The Michigan Militia Corps'

Weekly Update
Internet Edition

Volume 5, Issue 17

Week of May 11, 1998


Supreme Court ruling will maintain a "vast wasteland" of politics on PBS

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Supreme Court decision allowing public television stations to exclude third party candidates means that "only government-approved candidates will get access to government-controlled media," the Libertarian Party charged today.

"Thanks to the Supreme Court, public television will remain a vast wasteland of Republican and Democratic politicians," said Steve Dasbach, the national chairman of America's most successful third party.

The Supreme Court decision, Arkansas Educational Television Commission v. Forbes, will have a disproportionate impact on the Libertarian Party, since it may run more candidates for office this year than all other "third parties" combined, noted Dasbach.

"Unfortunately for the millions of Americans who will vote for Libertarian Party candidates in 1998, the Supreme Court has just decided that your political beliefs don't count," he said. "The politicians will cheerfully take your money to fund their television network -- but feel no obligation to present your political viewpoints."

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled that public television stations can exclude third party and independent candidates deemed not "newsworthy" from televised debates.

Such exclusion, the court ruled by a 6-3 vote, does not violate the First Amendment because including third party candidates might create political "cacophony." Or, because Republicans and Democrats might boycott debates that include alternative parties, which would "repress" speech.

Instead, PBS stations can use "journalistic discretion" to decide which candidates to invite, the court ruled.

"Since Republican and Democratic politicians control the budgets that fund these PBS stations, and pay the salaries of the journalists who will be exercising that discretion, is it unreasonable to assume that they will tend to favor their Republican and Democratic bosses?" asked Dasbach.

"Like the old Pravda newspaper in the Communist-controlled Soviet Union, the tendency will be to only disseminate government-approved political opinions."

However, despite the criticism of the Supreme Court's ruling, getting Libertarians on government-funded television stations is not the party's primary goal, said Dasbach.

"Libertarians don't want equal time on government TV; we want an equal opportunity to compete for private-sector media," he said.

"That's why privatizing PBS is the best option. Sell the stations to the highest free-market bidders, and let private companies decide which candidates to broadcast. If the government gets out of the TV business, we won't have to worry about government employees deciding who can appear on TV," he said.

"The second-best solution would be to allow taxpayers to opt out of paying for public television, if it doesn't properly represent their political views. Make PBS an optional check-off box on tax forms: If you like the line-up of government-approved candidates, then you can choose to support PBS. If you don't, you get to keep your money," he said.

"But if politicians insist on owning TV stations, and insist on taking our money to fund them, the very least they could do is insist that the widest possible spectrum of political ideas are presented. If not, they might as well change the name of the network from PBS to R&DBS -- the Republican & Democratic Broadcasting System."


Budget Analysis Sees $63M Surplus

WASHINGTON - The Congressional Budget Office foresees a 1998 federal surplus of $43 billion to $63 billion, the biggest ever, thanks to a torrent of revenues produced by the humming economy, the office said Wednesday.

Congress' nonpartisan budget analysts also expect the surplus to be $30 billion to $40 billion in fiscal 1999, which begins Oct. 1, they said in a letter sent Tuesday to House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio.

CBO expects the strong economy to make the combined 1998 and 1999 surpluses $55 billion to $85 billion bigger than the agency estimated just two months ago. Lawmakers and President Clinton are already squabbling over whether the money should be used to pay for more tax cuts, higher spending, or a reduction in the $5.5 trillion national debt.

Clinton said earlier this week that he believed a $50 billion surplus for 1998 was possible. Should a surplus of the expected magnitude emerge, it would be the first since 1969.

Until now, the record surplus was the $12 billion in black ink the government registered in 1948. But because of inflation, dollars are worth far less today than they were in 1948, when the entire federal budget was $30 billion -- compared to $1.7 trillion today.

In March, CBO said it envisioned surpluses of $18 billion this year and $9 billion for 1999. CBO expects next year's surplus to be smaller than this year's because it expects the growth of the economy and the federal revenues it creates to slow. About two-thirds of the increase in the 1998 estimated surplus was attributed to higher than expected revenue collections. The rest came from lower than anticipated spending for the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.


