UNDERNEWS Oct 16, 2000 THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW Washington's most unofficial source Editor: Sam Smith 1312 18th St. NW #502, Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WEB SITE: http://prorev.com ----------------------------------------------------- WORD Eating through a text, leaf and branch, like tent caterpillars, leaving everywhere their mark -- Renata Adler's description of editors THE MEDIACRACY YOU MAY RECALL THE SAD PLIGHT of Sarasota High School, described by Al Gore as the place where a student had to stand in class for lack of a desk. That turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration, but not too many days later the NY Times went in for some re-revisionism, describing the place as have a "legitimate overcrowding problem in a system facing budget problems." Now the Wall Street Journal has checked the place out and reports on its web site that the school actually has a media center including a TV studio, as well as a football stadium with an air conditioned press box seating 60-70, and plans for an Olympic size swimming pool. Our recommendation is that syrupy sagas of suspicious specificity be banned during campaigns along with soft money. http://opinionjournal.com SMARTER TIMES notes that NY Times, which has been editorializing against Bush's tax breaks favoring the rich, is simultaneously seeking a tax break for its new headquarters at Times Square. http://www.smartertimes.com PALESTINE DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTHI, UNION OF PALESTINIAN MEDICAL RELIEF COMMITTEES: The West Bank and Gaza Strip is under complete siege. Every village and town has been cut off, making travel between regions impossible. The Gaza airport has been closed, and Palestinians are not allowed to leave the country via land borders or Tel Aviv airport. Palestinians have become virtual prisoners in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The closure has gravely impacted health service delivery to Palestinians. Patients with serious injuries requiring referral to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt for specialized care are unable to be transported. Medical teams are facing incredible difficulties reaching sick patients. Doctors cannot access clinics and patients in rural areas cannot access city hospitals. MIDDLE EAST REALITIES: Egypt is essentially a police and military state with the veneer of civilian government and the facade of democracy. The president, a former air force general, is kept in power through the help of a vast intelligence apparatus and the American CIA. The "parliament" is not real by the standards of what is usually understood as democracy and the press is not "independent" or "free" as those words are usually applied. Ever since the days of the original Camp David where Anwar Sadat was badly mislead by then President Jimmy Carter, the Egyptians have craved their yearly handout of American billions. Sadat was soon assassinated at a military parade by his own soldiers. Since then Egypt has been under a form of emergency rule justifying not only the relentless repression of all opposition but censorship of the press and corruption in high places. HTTP://www.MiddleEast.Org JUST POLITICS PUBLIC INTEGRITY: There are 1,972 insurance companies or associations that lobby state legislatures -- one lobbying interest for every three state lawmakers. states with most insurance lobbyists: Texas: 185, Florida: 87, Michigan: 83, California: 82, New York: 80, Illinois: 76, New Jersey: 74, Massachusetts: 64, Missouri: 63 Arkansas: 55. Top companies with state insurance lobbyists: State Farm Insurance Companies: 48 states, Blue Cross Blue Shield: 47 states, Aflac: 43 states, Variable Life Insurance Company: 41 states, American Council of Life Insurers/Insurance: 36 states, Golden Rule Insurance Company: 31 states, Allstate Insurance Company: 30 states, Prudential Insurance Company of America: 27 states, Cigna Corporation: 26 states, Delta Dental: 25 states. http://www.public-i.org/50states_01_101100.htm. KELLY PATRICIA O'MEARA, INSIGHT: Billions of dollars are missing from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's books. Some HUD officials blame computer glitches; others allege widespread graft. HUD has earned a failing grade from the House Government Reform subcommittee on Government Management for the way the agency manages taxpayers' money. Subcommittee chairman Stephen Horn, R-Calif., is said to be furious that HUD's most recent financial report shows the agency is unable to balance its checkbook and cannot account for $59 billion. http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200011065.shtml CAMILLE PAGLIA, SALON: There is no such thing as a wasted vote. The only wasted vote is the one not cast. Every vote is an expression of principle and an exercise in free speech. Too many Democrats are bowing to peer pressure from friends and associates and suppressing their revulsion from the gross ethical lapses of the Clinton-Gore administration. This kind of capitulation to the tyranny of the group smacks of the conservative, conformist 1950s . . . A vote