYT series on dialysis since early 1970s gov pays 80% of patients, but spends less per treatment than in 1973. Majority treated by profit clinics, ¼ by Nat Medical, and keep any Medicare $ they don’t spend on treatment. And drs are paid by the comp based on profits. Result: old dangerous machinery, re-use of materials meant to be disposable, treatment not by drs or even nurses but by untrained technicians. Gov has no standards – despite the incentive to skip. Patients get shorter treatments, which is dir. related to survival. Death rates twice as high in US – 23%/yr, than W Eur or Japan. Medicare spends as much for 3-hr treatment as 5-hr. Nat Medical, now owned by W R Grace, also aggressively puts competition out of business, bribe drs to send patients to them
-This is the future of US health care

In Pakistan, women can’t bring rape charges, & not allowed to defend themselves in sexual charges

12/7/95

US promises to give Haiti back the documents seized during invasion

Clinton symbolically vetoes Repub budget w/the pen LBJ used to est Medicare. Symbolically, the pen goes dry.

House ethics cmte, after a yr, decides to pass ethics charges against Gingrich on to a special counsel. Did find he improperly used House floor to hawk tapes.

Sup Court says 5-4 that the fed law about using a gun in a crime actually required using it, not having it locked in a car trunk, or unloaded in a trunk in a closet while selling crack. As opposed to the 1993 ruling that trading a gun for cocaine constituted using a gun.

12/8/95

Clinton’s alleged alternate budget inc $64b in unspecified savings, just like Bush was laughed at for when he called it a “flexible freeze”
-Gingrich threatened a stock mkt crash if R’s don’t get their way

Sen., considering “partial-birth” abortions, inc exemption to bar for life but not health of mother

In last 20 yrs, 54 people under death sentence released from prison because of innocence. Pending leg would insist on clearer evidence, and Senate version would forbid fed habeas corpus if state courts decide an issue wrongly, unless also arbitrary & un-reasonably

In Honduras the telephone comp, under military control, has given armed forces free overseas calls & some gov officials. Pres. Reina plans to sell it off, which would stop it, may have something to do w/his phone lines having been cut 7X recently & his brothers 17X. Has abolished the draft. Military is taking over businesses, using its usual subtle mgmt style. Foreign minister in jail for selling passports & honorary consulship

Wm Bennett, Sam Nunn & Sen. Joseph Lieberman to have commercials berating the sponsors of talk shows. Amusingly, one of the sponsors named is Philip Morris...

Another admiral forced & retired early for sexual harassment

Sen. subpoenas Whitewater info, which White House refuses, citing atty-client privilege – thought White House aides & pub lawyers also present

Jesse Helms to stop blocking ambassadors (18 now) & treaties, for a deal to cut foreign affairs budget & reorganize. D’s had started stalling stuff he liked, like sanctions of Cuba & flag-burning Const amend

Bosnian Croats violate peace accord by releasing a commander under indictment for war crimes. Serbs still ethnically cleansing in Banja Luka area. Bosnian Croats burning villages in W Bosnia, which will revert to Serb control
-Fr gives deadline for return of 2 pilots shot down 3 mos ago
-201 in House sign letter opposing the deployment
-Czech, Poland, & Hungary eager to participate, auditioning for NATO

12/9/95

The biggest danger Bosnia is the 4-8m mines, which have accounted for 1/3 of peacekeeper deaths (24)

Polish Sup Court upholds election of Prez., though says he did lie when claimed a U. degree

Ambassador to Russia says US backs Japan’s claims to Kurile islands. An old policy, but not brilliant a week before the elections

12/10/95

A Philip Morris memo leaks that says the primary reason people smoke is to deliver nicotine into their bodies

12/11/95

UN war crimes tribunal ordered a Bosnian Croat militia soldier released after Serbia failed to give evidence to indict him for atrocities against Serbs.
-Fr deadline on its pilots passes. Karadzic last week suggested he might do something if they helped on Sarajevo
-UN appoints “High Representative” to oversee Bosnian agreement. Bildt was v. weak on Serbs as mediator over Srebrenica & Red Cross access. And he intends to stay in Sw politics as leader of opposition, & monitor the Bosnian agreement from Stockholm

A Utah death penalty prisoner wants a firing squad – the 1st since Gary Gilmore, just to make it difficult

12/12/95

1992 Vince Foster removed files from Hillary Clinton’s law firm about Whitewater, later stored in home of Associate Atty Gen Webster Hubbell, convicted felon

Welfare bill would remove the automatic grant of Medicaid to those getting AFDC or who adopted disabled children. And states would be banned from broadening eligibility – Repub flexibility is only downwards

And EPA spending bill would remove its protection of wetlands, give to Corps of Engineers, who themselves have projects in wetlands that EPA now oversees

Indian Sup Court disqualifies leader of Hindu nationalists, Balasaheb Thackeray, because in 1987 he called Muslims “snakes”

Rep. Enid Waldholtz (R-Utah), just elected, did so by massive use of illegal $ (most expensive 1994 House election), infusion of which saved her butt, blames her slimy husband who went on the run several days ago. Now playing poor victim but not resigning. Pat Schroeder says she should.

The leg that applies employment laws to Congress doesn’t take hold until Jan96, so R. clerk of House fires 10 career employees, right before Xmas. Who will she hire?

12/13/95

Bavarian parl votes again for crucifixes... in classrooms, ruled unconst in Aug.

White House now also invokes, ta da, executive privilege, to w/hold Whitewater documents

Latvia sentenced to life an 87-yr old secret police official retired since 1950s for deportation of Latvians to Siberia 1940.
-In July, it convicted an ex-CP chief for trying to overthrow Latvian gov during failed Soviet coup 1991

Flag-burning amend fails in Senate, getting 63 votes.

12/14/95

Ch. sentences a dissident to 14 yrs. Already served 14½ (of a 15-yr sentence) for Democracy Wall. Also banned from writing or speaking to foreign reporters until 2012. They claim he was trying to overthrow the gov by organizing an art exhibit & worse, speaking to the US Asst Sec State. US does nothing.

Nuclear weapons have cost US $4 trillion

Serbs free the 2 Fr pilots, after Yeltsin pressured Milosevic who pressured Mladic, who thought hostages would keep him out of war crimes tribunal.
-House voted 210-218 to give qualified support to Bosnia. Dornan measure to cut funding killed. Dellums was the hawk. Dole supports the troops but not the policy. Senate limited to 1 yr
-Bosnia & Serbia will est dipl relations but not Serbia & Croatia.

Eur est customs union w/Turkey

Fr gov offering more & more concessions to strikers, who don’t care. PS not taking advantage

Willie Brown elected mayor of SF

Jesse Jackson Jr elected to Congress for Chicago

Russian prosecutor exonerates Rutskoi, just in time to help him carve into Zhirinovsky’s votes. Chernomyrdin pulls out of debate. Note: there is no green party

12/15/95

Uruguay prostitutes win right to pub pensions like other self-employed

The Bosnian accord signed, Tudjman taking the opportunity to make a speech about how Muslims not a real ethnic group
-Karadzic refuses to resign & is said to be on drugs. Mladic said to be boozing. By the way, his daughter committed suicide last yr, reportedly over a Serb mag article calling him a murderer

A judge ordered a 15-yr old girl chained to her mother 24 hrs a day for a month

The lobbying bill, passed by both houses, is stalled. This should not be const possible, but has not been sent to Clinton. Both passed unan. After passed, suddenly realized a provision to ban lobbying by groups getting fed money would muzzle not only the AARP, but also Blue Cross (whose lobbying netted it millions in Medicare bill). They’re using typos to delay. Kassebaum put it on hold (Helms-style) to get a date for a bill she wants.

Senate Whitewater cmte votes on party lines to get full Sen. to seek court order for Whitewater material

Book by ex-prez of Yug. until 1991 Borislav Jovic, indicates that Milosevic did start the war, making it so all Yug. army soldiers in Bosnia were Bosnian Serbs, had to be persuaded not to invade Slovenia 1989. This was published by a state comp, whose head is now fired

Russian state tv shows footage of CP’s chief economist & parl candidate in a police drunk tank in 1992, drunk as a Yeltsin & trying to kiss a cop

10 SE Asian countries create nuclear-free zone. Ch. & US objected

India may be planning nuclear tests

12/16/95

Another budget shutdown of gov looming, but don’t worry: Clinton will pay for White House Xmas tree electricity himself

Mass. passes mandatory 6-mo term for juveniles 12-18 who ever carry a gun. Only CA, GA, Fla, Mich do, only Fla’s mandatory – 5 days
-NY Gov Pataki wants mandatory trials as adults

US ambassador to Croatia hand-delivers 4,000 applications of Croatian Serbs who want to return – they are invalidated

12/17/95

Clinton proposes testing anyone arrested on fed charge for drugs, asking denial of bail if they refuse

Bosnian Serb Parl rejects the peace. No!

Dole says will no longer support unconditional ban on abortion. Also says US effort in Bosnia, which he just worked to pass resolution for, will fail

Austrian parl elections. Far-right Jörg Haider’s Freedom Party didn’t do as well as expected, only 22.3%, after videotape shown of him at meeting of SS vets, along w/Himmler’s daughter, praising them for remaining true to their beliefs. Soc Dem Party continues easily in power w/38.2% on the slogan “Our Austria is Too Precious for Experiments.”

Murder rate way down, 12% Jan-Jun95 over Jan-Jun94 9 cities = 25%. Evidently the drug mkt stabilizing

The day after Dole attacked the mercenary values of entertainment industry, Mirage chairman raises $500,000 for him

12/18/95

Gingrich’s only rational position opposition to Internet censorship, turns out to be the result of contribs to Gopac by a guy who owns an adult-only-Internet service

Clinton vetoes more appropriations bills, and gov shuts down a 2nd time, 260,000 being sent home. Thank god the IRS will still be working – he signed that bill. In Fr the people strike against the gov, here the gov strikes against the people

Chun Doo Hwan is on hunger strike, poor boy. And Roh, on trial, says the $650m slush fund was donations, not bribes, and he can’t remember how he got it, and he shredded the ledgers

12/19/95

Br gov (majority now 4, after a death) loses on Eur fishing quotas. Euroskeptics want an exclusion zone. 299-297

Perot’s Party fails to make the Ohio ballot, but the weirdo Natural Law Party does

Br MP David Ashby (Tory) sued newspapers for saying he’s gay. His wife testified against him & he lost. He burst into tears.

50,000 more Nixon papers released, inc Dole asking for scores of patronage jobs & “stunningly obscure inquiries” (NYT) about car repairs, home canning & undelivered mail

New Yugoslav position on Srebrenica: massacres were by other Muslims, those units that didn’t want to surrender killing the others

12/20/95

Queen tells Chuck & Di to get a divorce already

12/21/95

Clinton’s alleged balanced budget w/in 7 yrs calls for ½ the cuts in 2001-2

12/22/95

The only bit of the Const that can’t be altered by Amend is the bit w/equal rep in Senate

Ward Connerly, the black UC regent trying to get a ballot initiative to kill affirmative action, named a woman co-chair. Right.

A prop for next yr would remove unemp benefits for ex-prisoners in respect of prison jobs. Feds say this would be illegal

Training manual used by LAPD & Santa Monica PD says detectives should interrogate suspects after they invoke Miranda & ask for a lawyer

A $3.6m Whitewater investigation for RTC by a law firm says Clintons were innocent, but the report is secret because it is to be used for prosecutions

12/23/95

Arafat fails to get Hamas to take part in elections or stop attacks in Israel. But won’t call to boycott. And said it wouldn’t attack Israel in Palestinian areas.

Clinton turns over the Whitewater material after agreement that it wasn’t a precedent, didn’t compromise atty-client stuff, but got little of what they wanted from D’Amato. The notes suggest, but only suggest that Clinton admin tried to get info on the investigation they shouldn’t have

Fed Court of Appeals ordered Georgia Atty Gen to explaining w/drawing a job offer to a lesbian who had a gay marriage

Delaware scheduled primaries for 4 days after NH, which isn’t happy about threat to its status & forced Clinton & Dole not ever to file in Del.

R’s force on the CIA a $20m covert action plan in Iran that CIA doesn’t think will do anything

Fed appeals court reverses lower court to allow restrictive NY primary rules on ballot access

Gov. Wilson unilaterally cuts target for minority & women contractors on transportation projects from 20 to 10%, which feds had refused to approve (actual figure 1993-4 fy was 27.7%)

12/24/95

1st veto override. A pro-fraud bill, making it more difficult to sue for securities fraud. 1st Contract w/America provision to pass into law. Have to prove intent to defraud in comps making misleading statements. Which can’t prove w/out access, & no access w/out filing a lawsuit. Allows judges to force plaintiffs pay defendant’s legal fees. And bans “professional plaintiffs” – 5 fed securities cases in 3 yrs – from being lead plaintiff

12/25/95

Palestinians take over Bethlehem, the 6th W Bank town

Malawi jury acquits Hastings Banda et al for ordering murders of 4 dissident leaders

12/26/95

House Ethics Cmte recommended ceiling on book royalties, or rather putting it w/in the existing $20,000 ceiling. House voted it down, but banned advances

Peres says Israel would end its nuclear program (while not confirming it exists) if there is a regional peace

Honduran military C-in-C shielding 3 officers charged w/torturing college students 1982. They are part of a unit created & trained by CIA. US failing to provide documents to prosecutors

Last days in office SA Pres. deKlerk put 40-yr secrecy on Cabinet Minutes.
-Trial of ex-defense minister Gen. Magnus Malan shows that when Inkatha members being trained, got “bored,” they were allowed to choose some victims. They shot 13 mostly women & children at home of an ANC leader 1987

Gingrich’s press sec’s wife is released from army reserve duty to go to Bosnia... Army-McCarthy?

Islamic Party wins plurality of Turkish elections, w/21%, but current gov may be able to coalition w/right wing

Chechen war resumes. Chechens not happy about Russian soldiers stationed there also voting there. Chechens captured the 2nd largest city, Gudermes, Russians sealed it off & lobbed shells in. Chechens had scouted the city by posing as election workers, asking how many soldiers needed ballots

N Korea forcing people to attend mass executions

12/27/95

Dole to Republican Nat Cmte Jun95: “I’m willing to be another Ronald Reagan, if that’s what you want.”

An opposition leader in Slovakia says it is becoming an authoritarian country run by people of no ideology, surely common enough now it could almost be an ideology.
-Slovakia is no longer on short list for EU membership for this reason
-The President accuses PM of having his son, wanted for a fraud case in Ger, kidnapped & left in a car trunk for police to find in Austria. Investigators agreed & were pulled off.

Kim Jong Il still hasn’t officially taken power, almost 1½ yrs on

Donald Regan, RR, chief of staff gets $42,000 legal fees for Iran-Contra investigation of him

Sandra Day O’Connor is the tie-breaker more than anyone else, and writes more concurring ops than anyone else, giving her the power to write law. Too bad she’s so muddy in her writing (thinking?)

Russia offered asylum to Mladic, inc invitation to teach at a military academy

12/29/95

House of Lords agrees to a register of interests, a ban on lobbying on behalf of clients, but not a disclosure of earnings such as intro for Commons the same week

1st yr of Criminal Justice Act (Br) has seen arrests of 86 environmental & anti-nuke protesters, 107 anti-roads protesters, 153 hunt saboteurs. 93 evictions of travelers. Trials less so. Of 346 arrests for aggravated trespass, >½ charges dropped. 12 of the 153 hunt saboteurs convicted. Police imposing bail conditions amounting to ban on protesting; a woman in Kent told not to go w/in ½ mi. of a road construction site. She lived closer than that.

Bosnian Serbs demand delay of reunification of Sarajevo. US commander of NATO says he’ll think about it, as if he has a right

Fed employees stage a “work-in”

2 Marines refuse to give DNA samples. Military started collecting 1992, allegedly for identification of bodies, but they intend to hold the samples 75 yrs, and can release them in “extraordinary circumstances,” whatever they are. Gov wants a large DNA database. The Marines suggest one gets one’s privacy back when leaving military.

RTC not to sue Clintons over Whitewater

While military refuses to undertake repair of roads in Bosnia Army & Nat Guards to build roads purely to learn how to do it, at cost over $5m, into a Panama rain forest. Panama Prez made the road a campaign promise, but USAID rejected it on environmental grounds, so he went to Army, which has no environmental limits exc those of the host country

Another homophobe w/a gay kid: Dr Charles Socarides, a psychoanalyst who 1960s & since said he could “cure” them of their mental disorder. His son is an adviser to Clinton on gay issues. Dr. Socarides has been married 4X.

1st Korean-American in US Congress, Jay Kim of Orange Cty (R), got illegal contribs from Hundai & Korean Airlines, disguised as indiv contribs. Largest criminal fine for Fed Election Campaign Act imposed, $850,000 on the 2 comps. Kim elected 1992, also funneled his own comp’s money illegally. This was known when he was reelected 1994. Korean politics here too!

Dole attacked movie “Money Train” for a copy-cat crime of burning a token-booth clerk, but didn’t say nuthin when they were caught – & had never heard of the movie

Phil Gramm on a possible female running mate: “Sophia Loren is not a citizen.” Gramm to Heritage Foundation May95: “Every yr since I’ve been in Congress, Jesse Helms, my dear friend, has offered an amend to ban Ch. goods produced by prison labor. And every year I wonder why we can’t make our own prisoners work.”

When Czech. broke up, Czech citizenship laws written used since to exclude Gypsies from citizenship, which means they can’t vote, get soc benefits, reclaim land confiscated by CP

After a neo-Nazi incident at Ft Braggs, it comes out that Pentagon allows espousal of racism & supremacism as long as not at public rallies, etc – but of course priv homosexuality... Don’t ask, don’t sieg heil

1995 51,600 illegals deported, a record, up 15% from 1994, up 75% from 1990. 62% were prison inmates (4% 1986). 90% of rest are turned back at border. So once you get past the fence, you’re still home free. INS spending bill inc a large increase

CA prison agency bans interviews w/prisoners. Will draw up a policy to decide what interviews are illegitimate as opposed to “entertainment” tabloid tv & print

Gov. Wilson planning to escort an immigrant criminal to the INS holding facility from state prison, something like standing on the schoolhouse steps

Ger forces an Internet net (CompuServ) to shut down access to 200+ newsgroups. This would affect all customers in all countries.

Clinton vetoes defense appropriations bill for giving too much, inc Star Wars, ordering Clinton to aks for funding w/in 45 days of ordering a troop deployment abroad, bans on abortions at military bases abroad, forcing out HIV+ personnel, etc

Clinton lifts sanctions on Yugoslavia

During current gov shutdown, Congresscritters planning foreign junkets, 25 of them. So State Dept, w/no funding, has to arrange squash games for Arlen Specter

12/30/95

Safire talks of 3 new debentures, the Gingrich bond (no maturity), the Dole bond (no interest), or Clinton (no principle).

The 2 Fr pilots who were POWs of Serbs for 3½ mos were starved, beaten, mock-executed. Mladic personally threatened them w/torture & death. This report was leaked, since they were ordered not to speak to reporters. Incidentally, the planes were shot down flying in attack group. They were supposed to be followed by 6 US jets, but these suddenly pulled out w/out explaining what info they had to the Fr
-Eur police at breakfast at a hotel coffee shop 12 feet from a Bosnian Croat leader Dario Kordic, indicted war criminal. When told, they ignored it. The cops were staying at the same hotel

IRA still inflicting punishment beatings & shootings.

The oldest woman in the world has outlived the man who was paying her an annuity to get her apt when she died since she was 90. In the past 30 yrs, he has spent $184,000. His widow still has to pay. And the bitch is living in a nursing home for the last 10 yrs.

1st internet wiretap

Massacre by Zulu of 17+, inc an infant – a day after police raided ANC huts to disarm them.

Japan’s priv fund for WW2 comfort women failing miserably

Blacks now 1/3 of Army enlisted men. Women 13% of military

“Essential” gov workers not furloughed to get ½ pay this week (but full deductions, so some will get 0) & nothing next week
-Bureau of Ind Affairs sent home 75% as nonessential. So Hopis sent all prisoners home, saying they should come back when they can afford to fee them

12/31/95

Chun Doo Hwan also amassed a huge slush fund, c.$133m

November 1995

2006-04-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

11/1/95

In August, the son of Slovak prez was kidnapped & dumped in Austria where he has been held under an internat warrant for fraud. It seems that secret service were the ones who dumped him

Alabama, known for its new prison chain gangs, putting inmates who masturbate in front of female guards into hot pink uniforms

In Br, a 3-yr old Mensa member w/IQ of 152 is editor for a day of the Sun

FBI wants capacity to tap 1 of every 1,000 phone lines in urban areas (the current ave is 1,174,000)

House 288-139 bans a rare type of late-term abortion, what they like to call “partial birth”, almost always performed to save mother’s life. Inc 2 yr prison for doctors + $250,000. No exception for saving mother’s life or health

Last 3 DCIs, Webster, Gates, Woolsey say it’s not their fault their Russian intel was wrong

11/2/95

House votes for school vouchers for DC, $3,000. Gingrich calls DC schools violent, drug-ridden dens of illiteracy & ignorance. Or was that the Senate? Would also ban abortion in pub hospitals, repeal DC domestic partnership (249-172)

Indian state of Maharashtra since March under control of Hindu nationalist party run by Balasheb Thackery, a great admirer of Hitler & hater of Muslims. Evidently he renamed Bombay “Mumbai.” His people have threatened a newspaper & stopped sale of Salman Rushdie’s latest novel, which satirizes him. Police rounded up hundreds of Bangladeshi Muslims after the election. And a huge power-plant deal w/Enron (American) was canceled

NY Sup Court allows unmarried couples, inc gay, to adopt children. Only VT & Mass. do, by their sup courts

11/4/95

Bosnian UN war crimes tribunal asks US to make surrender of suspects a condition for any peace accord.
-At peace talks in Dayton, Bosnian gov wants parl to be dir elected, Serbs delegated by separate parls.
-In Mostar, supposedly under Bosnian-Croatian fed, the city as divided as Berlin was, w/separate license plates, currency, passports. And Croats voted in Croatian elections – overwhelmingly for Tudjman’s party. Mvmt over the city is restricted

Russian Sup Court overrules Electoral Commission’s bans on pol parties

One of the witnesses against Noriega in his 1992 trial was a man paid by Cali drug cartel, $1¼m, to testify against Noriega’s links to Medellín cartel. US made deal whereby a Cali leader got 9 yrs off his sentence. US claims this had no significance

Israeli PM Rabin assassinated at peace rally. 9 days after an Islamic Jihad leader killed in Malta. The assassin Jewish, but W Bank sealed off anyhow

Powell attacked by R’s right (I knew Hitler, & you, general, are no Hitler...) Pat Robertson says Powell “equivocated” on ability of people to have personal relationship to God. A group of righties note that he is a Rockefeller R. & Rockefeller was an adulterer. And Mrs Powell is on antidepressants

11/5/95

1994 gamblers (inc lotteries) spent $482b. Lottery = 3X movie tickets.

John Major rejects Nolan Cmte recommendations that MPs report outside income. Major doesn’t want professional politicians. Tony Banks says no one will accuse Major of being one.

11/6/95

Andreotti, while on trial, indicted for commissioning the Mafia to kill a journalist 1979

Walesa, his reputation in the toilet for yrs, comes in prez elections w/enough to force a run-off against the ex-CP candidate. Latter has a problem w/the Church over abortion

Budget passed by House, sorry, will be passed, inc all sorts of special interest stuff: no tax on boat fuel, impose Fed tax on Indian casinos (as regular casinos won’t), sell of ski resort lands on Forest Service lands, allow mining comps to buy the gov’s interest in Fed lands at rate not to inc the value of mineral deposits, allow coal comps to get out of paying health benefits to retired miners

Since Gingrich couldn’t appoint his own House historian (the woman who wanted equal space for Nazis & KKK), the post has been abolished

Amazing to see Rabin lauded as a saint. My hope is this will discredit the settlers. A lot of bitching about them never having thought a Jew would kill a Jew (shades of Oklahoma City). Peres is now PM.

11/7/95

Rabin’s widow blames Likud rhetoric. Likud’s head has been seen at a rally w/a picture of Rabin in SS uniform. Arafat ordered there be no pub gloating by fundies. The assassin was linked to “Kahane Lives”

Br Parl votes to require MPs to disclose outside earnings, 20 Tories crossing over. Some may resign in order to get rich

Shevardnadze easily wins Georgia elections

CA prison guards’ union now a major pol force, giving $1m to Wilson 1990, $530,000 1994, $101,000 to 3 Strikes, fought an assemblyman who opposed a prison bond initiative. Salaries for those w/7 yrs are $44,676, the best-paid guards in US, $10,000 more than teachers

Navy decides not to promote the guy who was in charge of equal opportunity who sexually harassed subordinates

Ch. gov to search for own reincarnation of Panchen Lama, the foreign ministry saying “The Dalai Lama’s arbitrary selection of a soul boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama is null and void.”

11/8/95

To get a concealed weapon permit in Texas, as one now can, one must take a nonviolent, conflict-resolution course & be in touch w/one’s inner child. And say in English “I have a handgun.”

Czech Republic, which brought us Semtex the plastique, now brings us Semtex the drink, the equivalent of Jolt

Afghan Taliban threats force UN there to stop using women employees. The gov ain’t much better, having banned its reps going to UN Women’s Conf

After only 6 mos, Fr Cabinet reshuffled, cut from 42 to 33, most women ejected. Its job will be fighting unions over budget cuts.

Sup Court says if forfeiture is part of a plea agreement, defendant has no right to judicial review of whether gov took more prop than the law allows

UN War Crimes judge Goldstone complains US w/holding data, inc satellite photos of mass graves, intercepted conversations. US 1st says it will cont. to “safeguard sources,” then says will give info. May be trying to prevent indictment of new friend & negotiating partner Milosevic.

11/9/95

Colin Powell decides he doesn’t have the passion to be president. But at least he does announce that he is a Republican, talks about broadening the party

Tobacco comps, having intimidated ABC into apologizing for an accurate news story, now get 60 Minutes not to broadcast an interview w/a former Brown & Williamson exec who has agreement w/the comp not to disclose internal matters (not that that should affect CBS) (oh, evidently it would be “tortious interferer” to induce someone to break a contract) – this has never been successfully used in suit against a news organiz. CBS CEO Larry Tisch linked to a tobacco comp.

In Tuesday elections, R’s didn’t do that well. Nor that badly, but the invincibility is gone. And R’s spent a fortune. But failed to win VA, Maine legs, KY governor. But Kirk Fordice reelected as governor of Miss, though losing every other statewide R (3 for state Sen., incumbents, lost). Newt was used in ads everywhere, esp VA. By D’s, I mean.
-Maine defeated anti-gay right measure
-Miss. rejected term limits
-Penn. allows children to testify by videotape

Nigerian gov confirms death sentences on opponents of the Ogoni region, who want compensation for environmental damage from oil drilling. Inc playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa. The trial a farce. Commonwealth meeting under pressure to expel Nigeria. Shell refuses to use its inf. Holdout: Mandela, who wants quiet dipl

R’s, still failing to pass budgets, putting more & more cute stuff in bill to extend gov’s borrowing authority, inc abolishing 6 gov agencies (so far) inc Commerce, limit death penalty appeals, environ crap

Fed appeals court throws out INS’s 1987 arrest of the “L.A. 8,” 7 Palestinians & a Kenyan arrested for promoting world communism. For 1st time said foreigners have free speech too

Fed judge quickly strikes down CA’s new “checkbook journalism” law making it illegal to accept money for info about a crime

Mich. appeals court reverses July94 custody case where judge said mother who had to work didn’t deserve the kid because she’d use day care

11/10/95

Energy Sec Hazel O’Leary paid $43, 500 of gov money to a comp to monitor reporters & rank their favorability to her – i.e., create an enemies list. She is not fired for it.

1986-94 CIA passed on to presidents & Pentagon 95 reports from foreign agents it knew to be controlled by Moscow, w/out warning the prezes

UN War Crimes Tribunal indicts 3 Serbian Army officers for killing of 260 in Kukovar 1991. These are 1st indictments in Serbia itself

Israeli police arrest 2 more in Rabin assassination, now talking about conspiracy rather than lone nut. A phone # in NY to raise money for the legal defense.

Nigeria executes the 9. US does bugger all; well, recalls ambassador, bans military sales, of which there are none, extends a ban on visas downwards, and utterly fails to stop oil sales to US – ½ Nigerian oil exports. World Bank rejects loan for a liquidification of natural gas project – which will mean continuation of bad environmental process of flaring gas – one of Saro-Wiwa’s main complaints. There is talk of expulsion from Commonwealth

Commonwealth also not thrilled w/Major for refusing to condemn Fr nuclear tests – as Prince Philip does

HUD orders Baltimore to drop a security contract w/Nation of Islam

Albanian Prez. Sihas law banning any member of Politburo or any MP before May91 from Apr96 elections. This inc heads of 2 opposition parties & many sitting MPs

11/11/95

Cameroon joins Commonwealth (#52)

11/12/95

And Nigeria suspended – the 1st time.

SA local elections finish democratization. ANC got 58% of coloureds (not all counted), Nats 7%

Israel has so far arrested 8, inc a soldier & 5 relig students. They are invoking “Pursuer” law, the right to kill someone chasing a Jew intending to kill him. Some settlers consider all Arabs to be pursuers. Shin Bet was tipped off a week before & did nothing.

Florida Gov Lawton Chiles’s staff authorized scare phone calls to 680,000 old people during elections 1994 accusing Jeb Bush of cheating on his taxes & his running mate of waiting to kill Soc Sec. The campaign paid for the calls, which were supposedly from 1 fake & 1 real organiz which did not authorize them

And this week in VA, R’s pretended to be D’s to try to inf a state leg election

11/13/95

Israel thinking about changing Law of Return to exclude US loonies – 1st Jew excluded.
-And new head of Islamic Jihad is a former U of S. Florida prof. The U is not happy.
-Someone points out, a propos the nonsense about Jews never killing Jews, Rabin commanded troops who shot Irgun activists wading ashore after the gov bombed their ship 1948. 17+ Jews killed.

Brazil to attempt land reform, expropriating 250,000 acres

Ch. gives Tibetan leaders choice of 3 children to be Panchen Lama, to be chosen by lot. None are the one chosen by Dalai Lama

11/14/95

Chief candidate for next PM of Sweden, 38-yr old Mona Sahlin, who organized Sw’s 1st Barbie Doll Club & youngest MP at 25, has to w/draw because used a gov credit card to buy personal items & failing to pay parking tickets. She did pay off the credit card, though late. No one else in Cabinet wants the job

Japan loses another cabinet minister for making stupid comments about Korean occupation

Peres “sets tone” on being confirmed as new Israeli Labor leader, by bombing Lebanon & w/drawing troops from Jenin in W Bank

Clinton vetoes 2 bills to keep gov going. Today, “unessential” parts close down, but Congress is somehow still in session. R’s delayed passing the stop-gap spending bills until after evening tv news. Treasury will sell off securities in gov retirement funds to pay for gov. R’s keep taking on new amends they couldn’t ordinarily pass inc banning environmental & safety regs. R’s insist Clinton sign on to balancing budget in 7 yrs

Croatia promotes a general 1 day after he is indicted by War Crimes Tribunal

Azerbaijan blatantly rigs elections

11/15/95

Australia refuses pol asylum to refugees from E Timor, PM saying he didn’t want to rupture relations w/Indonesia

EEOC, not quite getting the pt, wants “Hooters” restaurant chain to hire male waitresses

11/16/95

800,000 “unessential” fed workers furloughed for 3 days now. R’s insisting Clinton commit to balanced budget in 7 yrs – & to use Congressional rather than OMB numbers. 28,000 people/day come due for Soc Sec – and aren’t getting it. News reports focus on passports & nat parks

11/17/95

S Korea arrests Roh Tae Woo for taking bribes. Roh refuses to say “forgets”) who paid & who he paid from the slush fund. It is assumed pub contracts were awarded based on bribes

War Crimes Tribunal indicts Karadzic & Mladic for genocide in Srebrenica. They mention a grandfather forced to eat his grandson’s liver. Judge Goldstone can’t get US to promise surrender of those indicted as part of peace accord

The commander of US forces in the Pacific forced out after said the rape of a 12-yr old in Okinawa could have been avoided if the servicemen had paid for sex

Gingrich admits causing the gov shutdown in part because when Clinton took him on Air Force One to Israel for Rabin’s funeral, he was forced to exit by the rear stairs
-NY Daily News has a picture of him as infant in diaper, headline “Cry Baby.” R’s pushed measure through to bar it being shown in House chamber. Pat Schroeder holds up a model Oscar, awards it to him for best performance by a child actor

House R’s intro a school prayer amend that would also allow vouchers to relig schools & no doubt much else – the language is vague

One Congresscritter sends his staff home as “inessential” during the budget crisis

Ger SPD ousts Rudolf Scharping as head in favor of someone w/a personality, Oskar Lafontaine, of the Left

While Bosnian negotiations continuing in Dayton, House votes 243-171 to ban US troops from peacekeepers. Bosnian gov has hired Richard Perle as consultant for the negotiations. Yug. army has been rebuilding Bosnian Serb military, replacing communication links bombed by NATO, sending helicopters 7 planes w/supplies
-ITN insists US covered up arms drops to Bosnian gov

Gov being closed costs somewhere between $100 to 200m/day

11/18/95

House votes to kill nat speed limit but force states to put a 0.02% alcohol blood level limit on drivers under 21

House kills D attempt to force a pub report on Gingrich’s ethics

During intifada, Yigul Amir (the assassin of Rabin) really enjoyed Rabin’s “force, might & beatings” policy

11/19/95

Vatican says “infallible” that women can’t be priests

Aristide encourages violence again at a funeral of a murdered relative (& MP), and homes have been burned or looted. Most opposition boycotting the elections, though the Virgin Mary Party running

11/20/95

Walesa loses run-off to Kwasniewski. CP now controls Polish Parl & in 1½ yrs also Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia. Walese accused K., who won by 52%, of being part of a web of lies & thugs. Cardinal Glemp said the choice was between Christian & neo-pagan values. In the debate, Walesa told a reporter: “If abortion had been legal, you would probably have gone down the drain.” K. says Poland will still join EU & NATO. He failed to report his wife’s shareholdings in financial disclosure zones, or that he failed to earn his degree in ‘78. The consensus is that Walesa represents the old ways, the old fights. K. did well among the unemployed & peasants

Israeli secret service may have run the far-right loon group the assassin came from. Its head was on the payroll – the only 1 arrested to be released.

