October 1988

10/1/88

RR told Honduras he “accepts responsibility” for the Contras & may admit to US as refugees. Through AID, US feeding >50,000 people in Honduras--contras & relatives

Pope statement on ♀. Her identity emerges from relationship to a man. Separate identities [Note: women are subject to virginity, man to celibacy]

An Israeli weekly The Nation reported a secret deal w/Iran to release hostages in Lebanon

Stansfield Turner claims he took Noriega off payroll, but RR put him back on. Bush says he’s lying.

Duke finally starting an ad campaign for blacks. Dick Gregory will record one! It is too late to do real voter registration


10/2/88

Gorbachev now president.

Leaked documents of Bill Hayden, former Australian foreign min., says Aussie policy on port calls by nuclear ships drafted by US State Dept 1983.

Kinnock won battle for leadership of Labour, but it did pass measure to work to end NATO & Warsaw Pact.


10/3/88

One hostage released, an alien resident (see 10/1)

When Howard Baker came in, there was talk of relieving RR of power.

League of Women Voters pulled out of the prez debates, saying the campaigns controlling everything, inc. format, questioners, location of reporters, packing audience w/supporters. No follow-up q’s, rebuttals


10/4/88

RR “won’t hazard a guess” on why hostages released.

Pakistan Sup Court overturns ban on parties in elections.

Franz Josef Strauss, premier of Bavaria, d.

Quayle thinks strategic arms talks should be linked to conventional.

There have been reports that Du Pont concealed evidence of a number of accidents over 28 yrs at Savannah River nuke plant, but Energy Dept says it was the one.

Haiti suspending drive to disarm the Tontons Macoutes because military using it to rob, the gov says.

House set up an appeal court for veterans, 1st time allowing them to sue VA, use lawyers


10/5/88

Amnesty Int. report says 135 nations committed human rights abuses. US executed 25 in 1987, one mentally retarded. Ch. executed >200 known. SA hung 164.

Asked if kidnappers trying to sway elections, RR: “Well, if they are, I hope they’re on the right side.”

House of Reps sort of extended job discrim protection to its employees, exc for lifestyle--gays, unwed couples...

AEC people say it was never told of accidents at Savanna River


10/6/88

There have been problems in Yugoslavia. A couple of days ago, 5,000 workers invaded Parl. The problem centers on, what else, centralization, w/Serbs wanting greater control over the autonomous provinces, esp Kosovo, where Albanians are getting uppity. The leadership of Vojvodina resigned today.

Pinochet lost the referendum for extending his rule 8 yrs by 55%. He can still remain head of army & he could remain president until May90. Cabinet resigned, not accepted

Algeria under state of siege. IMF riots.

Israel banned Kahane’s party from Nov. elections on ground of racism, undemocratic. Kahane has proposed bill outlawing sexual relations Jews/non-Jews, separated neighborhood, forbid youth meetings.

Stockholm rejects special parking permit for the king.

The new Soviet ideology chief said communism in crisis, calls for borrowing, inc from non-socialists. No struggle to death w/capitalism. A flexible economy can only come from laws of supply & demand.

Brazil’s great new const into effect, but Sarney signed a bunch of decrees while still could. Created a new Nat Defense Secretariat; const elminated its old NSC

Nicaragua made it illegal to receive funds from US gov.

RR signed order 1985 giving CIA protections on pre-emptive strikes against terrorists. Shoot to kill?

Savannah R. closed down 9-12 times/yr for 20 yrs, 2X ave rate. 25 workers exposed, 15 since 1981. Inc possible explosion 1965, saved by 1 person, melting of fuel assembly 1970 (precedes meltdown), fuel rod melting 1970. In ¼ of forced shutdowns, procedures were violated

USIA cuts mean the debates, starting w/yesterday’s, will not be transmitted.


10/7/88

Lebanon paper that broke Iran-Contra says the Br hostages will be out soon.

Senate fails to pass parental leave bill.

Dukakis criticized Quayle for saying it was ok for foreigners to own US firms while he was in an It.-owned auto parts plant.

Chile referendum 54.7% to 43, 7m voting.

