UNDERNEWS Sam Smith September 1, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------- GREAT MOMENTS IN THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION "Johnny committed to contribute $75,000 to the DNC reception in Los Angeles on September 21. Tell him if he does not complete his commitment ASAP bad things will happen." -- Memo concerning Johnny Chung from a Democratic National Committee staffer to DNC chair Don Fowler, November 10, 1995 WACO MASSACRE JERRY SEPER, WASHINGTON TIMES: In addition to seeking information on the FBI's use of incendiary devices, which the FBI now admits, House investigators have targeted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents in its preparation for a failed attempt to arrest Davidian leader David Koresh seven weeks before the compound exploded in a fireball on April 19, 1993 .... Capitol Hill sources say investigators want information about the suspected misuse of a Texas National Guard helicopter as a diversion during an earlier failed arrest attempt Feb. 28, 1993 -- during which four ATF agents were killed. LEE HANCOCK, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: U.S. Justice Department lawyers on Tuesday challenged a federal judge's authority to take control over evidence in the Branch Davidian case, setting up a high-stakes legal showdown. An Aug. 9 order in which U.S. District Judge Walter Smith demanded custody of all documents and other evidence is without any legal basis under federal or civil court rules, Justice Department lawyers argued in a 19-page motion. The judge's move "threatens a wholesale intrusion" into the executive branch and an "unwarranted and substantial burden" on the entire federal government. DALLAS MORNING NEWS http://www.dallasnews.com/ TEXAS DEPT OF PUBLIC SAFETY CHAIR JAMES FRANCIS: I think it's very unfortunate that the Justice Department would try to prevent the federal court in Waco from gaining access to all of the evidence in light of everything that's happened in the last week... From what I can understand of the Justice Department's motion today, they're still attempting to prevent the evidence from being judicially reviewed. And I think that is most unfortunate. [Note: Francis is a top fund-raiser for GWB] BUCHANAN PLANNING REFORM PARTY COUP? MICAH SIFRY & DOUG IRELAND, NATION: [Pat] Buchanan is only millimeters away from announcing his bid to take over the Reform Party. What's more, Minnesota Governor Ventura and his people, who oppose making Buchanan the Reform standard-bearer, are completely unprepared to deny him the nomination .... Ross Perot himself is quietly supporting Buchanan's Reform candidacy. A strait-laced lifestyle conservative who is also thin-skinned and vindictive, Perot detests the flamboyant Ventura, both for his feather-boa-wearing and pot-smoking past and for his public criticisms of the tiny Texan. Perot sees the Buchanan candidacy as the perfect way to give the Minnesota governor his comeuppance .... According to sources familiar with Buchanan's thinking, Pitchfork Pat sees three key constituencies that, added to social and religious conservatives, will make up his "new coalition" for the third-party effort: Perot independents, Buchanan Democrats and old-line, Meany-style trade unionists. To cement that coalition, Buchanan wants to have as his reform VP candidate a labor Democrat with anticommunist and protectionist views. THE NATION http://www.TheNation.com/ CITY DESK UPI: The Los Angeles Business Journal says voluntary earthquake retrofitting in Los Angeles has come to a virtual stop. The paper says only 5 percent of the work has been completed and almost none is currently being done. Building industry sources tell the newspaper that a revival of the local real estate market, the high cost of retrofitting and the return of insurance companies to earthquake coverage are to blame. Shortly after the Northridge quake in 1994, there was a push to make retrofits mandatory, but property owners protested because of the cost. UNFAIR TRADE MAUDE BARLOW, COUNCIL OF CANADIANS, NATIONAL POST: What makes the WTO so powerful is that it has both the legislative and judicial authority to challenge laws, policies and programs of countries that do not conform to WTO rules and strike them down if they are seen to be too "trade restrictive." Cases are decided -- in secret -- by a panel of three trade bureaucrats. Once a WTO ruling is made, worldwide conformity is required. A country is obligated to harmonize its laws or face the prospect of perpetual trade sanctions or fines. The WTO, which contains no minimum standards to protect the environment, labor rights, social programs or cultural diversity, has already been used to strike down a number of key nation-state environmental, food safety and human rights laws. Recently, U.S. laws to protect endangered Asian sea turtles from shrimp nets and dolphins from drift nets have been successfully challenged at the WTO. All WTO agreements set out detailed rules intended to constrain the extent to which governments can regulate international trade, or otherwise "interfere" with the activities of large corporations. WTO agreements provide extensive lists of things governments can't do. Renato Ruggiero, the former WTO secretary-general, has admitted environmental standards in the WTO are "doomed to fail and could only damage the global trading system." Another WTO official was quoted in the Financial Times in April, 1998, saying, "The WTO is the place where governments collude in private against their domestic pressure groups." Democracy is a fragile creature. Through massive privatization and deregulation, people all over the world have already lost control over many areas of social and environmental policy. NATIONAL POST http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary.asp?f=990831/67261 CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION http://www.tradewatch.org/publications/gtwpubs.htm LAND OF THE FREE A suburban Buffalo, New York, family is headed for court because they refused to put their trash in clear bags as required by a local ordinance. For three months, the town of Hamburg refused to pick up the Dobrzenskis' garbage because they used dark green bags. John Dobrzenski felt it was no one's business what prescriptions they take or what they eat for breakfast. Dobrzenski got a private contractor to haul away the trash. Mary Novak of Elmwood Park, in paying a parking fine, suggested it was headed for the "highway robbery fund." Elmwood Park Magistrate Anthony Cipollone called Novak to court to make her explain why he shouldn't hold