ustxtxb_obs_1995_08_11_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

JIM HIGHTOWER WIRE YOUR MOTHER Newt Gingrich, our Loudspeaker of the House of Washington, is a big pusher of the Internet, the interactive computer technology that apparently can bring every iota of the world’s information to your home computer at once. Gingrich loves it, urging everyone to “get online” and get plugged-in to the “Information Superhighway.” Usually, I’m more at home tooling down the information dirt road, but today I agree with Newt. In fact, I’m urging you to plug into Newt himself! As you’ve heard me mention before, Gingrich has his ethically-sticky fingers all over GOPAC, a political slush fund through which he’s funneled millions in contributions from corporations, for whom he’s then done special legislative favors. It is so corrupt, that Newt refuses even to disclose which corporate executives and lobbyists have given how much to him. The House ethics committee is “looking into this,” but since Newt appoints the ethics chair, you can see where that’s headed. But thanks to the Internet, you can help follow Newt’s tracks. Mother Jones magazine has just unearthed a sizable list of GOPAC’ s secret contributors. The problem is, the list only includes names of individuals and not their corporate connections. So, get ready “web-heads,” Mother Jones has put the list on the Internet to see if you can identify some of Newt’s “shy” contributors. I’ll give you Mother Jones’ Internet address, so you can download the list, peruse it and feed back any information or leads you might have. As Newt says, “Get online!” Just contact this web-site through your computer: http://www.mojones.com . Mother Jones will verify and publish all the findings that you deliver. Let’s hoist Newt on his own petard…uh, on his own Internet. Ahh, computers! This is more fun than a secret decoder ring; remember those? AND THE WINNER IS? WELL, IT’S NOT US… There it is again…Hear it? It’s that “Giant Sucking Sound” from Mexico. Remember how the Big Media, the White House, the Republican leaders in Congress, the Wall Street Elite and all the other card-carrying members of America’s Jim Hightower, a former Observer editor and Texas agriculture commissioner, does daily radio commentary and a weekend call-in talk show on the ABC Radio Network. establishment heaped ridicule on those of us who warned that NAFTAtheir North American Free Trade Agreementwould hurt American working families? “Oh posh and tish,” they said, “Why, NAFTA’ s going to create at least 100,000 new American jobs in its first year alone.” It’s now a year-and-a-half since NAFTA passed. Guess how many jobs we’ve netted from it? If you guessed zero…you’re wrong. It’s minus zero. By Washington’s own, official count, 60,000 U.S. jobs have gone. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg, since most job losses to Mexico aren’t reported. Want some bitter irony? In August ’93, Lawrence Bossidy, chief honcho of AlliedSignal corporation, was head cheerleader of Wall Street’s push to pass NAFTA. On CNN, he was asked straight out, “Do you think jobs will move to Mexico, would your company put jobs in Mexico?” Bossidy answered, “Quite the contrary, the jobs that were to move to Mexico have already moved there.” Oh? That would be news to the AlliedSignal employees in Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas, who’ve since lost their jobs as a direct result of NAFTA, giving Bossidy the dubious distinction of being the number one shipper-outer of U.S. jobs under his NAFTA trade scam. Indeed, AlliedSignal is now the 12th largest employer in Mexico, paying workers about 80 cents an hour. Sure, Bossidy lied, but hey…it pays well. For all of his fibbing and firing, Bossidy I’m reminded of Lily Tomlin’s observation, “Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.” MISS SAIGON? Big breakthrough on the International Front. Our government gives full diplomatic recognition to Vietnam! The establishment media aren’t giving you the real story though. They’re talking about Vietnam Vets and MIAs and getting all touchie-feelie about the “healing” of America’s 20-year-old Vietnam scar. They’re like cats watching the wrong mousehole. This diplomatic recognition isn’t about vets or healingit’s about MONEY; it’s about Global Corporations drooling over the chance to take advantage of Vietnamese workers who make $240 not a week or a month, a year. Bill Clinton didn’t wake up one morning and say: “I think I’ll recognize Vietnam.” He was lobbied, pushed and begged by outfits like the “Coalition for U.S.-Vietnam Trade.” This isn’t a do-good group. It’s Arco, Caterpillar, Dupont, GE, Nike, and a hundred more global giants planning to move out more of their manufacturing and your jobs. Why do they need this formal diplomatic step? Money honey! Without full recognition, they can’t get Federal subsidies. Buried deep inside President Clinton’s announcement was this revealing sentence: “Our policy will be to implement the appropriate United States government programs to develop trade with Vietnam. He was talking about such corporate welfare programs as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a Federal outfit that will now guarantee the investments of these corporations in Vietnam. Also, Clinton can now extend our “Most Favored Nation” trading status to Vietnam, meaning these corporations can make their product over there using nickel-and-hour labor and bring them back here to sell to you…tariff-free! To know* the real story in Washington, don’t read their lips…always follow the money. Continued from p. 7 the ATF went into action. An agent opened the gate in the wall and another sprayed a fire extinguisher at the guard dogs. Koresh appeared in the front door, yelling, “What’s going on?” The agents identified themselves, and yelled “freeze” and “get down.” Koresh slammed the door before the agents could reach it, and the Branch Davidians opened up with everything they had. Firepower poured through the front door with such intensity that it buckled outward. Gunfire erupted from every window in the front of the compound. Four agents were killed, and 22 wounded in the shoot-out. Six Davidians also died and four were wounded. After the raid, the ATF still had a siege on its hands. Aside from its short-term political implications, the Waco raid, along with 1992 ATF siege of Randy Weaver’s home at Ruby Ridge also set to be the subject of Congressional hearings in the fallhave more subtle connotations. Both raids targeted individuals with strongly held Christian religious beliefs, and, as far apart as Koresh’s Branch Davidians and Weaver’s Christian Identity beliefs may be, both groups consider themselves foot soldiers in God’s army. The federal government’s attacks on these religious groups only served to unite Christian right lobbies in Congress, and to forge a nationwide coalition that can use Christianity to undermine federal authority. 14 AUGUST 11, 1995