October 1994

10/1/94

Iran bans satellite dishes


10/2/94

In 1962 Nixon est a false Dem. Cmte sending cards to registered D’s complaining about Pat Brown

Although Labour Party was supposed to have intro one-man-one-vote, the Transport & Gen Workers & GMB insist their delegates vote as a bloc


10/3/94

Iraq has been cutting the ears off army deserters

Ag Sec Mike Espy finally resigns after 2 new scandals: farmers collecting excessive disaster relief, and his girlfriend collecting a $1,200 college scholarship from Tyson

Sup Court new session w/only 8 new cases. Decided only 84 last term

US troops finally raid paramilitary Fraph hq, after several days in which NYT gives its address

North has raised $15m. For North. To become a Senator.

Hartford CT hires a priv comp to manage its 32 schools; 2/3 of students on welfare

Hong Kong recently refused visas to 2 Ch. dissidents


10/4/94

Azerbaijan Pres. Aliyev accuses his PM of planning a coup.

US to allow export of high-tech satellites to China, which will not violate internat agreement on technology transfer. They have said this before

One of Haitian 3, Col. François, head of police & goons, flees to Dominican Republic, if that’s the word for it, since he sat at the border 14 hrs because his papers not in order

Yeltsin to celebrate 1 yr since his coup (described in press as coup by his opponents), makes regional governors non-elective & appointed by himself. His press conf is restricted to Russian papers, since they could be trusted not to mention his failure to show his face in Ireland, not printed in Izvestia or Sevodnya. He has also suppressed a report by president’s Cmte on Human & Civil Rights talking about police beatings, deaths of soldiers, etc etc

At Labour Party conf, Blair: “A belief in society working together. Solidarity. Cooperation. Partnership. These are our words. This is my socialism. It is not the socialism of Marx or state control.” Or anything else. Verbs, we need verbs. Threatening to jettison Clause 4. His new position on NI is the Tories’, not pressing for unification. Will Labour now open branches there? And never supported the RR signal workers’ strike


10/5/94

A judge in Tenn. suspended 30 dys for suggesting a rapist found innocent by insanity needs a girlfriend, suggests pub defender arrange a dating service for him. And he gave a gift of red panties to various female court employees on Valentine’s Day

Perot tells voters to vote for R’s for Congress

Cult (Order of the Solar Temple) kill themselves, 48 in Switz., 2 Quebec – and then some

Mike Huffington, R for Senate in CA, spending some of his vast fortune after having bought a DOD job under RR, & a Congress seat 1992. His wife was a minister in a rich New Age Cult w/anti-gov overtones similar to Mike’s

An ind group says IRS sends up to $5b in refunds to fraudulent claims

Fed court says CA’s gas chamber unconst


10/7/94

Coors bans employees using the product during breaks

In CA, false accusations in lawsuits no longer protected from libel if send copy to a reporter

Tavares, Fla. votes out school board that said America’s cultural superiority should be taught

For Congress, 38 black D nominees, 25 R. 1 of the D’s, 8 R’s in majority-white districts

Poland’s lower house passed an Official Secrets Act banning reporting on 71 areas inc arms contracts, internat financial negotiations, foreign policy principles. Punishment up to 10 yrs. Upper house stalls, Walesa promises a veto

Labour conf refuses to revoke Clause 4, but by 50.1%

Ch. breaks worldwide (since 1992) moratorium on nuclear testing

NY elected Prosecutor Guiliani mayor & now he’s threatening to fire & blacklist all Legal Aid lawyers. They threatened to strike to get the same 4.5% raise the managers gave themselves before agreeing to accept 85% of criminal cases, up from 60%, but no money for raises – and insurance would cost more. Lawyers start at $31k, rising to max $64,800 at 13 yrs, encouraging them to quit then

UN’s intrusive monitoring of Iraq’s heavy weapons program now in place, but finding even that did not get sanctions lifted, Iraq moving 20,000 troops, and tanks, to border w/Kuwait. US moves an aircraft carrier, others, w/cruise missiles & 4,000 troops. US insists Iraq recognize Kuwait. Kuwait, by the by, looks not the tiniest bit more attractive now than 4 yrs ago

