WORD Art is either plagiarism or revolution - Paul Gauguin TODAY IN HISTORY 1804 John Deere is born. In 1837 he would introduce the steel plow, a major improvement for mid-western farmers still using cast iron plows they had brought from New England. These plows had been designed for light, sandy soil. The rich, mid-western soil clung to the plow bottoms and every few steps it was necessary to scrape the soil from the plow. Using steel from a broken saw blade, Deere produced a highly polished device that scoured itself as it turned the furrow slice. From this success grew the largest agricultural implement company in the world . . . 1812 Charles Dickens is born . . . 1882 John L. Sullivan defeats Patty Ryan to become the last heavyweight world champion bare-fisted fighter . . . 1885 Sinclair Lewis is born. His novel about a banal businessman, "Babbit," helped Americans take capitalism with a grain of salt - at least until the 1980s came along . . . 1964 The Beatles are greeted by 25,000 fans as they arrive in America at JFK Airport. Their music helped Americans take everything with a grain of salt - at least until the 1980s came along. ANTIQUE JOHN DEERE TRACTORS http://shaysnet.com/~rainbow/ HISTORY NET http://www.thehistorynet.com/today/today.htm ROTTEN HISTORY http://www.rotten.com/today/ WRITER'S ALMANAC http://writersalmanac.org/docs/01_01_29.htm BUSH READY TO SURRENDER US SOVEREIGNTY [NAFTA and other recent trade agreements represent the largest surrender of national, state, and local sovereignty in America's history - all with but the most cursory debate. Today such anti-constitutional, anti-democratic and anti-national agreements are treated as just business as usual by an elite and media that increasingly views America more as a mail drop than as a homeland. The Washington Post, for example, buried this major story on its business page] PAUL BLUSTEIN WASHINGTON POST: The Bush administration signaled that it will open the US border at least partially to Mexican trucks, after an arbitration panel ruled that Washington's ban on such vehicles violates the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The administration's stance marks a sharp departure from that of the Clinton White House concerning one of the most controversial aspects of NAFTA. And although administration officials declined to say how or when the border might be opened, the prospect of Mexican trucks rolling onto US highways triggered an outpouring of warnings from the Teamsters union and other groups that argue that public safety would be endangered. The 1993 free-trade agreement, which reduced or eliminated barriers to US-Mexico trade in a host of sectors, contained a phased-in provision allowing Mexican trucks to haul goods directly into the United States provided they meet US safety standards. While President Bill Clinton championed NAFTA, he bowed to pressure from the Teamsters by refusing to open the border, asserting that Mexican trucks couldn't be adequately monitored for safety problems. WASHINGTON POST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35445-2001Feb6.html PUBLIC CITIZEN: Fewer than 1 percent of Mexican trucks entering the US are inspected. The US has neither the facilities nor the personnel to inspect every truck. Although Mexico pledged to institute a comprehensive truck safety program when NAFTA went into effect, seven years later, that country still has not instituted an effective system. Mexico does not limit the time drivers spend behind the wheel. Some drivers report being required to drive 36 hours straight with just a six-hour break before returning to the road. Mexico's hazardous materials control system is much more lax than the US system. Mexican truck carriers last year were more than three times as likely to have safety deficiencies as US carriers. MEXICAN TRUCK REPORT http://www.tradewatch.org/nafta/naftapg.html. ECOLOGY ENS: One of the world's largest re-insurance firms is warning that climate change could cost the world more than three hundred billion dollars each year. Only "urgent efforts" to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and the other gases linked with the greenhouse effect, can avert this outcome, says the new report from Munich Re, which has been monitoring the cost of natural disasters since the 1960s . . . Dr. Gerhard Berz, head of Munich Re's Geoscience Research group, says, "there is reason to fear that climatic change will lead to natural catastrophes of hitherto unknown force and frequency." http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2001/2001L-02-05-02.html FINGERPRINTS OF CHANGE EDMONTON, CANADA: Warmest summer on record, 1998. Temperatures were more than 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the 116-year average. EARLY WARNING SIGNS MAP http://www.climatehotmap.org/namerica.html IRAQ RICHARD WALTON IN PROVIDENCE JOURNAL: [Under sanctions against Iraq] deaths of children under five caused by respiratory infection, diarrhea and gastroenteritis and malnutrition grew tenfold between 1989 and 1999. The incidence of low birth weight children grew from 4.5 percent to 24.1 percent between 1990 and 1999 . . . Communicable diseases preventable by vaccination have soared. Doctors and nurses report that children who could easily have been saved have died for lack of medicine. Hospital equipment lies idle for lack of spare parts. There is not even sufficient cleaning supplies to maintain sanitation in hospitals . . . Then there is the horrifying