Altering the course of history

When Senator Fred Thompson said, at the opening of the campaign finance hearings held by his committee, that there was an orchestrated plan by the government of communist China to buy influence over our government, critics scoffed. Democrats reacted with outrage, demanding proof of that very serious charge. Much persuasive evidence was produced supporting Thompson's assertion. There was much missing information, to be sure, in no small part because so many of the people intimately involved with these events have fled the country or have claimed the privilege against self incrimination.

But the democrats insisted that there was no smoking gun, by which, apparently, they meant that nothing less than a notarized price list, written in Bill Clinton's own handwriting, addressed to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, with a certified return receipt proof of delivery, would do. Reasonable people, however, can look at events and draw reasonable conclusions. As voters, we are not limited by courtroom standards of a presumption of innocence until guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. We are free to use our common sense. Consider the following: This is the law, and as Newt states, no one is beyond the law, not even the president.

In January, 1995, at the urging of democrat fundraiser Johnny Chung (since indicted), a number of officials of the Chinese government attended the taping of one of President Clinton's weekly radio addresses.

In February, 1996, at the urging of democrat fundraiser Charlie Trie (since indicted), Bill Clinton had a meeting in the Oval Office with Wang Jun, the chairman of Poly Technologies (which operates under the direction of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and acts as an agent for arms sales by the Chinese military).

In May, 1996, U.S. Customs agents seized a shipment of 2000 Chinese assault rifles which were being smuggled into the United States, allegedly for sale to Los Angeles street gangs. A ship owned by the China Overseas Shipping Company (COSCO) was intercepted, in a sting called Operation Dragonfire, carrying the weapons into the Port of Oakland, California. Indicted in the smuggling scheme, among others, were representatives of Poly Technologies, and Norinco (which reports directly to the Chinese government's State Council). Jun, Poly, Norinco, COSCO, and the Chinese government have all denied knowledge of the weapon smuggling.

In November, 1997, the Justice Department "discovered" misplaced FBI files which indicated that democrat fundraiser Maria Hsia (since indicted) was "doing the bidding" (according to a senior official at Justice) of the Chinese government.

On November 14, 1997, the Washington Post reported: "After Thompson announced... that he was suspending his public hearings, officials said, the FBI obtained intelligence showing that the Ministry of State Security in Beijing -- the Chinese equivalent of the CIA -- boasted it had been successful in 'thwarting' the congressional inquiry." Supercomputers, sold to the Chinese government for peaceful purposes, have been diverted to military use. The Clinton administration has also allowed the sale of accurate global positioning systems (helpful in targeting ballistic missiles).

In March, 1996, during the Taiwan elections, China fired missiles around the island of Taiwan in an attempt to intimidate Taiwanese voters, and warned the U.S. not to interfere. Prior to that, the Chinese threatened, in unmistakable terms, to attack us: an American Assistant Secretary of Defense was told by the Chinese deputy chief of military intelligence, "In the end, you care a lot more about Los Angeles than you do about Taipei." At that time, China did not have the technical capability of hitting the U.S. mainland with its nuclear-armed missiles.

During 1996 and beginning of 1997, the Chinese government negotiated several agreements with the Clinton administration. One included the right of Chinese ships to dock, on 24 hour notice (down from 4 days), in American ports located near U.S. military facilities in San Diego, Cape Canaveral, Honolulu, and eight other U.S. cities.

Another agreement included a lease to COSCO of the former U.S. naval base at Long Beach, California. The COSCO lease was apparently concluded after the Wang Jun coffee, and before the Operation Dragonfire weapon seizure. COSCO was also awarded a U.S. backed loan for $138 million to build ships in an Alabama shipyard. The base lease came under scrutiny because, for one thing, it was apparently negotiated without the U.S. conducting a security evaluation. A security investigation was conducted, and in June, 1997, Clinton's National Security Advisor announced there was no evidence that the lease posed a national security threat to the U.S. The White House gave its approval for the COSCO/Long Beach base lease.

In the heat of the last campaign, Clinton used a 90-year-old law to create the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The act took 1.7 million acres of federal and state land -an area bigger than the state of Delaware - out of productive use. Included was the nation's largest deposit of low sulpher coal that might have competed with equally clean coal from Indonesia. Whom might that have hurt?

''The Lippo Group (controlled by the Chinese governmnet) from Indonesia, who just happened to make some large campaign contributions to the Democrats about the time this land was locked up,'' Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., said earlier this year.