Haitian Parl passes pardon of a sort. Allows Aristide to pardon people of pol offenses only, not murder, torture, rape... That should, finally, send Cédras scurrying over the border. Parl also est a truth commission & a fund for victims.
-Gov admits a Nation article that Emmanuel Constant, head of paramilitary Fraph, the worst, was paid as an informant by the CIA, inc during & after his people’s demonstration stopped a US Navy ship Oct93, not dropped until spring. Admin 1st denied, now deny there exists a Pres. finding, w/out which is illegal. Constant told Nation he was encouraged to form Fraph by the US defense attaché, and that that guy & the CIA station chief were in military hq during the 1991 coup.
-Constant this week called on everyone to lay down arms
-R. Senators have been claiming Aristide accepted money from Colombian drug dealers. The info came from a DEA informer whose facts didn’t check out & who failed polygraph


10/8/94

Sept 27 350 R incumbents & challengers for Congress signed a “Contract with America” for tax cuts, balanced-budget amend, more military spending – Reagan’s manifesto

A R filibuster of bill to protect 6m acres of CA desert is broken – filibuster aimed not at the bill but at Dianne Feinstein

CIA spent millions on Japan’s LDP 1950s & 1960s. Inc requests for money by former PM Eisaku Sato (before PM). Also undermined its opposition, infiltrating Socialist Party, youth groups, labor groups. Ended 1970s, by when LDP “self-financing” (i.e., corrupted by others). Knew Jap. positions in trade talks, for all the good it did

Kuwait helped keep sanctions on Iraq by spreading around military contracts – $250m for patrol boats from Fr, $100m armored personnel carriers + $800m missiles & vehicles from Russia, etc. on understanding of their vote in UN


10/9/94

Last July Hutu soldiers killed all 750 patients in Rwanda’s main psychiatric hospital, now defunct

Clinton to send 36,000 troops to Persian Gulf. Iraq now has 63,000 on the border

Racist rightist Freedom Party gets 22% seats Austria, Soc Dem-Conserv People’s Party, in coalition 8 yrs, both losing substantially

When Panama gave asylum to 150 Haitians, it was on condition they not practice voodoo


10/10/94

Arizona & Maine want to have pres. primacy same day as NH (whose law says its primary has to be 1st)

Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto has at least 1,100 opponents arrested ahead of a gen strike, says there is no crackdown


10/11/94

Speaking of Pakistan, if it won’t sign Non-Proliferation Treaty & has the bomb, what was energy sec Hazel O’Leary doing there w/business leaders (& contributors to Dem party) getting GE & Bechtel to build them power plants? The contract’s being bribed by soybean deals & soc welfare grants, though aid was supposed to be cut off 1990 over nukes

Cédras resigns, finally says he will leave country. His farewell address was drowned out by hecklers

Rabin & Arafat will get the Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement will be Friday. Today, Israel stops talks w/PLO because a soldier kidnapped by Hamas. Rabin says he will hold Arafat personally responsible. Actually, the soldier is held in W Bank. Hamas wants release of various leaders in jail, inc 2 kidnapped from Lebanon, & all ♀ prisoners

Colo. Sup Court overturns 1992 measure forbidding protecting of gays from discrim, the 1st such decision. Next ballot: measure to ban gay marriage

It seems there were ethical guidelines for those 1950s radiation experiments, but no one knew what they were because they were top secret

The crisis in Iraq seems to be over, its purpose still unclear. It did get Iraq’s position discussed again, and at the cost of a little fuel, cost everyone else hundreds of millions, esp US, w/little risk since they didn’t invade anyone
-This time Jordan didn’t support Iraq
-And Kuwait still not ready, its army even smaller because of all those Bedouins & non-Kuwaitis let go. Kuwaitis still not interested. They’ve had to let Bedouins back in w/promises of citizenship

Br Tory Conf overshadowed by story that Mark Thatcher made $20m in commissions in arms sales to Saudi Arabia while his mother PM. And Norman Lamont saying Br gets nothing from being in EU & might have to pull out


10/12/94

Tom Paine: “Time makes more converts than reason.”