It. by decree to give legal status to illegal immigrants w/jobs & expel those convicted of crimes. Northern League threatening to torpedo the budget unless immigration stemmed. Cath Church objects

Fla. joins AZ & Ala. in starting chain gangs, excuse me, “restricted labor squads.” But they aren’t chained together.

Congress & Clinton agree to restart the gov until Dec. 15. R’s say Clinton caved on balancing the budget in 7 yrs, he claims the small print there is an out.
-The Fed. Helium Reserve never shut down.

Fed Judge voids much of CA’s Prop 187, esp those killing ed. & health care for illegal immigrants – since there is fed money involved

3 people in Chicago stab & shoot a 9-mo pregnant woman, kill her 2 children, in order to rip the fetus from her womb. The fetus survives (Update 11/22: Gingrich blames the welfare state)

Princess Di gives a... gasp... interview to BBC, talks about her affair & bulemia

Bosnian peace talks fail. US refused to arm & train Bosnian Army, Serbs made last-minute land demands, etc etc

Oregon’s Sen. race has a factual test. Most did not do well & Rep. Ron Wyden (D) couldn’t give the price of milk or gas or locate Bosnia on a map, name Canada’s PM or his state’s major employer

11/21/95

Israel grants citizenship to Jonathan Pollard, still in prison here

Article on comps using computers to sell term papers advertising in Rolling Stone, Playboy etc. $50 for 8-page standard, $200 for custom. They are for research only, cough, but the comps make sure not to sell the same paper to classmates.

Walesa’s people accuse opponent of election fraud

Gingrich, who wants to pay kids to read books, wants to pay parents $5,000 to bring kids to school already knowing how to read

There is a Bosnian peace after all, if you ignore, as everyone does, that the Bosnian Serb delegates didn’t sign it

11/22/95

Shell said it could not intervene in Nigeria’s kangaroo trial of Saro-Wiwa. Actually, it seems to have bribed 2 witnesses

In Turkmenistan the “sayings of Turkmenbashi” memorized in schools. There is a bizarre little personality cult for Prez Niyazov, who has several palaces & is building a new one

Under Bosnia accord, NATO forces can remove forces & weapons at will – Bosnian Serbs are not pleased. And Sarajevo would be undivided. Thus, Milosevic signed on behalf of Bosnian Serbs, but no one in their delegation signed & speaker of Parl called it a betrayal. And why not, Milosevic kept the map from them until the last minute. One notes that in ‘93 the same 3 presidents signed Vance-Owen but Bosnian Serb Parl killed it. Each side will keep own army, & US will not build up Bosnian army. Would be a rotating presidency. Bosnian gov not happy either, meaning only Serbia or Croatia are. UN already lifting sanctions on Serbia. Arms embargo to be phased out from 90 days after accord signed. Milosevic drank his way through the talks while Bosnia PM & Foreign Min weren’t on speaking terms. US found Milosevic so flexible they talked only to him. Too bad he can’t really speak for the Bosnian Serbs. Croatia to get E Slavonia back, over time. Arbitration later on town of Brcko. At end, they found Serbs only got 45%, so they had to take more from Croats to get it back to 49. US will send 20,000 troops, but only if Bosnian Serbs agree

Budget bill passed by Congress. Capital gains cut would cost billions every yr exc 2002, the yr the budget is supposed to be balanced. The child tax credit won’t be in April but in Oct., just before the election, which will cost IRS extra $308m to process forms. R’s claim IRS couldn’t handle it as early as April – IRS says it was never asked. Rep Bill Archer says 9% of tax cuts go to richest 1%, Treasury 17%, & poorest 20% would pay higher % of incomes. R figures are short-term, while main effects take a couple of yrs & really benefit the rich
-Gov shutdown cost $700-800m, ½ in salaries for workers not working, ½ in lost revenue

Baltimore ends contract of a priv comp running 12 schools

11/24/95

Bosnian Serbs accept the peace accord, but I don’t see Karadzic stepping down

Chechen military leader tells Russian tv where to find a parcel of radioactive cesium near entrance to a Moscow park. Says there are other parcels

Clinton’s promise to slash gov employees leading to use of priv prisons. Which may save #s but probably not money, esp when contracts allow comps to recoup building costs in only 5 yrs, fed gov pick up medical expenses. Priv comps hiring fed officials – a new revolving door. Wardens of the prisons say they don’t have to abide by fed rules – they have looser rules on the use of deadly force

Russian Defense Minister has gotten 123 officers inc 23 generals to run for Parl

11/25/95

S Korea says it will charge Chun Doo Hwan for 1980 Kwangju massacre

Princess Di admitted adultery. The man involved is subject to the death penalty...

Pat Robertson coerces tv networks inc CNN into not running commercials from Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays for using clips that take “out of context” his line: “Homosexuality is an abomination. Many of those people involved w/Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals. The two things seem to go together.”

3 weeks before prez elections, Aristide thinking about staying on

Old White House computer messages survive. Inc Ollie North saying he threatened Costa Rican president w/loss of aid if he exposed resupply of Contras from Costa Rica

R’s abandon plan to deny higher ed. aid to legal immigrants but still want to limit access to Head Start, calculate eligibility by adding sponsors’ income to parents

Ireland votes 50.2% to legalize divorce. Bishops allowed Caths to vote their conscience – then one threatened to w/hold sacraments to those who remarried. Pope & Mother Theresa intervened. Favorite billboard: “hell divorce, bye-bye daddy.” One group blamed Jews for the divorce law (there are 3 Jewish MPs of 166). Divorce only after living apart for 4 yrs. And can be non-consensual

11/27/95

2nd highest per capita recipient of US foreign aid is Armenia, which kept its main opposition party out of July elections & is now arresting people

2 people still in jail in Oregon after serving 5 yrs for a murder admittedly committed by the Happy Face Killer (who signs his confessions w/a doodle of...) The woman implicated her lover because of abuse. In fact, she tried to turn him in for a bank robbery he didn’t do the yr before. Oregon courts can ignore new evidence. (Update: released).

When US invaded Haiti, it seized 150,000+ pages of documents from military hq & Fraph – and took them to US, where refusing to give them back. Pentagon says Aristide not legally entitled to them – they belong to the ousted military gov – and anyway they’re American property now. At the very least, the papers would locate arms caches & find out who financed Fraph

11/28/95

Gingrich not to run for prez. Who asked him?

Fed judge strikes down the highly restrictive Republican rules for getting on ballot NY. Dole may not now be the only candidate.

Clinton finally addresses the nation on Bosnia – and actually does well in polls on it. Problem: no exit strategy, but the troops are supposed to be out in a yr. To send 20,000, 1/3 of the force

11/29/95

R’s coming slowly into line – after all, Dole wants to be an imperial president too.

Internat Herald Tribune agrees to pay libel to Lee Kwan Yew for the story that Singapore...no, it didn’t even get that specific... some Asian leaders use a compliant judiciary to bankrupt opposition politicians

Chernobyl internat trust fund runs out of money, but thyroid cancers in Belarus still 285X normal, all illnesses up 30%, 270,000 still displaced, and no one has tracked down the 800,000 workers & soldiers sent in

Br & Ireland agree to talks, since Clinton going to visit

Br budget inc a 1% income tax cut as bribe (that’s 1% of income, 4% of income tax)

A Detroit woman sold her 14 or 15-yr old to pay off crack debt. He was used to sell drugs & got hooked himself. Police ignored the grandmother’s attempt to report him missing because she was not legal guardian

Sup Court heard case on whether gov can fire their contractors in retaliation for criticism (a garbage contractor in Kansas criticized the country in print). Scalia: “I find it extraordinary that the gov can’t favor some ideas over others.”

Sup Court unan. says that employer can’t fire paid union organizers who work for them or refuse to hire same. NRLF – under Bush rules – bans firing union workers. House added rider to new appropriation bill banning this & NLRF had stopped pending this case. The law just said “employee,” so it was just an obvious dictionary decision

Warner-Lambert (drug) Comp pays $10m fine for hiding the faulty manufacture of drugs. It sold unstable drugs

In a Sup Court case on asset forfeiture, Clinton Justice on side of Mich. which took a car from a john. The case is on behalf of his wife, who had ½ ownership. Clinton gov suggested she didn’t take reasonable steps to stop him

Sen. Robert Smith (R-NH) voted to limit damage awards. His wife is suing for falling off a garage ramp

Pat Schroeder to retire from House

A Republican who ran for House & lost ‘94 indicted for lying in an ad. He blamed the winner for kidnapping & rape of a woman & 2 daughters Minn., for blocking a crime bill – which actually wouldn’t have affected the men in question

R’s haven’t approved any fed judges in months. Now they’re saying that the circuits have too many judges, meaning Clinton gets to name too many replacements

Fed Election Commission says Gingrich’s GOPAC illegally gave him $250,000 in hidden support 1990, when he only won by 974, outspending the Dem 5X. GOPAC was only supposed to work at state & local level. House votes to kill an interim report from House ethics cmte

11/30/95

In Poughkeepsie Church cemetery, miscarried fetus & amputated limbs taken from local Cath hospital & stuck in other people’s graves

US says Ch. not keeping promise to enforce US copyrights. As opposed to the dissident they sentenced w/out a peep from us

October 1995

2006-04-22T02:46:00.000-07:00

10/1/95

1994 eunuchs got vote in India

10/3/95

Br converts to metric w/criminal sanctions. But quarter pounders, 3½ floppies & the pint & the mile left alone. Only the US, Liberia, Burma remain non-metric

SA’s highest court ends debtors’ prison. It had been fading as a practice last couple of yrs

A Russian scientist says that if you think Russia’s nuclear facilities have lax security, the chemical arms ones are worse

The Spaziano execution is on again. Incidentally, Spaziano became Crazy Joe after a truck ran over his hand. When prosecution trying to get their 16-yr old druggie biker wannabe in, they told judge that w/out him they’d have no case. He has recanted & Florida Sup Court has since ruled that testimony helped by hypnosis not admissible. The judge’s overturning the jury’s life imprisonment also no longer possible

Kenneth Dart, who renounced US citizenship to avoid paying taxes (is Prez of a foam cup comp) for Belize wants to return – as Belize consul

Ch. says agreement for a summit meeting Jiang Zemin / Clinton inc promise that any future trips by Taiwan prez to US private only & pol speeches or any public speech be banned. A day later, State Dept still not disavowing

New Romanian law (not yet signed by Prez Iliescu, who is out of country) would sentence journalists to 7 yrs for insulting a pub official – even if story true. 2 journalists on trial for publishing that Iliescu was in KGB. Similar prosecutions, & papers closed in Albania, Slovakia. And old-type defamation laws supported even by Vaclav Havel & used against a critic of Lech Walesa

A new state health system in Tenn. has given it 2nd highest rate of insurance after Hawaii. But a bunch of newly-created comps aggressively signing up people, some working commission-only. Going after the homeless, prisoners (illegally). Started up so quickly it is vastly fraudulent

The ridiculous anti-terrorism bill that followed OK City bombing, inc new wiretap powers, easier deportations, use of military, limiting death row appeals, which passed Senate 91-8, failing because far right

Kenya convicts opposition leader for attempted robbery (guns from a police station) to 4 yrs & 6 lashes. Amnesty Int says fabricated

10/4/95

UN budget problems (guess whose fault?) impairing Bosnian war crimes tribunal

Macedonian prez wounded by car bomb

Labour Conf. Blair wants to create a “youthful” country w/an information superhighway. Reverse privatization of RR. End of hereditary peers in Lords. Lower taxes on home heating fuel, but no other promises. And a min wage at no stated level

Clinton vetoes bill for Congress’s admin expenses, because Congress failed to pass other budget measures

Russian PM Chernomyrdin says will not run for president next yr. This leaves no successor to Yeltsin. And in Volgograd, CP won 22 of 24 seats in regional leg.

10/5/95

Libya, expelling Palestinians (well, into refugee camps mostly) urges other Arab countries to do same to expose weakness of peace plan

Fiji last yr offered to allow Hong Kongese to buy citizenship ($30,000 + $100,000 “investment”), finally uniting Fijians & Indians on one issue... no Chinese.

Macedonian prez car-bombed, replaced by speaker of house, an anti-Albanian. Cause of bomb still not known

Yet another coup in Comoros, yet another led by Fr mercenary Bob Denard, his 3rd there, plus Benin (attempted), elsewhere. Fr sent in the marines & Foreign Legion (it still exists!), freed the prez & re-arrested Denard, mostly to disprove that they were behind it.

Blacks in 20s now 1/3 in jail, probation. 35% arrests for drug possession, 55% convictions for same, 74% prison sentences

Alabama pays lawyers max $1,000 for murder trials w/out death penalty

Iran bans music & esp teaching it to children

Kenya refuses to hand over Rwandans to war crimes tribunal

Labour Conf votes for 1st time to retain Trident

Bosnian cease-fire signed, for Tuesday or whenever electricity restored in Sarajevo

Clinton exec order eases travel restrictions to Cuba for Cuban-Amers w/sick relatives, artists, academics, relief agencies, human rights groups, U. students & news organizs

10/6/95

Like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan will not fulfil Conventional Forces in Eur Treaty when comes into force Nov. 17

Ok ok ok. OJ Simpson acquitted. Blacks jubilant, whites amazed. 107.7m watched it live, I was asleep. The verdict took 3-4 hrs. Manson’s conviction took 9 days. The cops were racist & a case could be made for their having planted evidence. Ben Stein says whites will riot the way whites do: leave the cities, vote for Gingrich, punish blacks by closing dy-care & Medicaid
-The backlash still hasn’t taken on concrete form, exactly what rights will be destroyed. Still, CA’s domestic abuse law changed. Previously, 1st-time spouse abuses could erase their record through counseling (traffic school?). Now, those who plead guilty will also get min 36 mos probation

American oil comps (5) & others will develop Caspian Sea oilfields, sending oil through Russian pipeline only until build their own, not under Russian control, through Georgia & Turkey. US got the Caucasus countries to stop Azerbaijan’s proposal to inc Iran. Russia has been throwing oil weigh around heavy-handedly. Fallout: Chechnya, through which Russian pipeline goes; and possibly the attempted assassination of Georgian prez Sheverdnadze

R’s want to relax regs on nursing homes – no, not relax, eliminate. RR tried to do this, prompting backlash, a study which showed horrors, and detailed rules 1987. Since then, patients have been less subject to sedation, under 20% now physically restrained, from over 40% mid-1980s. Regulation would be turned over to states, which won’t. Will not be made to require, as fed regs now do, actual training, 24-hr nurses, etc. And states could compel adult children to pay for their parents. The theory is that since they won’t pay much in Medicaid, they can’t compel standards. It will also work the other way, since nursing homes have successfully forced more Medicaid in courts to pay for the standards.

Since Clinton elected, 43 state legislators (2/3 since 1994 elections, 2 US senators, 3 Reps, 137 officeholders, have switched D to R. None known the other way. D’s still 52% of state legislators. Most switches at nat level since Whigs broke up 1850s. Party switches since 1994 accounted for 4 state chambers going R (Penn, SC, Tenn, Maine). R’s now have 4 chambers in the 11 Confederate states for 1st time since Reconstruction

Israeli Knesset passes peace plan 61-59. Prez Weizman immediately violated it, refusing to pardon 2 Palestinian women (all women & 1,200 prisoners to be released)
-Arafat working on accord w/Hamas, allowing one newspaper to resume, trying to get them to stop attacking Israelis

10/7/95

A Colombian MP (& former left guerilla) plays tape from bug of DEA head in Colombia suggesting DEA trying to overthrow the gov.

Death penalty peaked 1935-6 (199 & 195)
-City that has seen most death sentences since restoration: Houston, followed by Philadelphia (103)

10/8/95

A Tory MP defects to Labour, evidently really appalled at gov viciousness: Alan Howarth had a safe seat (Stratford). This is 1st Tory to Labour conversion ever [Wait, that’s not true: Oswald Mosley]. Tory majority now 7 or 5 (1 MP not under the whip)

Disney news: Tony Blair would rather be called Bambi than Stalin. Disney Co will give health coverage to gay partners. And Disney, now in charge of ABC, fires Jim “I work for a rodent” Hightower from his talk show on 150 radio stations

Uganda new const extends ban on parties 5 yrs

Israeli military join prez, refusing to release 2 ♀ it holds. So 20 of the 21 pardoned ♀ refuse to go (the other was in solitary & didn’t know) or sign promise not to do other stuff in future

Yeltsin fires another atty gen. Did one last yr for refusing to violate Parl amnesty law. Now fires the one he forced to make himself ludicrous by attacking a Spitting Image show. He also may have been corrupt. But mostly he’s taking the blame for Mafias & violence

NJ now has 25,000 fugitives, v. 25,699 inmates in state prisons

Bosnian Serbs cluster bomb a refugee camp, killing 6. And have been flying again & bombing
-Commanders of Croat & Bosnian armies refuse even to meet. And this is supposed to be a federation. Bosnia says was only given 32 hrs warning of W Bosnian offensive. And refusing to allow Bosnian refugees back in areas they control

Honduras filed charges against 10 military officers, some retired 7 of them colonels, for murder & illegal detention. This is Battalion 31b, created by CIA early 1990s to support the Nicaraguan & Salvadoran wars. Baltimore Sun got US docs showing US knew of killings & lied to Congress. Now not helping the Honduran effort. The military are led by Battalion 31b’s former commander, who sent tanks into street after the indictments

10/9/95

July 11 as Serbs surrounding Srebrenica, Gen. Mladic summoned the Dutch UN commander & officers to watch a pig being killed, said that’s how he’d treat people like those protected by Dutch peacekeepers. There is some uproar in Neth. that its troops just watched the atrocities, pretending they saw nothing. July 17 a major certified that the Serbs carried out the evacuation correctly & another denied knowledge of genocide. Dutch troops really disliked the Muslims.

Medicare wants drs to prove cataract removal necessary before it pays

Since 1993, Br has granted refugee status to 4 of the 9,000 applicants

10/10/95

Sam Nunn to retire, the 8th D. Senator of 15 up for reelection ‘96. Much talk of vanishing center.

Still no Bosnia cease-fire, delayed by Russia’s failure to resume gas supplies. Serbs shelling safe areas, Bosnians, while raising more objections – something about a Serb checkpoint – seem to be gearing up for an offensive. NATO hits a Serb command & control bunker

Japanese Justice Minister resigns for not reporting a $2m loan from a Buddhist cult. Opposition had made a deal w/him not to ask questions in Parl about it

John Cairncross, the Fifth Man, dies.

Lord Alec Douglas-Home dies at 92.

May95 Paddy Ashdown abandoned “equidistance,” saying would not keep a minority Tory gov in power after next election

10/11/95

Curtis Le May. Manufactured bomber gap. Air Force banned from flying over USSR from1950, so SAC got RAF to do it. Military commanders from USSR then say didn’t know if they were reconnaissance or attacks. 1953 Pentagon & CIA were interested in preventive war. A cmte led by Doolittle proposed giving Russia a deadline. LeMay wanted to destroy USSR while it was inferior, tried 1950 to get AEC to give SAC the bombs in (if?) Washington nuked. By 1954 had such control. LeMay supported a plan to ring USSR, push them w/reconnaissance, then deliver a pol ultimatum. Seems to have tried to start a nuclear war. 1957 told an adviser that his personal policy was to knock Russian planes on the ground if he thought they were going to attack. During Cuban Missile Crisis, LeMay was USAF chief of staff. Protegé head of SAC sent a clear message to SAC planes to be ready. And SAC launched an ICBM from CA to Marshall Islands at height of crisis, on schedule from before. LeMay wanted Cuban missile sites nuked, if not USSR. McNamara says night after crisis over, LeMay said, “We lost! We ought to just go in there today & knock ‘em off!” At height, bombers were flown past their customary turn-around points. LeMay retired 1965, ran as Wallace’s VP 1968.

Some male Palestinians also refuse release.

Early this yr Gingrich threatened another R w/removal from a cmte for not going along w/his ideas, Mark Neumann from Appropriations

AMA backs Gingrich’s Medicare plan. Claim no relation to better deal on fees announced by Gingrich shortly after.

Bosnian cease-fire finally in place. Serbs have been ethnically cleansing Banja Luka, retaining its men...

Sup Court hears arguments on Colorado’s anti-gay measure, its 1st gay rights case in a decade. Scalia suggested there was also no protection for blue-eyed people, bigamists or those w/poorly combed hair. O’Connor & Ginsburg got state lawyer to admit hospitals could keep gays off dialysis or libraries keep them from borrowing books, w/no recourse

Sw’s 1st MEP elections, ruling Soc Dems 28%; ½ seats won by anti-EU parties

10/12/95

The Navy’s former equal-opportunity head facing court-martial for sexual harassment. One complainant agreed not to press charges if Navy told him to stop contacting her & he not be promoted – then he was. He liked giving presents, like gum & old men’s running shorts.

Fr PM Juppé told to get out of his cheap Paris gov-owned apt (& his son from his) or be prosecuted. Juppé lied about having no authority over this when he was deputy mayor. This while civ servs striking over wage freeze

Japan says 1910 annexation of Korea was legal because signed by a puppet PM (after Japan assassinated the queen, dissolved Korean army)

House Judiciary Cmte gets a D. to w/draw amend requiring reimbursing foreigners the $80 processing free for those now on waiting lists for visas who wouldn’t get them under new proposed law. Bait & switch.

And the 1st negative campaign ad: Forbes.

Turkey is charging an Amer. Reuters reporter for reporting attacks on Kurds (as well as hundreds of Turkish journalists)

10/13/95

Libya stops ouster of Palestinians

House Ethics Cmte investigating bulk sales of Gingrich’s book, the issue that Gingrich used to force Speaker Jim Wright to resign 1989

Sen. R’s release plans for a $245b. tax cut over 7 yrs, inc $500/child tax credit, cut in capital gains & corp tax

Bosnians pressing towards Prijedor in n.w., despite cease-fire. Serbs threatening to w/draw from peace talks. Serbs, meanwhile, are taking Bosnian refugees & selling them back to their families – if they can afford it.

UN talks on restricting spread of land mines fail. Ch. killed it, Russia would have. Ch. says land mines are legitimate. US wants expensive ones that self-destruct after a set period. Mines can cost as little as $2.

Dave Grossman’s On Killing suggests 85% of soldiers tried not to kill during wars. After Battle of Gettysburg, 90% of recovered muskets were loaded. Since loading took 20X as long as firing... VN firing rates increased from the 15-20% in WW2 to over 90%, thanks to desensitization training

At Tory conf, John Major wants more cops & an FBI

10/14/95

Ivor Crewe & Anthony King’s book on SDP says reason 26 Labour but only 1 Tory MP est SDP 1981 was that Tory wives dissuaded them, being heavily involved in the party. And lucrative jobs; the lone Tory –> SDP, Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler (how’s that for a Tory name?) lost his consultancies instantly

Judges order trial of Silvio Berlusconi

And Willy Claes, sec gen of NATO, being indicted for Belgian arms corruption (Socialists took $1.72m in kickbacks form It. aircraft maker 1988 when he was Econ Minister)

Iraq holds its 1st elections, actually a referendum on Hussein – not a secret ballot

Nation of Islam Monday to have a “Million Man March” in Washington, intended to annoy whites & legitimize Farrakhan, who can’t resist making racist comments about Jews & Koreans & such. Women are supposed to stay home & mind the baby, though at last minute they got Rosa Parks & Maya Angelou. Black men are supposed to atone, evidently for failing to take power from black women. Blacks are unwilling, mostly, to denounce Farrakhan, they “support the goals” of the march, whatever that means

Repub. Medicare of Medicaid leg. to weaken laws against kickbacks, fraud & abuse by doctors, allow them to refer patient to medical suppliers & such they have financial interest in, eliminate reg of med labs in doctors’ offices, eliminate requirement that only comps give discounts to pub hospitals, AIDS clinics, community health centers. If a drug comp snuck a drug past FDA, exempt from punitive damages. Doctors won’t have to exercise “reasonable diligence” as now to make accurate Medicare claims, just not deliberately do it. Newtie thinks shouldn’t criminalize behaviour of drs – like fraud

10/15/95

After Pearl Harbor, CP suspended all Japanese-American members

Tory Conf: Major wants to let MI5 & GCHQ fight domestic crime or “internat crime.” And wants 10,000 more closed-circuit cameras in shopping areas. And 5,000 more cops. Michael Portillo said would never join a common Eur army which would “stop our men from fighting for more than 40 hrs a week [and] send ½ of them home on paternity leave – there is no plan for a Eur army

AZ Gov Fife (“I like Fife”) Symington dec bankruptcy, w/$62,000 assets & $35m debts. He was a real estate developer & his wife an heiress. He bitches about welfare mothers & deadbeat dads

NJ Sup Court upheld “Megan’s Law” mandatory notification of presence of released sex offenders. They are supposed to be able to challenge determinations of their dangerousness, but state has failed to pay for lawyers & lawyers are on strike against doing it free, for some reason

10/16/95

After Rodney King. Christopher Commission on LAPD found 44 problem cops (1991). 27 have since had complaints, 9 promoted

10/17/95

Louisiana’s state legislators can award scholarships to Tulane. One rep gave them to Ted Kennedy’s 2nd wife & her 5 siblings, who all went for free. Mayor of New Orleans & children of Senators, Reps have all been sent

Speaking of pork, Gingrich’s district Cobb Cty gets $9,878 for resident from fed gov 1994 (NYC, home of Gingrich’s “culture of waste”, gets $5,461). For every dollar in fed taxes, Cobb gets $1.80, NYC gets 82¢

Colin Powell is related to the royals (who isn’t?). Burke’s Peerage says he is descended from governor of Jamaica 1807

Hussein wins 99.96%

Sp won’t turn over classified documents to judge investigating anti-Basque death squads

Pakistan secretly arrested 40 army officers last mo., inc a general, for Islamic fundamentalist links. Has also been arresting opposition leaders & constraining papers

A Frenchwoman reaches 120 yrs 38 days, the record. She gave up smoking 3 yrs ago

25 Danish high school students w/anti-nuclear “Chirac, non!” T-shirts were stopped by Fr police, forced to remove the shirts

Latvian parl elections a mess. Governing party 3rd, but top 3 parties got 15% each. #2 was the new “For Latvia” party, led by a Ger facist. Russians born there can’t vote but ethnic Latvians like Joachim Siegerist, who speaks no Latvian & became a citizen 3 yrs ago, plans to run for president. 1968 he est Ger Conservatives, dedicated to fighting Jews & keeping foreigners out. Later campaigned to free Rudolf Hess. Has been fined for slandering Willy Brandt & is currently appealing an 18-mo jail term in Ger for racist statements. In Latvia, he wants law & order, end to labor conflict, etc. His funding is unknown but is thought to be Ger far-right.
-Latvia applies to join EU. W/anti-Russian citizenship laws, 1/3 adult pop couldn’t vote

Kenya admits 800 deaths from disease in its prisons this yr

Dole reverses again, saying it was a mistake to return Log Cabin Repub donation. He blamed his aides, who he has been defending on this for 2 mos. Why now? His donations are about to be released, and he’s afraid of questioning on whether he agrees w/all their agendas. Now says you can take money from people you disagree with

10/18/95

An Estonian interior minister taped conversations, inc w/PM. Estonia police found them in a comp owned by ex-KGB agents & selling weapons illegally. He refused to resign. The PM fired him & dissolved the gov as a matter of... principle! Yes, principle!

Eur Court of Justice rules against affirmative action giving women absolute priority (in N Ger)

Speaking of, Kohl failed to get CDU to intro women’s quota w/in the party

Bosnia Serbs claim the 2 Fr pilots shot down Aug. 30 were POWs, but have since been kidnapped & they don’t know where they are. Must be criminals. Or the Bosnian gov... Fr not amused

Zambia wants to expel Kenneth Kaunda (Prez. 1964-91) as an illegal alien. Born in Zambia, his parents were Malawis. He renounced Malawians nationality 1970 but failed to seek Zambian. Twice this yr he has been arrested for addressing rallies w/out permission under laws he wrote
[update: gov gives this up]

US ambassador-designate to Ch. Jim Sasser says Ch. can ignore elections in Hong Kong – it is just a legal question

Ger losses yet another E Ger treason case, for ex-head of secret service. Markus Wolf, tossed out by Fed Criminal Court. Not that this sort of thing endlessly repeated, now going after 7 Politburo members for the same old stuff

Clinton offhandedly says he raised taxes “too much” is 1st budget, for which now-pissed-off Congresscritters then stuck out their necks

Russia wants to participate in peacekeeping in Bosnia, but not under NATO command – just like US Republicans

10/19/95

Clinton supports a bill against discrim against gays, knowing he’ll never have to sign one. In 41 states, there is no protection. Would not cover the military

Helms resumes blocking ambassadors, treaties & promotions

Yeltsin says will fire foreign min Kozyrev, his last liberal cabinet member, for being too accommodating to West. Yeltsin evidently is running for reelection after all. Backs away from his own “Our Home is Russia” party, which is failing in regional elections. Said he might ban CP candidates for Parl who want to overthrow the regime. Says Russia less corrupt than US or Eur

Navy court-martial exonerates the former equal opportunity officer for improper conduct, like sending women his old running shorts

Br’s policy of not charging women over 60 for prescriptions while charging men dec illegal by Eur Court. Will be equalized at 0 at 60, w/retrospective refunds for last 3 mos – an arbitrary limit by gov

House passes $270b Medicare cuts after limiting debate to 3 hrs ($1.5b/minute).

It. Justice Min loses a confidence vote, for threatening anti-corruption magistrates w/investigations

Despite “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Pentagon has no procedure for protecting victims of gay-bashing from being kicked out if they report

10/20/95

Sen. Larry Pressler presses AT&T to drop ads against his bill deregulating communications industry. And CNN, the #2 cable operator, refuses to carry it – proving the need for it.

Senate welfare bill threatens ed. aid to legal immigrants. Not quite a ban, but making them report the income of their sponsors, even though those are under no obligation to pay. Legal immigrants are 10% of Pell Grant recipients – 32.6% in CA, 26.5% NY.

Willy Claes resigns as Sec-Gen of NATO as Belgian parl removes his immunity from prosecution for bribery

Yeltsin now says he’ll leave his foreign minister there for a while, just with his legs cut out from under him

10/21/95

The U Chicago economist who theorizes about rational expectations must give ½ his Nobel Prize money to his ex-wife of 6 yrs who had a Nobel Prize clause in her divorce settlement. I think he should give the prize back. The deadline was about to run out, too.

10/22/95

House votes 332-83 to retain racist differential in sentencing between crack & powder cocaine.

Next month, Miss. stops paying mothers on welfare the $24/mo Gov Fordice is sure they get preggers to obtain. Has begun an experiment in 6 counties in subsidizing employers who have to pay only $1/hr for min-wage jobs which mothers of children over 3 will have to take

7,000 Hong Kongese of Indian origins are not considered Chinese by China, so will be stateless, since Br doesn’t care either

10/23/95

Clinton’s chief pol strategist Dick Morris works both parties & has severely ridiculed Clinton in priv & has advised candidates to attack him

Br, Fr & US to join the S Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, but Fr won’t stop testing nukes there & US won’t stop shipping nuclear weapons around there

NY again the most unionized state, surpassing – Hawaii?? 29% work force 1994, 3.8% SC, the lowest

Now Chirac’s cheap rent is being questioned. It was frozen 1990, and seems to be a corporate rather than pub subsidy

10/24/95

Wilson backs Dole. Doesn’t want to be VP

Latin Amer corruption scandals: Colombian prez Samper, of course, but Ecuador’s VP fled the country, Peru & Guatemala both trying to extradite former presidents, & ex-prez Salinas of Mexico hiding in US. But none of this has led to coups or coups by the civilian incumbents. Corruption is less fashionable than in 1950s when the governor of Sao Paulo state campaigned w/slogan “he steals, but he gets things done.” These days, drugs have bid up the price of corruption out of the means of the ave person

Fr backing Russia’s desire to have a part in Bosnian peacekeeping, say its one zone, while Chirac thinks we might be there 20 yrs. East and West Germany all over again.

10/25/95

Chile finally gets Gen. Contreras into jail, for assassination fo Orlando Letelier, after building him a special prison, giving pay hike to military & a cutoff date for human rights violations

At UN 50th anniversary, Mayor Giuliani had Arafat thrown out of a concert for world leaders. And didn’t invite Castro – who had complained about potholes.

Croatian Prez Tudjman says will take e. Slavonia by force if negotiations don’t get it back by end Nov. Says Serbs were not cleansed from Krajina, they just didn’t want to be in a demo. state. Blamed atrocities on criminals & drug addicts in army uniforms. Right. And given the chance to repudiate it, repeated that 6m Jews not killed in Holocaust.
-Croatia to allow Croats in Bosnia to vote in Croatian parl elections this weekend. They get 12 of 128 seats, ethnic Serbs 3 seats, down from 13. Hungs, Its, Gers, Ukrainians, Czechs 1 each, Muslims none despite having 2X Its or Hungs

Both houses to vote to move embassy to Jerusalem by 1999 (at $100m), but allow prez to delay it forever. Passes 93-5 & 374-37

Philippines Sup Court lets Imelda Marcos get seat in House of Reps

Silly idea of the week: a “civil rights boot camp” for Greenwich CT high school students who snuck a racist slur into the yearbook

Emil Jonassaint, who Haitian military used as puppet, dies. Not only did he think Haiti would be defended from US invasion by invisible voodoo warriors, believed Haiti to be the lost remnant of Atlantis. US wanted Haiti to steal the Philosopher’s Stone. OK, that part’s probably true.