RR extends dipl immunity t 45 reps of Israel’s military purchasing office after 3 yrs during which 2 cases, one resulting in a comp pleading guilty of exporting chrome-plating equipment, the other on cluster bombs where Justice withdrew subpoenas for Israelis

SA decides not to prosecute Desmond Tutu for calling for boycott of elections.

VP debate:
-Q. spent period attacking Dukakis alone, while B. attacked Reagan & Bush.
-Tom Brokaw asked Quayle to describe meeting poor family & how he explained votes against school breakfasts, child immunization. Q: “they didn’t ask me those questions on those votes. Because they were glad that I took time out of my schedule...” Says tax simplification the biggest thing done for poverty.
-Q says Americans believe in the Monroe Doctrine
-Q kept being asked what he would do as president. Said he would say a prayer (so would we all!] & talk with his people. Later said this was a hypothetical q. Brokaw replied, “it is, sir, after all, the reason that we’re here tonight, because you are running not just for VP”
-Q said had as much experience as Kennedy had, to which Bentsen: “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” Also said he had as much experience as B. when he ran for prez 1980.
-B. says taking lots of PAC money because it’s the law.


10/8/88

Ira Glasser says Bush got ACLU’s position wrong. The case to eliminate Cath tax exemption is not an ACLU case; kiddie porn ACLU is against, but concerned w/sex-ed. books, dislike this system of movie classification. Jerry Falwell says Christians think of ACLU like Jews think of Nazis.
-Says Atty Gen Thornburg, who claims to have resigned the ACLU because it stopped defending civil liberties, started politics. But records show he left because of conflict of interest when became prosecutor.

Iceland may have elections before year’s end & the Women’s Party may be #2. 1/3 of support from men


10/9/88

Savannah R. is only producer of tritium

US & Br investigating mysterious deaths of 22 Br defense experts in Star Wars.


10/11/88

Agents from Iran& Soviet Bloc visiting nuclear weapons facilities + Israel, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Argentina. DOE never bothered w/background checks.

Israel army grabbed a body to prevent a pol funeral.


10/13/88

Bush still can’t name a system he’d cancel because if we didn’t need it, it wouldn’t be in the budget


10/17/88

Teamsters endorse Bush.


10/18/88

SA local elections begin. Boycott already prevents some polling because too few candidates or uncontested.

Israel now jailing parents of children in Intifada

In Armenia, a write-in candidate won 78% but CP says it was rigged.

Yugo. having real problems. Serb nationalism on rise, wipped up by party leader Slobodan Milosevic, who wants Serbia to regain control over Vojvodina, Kosovo.

D of Energy trying to get Savannah R. back on line much too fast--only producer of tritium, w/fast decay so would force deactivating warheads.

EEOC failed to investigate up to 82% of claims of job discrim in 3-mo. per 1987 & not fully investigating.

Br gov will restrict broadcast interviews w/Sinn Fein, IRA. SF is a legal organiz w/an MP.


10/19/88

USSR turning down 3% of Jewish visa applications (security). 75% change minds & stay.


10/20/88

Sihanouk says he’s getting US military aid.

It. Parl ended their secret vote

Gorbachev supports private farms as predominant form of agric. Wants 50-yr leases.

Law Lords uphold papers printing excerpts of Spycatcher.

The genocide treaty finally passes, w/out a death penalty provision.

Slovenian prez calls Milosevic a Stalinist. Blames him for street demonstrations in Vojvodina, Montenegro to get their leaders to resign. Successful in former.

CIA, DDCI Robert Gates said Gorbachev will fail to reform economy.

Gov overseers of nuclear weapons plant in Ohio knew for decades they were releasing thousands of tons of uranium waste into water supplies, air. 167,000 pounds into Great Miami River, 298,000 pounds into air

In debates a week ago, Bush got Duke to distance himself from Jobs with Peace as fast as he did from ACLU.

Br trying to (is?) abrogate right to silence in NI, by bringing such refusal before jury.


10/21/88

Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos indicted for racketeering for actions as and after presidency. Stole $m’s from Philippines, laundered it in US, cheating US banks by borrowing $160m under false pretences, false documentation in buying buildings. Curiously, this indictment not 5 days after a bases agreement signed w/Philippines.

5th Circuit rules US firms abroad can discriminate against US citizens (race, sex...)