Clinton refused to pursue Mexico when GE & Honeywell fired union organizers. So much for NAFTA protections. And border environ. cleanup agencies still not underway

Romania again excludes ex-King Michael

Panama gives asylum to Haiti’s junta head
-Haitian Cath hierarchy, helpful as ever, say the US intervention means Haiti not free & sovereign


10/13/94

US to unfreeze $79m in bank accounts held by 600 Haitian ministry officers & supporters. And will rent 3 houses in Haiti from Cédras. Thug, murderer, landlord!

Protestant Ulster terrorists also cease fire

AT Tory Conf, Michael Howard calls for ID cards

After Russian ruble loses 25% of value in 1 day, Yeltsin talks of a conspiracy, fires reformist Finance Min.


10/14/94

Chair of Russian Cent. Bank resigns. Yeltsin tried to get Parl to fire him, issued decree relieving him of post, a power he does not have. Gerashchenko, the head, scorned mkt reforms, issued subsidies & credits to factories, state comps & farms, w/out informing Finance Ministry

I missed the almost secret CA gov debate in which Kathleen Brown revealed that her daughter was raped, so we can’t challenge her crime credentials.
-On immigration, in 1986 Sen. Wilson held up immigration reform until braceros allowed in, then fought INS on implementation, making it allow them into country on their word that they had previously been farm workers. 1.1m have gotten legal status through the program. The farmers needed 350,000. And they brought the spouses & children Wilson now wants to deny ed. & emergency medical treatment

US wants UN to pass immediately an order to Iraq to w/draw from Kuwaiti border, or we’ll act unilaterally. Rejects Russian-brokered deal to end sanctions 6 mos after Iraq recognizes Kuwait

Israel tries a raid to save their hostage, lose him & 1 of the raiders. Oops. And, hey, Hamas had extended its deadline. Oops. And they were in W Bank, not Gaza as Rabin insisted when holding PLO responsible. Oops. Rabin, Arafat & Peres get Nobel Peace Prize & there is the 1st resignation from Nobel Cmte since Kissinger, protesting Arafat, not Mr. “Force, Might and Beatings”

Chilean President Frei wants 8 unelected senators appointed by Pinochet removed


10/15/94

RJR gets ABC in LA & ch. 44 SF to pull anti-smoking ads from CA Health Services Dept

Gingrich says if R’s win Senate back from the “enemies of normal Americans” he will set up cmte to investigate corruption in White House

Aristide returns to Haiti


10/16/94

Mass., Maine, VT, Utah allow prisoners to vote


10/17/94

Republican candidates for Congress are ignoring Bush in favor of Reagan and mostly are fighting Clinton
-Many D’s, inc in this district, fail to mention their party

Clinton has finally got through some judges, 129, 1/5 women, 1/4 black. All middle of the road, older, judges rather than law professors, none w/any ideology. One fed district judge opposes abortion

Clinton demanded Indonesia intro worker rights by Feb84 or face sanctions. Feb94 came & went, he dropped formal scrutiny, now won’t do anything because he’ll go there next month for Asia-Pacific summit

Gov. Wilson vetoed bill to stop police depts selling confiscated guns

Finland votes 57% to join EU (non-binding on parl)

Chunnel’s RR service Paris-London to start next month – and cost more than by plane

D’Amato playing at kingmaker, the candidate for governor George Pataki being a wholly-owned subsidiary. Now the R candidate for the other senate seat, Bernadette Castro, says he is also discussing people donating to her. Suggests D’Amato has a non-aggression pact w/Moynihan

A fed judge rules an inmate must be allowed to perform satanic rituals, writing “We ought to give the devil his due”.