On April 4, 1998, the New York Times and the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had initiated a prosecution of two private companies for the transfer of top secret missile technology to the Chinese. It turned out, however, that the Clinton administration approved the transfer of exactly the same technology to China, over the objection of Pentagon and State Department national security experts.

China, in dealing with countries such as Iran, Libya, and Syria, is one of the world's major source of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology.

One of the companies to which the administration granted permission for the transfer (and one of those which the Justice Department sought to prosecute for that transfer) was Loral Corporation.

The Chairman of Loral is one Bernard Schwartz, who just happened to be the largest individual contributor of campaign funds to the Democrat National Committee in 1997.

On May 1, 1998, the Washington Times reported that the Chinese now have 13 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching most of the continental United States. According to a former U.S. government arms control official, those missiles are aimed at American cities.

On May 4, 1998, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government confirmed the Washington Times story, but added the assurances by the U.S. government that those Chinese missiles did not have their nuclear warheads attached. We know that, no doubt, because the Chinese have told us so. Just as they have repeatedly told us that they are not violating their non-proliferation agreements. While discussing various bits of disinformation spread by the Clinton administration, the New York Times recently referred to the Chinese claims of compliance as follows:

"Presidential certification that China was not proliferating any weapons of mass destruction; a beauty, this one, considering how many times it has been caught doing just that."

Michael Kelly in the Washington Post:

"...this administration...believes in better living through talking, and it believes that making nice gets you farther than getting tough, and it believes that the business of America is business, and it believes, most devoutly, that the business of businesses that contribute to the president and his party is the president's own very particular business.

It does not believe that honesty is always, or even very often, the best policy. ... This cycle of dishonesty is corrupting grave issues of national security, most seriously in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in which there is currently a bull market. Rather than trigger sanctions, the administration says that Russia and China are cooperating with U.S. efforts to halt the spread of nuclear arms and missile systems to regimes hostile to U.S. interests. In truth, the White House knows that this isn't so."

The Clinton administration is full of soothing words about new partnerships and approaching enlightenment among the leaders of communist China, and the Chinese have a certain reciprocal admiration for this administration as well.

The London Telegraph reported that, "Yu Quanyu, the director of the press and media institute at Beijing's Academy of Social Sciences, picked President Clinton's wife as a shining example of a successful manipulative orator, for apparatchiks to follow."

Hillary is recommended as a model for the Chinese Communist Party. Reacting to Hillary's 'vast right-wing conspiracy' attacks, Yu Quanyu admired Hillary's ability to influence public opinion with "little or no substance and no reasoning". Secretary of State Madeline Albright recently stated, in anticipation of her, and President Clinton's, upcoming trips to China, that the U.S. and China were building a "full service relationship."

Yet despite this surface mutual admiration, China views the United States as the main enemy to its drive for hegemony over the western Pacific. Senator John McCain considers China "our greatest challenge in the next century." McCain warned that he is "deeply concerned about the transfer of technology that has enabled the Chinese to accelerate their defense buildup." China's Navy is developing a blue-water capability, and has demonstrated the expanding range of their combat power with a first time ever Naval visit to Pearl Harbor just a year ago. It can be assumed that China is not developing is naval power to suppress domestic dissidents, and is not developing long range nuclear missiles to attack Tibet.

So, in China, we are faced with a nation which is governed by a totalitarian communist regime with an gruesome record on human rights, a long track record of violating its arms control agreements, which sees the United States as an enemy, which is rapidly building up its military capabilities, which already has a nuclear capability, which has repeatedly demonstrated military aggression against its neighbors, and which has an announced intention of continuing to expand its power and influence. And a nation which this administration has aided in the accomplishment of its goals.

When Bill Clinton took office, China's nuclear missiles did not have the range, capability, or the accuracy to hit the U.S. mainland. Now, as a result of decisions taken by this administration, missiles from the hostile communist government of China can do exactly that. They didn't develop that capability on their own.

Clinton supporters vehemently reject the idea that his administration has been "bought" by communist China, and Clinton and his supporters further reject the claims that their foreign policy has been influenced by foreign campaign contributions which originated in China. The evidence is clear, however, that the Clinton administration has actively assisted communist China in its expansionist goals; and it is also beyond dispute that this assistance has relegated the national security interests of the United States, and American lives, to secondary importance. There are three possible explanations for this: 1. either the administration has, despite their protestations to the contrary, been influenced and perhaps infiltrated by a hostile foreign power; 2. or the assistance provided to China was the result of monumental foreign policy incompetence, and an almost unbelievable ignorance of reality; or the administration is guided by a tragic and potentially deadly naiveti on a par with Neville Chamberlain's pathetic expectation of "peace in our time", following his Munich agreement with Adolph Hitler.