10/26/95

Salvador is helping its refugees in US w/free aid in filing claims for pol asylum. It doesn’t have jobs & likes the $1b in remittances, but gee doesn’t getting help from the persecuting gov rather invalidate the claim?

6 days after Japan surrendered WW2, gov set up brothels for Americans, afraid of rape. So there were c.50,000 Japanese “comfort women.” Gov appealed to them to sacrifice themselves to defend Japanese purity. Soldiers paid 8¢ for a screw & a beer. Only when VD rates up did US dec the brothels off-limits Mar46. At least once, military asked for brothels. American commander in Nagasaki was asked by 7 prostitutes to exempt them from the entertainment tax, since they did not find their work entertaining. The Col. appealed to Finance Min. Japanese gov esp worried about black soldiers. Prostitution was legal in Japan until 1958.

Senate decides not to gut Fed nursing home regs. House still does

Yeltsin back in hospital w/heart problems

Clinton 1996 slogan: never mind!

10/27/95

Croatian military has been advised by a Military Professional Resources Inc which transformed it into an effective force. The comp sent over Gen Vuono, Army chief of staff 1987-92 & Gen Crosbie Saint, commander of US Army in Eur 1988-92. If they gave strategic advise, as opposed to lectures on leadership, they violated the arms embargo. I’d assume they were acting at the behest of the US gov

In Bosnia, Russia to serve in noncombat under the US commander rather than NATO (which Gen. Joulwan also runs there) and, thank God, will not be confined to 1 sector

Gov. Pete Wilson pays Soc Sec taxes on 3 housecleaners

US refuses to respond to Japanese concerns about reports that CIA spied on Jap. negotiators in econ talks earlier this yr

White House, pushing a Sen. plan to screw welfare, suppressed a HHS study that it would push 1.1m children into poverty (House plan 2.1m)

ITN reports violations of arms embargo of Bosnia by US air drops this summer (up till now?). Bosnians now have Stinger rocket launchers, new helmets & uniforms. UN turned blind eye

S Korea’s ex-Prez. Roh Tae Woo admits taking $650m in bribes, well slush fund, but he kept $222m when left office. Both Kims evidently took bribes

10/28/95

Under 3 Strikes in CA, a parolee gets 26 yrs to life for stealing 4 chocolate chip cookies

10/29/95

Srebrenica again. Dutch failed to pass on to UN a threat by Mladic to massacre the Muslims – which he illustrated by having a pig’s throat slit. The US satellite photo of hundreds of Muslims being held at gunpt, & a U-2 photo 2 weeks later showing new graves in the same fields, took weeks to be shown to Clinton. Serbs had been allowed to cut down UN force, allowing Dutch soldiers to rotate out but not in

Russian electoral commission bans Rutskoi’s (speaker of the disbanded Parl) party & Yavlinsky’s Yabloko Party, the leading progressive party, & #2 in opinion polls after the CP, for failing to provide letters from 6 people who decided not to run. There’s no obvious pol reason for this, and Yeltsin in the hospital has the ultimate in plausible deniability. 14 parties have been accepted, inc the Beer Lovers’ Party, so that’s all right

SA indicts 11 military people inc ex-Defense Min Magnus Malan for deaths in Natal 1987

Frank Jordan, running for re-election as mayor of SF, poses for photos naked w/2 DJ’s in his shower

10/30/95

Both of Milosevic’s parents committed suicide

10/31/95

Sup Court to deal w/crack/cocaine disparities in prosecutions (90% black, 3.5% white for crack, 25.9%, white v. 29.7% black for prewar 1994). All 24 crack offenders in LA under fed law 1991 were black. White House says it’s ok because whites were 93.4% of those sentenced for trafficking in LSD, 91.4% porno, 100% antitrust

Elizabeth Dole to step down as head of American Red Cross, but thinks she can take it up again as 1st Lady

Quebec votes 50.6% to 49.4% against secession. Q’s PM Parizeau resigns, after blaming the result on “money & the ethnic vote.” Stronger vote for secession than 1980, and this time got a 60% among Fr speakers. Turnout 93.5%

Leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia arrive in Dayton, Ohio for talks. Milosevic is not arrested for war crimes. Tudjman often says he could do business w/Bosnian Muslim prez. Izetbegovic if he’d sit down & have a drink. The day before, Congress helpfully passed a resolution that the peace talks shouldn’t expect any US troops to enforce a peace, passed House 3:1. And Gingrich refused to return calls from Sec State or nat sec adviser. US says US won’t allow Karadzic or Mladic to run for office in a new Bosnian gov

CIA admits it gave White House & Pentagon info it knew came from people controlled by Moscow during 1980s, crucial to decisions on billion in military spending. CIA decided to protect its compromised sources rather than tell the truth. And since Moscow had Aldrich Ames, could carefully tailor that info

Michigan pushing through plan for what it will do when Gingrich gives them control over welfare. Women would have to work w/in 6 weeks of giving birth or lose benefits. Fathers to lose drivers & pro licenses, etc

Queen Elizabeth in NZ to apologize to Maoris, the 1st such apology to indigenous anyones

September 1995

2006-03-26T05:21:00.000-08:00

9/1/95

Turkey modifies const, removing honorable mention of the 1980 coup from the preamble, allows unions to engage in politics & link w/parties. Allow civ servs to join unions (but not strike), university profs to join parties. Voting from 21 down to 18. Turkey not just wanting to join EU but a customs union for manuf goods to be considered in the fall.

NATO flies 100s of sorties against Bosnian Serbs, starting w/air defence, and artillery attacks gun emplacements around Sarajevo. Bosnian Serbs give control of their side of negotiations over to Milosevic, who has his own agenda, killing the embargo on Yug. NATO only releasing footage of successful raids, on the Gulf War model.

In O.J. trial, tapes surface of a key cop saying nigger 41X, talking about beating up blacks (“who can see a bruise on a nigger”), planting evidence, etc. There’s still no evidence that Fuhrman planted evidence on O.J., but...
-LA police cars were not integrated until early 1960s
-Ed Davis said gays couldn’t become cops because no one could use car radios after they did
-By the way, Fuhrman used to train cops

Fr seizes 2 Greenpeace ships near Mururoa Atoll & 2 divers who breached the exclusion zone

The son of the Slovak president is arrested in Ger for fraud, I believe

9/3/95

Gen. Colin Powell’s book out, and people are still sucking up to him as some sort of “clean” candidate for prez or VP, though his actual views are unknown. It seems Clinton asked him to be VP 1992 & sec state thereafter

Bush is being paid 6 figures by Citibank for speeches in VN & will speak for a week in Japan on behalf of a Moonie organiz

9/4/95

Karadzic says Bosnian Serbs accede to UN demands, Gen. Mladic says not, on removing heavy guns around Sarajevo. Bosnian gov says yesterday was 1st w/out a death in Sarajevo

Dole attacks “intellectual elites” for undermining American values, demands end to multilingual ed.

9/5/95

Fr parl approved const amend allowing president to call referenda on wide range of issues – in effect, anything he wants, since Const Court can’t examine legality. Another mandates ministers’ Question Time

Fr explodes a nuke. NZ recalls ambassador. An Australian MP w/Greenpeace flotilla threatened to surf into the zone. Fr arrest US Somoa’s delegate to Congress

9/6/95

Motor Voter has registered 5m in its 1st 8 mos, several times the normal figure

Bureau of Indian Affairs is supposed to educate Ind children, by treaty in some cases, and by law supposedly at the per-student rate average in each state, but this is ignored by Congress, which keeps cutting budget

Croatia Prez Tudjman last week, referring to expulsion of Serbs: “On this day we can say Croatia stopped bearing its historical cross.”

NATO gave Serbs a bombing pause, then resumed after 4 days. Serbs claim they’re complying, removing heavy guns. Actually moved a few 2 mi., still w/in exclusion zone, to a residential area that can’t be bombed. Gen. Mladic says NATO worse than Hitler

Greece & Macedonia come to agreement to maybe end the 19-mo embargo

Irish PM postpones talk w/John Major, siding w/Finn Fein that arms can’t be turned in before any talks, as Major wants. Bruton is afraid the cease-fire will expire

Hillary at Ch. UN women’s conf spoke loudly about Ch. denying visas, etc. and criticized practices against women common in Ch., but not by name. Admin insisted she wasn’t singling them out. The Ch. failed to broadcast it

Radio Martí is being investigated for trying to fire critics of censorship & bias from Jorge Mas Canosa. Congress quietly amended budget to eliminate those jobs.

Sen. votes to give Pentagon $7b more than it says it needs, mostly in Star Wars, but also blimps

Br’s “low-intensity class war” reaches the Nat. Lottery, pilloried for sending £55m to the Royal Opera House (Sun: “Up your arias”) akin to the revolt over paying for Windsor Castle to be rebuilt from fire, which forced the Queen to pay income tax & allow the public into Buckingham Palace– just rated the worst tourist deal – £8.50 for 15m.

9/7/95

After a few bombings in Paris related to Algeria, Fr asks its citizens to leave Algiers & have done identity checks on 800,000 dark-skinned types, which was not how they said the law allowing cops to ask for papers was supposed to be implemented. Also denying visas to everyone from Alg

Safire suggests the bombing of Serbs didn’t go very far, mostly to vie impression of toughness w/out helping the Bosnians. If we destroyed the 300 guns around Sarajevo, the Bosnian forces might move in, which could annoy the Serbs & encourage hope in the Bosnians, which we don’t want to do. He suggests letting the Serbs know they will lose. They’re offered 49% of Bosnia now, so, since Bosnian gov accepts, that should be 48% tomorrow, 47% in 2 days. Karadzic claims $1b in damages to civilian property. One Pentagon official: “When you’re trying to get someone’s attention, you don’t have to knock out all their front teeth so they can’t eat again.” Eat?

Fr offers to protect Ger w/its nukes. Ger fails to reject it out of hand.

US privatizes compiling of Leading Econ Index

OJ trial falls apart, w/Detective racist Fuhrman invoking the 5th, but not in presence of jurors. Evidently CA evidence law says jury would have had to be told not to imply anything from that. Since when does the 5th protect witnesses in someone else’s case? Jury will be told he is “unavailable” to be confronted by his accused, and they can draw their own conclusions. – State appeals court stops that

Tahitians riot over nuke tests. The move to independence has been given quite a push

R’s in House want to make Endangered Species Act voluntary for priv landowners & reverse Sup Court decision to allow gov to simply ban internat murder of members of a species while allowing its habitat to be destroyed if the costs too high.

Sen. Packwood resigns. Ethics Cmte unanimous for expelling him. (A Tenn. senator expelled 1797 for inciting Inds to attack Fla. & LA, 14 expelled Civil War, and one resigned 1982 over Abscam.) Packwood, who voted against pub hearings, claimed he wasn’t given a chance to confront his accusers, and why didn’t they resign afterwards (because sexual harassment wasn’t even illegal when he started in?). 10,145 pages of evidence released, indicating he wasn’t guilty of “stealing kisses,” but pretty aggressive behaviour. We also see his diaries & the changes he tried to make in them. On campaign finance diversion: “what was said in that room would be enough to convict us all of something.” (One of “us all” was Phil Gramm, then head of R. Sen. Cmte. Gramm to be questioned by Ethics Cmte. “Party-building” money really spent for Packwood, $100,000). And blackmailing people to give his ex-wife a job, shaking down contributors. He said it is the honorable thing to resign. Resigning gives him an $89,000 pension.
-His greatest memory: as chair of Finance Cmte 1986 during tax reform, simply disbanded the cmte & worked it out himself w/his chief counsel over 2 pitchers of beer... Aha!
-Dole wants to keep him on for 90 days to manage R. legislation

9/8/95

Doesn’t get it. Packwood to leave Oct. 1 & until then can vote but not speak or manage bills. & no longer chair of Finance Cmte
-Dole tried to get a little pol mileage from losing on keeping Packwood in 90 days by announcing the shorter date at Christian Coalition meeting. Actually, Packwood is quite religious. His diaries say it was his “Christian duty” to have sex with one staff member.

At that meeting, Dole also bravely came out in favor of kissing up, and Gramm brandishes a pledge to fight abortion that Dole has failed to sign.

The polls indicate that Clinton can’t be beaten by any R. candidate, but can be by Colin Powell (who may be a Republican – who knows?)

Aristide turned over the military building to his Women’s Ministry. 4 of 18 Cabinet ministers are women (inc foreign) & more ♀ running for Parl (fees are now lower for them). But Const says money inherited by a ♀ belongs to her husband, legal code has higher adultery penalties for ♀, lower age of consent (15 v. 18)

Yeltsin says expansion of NATO would “mean a conflagration of war throughout Europe, for sure” & bombing in Bosnia shows how it would act.

NI’s Ulster Unionist Party, the largest Protestant party, picks a hard-liner, David Trimble, as new leader

Turkmenistan & other republics trying to build a 4,900-mi natural gas pipeline to bypass Russia’s heavy-handedness. It wants veto over any energy deal, is blockading Turkmenistan’s gas exports since Nov93, obstructed Azerbaijan oil deal w/W comps, sometimes halted oil & gas & exports from Kazakhstan

Some sort of deal reached in Bosnia, w/an integral Bosnia unless you count a Serb state inside it that seems to be allowed to federate w/Serbia. Sarajevo, Gorazde & how to get Serbs down to 49% are left out

9/9/95

Bosnian Serbs claim NATO hit a hospital w/artillery. Pictures show hits were near, only

Matisse: “An artist must recognize, when he is reasoning, that his picture is an artifice; but when he is painting, he should feel he has copied nature.”

9/11/95

Libya deporting Palestinians & other Arab workers. Also facing an Islamic militant problem, financed by Sudan, like everyone else.

Colin Powell’s autobio says before Gulf War, Dick Cheney asked him to draw up plans for use of tactical nukes – he said no.

Packwood diaries: show him giving a tax bill to Shell as favor for a lobbyist 1989. One lobbyist offering his wife a job said he could double the salary if Packwood was chair of Finance Cmte. He solicited 4 part-time job offers for her form lobbyists or comps w/leg. interests he could inf. 3 days after talking w/lobbyist for Mitsubishi, he changed schedule to attend a cmte hearing & asked q’s identical to those the lobbyist submitted to Cmte staff. Incidentally, Mrs Packwood was more scrupulous than he and turned down all these offers. Aug90 entry says he wanted to retire w/campaign surplus of $2.3m...

Robert Mugabe says gays have no rights. He says it’s a white colonial vice

Russian Parl votes for unilateral lifting of embargo on Serbia, imposing it on Croatia, & firing Foreign Min Kozyrev. Head of CP says military should be allowed to fight voluntarily for Serbs

80+ Alaska native villages have gone prohibition since 1980s, others damp

Budget cuts will force Bureau of Indian Affairs to fire ¼ work force. Sen. cuts budget 15%, though House 3%

Japan going through a re-run of US’s S&L failure. Largest credit union & other banks closed down. As in US, deregulation allowed iffy real-estate loans

Neth. drs change euthanasia rules: drugs should be administered by patient, a 2nd opinion, drs opposed to it must refer patient to one who isn’t. 1,436 cases reported 1994, for whatever that’s worth

Boy Scouts ask Phil Gramm to stop using pictures of them in his campaign

9/12/95

NATO raids on Serbs now inc 13 Tomahawk cruise missiles ($1.3m each). NATO refuses to tell Russia its bombing rules

Sen. 50-48 rejects D effort to provide child care in the welfare bill forcing mothers to work

Clinton refuses to meet Dalai Lama

9/13/95

Wilson is getting a lot of press for being a losing candidate (he just closed down his campaign in Iowa) while other losers like Lugar & Alexander are getting no press. Polls say he’d lose CA to Dole & even to Clinton

Tobacco industry has vastly increased contribs to both parties, but 10X as much to R’s

Mar95 Parl fired Russian Human Rights Commission chair for counting the civilian dead in Chechnya (over 25,000). July95 Yeltsin abolished the commission

Philippines Sup Court allows Imelda Marcos to take seat in Legislature

Georgia gives up on redrawing districts to comply w/Sup Court, leaving it up to panel of judges

House Judiciary Cmte votes to eliminate Legal Services Corp

Bavarian gov refuses to take down crucifixes in schools

Swiss banks, denying existence for yrs, says found $34m – so far – from Jews before Holocaust

Eliz. Dole, president of Red Cross, intervenes unusually to stop explicit AIDS materials, just as Bob Dole sucks up to Christian right

9/14/95

Now on Broadway, a musical about Anne Frank

Sen. R’s working on welfare bill fail to deny benefits to ♀ who have children on welfare & to deny it to teenage mothers

It. refuses to allow Stealths to be deployed in It. by US for use in Bosnia unless it gets greater role in peace talks

9/15/95

Bosnian Serbs claim will w/draw heavy guns around Sarajevo, NATO halt bombing 3 days. This is Milosevic’s proposal – he seems to want to deal w/US, not Eur

Judge imposes prior restraint on Business Week which intended to pub documents in a case in which Procter & Gamble is suing Bankers Trust under RICO, something about derivatives

UN Women’s Conf eliminates clause on discrim based on sexual orientation

Sen. in welfare bill 63-37 voted to reward states for reducing # of illegitimate children w/out increasing abortions

R. Medicare plan backs off from putting major pressure to join HMOs, and inc what David Stockman used to call the “magic asterisk” – future unknown savings to make the numbers come out

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s plea for a new trial is rejected by the old judge

Leona Helmsley had her servants do her community service, so gets more

CA Assembly R’s finally get a Speaker chosen by themselves, following Willie Brown somehow choosing his own successor despite R. takeover. The new one has been in the Lege 9 mos. Outgoing Doris Alan, facing a recall, called her fellow R’s “power-mongering males w/small penises.”

The pull-out of heavy guns around Sarajevo leaves Serbs w/anti-aircraft weapons, mortars, artillery...

UN Women’s Rights Conf says women’s rights should supersede nat. traditions

NATO to compromise on Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Eur, to let Russia keep more tanks & artillery in Caucasus, in case it wants to rape Chechnya again, intervene in Bosnia or violate GA, Armenia, Azer.

9/16/95

DeBeers no longer buys all diamonds, giving up on shitty ones Australia is flooding mkt w/, which used to be industrial but Indians can now cut them into jewelry. Russia has been breaking agreement to sell 95% of diamonds through the CSO, which it just sells the cheap crap

9/17/95

Betty Crocker’s image will be changed by morphing her w/75 ethnically diverse women

Hong Kong leg elections, the last under Br rule. In a low poll, pro-Ch. party is trounced by Dem Party. One hr after polls opened, Ch. announced again it would dissolve the leg

Colin Powell notes that to Pete Wilson the worst problem in the country is that under affirmative action there are 0.8% more black U.C. students, after 15 yrs

9/18/95

A San Diego couple crashed on I10 having sex at 75 mph, wearing neither seat belts nor anything else

Dole to RNC: “I’m willing to be another Ronald Reagan if that’s what you want.”

Philippines agrees to give $100m to victims of Marcos regime, presumably trying to supersede the $1.9b class action suit in Hawaii

9/19/95

NYT & WaPo to give in to demands of the Unabomber to publish his manifesto

Conveniently, Croat-Bosnian military advance bringing it up to the 51% of Bosnia the UN plan would give it. Naturally, US is not happy

Ger deported 7 Sudanese w/medical evidence of torture. Gov says it was operating w/in the law – which is the problem

Labour’s defense spokesman says gov getting data from Fr’s current nuclear testing

Sen. 87-12 passes welfare plan which eliminates AFDC as an entitlement, allows states to not pay for children born to unmarried mothers under 18 or pay for children born under welfare (House version bans both outright. This is the compromise!) A 5-yr lifetime limit, requirement for states to get 50% in work by 2000.

10 states have passed laws requiring compensation to prop owners for environmental laws, 12+ allow comps to get away w/no liability for pollution if they confess 1st. In AZ, people no longer allowed to sue comps & can only sue state if state agrees there was a violation. Oregon allows logging comps to ignore water-quality laws if compliance reduces value of holdings by more than 10%

9/20/95

Egypt has discovered 2 mass graves of 30-60 people, POWs killed by Israel 1967. Israel offers compensation but says there’s a statute of limitations

NATO says Serbs have w/drawn heavy weapons around Sarajevo, so air strikes will not be resumed.
-Croats & Bosnians now arguing over who controls what.
-Sniping at Sarajevo cont.

Here’s a welfare program: one county making recipients take jobs processing catfish. ½ find other jobs 1st. What next: oakum picking?

9/21/95

Bryan Gould, who lost Labour leadership election to Smith, then went back to NZ, has memoirs out. Evening Standard pub a purported editorial attacking Blair by him, but it turned out to have really been by Michael Howard’s 19-yr old son. No newspaper noted the error & all commented on its harshness, not noticing the bit about being 3½ during the Wtr of Discontent

Gingrich threatened to default on debt, shut down gov unless Clinton accepts his agenda on budget

Tomorrow, House will have a whole day of hearings on the R Medicare plan, exc it isn’t done yet. Would double health insurance premiums, esp for affluent old. Would limit malpractice to $250,000 punitive, $250,000 pain & suffering & time limit of 5 yrs. And relax antitrust laws to allow drs & hospitals to form networks to fix prices. And yes that was one day of hearings (24 days Whitewater, 8 days Ruby Ridge so far...) D’s will hold their own on the law [rained out]. R’s learn from Clinton health care plan – have debate w/no details available

House & Sen. agree on Interior budget, inc moratorium on new endangered species, end on mining comps getting ownership of pub lands, reducing money for insulation for the poor, etc etc

House Judiciary Cmte approves plan for nat registry of names of everyone, force employers to check immigration status of job applicants

Sup Court (actually, Stevens) refuses to overturn lower-court ban on Business Week publishing article from court docs

9/22/95

Sen. 55-45, supported by Clinton, votes to give up on Pressler Amend & lift all military & econ sanctions on Pakistan, while getting nothing at all on nukes & when it will shortly hold jt naval exercises w/Iran

The real enemy, of course, is still Cuba. House 294-130 would require gov to reject visas for foreigners who own or benefit from confiscated (post-1959) prop., allow Cuban-Amers to file lawsuits in US courts to seek damages from foreign comps that buy or use expropriated properties – that’s people who were not Amers in 1959. Cut aid to countries giving cheap loans to Cuba or helping it build nuke plants, inc World Bank, etc

Croat military w/drawing from Bosnia, having accomplished goal of est a buffer zone

Fr towns have been banning begging. This is mayors of Nat Front

Clinton, responding to Gingrich’s threat to shut down the gov, accuses him of Welshing on US debts. He immediately lost the Welsh vote.
-But then the lawyer for the Twm Sion Cati – Welsh-American Legal Defense, Ed. & Devt Fund, said Clinton gave only a “left-handed apology.”...

Since 1992 Russian electric types have cut power to military installations that failed to pay bills 16X, inc a flight control center. A Far North nuclear sub base sent in armed sailors. There may almost have been a melt-down.

Time-Warner & Turner Broadcasting merge

Phil Gramm keeps talking about 2nd coming, in a little sucking up to the premillennialists (he’s supposed to be Episcopalian)

Another concession to Russia: expansion of NATO will not entail stationing foreign troops or nukes in e. Eur in peacetime

Malcolm Forbes Jr dec for president as R on a flat tax & sort of gold standard platform

9/23/95

Russian abortion clinics sell fetus cells as a snake oil injection

Chris Patten, governor of Hong Kong, wants ½ HKers to have right of residency in Br

9/24/95

Nat Reconnaissance Office, whose finances never looked at by Congress before this yr, accumulated over $½b in unspent moneys, w/out telling anyone. 1993, it signed a multi-billion contract for ocean-surveillance satellites in defiance of explicit Congressional instructions. Congress w/draws $1b.

Bosnia refuses to participate in peace talks this week, possibly because it’s winning – and has discovered more mass graves in recaptured territory
-Croatia w/drawing refugee status from 100,000 Bosnians & sending them home

Israel-PLO accord on transferring parts of W Bank, which will be divided in 3: Israeli, Palestinian & mixed, w/pullout of Israeli troops starting in 10 days. Elections will wait on complete w/drawal which will wait on building of roads connecting Hebron settlements – at least 6 mos, more if they use Caltrans

When Henry IV was crowned, the archbishop anointing him found head lice

Henry VI, the infant king’s regency council gave his governess authority to spank him, in his name

9/25/95

Jesse Helms blackmail of foreign policy has frozen 400 State Dept promotions, 30 ambassadorial nominees, 1 asst sec, over a dozen treaties. 15% embassies have no ambassador. He wants reorganiz of State Dept. He has closed down the Foreign Relations Cmte

Just as fed gov turns powers over to states, term limits mean legs have record # of freshmen. Recently Alaska, Colo, LA, OK have restricted length of session. Some have ltd staffs, or little pay ($100/yr in NH), some no limit on gifts. Texas leg get $7,200/yr & meet every other yr. Changes in Medicaid would require vast tax increases requirement in R plan to get 50% welfare into jobs would require job training & child care, but some states can’t raise taxes

Since 1990, over 22,000 Soviet Jews went to... Ger, doubling its Jewish pop. They’re afraid of Israel. And 60,000 more have applied to come

R’s want to turn over some IRS debt collection to priv businesses, giving them access to taxpayer info. They’ve bene cutting IRS budget, which should increase uncollected debts, already over $150b. Some states do this.

9/26/95

Czar Nicholas II & family, identified by DNA tests, to be reburied in St Petersburg Feb96

Ex-It. PM Andreotti on trial for Mafia connections

Perot to est new party

Fr joins US, Ger, Belg, Denmark, Norway, Sw in banning export of antipersonnel mines

The Br book price agreement collapses after a century

Quayle Museum gets grants from Institute of Museum Services. They say it’s nothing like the NEA

Draft in Bosnia for new, silly, gov form, w/a new collective presidency, 1/3 Serb, a Parl, 1/3 from Serb territory, votes vetoed by 2/3 of the Sers, 1/3 or 2/3 of the 2/3 Bosnian/Croat & similar in presidency. Good luck

9/27/95

S Korea ends ban, centuries old, on marriage to people w/same last name (1/5 are Kim).

House Judiciary Cmte voted to restrict family reunification immigration to the nuclear family, excluding grown children unless financially dependent – but it is impossible under IRS law to claim a non-citizen as a dependent

CIA internal review board recommends firing Latin Amer division chief & former station chief in Guatemala, & discipline/demote 10 more, for shielding suspect agents for human-rights abuses in Guat. [This happens.]

China stops nuclear reactor deal w/Iran

Ch. refuses invitation for Clinton to meet Prez Zemin. Ch. wanted a formal state visit w/21-gun salute & all that shit

Russian state tv kills Solzhenytsin’s tv show. Low ratings, they say.

Thanks to e-mail mistake, Gingrich’s threat to the cmte chairmanships of 3 R’s on Agric Cmte if don’t acquiesce on his cuts to farming subsidies

Eur Court of Human Rights says Br unlawfully killed 3 IRA members 1988 in Gibraltar. No compensation ordered exc legal costs. 2 had hands up, 1 was lying on the ground. Br gov may ignore it, Labour supports it

On day Gulf War started, Br Airways allowed a plan to land in Kuwait. It did so because Br put commandos on it in London. Iraq seized the jet & passengers as hostages for 3 mos. 61 are suing

Sen. Mitch McConnell snuck an amend into foreign aid appropriations w/out a vote to w/draw MFN status to any nation not backing sanctions on Burma, banning travel there & imports, etc. He will w/draw it now that he’s caught

9/28/95

Serb Gen. Mladic arrests officers he blames for losses – allegedly under inf of Yug.

9/29/95

At end of 3rd (!) round of voting in Haiti, Aristide’s Lavalas Platform won vast majority of seats

The Israeli-PLO agreement says no Israeli to be arrested by Palestinians

Clinton gives in to Helms on restructuring State Dept, freeing up ambassador nominees & treaties & such

The law says prez candidates must identify occupations of those contributing over $200. Clinton has failed 48% of time. R’s also fail miserably

Japan finally gets to arrest 3 US servicemen for kidnapping & raping a 12-yr old girl on Okinawa. Under the occupation, Japan was not allowed to do so until charges filed

Pete Wilson pulls out of 1996 election, blaming a late start (compared to what?) because of throat surgery

9/30/95

Rabin complains that US Jews lobbying against the peace plan

US allows Fr to fly DC-8 supply planes across US, possibly w/nuclear material, to use in its nuclear tests. May be helping w/computer tests too

Ch. says it did not cancel nuclear reactor deal w/Iran, just suspended it

Dallas school board member talks of ignorant “little niggers” {Update 10/5 – resigns]

Rep David McIntosh (R-Indiana) admits forging a document allegedly from Alliance for Justice (civil rights coalition). R’s want to make groups that get fed money limit use of their own funds for lobbying, legal briefs, etc. McIntosh et al demand groups detail for the Cmte their revenue & spending. They refused, inc the Alliance, & McIntosh’s aides released fake figures (they say real) under Alliance letterhead

August 1995

2006-02-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

8/1/95

Westinghouse buys CBS, Disney buys ABC (Minnie Mouse + Roseanne = ?)

Over nuke tests, Australia bans a Fr comp bidding to supply jet fighters. Fr recalls ambassador.

Fr peace-keepers claim Bosnian gov is doing some of the sniping at its own civilians

Senate Ethics Cmte will not hold pub hearings on Packwood, will release the papers (eventually)

Clinton & Dole give welfare reform plans to Governors’ Conf. Clinton is ordering HHS to approve state welfare “experiments” that require work, limit time, require minor mothers to live at home, force child support, subsidize priv employers. Dole wants block grants w/no legal entitlement & no strings on the states, inc requirement that they spend anything

Before election, Gingrich said Susan Smith’s infanticide was the Dems’ fault. He hasn’t said anything about her having been abused as a child by man on exec cmte of Tenn. Repub Party & Christian Coalition

A 1923-6 KKK list for Nobbsville, Ind. shows up, but cty historical soc is keeping it secret, though no one on the list is still alive.

NATO extends air protection to all safe areas in Bosnia, not just Gorazde
-House 298-128 passes end to embargo that’s 2/3+ in each house

8/2/95

Sen. 52-48 rejects Boxer’s attempt to force pub hearings on Packwood
-After saying how complete the record is (and after winning the vote), they note that they overlooked 2 allegations of sexual misconduct (20 total now). Packwood also altered evidence & tried to get lobbyists to find a job for his ex-wife to reduce his alimony

Ch. expels 2 US Air Force officers caught spying. They were held all through a meeting w/Warren Christopher, who said nothing

Colombia’s defense minister resigns. As campaign manager last yr to now-President Samper, he solicited contribs from Cali Cartel. Says Samper ordered it @ plea bargaining

8/4/95

Speaker Newt’s book says one day drs will perform operations by modem in Bombay. Will be a great export. Pete Wilson no doubt would like it as allowing Mexicans to pick our crops & clear our houses by modem from Mexico.

House votes 215-206 to allow states to ban fed Medicaid funds being used for rape & incest abortions (there are laws or consts against this in 36 states but White House directive has overridden. 52 R’s & 40 D’s switched sides.

But House did not kill Title X family planning

Spending bill amends in House also to overturn Clinton’s exec order against using contractors who hire been perm. scabs for strikers

Oddly, OSHA will get an increase of $48.5m, while Clinton was only asking fora $34m cut. But would reduce 1/3 for investigations & enforcement & ban standards on ergonomic protections

Bosnian Serb General Mladic admits ordering the Bosnian Army commander at Zepa executed

R’s in Senate voted to spend $300m on missile defense that would violate ABM treaty. $34b down since 1984 on Star Wars

CA Sup Court says a biological father of a 4½-yr old could not reclaim kid from adoptive parents, but had to have come forward immediately – before it’s born; must show commitment as soon as know of pregnancy

Clinton exec order bars fed gov denying security clearances based on sexual orientation (as 8 agencies no longer do) or for having had psych. treatment. And will require greater financial disclosures by people w/clearances

House 305-117 votes to deregulate phone & cable comps & let either enter the other’s field, deregulate ownership limits, rates. Require new tv’s to inc V-chip. Senate already passed a similar bill 81-18. Clinton threatens to veto it as anti-consumer

Croatia in major offensive against Krajina, shelling hq Knin. US not objecting v. loudly

Phil Gramm (some time ago): “We’re the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat.”

Age of consent is 12 Neth., Sp., Port., Malta, 14 in Slovenia, Iceland, Montenegro, Serbia, It., Albania & sometimes Ger

8/5/95

Croatia takes Knin.
-Karadzic tries to fire Gen. Mladic, who refuses to go.

8/6/95

18 generals say they will only take orders from Mladic. But Parl backs Karadzic. Generals, inc Mladic, have much closer relations to Belgrade
-Serbs fleeing Krajina

8/7/95

Senate 1930s passed resolution against “inhuman bombing of civilian populations.” State Dept said it violated internat law

Internat Herald Tribune will not fight the $678,000 libel judgment in Singapore. Wimps.