Ger elections. Christ Dems 41.5%, Free Dems 6.9%, 284 & 46 seats of 656. Coalition has 341 seats, SPD-led opposition 331 & 48.1% vote total, SPD 37% & 249, Greens 7 & 49, ex-CP 4% & 29 seats (up from 17), I don’t understand exactly why the 5% min doesn’t apply. Far-right Repubs 1.9%. SPD won 3 state legs, so it has 2/3 in upper house

State of nuclear test ban treaty: US wants to allow anyone to leave on 180 days notice after 10 yrs. Ch. won’t accept until 1996 & wants a loophole for “peaceful” nuclear explosions

Defense Sec Perry in Ch. to renew military ties

Israel’s little hostage crisis over, w/gov generously agreeing to resume peace talks. It is interesting that Israel did not send troops into Gaza. Arafat was pressured into arresting 200 Hamas leaders, then releasing them, which does wonders for his standing.
-Israel & Jordan sign 1st peace treaty (draft) since 1979

US humiliating Russia over its attempts to come to some deal on incremental reduction of sanctions on Iraq. We’re also running mock bombing runs over Iraq


10/19/94

Haitian people have obeyed Aristide’s injunctions, stopped lynching the “attachés,” but handing them over to American troops, who hand them over to Haitian police, who release them

US-N Korea deal to give them $4b in energy aid (½ from SK, others from Japan, maybe Russia, Ger, US to freeze nuclear programs & dismantle over time. But will have nuclear rods for yrs

Jordan-Israel peace deal inc water diversion to Jordan, renting some of its land right back to Israel (Syria says this is blasphemy). Jordan a “special role” in Jerusalem (PLO pissed)

UN still not authorizing air strikes on Bosnian Serbs, inc after an aid convoy fired on & a driver killed


10/20/94

20,000+ blacks claim $43,209 from IRS. This is either the mkt price of 40 acres & a mule, or the difference between median wealth of white & black households – the “black tax”

Suicide bomber destroys Israeli bus killing 22 in what some have been calling the worst terrorist attack in years, presumably excluding the February massacre of Palestinians. Gaza & W Bank sealed off & security services given secret powers. Rabin says they should know that not only may they be killed, but their homes & those of their families, and detention w/out trial, said the Nobel Peace Prize winner

US’s top priority in Yugoslavia is now for some reason to get Serbia to give dipl recognition to Bosnia & Croatia. Fr want to allow Bosnian Serbs to confederate w/Serbia

Portland’s ex-police chief forced to w/draw from consideration to head new crime bill funding of 100,000 cops because he supports gay rights (his daughter is a gay cop).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics no longer issues figures for temp jobs, discouraged workers, part-time etc. So we can’t know what the real unemp rate is

Tony Blair’s party conf speech said would not eliminate Tory trade-union laws. Ballot for strikes, for ex.


10/21/94

A Br junior minister resigns for taking bribes to raise questions, another jr minister refuses to. These are not the 2 MPs caught in a newspaper set-up. These got £2,000 for question from Harrods, hostile to Lonrho, trying to take Harrods over. The questions inc allegations of arms dealing & falsified accounts

Ollie North accuses Clinton of offering Douglas Wilder an ambassadorship if he endorses Chuck Robb. This would be illegal. (Update 10/22: Wilder endorses Robb)

Baltimore judge gives a man who caught his wife in bed w/someone & killed her 18 mos, saying “inflicting some corporal punishment” is understandable. Would have given him no time, but needed to make the system honest


10/22/94

Dutch tv shows a euthanasia

DNA frees a man 10 yrs into a 3 life + 34 yrs term for rape in VA. Shouldn’t have been required, since he had a vasectomy & the rapist had sperm. Governor sees no reason for compensation

John Major will begin talks w/IRA before end of yr, if truce holds. Opens roads w/Eire & the exclusion orders on Gerry Adams & Martin McGuiness

