UNDERNEWS Sam Smith July 20, 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 ---------------------------------------------------------- WORD There are only three isms I'm against: fascism, communism and snake-oilism -- Earl Long PRIVATE HMOs CUT CORNERS NEW YORK TIMES: Patients enrolled in profit-making health insurance plans are significantly less likely to receive the basics of good medical care -- including childhood immunizations, routine mammograms, pap smears, prenatal care, and lifesaving drugs after a heart attack -- than those in not-for-profit plans .... The research, conducted by a team from Harvard University and Public citizen, an advocacy group in Washington, is the first comprehensive comparison of investor-owned and nonprofit plans. The authors found that on every one of 4 quality-of-care indicators, the for-profits scored worse. The New York Times also reports that under the Senate approved health bill, most people in HMOs would "gain no tangible benefit from many of the consumer-protection standards" since they apply only to people in HMOs regulated by the federal government. PACIFICA CRISIS SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: The private security service now occupying padlocked KPFA radio has ties to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies and could be having a field day with confidential records kept by reporters at the frequently anti-establishment station, KPFA journalists charged yesterday. The complaint came after KPFA's governing body, the Pacifica Foundation, refused yesterday morning to let employees retrieve their files and tapes from the Berkeley station .... Pacifica, which placed all employees on paid, involuntary leave Tuesday after mass protests and arrests, maintains that files and tapes are "company property," said Pacifica spokeswoman Elan Fabbri. She said the security service employees are merely protecting the station and are not looking into anyone's files or desks. THE ECONOMIST: Over the years, the Pacifica network has become the only real "alternative" network left in American radio. Programs distributed by National Public Radio, by far the largest network of listener-supported (or "public") radio stations in the country, have grown increasingly bland. Beyond that, the FM and AM radio dials are crowded with commercial stations, providing a rarely-varying roar of rock, country & western, "oldies", talk and rap. By contrast, Pacifica's most popular network program is "Democracy Now!", a daily hour-long feature that won an award earlier this year for its coverage of massacres in oil-rich regions of Nigeria. ECONOMIST http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/17-7-99/index_us5716.html CAPITOL HILL BLUE, OCT 13 1998: The Civil Rights Commission [chaired by Mary Francis Berry] appears in "disarray," congressional auditors say in a report accusing the 40-year-old agency of lacking fiscal accountability, misplacing records and taking years longer than planned to finish projects .... In a review of the agency covering fiscal years 1993 through 1996, the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative and auditing arm, found "management controls over its operations are weak and do not ensure that the commission is able to meet its statutory responsibility or its program objectives." CAPITOL HILL BLUE http://207.153.252.231/July1997/civilrightsjul10.htm THE MEDIACRACY If you're wondering why so many Washington reporters fail to ask probing questions, here's the sort of thing that happens when you try. Progressive columnists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman were upbraided by a USDA flack for asking a few tough questions of his boss, Dan Glickman, following a National Press Club appearance. Reported the pair: Before boarding the elevator to leave the Press Club, USDA communications director Tom Amontree accused us of being "rude" and not "nice." In what sense were we rude? You are rude because you were being "very argumentative" and you were asking "leading questions," he says. FOCUS ON CORPORATIONS http://lists.essential.org/corp-focus YOUTH NOTES WASHINGTON POST: A new study has found that high school students whose teachers have emergency teaching certificates -- typically issued by states to meet shortages in the classroom -- perform about as well in mathematics and science as students whose teachers hold regular teaching credentials. The surprising finding, based on the test scores of a national sample of high school seniors and sophomores, runs contrary to the assumptions of a Clinton administration proposal to require states to stop issuing emergency teaching certificates as a condition for receiving federal education aid. CRIME NEWS: Pfizer Inc will pay $20 million in criminal fines and plead guilty to having one of its units involved in two international price-fixing conspiracies. LAND OF THE FREE Attempts to limit law suits in the guise of "tort reform" have run into trouble at the state level. At least seven states have struck down all or part of new liability laws in the past three years reports the New York Times. The courts have relied on "provisions of state constitutions like guarantees of fair access to the courts." JUST POLITICS Public funding check-offs on tax returns have dropped to 12% of all taxpayers compared with 29% in 1980. There is concern that there won't be enough money to fund all the candidates this year. ETHNICITY --Percent of black students in schools where more than half of students are minorities: 1968-69: 77% 1980-81: 63% 1996-97: 69% --Percent of latino students in schools where more than half of students were minorities: 1968-69: 55% 1996-97: 75% [Orlando Patterson in the New York Times] COUNTER-INTUITIVE NEWS -- Percent of small car fatalities in 1997 that involved only small cars: 56% -- Percent of small car fatalities in 1997 that