UNDERNEWS Sam Smith August 17, 1999 The Progressive Review 1739 Conn. Ave. NW Washington DC 20009 202-232-5544 Fax: 202-234-6222 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] INDEX: http://prorev.com RECENT UNDERNEWS: http://prorev.com/indexa.htm TODAY'S HEADLINE NEWS: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm THE REVIEW FORUM: http://prorev.com/letters.com DONATIONS AND ORDER FORM: http://prorev.com/order3.htm UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. For a free subscription to our e-mail updates send your postal address with zip code. Copyright 1999, The Progressive Review. Matter not independently copyrighted may be reprinted provided TPR is paid your normal reprint fees, if any, and is given proper credit. Because of its quantity, TPR's mail is not always answered, but it is always read. The editor is cheered or remorseful as appropriate and posts some of the more interesting messages at http://prorev.com/letters.htm ---------------------------------------------------------- DRUG BUSTS NEW YORK POST: Staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia may have turned the diplomatic center into a hotbed of drug smuggling by using their little-watched postal system to slip cocaine past American border guards. The embarrassing revelation came out of a deepening probe into charges the wife of the top U.S. anti-drug in Bogota used the rarely checked Army Postal Service to ship cocaine into this country. [UNDERNEWS: One of the easiest ways to bring cocaine into this country is on a military plane.] UPI: Six police officers in Detroit were indicted Friday for allegedly using their badges to protect drug traffickers, make illegal raids, and in some cases conspire to distribute crack cocaine. The indictments followed a year-long investigation by the FBI of the department's Fifth Precinct on the city's east-side. WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS UP UPI: A 77-year-old woman in Kingsford, Michigan, was charged Friday with telephoning four bomb threats to a local factory. Police say Elizabeth Furno may have been upset about the hiring of disabled workers at the plant. JUST TRUST US DEPARTMENT GUARDIAN (LONDON): George Mitchell, the former American senator who strived to bring peace to Northern Ireland, has made an extraordinary intervention to help end the long-running dispute between Mohamed Al Fayed and the security services over an alleged plot surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, two years ago. In an unprecedented move he is liaising between the Pentagon and the Harrods owner over top secret files held by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. Mr. Mitchell is proposing that Robert Tyrer, a chief of staff in the US defense department, would use his security clearance to review the top secret files to see if there is any evidence that would help the French authorities still looking at Princess Diana's death in a car crash in Paris two years ago. Mr. Tyrer would then report back to Mr. Mitchell's office. He would not reveal the details of the papers, but he would disclose whether there was any reference to a plot by the security services or whether such allegations are considered a fabrication. GUARDIAN STORY: http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,74245,00.html GUARDIAN HEADLINES: http://www.prorev.com/altnews.htm THE REVIEW LIST Performance evaluation of Hillary Rodham Clinton's work in the Watergate investigation Jerry Zeifman was general counsel chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation. In an article for the Wall Street Journal he reviews HRC's performance as a staff member: -- She violated House and committee rules by disclosing confidential information to unauthorized persons. -- A number of the legal procedures she recommended were ethically flawed -- In one written legal memorandum, she advocated denying President Nixon representation by counsel. -- She proposed that the committee should neither 1) hold any hearings with or take the depositions of any live witnesses, nor 2) conduct any original investigation of Watergate, bribery, tax evasion, or any other possible impeachable offense of President Nixon. Instead, the committee should rely on prior investigations conducted by other committees and agencies. -- She advocated that the official rules of the House be amended to deny members of the committee the right to question witnesses. -- Zeifman decided that he could not recommend her for any position of public or private trust. JERRY ZEIFMAN mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ECO NOTES A survey by the British National Consumer Council finds that 85% of consumers believe that government ministers are denying them vital information about goods ranging from digital television to genetically modified foods. Water levels in the Great Lakes are down 22" over the past year and scientists believe they could drop almost four feet by 2035. CLINTON SCANDALS The Clinton machine is thinking about staging a Clinton Aid concert to help fund the president's criminal defense fund. Matt Drudge reports that names like Madonna, Tony Bennett, Lou Reed and Cher have been mentioned as possible performers. Of course, after the concert the Clintons can have them over to their new Westchester County mansion if they have chosen one by then. THE REVIEW LIST Why progressives should stop pushing for more gun control laws -- There are already thousands of them, too many of which don't work. Every ineffective law brings government into disrepute. -- Prohibition of something that large numbers of citizens want always fail, witness the war on the drugs. It