The new Bishop of Durham was once convicted of gross indecency w/another man

Health care is not an election issue. Only 1 ad mentions it, that of Ted Kennedy, on pro side. Still a salient issue, say polls, but Dems failing to stake a position on this or anything else. Dems are encouraging Clinton to leave the country & have a nice long tour of Middle East up to elections.
-And R’s distanced from Bush towards Reagan, inc Jeb Bush, who wants to throw mothers & children off welfare in 2 yrs w/no new job training on child-care, remove tv’s & exercise rooms from prisons, priv school vouchers. Florida debates wee held at Disneyworld. Lawton Chiles doesn’t know how to run against someone w/no record at all.
-Ann Richards in Texas knows how: constant ridicule. But George Bush “proudly” proclaims having never held office.
-Pete Wilson’s commercials ignore his 4 yrs as governors & 8 in Senate (his last priv job was flipping hamburgers) but pounds on crime & immigrants (as does Kathleen Brown). Anti-politics means no issues, none. Not health care, abortion, flag-burning, the deficit, the economy (which really frustrates Clinton). So it’s all crime, welfare & tax cuts (on which all candidates are on the right) and... character. Even Ollie North running on his character against that philanderer. And Huffington wants “a gov that does nothing” – and he’s just the man!


10/23/94

Americans w/Disabilities Act in 4 yrs has failed to get them jobs. 31% of disabled 16 to 64 working (inc part time)

Ch. accuses Br of using “welfarism” to sabotage the Hong Kong free mkt – instituting old age pensions!

Br Parl to investigate payment of MP for questions behind closed doors. Labour MPs quit the cmte in protest


10/24/94

A probably meaningless budget office working memo leaks, suggesting as options. Soc Sec cuts or new taxes. Meaningless exc to Republicans. Obscures that deficit last yr only $203b

US behind schedule in creating a new Haitian police. So they’ll cut human rights & ethics training to 6 days. 1,200 refugees trained, but only for clerical traffic, because we insist need to use old cops & military. 2 weeks ago, tried to install new police in Cap-Hatïen, but they were recognized as military by crowd & hooted down. Now we’re transferring such people to areas where they won’t be recognized. A dozen colonels packed off as military attachés abroad. It doesn’t help that Pentagon thinks American troops can be used indiscriminately for war or peacekeeping w/out separate units or training


10/25/94

Iran’s writers call for end to censorship. Encyclopedias have been banned for listing wine as a country’s export. The leading film censor is blind. Films set in foreign countries & pre-revo Iran still have to have women in Islamic dress

Opposition parties Macedonia claim electoral fraud, will boycott 2nd round

NY Repub mayor Guiliani endorses Cuomo over D’Amato’s puppet

WaPo says that while Ollie North claimed in his diaries he told DEA that contra supply planes bringing back drugs, DEA says he didn’t. North’s integrity is defended by Meese & Elliott Abrams, so that settles that.

Aristide chooses a richy as PM, an American-ed. commodities trader

Fr HS expels 8 Muslim girls for wearing scarves
-There are now more Muslims in Fr than Protestants or Jews
-The ed. minister says discreet relig signs ok (a cross?) but not ostentatious ones


10/26/94

A 2nd junior Br minister resigns. Major says he was innocent of taking money from the Fayeds, who now own Harrods (& hints at blackmail by Fayed of gov) but for unspecified new allegations, which seem to be that he lobbied for SA industries w/out disclosing

Emergency judicial order stops “voluntary” return of interned Cubans at Guantanamo

Ch’s nuclear testing aimed at developing submarine-launched missiles & 1st MIRV able to reach Russian & US cities

Mitterrand assisted a biographer who shows how close he was to Vichy types. Got Vichy’s highest honor. A friend after war of René Boucquet, responsible for the round-ups of Jews in Paris 1942. As min interior 1954, took many of Bousquet’s former staff on. M. obstructed crimes-against-humanities trial until his assassination 1991, which he admits


10/27/94

Jeb Bush puts out Willie Horton ads attacking Fla Gov. Lawton Chiles for not executing the killer of a 10-yr old girl. Features her mother. Thing is, his appeal is still pending. Hell, his father supported pledge of allegation, constitutional or not

Pete Wilson wants citizenship cards to present when trying to get a job, health care or school

Renamo pulls out of Mozambique elections less than 24 hrs before

FTC has collected 1/3 of the fines imposed since 1980; it’s owed $236m

“Natural Born Killers” banned Ireland, delayed br

Mike Huffington supporter of anti-immigrant Prop 187, admits after 1st having denied it, employing an illegal as nanny for 5 yrs

Florida, which has deported (freed) 165 inmates to no nat. outcry or even interest, now to deport suspects of misdemeanors & nonviolent crimes, if they agree in order to avoid trial