for Gore is a vote for the status quo. A vote for Gore rewards the corrupt superstructure of the Democratic party and ensures that it will not change, that it will go right on with business as usual, locked in parasitic intercourse with upper-middle-class special-interest groups and craven media flacks. The best hope for a rejuvenated Democratic party is a humiliating defeat this November. American politics desperately needs a strong third-party alternative. The Reform Party was too predicated on the cranky charisma of one independently wealthy individual, founder Ross Perot. The Green Party, in contrast, has the precedents of European Green Party campaigns to call on, and it would contain a broader spectrum of philosophical strains. I will vote the Green Party ticket this fall not because I believe in all its positions -- far from it! -- but because I think progressive politics needs to grow up. http://www.salon.com/people/col/pagl/2000/10/04/pop_and_politics/print.html DRUDGE REPORT: Presidential hopeful Al Gore once declared that homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle and vowed not to accept campaign funds from gay groups. In 1981, Gore decried homosexuality during a town meeting, according to eyewitnesses and press accounts of the session. When one participant asked Gore about homosexuality -- which the man described as a "sin" -- Gore responded that homosexuality is an abnormality which should be discouraged. "I think it is wrong," Gore explained to the audience. "It is not just another normal optional lifestyle." During his senate race three years later, Gore said he would not accept campaign funds from homosexual groups, the Tennessean reported on October 28, 1984. "I do not believe it is simply an acceptable alternative that society should affirm," Gore explained to a reporter . . . In 1988, Gore considered taking steps to prevent homosexual activists from using his delegate slate in the Georgia presidential primary to win seats at the Democratic National Convention. http://www.drudgereport.com/gay.htm AGENCE FRANCE PRESS: Former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin plans to sue US presidential candidate George W. Bush over his allegation in a television debate that the ex-premier had pocketed IMF loans to Russia, Interfax reported. "The remarks made by Mr. Bush Jr. are not only insulting but also dangerous," Chernomyrdin said, adding they "represented an attack on future relations between Russia and the United States," the agency reported. Bush suggested last week in a debate with Democratic White House hopeful Vice President Al Gore that Chernomyrdin, who was Russian premier from 1992 to 1998, had pocketed funds paid to Moscow by the International Monetary Fund. Chernomyrdin, now a deputy in the State Duma (lower house of parliament), hit back, saying the Republican candidate's comments were "slanderous in form and dirty in content." MICHAEL TANZER, BLACK WORLD TODAY: In this reporter's opinion, to the extent that Mr. Nader has difficulties in reaching minority communities, it is not because of lack of goodwill on his part, or lack of interest in their problems. Rather, at least partially, it stems from his training as a lawyer and his tendency to seek "universalistic" solutions to problems, for example, his belief that by solving problems of poverty you will solve most of the problems of race. This may be partly true, but it fails to pay sufficient attention to the deeply embedded racism in American society, the heritage of hundreds of years of slavery and discrimination, which will require targeted governmental and social remedies for many years to come. http://www.tbwt.com/views/specialrpt/special%20report-1_10-11-00.asp HILLARY WATCH OPEN LETTER FROM JUANITA BROADDRICK: I remember it as though it was yesterday. I only wish that it were yesterday and maybe there would still be time to do something about what your husband, Bill Clinton, did to me. There was a political rally for Mr. Clinton's bid for governor of Arkansas. I had obligated myself to be at this rally prior to my being assaulted by your husband in April, 1978. I had made up my mind to make an appearance and then leave as soon as the two of you arrived. This was a big mistake, but I was still in a state of shock and denial . . . As soon as you entered the room, you came directly to me and grabbed my hand. Do you remember how you thanked me, saying "we want to thank you for everything that you do for Bill". At that point, I was pretty shaken and started to walk off. Remember how you kept a tight grip on my hand and drew closer to me? You repeated your statement, but this time with a coldness and look that I have seen many times on television in the last eight years. You said, "Everything you do for Bill". You then released your grip and I said nothing and left the gathering. What did you mean, Hillary? Were you referring to my keeping quiet about the assault I had suffered at the hands of your husband only two weeks before? Were you warning me to continue to keep quiet? We both know the answer to that question. THEOLOGICAL UPDATE GEORGE W. BUSH may have