Israel has arrested many Palestinians who work for UN Relief & () Agency, 47 still in custody.


10/22/88

Nancy R. has been “borrowing” designer clothes & jewelry from fashion houses, though promised 1982 to stop.

New drug law inc fines up to $10,000 for small amounts of drugs for personal use.

Ethics bill to prevent former Congressmen lobbying for 1 yr

Carlucci says US arms sales to Arab countries increases peace in Middle E. (might look elsewhere) and we should get that mkt.

Bush hasn’t freed Poland, but in Fulton MO: “The Iron Curtain still stretches from Stettin to Trieste.”

Leaflets from Illinois R party: “All the murderers & rapists & drug pushers and child molesters in Mass. vote for Michael Dukakis. We in Illinois can vote against him.”

Atty Gen Thornburgh will reverse Meese’s last act of rule to appoint sepcial prosecutors for Congress.

USSR ends limits on # of mag. subscriptions.

Br will (probably) allow conviction on charges of IRA membership on testimony of 1 cop.

Zach de Beer (Anglo American) is indeed now leader of Progressive Fed Party


10/25/88

Head of Nigeria’s military gov says goal is 2-party democracy by 1992. In 1988, unions disbanded, journalists detained & universities closed.

Amnesty Int. says Salvadoran death squad activity up

US to restrict entry of Nicaraguan officials (only for internat organizs) & with no freedom of mvmt (forcing one to cancel a tour of universities).

Under racketeering charges against Marcoses, gov trying to confiscate $250m in assets

Bush says Danny Quayle will be his drug czar. Quayle twice voted against having one.


10/26/88

USSR to release all pol prisoners by end of yr

Fr comp stopping production of abortion pill

Mark Russell says Bush’s visit to a flag factory was for a fitting.
-Says debate should be made into a game show, where contestants match answers to q’s.

Head of BBC World Service said Beeb would cont. to present all sides of Irish debate, in or out of the law

On Bush’s adoption-not-abortion policy, Nation 10/17/88 comments that with 1.6m abortions/yr, in a yr it became illegal on Jan. 1, all in adoption mkt would be satisfied by July 4. Then a “take 2, they’re small” campaign...

James Joyce: “When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight.”

George Bush is a man who calls a spade a “shovel thing.”


10/27/88

The accusation against Wright of leaking secrets killed the only Iran-Contra legislation--to notify Congress in 48 hrs of covert ops

In the debates’ rules, interviewers couldn’t interrupt & there would be no candidate-to-candidate questioning.

RR pocket-vetoed a bill protecting whistleblowers against waste, that passed unanimously.


10/28/88

Fr gov ordered the pharmaceutical comp to put abortion pill back on mkt

NYT claims Grenada elections may return famous loon Sir Eric Gairy, he of the UFOs. Gairy is waiting for a miracle to cure his glaucoma.

Israel suspends press credentials of 3 foreign reporters who wrote on death squads.

Another civil lawsuit against KKK gets over $1m damages for disrupting a civil rights march in Forsyth Cty, GA

Br gov blocks AAC’s takeover of Consolidated Gold, to be investigated. It seems that in Apr42, AAC would not allow US to buy a stockpile of industrial diamonds.


10/29/88

Dukakis, as governor, lost appeal on his right to prevent MA Nat Guard being sent to Cent. Am. despite Const.

Sakharov, on Soviet radio, calls for investigation of Stalin victims.

SA muni elections. Everyone claims victory. Majority of 1,839 black seats uncontested or no candidate. Turnout also low for Inds, coloureds. Conservs got majority of Transvaal councils, but not Pretoria & not as great as expected. PFP picks up a couple of councils. Claim 19% of black voters voted, helped by pre-voting. Still only 11% registered voters total (inc non-contested seats).

Quayle asked whether a child impregnated by her father could have an abortion, he said no.

Montenegro’s cabinet resigns over handling of demonstration.

Chile’s bishops pissed at Pinochet for comparing his plebiscite defeat to the crucifixion.


10/31/88

⅓ applicants for welfare or Medicaid fail. Of those denied, only 26% because earn or own too much. 60% for paperwork problems. Denials for procedural reasons increased 75% since 1980.

Russell Baker says tv & newspaper tells him that Bush “was elected president next month.”