13 Mar 98: The US Senate approved $214 billion to fund highway projects across the country. Some form of this bill is expected to be passed by the House within the next few weeks. There is little question that US infrastructure is deteriorating due to neglect. However, this spending program, embarked upon by a Republican majority, is a budget buster. Balancing the budget should be among our highest priorities; roads can be improved on a more reasonable schedule. The funds for road improvement should be hitting the states at or about election time, implying that the incumbent had something to do with lucrative projects funded with moneys from "out-of-state" and the temporary economic lift such spending generates. The Conservative Monitor has criticized the Democrats in the past for buying elections with welfare spending. It seems the Republicans are using the same strategy as applied to road construction. It would be more honorable to EARN the taxpayers vote with responsible and intelligent control of the money that runs through the hands of Congress.
North Korea announced a wartime mobilization yesterday. Li In Gyu, North Korean Deputy Foreign Secretary accused the US, Japan and South Korea of exploiting the economic crisis in the region - North Korea is expected to run out of food stocks by April. The countries mentioned above are doing much to alleviate the suffering by humanitarian aid. The officials in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang are undoubtedly afraid of what the obvious failure of socialism means for their regime and the political effect of being bailed out by their professed enemies. Political leaders in desperate straits with their own people have been known to attempt to divert attention from their internal problems by fomenting an outside problem. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the North Koreans will stir up a military conflict. North Korea possesses a huge military force and may even hold a few nuclear weapons.
12 Mar 98: A federal judge has ordered Iran to pay the family of Alisa Flatow $247.5 million in damages because of the country's complicity in a suicide bomb that killed the young woman in Gaza in 1995. The court order was delivered under a federal law that allows US citizens to sue nations believed to sponsor terrorist acts directly attributable to the country's activities. The nation and the courts should have all sympathy for Ms. Flatow and her family. However, it is a violation of the sovereignty of any nation to subject them to the rulings of a court in another nation. If the US has a problem with Iran, Iran should be dealt with through the traditional diplomatic and military channels. This case could set a precedent that would leave the US government liable to suits from any court in any of the over 160 nations of the world. Is the United States going to pay up when a Cuban court determines that a 30 year blockade of that country has been damaging to their economy or that the US is liable for Cubans killed during the Bay of Pigs fiasco?
Teamsters President Ron Carey has been implicated in an illegal fund-raising scheme that ties him with various illegal activities in the Democratic Party.
Astronomers are concerned about a mile wide asteroid that could possibly come crashing into the Earth in about the 2028. Asteroid 1997XF11 could wreak some deal of havoc possibly killing millions. Although 2028 seems a long way off and the possibility of an alien space object devastating the planet seems far fetched, there is evidence of such events having taken place in the past. It is not beyond the scope or ability of the US space program to deal with this foreign object when it comes sufficiently close to the Earth. Let's give NASA the go ahead so they have plenty of time to prepare.
11 Mar 98: President Clinton accepted an apology from David Brock, author of an article that mentions Paula Jones as one of the many women who had liaisons with the President while he was still Governor of Arkansas. Brock says in the apology that his intentions were questionable in writing the story. However, he stopped short of saying that the charges levied in the story were untrue. In fact, when queried directly on the topic, he evaded the question, indicating that his intentions not withstanding and a possible error in fingering Paula Jones, his story was substantially correct and the then Governor Clinton likely did misuse Arkansas state troopers and he likely did accost any number of women - willing and unwilling.
10 Mar 98: The US Supreme Court yesterday ruled that racial quota's in hiring and contracts is not legal. Florida's Dade County had filed suit to re-instate a quota system in construction contracts. The supreme court refused to even hear the case. The justices have limited such programs saying that such efforts must be tailored to remedy the effects of past discrimination. Indeed, the Supreme Court is correct in this matter. Discrimination is wrong. Whenever any program takes into account such superficial factors as skin color or sex it is itself discriminatory. Each individual should be judged on his actions - period.
Johnny Chung, the notorious Democratic Party fund-raiser, was arraigned yesterday on federal charges. He is accused of making illegal campaign contributions. Chung's lawyer said he will plead guilty to multiple charges that include: funneling $20,000 in illegal contributions to the Clinton-Gore campaign and $8,000 to Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Democrats have long tried to make the case that all the illegal activities surrounding campaign finance means that the system needs reform. Campaign finance might well need reform, yet all of these illegal activities only go to prove that Democrats do not have the moral fiber to follow the laws that they themselves were instrumental in putting together in the 1970's. The best finance reform would obviously be to lift all contribution caps and simply require complete disclosure.
09 Mar 98: Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, announced yesterday that President Clinton must consult the UN Security Council before taking any future measures against Saddam Hussein. Members on the council include Russia, China and France all of whom opposed US intervention the last time Saddam did not live up to his peace agreements. The US has been continuously losing ground with Saddam. He achieved a victory over the US/UN in the most recent standoff by getting the UN to all but lift economic sanctions on Iraq. Now it appears he may, without firing a shot, also hog-tie the United States. The security council - made up of some 16 member states - is unlikely to respond to US concerns in a unified manner. President Clinton has thus far rejected the UN's call for the US to subject its foreign policy to world dictates. Although he committed considerable policy blunders in the Middle East in the past. Clinton is not likely to buckle in this instance. Yet he may. The United States has ever preserved its right to unilateral action. To relinquish this right would be to sacrifice the interest of the nation to the petty and confused concerns of every minor principate on the planet.