In any case, the potential exists that the ultimate outcome of our relations with China will be military confrontation at some time in the not too distant future, with American military forces which have been neglected and degraded by this administration for years; and the price of that stupidity or naiveti, and military neglect, will be measured in American lives. The lives of those who are today the children which Bill Clinton pretends to care so much about.

As a final consideration, President Clinton has severely limited research and development funding for a national missile defense, and has refused to implement Congressionally mandated programs to develop such a missile defense system. In one instance, he promised the Russians to slow down the intercept speed of a defense system under development, because, as he has stated numerous times, not a single missile is targeted at the U.S. He failed to mention that it takes less than 15 minutes to retarget an ICBM. A Government Accounting Office report (GAO/NSIAD-96-225) analyzed the soundness of certain national intelligence estimates (NIE) on the threat to the U.S. from foreign missiles, and the GAO found that the NIE did not come to the conclusions claimed by Clinton.

Perhaps the ever-so-clever globalists in our government will explain again why Ronald Reagan's proposal for a strategic defense against enemy nuclear missiles was such a silly idea, and why this country has no need to develop any defense against nuclear missile attack.


Colorado economy ducks possible disaster by a whisker

By Valerie Richardson, CASTLE ROCK, Colo.

Colorado's booming economy dodged a potential disaster yesterday when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced that a rare mouse would be listed as threatened instead of endangered.

The threatened status allows local and state officials to take the lead in protecting the habitat of the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, instead of complying with federal mandates under the Endangered Species Act.

The decision came as a relief to Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and other officials, who were bracing for the imposition of strict federal curbs on growth along the prosperous Front Range, the north-south urban corridor stretching from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Colorado Springs.

"Some of my Colorado friends advised me that on the day the listing decision is made, I would be well advised to be in Vermont," said Mr. Babbitt at a news conference here at the Maytag farm, where biologists have found five mice. "But I'm here because I believe this listing decision poses a tremendous opportunity."

The eight-inch mouse, known for its long tail and kangaroolike feet, makes its home along the Front Range in the dense, moist vegetation along the banks of rivers and other riparian areas, said Mr. Babbitt, which are "precisely the areas most people want to protect."

"We have a perfect fit between protecting diversity and habitat and creating the kind of open space people want," he said.

Mr. Babbitt estimated that about 95 percent of Front Range development would be unaffected by the listing. The area is home to some of the nation's fastest-growing localities, including Douglas County, which led the nation last year in population growth with a jump of 14 percent.

"We would have been panicked if [the mouse] had been listed as endangered," admitted state Rep. Jeanne Adkins of Douglas County. "Most of my constituents are not real amenable about being told what to do. As long as we're able to control our own destiny, we'll be able to figure out a solution."

Under threatened status, the mouse may also be subject to a "take," meaning that either the creature itself or its habitat may be harmed under certain circumstances. The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to spell out those conditions this summer.

Such flexibility is helpful to property owners but has environmentalists worried that the listing may be insufficient to protect the mouse. They noted that the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, which first petitioned to have the mouse listed, requested that it receive endangered status.

"This is part of a larger trend where the distinction between threatened and endangered is being lost," said John Koftyack, counsel for the National Wildlife Federation. "The purpose is to give the Fish and Wildlife Service more management flexibility ... but they could use it as a justification for giving it less protection than it deserves."

Giving localities more control over species protection has worked well in several recent cases, said Mr. Babbitt, citing the Southern California gnatcatcher and the Nevada desert tortoise. The deals have also helped calm opposition to the Endangered Species Act.

Others warned that the research on the mouse is still incomplete. Rep. Bob Schaffer, Colorado Republican, noted that the mice's actual numbers are still a mystery and cautioned against forcing landowners to "bear the brunt of protective regulations."

Mr. Romer praised the decision, saying it would help "make sure the Endangered Species Act doesn't become a regulatory nightmare for Colorado."

"We have an opportunity in Colorado to solve this through local control," he said. "That's much better than having some heavy-handed regulatory authority control our state." The Preble's mouse is a "profound hibernator," meaning that it sleeps from September to May and probably won't emerge for another couple of weeks.