involved collisions with medium and large SUVs: 1% [USA TODAY] DRUG BUSTS General Barry McCaffrey, the federal drug czar, has proposed $1 billion in emergency assistance to Colombia supposedly to improve its heretofore futile war on drugs. America already gives more aid to Colombia than any country other than Israel and Egypt. It appears to have had little effect. Says McCaffrey, "Colombia is in a near-crisis situation," adding that "criminal trafficking organizations have done serious damage of Colombian national security over the past few years." McCaffrey's answer: send more money. LETTERS ON THE JFK JR CRASH http://prorev.com/letters.htm#letters PANAMA CANAL [From a unreleased congressional investigation of the situation in Panama obtained by Softwar on-line newsletter] THE PANAMA CANAL IN TRANSITION: THREATS TO U.S. SECURITY and CHINA's GROWING ROLE IN LATIN AMERICA The Panama Canal, one of the world's key strategic waterways, is scheduled to be turned over to the Panamanian government on December 31, 1999. The Canal remains vital to American trade and defense capabilities. The Canal remains the vital sea link in the Western Hemisphere between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and an economic and logistical bridgehead between North America and South America. Currently, some 15 to 20 percent of total U.S. exports/imports pass through the Canal, including some 40% of all grain exports .... The People's Republic of China, through the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. company, which has close ties to the PRC government and People's Liberation Army, was granted a 25-year lease, with an additional 25 year option, for control of the Canals Atlantic and Pacific Ocean ports of Balboa and Cristobal and adjacent facilities. The delegation witnessed Hutchison Whampoa conducting major construction and port facility expansion at both the Atlantic and Pacific Canal ports. Hutchison Whampoa will control the stevedoring [loading and unloading of ship cargo] at the ports. The company also has a substantial interest in the railroad line that coordinates transportation of cargo between the ports. In addition, the Chinese company is a major bidder on construction of a new suspension bridge that will link "land canal" highways that will truck oversized cargo containers between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The war in neighboring Columbia against well-armed narco-terrorist forces, with a history of ties to Cuba, is escalating and threatens to spread throughout the region. Panama does not have an army, navy or air Force, The Panamanian government has an ongoing reputation for corruption and mismanagement. Chinese organized crime organizations are active in drugs, guns and illegal alien smuggling in Panama, and the Russian mafia is known to be supplying weapons to Columbian narco-terrorist forces. The delegation was also concerned about the growing presence of communist China directly at the Canal and in the region. U.S. and Panamanian security officials stated that Panama has become the central base of operations for communist China in Latin America. Panama is a Pacific Ocean port, and the canal is vital to commerce between the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas. [Europe also uses the Canal for a substantial mount of its trade with Asia] It is also a vital component to emerging Chinese communist strategy to dominate the Pacific and to undermine and isolate the United States. The Number Two user of the canal, after the United Slates is Japan, with China and Taiwan competing for the third position. The unofficial representative of the People's Republic of China [PRC] is believed to be a senior intelligence officer who operates out of an office on the top floor of a bank building in Panama City, with a staff of fourteen assistants. The $2 billion worth of annual business conducted by PRC in the Canal has rapidly eclipsed the $400 million of business by Taiwan. Taipai fears that it will lose diplomatic recognition, similar to its loss in the Bahamas, where the PRC invested a large amount of money - over and under the table - to gain control of the ports and political influence. Worldwide, China appears to be progressively positioning itself commercially and militarily along the key naval choke points between the Indian Ocean [its bases in Burma]; the South China Sea [Hong Kong]; the Straits of Malacca [the Spratley Islands and a growing role in Cambodia]; the central Pacific [a major land satellite tracking station on Tarawa]; the coast of Hawaii [a major ocean mining tract]; the Caribbean [Cuba and the Bahamas]; and now the Panama Canal. China's flagship commercial shipping fleet, China Ocean Shipping Company [COSCO, is directly connected to the People's Liberation Army and Chinese communist government. COSCO ships have served as careers for massive smuggling operations around the world - including the United States -- of weapons, drugs and illegal aliens. In addition, COSCO has been used by the Chinese government to ship missiles - and components of weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations such as Pakistan and Iran .... The growing anti-U.S./NATO "strategic partnership" of China and Russia poses an increasing threat. There is a well-documented history of both Russian and Chinese organized crime organizations working as tools of their governments. In Panama, where government corruption is rampant, there is a dangerous convergence of well-financed Chinese and Russian mobs with Cuban government operatives and Latin American drug lords, leftists and narco-terrorist militants. This dark partnership is a threat to democracy in Panama and in neighboring countries, and is a direct long-term threat to Mexico and the United States .... SOFTWAR http://www.softwar.net/panama1.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/
