20 Mar 98: President Clinton is expected to move today to allow US based Cuban exiles to send money home and to allow direct flights from the US to Cuba, two activities presently barred by the US embargo. Some have argued that the embargo against Cuba - instituted over 30 years ago - must be working considering the poverty endemic to that country. In reality, Cuba has had access to anything the US embargo would have denied her. Nearly every other nation on the planet has trade relations with Cuba. If Cuba is having difficulties it is entirely due to a totalitarian-socialist system that cannot create enough wealth or even food to sustain its own people. Lifting the embargo in part or in whole will do little to change Cuba's socialist slide. It doesn't really matter what the President does.
Hillary Clinton and organizers of the "First" National Woman's Museum have announced that they will open a museum in Dallas in October of 2000. The National Women's Hall of Fame argues that they already have a women's museum and are already first. The argument is moot. It is incongruous for there to be a woman's museum at all. A museum or hall of fame should honor people for their accomplishments not the accident of their birth. Why don't we have a National Museum of people born with a mole on their nose?
19 Mar 98: President Clinton complained yesterday that the Senate Republicans were short-changing America's future by not spending enough on his education priorities. Clinton wants to hire 100,000 new teachers to reduce class size, modernize school buildings and increase spending for Head Start for preschoolers. He said that he would veto a budget plan that does not include his education priorities. There are several problems with the president's plan. First, education is constitutionally the purview of states and localities. Second, increasing the number of teachers will only serve to strengthen a union - the NEA whose interests are not those of the students and whose activities tend to hurt the education process. Third, federal programs such as Head Start have been shown to have little or no positive effect on the performance of children in school. Spent on a federal level, most of this money will be wasted or counter-productive. It would be far better to leave it in the hands of parents who will spend it for the specific benefit of each child.
Congress is reported to be moving toward allowing President Clinton to keep US forces in Bosnia. Representative Benjamin Gilman, R- NY, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, points out that the US has spent in excess of $7 billion in the region to implement the peace plan. There is no question that the US military presence has prevented chaos, strife, genocide and murder. The question is whether the United States can EVER pull out. Previous to the breakup of Yugoslavia ethnic strife was suppressed for nearly 50 years under the communist rule of Tito. Yet 50 years of peaceful co-existence was not sufficient to keep Bosnians, Serbs and Croats from tearing at each others throats at the first opportunity. What makes the US believe that the region will be stabilized to a degree that would allow a peaceful US withdrawal? Perhaps we should simply declare the region a protectorate and colonize or better yet - make it the 52nd state (after Puerto Rico - of course). Maybe then we could generate enough tax revenue to pay for our presence there.
18 Mar 98: President Clinton joined with Congressional Democrats yesterday to push a bill that would extend the failing Medicare program to up to 400,000 persons approaching retirement age. Persons between the ages of 55 and 65 would be allowed to buy into the Medicare program. Unfortunately, the plan is merely another step in the President's effort to socialize all medicine. The more persons in such health plans the less competition there will be in the medical industry - pushing medical costs ever higher and further jeopardizing the entire health system.
17 Mar 98: Happy St. Patricks Day! In the US House of Representatives Republican leaders are working on legislation to go forward with campaign finance reform. Ideally reform would lift the Byzantine rules and regulations now in effect and institute a policy of unlimited donations controlled only by full disclosure. To regulate campaign donations is an infringement of free speech. Full disclosure would ensure that the public knows which special interests are backing a ballot measure or a candidate. Freedom is fair for everyone.
16 Mar 98: Kathleen E. Willey appearing in a "60 Minutes" interview last night confirmed that President Clinton groped her when she went to him for help. The 51 year old Democratic activist seems to have been bewildered by the President's unwanted advances. She stated unequivocally that the President lied in his deposition in the Paula Jones case when he said he had not done anything improper to Ms. Willey. She also said that the President's lawyer, Robert Bennett, had pressured her not to make public the incident that occurred in the Oval Office. Although these revelations will likely not change American public opinion regarding the President they are additional evidence that the President has lied about his behavior to the public and they make more credible the charges that he has accepted campaign contributions in exchange for government intervention in favor of China as well as several Indian tribes. Allegations abound that FBI files were used against Clinton's political enemies, and there are various and sundry other scandals that attach themselves to the man including Whitewater where financial malfeasance seems to have been the order of the day.