Of 6,588 accidental deaths on the job last yr, 6,067 were men. 1/3 of the female workers were victims of homicide. 20% of total were highway accidents, homicide 16%

Sen. 50-44 votes to let Fed health insurance for fed workers cover abortion only for rape, incest, mother in danger. House would only have latter. Voted 49-41 against doing it when dr. said it was medically necessary

NYT 8/7/45: “Where it landed had been the city of Hiroshima; what is there now has not yet been learned.” War Dept called it the Cosmic Bomb

Mar92 Clinton promised to reimburse gov for tax deductions he took for interest actually paid by Whitewater. It took him 22 mos to do so. Almost all the Clintons’ Whitewater investment was deducted as interest, much of which he wasn’t entitled to

Br Home Sec Michael Howard claims UK takes 160,000 refugees from Yugoslavia. Actually has given full status to 25, of 11,000 applicants

8/8/95

A band of bank robbers in Italy keep being arrested & then released because they have AIDS. 10 banks now

R’s want to limit nonprofits’ lobbying & meeting w/gov officials. House leg. passed would limit organizs getting any fed money to spend more than 5% of their total budget on all these activities, inc court cases

1994 Fr passed US as largest arms-dealer to 3rd World, tripling from 1993 to $11.4b. US declined from $15.4b to $6.1b. Fr now 45%, US 24%

Croatia admits responsibility for deaths of 3 UN peacekeepers & using Danish peacekeepers as human shields during attack on Krajina Serbs. Croatia assaulted 65 UN posts. A soldier arrested for the shield thing. But reports of shelling of Knin prove to have been over-stated. 120,000 Serbs flee

Justice joins suit against CT’s large institution for retarded, claiming Americans w/Disabilities Act requires de-institutionalization, since it’s supposed to mainstream disabled

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s execution is stayed

Ch. arrests a campaigner for war reparations from Japan. Ch. dropped such demands when est relations 1972

Clinton exec order for comps w/fed contracts to comply w/current disclosure laws on chemical emissions even if R’s gut them.

Rep. Thomas Bliley, echoing Jesse Helms late last yr, says Clinton would need “a good security detail” to go to NC, evidently because outraged smokers would get him

Sen. backs 1-yr moratorium on listing of endangered species

Serbs fired at Croats from w/in column of refugees from Krajina, provoking a firefight

NZ taking Fr to World Court over nuke tests. This is reactivating a 1973 case where an injunction was issued over atmospheric tests. Fr ignored it

8/9/95

Libya to buy uranium from Kazakhstan. Libya has no nuclear reactors.

Efraín Ríoss Montt is banned from running for prez of Guatemala (Nov95). His wife will run.

Clinton to let FDA dec nicotine an addictive drug

US says spy photos show mass grave in Srebrenica. The Muslim male pop. has not been seen since they were rounded up last month.

5m under control of criminal justice system, 3.5m of whom on probation or parole. There are 6m. college students

8/10/95

House quietly killed the 20 death penalty resource centers & their 190 lawyers. If there is a requirement to provide lawyers, this just means appointing more expensive priv lawyers

2, maybe 3 of Saddam Hussein’s daughters, & their high-ranking husbands, defected to Jordan w/many senior army officers. US says it will protect Jordan from retaliation

Clinton proposes to ban, by regs, cigarette sales through vending machines or anything other than by clerks checking ID. No sales of indiv cigs or small packs, advertising at sporting events or on t-shirts, ads w/in 1,000 ft of schools & playgrounds, limit ads in mags w/young readers to black & white text & no pictures, & make them spend $150m/yr on anti-smoking. Clinton plans to continue smoking the odd cigar, but he won’t inhale. He says cigars are not a problem w/kids (sometimes a cigar...)

Norma McCorvey of Roe v. Wade fame is baptized by Operation Rescue & no longer supports abortion

A witness comes forward & says Abu-Jamal did not short the cop. His lawyer only met the witness for first time today, but Judge Sabo insisting he go on stand at once

Fr will now back comprehensive nuclear test ban – when it is quite done. And wants no low-yield explosion (say 4 pounds) loophole like Br, Russia & Senate R’s want. Latter voted $50m for such tests for after the treaty is in effect

Serbia to stick Croatian Serb refugees in Kosovo.
-Red Cross says Croatian planes attacking refugees.
-Yeltsin threatens to lift sanctions on Yug. unilaterally

8/11/95

INS 1994 had 82,000 immigrants detained. Of 10 INS detention centers, 5 contracted out (one no longer after riots in NJ) & rented beds in cty jails. Ave length of detention 11 days 1976, 26 in 1994, but this inc Mexicans caught & held just a day or 2. Some have been held for yrs. They are considered civil detainees & have no right to lawyers or to be free of cruel & unusual punishment. Those caught at borders (inc airports) are defined as never having entered US, so have no basic rights, but evidently can be jailed here. This dates to RR 1981 policy to use detention to discourage Cuban & Haitian boat people. 1989 extended to all applicants for pol asylum entering through Texas. No longer a short-term measure against flight risks w/pending cases, now ideological. Anyone w/false papers are excluded from pol asylum cases at entry interviews at airports. “Criminal aliens” are mostly drug possession. For ex., a legal perm resident here since age 4 did time for heroin possession, suddenly yrs later ordered deported by ex post facto law (1988?). Those who object can spend yrs in detention – longer than orig. term – pending. INS custody is always indefinite. All “aggravated felons” – which is continuously widened, inc the heroin possession – must be detained & deported. INS profits on phone calls, say to lawyers, while paying $1/day. The Texas facility sexually molested female detainees. (Village Voice 8/8/95)

Another sexual complaint against Bob Packwood, a minor

FBI suspends 4 for the Randy Weaver shootings (his wife & dog) 1992. An official was suspended last yr for destroying documents. And FBI refused to turn files over to the US Atty prosecuting Weaver

Politicians troop to Ross Perot’s United We Stand America convention, inc all R candidates & Jesse Jackson & everyone else

Clinton will (finally) accept perm ban on all nuke testing (unless it’s really important for us to do it). He follows Fr in wanting no small-yield exemption. Russia wants tests of up to 10 tons. Note that Clinton ran away from chance to announce this on 50th anniversary Hiroshima

Serbs are expropriating homes from ethnic Croats & Hungarians, in Serbia, for refugees from Krajina
-Clinton vetoes (his 2nd veto) ending of arms embargo

More on Mumia Abu-Jamal: His request for a lineup was denied. His appointed lawyer didn’t interview some defense witnesses before the took the stand. And white jurors met & deliberated in absence of the 2 black. Judge Sabo threw a defense lawyer into jail for arguing too long & another fined $1,000 for returning evidence photos to the bench too slowly.

Pete Wilson sues himself (the state) to stop minority set-aside contracts

8/12/95

The son-in-law of Saddam Hussein who used to run nuclear program says in Jordan he will now work for Saddam’s overthrow

Japanese PM expresses regret for treatment of Br prisoners, then next day has to say that he did not apologize, which would imply compensation

8/13/95

Iraq admits having not disclosed all info about nuclear program – and conveniently blames one of the defectors

Serbia is not accepting refugees of male-fighting-age

8/14/95

For fiscal reasons, LA Cty disbands the prosecutors who investigated shootings by cops. There is no civilian review board

A sort of business civil rights group est. Transparency International, about corruption. Cleanest is NZ, then Denmark, Singapore, Finland. More corrupt Indonesia, Ch., Pakistan, Venezuela, Philippines, Brazil, India, Thailand, It.

Italy has a weak rape law, from 1936, and some not-so-weak rapes. A proposed bill would increase sentences & allow women not to press charges. Currently, rape defined as a crime against pub morality, not indivs

Tex. Governor James Ferguson 1917 vetoed a bill to teach foreign languages: “If English was good enough for Jesus...”

Dissident Scientologists put its secret scriptures on-line. Churchies spend thousands for them. One text is part of a fed case

Karadzic accepts that he can’t fire Gen. Mladic, who last week he said was certifiably crazy

8/15/95

Greenpeace protests Ch. nuke testing – in Tiananmen Sq. Arrested, of course. 8 foreign journalists made to write statements of self-criticism for attempting to cover it

Air Force will end chances of promotion for 7 officers involved in shooting 2 helicopters over Iraq, killing 26. Previously they were only reprimanded, & some had since been given awards & choice assignments

The Stalker Affair over. Stalker was the Manchester deputy chief constable who investigated 3 incidents Nov-Dec82 when RUC anti-terrorist unit shot 6 unarmed men to death, wounded another. Police accounts were lies, as one constable admitted on trial. When Stalked seemed actually to be doing his job, and demanded recording from an MI5 bug of one of the shooting sites, they went after him through friendship to a businessman, Kevin Taylor, who they bankrupted, but could not put in jail. He sued Man. police for malicious prosecution. Gov produced a Public Interest Immunity Certificate, so much abused in recent yrs, to keep truth of its shoot-to-kill policy & attacks on Stalker out of the public, and he had to settle for c.£1m in June (or July)

Labour is committed to only 3 bills: a Freedom of Info Act, devolution in Wales & Scotland

8/16/95

US to pay $3.1m to Randy Weaver & his daughters. This after failing to convict him for murder of a fed marshal. Incidentally, the summons they killed his wife, son & dog for not responding to was sent to him w/the wrong date

Colombian Prez Samper dec state of emergency to right crime through decree. Oddly, he was done quite a bit against the Cali Cartel, who definitely paid for his campaign, as his voice on tape indicates. The ex-defense minister who ran his campaign is arrested.

Bosnia prevents Rapid Reaction Force deploying to central Bosnia or flying its helicopters

Israel renews authority of secret services to torture in interrogations – after Atty Gen bans shaking

8/17/95

Virginia now requires parents to help teachers discipline their kids or face $500 fine. Most sign copy of school regs, or face a $50 fine.
-MD fines parents $100/day for truancy, Tenn. $50 for skipping I guess homework

Bermuda referendum on ind finds 74% against

Fed grand jury indicts Clinton’s business partners in Whitewater for fraud, conspiracy etc in getting fed-backed loans. That’s the McDougals & Gov. Tucker

Initiative 651 in Wash. state to allow casino gambling, financed by slot makers on behalf of 3 Ind tribes, to pay every one who votes, either way, c.$100/yr

Study finds weedkiller in drinking water in Mid-West exceeding fed safety standards. House recently voted to eliminate monitoring of drinking water & loans to purify such water

Ch. tests nuke. Even Fr objects

8/18/95

A mother had Norplant implanted in her 11-yr old daughter who had been repeatedly raped by her stepfather, and did not call the police. Both were arrested

UN to pull troops out of Gorazde “safe area,” to be defended in future by... air strikes. Coincidentally, a new US plan would have Bosnia give up Gorazde

Shannon Faulkner, who fought for admission to The Citadel for 2 yrs (was accepted on basis of application which omitted her gender), forced them to spend millions on lawyers, programs for women anywhere else, and a women’s room, quit after less than a week

8/19/95

US special envoy to ex-Yug. & 2 other State officials get killed in Bosnia, going off a road, down a hill, onto mines. That’s the entire brain trust behind Clinton’s Bosnia policy, which is a terrible thing to say about anybody.

8/20/95

To help the French capture Carlos the Jackal, CIA hired a terrorist who participated in 2 bombings that wounded Amers.

Zaire expelling Rwandan refugees into Rwanda

A retired Israeli general admits killing unarmed Egyptian prisoners 1956, actually sees nothing wrong w/it. He will not be tried. There is a 20-yr statute of limitations for all but Nazi war crimes. And a reporter says in 1967 he saw Egyptians forced to dig their own grave & shot. Rabin says everyone should shut up

8/21/95

Now Russia goes after the Spitting Image show w/tax & currency charges

S Korea releases the world’s longest-serving pol prison, Kim Sun Myung, after 43 yrs, 10 mos. The army executed his father & sister for his having joined NK army. Other NK sympathizers are released, but some are not
-NK seized a SK ship bringing it rice relief on charges of spying. NK had asked Japan for rice, but SK demanded Japan not give any unless it could too

D of Energy now says 16,000 were used in radiation experiments, inc retarded, mental patients, prisoners, children. Some given lethal doses

Regents pick as UC President a UCSD chancellor who once paid $250,000 to settle a lawsuit w/a woman he persuaded to have an abortion by pretending he would have another child w/her

Navy Sec intervenes to allow a helicopter commander who refused to go to Haiti because his relig beliefs opposed going into combat w/women (allowed from 1994 to fly combat missions) to remain on active duty, over-ruling review board

Slave labor in El Monte, CA. 72 Thais held in sweatshop, and INS didn’t bother to investigate, because the people who them weren’t citizens

The reason we don’t knew of Mumia Abu-Jamal’s gun was even the same caliber as the bullet was that the bullet was lost. But the ME’s measurement made it too large for Jamal’s gun. Also the trajectory didn’t accord w/the prosecution’s case. Judge Sabo this time has quashed 20 defense subpoenas

14% of women in Br jails are there for failure to pay television license

8/22/95

NY mayor Guiliani has been saying that school system needs to copy the Caths. And NY school board gets a new member, from Staten Island, a homophobe, who brings all the skills of a man in Guiness Book of World Records for singing 96 hrs in a bathtub, who promised Cath-school parents he would not let thugs from the pub schools hurt their babies

Trial in Kosovo, 64 ethnic Albanian ex-cops jailed for trying to separate Kosovo from Yug.

The Philadelphia police have been seriously lobbying for execution of Mumia. One cop videotaping demonstrators was told “You’re sweating like a nigger” by the capt. in charge of Conflict Prevention & Resolution Unit. He has lost that job.

Yeltsin allows the 1st gubernatorial election since he lost the Dec93 Parl election. The 1st, his home state of Sverdlovsk, where 2 yrs ago he dismissed the governor. That man easily beat the stooge he put in 2 yrs ago, 2 to 1, in the 1st electoral outing of Yeltsin’s new Our Home is Russia Party. The stooge complained that the election was imposed on him (like he was on the province!), the elections were “imposed and politicized.” Yes, that’s what an election is.

Iraq admits having had germ warfare program much further along than previously admitted, before the Gulf War. W/Scuds armed w/bio agents

Ger’s Const Court overturns Bavarian law requiring a crucifix in each classroom

Last week UN expanded use of bombing to protect Bosnian safe areas. Today, fails to respond to barrage of Sarajevo. Reason: it was a response to Bosnian attack on a Serb ammo factory. UN thus equating a military action w/mortar, shell & rocket attacks on civilians

8/23/95

Aide to Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski threatened EPA budget if it adds to Superfund a plant dumping dioxin into fishing waters

Chicago Congresscritter Mel Reynolds convicted of sex w/a 16-yr old. He replaced anti-white, anti-Semite Gus Savage

8/24/95

WHO calls Zaire’s ebola outbreak over, 2/244 known dead

ABC as a corporation settles a lawsuit by Philip Morris by apologizing to it for reporting that tobacco comps spike their cigarettes w/extra nicotine. But this is a corporate decision, & ABC news stands by it

Ch. convicts Harry Wu, sentences him to 15 yrs, then expels him, making it possible for Hillary Clinton to go to UN Conf on women there. R’s have been criticizing her (though not George Bush, who is going there himself)

Soviet Georgia gets new Const, restoring post of President (since the coup that put Shevardnadze in, it has been Head of State, a sort of generic prez), max. 2 5-yr terms

8/25/95

Harry Wu says he’d be pissed if her going is part of a deal or I guess vice versa.
-Naturally, Ch. detaining dissidents in preparation for the Conf
-Hillary will not mention Ch’s human rights abuses while in Ch.
-Ch. has been shooting off missiles near Taiwan for days, by way of intimidation

Br to offer early release to IRA convicts, after serving ½ rather than 2/3 of sentence

After it invaded Kuwait, Iraq embarked on crash nuclear program, & loaded botulism & anthrax on 200 bombs & warheads

Wisc. Sup Court stops plan for Milwaukee to give vouchers to parochial school parents

Justice Dept changes method of questioning to determine number of rapes, by actually specifically asking about it, and the figure doubles to 310,000 rapes or attempteds 1992-3. This is its survey of 100,000 to find extend of unreported crime. And now 80% are by rapists known to the victim

Report says many women involved in Rwanda massacres

The head of Haiti’s Fraph para-military movement, who snuck into US before anyone noticed, is saying he shouldn’t be deported to Haiti because he’s running for president of Haiti as “the voice of the silent [silenced] majority.” Gee, then you’d think he’d want to be in Haiti

8/26/95

Croatian Prez Tudjman calls on Croats living abroad to return to re-populate Krajina. He says Serbs are also free to return, but army has been systematically burning down Serb houses

8/28/95

Dole campaign returns $1,000 from gay Log Cabin R’s. Claim they took it by mistake in June, but in May wrote the group asking for money. Evidently, courting the Christian Right has also made him stop attending the United Methodist Church

In last 7 yrs, % of women in all nat legs declined ¼. Highest in Scandinavia, Iceland, SA (above 25%). US ranks 43 of 106 (10.9%). Total 11.3%, was 15% 1988

Fed judge overrules the Wash state sexual-predator law, which kept people in jail after their sentences, allegedly for treatment

Gingrich wants mandatory death penalty for drug smugglers & mass executions – 27 or 30 or 35 at once. Explicitly, he’s referring to mules

In last yr, since Clinton gave up on health care, 1m have lost insurance. 43.3m

Ch. to ban demonstrations against Ch. gov during UN Women’s Conf. Other demos must be in designated areas, out of sight of Chinese

Episcopal Church to hold heresy charge of a bishop for ordaining a gay deacon. 2nd such charge of a bishop in 206 yrs. Said Communism had superseded Christianity

Regional governor of Vladivostok region Yevgeny Nazdratenko, while the city turns into Mafia center w/frequent car bombs, says democracy is bad. Yeltsin had to call of election for the job after Nazdratenko tripled signatures for candidates to disqualify all opponents & then turned off electricity for last 4 days of the registration drive during prime time tv hrs. The former mayor was thrown out after N’s associate the tax chief accused him of corruption. The tax chief has been arrested for fabricating the charges, but the mayor is not restored

Israel closes 3 PLO gov offices in Jerusalem

Clinton last mo. signed law requiring timber sales from pub lands, allegedly to prevent fires, but mostly in non-threatened areas

Mexican Zapatista rebels hold referendum of 1m. (they say), 60% saying they should become a legal party

Since no one noticed when Pete Wilson 1st announced he was running for president, he launches his campaign again, at the Statue of Liberty, which shows some gall

Speaking of which, NY will expel illegal immigrants, starting now w/86 Colombians. Unlike Florida, which commutes, NY will give early parole, before the normal min sentences, to drug dealers & drug users, mostly w/not coming back to NY a condition of parole. And unlike Fla., this was negotiated w/Colombia

8/29/95

Switz. orders its banks to return $½b from Marcos accounts to Philippines, w/Phil. courts deciding whether gov gets it or the 10,000 victims who won a class-action suit in US

60 NATO planes bomb Serb positions around Sarajevo. Bosnian gov says it won’t participate in peace talks until artillery around Sarajevo is destroyed. Peacekeepers are out of Gorazde, so no hostages. State Dept: “We don’t want the response to be commensurate, but we don’t want it to be disproportionate either.”

San Antonio State District judge in a divorce case orders mother to speak no Spanish at home, only English, to do otherwise is child abuse & he can remove the 5-yr old if she “doesn’t do good in school”, and it would relegate her to being a housemaid. He later apologized... to the profession of housekeeping. Like a Norman Lear pilot – Archie Bunker as a Texas judge – stifle in the court!

Australia is now an Asian country. High school students must study Ch, Korean, Japanese or Indonesian. This is one reason it is reacting so strongly to Fr nuclear tests 4,000 mi. away, in which the gov is following the people

Census Bureau says immigrants 8.7% of pop, 22.6m, of whom 4m illegal. 25% CA. Doubled since 1970 in %. Highest since 1940, but historic high was 1910, 14.7%

Ch. harassing UN women’s conf. Thousands or hundreds were denied visas. Police searching people & rooms

Sierra Club trying to block the new logging law, invoking NAFTA. The law exempts some logging in nat forests from environmental leg. NAFTA prohibits this because of fears Mexico’s lax environmental laws would give them unfair advantage

R’s actually increased by 29% an Ag Mkt promotion program which helped comps advertise abroad, inc McDonald’s & mink sellers
-And $6m for logging roads

8/30/95

Labour’s all-women shortlists to end after next election, says Blair, conveniently if undemocratically too late for deadline for resolutions for Oct. party conf. Only apply to ½ the few seats where a Labour MP retiring & ½ marginals not held by Labour – sure, give them the marginals

W/end of apartheid, Armscor never stopped acting as a covert agency, selling arms secretly to Yemen & Rwanda, hiding it from gov. They have now been reined in, will need permission. And no exports of landmines

Fr says its nuke tests will go ahead, on a date unspecified, whether there are protest boats in the area or not.

8/31/95

Voice of America, its funding cut, wants to get commercial sponsors for its entertainment programs & run commercials

50,000 law enforcement officers questioned on whether they attended the “Good Ol’ Boys’ Roundup,” a racist meeting. The questionees are not to be told the consequences of not answering.

Blue Cross in Ohio & perhaps elsewhere, disguised secret discounts given by hospitals, for which customers supposedly paying 20%.

Ark to execute a retarded man who fell asleep during the clemency hearing. The only evidence was a videotaped interrogation in which he seemed to be prompted by others

Sup Court 1972 said non-unanimous juries ok, down to 9-3. Only LA. & Oregon have them

July 1995

2006-02-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

7/1/95

Yeltsin’s gov survives the confidence vote, though a majority did not support the gov. 193-117-48

7/2/95

NYT’s coverage of the Sup Court black district decision replicates the court’s racial assumptions. It notes that GA’s D. Reps are black, but fails to observe that the R’s are white. Blacks are ethnic, whites universal. One might also ask, if race has so little salience, how it is possible to create a geographic black district

64 of the 72 R’s in House new in 1994 are anti-abortion

Those 4 Tory Euro-rebels who had the whip removed last yr got it back w/no conditions. The Tories simply cannot afford a by-election, so there is no threat

7/3/95

After failure of Clinton’s health plan, states gave up on their efforts too. Uninsured rising – 40.9m early 1994. Employees added insurance for 2m 1994, dropped 4.5m spouses & children. A fed law protects self-insured businesses from state reg – now employing majority of workers – preventing other states following Hawaii to force employers to insure (Hawaii was grandfathered).

John Redwood: “Brussels should let some sleeping dogs lie & learn that you cannot harmonize the dachshund & the Eng. bulldog by cross-breeding.”

R. budget plan for 2002 passes both houses. Tax cuts go into effect only in CBO certifies the overall plan will lead to balanced budget, but only in 1st yr...
-1/3 of spending restraints are in Medicare, but R’s made sure there will be no separate vote on that in House.

Sup Court now has no activist left, but a conservative one, (Breyer, Ginsburgh, Stevens, Souter) arguing for precedent, while right is now activist. Court dec 4 fed laws unconst this term (129 over previous 205 yrs). Down to 82 ops, lowest since 1955-6

1984 W Eur had 100,000 asylum applications 1992 693,000, over ½ in W Ger. Then changes were made... W Ger says countries that signed Geneva Convention could produce no refugees – all the countries on its border. So asylum applications are way down, 40% Eur, 60% Ger. 1984 the acceptance rate was 42%, 1993 8% (4.6% Br 1994). But only 20% actually leave, the rest go underground. Many countries sanction airlines or have “international” areas in their airports, at which refugees are detained, then deported

Br releases after 4 yrs in prison a soldier serving “life” for shooting a joy rider, a teenaged girl. Another pawn in the Tory leadership campaign. Riots erupt in Belfast, demands for release of IRA prisoners. A member of the Life Sentence Review Board resigns in protest. Only 2 soldiers ever convicted of murder NI, both released early, while no IRA or loyalist murderers released before 10 yrs

7/4/95

Chechen leader Dudayev offers to resign if Russia recognizes Chechen ind.
-Yeltsin issues decree for perm stationing of military units there

Major wins 218, Redwood 89, of 329, meaning 1/3 did not support him. Thatcher failed to endorse Major.

7/5/95

Hong Kong already censoring itself, w/papers undercounting an HK demo commemorating Tiananmen, mentions of Taiwan being deleted from new school texts, etc

House wants to deny funds to states that don’t mandatorily test newborns for AIDS. Jesse Helms trying to reduce fed money for AIDS victims because their revolting conduct responsible for it. Helms of course being Mr. Tobacco Subsidy.

Br gov reshuffle. The right does not do well, though Portillo promoted to Defense, more for loyalty than ideology. Heseltine, ditto, made deputy PM, whatever that is Malcolm Rifkind advanced from Defense to FO, Hurd already retiring. Employment & ed. are combined. Chief Sec to Treasury & general embarrassment Jonathan Aitken leaves gov, presumably to fight his many libel suits full time. Virginia Bottomley demoted from Health to Heritage.
-All the Tory papers called for Major’s ouster. Oops

7/6/95

There was supposed to be a Conf of the States. After a dozen states had decided to participate, the ludicrous far right decided it was a secret plot to impose a One World Gov, lobbied legislatures, and killed the conf, the Nat Governors’ Assoc gave up. It was alleged to be a clandestine Const conv. Both the conf & the loonies are now really into the 10th Amend, which 15+ states have recently passed resolutions to assert their sovereignty. Colo leg told Fed Gov “as our agent, to cease & desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.” OK resolution 1994: “The United States Congress is hereby memorialized, to cease any support for the establishment of a ‘new world order’ or to any form of global government.” State Senator Don Rogers of CA blames gov for OK City bombing, ditto Charles Key, State Rep OK

Maureen Dowd says that a Republican Party which wanted a new Reagan instead has successors to Nixon, nasty prunes all. Indeed, Dole, Wilson, Lamar Alexander, Pat Buchanan, Richard Lugar, Arlen Specter all worked for Nixon or with him at some pt

Yug. has been rounding up Serbs from Bosnia & Croatia, some refugees but some migrants of long duration, 1000s of them, and impressing them into Serb armies. This might be the quid pro quo for the release of NATO hostages.

Yeltsin’s new Interior Minister is the general who was commander in Chechnya. What the hell is he thinking?

7/7/95

London police chief (?) says most muggers there are black. Home Sec Michael Howard says he is right to focus on race

Paris owns luxury apts. Some are occupied by the new PM Alain Juppé, his ex-wife, half brother, son, etc. at low rates. Ditto 2 children of the new mayor, Chirac’s successor

Serb shell almost gets the UN mediator

Greens hit 10% in May elections Rhine-Westphalia, while Free Dems dropped out of parls there & Bremen

7/8/95

Chirac & right now have 80% seats in Nat Ass, 2/3 Senate, 20 or 22 regional councils, 4/5 dept councils, most big towns. Chirac himself only got 20.8% in 1st round; the lowest under this system, and the only to win 2nd round w/out ½ the vote (what do we make of 6% blank ballots?)

7/9/95

A couple of profs think Queen Victoria was illegitimate, given that there was no hemophilia in her alleged ancestors. The Duke of Kent had never had children w/his mistress of 20 yrs, so...

Fr storms Rainbow Warrior II w/commandos, 10 yrs to day after bombing of RW I

US infant mortality declining but white-black gap growing. Blacks 17% live births, 33% infant deaths 1992. Overall, 7.9/1,000

7/10/95

Ch. arrests Harry Wu, Ch-American former dissident who writes of prison labor use, and has US passport, for espionage, as he snuck in to do more of same (evidently the fault of 60 Minutes, which didn’t like the picture quality on his film last time).

Hospitals complain that HMOs more frequently refusing to pay ERs

Armenian elections not counted yet, but 9 opposition parties were banned, opposition members on election commission prevented from counting ballots, etc

India now keeps 300,000 army & police in Kashmir, w/searches & shoot to kill orders. Army besieges town of Charar Sharif, then evidently burned it down. Those who ran Kashmir for India before 1990 are in exile in New Delhi or elsewhere

Crown Point, Ind. sells advertising on its police cars – inc for a Funeral Home

6 states this yr allow concealed weapons, 25 total relaxed regs

Golden Gate Bridge approaching its 1000th suicide. They won’t give out the number, given the competition to be #500 in 1973, when tv stations had cameras 24-hrs a day & one clown was stopped w/a “500” t-shirt. The oldest was 87, youngest 5. One note: “Absolutely no reason, except I have a toothache.” A cop once stopped one with “Come down or I’ll shoot.”

UN warns Bosnian Serbs not to attack UN position in Srebrenica. 30 peacekeepers detained. So they’re just shelling it to death. UN refuses to use word hostage

Br Cabinet (see also 7/5/95): Stephen Dorrell to Health, a privatizer. Sir George Young, transport – owns a bike. Ian Lang trade & industry, Brian Mawhinney, chair of Tory Party. Most of the winners (Lang, Rifkind, Mahwinney, not right or left – and no personal power bases. All but 1 are in 40s or 50s.
-The right wanted Major to rule out a single Eur currency forever, which Major refused, though it’s pretty clear he won’t. And EU reform is shelved effectively until after next Br election

Clinton joins R’s in attacking violence in the media, endorsing proposals to require a chip in TV’s to screen out programs

7/11/95

Burma releases Aung San Suu Kyi after 6 yrs house arrest following her election

Serbs attack the Dutch UN troops guarding Srebrenica despite the threat. The commander calls in air strikes, but was over-ruled because the Dutch seemed to be doing ok. Serbs give 48 hr ultimatum for UN troops to leave

Tories up to 10 local councils in Br (all still in England). The 2 new ones since the election being from “independents” joining Tories. There were many “inds,” actually Tories who preferred to be known as anything else: farmer, retired tobacconist, etc

Serbs take Srebrenica. 20,000 flee. There were, finally, air strikes, hitting 2 tanks. More strikes stopped when Serbs threaten to kill Dutch UN hostages. Srebrenica was a UN “safe area.” Serbs claim it was self-defense, that Bosnians launched raids from Srebrenica – they are doing UN’s job for it, demilitarizing the area

Clinton gives full dipl recognition to VN
-There are 2,202 MIAs in all SE Asia, 1618 VN. Korea 8,170, WW2 78,750
-Dole threatens to block funds for an embassy, and an ambassador

7/12/95

May 15 referenda Belarus approve econ integration w/Russia, Russian as state language, and allow president to dissolve Parl. Prez Lukashenka has fired 4 newspaper editors. Russian customs officers are now working on Belarus’s borders w/Poland & Lithuania. But planned monetary union failed 1994 because Russia didn’t want to pay for it. Nor to subsidize its oil use as before

The Union of Rabbis for the Land of Israel, which inc the former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, says soldiers must refuse orders to hand bases in W Bank to PLO

Haiti: Aristideites do v. well in 1st round of Parl elections, which was so incompetent it will have to be rerun in 20% of places

7/13/95

Clinton says 1st Amend “does not convert our schools into religion-free zones.” To send guidelines to schools that relig expression – distributing lit., relig t-shirts, praying, carrying Bibles, etc. allowed in same way as other speech acts. Of course relig is not the same.

House cmte investigating Waco brought along NRA experts to examine remains of Branch Davidian weapons

Serbs ethically cleanse Srebrenica, expelling 30 or 40,000, then preventing Red Cross aid to feed them. They have separated out & retained military-age men. Boutrous-Ghali says negotiation still the only way, says there will be no more air strikes

FDA says nicotine is a drug that should be regulated, but passes buck to Clinton & proposes only new limits on ads & curtailing sales to the young

Project Censored 94: 1) failure of gov to inform workers exposed to asbestos, silica, uranium. Only 30% of workers at 258 sites identified by OSHA in 1984. And the backlog is growing
2) Council for National Policy [some conspiracy theory]
3) DOD pays contractors to merge under a Clinton plan. For ex, $330m to Martin Marietta to buy 2 subsidiaries of other comps
4) EPA ignores reports that incineration is dangerous, producing dioxins, which accumulate in the food chain like DDT
5) Clinton retreat on ozone. Actually asked DuPont to cont. making chlorofluorocarbons for car air conditioners after they had agreed to stop
6) Radiation experiments on humans kept secret, and reports ignored by press since 1971
7) industrial fishing fleets waste 60b. pounds of fish/yr, w/small fish & those not legally fish thrown out
8) Lack of response to resurgence of TB
9) Pentagon’s High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project in Alaska, to beam 16 watts of power into ionosphere for no obvious reason
10) media & crimes against women

7/14/95

Closing of military bases was taken out of politics, given to a commission, to be accepted or not en toto. Clinton says it is “an outrage” to CA & Texas, but he’ll accept it. 20,000 jobs to be lost in CA

August 17, Mumia Abu-Jamal to be executed in Penn. Ex of Black Panthers & a journalist who condemned Philly police violence to blacks. He allegedly shot a cop. Judge refused to let him represent himself, appointed a reluctant lawyer & expelled Jamal from the court for long pers. Only 2 witnesses claimed to see him, one a prostitute w/charges pending (then dropped) & someone on probation. Witnesses who saw someone else running away not called. 2 cops, friends of the victim, claimed Jamal said he did it – and then they kept silent for mos. Another cop who was there & logged that J. made no statements was given vacation during the trial

SA: the bantustans managed to ring up huge debt before being re-merged
-100s of 1000s of black areas are finally getting electricity & phones
-The 4 biggest corps – AAC, Sanlam, Rembrandt, SA Mutual, own 76% J’burg stock mkt
-Gov has promised 10 yrs of schooling for every child & to equalize spending by 1999. 1993 ¼ black teachers had the min. qualification, 100% white. Money for equalizing will come at expense of the universities & higher tuition in U’s

Gingrich calls for nat referendum on drugs. Either legalize it or execute drug dealers

A man who punched his girlfriend in the mouth is ordered to marry her

Wash. state governor Mike Lowry settles a sexual harassment suit out of court for $100,000. It is getting no publicity

Speaking of slime, Barbara Boxer wants pub hearings on Bob Packwood and will attach it to a bill if the ethics cmte doesn’t vote w/in a week. Ethics Cmte chair Mitch McConnell threatens a reprisal in form of hearings on Chappaquiddick.

Republicans think it’s D’s keeping God out of the classroom. Actually, he’s afraid of getting shot.