serious problems, according to some Christian fundamentalists. According to the Book of Revelations, "the Beast's name will be three 6's." In the 13th chapter of the Apocalypse it is written, "Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast: it represents a human name. And the number in question is 666. With intelligence, illumined by the light of the divine wisdom, one can succeed in deciphering from the number, 666, the name of a man and this name, indicated by such a number is that of the Antichrist. Calculate now its number, 666, to understand how it indicates the name of a man. The number, 333, indicates the divinity. Lucifer rebels against God through pride, because he wants to put himself above God. He who wants to put himself above God bears the sign 666, and consequently this number indicates the name of Lucifer, Satan, that is to say, of him who sets himself against Christ, the Antichrist." Well: G-E-O-R-G-E W-A-L-K-E-R B-U-S-H-J-R GREAT, IF VAGUE, MOMENTS IN BANKING CHICAGO TRIBUNE Richard Vague, the former head of Bank One Corp.'s credit card operation, was in Chicago last week to talk about Internet banking and his new venture, Juniper Bank. Like Bank One's Wingspan Bank, which Vague helped to launch, Juniper will be a stand-alone Internet bank when it goes live in the next month or so. Plans for Wingspan still are being worked out by new management at Bank One, which came aboard after problems in Vague's credit card area severely damaged the company's overall earnings and stock price. Vague resigned from the bank last fall. Vague neatly sidestepped audience questions about Wingspan following his speech to bankers at Thomson Financial Media's Financial Services in Cyberspace conference. Asked about good and bad decisions at Wingspan, Vague praised Bank One for putting Michael Cleary--who was in the audience--at the helm. "The less-than-fabulous things were things I did when I was there," he said. And how will Juniper differ from Wingspan? "Our tag line is going to be `Almost as good as Wingspan,'" Vague joked. http://chicagotribune.com/business/chicagoinsider/article/0,2669,SAV-001015043 YOUTH NY TIMES: More than three-quarters of New York City's eighth graders failed to reach acceptable levels on a statewide mathematics test last spring, raising serious questions about whether they will be able to pass a newly required Regents math exam before they graduate from high school in 2004 . . . Over all, 40 percent of the state's eighth graders met or exceeded state standards, compared with 38 percent in 1999. But New York City's 23 percent passing rate was exactly the same as the previous year's, suggesting that city schools have made little if any progress toward meeting the state's rigorous new graduation standards. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/13/nyregion/13TEST.html ECOLOGY ENS: Breathing on the streets of London is more dangerous than piloting a vehicle on them according to a new report, which claims that air pollution kills more people in the UK capital than road accidents. Traffic has slowed to an average speed of 16 kilometers an hour in London. In 1998, 226 people died in road accidents compared to an estimated 380 deaths from transport emissions, said the report. Each year, Londoners lose about 34,000 years of life from transport related pollution. http://www.londonshealth.gov.uk GERMANY AND YUGOSLAVIA [The following AP dispatch was apparently released only in German. Emperor's Clothes published the German text and its own English translation] ASSOCIATED PRESS: German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, addressing Parliament on Wednesday, expressed his opinion that Germany should not only provide material help to Yugoslavia but that the Bundeswehr and non-military organizations should establish a permanent presence there. He declared that this was a unique chance to create a democracy in the context of further European unification. Reunited Germany has a special responsibility for stabilizing democracy in Serbia. Democracy, said Mr. Fischer, is the basis for a lasting peace in the Balkans. But the priority is for the moment that the democratic changes be carried out peacefully and that justice prevail. The Western Balkans is a part of the European comprehensive responsibility. MICHAEL CHOSSUDOVSKY: Berlin and Washington are working hand in hand in this situation. They coordinate their respective foreign policy initiatives. Germany's secret service, the Bbundesnachrichten Dienst collaborated closely with the CIA in the various stages of the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia, and also after the bombing. Everything indicates that what they want is to transform Yugoslavia into a German protectorate with German troops (and the Deutschmark) stationed on Yugoslav soil, within Germany's "lebensraum". This has been the fate of the other former republics of Yugoslavia including Macedonia and Croatia. In Montenegro and Kosovo the Deutschmark has been established as legal tender. In Kosovo Germany's Commerzbank controls the entire commercial banking system. At the same time it is the Washington