problem of children in southern Iraq developing leukemia or being born with cancers and grotesque malformations, something never before seen in that region . . . Even if the sanctions were to end tomorrow and Iraq could pump much more of its oil wealth into the economy instantly, it would take years for the nation to recover. Of course, the hundreds of thousands who have died are forever gone, and the health of millions can never be entirely restored. PROVIDENCE JOURNAL http://www.projo.com/report/stories/04905151.htm RECOVERED HISTORY The reason for SATs ERIK LORDS, DETROIT FREE PRESS: Standardized tests for college and law school admission are inherently biased against women and minority applicants, an expert witness said during the federal trial to decide whether the University of Michigan's Law School admissions policy is constitutional. Martin Shapiro, a testing specialist and psychology professor at Emory University in Atlanta, testified that using race as one of many factors in admissions is the only way colleges can offset biases in standardized tests . . . The Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, which has been used for about 75 years, was designed to benefit certain groups and hurt others, he said. According to Shapiro, college officials decided during the mid-1920s that there were too many Jewish students in undergraduate Ivy League classes, including at Columbia University in New York, where 40 percent of all students were Jewish. Test makers developed an exam with questions modeled after curricula at elite prep schools, where few if any Jewish students attended at the time, Shapiro said. "The number of Jewish students was reduced to 20 percent" at Columbia, Shapiro said. "There's no denying it. That is the beginning of the SAT." Shapiro said the bias that existed then is prevalent today, even as test makers devise new versions of the SAT. To determine what questions will be on future tests, test makers pretest groups of students, he said. To maintain consistency with past questions, if the group that historically scores well performs well on a pretest, the question is kept. If a group that historically scores poorly does well on a pretest question, that item is tossed out, Shapiro said. Data show that women and minorities traditionally have scored lower than white men on the pretests, Shapiro said. "The test is designed to preserve the status quo," he said. "Whoever did better on the test before will now be carried along" and likely do well on future tests. In his cross examination, Larry Purdy, a lawyer for Grutter, pounced on Shapiro's historical reference. Purdy asked now that Jewish students are so well-represented at Ivy League colleges, wouldn't that indicate that biases have been removed? Not exactly, Shapiro answered. "Maybe it's that more Jewish students started going to prep school." FREE PRESS http://www.freep.com/news/education/naffirm7_20010207.htm CLINTONS STILL AT LARGE MARJORIE WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON POST: To a great degree, [the] sudden drop in the Clinton stock was predictable -- just as predictable as the honeymoon that greeted George W. Bush's first weeks in office . . . And New Yorkers' resentment at the sudden discovery of Clintons' flaws is deepened by the fact that the city had looked forward to the acquisition of a glamorous new asset, and found themselves saddled instead with a mass of new controversy. But above all, the normal temperature shift that comes with the loss of power has been compounded by the effort it took to ignore or defend or at least tolerate the Clintons' earlier bad behavior. Those who defended Clinton through his ordeal-by-independent-counsel had to perform extraordinary contortions of moral and logical reasoning. The piling-on of the past two weeks is the displaced revenge of those who spent years denying the undeniable and defending the indefensible. It's still not the fashion to talk about this. Notice how, in all this outrage over coffee tables and fugitive tax cheats, the news that Clinton had finally acknowledged lying in a court of law sank almost without a trace. In truth, the manner of the Clintons' departure told us exactly nothing that we hadn't known about them before. Their sudden vilification is just the dropping of the other shoe, the anger and the judgment and the disbelief that were willingly suspended by all who helped shore up his presidency. It's not as if he doesn't deserve it, but let's not pass around the merit badges for moral delicacy, either, just because it finally feels safe to notice. WASHINGTON POST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36462-2001Feb7.html PAUL BEDARD, US NEWS & WORLD REPORT: The Bush White House is spending $10,000 a day to reprogram and reconnect the hundreds of phones yanked out of their wall jacks by exiting Clinton-Gore aides. It's a major undertaking. Each phone is programmed for a specific wall jack, and there are matching serial numbers on the phones to ease installation. But the former aides scratched the numbers off many of the phones or moved the handsets to other offices. Reprogramming each one takes an hour. USN&WR http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010212/12whisplead.htm CHARLES GASPARINO, WALL STREET JOURNAL: In recent days, Morgan Stanley has received angry telephone calls from individual-investor clients livid that the former president had been chosen to speak at the firm's annual high-yield conference in Boca