November 1993

11/1/93

Seymour Hersh New Yorker 11/1/93 on Iraq’s alleged assassination attempt on Bush. Clinton moved to bomb in June, just 1 day after receiving FBI report. The plot was announced by the new Kuwaiti Min of Info, the former ambassador to US whose daughter anon. peddled the babies-ripped-from-incubators story to Congress. Clinton said the remote control in the car bomb similar to previous ones from Iraq, and released photos of what were actually mass-produced controls w/no “signature” at all. The car bomb itself was much more sophisticated than Iraqi ones. The FBI saw the prisoners & claimed there was no coercion, w/out any medical exam or polygraph. No one even mentioned a plot until 4 days after the initial arrest

Pravda reappears. Gov allowed it to keep the name but forced to fire its editor. Still, it opposes the elections & Yeltsin pretty strongly

Clinton Admin allows Wisc to limit welfare to families w/children to 2 yrs & to require food stamps & welfare be repaid from required work at min wage

Clinton doesn’t want broader sanctions on Haiti, but wants to freeze assets & revoke visas of 40 in current gov. Ooo. Maybe the CIA will even stop their salaries


11/2/93

Tory party is bankrupt, owing £19m


11/3/93

Russia’s new military doctrine – hey, we have no enemies at all – nevertheless revokes the 1982 pledge against nuclear 1st use

Russia will cont. dumping radioactive waste in Sea of Japan after all

US, Br & Fr threatening Russia for blocking sanctions on Libya. Russia is mostly concerned that Eur oil & gas drilling contracts are protected while Libya’s debt to Russia is ignored

In yesterday’s election, CA voted down school vouchers by 70%, 3 cities inc Cincinnati repealed protection of gays from discrimination; Wash state approved mandatory life sentences w/out parole after 3 felonies

Japan has vending machines for used underwear “guaranteed to have been worn by a Japanese schoolgirl.”


11/4/93

Gore & Perot to debate NAFTA, a sure sign of how badly Clinton is doing

Clinton health plan involves regional alliances, to be defined by and within states. Where the lines are drawn would be a major fight. Areas w/cities will charge much more, as things like AIDS, drug addiction, effects of poverty, are shifted from Medicaid, to the health plans. So what you pay doesn’t depend on benefits but on who you’re lumped with. Watch the suburbs fight for their lives


11/5/93

Clinton has failed to fill most civil rights posts since he backed off Lani Guinier. EEOC run by its only “Dem,” a RR holdover who was head of CA Dems & Inds for RR 1980. Nor the civil rights positions at Labor, Justice

Though Croatian Pres. Tudjman was an anti-fascist partisan WW2 & his brother killed, he put something like the Ustashe coat of arms in the flag, adopted its currency, and appointed at least 2 Utashe people to posts

The Year of the Woman-as-Victim continues. Sen. votes to subpoena Sen. Packwood’s personal diaries to check into sexual harassment. Changing fed law to allow evidence of previous sex crimes in race & child molestation cases, extend fed civ rights protection to rape as a “gender-motivated” crime, new penalties for spouse abusers who cross state lines, etc


11/6/93

Yeltsin says he won’t have early pres. elections after all, but stay until 1996

In Jordan’s elections, of 556 candidates, 3 are women. There are none in Parl now

New Br crime of hunt sabotage, subject to 3 mos or fine


11/8/93

Perot, w/the debate on NAFTA tomorrow, claims a death plot against him by Mafias that want to use NAFTA to smuggle drugs

Yeltsin’s draft const is out. And hey, he gets more power, inc nominating, dissolving Parl, and doesn’t have to run again as he promised. In fact, there will be a 2nd election for Parl when he wins again, as the 1st Parl election is only for 2 yrs. Regions are all to be equal & fed law to have primacy
-21 parties have submitted the 100,000 names required to participate in Dec. election. Const says Duma controls budget. Presidents need consent to name a PM, but not to fire one, and if it refuses his choice 3X in a row (3 different people?) it can be disbanded. No VP. Head of cent. bank answerable to him, not parl

Jordan elects a woman MP, its 1st

Someone wants to est a Stalinist theme park outside Berlin, w/only Trabants, secret police, etc

As El Salvador’s death squads resume, released US intelligence reports say RR & Bush admin knew connections of military/death squads, show current VP Merino an organizer, ditto mayor of San Salvador, retired defense minister Ponce. Also, d’Aubuisson plotted to assassinate Pres. Cristiani. 1982 State said there was no good info on d’Aubuisson’s links to Romero assassination, but a report prepared for Bush 3 weeks before said the opposite (note that VP Merino into death squads). Salvador bitching about espionage!

