Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces from this reporter’s notebook.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Give credit where it’s due. Pat Buchanan backed another winner. Consider this first sentence in a recent news article: Ezola Foster, Pat Buchanan's running mate on the Reform Party ticket, collected workers' compensation payments for nearly a year for a mental disorder she now says she did not have. Clearly, Foster’s past is checkered past, and perhaps she was chosen because she makes Buchanan look good, no easy task.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Another news story informed us that a Sacramento political organization offered Monica Lewinsky a job, and then after a storm of protest, quickly withdrew the offer. The non-profit group, called American Women Presidents, is out to promote women to the top national executive positions. A 31-year-old woman named Mosemarie Boyd runs the organization out of her home and is the only paid employee. Which makes it unlikely that she will be fired for this idiocy. Surely there are some young people in public life who can differentiate between celebrity and leadership.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Not content to have crashed two probes into the planet Mars and planning to dispatch a third, NASA announced that they are sending two more probes, still looking for signs that there might have been water. And probably signs of the half-billion tax dollars worth of crashed predecessors. But don’t think that’s the end. New data is suggesting to scientists that there is a frozen salt ocean on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Yes, I understand that water — whether or not it in fact exists on Europa 400 million miles away — is a building block of life. I don’t understand why we’re looking for it so far away.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Attorney General Janet Reno did the right thing to snatch Elian Gonzalez from the clutches of his looney Miami relatives. This after allowing the situation to foment for five months. Not content to leave ick enough alone, her Justice Department announced the honoring of 114 employees for their participation in the "rescue". That’s a lotta people getting credit. I mean, tip the cab driver and the skycaps at the airport, but lets control the enthusiasm. This reminds one of the eight thousand medals awarded to troops for the Grenada invasion.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Reno also announced that she will not seek a special prosecutor to investigate mismanaged campaign collusion by The Wooden One. This was the third time that her staff had recommended such an appointment, and the third time that Reno said no. Gore has vehemently denied committing any illegalities. It still doesn’t look good for the candidate, but the story goes away faster than would the investigation.
Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....Strike three for Justice is the news that a judge has freed Wen Ho Lee on bail. Lee supporters say its evidence that the government’s case is unraveling. Was security ever compromised at Los Alamos? Lee’s wife, after all, not only worked for the laboratory, but also covertly for the CIA? Does anyone know what’s going on at our supposedly toppest secret national security site in the country? And if the security is that screwed up, we have to ask ourselves how valuable are the secrets anyway? They certainly could have been stolen by talented spies by now.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.