Group, which is a US Transnational linked up with the US defense industry, which controls the Trepca mines in northern Kosovo. http://emperors-clothes.com/news/occupation.htm LAND OF THE FREE REPORTERS COMMITTEE FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: After months of inactivity by the Federal Communications Commission, a federal appeals court took extraordinary action in ordering the commission to immediately repeal its 33-year-old personal attack and political editorial rules, parts of the otherwise-dormant fairness doctrine. The failure of the FCC to justify imposing the regulations on broadcasters actually dates back to 1980 when the plaintiffs, the Radio-Television News Directors Association and the National Association of Broadcasters, first challenged the regulations. At that time, the federal appeals court acknowledged the rules have some effect on speech as well as interfere with a broadcaster's editorial decisions. The plaintiffs, who represent members of the news media, have long argued the fairness doctrine outlived its usefulness. The broadcasters have told the court the rules, enacted in 1967, intended to diversify broadcast viewpoints. In the years since, the broadcasters continue, the explosion of news outlets has afforded viewers numerous alternative sources of information. The personal attack and the political editorial rules gave people or identifiable groups the opportunity to respond to broadcasts with opposing viewpoints. http://www.rcfp.org/news/2000/1012radiot.html LOOSE CHANGE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: Cisco Systems, the second-most valuable company in America, paid no federal income taxes for its latest fiscal year thanks to a little-known corporate tax break on employee stock options. Microsoft, which ranks No. 4 in market value, did not pay any federal taxes either, it seems. Like many high-tech firms, Cisco and Microsoft are allowed to take a tax deduction for money their employees earn when they "exercise" options and buy stock in the company at a preset price . . . The tax break was established decades ago, when companies doled out stock options to only a handful of top executives and the tax benefit they generated was minimal. But now that many companies -- including Cisco, Microsoft and most other new-economy firms -- give options to everyone, the tax break is becoming enormous. In Cisco's case, this benefit wiped out $1.8 billion in federal taxes, and probably more than twice that for Microsoft. URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/09 /MN3707.DTL NEWS FROM THE COLONIES THE SUPREME COURT HAS UPHELD, without hearing oral arguments, the colonial status of Washington DC. Two cases (one in which your editor was a plaintiff) were before the court -- the first time in 200 years that the colonial status of the city has come under high judicial review. The court acted on written briefs filed in the two cases with only one justice, John Paul Stevens, wanting to hear arguments. The cases came to the court after being rejected by a special three judge-panel that ruled only on the issues involving voting representation in Congress. The self-government issues raised in the second case were never addressed by the court. The court ruled, in effect, that the residents of the so-called "capital of the free world" were properly under colonial rule. On the same day as the court ruling, seven DC residents went on trial for disrupting Congress with calls of "DC Votes No" and "Free DC" during consideration of the DC budget by the House. The US attorney had attempted to ban the defendants from even mentioning the political motivations for their statements, but a judge ruled that the defendants could refer to their cause as long as they were "reasonable and concise." The trial resumes October 24. FLOTSAM & JETSAM I spent the weekend in Rappahanock County, VA, which is less than two hours away from Washington, and has a population of approximately 25 people per square mile. If Washington had a similar density, there would be fewer than 2,000 people in the city. What Rappahanock lacks in people, however, it has in acres. In fact, it was originally part of Culpeper County, 5,282,000 acres of which were owned by Lord Fairfax. The reason Lord Fairfax knew he has 5,282,000 acres was that he hired a 16-year-old to survey it. The 16-year-old's name was George Washington. Later, after George Washington had become an anti-British terrorist, his colonial colleagues seized all of the 5,282,000 acres from Lord Fairfax. Which may be why, to this day, people in the area warn you to be careful when choosing a surveyor. The other notable early figure was Governor "Extra" Billy Smith, who got his nickname by extracting ever larger payment from the government as his mail-coach business grew. In those days, apparently, contractors ripping off the feds were considered something of a novelty. Others who have spent some time in the area include baseball hall of famer and Culpeper native Eppa Rixey, Clara Barton, who performed her first field duty in the Battle of Cedar Mountain, George Custer, who liked the area so much