merely increases the value of the prohibited item and changes the distributors from honest people to crooks. -- Gun control laws are highly divisive to no good end. Since they don't work well, why get everyone so mad about them? Progressives should instead start finding issues that make people happy. -- Treating gun laws as a national issue exacerbates cultural conflicts, such as those between rural and urban, east and west, wealthy and not so well off. Telling rural Westerners to get rid of their guns is like telling an urban blacks to stop reading African-American books. -- There is no evidence that members of the NRA murder people at a higher rate than non-members. It is insulting to gun owners to speak as though they did. -- The push for gun restrictions and prohibition is interwoven with the drive to restrict other citizen liberties and erode democracy. Progressives once opposed such moves, but in recent years have been no-shows. Progressives need to became civil libertarians again. -- America no longer has a strong, reliable democracy. It has been deeply corrupted and is being brutally manipulated. We are also losing our major defense against tyranny: the spirit and will of the people. An armed citizenry is a reasonable back-up plan. -- People who drive around cities in four-wheel drive SUVs shouldn't lecture others on what safety precautions they should take. -- The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government. I didn't say that. Thomas Jefferson did. -- Progressives should stop treating average Americans as though they were alien creatures. Progressives haven't just lost elections because of their issues but because of their attitudes as well. LAND OF THE FREE Two interpreters were forced to take off their underwire bras before entering a new San Diego downtown federal jail building after they set off an over-sensitive metal detectors. A female lawyer was allowed in only after telling guards the nature of her bra. "I'm upset, as a matter of principle, that a female attorney would be asked what kind of underwear she has on," said Kristen Churchill. Portland, ME's, youth curfew has made a major haul: Joel Duncan, 15, and Aaron Paulsen, 16, have been charged with criminal trespass for violating the law. Joel is one merit badge away from being an Eagle Scout and Aaron is the son of a former mayor. They were caught cleaning up trash in a park where teens like to hang out. JUST POLITICS A statewide assembly of California Greens, by a 45 to 3 vote, has placed Ralph Nader on it presidential primary ballot for 2000. CLINTON SCANDALS According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette some of the women invited to a get together of those President Clinton has abused may not be showing up. Juanita Broaddrick says she will "probably not" go. And Beth Coulson, who has been out of town, says she hasn't heard of the invitation but says she'll look forward to reading about the event. ELSEWHERE "Who Lost Russia?" was the headline on the New York Times Magazine cover. The article ended in a loose pile of globalbabble, but was a sign that the American establishment is coming to recognize that the savage capitalism foisted upon the Russians didn't work. Curiously absent from the article was any serious discussion of economic approaches other than the one adopted, which was, in the words, of one CIA type: "What the United States Treasury and the IMF were doing was financing and licensing a great grab and calling it reform. And there was so much in Russia to steal that was so precious: oil, diamonds, nickel. It was the kind of opportunity that comes once in a millennium." TPR was one of the few American journals at the time to see it otherwise. OUR ARTICLE http://www.prorev.com/russia.htm THE REVIEW LIST Changes in habits of children 3-12 1981-1997 according to a University of Michigan study -- Time spent playing: down 25% -- Time spend in school, organized post-school programs and child care: up 8 hours a week -- Among playing organized team sports: almost doubled to four hours and 20 minutes a week -- Time spent going to movies and sport events: up fivefold to three hours a week. -- Time spent eating meals: down an hour a week -- Time spend sitting and talking to someone at home: down 50% of one-half hour a week. -- Time spent on household chores, mostly accompanying parents on errands and shopping trips: 3.5 hours a week -- Time spent watching television: down almost two hours a week. -- Time spent reading: no change at one hour a week -- Time spent studying: up 50% to two hours a week -- Time spent directly involved with children by mothers who work compared to those at home full-time: 3 hours a week less. [The University of Michigan study examined time diaries kept by 2,200 children and their parents in 1981 and 1997] TORONTO STAR http://www.thestar.com/back_issues/ED19990811/news/990811NEW01d_CI-TIME11.html THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 1739 Connecticut Ave NW Washington DC 20009 202-232-5544 202-234-6222 Fax [EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor: Sam Smith INDEX : http://prorev.com RECENT UNDERNEWS : http://prorev.com/indexa.htm TODAY'S HEADLINES: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm THE REVIEW FORUM: http://prorev.com/letters.htm For a free trial subscription to both our bi-monthly hard copy edition and our regular e-mail updates send e-mail and terrestrial address to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To order "Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual" (WW Norton) direct from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0393316270/progressiverevieA/