Inmates of US prisons topped 1m. Plus local jails, which 1992 was 445,000. 373/100,000 in prison, 139 1980. 1.43% blacks in prison. 0.203 whites. Women 6.1% prisoners CA 124,813. In 1980 1.9% arrested for narcotics sent to prison, 1992 10.4% (and there are more arrests)


10/28/94

Russian gov survives a vote of confidence w/a full 54 votes, to 194 against (total 450 brave deputies, majority required)

Most grotesque CA ad: for Dem. Atty Gen candidate Tom Umberg trying to out-crime-bait Dan Lungren. Uses the grandfather or murdered child Polly Klaas to accuse Lungren of spending money on PR instead of a criminal-tracking system which might have saved her


10/29/94

Renamo back in Mozambican elections, which are extended

Huffington when young, went into business w/2 friends in an investment bank, bailed out at 1st sign of trouble, after having failed to use his connections to bring in any business. When it recovered w/out him, he sued & got $700,000 (investment: $1,000). Now went into his father’s oil business. Did little (and what he did lost money – and he evidently went back on promise to back it up, leaving several banks w/losses.) Is most remembered for banning coffee. White House nominated him to be Asst Sec Commerce 1985, but w/drew. Then named him dep asst sec Defense for negotiations policy. He did nothing, studied nothing – all there was on his schedule was lunch, says Frank Gaffney. Fred Ikle told Huffington’s deputy to bypass him. He bought a House seat, intro 3 bills in 2 yrs & did nothing. And for someone who once objected to his weird wife being attacked, his campaign suggests the INS investigate her rather than him for the nanny. Feinstein had the 1st nanny ad, on tv w/in a day. Huffington transported the nanny to D.C. 2 mos after co-sponsoring a bill calling for 5-yr jail sentence for any employer transporting an illegal immigrant for work

Texas state treasurer running on platform of eliminating her own job & agency

Gore calls Ollie North’s supporter, “extra-chromosome right wing.” North says he’s insulting people w/Down Syndrome & gets photo op w/14-yr old Downie

Some guy fired a semi at the White House, 20-30 shots


10/30/94

State Dept & CIA refusing to release papers under the 30-yr rule (huh?) on JFK’s efforts against Guyana. Dr. Cheddi Jagan was Guyana’s 1st native-born PM, elected 1953, 1957, 1961. JFK left a smoking gun document saying get rid of him. At which pt radio stations showed up, papers falsely claimed Cuban warships coming, unions paid by American Institute for Free Labor Devt struck, riots killed 100+ & arson. We had Br block its ind, change its electoral systems Oct63 to vote for parties rather than people. Jagan fell, replaced until 1985 by thief & racist Forbes Burnham, who ran debt up to $2b – interest is now 80% of budget, ½ foreign earnings. In 1st free elections as an ind. country, Jagan reelected 1992. Clinton, not knowing any of this, tried to appoint as ambassador the director of Amer. Institute for Free Labor Devt, responsible for the troubles

A 15 yr old from Oxnard, admittedly w/11 earlier convictions for graffiti, sentenced to 8 yrs for scratching name on wall at Juvenile Hall

Saw another tough-on-crime ad, attacking the opponent for not supporting 3 Strikes etc etc etc. The post was... insurance commissioner


10/31/94

Pope appoints 30 cardinals, completing his control of choosers of his successor

Huffington on his weak Congressional record: “I did not go to Washington to pass a lot of new legislation for the past 200 years, that’s all they have been doing.”

Secret Service claims the guy who shot at White House, like the guy w/the plane, not assassination attempts

The Leader of the Russian MMM pyramid scheme that screwed millions, was released from jail... to run for Parl in a by-election for a seat appropriately freed up by a mob killing. And he won. He never ran for any other reason than to get Parl immunity – and didn’t disguise the fact. Voters thought it was the only way to get their money back. He promised miracles, as usual, in expensive tv campaign, inc spending $10m of own money in the district & ensuring a phone in every house
-Update 11/1/94: Today he says their shares are “suspended”