B-2 stealth bombers, $44.4b for 20 of them inc R&D, and R’s want 20 more, have radar that can’t distinguish rain from a mountain, can be detected, and fail tests

FBI demotes its new (May95) deputy director Larry Potts over the 1992 shooting of Randy Weaver’s wife & dog in Idaho. Shoot-to-kill orders were issued & documents destroyed, possibly to cover Potts’ role. The incident is an extreme-right-gun-nut-militia-survivalist fringe. And the R Party will hold hearings on it

7/15/95

Serbs going after Jepa next. UN trying to keep heavy weapons from Bosnians who want them back. Bosnian gov refusing to take responsibility for the ethnically-cleansed from Srebrenica, saying it’s the UN fault & responsibility. Serbs keeping relief out of E Bosnia

7/16/95

Tony Blair accepts a junket to Australia from Rupert Murdoch

7/17/95

Bosnian gov was v. unhelpful about Srebrenica refugees, refusing to make schools & other sites available, insisting they be left at the airport for PR reasons.
-Bosnians grabbing weapons from peacekeepers in the other “safe areas”

In House, cmtes, which used to be free of partisanship, now not. Judiciary sends out its Const amends unamended. Debate & witnesses are for show now. Partly this is because Newt picked the chairs, which D Speakers did not. Things like changing procedural rules midway through a debate, limiting debate to 10 mins per amend on Interior appropriations – inc future of NEA, NEH, ban on offshore drilling, gutting Endangered Species Act

New Whitewater papers (hearings to start again) says James McDougal shielded the Clintons from paying for its losses. Clintons’ tax return does not show the loss, but by 1992 Whitewater was public & spin control extended even to 1040s (also, they’d never have to show the documents that prove a loss). While the Clintons claim not to have known Whitewater was failing, they did know that taxes & loan interest were often delinquent. This is from RTC report of the $200,000 in losses, Clintons paid $43,000, not ½

R’s may try to abolish Selective Service, $20m/yr. Clinton wants it retained

USIA now requires aliens on J visas (visiting scholars, researchers & such) have corpse repatriation insurance

Ch. complaining that India allows the Dalai Lama to have a birthday party

There will no longer be any American tv’s. Zenith is selling out to Goldstar. Actually it did almost no manufacture in US

Chirac recognizes Fr’s responsibility for fate of Fr Jews. Mitterrand just blamed Vichy, said Fr not to blame. By the way, Fr never returned the prop it confiscated from deported Jews

NRA person pretended to be a House cmte staff member investigating WACO

Gingrich 1st says we should recognize Taiwan & then, after a phone call from Kissinger from Beijing (wonder who paid), said he was just trying to rattle Ch’s cage & didn’t really mean it.

Russian prosecutors going after the Spitting Image-type puppet satire. Prosecutor-gen. says he was ordered to do so, but won’t say by whom. It is under law forbidding pub insults to dignity of the state

7/18/95

Gov. Wilson in favor of non-majority verdicts in juries, esp for capital cases

Yeltsin had a heart attack last week, and the gov faked photos of him to “prove” he was ok. The admission is 8 days late, and is probably because the fakes convinced people he was dead or something.

Sp: Gonzales finally calls for new elections, after losing support of Basques, who were none too thrilled to be associated w/corruption & abortion liberalization

House Judiciary Cmte votes to illegalize a form of abortion, “partial-birth abortion,” which is always done late term to save mother’s life. Would allow the father & I believe grandparents to sue the dr.

7/19/95

Zepa seems to have fallen. Bosnians threatened to use Ukrainian peacekeepers as human shields if there were no air strikes. Serbs threatened to kill its UN hostages if there were. Bosnian foreign min says the UN mission in Bosnia is over. They esp want Ukrainians out. The commander of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Zepa evidently joined the Serbs (the gov says)
-Bosnia says if Dole’s bill to lift embargo passes, it will demand UN w/drawal w/in 24 hrs
-Fr plan to reinforce safe areas rejected by US, which might have to do something. Br referring to the plan as Dien Bien Gorazde

House 235-188 forbids fed employees’ health-care plans to cover abortions unless life in dnager

7/20/95

House Appropriations Cmte votes to kill a program even RR & Bush supported, to give family planning advice to poor ♀
-And ban fed funds for research using embryos

Sp: former gen sec of Socialist Party in Basque says he talked to Felipe González about hit squads. He is on bail for a kidnapping by death squads – he admits his involvement

House fails to kill Ch’s MFN status, but demands a Radio Free Asia

The Carter Center says Haitian elections were so fraudulent that 2nd round & reruns should not be backed by US w/out changes

Sen. Judiciary Cmte approved amend allowing states to ban flag desecration. Howell Heflin & Dianne Feinstein support it

Serbs will detail all males in Zepa aged 18-55 as POWs, ads did in Srebrenica. Killed many in latter. Have been luring Bosnians out disguised as UN

1st fruits of Br merging Ed. & Employment. Gillian Shepherd wants disruptive students to be put to work – at 14

7/21/95

UN Human Rights Commission criticizes Br asylum laws & repeal of right to silence

NATO says this time, really, will bomb the shit out of the Serbs if they attack Gorazde. US, which has no one on the ground, says hostage-taking won’t stop us. Control to be removed from UN’s Akashi to the (British) commanders of UN force

UC Regents end affirmative action for admission & hiring. Wilson put a lot of pressure on his appointees to overrule the UC President & all 9 chancellors. Wilson is now getting the national publicity he wanted.
-1994 UCB’s Asian admissions had GPA of 3.95, whites 3.86, Hispanics 3.65, blacks 3.43.
-Actually, fed law requires affirm. action in staff & faculty if get tax money, so that part is void
-There will be preference based on socio-econ. & the phrasing of this section is insulting as hell, saying will only take those w/the character to overcome their environment, as if affirmative actioners did not
-The vote was taken in private, in violation of Brown Act

7/22/95

When Ger re-unified, all E Ger officers colonel & up fired. Only 10,000 professional soldiers remain, inc 3,500 officers, 1/10 of Bundeswehr’s officers. If serve in E Ger, paid 20% less & all reduced in rank (E Ger had a higher % of officers)

7/24/95

House kills $2m subsidy for mink fashion shows abroad 232-116

Report by Inspector-Gen of USIA says Radio Martí is being run by Jorge Mas Canosa, broadcasts lies, attacking Clinton’s admin policy while trumpeting Mas’s opposition. The news director, now transferred, took dir orders, punished those who disagreed w/him

Japanese upper house elections. Lib Dems do rather badly, Socialists lose many seats. Lowest turnout by a long shot, 43%, indicating distaste for politics

Gerry Adams says had secret meeting w/NI sec Sir Patrick Mayhew last week to break the impasse in talks

Alabama, under Fed threat, to stop forcing rape victims to pay for gathering forensic evidence from their bodies. This was common 10 yrs ago

Of new 1994 Congresscritters, 215 never before held elective office

In 1990, Wash. state passed law allowing it to keep rapists in prison after their sentences served. They call it civil commitment, and there are 31 currently under it. Essentially, after saying they’re sane & need prison sentences, they decide they’re not & require treatment. The state Sup Court allowed this

7/25/95

On proposed execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His appeal is being handled by the original judge, who has refused to recuse himself. Judge Albert Sabo has handed out twice as many death sentences as any other judge in US, 31 total, 93% to non-whites, and has a 34% reversal rate for errors such as in this case, not defining mitigating circumstances to jury & telling them he’d have “appeal after appeal” whatever their decision – actually Penn. has mandatory death for killing a police w/out mitigating circumstances. He allowed prosecutor to claim a main witness, the one on probation, had no motive to lie. Jury not told the .44 bullet could not have come from Jamal’s .38. Prosecutor cross-examined Jamal on Black Panther membership (Sup Court said same on an Aryan Brotherhood was a violation of 1st Amend)

On behalf of Somozistas who acquired US citizenship, US (i.e., Helms & Toricelli) pressuring Nicaragua to compensate those whose properties confiscated

Russia has its very 1st hostile takeover attempt, failed

7/26/95

US closes its 1st ever consulate, in Bordeaux (1790)

US is 18th in maternal health, behind Taiwan & Singapore. Death in childbirth or pregnancy is 5,669 in US, 1/17,000 Italy, 1/7 Mali

Since the decision ot claim to protect Gorazde, Allies fighting about “dual key” NATO + UN control. Boutrous-Boutrous Ghali refused to give up his control until today. Now delegated to UN commander
-The Fr seem to have made an unauthorized bombing run on Karadzic’s house in Pale in retaliation for 2 more Fr soldiers killed (42 all told). They did it w/out UN permission. If they did it.
-Internat Criminal Tribunal for ex-Yug. indicts Karadzic, Mladic & others for genocide. Also leader of Croatian Serbs, Milan Martic
-Senate votes 69-29 to lift arms embargo. Clinton threatens to veto this, which he promised when running for prez. Just a bare majority of D’s voted against. All 4 R. prez candidates voted for. Actually, would only end after UN troops w/drawn. Or 12 weeks after Bosnia requests same. And Clinton could ask for 30-day waiver during w/drawal
-Serbs used gas at Zepa

Gingrich’s 1st “Corrections Day” to be twice per mo, to eliminate supposedly non-controversial regs by a 60% vote. Passed a perm exemption for San Diego to pump sewage into Pacific from Clean Water Act. Which EPA already gave them for 5 yrs.

Sen. votes to require more lobbyists to register under the 1997 law which hasn’t been enforced since the 1950s. Not so sure about a ban on gifts & free meals for themselves

Alabama’s leg., unanimously in both houses, allows teachers to paddle students

W Ger businessmen have been using tax breaks to buy up & close, or loot, competitors in E Ger. W Ger retailing chains refusing to stock E Ger products. W Ger banks deny loans

Singapore court orders Internat Herald Tribune to pay $214,000 each to Lee Kuan Yew & his son & $250,000 to the PM, for saying there were dynastic politics in Singapore. No one was named, but the court thought the libelees were obvious...

Amnesty Int is accused by researchers leaving it of being more interested in getting reports out fast, in reaction to CNN & competing NGOs (Human Rights Watch is moving up) rather than getting info right. US branch is contracting fast, ¼ in 4 yrs. And it’s quoted by the media a lot less, too

7/27/95

The Japanese are so paranoid about germs that Pentel sells pens w/barrels impregnated w/antiseptic chemicals & ATMs iron & sanitize bills

In June, Tories lost Scottish by-election at Kinross to SNP, today lost Littleborough & Saddleworth to LibDems, incumbent Tories coming in 3rd. Tories have not won a by-election in over 5 yrs. Majority now 9. Somehow the Tories see a recovery

Australia’s Northern Territory allows drs to assist suicide of terminally ill. 2 drs, 1 w/background in psychiatry, 9-day cooling-off per. 1st area

Steel workers, auto & machinists’ unions to merge w/in 5 yrs. 2m members

Serb Gen. Mladic says Serbs wouldn’t rape Muslims because “we are too picky.”
-Bosnian gov keeping reporters from Zepa refugees, who probably feel as betrayed as Srebrenica refugees did.

Ch. releases tape of dissident & new US citizen Harry Wu allegedly disavowing his BBC documentaries about prison labor & sale of organs from prisoners. He didn’t actually say that, though. They are now also charging him w/embezzlement & raping students when he was a professor. Ch. tried to *sell* the tape to W media.

7/28/95

9 days after Oklahoma City bombing, N Mexican Gov Gary Johnson met & praised reps of militias. Militia reps in Congress: Helen Chenoweth of Idaho, who complained to asst Ag Sec about “black helicopters” enforcing Endangered Species Act. Said she’d be the sec’s “worst nightmare” unless it stopped. Texas’s Steve Stockman in March warned Janet Reno not to raid militias – he claimed to know of plans for such a raid. He’s the one who wrote in Guns & Ammo that Clinton staged WACO to build support for assault weapons ban – the Reichstag theory. Said Clinton should have indicted Reno for “pre-meditated murder.” Sens. Larry Craig of Idaho & Lauch Faircloth of NC wrote Reno about reports of training at Fort Bliss of fed law enforcement agencies. Also watch for Council of Conservative Citizens, the successor to Citizens’ Councils & ties to David Duke, supported by Trent Lott, Miss. Gov. Fordice. And the Gun Owners of America.

VN joins ASEAN. So what’s the point?

Alabama, which reintro chain gains & striped uniforms for prisoners, now reintro breaking rocks. The original purpose, roads, is breaking rocks. 10 hrs/day. Will also ban coffee exc on Sunday, no cable tv, free stamps or the $1/mo allowance

Sen. 98-0 changes rules on gifts from lobbyists & others. Rule, not law, so voluntary, indeed only calls for good faith effort to comply. Would forbid senators & aides taking gifts or meals worth over $50 or $100 total from any person in a yr. (though gifts under $10 don’t count). No free travel to recreational events

R’s fail 212-206 to attach provisions to EPA budget to ban it enforcing wetlands rules or air pollution from oil refineries, cement plants that burn toxic wastes, etc etc. But will cut budget by 1/4 [reversed 7/31]

Despite Harry Wu’s “confession,” Warren Christopher reaffirms 1-China policy, says US will not put sanctions on Ch. for missile technology sales to Iran & Pakistan & offers a summit meeting, but fails to give in to demand never to let Taiwanese PM into US

Croatia joins Bosnia war, relieving besieged Bihac & capturing 3 towns held by Serbs

More than ½ in Fr Chamber of Deputies are majors, most have at least 1 local gov post. Mitterrand was mayor of Château-Chinan in Burgundy for 22 yrs. Since 1985 banned from holding >1 other elected post (EMP, mayor or town over 20,000, on regional or dept council, etc). A minister (ministers must resign as deputy) can hold 2 such posts

CA leg votes to kill local rent control (upon vacancy)

The UK Boundary Commission made its recommendations June 6. Chaired by a High Court judge, other 2 members appointed by gov, but results wouldn’t give Tories more than a few seats. Scottish min is 71 seats, Wales 35. 2/3 of seats have been changed, some eliminated, inc that of Norman Lamont, though total would rise from 651 to 659. The changes mean some Tories are jostling each other looking for safe(r) seats. Scotland, Wales & NI have own boundary commissions.

7/29/95

In EU, among 25-29-year-olds, more women than men have higher ed. degrees (but not in Br, Ger, Luxembourg)

7/31/95

Eva Péron died 1952. When Juan Peron overthrown 1955, the military seized her body. It was stored in a major’s attic until he shot his wife, then secretly buried her under a false name in Italy. 1971 coup gov got Péron’s blessing & gave him back the body. He kept it in an open casket (the preservation is Lenin-style) on the dining room table. His third wife Isabel combed the hair every day. 1974 a guerilla group stole coffin of one of 1955 coup leaders, demanded Eva in exchange, didn’t get it. 1974 brought back to Argentina by Prez Isabel, lay in state until she was overthrown. The military buried it under 3 plates of steel.

A Yugoslav Airlines 727 goes to Romania 3X a day, going empty & coming back w/only... a full tank of gas – enough to fill 3 MIGs. UN monitors give official reprimands to the Romanian fuel truck driver & customs inspector. 3X a day. Romania claims this is untrue. This is possible because May95 Yug. was allowed to resume commercial flights $ sealing border w/Bosnia. There are also many new gas stations right on the border – a 15 mi. bit of road by a fishing village which smells more of gasoline than fish, has more gas stations than Bucharest.

Poll says 63% wanted Susan Smith, who killed her 2 children, executed (she got life).

New hearing for Numia Abu-Jamal, by the same damned judge. “Objection is over-ruled, whatever it was.” He has sustained almost all prosecution, almost no defense objections. He walked out while a defense lawyer was talking. He has interrupt to talk about a swimming pool from 70 yrs ago. The original lawyer had $2,000 for all experts – thus no ballistics was ever done on Jamal’s gun.

During WACO hearings, an NRA lawyer was put in staff section

Article on new popularity of religious books mentions “Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership” (in Business Week best-seller list) & “101 Uses for a Dead Angel.”

Russia & Chechnya have a military peace agreement (cease fire, turn in weapons, etc) w/out a pol settlement at all

White House strategy on Whitewater hearings: blame former counsel Bernie Nussbaum. “I’m taking the heat and a good lawyer often takes the heat for a client.” Ah, the Ollie North thing of blaming the prez while pretending to throw yourself on the sword.
-So far hearings indicate that White House was rather high-handed in interfering w/investigation into Vince Foster’s suicide

June 1995

2006-02-02T02:26:00.000-08:00

6/1/95

Ukrainian President Kuchma wants a referendum on whether the people trust him or Parl. Parl refuses the idea

Headline: “Space Shuttle Is Grounded By Lovesick Woodpeckers.”

Turkey pissed at Greece for ratifying Law of the Sea Treaty, which would allow (not require) it to double territorial waters to 12 mi., much of the Aegean

Pete Wilson exec order to kill all the affirmative action he can legally get away w/killing, reduce goals, abolish advisory cmtes

6/2/95

Serbs shoot down a US fighter, the result of having wimped out of destroying SAM missiles moved in last Dec.
-Serbs release 120 UN hostages, carefully saying it is on Milosevic’s orders. And take 61 more.

A judge removes a 15-yr old deaf girl from 2 parents who failed to learn sign

6/4/95

Clinton u-turns on Bosnia after a full 3 days. Will probably not send US troops, only to help a stranded NATO force, not just to reconfigure.
-Bosnian Serb Gen. Mladic says no more hostage releases or info on the downed US pilot unless NATO renounces air strikes forever. Meanwhile, shelling in Sarajevo killed 4. Actually, no jets have flown since the plane was shot down

Nicaraguan Pres. Violeta Chamorro in const fight w/Nat Ass which passed const changes transferring taxes to leg, banned draft & guaranteed prop. rights & banned Prez running for re-election or being succeeded by a relative (her son-in-law). She refused to promulgate the amends, Nat Ass did so and added 5 new Sup Court justices, which Chamorro refuses to acknowledge

US Rep Jack Metcalf (Wash.) ran on tough-on-crime platform. Hired prisoners to call voters & ask them to vote for him.

6/5/95

Willie Brown, who somehow hung on as speaker of CA Ass. after D’s lost majority, now chooses a Rep woman as his successor winning w/all D. votes & her own. She is known for a motorcycle helmet law Willie will urn for mayor of SF

Sup Court 8-1 says that time spent in halfway houses or treatment ordered as part of bail agreement, even if it is 24-hr confinement, does not count towards fed sentences

6/6/95

SA Sup Court abolishes death penalty. This is the 1st major ruling of the new body DeKlerk & the Nats are not happy

6/7/95

Serbs release 108 UN troops, still hold 149. Bosnian Serb tv says they were assured of no more NATO air strikes.
-Pentagon said it had gotten electronic transmissions from the downed pilot’s beacon – esp brilliant to announce while Serbs looking for more hostages
-Clinton’s current position should be esp reassuring to NATO allies – if they are trapped, he will help them if Jesse Helms gives permission, says Thomas Friedman

Japan expresses, well, not an apology, more like reflection/remorse, for WW2, but recalling a context of aggression & colonialism. This was a major pt of contention w/in the coalition. Ex-foreign min Watanabe said Korea “harmoniously” agreed to be occupied 1910

Br high court allows military to exclude gays
-Labour just out in support of gays in military

Justice Dept gets Philip Morris to stop putting ads in ball parks w/contracts to ensure television

Clinton Admin opposes flag burning amend, though Clinton tried to get a state one in Arkansas. Passes out of House Judiciary Cmte on party lines – the 3rd const amend it has passed this yr (balanced budget term limits). Note the use of the religious word “desecration,” to be defined by the states, as is “flag” (although Rep Jack Reed, D-RI, help up a catalog and argued that if underwear was a flag in one state, it should be a flag in all states.

Australian MP announces his plan for a republic by 2001, the centennial of the Union, but wants Parl to pick the president. Referendum to come

Leak from Br Scott Report says Tory leaders, esp then Foreign Min Wm Waldegrave, misled Parl on arms sales to Iraq

House on largely partisan vote defeats a repeal of War Powers Act 217-201 (172 D’s & 44 R’s against repeal, 178 R’s + 23 D’s for). Clinton showed no pub support because of fears Bosnia would make him look like a war-monger. Right.

Sen. passes the terrorism bill 91-8 w/all nasty provisions intact inc expedited deportations, limiting death row prisoners to 1 appeal in 1 yr, allow State Dept deny visas to “terrorist” groups, stop citizens contributing to what Clinton calls terrorist groups, put terrorism under RICO

Clinton vetoes his 1st bill, a recission of the existing budget. He talked about pork, rather than strongly defending the environmental, welfare, etc programs, just ed.

Argentina wants to buy Falklands from its inhabitants, paying upwards of $100,000 per person to vote to transfer sovereignty

Clinton welcomes Barbara Jordan’s Fed advisory panel on immigration’s report to cut immigration by 1/3, eliminate preferences for siblings & adult children, cut refugees in ½, and intro a nat i.d.

6/8/95

The downed US pilot in Bosnia is rescued

In a foreign aid bill Clinton will veto, House 318-99 approved amend to end arms embargo against Bosnia. It would slash foreign aid, exc to Israel, force US to recognize Tibet as a state

NJ to force welfare recipients into HMOs

Admin refuses to join the case against Colorado’s anti-gay measure

Police depts in Orange Cty & Florida (until Fla. Sup Court stopped it) manufacturer & sell crack cocaine in reverse strings of buyers

6/9/95

And SA Const Court bans whipping for children. There were 36,000 1992

White House rejects Bosnian plea to lift arms embargo – Clinton would veto a bill to do what he promised to do before the election

Br & Ch agree on a final court for Hong Kong after ind, replacing the Privy Council. But it could not deal w/“acts of state,” vague enough for Ch. to make it mean anything

Russia & Ukraine come to agreement, again, over the Black Sea Fleet. They split it, Russia buys up to 82%

In Br, a man is sentenced to life for raping another man. Until last yr, the max charge was indecent assault, max 10 yrs

6/10/95

Prince Charles takes sons fox hunting

In 1789, at 22, Andrew Jackson swore allegiance to Spain. He did business in Natchez (now part of Mississippi).

1994 elections the better-off ($50,000+) voter turn-out up to 60.1% (59.2 1990), those under $5,000 down to 19.9% from 32.3%, $5-10,000 from 30.9 to 23.3%. Whites 46.9% (about same), blacks 37% (39.2 1990, 43.2 1988).

Military to cut back on treatment of AIDS. Claim military medicine is intended to promote a state of readiness, so prevention is more important than therapy. This is 3 weeks after a House cmte passed Robert Dornan’s proposal to discharge troops w/HIV

Hispanic workers at INS sue it for discrim

6/11/95

The Chilean secret police chief still not serving his sentence for Letelier assassination now living in army barracks

America’s new hero: Scott O’Grady, who lived on bugs awaiting rescue after being shot down by Serbs. Bosnian response: hey, that was our lunch!

6/12/95

Sup Court 5-4 disallowed a Fed court plan making Missouri pay for magnet schools & salary increases for teachers in black districts. The lower court had reasoned that there were not enough whites to desegregate the district, so they should be tempted in voluntarily. Justice Thomas is “amazed” “that the courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominantly black must be inferior.” The theory that “segregation injures blacks because blacks, when left on their own, cannot achieve” is based on “a theory of black inferiority.” Separate but equal lives. Court also rejected the lower court basing continuing need for plan on low test scores

And by same 5-4, Sup Court says fed affirmative action programs must be “narrowly tailored” for a “compelling governmental interest,” which evidently doesn’t inc expanding opportunity. Scalia & Thomas would have ruled that affirm. action can never be justified. Thomas says there is a moral & const equivalence between laws to subjugate & those to make equal

Berlusconi wins referenda on tv ownership, 57% voting against limiting anyone to 1 station. He used his monopoly of priv tv heavily to advertise against, an indication of why it was needed. Even seems to have won a referendum on limiting commercial breaks during films. More bizarre than voting on commercials is voting for them

Fr: Nat Front of Le Pen does very well in muni elections, coming 1st in Nice, Toulon & others

6/13/95

Fr planning to resume nuclear tests in Sept. & stop forever May96. Mitterrand stopped them 1992

On little notice, Clinton gives his detailed long-term budget plan to the nation on tv in a 5-minute speech. By 2005, the budget would be balanced. Being Clinton, his opening position is a major concession. Defense (and ed.) not to be cut, but discretionary spending to be cut 20%. Medicare will be reduced through elimination of fraud, waste & abuse, intro of HMOs. Will still have tax cuts & child tax credits

Br gov admits a comp sent arms to Iran because gov too stupid to notice. Minister Jonathan Aitken was on the board of the comp

Clinton announces new post of liaison to gays & lesbians – a straight woman, of course. When gay officials came to Exec Office Building to meet officials, the guards were wearing rubber gloves

Serbs releasing more UN, but will retain 15
-As new rapid-reaction force of 10,000 to go to Bosnia, UN still thinking about what to do w/them & US wants delay

6/14/95

Japan est a priv contrib fund for WW2 “comfort women”

Muslim loonies get an Egyptian court to annul the marriage fo a professor of Arabic lit. at U Cairo for being an apostate. She did not want annulment.

Hubble Space Telescope discover Kuiper Belt, a comet belt that encompasses Pluto’s orbit

Clinton budget speech (Republican Lite) interpreted by many D’s in Congress as Clinton betraying the party for his own career. Their own attacks on R’s have centered on defending Medicare, but Clinton offers $124b reduction by 2010

Bosnian Army (now 90+% Muslim, by the way) massing near Sarajevo. US wants them not to, continuing policy of tacitly supporting the Serb siege of Sarajevo.
-Yug. computers maintaining Bosnian Serb air defenses, which shot down the F-16, but US Defense Sec finds no evidence of illicit supplies we all know damned well are going from Yug to the Bosnian Serbs

Sen. 84-16 votes to censor the Internet, putting penalties on explicit or “filthy” material & harassing communication of the sort allowed in letters. Oh, the fines are for material on a computer network accessible to minors.

Sup Court 8-1 allows a judge to take into account in sentencing evidence of other drug crimes not yet charged, & still have another trial on those charges. O’Connor says it is not double jeopardy, because taking evidence into account to increase a sentence is not a punishment. And no one said anything about reducing the orig sentence if not convicted at 2nd trial, either.

Uzbekistan’s referendum on extending presidential rule to 2000 March 26 approved by 99.6% of the 99.3% who voted. “No” meant going into booth, “yes” meant dropping an unmarked paper in a box

6/15/95

Tony Blair’s wife, a barrister, once asked a court to send a poll tax defaulter to jail. Tony tried to get the Ind on Sunday to drop the story

Nation of Islam hired as guards by a Dallas mall stripped & flogged 4 boys

Chechen forces take a town in s. Russia, Budyonnovsk, taking many hostages

Bosnians trying to lift siege of Sarajevo, citing Serb seizure of heavy weapons from UN, stopping the UN airlift, cutting off all utilities.
-91 supposedly released UN officials are still surrounded. Serbs put new conditions on release of hostages – release of 4 Serb POWs. It should say something that these are the only Serbs I know of ever captured by UN
-Bosnian Serb assembly votes to unite w/Croatian Serbs
-Dole & Gingrich now will allow est of new UN rapid deployment force, as long as US doesn’t have to send troops or money
-Greek PM asked for understanding of Serbs fighting for their religion. Fr Prez Chirac: “Don’t talk to me of wars of religion. These people have no faith and know no law. They are terrorists.”

Nicaraguan Prez Chamorro accepts the const amends cutting her power

Sp military secret service intercepted mobile phones of businessmen, politicians & king.

House votes for more military spending than Pentagon wanted, esp in Star Wars & Stealth. While cutting from funds to help Russia dismantle nukes – but of course, you need the missiles to justify the missile defenses

House Judiciary Cmte reverses itself, deletes a ban on cop-killer bullets. One of the R’s who changed his vote is a former cop. Some don’t want to turn decisions on what is a bullet capable of penetrating bulletproof vests to the evil Janet Reno (Waco, gun controller)

6/17/95

Russian Defense Min Grachev says the only way to deal w/the hostage situation is force.

Lech Walesa fails to disassociate from anti-Semitic remarks by a Cath priest while he was in congregation

6/18/95

Angola offers Jonas Savimbi one of the 2 VPships

Rep. Christopher Cox of CA, author of the bill to make it harder for investors to sue for misconduct, has himself been sued for fraud.

Russian priv sector 62% of official GDP 1994, higher than Italy

6/19/95

Fr muni elections: Nat Front mayors in Toulon, Orange, Marignagne (suburb of Marseilles). Raymond Barre mayor of Lyons, Giscard loses for Clermont-Ferrand

All UN hostages in Bosnia are released. And all the UN had to do was give up all bombing, give the heavy weapons collection sites back to the Serbs & give up on protecting Sarajevo from heavy artillery (7 old people dead on a water line yesterday), and gave back 4 Serb POWs, caught in UN uniforms at an incident where 2 Fr peacekeepers killed. The UN claims the release was just an amazing coincidence, that they’d completed an investigation & had no basis (!) to detain them

House bans abortions at US military hospitals abroad

Speaking of giving in to hostage-takers, Russia dec cease-fire in Chechnya & negotiations. This after 2 attempts to storm the building wall in Budyonnovsk, attempts no one is taking responsibility for, Yeltsin claiming he had, gov saying the local troops just did it. Russians are finally upset, because this happened in actual Russia – normal Russians don’t share the leadership’s concept of Russia one and indivisible. The Chechens had planned to go all the way to Moscow, but the local Russian militia had demanded too large a bribe. Parl voted unan. to recall Yeltsin from the G-7 Conf in Canada.
-The hostages are really pissed about the soldiers’ attacks, which killed 100+. PM Chernomyrden negotiated cease-fire on TV, distancing himself, to put it mildly, from Yeltsin’s intransigence.

6/20/95

Yeltsin’s contrib from Canada was a temper tantrum & a lie that Didayev had asked for asylum in Turkey
-The Chechens are on their way home w/150 human shields. Released in Chechnya.

Walesa defends the anti-Semite priest & no other presidential candidates condemn the remarks. The priest clarifies by saying Jews do some good things, like banking & finance.

Last yr, a Treasury Dept report said RTC did enough to recover assets of failed S&Ls in Texas ($36m of $2b), but the review failed to examine any case files. And Treasury refused to allow those who worked on the whitewash to testify

Peru passes amnesty on military for human rights abuses

Sup Court unan. allows Boston St. Patrick’s Day parade to ban gay groups, saying the parade is an expression rather than a public accommodation

Sup Court 5-4 sets new standard for suits by prisoners about conditions & treatments. Unclear what this standard actually is, since no examples are given, but largely overturns the notion of a “liberty interest,” wherein if law allows for time off for good behaviour, say a 14th Amend interest, exists. But now this will be limited to actions imposing atypical & significant hardship

6/21/95

John Adams: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy... in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music.”

Russian parl votes no confidence in the gov, 241-72. This has no immediate effect. Russian police are detaining Chechen grocers & peddlers in Moscow. PM Chernomyrden says revenge will be cruel for the hostage-takers

Shell drops plan to sink an old oil platform in the N. Atlantic off Scotland, under pressure from Ger, Denmark & Greenpeace. Br gov says they shouldn’t have given in

House Appropriations Subcmte on Interior votes to cut Interior 13%, ban spending on adding species to Endangered list & generally cutting the scientific branches to eliminate the info behind environmental decisions

Pinochet finally allows the secret service head to be arrested

6/22/95

CIA reports that Ch. has recently sold missile components to Iran & Pakistan. This requires sanctions

Sup Court 5-4 allows Florida to ban lawyers soliciting accident victims for 30 dys

Walesa finally condemns anti-Semitism after 10 days, but not the priest who blamed Jews for Nazism, communism & WW2. Ex-CP candidate, his enemies say, had a Jewish father

Head of UN in Yugoslavia reassures Serbs that the rapid reaction force will not do anything more than did previous peacekeepers. $600m?

Russians demand Chechens hand over the head of the hostage-takers, & Chechens agree (yeah right). Head of military aimed at Chechnya threatened to end the cease-fire if not.

Dole had threatened not to bring Surgeon-Gen candidate Henry Foster to a vote at all. Finally did, w/ltd debate & to be killed after 2 fast votes on cloture, which failed 57-43. Real purpose: stop Phil Gramm leading a filibuster & taking spotlight. This nonsense has been called the 1st Repub. primary.
-Since 1968, only 24 nominees have required a cloture, but 22 were later confirmed, the 2 being Abe Fortas & Sam Brown (delegate to CSCE last yr). D’s never filibustered Bork, John Tower, Thomas....

Because of Fr decision to resume nuclear testing, Australians are boycotting Fr products...

John Major makes the only bold move of his career, calling a completely unexpected snap leadership election. He may have a popularity rating below that of lark’s vomit, but he thinks he may have a chance of winning a vote in a party even less popular than he is, ½ of whom may well lose their jobs at the next election. This is how he responds to proof in the local council elections of April & May that the Tories represent noone – by pretending the problem is that Thatcher is sniping at him & backbenchers aren’t supporting him enough. Tony Blair is playing that game by talking up Tory disunity instead of the insult of Major’s facing this forum rather than the nation. Just to make it fair, challengers have 7 days to come forward, and 5 more dys before the ballot. One suspects there was a plot afoot for another coup like that against Thatcher, where her Cabinet told her to go. In this format, no one w/in the Cabinet (Heseltine) will dare come forth. Too quick for a discussion of principles, which is just how Major wants it, and why he’s facing just MPs, who can’t now worry about the principles that divide them when their careers are at stake. Also, Major knows this electorate; who knows what the balance will be in a reduced post-97 (96? 95?) Tory Parl Party? Evidently, Eurosceptic MPs had a petition for a leadership challenge in Nov. (but what candidate?) (Norman Lamont, evidently)

6/23/95

Douglas Hurd, Foreign Minister, retires. Interesting timing. He is not planning to run. Could be sop to right

AMA wants mandatory ratings for lyrics on records

Fr, which publicly talking about not giving in to terrorism held secret talks w/Serbs while the hostages were held. The Br commander of UN forces there refused to attend. This explains why there was such a complete surrender, Fr’s specialty. This week Yeltsin said Chirac told him there would be no more air strikes. Fr denies it.