The Boys From Syracuse charge military cover-up

A group of former Air National Guard fighter pilots surrendered their medals on the steps of the Capitol yesterday to protest a bungled military investigation that used tactics they compared to "the darkest days of communism."

The men say their careers and their unit were ruined by officials bent on protecting Maj. Jacquelyn Parker, a pilot who they say has a history of raunchy behavior and airborne incompetence.

"This is the greatest sacrifice of my military life," said David Hamlin, a decorated veteran and former commander of the New York ANG's elite 174th Fighter Wing in Syracuse -- whose fliers called themselves "The Boys From Syracuse" for a half-century before the Pentagon made them stop lest they offend feminist sensibilities.

He was fired and his unit grounded in 1995 after Maj. Parker failed to qualify for combat in an F-16 and then said she had been the victim of sexual discrimination, though the unit had previously been commended for recruiting female and minority fighter pilots.

Two investigations -- one military, one civilian -- followed, which dredged up sordid details of petty vengeance, sexual impropriety and dangerous liaisons. In the aftermath, 12 pilots in the celebrated flying unit were demoted or transferred, and a half-dozen never flew again -- a loss, the group estimates, of $20 million in training costs. One pilot with many flying hours was grounded, then put in charge of a copy machine.

All say the investigation was both sham and cover-up, tainted by withheld evidence, perjury and abuse of power.

"We stand by what we did," Air National Guard spokesman Dan Donohue said yesterday. "There was clear evidence that there was a climate for discrimination in that unit. There was no cover-up. It was all made public."

Maj. Parker, her accusers say, had lofty guardians determined to make her into America's first female combat pilot, racing against candidates from the Marines and the Navy. Like disgraced Air Force bomber pilot Kelly Flinn, Maj. Parker was a high-profile aviatrix. She had received an award from Hillary Rodham Clinton, appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and done a photo layout in glamour gown and bomber jacket.

"She was unfailable, and we were told that she was unfailable," said X. Ecker, a former senior officer who rode with Maj. Parker as she flunked her final check ride for combat readiness in the F-16.

Maj. Parker had another side, one that shocked the gnarliest of fighter jocks. The investigations found that during her year at the 174th, she flaunted an affair with the director of operations, Col. Robert Rose, who was married, and that she continually grabbed a male officer's private parts because it "drove him totally nuts." She was reported to have had other "relationships with superior officers" at previous postings, one investigatory report said.

Her calling card, the reports said, announced her as "Mankiller." Once, perhaps in jest, she offered oral sex to a pilot by announcing it into the air hose attached to his G-suit, the military investigatory report said. She occasionally used the men's restroom and walked in on male pilots in the showers.

Documents from the investigation said Maj. Parker "was very headstrong and used her sexuality to try to influence those around her." Her peers told investigators she was just obnoxious; one called her "an accident waiting to happen."

After failing her final check ride, Maj. Parker called in sick -- often with what she described as "female troubles" -- during the three additional tests subsequently offered to her. In total, her F-16 training took three times longer than normal, as the unit tried to ease her along.

Then, suddenly, she quit. "I will become so vicious that I will tear this unit apart," she said on leaving, according to investigation records. Within hours of her resignation, the New York Air National Guard assured the Pentagon that a full-scale investigation of her treatment was under way. When evidence surfaced that Maj. Parker and her paramour had lied under oath, a civilian probe followed under the auspices of Gov. George E. Pataki, who later pronounced the report "flawed." The unit pilots filed whistleblower complaints with Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall; several were reassigned or deemed "unstable," "unsafe" or "discriminators."

Maj. Parker is now stationed with the California Air National Guard at a desk job. Meanwhile, the 147th Fighter Wing has "fought its way back" and morale is on the rise, according to a New York ANG spokesman. The former pilots of the 147th themselves, some who fought back tears as they gave up their medals yesterday, are mostly civilians now.

Mr. Ecker laments the loss of military morale and insists that honor, integrity and duty to country still come first. Others say female pilots are the real casualty.

It is a lesson, said Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, when principles and leadership "are abandoned so that women will 'succeed' regardless of their behavior and performance." "Professional women, including female aviators, must speak out against the idea that some women can break the rules with impunity and rely on political connections or favoritism to advance their careers."


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