Raton, Fla. No one at Morgan Stanley knows exactly how many calls were received complaining about Mr. Clinton's appearance. But the firm was so concerned that customers might take their business elsewhere that it sent e-mails to branch offices to coach the 13,000 brokers through a series of "talking points" on how best to respond to Clinton-hating customers. BILL MILLER, WASHINGTON POST: Democratic fund-raiser Maria Hsia, a central figure in the Justice Department's long-running probe of alleged campaign finance abuses in 1996, was sentenced yesterday to 90 days of home confinement for channeling more than $100,000 in illegal contributions to Democratic candidates . . . Hsia was convicted by a jury last March of five felony charges stemming from illegal contributions to the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton-Gore '96 effort, and the campaign of Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI). The bulk of the tainted money came from the International Buddhist Progress Society, commonly known as the Hsi Lai Temple, in Hacienda Heights, Calif. The temple was barred by federal law from making the contributions because it is a tax-exempt religious organization. Hsia was at the forefront of Vice President Gore's controversial appearance at the temple in April 1996. A day after the event, Hsia turned over $65,000 in contributions to the Democratic National Committee that supposedly had come from temple supporters. But in fact, prosecutors said, these were "straw donors" who were reimbursed in full by the temple. Prosecutors alleged that Hsia was aware of the goings-on and channeled the other illegal money to campaigns using the same tactic. WASHINGTON POST http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36045-2001Feb6.html MICHAEL KELLY: The word "conversion" has a number of definitions, but only one that is legal. In the parlance of the law, a conversion is, as the new edition of the American Heritage Dictionary succinctly puts it, "(a) the unlawful appropriation of another's property; (b) the changing of real property to personal property or vice versa." To convert something is "to appropriate (another's property) without right to one's own use." There is a fine line between converting and stealing. To steal, says the dictionary, is "to take (the property of another) without right or permission." The only real difference is one of class and manners. A pickpocket steals. A person to whom, by virtue of position, respect is accorded, converts. WASHINGTON POST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36461-2001Feb7.html SEAN HANNITY claims that Clinton could save half his office rent if he moved downstairs 20 floors. RALPH WALDO EMERSON said, presciently, "The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons." PAGE SIX, NY POST: Yes, Hillary Rodham Clinton is staying at Vernon Jordan's DC manor while she waits for her Embassy Row house to be spruced up. You wouldn't expect her to pay for a hotel room, would you? But my earlier report that she was bunking down with Terry McAuliffe and his wife was apparently spot-on. I guess they thought the junior senator from New York should move to the Jordans' place before last weekend, when controversial moneybags and Clinton pal McAuliffe was anointed chairman of the DNC. NY POST http://pagesix.com/ TONY BERTRAM, FRUMIOUS BANDERSNATCH: Vowing to remain in the public spotlight, former President Bill Clinton announced plans for "ClintonCam", which will provide Internet users with twenty-four hour a day coverage of his public and private activities . . . In the Clinton family's new home, there will be a camera and microphone in each room, including the bathroom and bedroom. The lack of privacy doesn't faze the former President who promises "to share new revelations" with the public . . . The service will be provided at no cost to the public and underwritten by grants from philanthropists Mochtar "James" Riady and Marc Rich. BANDERSNATCH http://www.bandersnatch.com/clincam.htm BUSH LEAGUE PAUL BEDARD, US NEWS & WORLD REPORT: The new White House dress policy is already being tested. The score so far: No Jeans Rule 1, Violators 0. It happened in the second week when a low-level aide arrived in jeans, never expecting to be summoned out of his cubby-hole. Low and behold, he's called to a West Wing office. Who should be there but Dubya with the elder George Bush, who still steams at the thought that former President Clinton used to wear jeans, jogging trunks, T-shirts, and less in the hallowed halls. Dad bears in, suggesting that next time the violator had better have a suit on. As the offending aide signaled "Yes sir," Dubya just smiled, knowing the story would get around the campus. USN&WR http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010212/12whisplead.htm HEALTH A STUDY of 420,000 Danish cell phone users has found no evidence that the devices increase cancer risk. The one caveat is that the majority of users had only had the phones for about three years. A slow-growing brain tumor can take ten years or longer to develop. THE LIST All in the family - Former NY Governor Mario Cuomo's son Andrew is running for NY governor - George Bush's son George W. is president - George W.'s brother Jeb is governor of Florida - Bill Clinton's wife Hillary is in the Senate - Robert Kennedy's son-in-law Andrew is running for NY governor - Robert Kennedy's daughter Kathleen is lieutenant governor of Maryland - Robert Kennedy's brother Ted is in t
