UNDERNEWS Sam Smith September 25, 1999 The Progressive Review 1312 18th St NW (Fifth Floor) Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779 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 UNCLASSIFIEDS: http://www.prorev.com/jobs.htm DONATIONS AND ORDER FORM: http://prorev.com/order3.htm UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. READER'S FORUM: http://www.topica.com/lists/readers/read 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://www.topica.com/lists/readers/read. You can also post messages directly by signing in there. ---------------------------------------------------------- WORD A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. -- GK Chesterton. PALLS OF IVY Sometime in the 1980s, Yale University took control from Harvard of the mismanagement of American affairs. Gone were the Cambridge professors using a war in Vietnam as proto-Viagra and in their place came the unenhanced sexual adventures of Clarence Thomas. In fact, during that incident almost everyone involved -- appointer, appointee, major confirmers, victim, victim's defenders and victim's counter-accusers -- went to Yale. The big difference between having one's republic unraveled by Yale graduates as opposed to Harvard alumni is that while megalomania drives each, the Harvard trained mind seems more inclined to cloak it all in macro-political terms, while Yalies are happy to settle for shear, unadorned power. Thus while Kissinger got himself geared up with treaties, invasions and assassinations, Clinton's inspirations ran more in the line of cigars. When Kissinger referred to power being the ultimate aphrodisiac he was thinking globally; Clinton probably thought he was endorsing rape. The next time you see Al Gore on TV ask yourself just one question: would this man have permitted himself to be branded on the butt, a la Dubya, in order to become a member of the DKE fraternity? Then ask yourselves a second question: what is the inner meaning of this? TPR has no answer but merely points out that if GWB wins, we will be ruled by the third Yalie in a row, another alumnus of that purveyor of silly rituals, secret societies and the sense that one is entitled by birth and/or test scores to get away with whatever one can. This is a pretty weak argument for Al Gore but is the best we can think of at the moment. THE REAL WORLD GUARDIAN, LONDON: Researchers published a troubling report yesterday which claimed that one in two young men think that raping a woman is acceptable in certain circumstances, while one in four believe it is justifiable to hit a woman. The research carried out by the Zero Tolerance charitable trust, an Edinburgh-based group which campaigns against sexual and physical violence against women, also found that a third of all girls surveyed thought forcing a woman to have sex was acceptable in some circumstances. Academics from Glasgow and north London universities questioned 2,039 people aged 14 to 21 in Glasgow, Manchester and Fife to discover their attitudes towards violence and women .... One in 10 thought there was nothing wrong with raping a woman if the man was "so turned on he can't stop", while one in six said "if she'd slept with loads of men" was a valid reason. One in six of the boys questioned thought they might personally force a woman to have sex with them, while nearly one in 10 would rape a woman "if nobody would find out" .... [The researchers] found one in four young men thought hitting a woman could be justified if she had "slept with someone else". And one in eight said it would be OK to hit a "nagging" woman, while one in 10 said hitting a "disrespectful" woman was justified. Of the young women asked the same question, 12% thought it was acceptable for a man to hit a woman if she had slept with someone else, while one in 50 said hitting a girlfriend was justifiable. MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN: Nearly half of all gay and lesbian students don't feel safe at school, according to a first of its kind survey. Seventy percent of those polled said they had been taunted, sexually harassed, shoved, kicked, punched and even beaten. Most had frequent slurs hurled their way, and one third said some of the slurs came from their teachers. ECO NOTES GUARDIAN, LONDON: International opposition to American genetically modified food products has combined with mounting public anxiety in the United States to force a climb-down by Washington over food labeling policy, it was reported yesterday. According to agriculture industry experts, three US government agencies met in Washington this week to agree to develop a labeling plan for US products which include GM crops, which are increasingly widely grown on American farms. The decision represents a significant change in US food safety and public information policy and is seen as a strategic concession by the Clinton administration in advance of the November ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, in which agriculture is the most contentious trade issue. Charles Benbrook, a consultant for the US Consumers Union and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, said the U-turn on GM food labeling was made at a meeting between officials of the US agriculture department, the federal food and drug administration and the environmental protection agency. GUARDIAN, LONDON: World population growth has peaked and is gradually slowing, but not fast enough to secure the health and future of the poorest, according to a report released by the United Nations yesterday .... There are 100 million births a year, which will take the global population to six billion on or soon after October 12 .... While couples in Europe and North America have on average fewer than two children, putting the birth rate in industrialized countries in decline, Africa's population is soaring. Since 1960 it has tripled to 767 million, although the AIDS epidemic is cutting a swath. In the same period, Asia's population has doubled to 3.6 billion. MORE GUARDIAN HEADLINES: http://www.prorev.com/altnews.htm LABOR NEWS LA TIMES: More U.S. employees than ever are too stressed to make it to work, or they feel entitled to play hooky once in a while, a new survey has found .... The survey of human resources managers at 305 firms representing nearly 800,000 employees showed that most workers who are away from the job on short notice are not sick but are staying home because of stress, family issues, personal needs or because they simply felt they deserved a day off .... Absenteeism in U.S. workplaces declined 7% in the last year, after skyrocketing 25% the year before to a seven-year high .... Mid-size businesses with between 1,000 and 2,499 workers were hit hardest by increased absenteeism in the last year, noting a 51% increase. Small employers with 99 or fewer workers made the most progress, with a 76% decrease. YOUTH NEWS I Congressman George Miller has introduced new legislation to protect student privacy and parents' rights to information about their children's education. The Student Privacy Protection Act would prohibit schools from letting students participate in various forms of market research at school without their parent's written permission. The bill also would require a broad study of commercial involvement in the