that he brought his new bride here for his honeymoon, Daniel Boone, JEB Stuart, Ulysses Grant, who plotted his final campaign while in Culpeper, Walt Whitman, who served as a nurse in Culpeper, Patrick Henry, Robert E. Lee, and Lafayette. Finally, we have Richard Thompson, whom, as we all recall, was Secretary of Navy under Rutherford B. Hayes. But aside from the Civil War, things were pretty quiet until the 1960s, during a period in which the US Department of Interior was declaring that the region one of the seven most desirable places in the nation to live. Among those who believed the department were various people collectively known as "those goddamn hippies" and a more sedate crowd of exiles from Washington including Gene McCarthy, David Brinkley, and James J. Kilpatrick. Your editor bought some land in Peola Mills around that time. When I went in for the settlement, I was surprised to find that my attorney, Jim Bill Fletcher, representing the seller as well. I later mentioned this anomaly to a lawyer friend who reported a similar experience, during which he had been told by Fletcher, "I am the lawyer for the situation." Rappahanock adapted well to its new diversity. I once went entered the H&J Grocery store and found a group of men drinking coffee, including a fully uniformed and armed game warden holding his coffee in one hand and a copy of Foreign Affairs in the other. I learned that Gene McCarthy had been in earlier. As for the hippies, G. Brown Miller, from whom we bought our place, once told me, "You know, partner, your friend Erbin, is a mighty fine fellow." I agreed. "He gave me one of them marijewwana cigarettes the other day." "How'd you like it, Brown?" I asked. "Well, it seems like to me, if you've lived on moonshine all your life, it don't do much." There was at least one other thing that happened in the region. That was back in 1960 when Lyndon Johnson was running for vice president. He was in Culpeper on the first of 47 whistle-stops between Washington and New Orleans. He talked too long and his aides instructed the engineer to start pulling slowly out. As the train began to move, LBJ cried, "And tell me, good people, what has Richard Nixon ever done for Culpeper?" An old man raised his cane and shouted back, "Hell, what has anyone ever done for Culpeper?" - Sam THIS IS THE OCT 13 EDITION THAT WAS POSTED ONLY TO THE WEB WORD There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn - Albert Camus PALESTINE THIS, FROM A WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE, suggests that even in the midst of a global crisis, our president can still frame history in terms of his personal ambitions: "Just three months ago, Clinton at the Camp David talks was tantalizingly close to an epochal foreign policy triumph: a comprehensive agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. When it comes to a Middle East legacy now, however, Clinton's aims are essentially defensive: averting a massive deterioration in the region on the remaining three months of his watch." THE MEDIA LIKES TO DESCRIBE our policy as "even-handed." Note, however, when Clinton condemns and when he merely understands anguish. Again from the Washington Post: "Clinton also made his bluntest statement yet putting responsibility for the bloodshed with the Palestinians: 'I strongly condemn the murder of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah today. While I understand the anguish Palestinians feel over the losses they have suffered, there can be no possible justification for mob violence.'" NOTE ALSO THAT THE DEATHS OF 100 unarmed Palestinians, many of them youths, attracted no such condemnation, bringing to mind Alexander Cockburn's long ago suggestion of a conversion table to help understand the media's judgment of death based on citizenship and ethnicity. In the present instance, for example, we know that 100 dead Palestinians are not quite worth two dead Israelis. AMERICAN-ARAB ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE: On October 7, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1322, which "condemns acts of violence, especially the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life" and "calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949." Over the past 2 weeks and particularly during the five days since the adoption of 1322, Israel has made it clear that it has no intention of protecting the Palestinians who live under its occupation . . . Israel's brutal actions over the past two weeks also strongly reinforce the urgent need to end the 33-year occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. The "peace process" was supposed to implement UN Security Council Resolution 242, which sets up a two part "land for peace" solution. Part one holds that Israel must withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967 (land). Part two calls for all states in the region to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries (peace). The Palestinian obligations under 242 were fulfilled years ago, as they have recognized the State of Israel in its 1967 borders, and its right to live in peace. The Israeli obligation, withdrawal