Everyone’s take on last week’s elections & return of R’s in NJ, NYC, etc, that it was based on crime only. New governor of VA’s platform inc abolishing parole
-So Sen. votes 91-1 (Packwood) for mandatory life sentences for 3 felonies where the 3rd is on fed land (poor Indians!) & 52-41 to allow death sentences where offender was under 18

Daily Mirror has pictures of Princess Di exercising in leotards. She gets an injunction & is suing. This should put a nail in the free press, since gov was already thinking of intervening


11/9/93

The campaign manager (Ed Rollins) of Christine Todd Whitman, new governor NJ, admits paying black ministers not to rally their flocks for Florio. $500,000

Sup Court 9-0 says sexual harassment doesn’t require psych. damage or productivity loss, just that it create a hostile environment


11/10/93

Ed Rollins now takes it back. Yeah, right. Oddly enough, he wasn’t confessing, but bragging.
-1981 R’s put off-duty cops at polling places


11/11/93

House 238-189 passes Brady Bill. 5 day waiting per handguns. Expires in 5 yrs when there’s supposed to be a computerized background check system

Russia claims only 144 killed in Parl battle

Salvador is failing to replace its police force. The old one is supposed to be disbanded, but it’s actually grown by 50% ro so (they won’t say), from abolished army units. Still runs an academy for it, while the site for an academy for the new one is in the hottest part of the country, and money is spent on it rather than training – indeed, they’ve refused US money

I haven’t said anything about the demeaning NAFTA debate between Gore & Perot. Which is more than enough.

SA ends detention w/out trial

US thinking of letting Israel use some of that $10b for redeploying troops out of Gaza & Jericho

A W Va. state police serologist faked results of blood tests over a decade. An ind team tested 36 cases & found he lied or manipulated to win cases in 36 times. 134 or more prisoners. In Texas, where he did same thing since 1989, inc one facing death. FBI “investigated” & did nothing


11/12/93

Plymouth, Eng Labour council to stop calling people managers – it’s a sexist term

Chile sentences ex-chief & assistant of military secret police for assassination of Letelier. Got 7 & 6 yrs

Sw. to end its subvention of ANC, as it will run as a pol party

Clinton says he’d defend R’s in elections if D’s attack them for voting for NAFTA. Of course by 1994, even D’s won’t want Clinton’s help

Clinton orders tougher child porn laws after attacked for Justice’s changing Bush position in a Sup Court case in which the children are clothed & do not act lasciviously

Winchester makes a bullet called the Black Talon which deploys claws on impact, ripping apart organs & needing to be removed by drs by hand, exposing them to AIDS & hepatitis


11/15/93

There is a part of Hong Kong where women can’t inherit prop. or vote in village elections. This is the New Territories (1898), whose customs Br was not supposed to fuck with

The CIA created an intelligence service in Haiti 1986 to fight cocaine, but it evolved into a terror and, of course, drug-trafficking body. CIA cut ties (!) after 1991 coup. CIA did spirit 6+ Aristide supporters out after coup, involving SEALs. $½-1m a yr spent on this group that never produced drug intelligence

1954 Soviets tested to see if (45,000) troops could operate in an area right after hit by an atomic bomb. It was an airburst, the mushroom cloud above the troops. 1m lived w/in 100 miles

Alan Friedman, author of book on Iraqgate, says arms transfers 1982-7 kept from Congress, RR personally asked It. PM to arm Iraq 1985, State Dept did approve exports. Bush knew of the transfers as VP. State Dept recommended each export license say “no nuclear use” so Iraq would know not to use stuff in their nuclear program

Puerto Rico referendum. 48.4% for Commonwealth, 46.2% for statehood


11/18/93

Nat Academy for Science, Space & Technology college scholarships, based solely on test results (ACT), not grades, go 3/4 to boys

Labor Dept says unemp rate has been under for yrs by a biased survey which assumed ♀ were home-makers. So unemp Aug92-Aug93 7.6%, not 7.1%

Sen. 69-30 votes to prohibit bombings, arson, blockade, threats of violence at abortion clinics

UN officially ends the hunt for Somalia’s Gen. Aidid, asking a commission to find out whether he was responsible for what we’ve been hunting him for for months. 8 Aidid aides released

Japan to redistrib Parl seats to urban areas, 274 elected in single seats, 226 on PR by party. Corp contribs to indivs banned (but not to parties)

Law signed setting looser standard for laws restricting relig practices than Sup Court recently allow3ed, restores “compelling state interest”

Congressional Budget Office says Gore’s plan to streamline gov will not save $6b by 1998, as gov estimates, but $305m

Shell breaks sanctions, resumes selling gas in Haiti

US Court of Appeals says military academy The Citadel must accept a woman who omitted her sex on application, pending appeal


11/19/93

US threatens N Korea w/UN sanctions if doesn’t allow inspectors of nuclear plants. I thought the treaty said you were allowed to w/draw on 6 mos notice?