classroom. Some examples of the abuses that the legislation hopes to address: -- Kids in a New Jersey elementary school filled out a 27-page booklet called "my all about me journal" as part of a marketing survey for a cable television channel. -- Students in a Massachusetts elementary school spent two days tasting cereal and answering an opinion poll. -- The ZapMe! Corporation of San Ramon, California provides schools with free computers but then monitors students' web browsing habits, breaking the data down by age, sex and ZIP code. COMMERCIAL ALERT http://www.essential.org/alert/ YOUTH NEWS II SALON: They were never part of the Trench Coat Mafia. They didn't target jocks, minorities or Christians. They had a hit list, but nobody on it was hit. They expected their bombs and explosives would wipe out most of the school. As investigators get closer to producing an official report about the Columbine High School massacre, it is already clear that much of what was reported last spring about the motives and methods of killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold was untrue. Multiple sources close to the Columbine investigation have disclosed key findings to Salon News, including a glimpse into Harris' infamous "diary." .... The sources say that many of the most notorious events from the shooting spree -- repeated over and over in news reports, on TV chat shows and now in a best-selling book -- simply never occurred. Investigators now know conclusively that the attack Harris and Klebold launched April 20 was planned as a suicide mission, driven by indiscriminate hate, and intended to wipe out most of their suburban school EXCERPT FROM ERIC HARRIS' DIARY: You know what I hate? Star Wars fans: get a friggin life, you boring geeks. You know what I hate? People who mispronounce words, like 'acrost,' and 'pacific' for 'specific,' and 'expresso' instead of 'espresso.' You know what I hate? People who drive slow in the fast lane, God these people do not know how to drive. You know what I hate? The WB network!!!! Oh Jesus, Mary Mother of God Almighty, I hate that channel with all my heart and soul. SALON http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/09/23/columbine/index.html WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS UP UPI: Nervous about possible Y2K-caused chaos, officials in Albany, N.Y., are planning to end the city's New Year's Eve celebration at 11 p.m. The Albany Millennium 2000 celebration promises a Mardi Gras-like atmosphere in New York's state capital - but minus the alcohol and minus the midnight celebration. City officials said Albany's downtown event will feature giant puppets, gospel singers and other musical acts, and no alcohol. The event will last five hours, and the city said that will give everyone time to go home by midnight. CLINTON SCANDALS JERRY SEPER, WASHINGTON TIMES: FBI agents assigned to the campaign-finance task force told a Senate committee Justice Department officials blocked their efforts to pursue key investigative targets -- including information that Charles Yah Lin Trie was bringing in "duffel bags full of cash" to the Democratic Party. The agents, during nearly four hours of testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, described Justice Department lawyers assigned to oversee the probe as non-aggressive prosecutors who sought to impede or delay the investigation with "ludicrous" restrictions .... The FBI disclosures, obtained under oath, come at a time that relations between the bureau and the Justice Department appear to be at an all-time low, following a decision by Miss Reno to send U.S. Marshals into FBI headquarters to seize records in the ongoing Waco investigation .... [The agents] told the committee that their Justice Department supervisor, Laura Ingersoll, who eventually was replaced as the campaign-finance probe's lead attorney, prevented them from executing search warrants they sought to stop the destruction of evidence. The agents said they were blocked from serving the search warrants because Miss Ingersoll did not believe they had established probable cause to show that a crime had been committed. The agents argued, however, that the probable cause standard set by Miss Ingersoll was more than was legally required. [One agent]also testified that .... Miss Ingersoll told the agents they should "not pursue any matter related to solicitation of funds for access to the president," adding that the reason given was: "That's the way the American political process works." .... Miss Ingersoll, called in a second session to testify before the committee, said there was "no smoking gun" in documents submitted by the FBI for the warrant -- although the agents argued that they had discovered in a trash search numerous check registers and other financial, business and travel documents that had been shredded. She argued that "nothing we saw indicated to us" there was "anything incriminating" in the documents. WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com PAUL GIGOT, WALL STREET JOURNAL: One of President Clinton's charms is his epic brazenness. Only a man of invincible political audacity would nominate James Lyons to a prestigious lifetime spot on the federal bench. This one makes clemency for Puerto Rican bomb-makers look prudent. Mr. Lyons is the Denver attorney who helped Bill and Hillary sweep Whitewater under the carpet back in 1992. At their request he produced the notorious "Lyons report," which claimed that the whole thing was no big deal and helped the issue disappear by election day. Several years and Whitewater convictions later, the country has learned a painful lesson in presidential character. The exception, of course, is Mr. Clinton, who seems to have learned only that he can get away with anything. That's the only way to explain his decision Wednesday to appoint Mr. Lyons to the 10th circuit court of appeals DON VAN NATTA JR., NEW YORK TIMES: In the tense days and hours before and after they signed an agreement to buy a white house in Chappaqua, N.Y., for $1.7 million, President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton sought financial assistance from former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and two former White House chiefs of staff, according to several people with knowledge of the arrangement. But Rubin, as well as the chiefs of staff, Thomas F. McLarty 3d and Erskine B. Bowles, declined to help the Clintons buy the first home they will own since 1983, several people with knowledge of the requests said today. They said that Bowles had originally committed to being the guarantor but declined on Sept. 1, just three days after the Clintons signed an agreement to buy the house under the condition their loan would be guaranteed .... Leaders of several public watchdog groups said that the refusals by McLarty and Rubin demonstrate that the favor done by McAuliffe was even more important to the Clintons than anyone had first realized. "This is a President who has never had any compunction about going around with a tin cup," said Charles Lewis, the founder and executive director of the Center for Public Integrity. "Most people would have a very, very difficult time asking someone to write a check for $1.3 million." 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