from the occupied territories, is utterly unfulfilled, as recent tragic events have clearly demonstrated. http://www.adc.org PETER W RODMAN IN WASHINGTON POST: When future historians look back for the origins of the present upheaval in the Middle East, they will fix their eye on the Camp David summit in July. The current crisis is part of the fallout of that failed summit. Summit negotiations always raise the stakes very high. If the top leaders fail, there's no safety net, no recourse. Their failure is bound to leave in its wake a long period of diplomatic vacuum, even if (as happened after the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev arms control summit at Reykjavik) the diplomacy later eventually rights itself . . . The question thus has to be asked: What was in the minds of US mediators when they convened the Camp David summit? Did they really think the Jerusalem question would be solved in a week? The central issues were nowhere near ready for compromise. This is dramatically apparent now (and some of us thought so even then). The pattern of the US-led diplomacy for the past year and more has been of wildly unrealistic deadlines . . . Much of this seems to have been premised on the equally absurd notion that the United States turns into a pumpkin next Jan. 20. This, of course, is an insult to Vice President Al Gore as much as to Gov. George W. Bush. American mediation in the Arab-Israeli dispute has been a consistently bipartisan policy in this country through several changes of administration since it began under President Nixon. The idea that somehow "only Bill Clinton" could accomplish this is now definitively belied by the extraordinary misjudgments that have characterized the recent US diplomacy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64628-2000Oct12.html THE RIGGED DEBATES SOME 43 STUDENT, COMMUNITY and national organizations have come together to call for open presidential debates. A "Where's the Debate?" march will begin at Grace United Methodist Church in St. Louis on October 17 followed by a rally. Non-Violent direct action is expected. According to The Boston Globe, 9000 students, Green Party supporters, and other activists marched and protested the debate held at the University of Massachusetts last week. "This is something new and it really contradicts media hype about 'apathetic young voters'," says Adam Eidinger of the Open Debate Society, a group that occupied the CPD's offices twice last month, resulting in arrests of eight people. Winston-Salem was another scene, as in Boston, of shield wielding police keeping 1000 students off a University campus. O17 organizers have received a letter from the St. Louis street department indicating that no parade permits would be issued for "protest marches." Organizers also received a letter from Clayton Police Chief Richard Morris saying that requests for permits had been denied and that "the city has adopted a traffic policy ~ which prohibits street closure." http://www.O17.org RIGGED ELECTIONS GARRY M. LEECH, MOTHER JONES: The US loves to point out flaws in other countries' elections. We slammed Yugoslavia's September presidential election because international observers were not allowed to verify the fairness of the electoral process, and Peru's recent elections after international observers said the ruling party denied opposition candidates access to the media. The same observers also accused Peru's ruling party of using state police power to restrict the activities of opposition candidates. And government policies resulting in the disenfranchisement of ethnic minorities have often led to elections being condemned as undemocratic by outside observers. But US elections are above such unpleasantness, right? Wrong. If international observers were to oversee this year's US presidential campaign, there is little doubt they would declare the process undemocratic. The ruling parties -- the Democrats and the Republicans -- have used their power to restrict the opposition parties' access to the most important media events of the campaign. They have used police to prevent an opposition candidate from attending a major campaign function, and have excluded an official party's candidates from the regular ballot. And as a result of politically motivated, racially biased policies, an ethnic minority is disproportionately disenfranchised. One US criticism of the recent Peruvian election was the ruling party's denial of media access to opposition parties. Meanwhile, however, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan have been barred from participating in the media event that has proven to be the single most effective way to reach American voters: the debates. Exit polls in the 1988 and 1992 presidential elections showed that more voters based their decision on the debates than any other factor. http://www.motherjones.com/reality_check/observers.html DRUG BUSTS NORML: A new Justice Policy Institute study states that California leads the nation in drug offender imprisonment with a rate of 115 per 100,000 (the national average is 44 per 100,000). In the past three years, more