Yeltsin demands Parl vote no confidence again. A 2nd would trigger dismissal of either the gov or the Parl. Guess which Yeltsin would do. He said Parl “would sign its own death warrant.” Given his history, that probably means literally

6/24/95

Hong Kong repeals colonial laws it is afraid of having enforced by Ch, allowing censorship & detention (laws mostly never used). Will restrict power of police to seize materials from reporters

A senior Air Force safety officer goes public after being shunted aside, says Air Force hushes up facts in plane crashes. 10-20% of Air Force planes crash. 5 of the 59 Stealth 117A. My favorite is 2 pilots & a navigator in one plane taking off clothes & oxygen masks to moon another fighter, passed out & crashed. And a pilot let his wife try to fly. She couldn’t. Few are ever held responsible, inc an acquittal this week for 2 helicopters shot down over Iraq by US fighters, 26 dead.

6/26/95

137 of 185 UN members are not up to date in budget dues. US is $1.18b in arrears. SA owes from 1974-94.

BR: Sec for Wales John Redwood to run against Major, as a Eurosceptic. Fancy a Tory Sec for Wales fighting centralization. As in 1990, if Major can be prevented getting plurality + 15% on 1st ballot, the 2nd is fair game & he is screwed. The ballot is secret.

Clinton begins tv ads – already. Stressing crime (against assault weapons, for death penalty).

Egyptian Prez Mubarak escapes assassination in Ethiopia

1st round Haitian elections badly administered

Sup Court 6-3 votes to allow drug testing of school children in athletic programs. Scalia writes they are already held to higher standards (academic qualifs & such) & lower privacy expectations (showering in groups). Only 2 previous cases on drug testing, for railroad crews after accidents & Customs employees promoted to sensitive jobs – neither group as random & w/out suspicions as this. Clinton’s appointments on wrong side.

6/27/95

Phil Gramm 1984 & 1990 lied about D. opponents, connecting them to gay groups, claiming an all-male strip show raised money. 1984 tv ads showed his family, but son’s faces hidden by cap brims & wife seen from back, to disguise Asinanness. Mr Balance-the-budget was one of 3 congresscritters of both houses not to have sponsored a bill to cut spending in an 18-mo period. As a D. (elected 1978) on Budget Cmte, passed D. plans to David Stockman. 1984 he massively violated election financing rules (money above the limit & from corps). Part of his fine was supposed to go to charity, so he gave it to his sons’ priv schools. His travel expenses, for vacations really, are unusually expensive. 1990 tried to get Senate not to embargo agric aid to Iraq – First City Bancorp of Houston had $50m loan out to Iraq – & $25,000 to Gramm’s reelection campaign. 1992 Dallas developer & banker Jerry Stiles (cost to taxpayers c.$200m, convicted for conspiracy, bank bribery, etc) gave Gramm an interest-free loan to fly a construction crew to MD to work on his vacation home, w/out an estimate or contract. And Stiles only billed him $64,433 of the $117,000. Gramm pushed leg for him. Gramm pushed regulators to give Stiles’s S&Ls aid & waivers from rules. The Sen. Ethics Cmte cleared him w/out calling witnesses or checking facts, just taking Gramm & Stiles’ word for it

6/28/95

Sen. trying to eliminate requirement for manufacturers to disclose how much they pollute

UN censors a book commemorating its 50th anniversary, deleting references to countries abstaining from voting for Univ Dec of Human Rights, & violators, and a quote from Dalai Lama which UN says was a criticism of China, and was actually a statement about freedom & equal rights

House Appropriations Cmte votes to retain subsidy to tobacco growers

6/29/95

House votes 312 (inc 93 D’s) to 120 (inc 12 R’s) for Amend on flag desecration

Justice says its it won’t charge Sen. Packwood for forcing lobbyists to offer jobs to his wife

US-Japan trade deal to open car dealerships to US cars, buy US car parts, etc. But w/out the numerical goals US wanted & Japanese called managed trade. US illegally threatened sanctions (illegal under internat treaties).

John Major will only face John Redwood in 1st round. It is expected there will be a 2nd, in which Heseltine & Portillo will participate. They both have rented offices (reporters followed telephone men & found them).

6/30/95

Fr has royally pissed off Tahiti & all of Austalasia for intending to restart nuclear testing. Tried to stop Rainbow Warrior II docking in Tahiti, but demos forced gov to back off

Fr will not abolish passport controls w/in EU as planned

House task force on immigration set up by Gingrich proposes requiring hospital ERs to report illegals, denying fed ed. funds. And a Const amend ending automatic citizenship for everyone born in US

Clinton pledges $15m, later $95m, for rapid reaction force for Bosnia, to be diverted from existing funds. Dole & Gingrich pissed, since they wanted to veto it.

Sup Court 5-4 says U. of Virginia must subsidize a student relig mag on same basis as other student pubs. Kennedy says otherwise is to “silence the expression of selected viewpts.” It may not be broad enough a ruling to open the door completely. To keep O’Connor on board, distinctive elements of this case were emphasized: money not dir from state but from student activity fees (if the fees are mandatory, this is a distinction w/out a difference); money goes to printers rather than the groups (anyone can create a shell).

Sup Court 7-2 says KKK has right to erect a cross in an Ohio park that operates as a pub forum. This was an establishment case because of the cross, rather than a free speech case.

Sup Court 6-3 upholds Endangered Species Act applying to protection of habitats on priv land

CA Sup Court 6-1 said country clubs that reg do business w/non-members can’t discriminate

Egypt blames Sudan for the attempted assassination of Mubarak. There have been military clashes

Norman Tebbitt comes out for Redwood against Major. Major says he will brook no different after the election

Sup Court 5-4 says race can’t be a “predominant factor” in drawing Congressional districts, declaring GA’s 11th district unconst. Will hear more districts next term. The new standard did not apply to CA, where 1992 redistricting plan was allowed to stand. Kennedy’s majority op claimed assigning voterse on basis of race made racist assumptions that they think about, fails to treat people as indivs. Ginsburg’s dissent suggests districting inevitably assembles people in groups, says this invites litigation whenever someone can argue that other factors were less considered than race. This is the only group whose interests are now not allowed to be taken into account.
-Though redistricting sent many more blacks to Congress, it also increased R’s from South. In GA, which had 9 D Reps, 1 R in 1970s, now 8 R’s to 3 D’s, all the R’s white, all D’s black. Since the black districts are locks, turnout is also down, affecting other state, local, nat races

Before the 2nd no confidence vote tomorrow, Yeltsin accepts resignations of ministers of Interior, Security & Nationalities for the Chechen hostage thing, but not Defense Min Grachev. Also governor of Stavropol resign. PM Chernomyrdin comments that this is 1st time the Russian state put the life of its citizens above pol expediency. Of course, that was after 2 failed attempts to storm the hospital

Colonialism as privatization: Bolivia sells state electric comp to 3 US comps, which are required to invest in capitalization

Ger votes to send 1,500 troops & planes to Bosnia but not ground troops

May 1995

2006-01-09T01:35:00.000-08:00

5/1/95

2 headlines p.A5 NYT: Gers More Willing Now to Confront Nazi Crimes; Doctor Says Snapping of Head Killed Palestinian Held in Israel

Clinton exec order for embargo of Iran inc US comps buying its oil for sale to 3rd countries. No one else will follow, so this will have no effect

With trustees of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund saying it will run out of money in 2002, & R’s talking of 13-16% cuts over 7 yrs, Gingrich asks Clinton his plans for saving Medicare, i.e., how will Clinton pay for Gingrich’s tax cut to the rich. Gingrich says Medicare problem can be solved w/out health care reform. White House says R’s not specific how they intend to balance budget & cut taxes. Both sides accusing the other of planning to herd the old into HMOs. Gingrich hinting at taking it “off budget.”

2nd round Fr presidential elections Sunday. LePen says he hopes Chirac loses

Croatia resumes war on Serb regions, breaking Mar94 cease-fire. Serbs take UN soldiers hostage

5/2/95

Another reversal of Cuban immigration policy. Those stuck in Guantanamo have begun rioting & mutilating themselves & getting pregnant. So they’ll be let in, but no more, really, we mean it this time. henceforth we will summarily return boat people to Cuba. This from a secret deal w/Cuba. Clinton’s evidently written off the Cuban vote.

5/9/95

In latest Algerian militant idiocy, threaten death to wives who don’t leave gov officials. And have killed at least 20 who refused to marry fighters.

Gov. Pete Wilson also had an illegal immigrant housekeeper whose Soc Sec he failed to pay, but blames his ex-wife

Sen. rejects limit on medical punitive damages in tort reform, but Dole expands kill (51-49) to limit punitive damages in all civil suits, Fed & state. So much for federalism. (Update: then it failed, then restricted to product liability alone)

5/10/95

FBI in absence of a new law, “reinterprets” guidelines to allow investigations of organizs advocating violence in absence of evidence of imminent or real violation of law. Director Freeh, asked what lessons he took from Cointelpro, seemed not to have heard of it.
-In case anyone misses the point, Clinton calls the Michigan Militia group “un-American.”

1970-92 hospital stays after childbirth dropped from 4.1 to 2.6 days, despite vast increase in C-sections

Eng/Wales local elections: Labour 48%, Tories 25%, LibDems 23, Tories losing ½ their seats & controlling 8 councils, down from 67. Plus 0 in Scotland, which voted last month. Lab has 155 councils (up 44), Libs 44 (up 14). Lab 5,615 councillors (up 1,799), Libs 2,702 (up 495), Tories 2,056 (down 2,027). No Tory councillors in Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Oldham, Brum, Salford, Wigan, Derby, Cambridge, Oxford.

5/12/95

Jacques Chirac wins Pres. France w/52.6%

Gingrich wants to bribe the old into HMOs & out of Medicare. Give them $5,000/yr which could use for priv insurance HMOs, or hell just keep the cash & choose a cheap program. Indeed, the Rs’ projected balanced budget plan, over 7 yrs, has no Medicare specifics, but will turn over decisions to a bipartisan commission

Ebola spreads in Zaire

R’s intro bill to build an embassy in Jerusalem

5/13/95

Bush resigns NRA for its anti-gov statements

In Moscow, Clinton fails to get Yeltsin to stop sale of nuclear reactors to Iran, but won’t also sell a centrifuge, news of which was no doubt leaked for just this purpose
-Clinton fails to contradict Y’s statement that no military action in Chechnya

Illinois executes a man based on signed confessions, though he is illiterate, and some were to crimes he did not do. He allegedly handed a guard a note that he wanted to confess – gov now claims he dictated the note. There is no physical evidence or eyewitnesses. Another of his murder convictions was overturned & the jury was all-white

5/14/95

Gingrich’s district gets more Fed money than any other

Agreement on extending Nuclear Test Ban Treaty forever

Early in occupation of Haiti, Capt. Lawrence Rockwood talked his way into the Nat Penitentiary to look for pol prisoners. He is now being court-martialed. (Update: discharged from army but not jailed)

New Repub Congresscritter Steve Stockman of Texas writes in Guns & Ammo (written before the Oklahoma City bombing) says Clinton staged the Waco raid to get support for the ban on assault weapons. Gingrich appointed him to the Gun Task Force

Ala. executes a man it admits is paranoid schizo, but good enough to summarily fire his lawyers & ask for death penalty. He believed he will come back to rule all humankind as a God-like tortoise. In the court, he wore a domino, tied to his head

5/15/95

6th Circuit allows Cincinnati’s anti-gay referendum of Nov93, approved by 62%. Court says if gays stayed in closet where they belong, would have no problem. See, a class can only be protected if it is identifiable, so “Those persons who fall within the orbit of legislation concerning sexual orientation are so affected not because of their orientation but rather by their conduct...”

5/16/95

Environmentalist Tory Br claims it doesn’t have to do anything to meet its promise at Rio Summit to stabilize carbon emissions by 2000 because it’s projected energy demand figures were too high – they were always inflated, pre-privatization, to make the case for nuclear plants.

Sup Court 6-3 says cities can’t use single-family zoning to bar group homes. Occupancy limits, space requirements, etc must apply to everyone, not just homes of unrelated people

5/17/95

House 240-185 weakens Clean Air Act, ended protection of most wetlands, require compensation for prop owners. Rep Bud Shuster, the sponsor, calls EPA an “environmental Gestapo.”

Ethics: Reno calls for special prosecutor for Commerce Sec Ron Brown. Sen. Ethics Cmte brings sexual harassment charges against Bob Packwood. And Senate sets up a Whitewater Cmte under D’Amato

Carlos Menem re-elected president of Argentina. He got const changed to allow it. He is an authoritarian who uses decree power to excess, tried to regulate press out of existence, and wants no one to talk about the Dirty War

US allows removing sanctions on Serbia for recognizing Bosnian borders but not its gov

US uses UN Sec Council veto for 1st time in 5 yrs, a condemnation of Israel’s proposed land seizure in Jerusalem

5/18/95

Motor Voter has registered 2m

5/19/95

Br MP Sir Jerry Wiggin, a paid adviser to Br Holiday & Home Parks Assoc, tried to slip an amend loosening requirements for trailer park owners to provide gas, under another MP’s name, who went public. 30% of backbenchers have paid consultancies

Chirac cabinet conserv-right, inc ministries for family (Ministry of Solidarity between Generations) & homelessness & unemp (Min of Integration & The Fight Against Exclusion)

Another American archeology professor died in Guatemala 1992, US accepted Guat. explanation that he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the neck w/a machete 4X

5/20/95

The Times won’t say it, but Phil Gramm 20 yrs ago invested $75,000 in brother-in-law’s soft porn venture

5/21/95

John Major personally against death penalty

Clinton to allow visa to president of Taiwan for his Cornell reunion, breaking 16-yr policy on order of Senate (97-1), House (396-0). No official meetings. China pissed

5/22/95

Sup Court unan. says police should knock before searching a home

Israel suspends plan to confiscate land in Jerusalem

Sup Court 5-4 says only a const amend can impose term limits on US Congress, not the states (23 so far). But note the dissent written by Thomas, that Const is silent on states’ power on this, so they must have it!

Sup Court upholds decision that scholarship for blacks alone unconst

Serbia rejects US plan for lifting sanctions @ recognition of Bosnia

Satellite dishes are banned in Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China

5/23/95

Dept Commerce is housed in Herbert Hoover Building

Ger Const Court says E Ger spies can’t be tried & those in jail should be released

Thatcher’s next volume of memoirs will savage John Major

UN & Clinton Admin criticize proposal of R’s to take thousands of the Vietnamese refugees now being repatriated in Asian countries. UN blame the proposal for riots in HK camps because they give hope.

AMA says organs of anencephalic babies should be harvested while they are still alive

5/24/95

Love letters sent to Hitler by various Gers have been published

Harold Wilson dies (79). MP at 29, youngest Cabinet minister at 31 since 18C. He’s been a baron (life) since 1983. “I haven’t read Karl Marx. I got stuck on that footnote on page 2.”

This is subtle: in budget debate, Mitch McConnell intro amend banning fed money used for presidential campaigns being used to defend “someone” against a sexual harassment suit (yes, Clinton did that). So Barbara Boxer retaliated with an amend that members of Congress shouldn’t either; a motion to table it lost 99-1, the 1 being... Bob Packwood. Bob Dole offered change banning any donated money for such suits – both Clinton & Packwood have legal defense funds. This passed, but non-binding.

Sen. leg to ease securities industry (allowing them to lie without fear of courts) written by an aide waiting for it to pass before moving on to JP Morgan.

And HUD Sec Cisneros to be investigated by an ind counsel who had access in HUD as a lawyer during the corrupt ‘80s (Update June 1: steps down)

5/25/95

Ger’s tourism office in NY fired an employee for making a fuss over an old directive to discourage Jews, blacks, Hispanics & Asiatics visiting Ger

After repeated Serb violations, inc use of heavy weapons in Sarajevo, UN finally deigns to allow bombing of Serbs’ Pale hq. Serbs responded by shelling 5 safe areas, seizing weapons from UN depots, etc

5/26/95

And even more charmingly, chaining UN officers to ammo depots & other bombing sites. When planning raids, UN left unarmed personnel in vulnerable areas. UN bombing a 2nd day. Fr threatens to pull out (largest contingent) unless UN protects its troops. Clinton’s statement keeps using word “appropriate”: evidently bombing is appropriate & taking hostages is not appropriate. Oh you moralist, you.

Texas now permits concealed handguns. But not in bars or churches

Gingrich signs 2-book deal w/Rupert Murdoch’s HarperCollins, a percentage rather than the orig. huge advance, after House Ethics Cmte warned him that it might violate House rules.

Philip Morris recalls 8b. cigarettes w/something like a pesticide. Evidently, they’re dangerous.

Orthodox Jews in addition to w/holding gets, have new tool: betrothing daughters under 12½, but not saying to whom. Betrothal takes a divorce, and without the name, she’d have never to marry. c.20 have done this

New INS guidelines recognize rape, domestic abuse (presumably if state does nothing), opposition to traditional practices like the veil, etc, as potential grounds for pol asylum

5/27/95

Slovakia legalizes giving bribes. This way they can go after bribe-takers, they say

N Korea asks Japan for food aid. SK asks Japan not to because it wants to help, to improve relations, by leaving NK no other option. Right.

5/28/95

Serbs take more UN hostages, up to 367, 93 used as human shields (and more today). Chirac authorizes Fr troops to shoot back. Bosnian foreign minister’s helicopter shot down

Sen. rejects Clinton provision in terrorism act for emergency wiretaps w/out court order for 24 hrs for terrorism (they are now allowed in organized crime), or allowing military to act as cops for chem or bio weapons

5/29/95

In Iran, you can buy your way out of draft or Teheran’s traffic laws

5/30/95

India cancels elections in Kashmir, under dir rule 5½ yrs, as separatists would disrupt elections

Of 1,204 Lords active in 1993-4 parl session, 773 hereditary, of whom 17 ♀. 405 life peers, 63 of whom ♀ (plus 26 Lords Spiritual). Some lords have been selling their services just like MPs, and there is no register of interests. Of peers who showed up 1993-4, 472 of 1,043 (46%) Tory, 114 (11%) Labour, 54 (5%) LibDem. Of the Tories, 338 (70%) were hereditary. There are 12 hereditary Labourites, 23 Lib Dems
-Since 1949, Lords have rejected 1 law, the War Crimes Bill of 1990 (passed by H of C 1991)

Jesse Helms says Clinton not qualified to be Commander in Chief, so any Bosnia decision should be made by the Joint Chiefs

Bosnian Serbs pretty much dec war on UN, annulling all agreements w/them & NATO

Chilean Sup Court upholds sentences on former head of military & his deputy for Letelier assassination

Sup Court 7-2 allows habeas corpus petitions for people who served their sentences but are still in jail for a consecutive sentence. This might affect 3 Strikes cases, challenging an earlier strike

5/31/95

Dole takes the Quayle tack & goes after Hollywood, inc rap music he hasn’t heard & movies (True Romance, Natural Born Killers) he hasn’t seen. but family films he names inc Forrest Gump & ... True Lies.

Bosnian Serbs offer and UN rejects, internat talks on the UN hostages. Clinton suggests he might use US troops to help UN w/draw or to regroup. Will not promise to get Congressional approval. Will also offer a more perm suspension of sanctions on Serbia for recognition of Bosnia. Br & Fr sending more troops

Chile’s former head of military secret police refuses to surrender to go to jail

April 1995

2006-01-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

4/1/95

Ukraine dec dir control of Crimea, Pres. Kuchma reinstates as PM there the man who lost a vote of confidence last week, and is his son-in-law

4/2/95

US to cut overseas food aid in ½

Gingrich threatens to restore the ban on gays in military (already ruled unconst several times, as is the new policy). (Update: backs off 2 dys later)

Warren Christopher says no CIA money now going to Guatemala

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Office participating for 1st time in a repatriation program, of VN refugees in HK & elsewhere

4/3/95

Russia refuses to stop planned sale of nuclear reactor to Iran. Sec Defense Perry says US will do nothing to Russia.

Russian law requires AIDS test of foreigners

A 1990 Nat Law Journal study of capital cases showed ¼ on KY’s death row represented by lawyers later disbarred, suspended or convicted of crimes. In 6 S. states studied, lawyers were disbarred or disciplined at 3-46X overall rate. As a Texas judge told one defendant, “The Const. does not say that the lawyer has to be awake.”

4/4/95

Gingrich says Toricelli should resign from Intelligence Cmte for exposing CIA coverup of Guatemalan connection. Exposing it to the president & Sec of state for a start. Christopher admits he was wrong about no CIA money going to Guatemalan military. Under “liaison” programs, it is legal for CIA to spend millions w/out White House permission, hand over secret data, w/hold info from embassy & Congress

4/5/95

Something I must have missed: some mos ago Qaddafi suggested his son marry Chelsea.

Israel launches own spy satellite

4/6/95

Warsaw subway system to open, 11 stops, 6.5 miles, begun in 1925.

Scottish local elections: Tories 11.5%, Lab 43.5%, SNP 26%. Tories control no councils, get 82 of 1,159 seats. Labour 613 seats, 20 of 29 councils

4/7/95

Alexander Cockburn says Clinton & Gingrich have same recipe: training & computers; strength through electricity like Lenin

Clinton says Japan is owed no apology for Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Torricelli allowed to stay on Intel Cmte, but referred to Ethics Cmte

4/8/95

New anti-abortion device: malpractice suits about breast cancer, valid consent, psych problems. Most get thrown out, but the pt is harassment

Robert McNamara new book says US should have pulled out of VN 1963 or 4, bombing & force were ineffective & DCI Richard Helms memo to LBJ Sep67 says losing VN would do little damage

4/9/95

What ever happened to bribery? $20b to Mexico & we can’t get them to support indefinite extension of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. All that aid to Russia & they insist on selling nuclear reactions to Iran

4/10/95

Peru Prez Fujimori wins re-election, for whatever that’s worth

9th Circuit says health comps that reward drs for referring Medicare or Medicaid patients to them can not be excluded from the programs unless Gov proves they knew such rewards illegal

Ron Brown had yet another dodgy investment he lied about on disclosure forms, an apt that defaulted & was dec unfit for habitation. He got $175,000 in tax write-offs.

Appeals court says const applies only to refugees in borders of US, so we can hold Cubans indefinitely in Guantanamo

4/11/95

House R’s allow billionaires to give up US citizenship & save billions in taxes. An expatriation tax was in Clinton’s proposed budget

The sexually “ambiguous” Bishop of London will be next Archbishop of York

CIA wants $15m to destabilize Iraq, $4m against Iran

UN fires Russian gen. from Croatian peacekeeping force. He sold UN gas to Serbs, forced Belgians to dismantle a checkpt, allowing Serb soldiers, artillery & tank destroyers in. One of his predecessors stayed in area when his time was up to trade.

Nat Institutes of Health relinquishes right to require reasonable prices on drugs developed by gov-industry cooperation

4/13/95

A senior member of Serbian secret police defected w/documents last yr, inc orders from Serbia on concentration camps, executions. But Dutch secret service or UN Internat Criminal Tribunal (war crimes) “lost” them

Fed judge in Boston orders former defense minister of Guatemala to pay $47.5m to a UN nun & 8 Guatemalans tortured

Sen. Gorton Slade worked on a bill to gut Endangered Species Act, the drafting done by lawyers representing timber, mining, ranching, utilities, his campaign contributors. Didn’t bother consulting environmentalists because he already knew their views

Solzhenitsyn is now a talk show host in Moscow. Exc he’s now decided no one else should talk

US backs an unlikely Turkish plan to have Iraqi Kurds protect Turkey from Turkish Kurds, using Iraq as base

4/14/95

Palestine sentences militants in closed-door military hearings. Meanwhile Israel shoots dogs on streets of Hebron – they say rabies, actually the dogs warn of patrols

40% of pop of island of Rongelap have cancer. It is 95 miles from Bikini.

Italy refuses to stop selling so much oil to Albania, from where it is smuggled to Serbia
-And US ignores Iran arms smuggling to Bosnia

4/15/95

New powers given to the ex-KGB, inc running own jails, search w/out warrants, tap phones...

4/16/95

Clinton claims 3 top priorities: tax cuts linked to ed., welfare reform anti-crime measures preserving ban on assault weapons

4/17/95

Russia says its war in Chechnya requires breaking the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe treaty

4/18/95

“Either poverty must use democracy to destroy the power of property, or property, in fear of poverty, will destroy democracy.” Thomas Rainborough, 17C

New gov secrecy policy, w/declassification after 25 yrs starting in 2000. Heads of agency can exempt documents w/approval of a panel. The size of intelligence budget will still be secret. And among other exemptions agencies lobbied for and won, State Dept got provision, exempting documents that “reveal info. that would seriously or demonstrably impair relations between the United States & a foreign gov.”

Ch. also refuses US request to end nuclear cooperative w/Iran

WW2, US always planned to use the a-bomb on Japan, not Ger. A White House meeting May43 decided this. There was worry that the bomb might be a dud. Ger could figure out what the wreckage was, the Japs not. Planned to use on Japan’s fleet.

2 Fr peacekeepers were killed by snipers in Bosnia. UN is pretending it doesn’t know that the Serbs killed one, who was televised being killed. UN admits one bullet came from a Serbian position but claims a 2nd bullet might possibly have come from a grassy knoll (no, not really) controlled by gov.
-UN also gives in to Serbs in banning journalists from flights resumed into Sarajevo.

Sup Court to review a case under Fed law adding 5 yrs to those who use or carry a firearm during a drug offense. The Court of Appeals ruled 5-4 this inc keeping it in a locked trunk in a closet, since it could be used during a drug crime. Little hope for relief from Sup Court, which 2 yrs ago inc bartering a gun for drugs by “using” it.

4/19/95

Fed regulators give up on idea of making banks keep records of race & gender of small-business loans

Clinton prime-time press conf skipped by ABC & NBC. He gets same coverage as Newt did. But he insists “the Constitution gives me relevance.”

Dole, running on an American-first policy, talks about the evils of turning over command of US troops to Booootos-Booooooootros-Ghali. Actually, there are 70 US troops, observers, under UN command

4/20/95

Sup Court 7-2 says there is a right to distribute anonymous campaign literature

Rwanda evicts 100,000 from refugee camp, bars UN

A fed building is blown up in Oklahoma. Janet Reno says death penalty will be used

Clinton wants to resume scholarships to Indonesian military officers, stopped 1992

4/21/95

Russia is/was/will be debating new election laws. Yeltsin wants to increase # of electors required to petition for a presidential candidate from 250,000 (1991) to 2m., 4% of turnout, w/no more than 7% from any 1 of the 89 regions, effectively excluding several popular types & reforms w/narrower geo. base. And wants fewer of parl seats to be by party list

Virginia Sup Court 4-3 rules that lesbianism will stigmatize a child, so shouldn’t get custody. In this case, the lesbian’s mother sued for custody

Mass. Superior Court rules drs. need not provide care they deem futile that the patient wants. In this case, the *drs* issued a do-not-resuscitate order

4/22/95

The Oklahoma bombers seem to have been right-wing gun nuts, “militias,” for whom the Waco Texas massacre, on the 2nd anniversary of which this bombing came, was a sign that ATF was coming after their guns.

4/23/95

An It. fashion designer admits in court procuring prostitutes for Gabonese President Gabon

4/25/95

2,000 refugees kicked as Rwandan military clears refugee camps

Clinton uses OK bombing to push for new powers, like monitoring telephone & credit & travel records of suspected “terrorists” w/out evidence of a criminal act or plan for one. And require phone comps to assure wiretaps access on digital lines. Clinton also takes the opportunity to attack talk radio

4/26/95

Bosnian Serbs, dictating mvmts of diplomats flying into Sarajevo airport, last week making US ambassador drive out, this wee trying to limit a deputy asst sec state to 3 hrs w/Bosnian gov & force him to meet Serbs

Fr presidential elections: socialist Lionel Jospin surprises by getting 23.3%. Many expected a right-right runoff, but PM Balladur only gets 18%, Chirac 20%. LePen 15%, CP 8.6%, Green 3.3%.

CIA station chief in Guatemala was reprimanded 9 mos before being removed for not disclosing links to the colonel, for suppressing reports of rights violations, failing to warn US ambassador of army plan to destroy her reputation. In 8 yrs, this is 6th Latin American COS to be removed, for lying, sexual harassment, threatening underlings at gunpoint, letting a ton of cocaine get shipped to US, sloppy book-keeping.

Soviet archives are closing down outside access bit by bit, w/secret-police agents reappearing in archives & research institutes. Dramatic disclosures have been ordered by Yeltsin to tarnish CP or Gorbachev or as gifts to foreign govs. What has been recently released: Stalin directive to Molotov 1930 to shoot coin-hoarders & cashiers, proof that they have Flight 007 black box, that Stalin ordered invasion of S Korea 1950, that were undecided about invading Poland early 1980s

Sup Court 7-2 rules a rule change decreasing parole hearings to 3 yrs (4?) for multiple murderers does not violate ex post facto because it had only “the most speculative & attenuated possibility” of increasing sentences. I believe Thomas is assuming a neg. result to these hearings

Lobbyists for Georgia-Pacific (wood products) wrote provision of upcoming leg intended to stop EPA inquiry into its violations of Clean Air Act by barring gov suits for actions taken on advice of a state or fed official. In no other case is gov bound by the word of mistaken officials, as in taxes.

Gingrich won reelection 1990 by only ½%, & 1992 primary by 980. And this by outspending 5 to 1

4/27/95

Clinton backs off demand for permission for FBI to infiltrate groups w/out evidence of a crime or plot, but wants 1,000 new feds, “tagging” of plastique to individualize it, allow military to help investigate crimes involving “weapons of mass destruction.”

Sup Court 5-4 says Congress did not have authority in 1990 to ban possession of a gun w/in 1,000 ft of a school as a fed crime. Gov claims under commerce clause (crime is bad for the economy) Sup Court hasn’t overturned a commerce law since 1936 (min wage & max hrs in coal). One wonders what leg functions vulnerable to this sort of challenge, starting w/Brady law, abortion clinic protection....

Berlin will merge into state of Brandenburg if approved by legs & referendum

Br using nat lottery money to pay Churchill’s family £15m for his personal papers

Israel to confiscate 135 acres in E Jerusalem for new Jewish neighborhoods & a police hq

4/29/95

UN still trying to persuade Rwandans in refugee camps that it is safe to go home, though UN kept out of parts of the camp & military a) massacred, b) starving out, the refugees, might indicate how safe they are.

Tony “Principles without power are useless” Blair gets a Labour Party special conf to abandon Clause 4

Israeli Army commander in W Bank says soldiers’ task is to kill wanted Palestinians. Official policy is, of course, allegedly to arrest them

Russia has also promised Iran a gas centrifuge that would enrich uranium

Orrin Hatch demands D’s accept a 1-yr limit on appeals in capital cases as price for not trying to repeal ban on assault weapons

There was a war-crimes tribunal in Leipzig 1921. 901 cases. 888 acquitted or summarily dismissed

Referendum in Kazakhstan to extend President Nazarbayev’s term to Dec00. Uzbekistan did same last mo. & Turkmenistan & Kyrgyzstan will follow. The Kazakh election was uncontested

Yeltsin orders cease-fire in Chechnya for 3 weeks for the 50th anniversary of V-E Day celebrations

In response to Oklahoma bombing, some examination of far-right, anti-gov rhetoric. G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show, on which he once told people to shoot for the heads of Fed agents, and NRA fund-raising letter saying Clinton gave law enforcement permission to “murder law-abiding citizens” & calling ATF “jack-booted thugs,” a favorite phrase, sometimes used by R. congresscritters

4/30/95

OK senate votes unanimously to ask stations to stop broadcasting Liddy

Russia extends draft from 1½ to 2 yrs

March 1995

2006-01-05T05:53:00.000-08:00

3/4/95

R’s give up on abolishing food stamp program. Farm-state R’s revolt

Clinton to have “top to bottom” review of Fed affirmative action programs, not wanting to defend them all. His model is the military

House votes 276-147 to freeze most new Fed regs through 1995. Exempting business ones like licenses, trade rules, deposit insurance...

Parl passes bill against blood sports 253-0. Expected to be wrecked later.

Under CA’s 3 Strikes, a man sentenced to 25 yrs for stealing a slice of pizza.

3/5/95

Exclusionary Rule 1st applied against Fed agents 1914. 1961 applied to the states. 1960 NYC police had obtained not one search warrant.

Clinton exec order to force fed workers to pay child support

Unauthorized trades of $29b by a 28-yr old trader at Barings loses it $1b & puts it out of business, creating havoc throughout Asian mkts. Clinton supports de-regulation here.

3/6/95

Barings bought by the Dutch for £1

Jacques Foccart, de Gaulle’s counselor for African affairs, writes memoir which admits Fr role in assassination of Cameroonian opposition leader Felix Moumié 1960, that he literally auditioned Gabon’s president Bongo. Some Af leaders signed blanket authorization for Fr interventions. Says coups succeeded only when he was out fishing or hunting.

Jean-Marie Le Pen calls murder of a 17-yr old Af immigrant by his followers an “accident” – “You might as well ask me why I don’t condemn rain, hail, traffic accidents or earthquakes.”

Fed judge strikes down application of NJ’s “Megan’s Law,” notification of presence of a sex criminal, to convictions before the law took effect. Considers it an extra punishment.

3/7/95

Former Mexican president Salinas’ brother arrested for ordering last yr’s assassination of another PRI leader, the pres. candidate. Possible cocaine connection

House 286-141 directs regulatory agencies to base orders on cost-benefit rather than health (inc 60 D’s, exc 2 R’s). Risk assessment by panels that could inc interested parties. Industry could challenge the risk assessments in court

Fed judge voids the last-minute Bush deal giving him control of his computerized records

R’s want to add to welfare bill a formula to reward states that reduce illegitimacy & cut down abortion

Lamar Alexander begins his abolish-Washington run for president, wearing a lumberjack shirt.

