UNDERNEWS Oct 17, 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 READERS FORUM: http://prorev.com/bb.htm ----------------------------------------------------- WORD How do you split sawdust? -- Eugene McCarthy, when told that his 1968 candidacy would split the Democratic vote MORNING LINE Bush is back in the lead in Florida. http://prorev.com/amline.htm FEEDBACK * * * VIRGINIA HISTORY: Our piece on Virginia reminded Nancy Allen in Maine of what happened when the Green Party met in Middleburg, VA, after the 1996 election: "A reporter from Maine came to cover the attendance of Ralph Nader at the meeting. He stopped at a local watering hole to ask directions and on that Sunday he found none other than ABC's Brit Hume with a loyal following having a drink. He asked where the Green Party meeting location was and one of the Hume party told him 'If you find them, let us know and we'll have the Air Force carpet bomb them.' As an active Green Party advocate I've always been pretty proud of getting that lovely historic Virginia threat." [While things may not have improved around upscale Middleburg, they definitely have in more rural Rappahanock and Culpeper counties. During the weekend described, your editor drove more than 150 miles in the two counties and saw not one Al Gore sign. Yet in amongst the numerous Bush signs were more than a few for Nader and the Green Party even had a headquarters right on the main street of beautiful downtown Sperryville.] * * * SIGN OF THE BEAST: Linda Howard points out that Dubya is not the Anti-Christ after all, because his name does not add up to 666: "Sorry, Sam, but G.W. Bush is not a Jr - his dad's name is G.H.W. Bush. However: A-L-B-E-R-T A-R-N-O-L-D G-O-R-E-J-R Of course, picky readers will argue that Gore is no longer a junior because his father is dead and hence no longer the Anti-Christ (unless, of course, the position has tenure) On the other hand, Michael Ravnitzky points out: R-O-N-A-L-D W-I-L-S-O-N R-E-A-G-A-N JUST POLITICS THERE GOES THE SUPREME COURT ARGUMENT: According to Michael Donnelly and Jeffrey St. Clair in the Oregonian, Al Gore voted for Justice Scalia and Joe Lieberman backed Justice Thomas. MARTIN KETTLE, GUARDIAN: As a workaholic president of a workaholic nation, Bill Clinton will fly anywhere, anytime, to try to broker a peace deal. There is nothing he likes better than to stay up all night conferring with White House policy wonks. Like his boss, Al Gore promises to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week if he becomes president. George W Bush, on the other hand, prefers a regular two-hour lunch break, likes to wrap up his day's business by 5pm, and reckons on getting plenty of rest and "private time" . . . A survey of Mr. Bush's work schedule reveals a man who dislikes meetings that last longer than 10 minutes, who reads little, who rarely bothers himself with policy, and who spends most of his short working day at photo opportunities and ceremonial occasions. More than 900 pages of Mr. Bush's daily schedules as governor of Texas reveal a politician who typically does not start work until 9 am, who likes to finish the morning's business at 11.30, who takes two hours for lunch and a three-mile run in what he calls "private time", and who will not plan any office engagements after 5pm. http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Distribution/Redirect_Artifact/0,4678,0-3 83663,00.html BILL GERTZ, WASHINGTON TIMES: Vice President Al Gore, at the urging of Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, agreed to keep secret from Congress details of Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran beginning in late 1995. In a classified "Dear Al" letter obtained by The Washington Times, Mr. Chernomyrdin told Mr. Gore about Moscow's confidential nuclear deal with Iran and stated that it was "not to be conveyed to third parties, including the US Congress" . . . The Gore-Chernomyrdin deal, disclosed in a letter labeled "secret," appears to violate a provision of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Act, which requires the Clinton administration to keep congressional oversight committees fully informed of all issues related to nuclear weapons proliferation. The Chernomyrdin letter on nuclear cooperation with Iran follows a report in the New York Times last week showing that Mr. Gore reached a secret deal with Russia several months earlier that appears to circumvent US laws requiring the imposition of sanctions on Russia for its conventional arms sales to Iran. http://washtimes.com RUSSELL MOKHIBER AND ROBERT WEISSMAN: After the second debate, we drove home from Winston-Salem with a C-Span canvas bag that included Matchbox racing cars (paid for by 3Com), Budweiser beer mugs (from Anheuser Busch) and a handful of ATT pre-paid long distance phone cards ("proud technology sponsor of the Presidential Debates"). From the Boston debate, we came back with t-shirts, baseball caps, a canvas bag, reporters notebooks, pens, key chains. The food and beer at the debates are being provided by Anheuser-Busch. Post-debates, the Starbucks coffee and Krispy Kreme donuts are on the house . . . The Ford Motor Co. logo is emblazoned on the plastic press pass holder. http://www.corporatepredators.org BALLS OF IVY DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, NY TIMES: The nation's colleges and universities raised tuition and fees for students by roughly 5 percent this year, capping a decade of price increases that are steadily outpacing family income . . . The costs of attending private four-year colleges grew by 5.2 percent, while those at public four-year colleges rose by 4.4 percent . . . The tuition increases, partly offset by a 4 percent rise in total financial aid from government and private sources, come at a moment of unusual bounty for some universities. Last week's Chronicle of Higher Education reported record returns on investments from endowments for some universities, led by Harvard, while noncompetitive congressional research grants to them, so-called pork barrel projects, totaled more than a $1 billion this year for the first time. University presidents blamed the tuition increases, which ran higher than the 3.1 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index over the last year, on soaring costs of energy and health care, of updating computer equipment and outfitting dormitories for high-speed Internet access. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/17/national/17COLL.html ASSOCIATED PRESS: Starting next year, new students at Fairleigh Dickinson University will be required to take at least one course a year online. It's believed to be the first college or university to do so. "We believe it's a transforming learning tool," said J. Michael Adams, president of the 9,000-student university. "If we are preparing global citizens, we believe that our graduates must be facile with the Internet." http://www.dallasnews.com/national/192162_online_15nat.A.html YOUTH CBS NEWS: Many high school students in the United States lie a lot, cheat a lot and many sometimes show up for class drunk, reports WCBS-AM's Peter Haskell. According to preliminary results of a nationwide teen character study released Monday, seven in 10 students surveyed admitted cheating on a test at least once in the past year, and nearly half said they had done so more than once . . . The Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth found that 92 percent of the 8,600 students surveyed lied to their parents in the past year. Seventy-eight percent said they had lied to a teacher, and more than one in four said they would lie to get a job. Nearly one in six students said they had shown up for class drunk at least once in the past year. Sixty-eight percent admitted they hit someone because they were angry. Nearly half - 47 percent - said they could get a gun if they wanted to. http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,241538-412,00.shtml PALESTINE FAIR: US media have been ignoring or downplaying an important dimension of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. On October 7, the United Nations Security Council voted 14 to 0 for a resolution condemning Israel's "excessive use of force against Palestinians" and deploring the "provocation" of Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's September 28 visit to the Temple Mount. The United States was the only Security Council member to abstain from the vote, which it did after trying to soften the language of the resolution. The outcome was generally interpreted as assigning most of the responsibility for the violence to Israel. The conservative Times of London editorial page called it a "stinging rebuff." Despite the broad global consensus-- minus the United States and Israel-- highlighted by the resolution's passage, coverage in the US media was scant and indifferent. When the media did report the vote, it was almost always treated as a dilemma for US policy-makers rather than a statement of world opinion. http://fair.org THE LIST Things Bush & Gore agreed upon in the last debate According to Michael Moore: -- They both agreed on Israel. -- They both agreed to blame Arafat. -- They both agreed on the war against Yugoslavia. -- They both agreed on more money for anti-ballistic missiles. -- They both agreed it was right not to intervene in Rwanda. -- They both agreed it was right to invade Grenada. -- They both agreed it was right to invade Panama. -- They both agreed the Gulf War was right. -- The both agreed to train Nigerian troops. -- They both agreed on supporting Australia in East Timor. -- They both agreed to train Colombian troops in the Drug War. -- They both agreed they would be "judicious" when deploying US troops. -- They both agreed not to "overextend" the US military. -- They both agreed it was right to bail out Mexico. -- They both agreed on not making loans to "corrupt governments." -- They both agreed to sign a federal racial profiling law. -- They both agreed that gays must not be allowed to marry. -- They both agreed that hunters and homeowners have the right to own guns. -- They both agreed that we need "gun-free schools." -- They both agreed on making trigger locks available. -- They both agreed to support background checks at gun shows. -- They both agreed to follow "the golden rule. -- They both agreed on making the environment cleaner for our grandchildren. -- They both agreed on mandatory testing in schools. -- They both agreed on "local control" of schools. ----------------------------------------------------- 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. 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