Californians were imprisoned for simple drug possession (38,716) than for sales and manufacturing drugs (35,276). According to the study, in 1980, only 379 Californians were imprisoned for drug possession offenses as opposed to 12,749 in 1999. The study also found that counties with stricter drug law enforcement policies did not experience greater crime or drug use declines, and in most instances, drug arrests and imprisonment rates coincided with crime increases or slower crime decreases. The authors stated that rising rates of drug imprisonment in California were not associated with changes in crime rates. For example, Riverside County's drug possession imprisonment rate is 500 percent greater than Contra Costa County, yet the violent crime rate is 30 percent lower in Contra Costa. http://www.cjcj.org OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT ASSOCIATED PRESS: Congress voted yesterday to expand government authority to bring criminal charges against those disclosing classified material. Critics warned of a chilling effect on the free flow of information. Rep. Nancy Pelosi said it is the nation's first ever official secrets act and that even members of Congress would be subject to criminal charges for leaking classified information. "Congress is foolish," said Pelosi, a member of the House intelligence committee, "to give a blank check to the executive branch for prosecutions in this important area." http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64327-2000Oct12.html A MEGA-CORPORATION COVERS A STRIKE [This is a classic example of how mega-media cover American labor these day. Mission: to convince readers that strikes hurt poor and innocent people. Best to lead with a touching story] DON TERRY, NY TIMES: Edgar Marroquin has a dream. He wants to be a teacher, and nothing is going to stop him, not even the bitter month-old transit strike that has forced him and tens of thousands of other poor Angelenos to get to work, school and church by any means necessary. That often means hitching a ride with family or friends. Or walking. Or riding a battered bicycle. Or piling into an unregulated private car that operates illegally and paying the driver anywhere from $2 to $5 for a ride that would cost a buck and a half on the bus . . . [Then you explain the strike as resulting from attempts to introduce efficiency] The transit strike largely concerns the M.T.A.'s effort to deal with projected budget deficits of $438 million over the next 10 years, said a transit authority spokesman, Gary Mosk. Among other cuts, the agency wants to reduce overtime pay that can add as much as $20,000 to the $50,000 annual wage of the typical driver. [Then, of course, you mention the "strike-weary" general public] As the transit walkout dragged on, there was some better news for strike-weary Angelenos this morning: more than 40,000 county employees who struck jails, libraries, beaches, health clinics, welfare centers and all manner of other offices on Wednesday were back on the job. [In fact, the only quote from a union leader in this 20 paragraph story suggested that even the union was being hurt by its own strike] That strike, in pursuit of a new contract for members of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, was suspended by labor leaders on Wednesday night, in part, a union spokesman said, "because our members can ill afford to be off work" but also because of a plea by Cardinal Roger Mahony, who said the walkout was affecting "the poorest and most vulnerable" people of Los Angeles. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/13/national/13TRAN.html PROTEST IS FINE, JUST NOT IN AMERICA BILL BLUM WRITES US: Have you noticed the praise coming from political leaders for the street action in Yugoslavia? Did we hear anything comparable coming from their lips about the anti-globalization protests of the past year in Seattle, Washington and Prague? Madeleine Albright: "The Yugoslav people ... had the guts to go out and get out on the streets and voice their views and pull themselves together in the opposition." Bill Clinton: "The people have taken care of the transfer of power." ... It was akin to what "we saw when the Berlin Wall was torn down." Richard Holbrooke: the "brave people of Serbia who voted dramatically in the ballot box and then with their feet in the streets". French President Jacques Chirac: congratulated the Serbian people for liberating themselves first with a vote "and then in the street". I guess we've just been protesting in the wrong streets. ----------------------------------------------------- REVIEW E-MAIL: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] REVIEW INDEX: http://www.prorev.com/ UNDERNEWS: http://www.prorev.com/indexa.htm UNDERNEWS SUBSCRIBE: Reply with "subscribe" as subject UNDERNEWS UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' as subject REVIEW FORUM & LETTERS TO EDITOR: http://prorev.com/bb.htm For a free trial subscription to Undernews and the hard-copy Progressive Review send your postal address with zip code. Copyright 2000, 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://www.prorev.com/bb.htm