3/8/95

Former It. PM Andreotti indicted for acting as protector for Mafia

Of 37 states w/capital punishment (now inc NY), 10 ban execution of retarded

3/9/95

Another Sup Court loophole in exclusionary rule. Good faith extended to computer errors, in this case an arrest based on a nonexistent traffic warrant that should have been removed from the computer. 7-2 Rehnquist says suppressing the evidence would not deter court clerks from such errors.

Ex-president of Mexico Salinas goes on hunger strike to protest criticism of him by current gov (to say nothing of his brother’s arrest). Immediately ends the strike.

Justice Dept sues Ill. State U. over a program to train janitors that excluded white males.

3/10/95

Last week, Balanced Budget Amend failed to get 2/3 in Senate by 1 vote. R’s had given in to Sam Nunn in stripping it of enforcement by fed courts. Only 1 R. voted against it, Mark Hatfield, & he offered to resign the Sen. before the vote. Indian Ben Nighthorse-Campbell switches to R party over it. D’s want their contribs to his 1992 election back.

Clinton finally forms ind panel on Gulf War Disease

Estonia’s pro-mkt gov defeated in new elections, the Fatherland Party that won 1992 elections barely getting the 5% threshold. Back to the commies & agric protectionists. And a Russian party, Our Home is Estonia, gets 7 of 101 seats

House passes bill 232-193 tort reform “loser pays” i.e., pays opponents’ legal costs. Indeed, even winners pay, if they reject a settlement higher than damages awarded by jury – legal fees no higher than his own, & only those incurred since the offer
-And require sanctions on lawyers for frivolous lawsuits (how do you have something mandatory on a subjective matter?)
-Dem. failed amend to exempt civil rights suits
-And 325-99 limits suits by stockholders. Again, loser pays. Must show that broker or comp knowingly or recklessly made fraudulent statements

3/11/95

When House voted to turn over school lunches to states, forgot about the many military children...

3/12/95

A highly classified CIA report leaked, saying Serbs responsible for 90% of ethnic cleansing

Clinton allows Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein to raise money in US

3/13/95

Fed scientists debating whether the planned underground nuclear waste dump in Nev. will explode. This after $1.7b (with a b) in feasibility studies.

An independence referendum in W Sahara being interfered with by Morocco, which taps UN phones, confiscates voter documents, sending people from Morocco to register. Already postponed over 3 yrs, the referendum tentatively scheduled for Oct95, but don’t hold your breath. UN has given in to extent of allowing Moroccan flags over UN buildings

Clinton loses another nominee, Michael Carns, to be DCI, who brought a Filipino into US. Treated him just like a member of his family – meaning he didn’t pay him & let him work outside the home, illegally

In 3rd tort bill, House 265-161 over-rules states to set limits (for 1st time) on punitive damages for medical malpractice & product liability to $250,000 or 3X monetary losses, whichever is higher, total pain & suffering in medical to $250k, w/no damages if person 50% responsible because of drug & alcohol use. No joint & several liability for product liability, so might not collect because can’t go after the deep pockets. Retailers not responsible for selling defective products. On everything else, states’ rights rule & defendants’ rights are screwed. Reverse here.

Irish Dail allows doctors to give addresses of family-planning clinics in Eng

Indian congress loses Maharashtra & Gujarat states to right-wing Hindu parties

Ex-president of Mexico Salinas now in exile in US

3/14/95

1st pregnant Republican congresscritter, Enid Waldholtz of Utah. Senate has never had a pregnancy

Conoco tried to have oil deal w/Iran. Neutralized Warren Christopher, who had to recuse himself after they hired his old law firm. Exec order to stop them.

New DCI choice John Deutch insists on cabinet rank

Croatian pres Tudjman w/draws demand UN troops leave by end of month, but scaled down & to “control” (or as US puts it, “monitor”) internat borders w/Serbia & Bosnia, not protect the Krajina Serbs. Croatian Serbs less thrilled, and Serbs have been moving tanks in.

3/15/95

Justice recommends special prosecutor on Housing Sec Henry Cisneros for misleading FBI about payments of over $200,000 to an ex-girlfriend/mistress

Abortion issue was revived in Ireland 1992 when gov tried to ban a 14-yr old going to Br for an abortion. Now the Criminal Court of Appeals reduces the sentence of her rapist to 4 yrs, saying there was no reap rape & no duress

Afraid of Hawaii possibly having gay marriages, Utah votes not to recognize marriages that don’t conform to Utah law (!)

3/16/95

Sen. R’s fail to stop filibuster of bill to overturn Clinton’s exec order against gov using comps that perm replace strikers

Although Dole now finds it politic to attack affirmative action, in 1990 he brought leg est a commission his wife (then Labor Sec) wanted on glass ceilings. It reports that white men, 43$ of workforce, hold 95% senior mgmt (up & up)

Kazakhstan Const Court says the Mar94 parl elections unconst, dissolves parl

In 1st yr under Brady law, 45,000 convicted felons stopped from buying guns. Price of street weapons is increasing

Miss. ratifies the 13th Amend

House votes 227-200 on recissions of $17.3b, all in social & welfare programs, from the current budget

House & Sen. cut money for Interior to carry out Endangered Species Act

3/17/95

Conoco actually was negotiating w/Iran for 4 yrs over developing an oil field, and kept gov informed, but were only cut off when it was announced. Gov not willing to stop US comps buying Iranian oil for sale to 30 countries (c.$3.5b 1994)

Clinton meets Gerry Adams, but only when there are no photographers around. Like Salman Rushdie.

For UN conf on women to be held in Beijing, Ch. & Vatican getting UN to deny accreditation to Tibetan exile women’s groups & Caths for a Free Choice, lesbian groups (Update, 3/23L reverses on Caths)

Dole continuing his move to the right, promises NRA a reversal of ban on assault weapons

3/19/95

Ukraine abolishes const of Crimea, eliminates its president

The 3rd highest cleric in C of E, David Hope, the Bishop of London, is sort of outed, but he says his sexuality is ambiguous & he is celibate

3/20/95

Pissed at Clinton meeting Gerry Adams, John Major refuses to take his calls for a week

R’s are pressuring lobbyists to be more partisan

Cambodia asks UN human rights center to leave, as they are perfect now in human rights

3/21/95

Bosnia breaks Jan. 1 cease-fire, but Serbs were tightening up on Sarajevo

HUD plan to run programs together, end pub housing in favor of vouchers

Turkey has 35,000 troops inside Iraq killing Kurds, jets bombing, etc. US & others don’t care, obviously gave go-ahead. This is in UN safe area excluding Iraqis

R. plan to revise Clean Water Act being written in conjunction w/lobbyists. Chemical Manufacturers Assoc got provision to allow “statistical compliance,” that is, on average. An EPA reg on pollution of Grand Lakes, issued last week, would be made voluntary. States would be banned from stronger standards. EPA not allowed to see any part of the bill

R’s reintro amend to ban flag-burning. One supporter: DiFi

3/22/95

Sup Court 9-0 says Fed agencies can’t bring appeals on basis of policy alone, unless authorized by Congress

As gov aid dropped from 21% of need-based University scholarships 1985, now under 12% & tuition has doubled in Ivies & other priv; with 20% tuition going to financial aid

During Gulf War, 47 Saudi women protested ban on driving. They were arrested, lost scholarships & jobs. The ban was made official, & ♀ banned from all future pol activity

MI5 has had lead against IRA since 1/1/93. This means MI5 witnesses testifying w/out being named, so their credibility can’t be used in subsequent cases. Use pub interest immunity to evade disclosure

An Amer. woman has been raising a stink for months about her husband’s disappearance, a guerilla in Guatemala. Now comes out that CIA knew the truth of his murder yrs ago – because they employed the Guatemalan colonel who ordered it. And this after military aid was ended over the case.

CA courts clogging w/3 Strikes cases. Pomona, Long Beach & Lancaster have stopped all civil trials. Where 94% felonies were plea-bargained, now 14%. 2nd-strike & 6% 3rd-strike are. Felony trials will double in LA & inmates are being released early

20 (26?)% of methane, complicit in global warming, from termite farts

3/24/95

Turkey now talking about staying in n Iraq indefinitely

Montana senate reverses & removes homosexual acts (sodomy illegal there) from a register of violent criminals

FBI puts $4m reward on, and add to most wanted list, 2 Libyans that Libya refuses to turn over for Lockerbie bombing. They live in Libya...

House bill to make states suspend driver’s licenses & professional licenses of those not paying child support. This in the vicious welfare reform, which now inc denying food stamps, Medicaid, etc for legal aliens

House 234-199 votes for the welfare monstrosity. A cut of 6-11% over next 5 yrs. Lump-sums to states. 5-yr limit. D’s note this will pay for tax cuts to the rich. Rep John Mica of Fla. said it was like the Don’t Feed the Alligators signs in his state. And will scrap all nutrition standards for WIC & end competitive bidding for purchase of infant formula

3/25/95

Alabama brings back chain gangs

3/26/95

2 American employees of McDonnell Douglas wander over the border into Iraq & get 8-yr prison sentences. US pissed, consistent w/policy which approves 35,000 Turkish soldiers crossing the border

3/27/95

Mandela fires his wife as dept Cabinet minister

Clinton presents a voluntary code of human rights practices for US corps abroad (meaning in China), to replace the job he’s too chicken-shit to do

Pete Wilson running for president not 3 mos after being sworn in again. And Gramm will run for president & Senate again, simultaneously

3/28/95

Sup Court allows trademarking of a color

3/29/95

House fails to pass any of 4 different plans for Congressional term limits, inc my favorite, the retroactive one

After allegedly ending military aid to Guatemala 1990, CIA sent millions to military leaders, perhaps continuing to this day, $5-7m/yr. Guatemala was also put on list of major drug-traffickers 1990. Guat. prez tells the col. to sue Rep. Toricelli of NJ for defamation. Evidently he’s more worried about the charge of being a CIA agent than for ordering the murder

Argentina Prez Menem calls of former military torturers & murderers to confess to priests but refrain from “rub[bing] salt in old wounds” by speaking publicly, “returning to a horrible past that we are trying to forget.” A former navy capt has been talking about prisoners being thrown, alive, out of aircraft into ocean

Sen. 100-0 votes to allow Congress to review regulations w/in 45 dys. As opposed to House approach of suspending any new regs for 1995

3/31/95

Fed judge strikes down military’s don’t ask, don’t tell as violating 1st & 5th Amends. Under it, gays have been discharged at the same rate as before

Canada in a fish war w/Sp., whose boats are using tight-meshed, nothing-escapes nets in the internat waters near Canada, which has seized one, cut nets of another. Sp trying to get EU to retaliate. Br supports Canada

Pope encyclical on abortion & euthanasia. It is bad, & there is no obligation to obey such laws. How do you not obey a law allowing abortion? Also dislikes capital punishment, exc when it doesn’t

February 1995

2006-01-03T01:31:00.000-08:00

2/1/95

Peru & Ecuador in border war over gold & uranium-rich chunk of Amazon ceded to Peru after 1940-1 war
-(later): ceasefire. Ecuador evidently started this thing, never having accepted being halved in 1940s

UN closing refugee camps for Rwandans, shutting down food & water to force them home. 300,000

Helms succeeds in forcing out nominee to be ambassador to Panama, vacant a yr now. The bastard helped given them our canal.

NY Atty Gen to rescind job protection for homosexuals

Clinton decides not to wait on the pesky democratic process & just give Mexico $20b in loans from the Exchange Stabilization Fund, never before used for someone else’s currency. Mexico puts up its oil earnings as collateral – of course if they default on loans, they can default on that too – what are we supposed to so, occupy the oil fields for 3 yrs? Mexico’s gov bonds were essentially junk bonds, and gov ignored clear evidence of the crisis until the election, and US kept it quiet, wanting PRI to win elections. Also a $17.5b loan, largest ever, forced through IMF quickly – sets a new precedent for what IMF could do if it wanted to, such as it doesn’t for Russia.

In 1951, McCall’s offered Eisenhower $40,000 to answer whether he was a Repub or Dem

State Dept human rights report says Ch. failed to allow Red Cross access to prisons, release sick prisoners, end banning of VOA, or anything else. And harvesting organs from prisoners

London Times pub a leaked document about N Ireland, suggesting plans for a cross-border body. Major goes on tv to deny it

2/2/95

No Peru-Ecuador ceasefire

After devaluation, Mexican min wage 1/12 US’s

R. House “tort reform” would make victims of securities fraud prove knowledge of engaging in fraud. Ignorance would be bliss; there would be incentive to ignore evidence of fraud. And make losers in lawsuits over securities pay the lawyers of the winners

Sen. Larry Pressler tries (& fails) to get NPR to tell him the ethnicity, sex, etc of its employees & names of Pacifica & Christic stations & pol contribs made by people employed or contracted by CPB

2/3/95

Apaches vote down taking nuclear waste

After throwing Surgeon Gen Joycelyn Elders to the dogs, the new Clinton candidate is an OBGYN who has performed abortions. The last one was fired for advocating teaching about masturbation, for god’s sake

Clinton finally comes up w/a min. wage (see yesterday) – $5.15, up 90¢ over 2 yrs

Clinton’s legal expenses for Whitewater & Paula Jones $1.3m 1994. And the defence fund is ½ that

2/4/95

Chechens shoot down a Russian jet fighter w/machine guns

Serbia resupplies Bosnian Serbs w/20 helicopters

2/5/95

Clinton has yet to say much of anything about Balanced Budget trend

US puts 100% punitive tariffs on $1b of Ch. exports to punish them for piracy of US, intellectual prop. rights. Life can be cheap, software & “The Lion King” never

2/6/95

Japanese rejected much help for Kobe earthquake because it was foreign. Tylenol still in warehouses because it may not be appropriate for Jap. bodies. And refused flu vaccine. Tried to enforce quarantine on sniffer dogs, did delay them too late. Health officials tried to delay foreign drs because not licensed in Japan

An official of NSC 1982-7 says CIA helped a Chilean arms dealer sell cluster bombs to Iraq mid-80s. This came out in trial of 2 Teledyne execs who took part.

Gov. of VA George Allen fails to get Gen Ass to repeal sex ed., restrict welfare, build prisons, discourage abortions cut taxes....

House approves line-item veto 294-134 (R’s 223-4 for, D’s 71 to 129 for). Not as a const amend, mind. They’ve really discovered they can do it as a bill. Yeah, right.

2/7/95

Br Scotland Minister Allan Stewart resigns after threatening motor-way protesters w/a pick-axe

UN counts 62 helicopters flying from Serbia to Bosnia, some in military formation. UN observes were thrown out of Serb airfields, so they had no radar.
-Clinton admin ends official contacts w/Bosnian Serbs

Clinton finally names a CIA director at least their 3rd choice, retired Air Force Gen Michael Carns, who has no intelligence experience (update: or not)

When Israel closed off Occupied after a bombing last month, made exemption for Palestinians working for family of 1 of soldiers killed, so the family could go to the funeral. This shows interpenetration. Israel has brought in 12,000 Thais

While allegedly sanctioning Ch., Clinton goes ahead w/subsidized wheat sales. And tariff cuts that went into effect. Jan. 1 worth twice as much to Ch. under new MFN status

House votes 432-0 for anyone convicted of a Fed crime to pay full restitution to crime victims, direct victims & otherwise. Inc as condition of parole – of course, putting them in jail for nonpayment is debtors prisons – which are unconst
-Not finished on gutting search & seizure, allowing stuff seized in good faith, even in absence of a warrant, thus reversing exclusionary rule. Today, voted down the 4th Amend 303-121. It was proposed by D’s as an amend to the bill – word for word the 4th Amend. R’s admitted the amend would gut the bill

2/8/95

The House is merrily gutting the Const & what is Clinton concerned with? The baseball strike. Hell, guess which one McNeil-Lehrer puts 1st.

Fr PS pick Lionel Jospin (who?) a presidential candidate

House 298-142 (inc 69 D’s) to allow illegally-obtained evidence, even w/out a warrant by FBI, Fed law officers, locals in Fed court, but not ATF, which gun loons hate. Or IRS. And 297-132 to restrict habeas corpus appeals to 1, & w/in 6 mos of exhausting state appeals. Voted down amend to exempt innocent people – Hyde says “finality” more important.
-And eliminates sentence of life w/out parole for death penalty crimes

New Panamanian Pres. Balladares since Sep94, has been rehabilitating Noriega-era officials. 4 pardoned 200 inc Noriega’s puppet president, head of paras, etc

2/9/95

Quayle pulls out of race

House leg. would prevent fed habeas corpus unless a state court’s decision “arbitrary or unreasonable”

Defense Sec Perry says force will not be used to prevent Gorazde, Bosnia, being overrun
-And NATO will never go to war over Uzbekhistan. So much for the Partnership for Peace

A study of Soc Sec benefits compare it to 2% priv pensions, show a couple retiring 1995 will get a net subsidy over the 2% of $78,600 over lifetime

2/10/95

House 265-156 increases fed aid to states for prison-building – providing they make inmates serve 85% of sentences. 380-20 to deport illegal aliens after sentences. Fed prisons no longer to have weight-lifting equipment, x-rated movies, computers, cable, musical instruments, miniature golf or food better than that of US Army

Christian Coalition says it will not support R. presidential ticket unless both oppose abortion

Peru-Ecuador war back on

D’s call R’s welfare plan too lenient – doesn’t force people to work

2/11/95

Norman Tebbitt at Young Con. Conf suggests resistance to laws from Eur

2/12/95

And a jr. minister resigns over entry controls

And Br Min Transport says he prefers his car, because you don’t have to sit next to dreadful persons

Surgeon Gen designate Henry Foster also sterilized retarded ♀ in early 1970s. Phil Gramm prefers Marcus Welby

2/13/95

NC approves const amend to give governor the veto, the only state w/out it. Still needs popular vote 1996. Indeed the governor was actually appointed by the legislative until 1835. Veto won’t apply to bills for specific localities as opposed to statewide

2 yrs ago the supreme relig authority of Saudi Arabia, issued fatwa against anyone denying the earth is flat

Clinton’s finally said something about crime measures. He will veto repeal of his commitment to 100,000 new cops. Said nothing about all the anti-civil rights stuff or crime prevention programs

Clinton’s veto-free period unmatched since Fillmore

Sweden admits most of the Soviet subs it’s been complaining about for 20 yrs have turned out to have been... minks.

Pentagon budgets never inc any actual use of the military. Thus we have to pay more for Haiti, Kuwait, Rwanda...

Fed spent $97m on informers 1993

45 states have asked (at some time) for amend to Const against flag-burning. VT votes down such a resolution

Mexico: PRI loses almost every office in state of Jalisco (inc Guadalajara) to right-wing PAN

Br: Lib Dems get Parl to pass vote for referendum on Eur integration. W/most Labour & Tory MPs abstaining, it passed 47-3. Didn’t get either Lab or Tories to split, as hoped, just get 19 Labourites

2/14/95

ANC gov in some turmoil. Allan Boesak turns out to have embezzled donated money. Withdraws as designate to be UN ambassador. And Winnie Mandela alienates ANC Women’s League. ½ leaders resign

CIA refuses to release JFK-era documents on covert support of Conserv politicians in Japan

23 “Dems” in House form voting bloc to support the R. Contract on America

2/15/95

Iraq has set up a secret system to export oil

“Contact Group” on Bosnia (US, Russia, Br, Fr, uh, Ger?), new plan for Yug. to recognize ind of Croatia & Bosnia & cut off supplies to Serbs in both (again). In exchange, all sanctions would be lifted. As if Milosevic has ever kept any promises, or the rest of us tried to make him

An Islamic purist group has come out of nowhere & taken over ½ of Afghanistan. Talibans ban women from work, ban soccer & force men to have short haircuts. The muhihedeen largely deteriorated into warlords & pillage & heroin-running since they won the war

Under pressure from Israel to prosecute militants, Arafat est a military court & jails a human rights critic who dared to criticize the move

2/16/95

Dept Ag settles suit of Banc Nazionale del Lavoro, giving it $400, for Iraq, defaults guaranteed by Commodity Credit Corp

Yeltsin speech to nation blames army for failures in Chechnya, but disciplines (or names) no one

House 241-181 passes bill deduct from peacekeeping dues to UN those entirely US-run operations, like Haiti, that UN rubber stamps. This would bankrupt peacekeeping. Failed to pass bit speeding up Star Wars. Withdrew from provision for Congressional approval for US troops to join new UN peacekeeping missions. Does ban US troops serving under UN commanders unless prez cites a nat security need

KY Sup Court unan. bans a paralegal who leaked documents from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp, showing it knew about dangers early, from talking about the documents or how they were obtained, even to his own lawyers in the criminal contempt charges. Another Const Amend down!

New book The Enemy Within: MI5, Maxwell & the Scargill Affair by Seumas Milne on the dirty-tricks campaign against Scargill 1984. A union leader who (literally) embraced Qaddafi in Tripoli was an MI5 plant. Other stories that proved to be lies: that he paid off his mortgage w/Libyan money, later claimed to be Soviet. No such funds ever existed. But Br press, esp Maxwell’s Mirror, colluded in such lies. The op was run by Stella Rimington, current head of MI5

2/17/95

10% of Senate has run for president

US offers to sell advanced weapons inc F-16 fighters to Poland & other ex-Warsaw Pacts

Arafat refuses to take over a 2nd W Bank town, Jenin (pop 50,000), offered by Israel

There is a proposed CA ballot initiative for ‘96 to scrap all affirmative action. R’s offered to bankroll it if in Nov rather than June (or whenever primaries are now)

2/19/95

Canadian gov proposes registering all guns

2/20/95

Times claims Michael Foot was counted by KGB an “agent of inf” 1960-8 & took cash.

Clinton will (some time) issue exec order banning gov agencies buying from comps that perm replace strikers. Does not apply retroactively. And can terminate existing contracts w/comps which now hire scabs

2/21/95

Mexican human rights monitor (official) says captured Chiapes rebels are tortured

Members of Swarthmore’s college chorus refuse to sing Bach’s St John Passion because it is anti-semitic

Serbs reject the sanctions-for-recognition deal

Fr PM Balladur, running for prez, in trouble because he ordered a wire-tap on father-in-law of a judge investigating Gaullist finances. The father-in-law was trying to be bribed, but court dismissed all evidence. Balladur is blaming the police

A Fr woman hits 120, cackling over her annuity. She quit smoking 3 yrs ago

The guy who shot at FDR Feb33 confessed 22 dys later, sentenced to death the next day & executed 10 dys later. Florida

Aristide fires all generals & most cols & majors. Ah, but will he replace them?

Yeltsin decree bans all tobacco & alcohol ads, & for faith healers & unlicensed drs.

R’s to repeal free school lunches, turning the programs over to the states, inc eliminating nutritional standards, allowing them to use McDonald’s because it’s cheap – and ketchup will again be a vegetable

The deal for US to rescue Mexico signed. We get veto over their econ policy. They must choke off their economy w/high interest rates. The oil money is to be deposited in Fed so we can seize it

2/22/95

James Watt indicted for inf-peddling at HUD under RR after leaving Interior 1984-6. 25 counts of perjury, inc to Congress & grand jury, & fraud & inf-peddling & w/holding documents

Russia going ahead w/sale of nuclear plants to Iran

And Russian foreign minister advised Serbia to demand sanctions be lifted before they make any concessions, which Serbia did

Europa has an oxygen atmosphere

2/23/95

Death penalty: distrib of executions varies greatly even w/in states. Of the 92 Texas has executed since 1976, 37 from Houston area, 5 Dallas. 9 S. states account for 226 of the 266 executed since 1976.
-For lawyers Texas requires no training or qualifs. Louisiana may pay lawyers nothing & force them to take cases. In parts of GA, lawyers have to handle court appointments for 1st 5 yrs after admission to bar – inc tax lawyers & such
-Sup Court 8-1 allows Ala. death penalty law, under which a judge may impose a death sentence the jury didn’t ask for. Ala. judges are elective. Judges in Ala. have overridden juries 52X, 5 to reverse a death sentence, 47X to impose it. The 1 is John Paul Stevens. Fla, Dele, Indiana have same law. Unlike Fla., Ala law does not require the judge to give any weight to jury

Sup Court 6-3 overturns Fed ethics rule barring civil servs being paid for speeches & articles

Fr throws out 5 CIA types for econ espionage, inc bribing officials to get Fr negotiating position in GATT talks. Foreign Minister Juppé bitched that this was never meant to be public. Implication is that Interior Min or PM leaked it to Le Monde to take heat off of wire-tapping scandal
-US refuses to w/draw the spies

Pakistan court overturns death sentence on a 14-yr old Christian for blasphemy

Nobody wants to run for Sheriff of Nottingham. Labour members of city council don’t want to run

Clinton proposed something Bush failed to get, a bill to make it illegal to give money to the peaceful activities, inc humanitarian, of a violent group (ANC, say). Prez could designate foreign organizs terrorist. And could deport “alien terrorists” on secret evidence not shown to his lawyer. To protect sources

January 1995

2005-12-30T23:20:00.000-08:00

1/1/95

US commitment to Ukraine (now I believe 4th largest recipient of foreign aid) shown by treatment of its one success, wool coats. We slapped quota on them, over & above the 21.5% quota

White House drops plans to rejoin UNESCO

NYT on Ch’s expanding naval powers says it’s to ensure a future diet of fish

1/2/95

Of 4m illegal immigrants, 2m 1st arrived as visitors & over-stayed. These are a diverse group, w/most enforcement aimed at Latinos

Sup Court 6-3 fails to stay execution of an innocent man scheduled for Wed. The man originally confessed, then recanted, & blamed his sister. The state agreed & put her on trial 7 mos after his conviction. The same prosecutor told jury he had been wrong 1st time, used the guy’s new story to convict her

Russia says it has captured Chechen prez palace. It hasn’t

Israel halts the new settlement but allows the same on another hill, a compromise w/out a distinction

1/3/95

The Crime Bill docks communities up to 10% if don’t adopt community notification of sex offenders

Israelis shoot dead 3 Palestinian cops on territory Israel supposed to have withdrawn from. Palestine arrests 12 people they say are Israeli secret police

Polish Pres. Lech Walesa says new tax rate unconst & he personally won’t pay it

Repubs decide cost-cutting should only go so far. Sure, fire 1/3 of aides, but keep the 2 full-time chaplains & assistants ($289,000/yr)

R’s will pass bill they previously blocked to subject Congress to (some) labor laws, how to be decided by a Cong. office, & Congress could disapprove any regs, and patronage by ideology still allowed. Judgments would be paid by the taxpayer, no Congresscritter personally liable

1/4/95

Fed judge exempts a prisoner from the NJ notification to communities of sex offender law, saying it’s an ex post facto punishment. Other courts have done same, but uphold registry of sex offenders

Russia strafes & bombs main highway from Grozny, clogged w/refugees

Henry Hyde says abortion clinics should hire guards like banks, as part of cost of doing business, rather than expect feds to protect them

Yeltsin (again) says he’s ending attacks on civilians, bombing of Grozny. In interim, they use cluster bombs

And what rough beast, it’s hour come at last... the R’s take office. Gosh, it seems like Newt’s been speaker for decades. His 1st word as Speaker of the House is evidently “bitch,” which his mother reveals he called Hillary. Clinton is off duck-hunting, his version of looking presidential. House pushes through rule changes on the gag rule they attacked in opposition
-Dole intro bills to lift arms embargo on Bosnia, give Congress control over UN peacekeeping operations, inc charging UN for equipments & services & limiting US share of budget to 25%, eliminate most of War Powers Act. Dole threatens econ aid to N Korea
-One congressman is attacking Socks, the First Cat, because White House answers his fan mail

1/5/95

Ger to pay off debts from Interwar. Evidently in 1953 it was said they could wait until unification, w/out interest. Will get Ger gov bonds, 3%, maturing 2010

Sen. kills Dem. plans to end filibusters more easily (!) & ban gifts by lobbyists. House rules now require 3/5 majority to raise income or corp income taxes. Term limits for cmte chairmen, cmte meetings opened to pub & tv. Delegates from DC, PR & territories prohibited from voting

Malawi puts Banda under house arrest, will try him for killing 4 rivals 1983

UN since 1982 pays about $85,000 to families of peacekeeping soldiers killed in action if from rich countries, $19,000 from poor

1/6/95

US starts forcibly returning Haitians from Guantanamo, giving them $15, toothpaste & soap. Legally, this is interesting because Guantanamo is Cuba under internat law

Yeltsin says he is surprised that Grozny still being bombed, as is he. After tv ran his order to stop bombing under pictures of Grozny in flames, Y. fired head of Russian state tv. Izvestia: “In such a war even the victors should be on trial.” As Ger, Fr, etc complaining to Russia, Clinton finally sends a letter asking for halt to attacks on civilians while saying it’s an internal affair

Joe Slovo dies

1/7/95

Gingrich’s new idea: tax credits for PCs for the poor

1/8/95

Serbs put new conditions on cease-fire, not lifting blockade of Sarajevo unless Bosnian Army w/draws from Mount Igman, reversing success of gov offensive

1/9/95

Commander of Russian Interior forces in Chechnya is killed by mortar

Polish gov strikes back at Walesa (1/3/95), PM nominating a CP for Defense Min. Walesa will veto. PM Pawlak forced Walesa ally foreign min to resign but Walesa won’t accept it

Israel holding 2 dead Hamas bodies captive until Hamas says where it buried an Israeli soldier 1989

The flagship of capitalism in Ch, the Tiananmen Sq McDonald’s evicted despite 20-yr lease, because someone got a bigger bribe

Gingrich fires House historian in favor of a friend & tody who sided w/him when GA Board of Regents barred his teaching an Amer. civ course at Kenshaw 1993 paid for by his PAC. Then fires her again because she 1986 helped deny Fed financing to an ed. program about the Holocaust because it did not present the views of Nazis & KKK. She compared it to the re-education methods of Chairman Mao. She says she was chosen by the RR Ed. Dept in order to oppose the program, which Phyllis Schlafly disliked; she new nothing about the Holocaust but was from a conserv Alabama U

It is illegal to interfere w/hunting in every state but Hawaii

½ Labour MEPs sign resolution for retention of Clause 4

Ch. jails a reporter for 6 yrs for publishing that the People’s Congress operates as rubber stamp for CP

Similarly, Singapore tries an Amer. professor (who has fled the country) & Internat Herald Tribune, for criticizing unnamed intolerant regimes in Asia which use compliant judiciary to bankrupt opposition leaders. Atty Gen said reference to a “compliant judiciary” clearly referred to Singapore...

Now I know why Tories suspended the 8/9 rebels Nov94. Cost them, nominally, their majority, but prevented those from whom the whips removed. Signing demand for leadership elections. 33 needed.

1/10/95

1st air traffic controllers fired by RR are rehired

Sec HHS, Donna Shalala says Admin would support taking children from parents who repeatedly refuse to work while getting welfare. R’s get her to say this might inc orphanages

Iran’s head ayatollah bans drinking Coke & Pepsi (Coke never left the country)

Yeltsin’s 48-hr cease-fire in Chechnya lasts 2 hrs

Prince Charles’s girlfriend Camilla Parke Bowles, to get divorced

Gingrich’s pet historian’s asst says he knew of her Holocaust thing

1/11/95

Ind prosecutor on RR & Samuel Pierce’s HUD amazingly decides not to prosecute Pierce, although Pierce admits allowing aides to steer Fed aid to friends, lied to Congress

Dept Veterans Affairs hospital beds are 23% unfilled, while they are building new ones. 21 surgeons performed no surgery in a recent yr, but none were laid off or transferred

NY transfers a prisoner back to OK for execution. He killed people in both states & OK illegally tried to keep him, though NY had 1st claim. Cuomo is gone...

Yeltsin to take dir control of armed forces. Or perhaps not

Croatia tells UN to get out by March 31, tired of it protecting Krajina Serbs

In vote for continuing control of Parl cmtes, Tories win back 5 of the 9 rebels

1/12/95

Malcolm X’s daughter arrested for trying to hire hit man to kill Louis Farrakhan. And the damned FBI arrested her before...

2 police officers sentenced to 108 yrs in 1991 for murders & kidnappings of ETA people mid-1980s. Say it was ordered high up. Judge released them & jailed ex-Sec State for Security & asst to another. The cops say the 1st paid them $1.5m in bribes to stay silent from gov slush funds. PM Gonzales threatens & brings libel suit, but really come on. The death squads may bring him down, but massive bribery didn’t

Br to end army daytime patrols in Belfast

1/13/95

Gingrich met Rupert Murdoch late Nov, before the $4.5m book deal, but they just “passed the time to day,” certainly didn’t discuss communications leg

There will be a nat referendum in It. over limiting commercials during tv broadcasts of films to 1. Would undercut Berlusconi’s finances.
-A possibly-caretaker It. PM, nonpartisan treasury minister, banker, to form gov of technocrats

SA opens all schools to everyone until classes full (33). White schools tried to partly opt out 1991, w/state paying teachers, fees for everything else. Some schools this week intro AIDS tests, but mostly quite peaceful, compared to, say, Little Rock

Clinton calls for end to onslaught on Chechnya but won’t cut aid. Shouldn’t over-react to “ups & downs,” like genocide

1/14/95

Tom Carson is not esp worried by the R. sweep. Try saying “This would never have happened if Tom Foley were still here!” or “Man, could we use Rostenkowski now.” Blames Cong. D’s for treating Carter & Clinton as interlopers, preferring to be players under R. presidents to followers under D’s. Not too worried by the R cmte line-up: this is the Senate, where the sleep of reason brings forth Munsters. Says the Christian right may now be marginalized as much as blacks in D’s, their leverage being in GOP’s minority status – won’t need true believers if they think they now have a broad electoral base

1/16/95

Tony Blair forces Ed. Shadow Sec. to rescind statement that Labour would put VAT on priv school fees

92 shells fell near Bihac today as the case-fire cont. to fail. NATO refused to give flight plans to UN for fear that Gen Sir Michael Rose, fortunately due to leave Bosnia, would pass them on to Serbs

In Haiti outside Port-au-Prince, US military often collaborates w/Fraph (Macoutes under current name). Oct. 15 they gave refuse & then let go soldiers who killed a 15-yr old at a street celebration in Jérémie (where NY story set), late Oct. helped police arrest 4 Aristide supporters w/out a warrant & late Nov. a Cath priest arrested by Haitian police & Australian monitors on a Fraph warrant. Spokesperson for US military says Fraph is “a recognized political organization,” likening differences to those between R’s & D’s

1/17/95

Last yr, a Boston veterans’ St Patrick’s Day parade cancelled rather than follow court decision to inc gays. This yr they’ll be allowed to exclude gays because it won’t be a parade, it will be a protest... of the court decision that they have to allow in gays

Congress 390-0 to extend workplace laws to itself

Exec Order to make secrets releaseable after 25 yrs w/out line-by-line review. Agencies have until 2000 to decide what is sensitive.