Congress puts Don’t ask, don’t tell into law. But, as written by Sam Nunn, would allow a future defense sec to reinstate questioning. Says homosexuality a risk to morale & discipline. Does not ban witch-hunts.
-Also allows ♀ to serve on Navy combat ships
-But this comes the day after a Fed appeal court panel unanimously strikes down as unconst the removal of a gay from Annapolis. Clinton admin had argued that both old & new policies necessary for good order


11/20/93

Clinton wins NAFTA. Having little personal inf, he bribed, bribed, bribed. Inc limits on Canadian peanut butter & wheat, orange juice, cucumbers... and an unknown # of bridges, etc. D’s voted no 156-102, R’s yes 132-43

Clinton, who meets Ch’s president, highest level contact since Tiananmen, sells it Ch. a supercomputer 40X faster than any previous. And will sell parts to nuke plants. Asked for no concessions. Also satellites.

The 2nd white man to be executed for killing a black (man bites dog) has been issued a stay 9 hrs before. Problem: he’s innocent. It was in prison & there were plenty of witnesses, and a videotape, showing him elsewhere. Convicted on evidence of 2 guards.

Nigeria back under complete military rule

After ousting Superintendent of Ed. on a semi-trumped-up charge, Gov. Wilson nominates a specialist in failing comps w/no background in ed.

Crime Bill passes, inc more cops, boot camps, prisoners, bans sale of guns to minors, makes some gang activities fed offenses, expands death penalty to 52, school metal detectors

CIA’s anti-drug program in Venezuela shipped a ton of pure cocaine to US 1990. They say, woops


11/22/93

Israel says Patriot missiles intercepted at most 1 Scud during Gulf War


11/23/93

Israel admits assassinating 10-15 PLO leaders 1970s. Golda Meir approved every target (after Munich)

House votes against DC statehood 277-153. The 153 were all D’s + Bernie Saunders + just 1 R

Winchester withdraws the Black Talon bullet (handgun but not rifle version)

It. muni elections go largely to neo-Fascists (though Allessandra Mussolini comes in 2nd for mayor of Naples), & ex-CP. Christ Dems drop from 30% Apr92 to 10%

Ag Dept to drop contracts to comps that defraud fed programs

Charles Manson to get royalties on t-shirts with his picture on the front and “Charlie Don’t Surf” on the back (the line is from Apocalypse Now)


11/25/93

Heidelberg U. used human corpses, over 200 inc 8 children, in auto crash tests. So do US

Fed appeals court says FCC ban on indecent programming 18 hrs a day violates adults’ 1st Amend rights. FCC decides to ignore the decision for 6-8 pm

Iraq has drained 40% of freshwater marshes in Shiite territory, preparatory to military action

Clinton meets Salman Rushdie, as Bush refused to. But made sure there wasn’t even a photo of it

EC now = Eur Union


11/26/93

Kohl’s sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic candidate for Ger pres. gives up

Ukraine to test foreigners for AIDS & expel those w/it

Russian court says Protocols of Zion a forgery & publishing them an anti-Semitic act

Clinton wants to get rid of ‘85 Pressler Amend, which bars aid to Pakistan as long as it develops nukes (which Bush allowed to go into effect 1990 by no longer lying.) He wants a generic version, but allowing him to waive it in nat interests


11/28/93

The Afk Broderbund allows in non-whites & women

Disclosure that Br gov has had contacts w/IRA. A couple of weeks ago, Major such an idea would turn his stomach. Gov now says the talks were not negotiations

Br has a new agency, running since April, to get fathers to contrib to children (& get them off the dole). But instead of punishing teenagers as planned, it postponed going after fathers who paid nothing instead of those paying not enough. Endangering some 2nd marriages, overturning settlements...


11/29/93

S Wales asks the Royals (inc Prince of Wales) to stay out as they can’t afford police


11/30/93

Energy Dept pays the priv contractors who clean up nuke site pollution 1/3 more than priv industry spends on similar work. Of course this overpaying was discovered in a priv study

Jeb & George W. Bush are running for governor of Fla & Texas. “I knew the Kennedy clan. The Kennedy clan were good friends of mine, and you Junior are no John John.” George already has stolen a line from his brother’s campaign. Jeb wants to abolish Dept Ed. George to put sexual offenders away forever

Clinton downplays his meeting w/Salman Rushdie. It was only a couple of minutes, not meant to show disrespect of Islam... The head of Iran’s judiciary says Clinton “the most hated man before all the Muslims of the world.”

State Dept to crack down on dipl car tickets in US, refusing to renew registrations

Yeltsin’s Deputy PM asks Cent. Election Commission to ban CP & Demo Party for campaigning against draft const. Y. threatened candidates for parl w/losing free tv time if criticize const – gov says merely by running they accept its existence. Of course Y. needs a majority to go to the polls