her in contempt of court. While this isn't the first time a citizen has had to answer to such charges, Lenora Lapidus of the New Jersey ACLU says even when the charges are dropped, the defendant is "publicly humiliated and inconvenienced, and may suffer other costs including attorney's fees." Attorney Frank Askin and the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic, along with the Jersey ACLU, are challenging the jurisdiction of a magistrate to issue a contempt charge in these circumstances. Askin asserts that Ms. Novak "did nothing but exercise her free speech rights." ACLU OF NEW JERSEY 973-642-2084 READER'S FORUM Yesterday TPR took a swipe at the New York Times for its comments on Maine chowder among other things. Turns out Times' reporters are not the only chowderheads in journalism. A reader from the west coast Portland says NPR is just as bad. READER'S FORUM: http://www.prorev.com/letters.htm STUPID POLITICIAN TRICKS The Senate is on the verge of creating a special committee to investigate the "decline of America's culture," in response to the recent acts of violence. INFOWARS I Facing the near certainty of a subpoena from the California State Legislature, Pacifica has agreed to provide financial statements and invoices to the Legislative Audit Committee. Pacifica had previously stated that it did not recognize the committee's authority. LABOR GETS DAY BUT NO MEDIA MATT WITT, BALTIMORE SUN: Issues of work and class are largely invisible in the American media, not just on Labor Day but year-round. Rarely do we see stories exploring important questions facing working families. For example: o Why is the average entry-level wage at least one-fifth lower than it was 20 years ago, with starting pay declining even for new college graduates? o What corporate strategies are leading to the shift to "contingent" labor -- the part-time, temporary or subcontracted jobs that make up 30 percent of the work force? o What has forced the average married couple to work 326 more hours per year than 20 years ago to maintain its buying power? o With polls showing that at least 30 million American workers who don't have a union would like to form one, what keeps them from doing so? Could it be anti-union pressure from supervisors? Such pressure occurs in 91 percent of cases in which employees try to form a union, according to a Cornell University study. .... A study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a liberal media-watchdog group, found that the evening news programs of CBS, ABC and NBC recently devoted only 2 percent of their total air time to workers' issues, including child care, the minimum wage, and workplace safety and health. During a full year, the broadcasts reportedly spent a total of 13 minutes on job safety and health, while an average of more than 16 workers die daily from work-related injuries, and more than 650,000 annually suffer back, wrist or other injuries from poorly designed work stations and repetitive motion. INFOWARS II RALPH MCGEHEE, CIABASE: Presidential Decision Directive 68, ordered the creation of the International Public Information system -- and said "information aimed at the U.S. audience should be coordinated integrated, deconflicted and synchronized with the IPI to achieve a synergistic effect" .... One major role for the CIA [which is part of the system] is the creation of false evidence to support its operations -- it refuses to share those details with other agencies. Internally it even restricts details of such operations using strict need-to-know and compartmentation policies. So when it conducts many and massive deception operations those deceits inevitably will end up in the domestic media and will shape our foreign policies. With the creation of the IPI these stories will be disseminated world-wide and especially domestically. What are some types of CIA False Evidence operations? The CIA forges documents and places them where they will be discovered and disseminated widely. (It effectively demonizes targets even the most honorable while glorifying sponsored "demons"). It sets off bombs, blaming them on targets. It plants "communist" or now probably "terrorist" weapons shipments and arranges for them to be found as it broadcasts details of such widely. It buys foreign media and employees and book publishers, establishes policy-making think tanks and their publications, it employs foreign radio and television stations -- all used to disseminate its deceits. Doctored photographs, false atrocity stories, falsely attributed scholarly books written criticizing or blaming this or that movement or target (over 1000 titles published in one period) make up more of its arsenal of lies. Its operations in academia sponsor or subvert thousands of domestic academicians and untold numbers of foreign academics. It also sponsors numerous politicians and their groups and media operations. So this is what the American people can expect under the new IPI. To appreciate its terrible power I recommend reading George Orwell's classic "1984." ECO CLIPS REUTERS: Chemical additives found in a range of consumer products from baby bottles to toys to intravenous drip bags may well be dangerous to humans, a panel of experts said Thursday, but they said they needed more time to decide. Members of a panel asked to determine the health risks from the chemicals, known as phthalates, had been expected to issue a final report on their findings Thursday, but ran out of time before reaching a consensus. While they said there was little disagreement over what the studies show -- that the chemicals can disrupt reproductive functions such as fertility in laboratory animals -- what was not clear was whether they affect humans. CLINTON SCANDALS ASSOCIATED PRESS: In an oddity for the Clinton presidency, top White House aides were largely untroubled last year by a long-standing hazard of working for Bill Clinton: fat legal bills. Only one of 12 aides reported debts to law firms in 1998, according to financial disclosure forms released Monday. The exception is Bruce Lindsey, a close Clinton confidante who has served since January 1993. Lindsey reported legal bills of between $600,000 and $1.25 million, owed to two Washington law firms .... A few White House staffers, such as presidential secretary Betty Currie, still carry legal bills as a result of subpoenas in the Monica Lewinsky matter. But most who accrued such debts due to investigations -- such as George Stephanopoulos and Maggie Williams, the first lady's former chief of staff -- departed long ago. 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/