The big new R. issue since the election has been “unfunded mandates” – obligations on state & local govs, not corps or people, and they are trying to get bills passed on it v. quickly

1/18/95

When Gingrich met Rupert Murdoch, they did discuss Rupe’s regulatory problems, contrary to the earlier denial. W/in a week, HarperCollins talking book deals w/him. Gingrich spokesman says he didn’t mention the presence of a lobbyist because no one asked

Penn. Superior Court upholds right of business to fire an employee for homosexuality & sue him for opening a competing business. This was all in his contract

No one wanted to work w/Helms on Foreign Relations Cmte. Dole had to force 4 freshmen to join

Bosnia tells UN to open Tuzla airport by Feb 1 or remove its soldiers. UN deployed (smuggled in) a Serb liaison officer for no good reason.
-Serbs violating no-fly zone with impunity as well as the truce, using helicopters UN failed to destroy when airfield but not planes were attacked Nov94

Texas, on some sort of a roll, executes a man w/IQ of 65, evidence of which was not allowed to be heard in 1984, under statute since overturned, & appellate courts refused to hear evidence on it because jury couldn’t

During Gulf War, Polish agents smuggled 6 Amer. spies out of Iraq. In return, Bush would urge other govs to forgive $16.5b of Polish foreign debt

At least 1,200 Russians dead so far Chechnya. They admit to 500. (The 1,200 figure is from the morgue). 13,000 were killed in Afghanistan. Russians trying to bypass Pres. Dudayev & negotiate w/local commanders, threatening to bomb the home of one

1/21/95

As R’s issue their preferred version of balanced budget amend, w/ 3/5 for new tax increases, reverses himself (?) to admit he can’t be explicit about how to do it

In Mexican states where gov admitted fraudulent elections & promised new ones, local PRI’s in rebellion, taking over tv & radio, blocking highways etc

Peruvian pres. Fujimori’s wife hunger-striking against law prohibiting her running for prez. Next up: memoirs. Fujimori also cut fed funds to Lima when its mayor announced candidacy. (Follow-up: hunger strike lasted 4 dys)

1984-94 CA prison guards shot 27 inmates fatally, compared to 8 in all other state & fed prisons. Fed judge says use of force at Pelican Bay, inc routinely shooting at unarmed inmates in fist fights, is unconst

Yeltsin dec the Chechen war over, a tad prematurely, presumably because they’ve captured the wreckage of the presidential palace. Yeltsin fires 3 depy defense ministers, transfers another to reserves for criticizing the war. His attempt a few weeks ago to fire head of Russian tv seems to have failed

Sec State Christopher tells Bosnia we will ignore UN Sec Council resolutions & have dir talks w/Bosnian Serbs. Evidently the (failed) cease-fire is an “opportunity to renew the negotiations”

Gingrich says his enemies are out to destroy him, and the Newtoids have an attack on his book deal expunged from Congressional record

US desperately propping up the Mexican peso, even as devaluation, combined w/NAFTA, will screw US economy

1/23/95

The 9 Tory rebels rebelled on fisheries (Eur commission to let Sp boats in) – gov only saved by Ulster Unionists. The rebels pub a manifesto, essentially for w/drawal from EU

Russia’s domestic KGB says the Peace Corps, Ford Foundation & Carnegie Endowment are spying for US rather than providing technical aid

Kobe, Japan destroyed by a 7.2 earthquake last week. 5,000 dead & the gov strangely incompetent about rescue & relief – esp compared to the Yakuza

A suicide bomber in Israel kills 19. President Weizman calls on gov to suspend negotiations

1/24/95

ITN says the Russian blockade of Chechnya before the invasion was a joke. Policy didn’t change until BP came to a deal w/Azerbaijan on oil. Russia demands a share, which it can get only if its pipelines used – pipelines which go through Chechnya

SA’s apartheid gov, when on its way out, granted indemnities from prosecution to 3,500 cops. Just found out. Gov says it was not properly done & they’ll have to ask individually and name their crimes

Clinton gov claims not to find evidence that Bush gov secretly armed Iraq & tried to cover it up in Banco Nazionale de Lavoro, signing on to the improbable theory that the Atlanta branch made these loans w/out anyone higher up knowing about it

Sup Court 9-0 says employees fired discriminatively are entitled to back pay even if employers later find misconduct that would have justified dismissal, found only because of law suit. Employers have been getting away w/using retroactive excuses for what even they admit were discriminatory acts. But back pay only from dismissal until date the new info discovered. And reinstatement is out

R’s going after Commerce Sec Brown for profiting from a comp that defaulted on a fed loan

US finally sues CA, Ill., Penn for failing to comply w/Motor Voter registration. Gov Wilson vetoed compliance leg. Ditto SC, but is not sued

Sup Court 5-4 says death penalty can be appealed if they are innocent *and* lack of that evidence was from a const violation. This case was a Missouri one, a murder in prison, where video shows him at the front of cafeteria lunch line right after

Turkmenistan’s elections Dec. 11 for new 50-seat Parl, for which 50 people ran, conveniently enough. 99.8% turnout. They did have right to cross names off. They didn’t. No opposition party managed to be registered, other candidates all disqualified

W/Jacques Delors not running for Fr president – evidently having newly discovered that he is 70 – Michel Rocard has given up, Bernard Tapie is a bankrupt & hence barred from pub office for 5 yrs. So who on left? Jack Lang pulls out

1/25/95

Congressional Black Caucus pissed that chair of House Rules Cmte restores an old portrait of Howard W. Smith, racist extraordinaire

Willie Brown reelected Assembly Speaker, after a party-line vote expels the man elected to both houses. Is giving up some of the job’s powers

Israel talking about a giant wall w/W Bank. “Separation” the new watchword

A Br soldier gets life for shooting at a car at a Belfast checkpt, killing a 17-yr old. Everyone is outraged at the conviction. Only 1 other soldier ever convicted for NI: 1984, served 26 mos. & rejoined his unit. The soldier today convicted w/out jury

Clinton’s 82 min. State of Union Address, the longest ever. Only a couple dozen Congresscritters walked out. Some hissed. He wants increase in min wage, just not to any particular amount. R rebuttalist, Gov Christine Whitman, says she won’t ask for equal time. All she needed to do was say “tax cuts” 14 times. Clinton says we don’t need a law for everything, they should just say no to lobbyists

1/26/95

Mat Coward’s New Yr’s Dishonour’s List:
-Barnet’s Tory local council (not gone) hd the money-saving idea of asking council workers to win cash prizes by coming up w/money-saving ideas. Prize of £25 for: “Ask the public to come up with some money-saving ideas.”
-Queen Mum put £19m into trust funds for great-grandsons, avoiding death duties
-Labour’s commitment to PR in using preference voting for deputy leadership election in which only 2 candidates

26 House D’s say they would cooperate w/R’s to repeal ban on assault rifles. To celebrate, a sniper w/a semi takes out 2 people at Chapel Hill

Bob Dornan expelled from House for a day for bitching about the Medal of Honor winner sitting next to Hillary at State of Union, since Clinton “gave aid & comfort to the enemy” during VN War

31% of the 900,000 felony convictions in state courts 1992 were for drugs

Israel approves 2,200 new apts in W Bank

1/27/95

On Clinton’s call to abstain from lobby money, Dole asks whether his legal defense fund does so. Uh, it does now.

Commerce Sec Brown failed to disclose $135,000 from a partnership 1993

House 300-132 passes balanced budget amend, w/out provision for 3/5 super-majority to raise taxes, which R’s will intro as another amend. Budget must be balanced by 2002 or 2 yrs after ratification. Could run deficit sometimes with 3/5 or if war dec. D’s failed in amend to exempt SSI

Mexico’s currency collapse & need for US to cosign a $40b loan, Congress thinks it’s time to demand policies on drugs, immigrants, Cuba, etc etc. Remember: Israel gets “loan guarantees,” Mexico gets “bail-outs”.

1/28/95

House majority leader Dick Armey referred to Barney Frank as Barney Fag, then blamed media for reporting the “mispronunciation.” This from a man named Dick.

Quebec PM asks Fr to recognize it as a country if referendum this yr goes that way

Sonny Bono, in House Judiciary Cmte, annoyed about lawyers quibbling over details of const protection of police searches

Sen. approves unfunded-mandates law 86-10. Actually doesn’t ban them, but must vote separately if they’re not funding them

At Rose Kennedy’s funeral (104!), Ted was given communion. Evidently, his 1st marriage may have been annulled. There are 50,000 Cath annulments/yr, inc for “lack of due discretion,” meaning people lacked knowledge or maturity to understand Cath teaching on marriage. And Cath Church USA fails to deny communion to divorced Caths

1/29/95

And Ron Brown was forgiven a $78,000 loan late 1993

1/30/95

Is Yeltsin losing it? He said a Norwegian rocket to study the Northern Lights, that landed nowhere near Russia, was a W. mission to test Russia’s air defense. Izvestia says a secret intelligence agency set up to compile reports & create a priv army

Neb. bans gay foster parents

There are 511,039 elected officials in US, mostly local

US plan for Croatia would give Serbs complete autonomy in 1/3 of Croatia, w/own president, flag, currency, police, schools, etc. They’d have to give up some seized territories
-Serbs refuse even to look at it. With UN being effected (?) in 2 mos, the Croatian civil war looks likely to resume

Los Alamos says neutrinos have mass

Simpsonian caves in to veterans & emasculates Enola Gay exhibit, removing all analytical content

US to cont. nuclear testing ban through Sep96 & abandoned demand the test ban treaty be binding only for 10 yrs

Jack Kemp will not run

1/31/95

AIDS now leading cause of death in US age 25-44

December 1994

2005-12-25T14:57:00.000-08:00

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)

November 1994

2005-12-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

11/1/94

It. PM Berlusconi’s new budget would scrap tax benefits for coops (he owns a supermarket chain), and wants to reduce state pensions (he runs pension funds).

Iranian Parl passes bill allowing cops to shoot demonstrators

Yeltsin has to fire deputy defense minister accused of selling off millions in gov prop. The Defense Minister should have gone too. They may well be responsible for the bombing of an investigative reporter

Sup Court rules 9-0 that conspiring to commit a narcotics crime is illegal even if nothing is actually done. This is from 1988 law, but Sandra Day O’Connor goes back to 1705 case that “the very assembling together was an overt act.”

11/2/94

Safire says 2/5 of the vaunted drop in budget deficit is from sale of S&L assets

A book by 2 Wall St. J. reporters says there were other witnesses to Clarence Thomas’s interest in porno & treatment of women, but Biden gave in to R’s & failed to call them. R’s = John Danforth, who today on Nightline said that wasn’t the right forum for this either. But Biden failed to stop character assassination of Anita Hill. The book also talks of a White House dirty-tricks team

NEA eliminates grants that allow local nonprofit groups to give money to artists, ya how, the controversial ones. Indiv artists now mostly screwed

Mexico joins fight against Prop 187, inc ad campaign & would pay to fight it in courts

Clinton is not allowed to stump below Mason-Dixon, where he is hated

11/3/94

Florida jury recommends death penalty for the minister who shot dead an abortion dr. & an escort

Ecuador’s Energy Ministry gets its electricity cut off for nto paying its bills

11/4/94

UN Gen Ass urges Sec Council to lift arms embargo on Bosnia, 97-0-61

US troops still holding Haitians, which violates Haitians const. The justification is UN resolution which talks of “all necessary means,” as if this means anything. US troops not to recognize Haitian const as “controlling” troop behaviour

News that Feinstein also hired an illegal alien, but before it was illegal, which I saw in a Huffington ad before it was possible to read it in any newspaper. Huffington claims w/out any evidence that DiFi knew she was illegal. A.P. has demanded Huffington pull the ad that “quotes” them.

John Major gives up on plan to privatize PO, afraid of rural Tories not voting for it

Paris-Match breaks the news reporters have known at least a decade that Mitterrand has an illegitimate daughter. The press turns on P-M, though she’s been traveling publicly w/him lately

The spying budget is accidentally published. $28b, $3.1b for CIA, $13.2b for Pentagon (NSA, DIA, NRO), service tactical intelligence $10.4b

UN votes to give up on Somalia & pull out March 31

Argentine Pres. Menem thanks military for the Dirty War

11/5/94

If not for interest on debt added under RR & Bush, Clinton’s budget would be in surplus

Palau, the last UN Trust (ours) to become ind.

Huffington has spoken 8 full minutes on floor of House over 2 yrs

Canada to tighten its generous immigration, to emphasize skills & money. Lib gov in last election promised to set it at 1% of pop

11/6/94

Pakistanis spend 1.9 yrs at schools, India 2.4, Ch. 5

Reagan admits Alzheimers

11/8/94

Gers don’t like Scientology & members banned from Hamburg SPD, national CDU & Free Dems. Scientology has been running ads about resurgent fascism in Ger

Gingrich cites the SC woman who killed her 2 v. young children in a recent cause celebre as sign of sickness in society & need for R’s

Clinton to w/draw 6,000 troops from Haiti by 1 Dec., leaving 9,000 and almost all 7,800 from Kuwait by 1995

S Korea lifts bans on business w/N Korea

Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal makes 1st indictment. 1st since WW2, too. A Serb concentration camp commandant (not, of course, in UN hands)

11/9/94

Director of Defense Intelligence Agency is in China, US won’t say why

Trend: children under arms. Renamo in Mozambique makes habit of kidnapping them (& gov to a much lesser extent), ditto Liberia, Sudan, Angola, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Middle East. They kill easily.

Bosnian military has been in new offensive last week or so, doing quite well, Serbs bombarding Sarajevo again – UN says it won’t retaliate

UN sets up war crimes tribunal for Rwanda, w/most details missing, and Rwandan gov opposing because it lacks death penalty & only covers 1994

11/10/94

A Canadian abortion dr shot, wounded badly

Slovakia was under a caretaker gov. It resigned last mo after v. inconclusive elections. Vladimir Meciar, twice PM & frightening communist who hates Czechs & the Hungarian minority in a late-night session right after the gov resigned, railroaded measures cancelling privatizations, removing head of Nat Prop Fund (when he ran it, he sold off major industries to friends for peanuts), took over Slovak Info Service, split control of state radio/tv between his party & the far right, shutting down a news show

House Speaker Foley defeated, the 1st such since 1860
-As I was afraid in 1988 when CA est an elected insurance commissioner, insurance comps bought the position, $2m, 80% of Quackenbush’s campaign funds, running solely on crime & immigration

Polls say people aren’t really voting for R positions
-Anti-gay measures failed in Idaho (barely), Oregon.
-And abortion less of an issue. Pataki (governor NY) pretended to be pro-choice but his voting record in Legislature is otherwise. Ditto Mitt Romney, running against Ted Kennedy – a Mormon bishop who tried to stop a woman whose life was at risk having an abortion. Even Jeb Bush said it wasn’t going to change.
-R’s picked up most Perot voters, suburbs, men – there wa sa large gender gap. And men more committed to R’s than ♀ to D’s
-Money won exc for Ollie North, who spent $16m from outside the state but lost 46-43 to Chuck Robb, and Huffington, who spent a record $28m (of his own money mostly) to Feinstein’s $14m & lost by 3 or 4 votes
-Term limits won in 7 states (total 22) – Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, ME, Mass, Neb, Nev. Has never lost
-Jeb Bush lost Fla. gov to Lawton Chiles 51-49, George W Bush beat the still-popular Ann Richardson 53-46
-Ted Kennedy easily won, despite scare in press, & his son elected from RI
-More of the R’s are idealogues of the “term limits for career politicians & the death penalty for career criminals” (Bill Frist – Tenn.) variety. And the Christian right has money, which may mean anyone trying to get Repub 1996 nomination will have to put himself outside the mainstream
-Cuomo defeated by Pataki, so NY will have a death penalty instantly. And he’ll try to send that guy back to Oklahoma to be executed.
-Utah proposition allows crime victims a role in prosecution
-Wyoming defeated abortion restrictions
-All 157 Repub reps, all R senators & governors, were re-elected. No R. congressman has ever been in the majority. Only 4 seats switched to Dems
-R’s took 16 seats in the Confederacy, up to 62 v. 63 D’s, 14 of 22 Senators, inc Richard Shelby (Ala.) who switched parties yesterday, 6 of 11 governors
-Where D’s 1990 had 63 seats in 13 S. states to R’s 46, now 73-64 R. Both Senate seats in Al Gore’s Tenn. R’s (both elected now). But all 17 S. blacks won eaasily – note: 26% of S. delegation
-Sonny Bono in Congress
-In CA, Wilson easily beat Kathleen Brown, lt gov as usual of the other party. Wilson got 50% ♀, 60% men.
-Dan Lungren re-elected (shudder). Anti-immigrant 187 gets 59%, blocked by courts – would keep immigrants out of schools, hospitals... Assembly is tied 40-40 (R’s got 7 new seats). 3 Strikes 72%, single-payer health 27%, Philip Morris’s “anti-smoking” prop. 30%.

Br High Court says Foreign Min Douglas Hurd broke Br law in funding Malaysian Pergal Dam – linked to arms sales – because it did not help econ devt

L.A. City Council votes not to enforce Prop 187

Ore. voted 52% to allow drs. to prescribe lethal doses of drugs if 2 drs say patient has 6 mos to live, asks 3X, 3rd in writing

Clinton orders military not to enforce arms embargo on Bosnia or share intelligence (on Congress deadline)

Iraq recognizes Kuwait, in its borders

A postal worker killed N Ireland, presumably by IRA. Eire halts plan to release IRA prisoners, inc the killer of Lord Mountbatten

11/11/94

Clinton Admin reverses brief it filed w/Sup Court that a child porn law applies only to depictions of nude children

Tom Carson notes that there is a class struggle in R. party between Christian right & country-club R’s

Japan to sell “research” whales’ meat

R’s took at least 15 chambers of 99 state leg. from D’s, even split in 3. D’s took 0 from R’s. D’s used to have 64-31-3 tied (Neb’s 1 is nonpartsian). D’s now 49-46-3. There are 3,391 R. state legislators to 3,847 D’s

Turnout was 38.7% (36.5% 1990)

Pataki in NY already saying the budget gap so high, he now finds, as to endanger his promise of 25% tax cut

Newt Gingrich, while talking about bipartisanship & being the Speaker of the whole House, calls Clinton a counter-culture, Great Society McGovernick... and refused to take his phone call Wed. Writes outgoing Speaker Foley an insulting letter about not destroying documents. Says he is prepared to cooperate but not compromise. His favorite word this week is “counter-culture”, which he is against

11/12/94

3rd Fr minister since July resigns in disgrace (the cooperation min. took money from a regional housing authority)

For 1st time, R’s had candidates in every Cong. district. D’s missed 36

Justice Souter allows a mother to sterilize her 26-yr old retarded daughter

In South, blacks & R’s did well. The new black districts caused both

Gingrich on welfare: wants to allow states to drop people cold after 2 yrs, abolish aid to children of mothers under 21, & build orphanages instead, end aid to legal aliens, stop in being entitlements – 1st come, 1st served

11/13/94

Jesse Helms as chair of Sen. Foreign Relations Cmte should mean deteriorating relations w/Russia. Wants to cut foreign aid, will no doubt hold up ambassadorships, wants to get Baltics & Poland into Nato

Under 1990 treaty on conventional forces in Eur, heavy weapons are being w/drawn... and given away. 1992-3 Greece got 1,163 tanks, 23 combat planes & Turkey 1,509 tanks, 54 fighters & 28 attack copters. This while Greece is blockading Macedonia, Turkey massacring Kurds, both muzzling dissent. And breaking embargos on Serbia & Iraq respectively

11/14/94

US offers to forgive Ch’s violation of missile accord, waive sanctions if they admit violation

Cath church revoked US & Canada’s right to use translations of a Bible w/sex-neutral terms (God still Him). And pope ordered no more discussion on status of ♀

Irish PM Albert Reynolds using NI peace as cover to push stuff past coalition partners. Labor objecting to his picking as Pres of High Court the atty gen who took 7 mos to respond to extradition request to NI of a Cath priest accused of child molesting & forbade a 14-yr old to go to Br for abortion after being raped

Sw, in 82% turnout, votes 52.2% to join EU

Clinton at Asia-Pacific caucus in Indonesia embarrassed by E Timor students sit-in at US embassy & arrest of 2 Amer. reporters trying to go to E Timor. Spokesman for Indonesian Dept Info says unrest from unemployment, not independence, and they should stop trying to educate these people, since there are no jobs. Indonesian cops swept Jakarta of beggars

UN admits it never bothered defining the border of the Bihac “safe area” in Bosnia

Ch. to ban sex-screening of fetuses. And forbid people w/genetic diseases marrying

UN keeps sanctions on Iraq. US bitching about new palaces for Hussein’s family

Russell Baker’s wife says election the inevitable result of channel-surfing

Gingrich wants to cut Cong. cmte staffs by 1/3 – exc his own

11/15/94

Florida Dept of Citrus tried to advertise orange juice during the OJ Simpson trial

Marion Barry after election to white voters: get over it. The new city motto, replacing “The bitch set me up.”

CA spends more per convict on prison library materials than pe student on school libraries

11/16/94

Br’s 3rd largest defense contractor went bust some time ago. Ferranti had bought Internat Signal & Control (ISC), a US comp whose head was given 15 yrs here 1992 for a £215m fraud. But actually its 3 biggest contracts (ISC’s) were the frauds: 1 to Pakistan, which died w/Zia, 1 to the UAE for 1,500 new precision-guided missiles (smart bombs), which would give UAE more than NATO – obviously intended for Iraq. Capable of carrying nukes or chemicals. And a contract for same to China – presumably for use on the Silkworm missiles it was selling to Iran. All 3 contracts were illegal, but the Br & Amer. govs must have known about them. ISC also illegally armed SA. When Ferranti blew the whistle, Br gov waited & waited, while records removed from London to US. No one ever prosecuted in Br. 15,000 jobs lost, but no pub inquiry. Potentially another Matrix Churchill, since gov gave export licenses

NATO retains blockade of Bosnia, and US lack of enforcement will mean nothing, esp as US still supplying personnel & equipment. Of 18 NATO ships in Adriatic, 1 is American. Only 3 ships have ever been kept out – Bosnia is supplied by air

Clinton says he’d consider working w/Gingrich to pass const amend for school prayer, which Gingrich promoting since the election

11/17/94

Clinton Admin new guidelines on arms sales, to consider US jobs as well as foreign policy goals. Foreign sales now 20% of business

Israel to turn tourism & soc services to Palestine
-And allow Shin Bet more... freedom... in interrogations

Henry Hyde, Mr. Anti-Abortion, will chair Judiciary Cmte. Other ranking R’s are being bypassed so Gingrich can put his stamp on Cong. Energy & Commerce to be held by VA’s Thomas Bliley who promises to protect tobacco from regulation. Appropriations Cmte would go to Joseph McDade, but is temp held by someone else, since he is under indictment for bribery. Rules Cmte’s Gerald Solomon wants rules to limit chairmen to 6 yrs, ban proxy voting, require 3/5 vote to raise taxes. Gingrich wants to abolish... the Ethics Cmte, and would abolish Cmte on Small Business, but it will be the only one chaired by a woman (the D’s had none)

Clinton gets 8 nations of APEC (Asian Pacific Econ Cooperation) to agree to free trade by maybe 2020 (while committing no one to do anything now).
-Clinton: “The people of East Timor should have more say over their own affairs.” No, asshole, they should have complete control – US & UN don’t recognize the occupation. He & Christopher failed to meet the students sitting-in at embassy but Christopher will meet the *official* human rights organiz. And Ron Brown announced $40b in joint projects. Evidently, like Ch, trade is better. Hell, we should *only* trade w/human rights abusers.
-Also conciliating Burma, though its elected head is still under house arrest 5 yrs on & it supplies much of heroin to US (and Indonesia only has oil)
-All the business contacts & trade agreements to create American jobs, while the Fed raises interest rates because unemployment was “too low”

Aristide resigns priesthood

11/18/94

Ukraine Parl votes to become nuclear-free

Letters in Russian press complaining about lines & rudeness – trying to get visas at US embassy

SA’s new Const Court inc Judge Goldstone, a black whose family was removed from its home under apartheid & was arrested under pass laws; ANC’s Albie Sacks, whose right arm blown off in a gov assassination attempt

Irish PM Reynolds resigns & will resign his party leadership. But no new elections, so the same coalition may reemerge. The High Court guy resigns

Haiti’s acting head of army fired for corruption after 1 mo

Palestinian police fire on demonstrators, killing at least 12, probably scores

Jesse Helms says Clinton not up to job of Commander in Chief. And disses Middle East peace process. And letter to Clinton that if he postpones vote on GATT from next month, he would see that foreign policy initiatives got fair & full consideration; presumably he won’t treat them fairly if he doesn’t get his way

Since 1970, 48 people have been released from death row because of evidence of innocence. Florida spent $60m over last 15 yrs to execute 18, Texas spends $2m each

2 Serb jets attacked Bihac, dropped cluster bombs & napalm (none of which went off). Though it’s a safe area, UN says it can’t do anything because jets originated in Serb Croatia (also under UN protection since 1992)

11/19/94

UN Sec Council votes to allow air strikes into Croatia (though there is conflict as to whether retaliation is allowed, since the jets are in the air a v. short time – Fr says it doesn’t, US that it does). Today a fighter crashes into an apt building in Bihac

Indonesia again bars all foreign reporters from Timor, so they can crush the demos that started during the APEC conf

11/20/94

Arafat gov blaming foreigners & collaborators for the shootings, saying instigators shot at both sides. This is not of course true; all the bullets same Soviet model automatic rifles (Palestinian police lack training, tear gas or rubber bullets)

11/21/94

USSR & Russia still pump billions of gallons of nuclear waste into the ground, ½ of all waste, in 3 sites all near major rivers. 1 has leaked

Angola gov & UNITA sign treaty, but Savimbi missing, claims the gov would try to kill him if he showed up. Unita gets to appoint some officials, inc 3 of 18 governors

Dole says he would be more inclined to vote for GATT if Clinton supported cut in capital gains tax

Responding to Haitian mvmt to abolish the military, US Embassy spokesman says military is an essential part of the “iconography” of nationhood

Bishop says Indonesia has arrested & beaten 135 Timorese protesters

It. local elections, Forza Italia drops below 10% (30% in generals), under the neo-fascists

Arafat has rally, w/some firing auto rifles into air. Arafat calls this a referendum in favor of his admin

39 NATO planes attack the Serb air base in Croatia, attacking runway & anti-aircraft defenses, while leaving planes & the tower intact. The largest Eur air raid since WW2, hah! Not using air strikes to stop ground & artillery attacks on Bihac, where UN Bangladeshi troops have no food or... guns?

D.C. US Court of Appeals says Endangered Species Act does not protect habitants, just can’t shoot a protected animal. US appeals to Sup Court

Repub. welfare bill would eliminate entitlement, require state welfare officials to give feds info on illegal immigrants, deny legal & illegals most benefits, turn everything into block grants to the states (which would decide whether to cut benefits or people when run out of money). No payments for children whose paternity not established or to illegitimates born to women under 18

School prayer is evidently the reality in many places, inc lunch-time groups, pre-football games, & moments of silence (mandated Ark, Ala, GA, SC, Tenn)

Ukraine toilet paper plant is recycling the currency...

11/22/94

Fed judge says Haitian children held at Guantanamo should be allowed into US as Clinton decided Cubans held there should be

Clinton backs off school prayer amend

Kenyan president says all Ugandans in his country are criminal & should be kicked out

NJ plans to cut Medicaid payments to hospitals 20%

As Italian PM Berlusconi hosts internat conf on combating organized crime, magistrates tell him he is being investigated for bribes his comp paid tax inspectors

Properly chastened by yesterday’s bombing, Serbs advance on Bihac w/tanks & a helicopter & fire a missile(s) at Br jets

Jesse Helms says Clinton so unpopular among military that he’d “better watch out if he comes down here. He’d better have a bodyguard.” Today is 31st anniversary of JFK assassination.

Some universities (Cal Poly San Luis O., Sonoma State & Humboldt State) to require freshmen have PCs

11/23/94

New Australian law mandates automatic deporation for anyone previously turned down for asylum in another country. Using the law to deport Indonesians

John Major, majority down to 14, making increased contribs to EU a matter of confidence. Next week vote

Dole & Clinton come to deal on GATT whereby a commission of appellate judges would decide whether World Trade Organiz rulings fair & if there are 3 unreasonable rulings, Congress can pull out

US buys ½ Kazakhstan’s weapons-grade uranium, w/Russian permission

NATO bombs Serb missile sites after yesterday’s shots at Br planes. Troops inside safe area Bihac. Serbs blockading UN weapons collection sites around Sarajevo, threaten all-out war in phone conversation w/Gen. Sir Michael Rose if UN blocks takeover of Bihac

Yeltsin says he wouldn’t give a single centimeter of sacred Russian land to Estonia, meaning the 750 sq mi. stolen by Stalin in violation of a 1920 treaty

Study says medical examiners refusal to release donors’ organs for no good reason stop 1,000 transplants/yr

Newt Gingrich, Mr. Family Values, was conceived during a 3-day marriage by a 16-yr old. He used student & marriage deferments to stay out of VN, which he opposed. Evidently he used to be a liberal until he lost 2 elections 1974 & 1976. NYT suggests his principles determined by polls. Like his religion (S Baptist, now). 1978 got into Congress running on family values against a woman who intended to commute to DC & use a nanny. He accused her of breaking up her family. Soon after, he separated. He had married at 19 his 27-yr old high school geometry teacher, his family boycotting the wedding. A day after her uterine cancer surgery, he showed up at the hospital to talk divorce – she threw him out. A former aide says he said she wasn’t young enough or pretty enough to be First Lady, and besides she has cancer. She has been in court several times to get alimony owed her, inc last yr. His daughter supports abortion rights publicly & his half-sister is gay (he compares homosexuality to alcoholism).

11/24/94

In the 1994 Congressional races, 51% voted Republican

Namibian gov takes over ½ of DeBeers there. Sales still through COS.

Brandenburg, whose birth rate has dropped over 2/3 since unification, state will pay $650 per new kid

11/26/94

While Congress added disabled workers to purvue of EEOC, the time for cases to be dealt with up to 19 mos

11/27/94

Ch. orders Hong Kong to repatriate all VN refugees, as it pretty much is

R’s talking about denying funds for Clinton’s deal to stop N Korea nukes

Pretoria-Wits.-Vereeningin province wrote off rent & utility strike money from last 10 yrs exc from Jan94

9 Canadian peacekeepers from Somalia charged, 2 convicted for torturing a 16-yr old Somali looter to death

Defense Sec Perry says Bosnians can’t reverse Serb occupation even w/NATO planes. Seems to give options of giving up or sending 100s of 1,000s of troops. Anthony Lewis says shows that NATO has no credibility, Safire that UN is worthless. Sir Michael Rose, UN commander, vetoing NATO doing anything – this veto was what Fr & Br wanted. Serbia may have sent a SAM-2 surface-to-air system to Croatian Serbs. Much of the attack on Bihac is from Croatian Serbs who UN was supposed to have disarmed since 1991. W/Serbs holding 300 UN peacekeepers hostage, Rose brilliantly sent convoys through Serb-held territory, to “restore normality” – 165 more were seized

11/29/94

Br gov won vote on increased contrib to EU. 8 Tory MPs suspended for abstaining (majority still 27 in this vote, but theoretically gov just suspended its majority)

Norway rejects EU membership, esp the N, fishing areas

A key way for illegal aliens into US are day cruises from Bahamas. INS report said over a yr ago that foreign gangs use it, but no change was made in practice

Perry was just the 1st. Clinton Admin drops all talk of air strikes or pressure on Serbs. Leon Panetta says the parties must simply stop fighting. The talk is of a “civil war”. NATO refuses to give air support to UN forces in Bihac unless it can attack missile battery threatening their planes, but UN will not give it.
-UN says will end peacekeeping in 2 weeks if no cease-fire.
-Serbs made 3 UN troops lie on a runway 8 yrs last week to stop threatened NATO raid. Gen. Mladic wants NATO flight plans, threatening the UN hostages, now 500
-US willing to allow confed of Bosnian Serbs & Serbia, says today.
-Croatia threatens to enter the war if Bihac falls (it is more of a threat to them)

House passes GATT 288-146, both parties split

Sup Court 7-2 saves a badly written Fed child porno law, by rewriting it, inserting the Congress’s alleged intention to inc a requirement of knowledge performers under-age. To assume otherwise would mean the law was unconst, so they *must* have meant this, says Rehnquist. Voting no were Scalia & Thomas, who also thinks you don’t need to prove knowledge

Russian fighters are bombing capital of secessionist Chechnya republic. Russia is pretending it has nothing to do w/that, or the troops.