DON’T FORGET: Stalinist North Korea, working hard to restart its nuclear weapons production program in violation of international agreements and admittedly guilty of kidnapping Japanese nationals, is one of the most oppressive countries in the world. The Communist dictatorship probably has slave labor camps, according to Hong Kong’s Far Eastern Economic Review, which published satellite photos in early December. According to sister publication the Wall Street Journal, the photos "show a vast complex headquartered at Haengyong, with administrative buildings, farms, factories, and prisoner quarters connected by dirt roads." Former prison guard Ahn Myong Chol has testified before Congress about the camp.
THE UNTHINKABLE: Few conservatives dare say what many think: that the public school system should be abolished. But the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) said last month, "As parent-teacher conferences take place in classrooms across the nation to evaluate student progress, a new study from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation asks the timely question, does government’s administration of schools make the grade? ‘To the Framers of our Constitution, the idea of a nationalized school system managed by the state and federal governments would have been a strange concept,’ according to study author and NTUF Policy Analyst Eric Schlecht. The original groundwork of our educational system did not include such a great degree of government involvement with public schools, not only at the federal level, but at the local level as well." Schlecht provides data that show that students received better education before government intervention. "Unfortunately," said NTU, "politicians fail to accept these facts and continue to compete to see who can spend the most on new public school programs. Instead, the question should be whether or not the government should have a primary role in administrating schools at all."
SOMA PASSES IN NY: With New York Republican State Senate President Joe Bruno switching his position-and GOP Gov. George Pataki backing him up-the senate by a 34-to-26 vote, with 13 Republicans in favor, last month passed the controversial Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act (SONDA), which critics consider a special rights boon for the activist homosexual lobby. Gay-rights advocates have been fighting for the measure for 31 years and the Democrat-dominated state assembly has passed SONDA annually since 1993, with the senate refusing to go along. SONDA extends the state’s civil rights laws to make discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, education, health care and other public services illegal. The Empire State Pride Agenda, New York’s largest gay-rights group, had endorsed Pataki in his bid for a third term and many local observers believe passage of the bill was the result of a political deal between the Pride Agenda and Bruno, who agreed to bring SONDA up for a vote after years of blocking it. Michael Long, chairman of the Conservative Party, which backed Pataki for re-election even though he had promised to sign SONDA vowed that every Republican "who voted for this bill has put themselves in jeopardy."
ALL OF THEM: Outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan is considering whom to give clemency as his term comes to an end. On his desk are the names of many death row inmates. Ryan suspended Illinois’ executions three years ago after courts decided that some death row inmates were being convicted unfairly. Not content with letting Ryan decide case-by-case, 400 legal scholars have signed a letter asking him to grant clemency to all of them. Over 140 of the state’s 160 death row inmates have asked for clemency. "Where circumstances warrant, executive clemency should be and has in fact been used as a means to correct systemic injustice," they wrote. According to the Associated Press, "New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya commuted the sentences of all his state’s death row inmates in 1986. Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller did the same thing in 1970."
LOS ALAMOS AGAIN: The Los Alamos National Laboratory, plagued by national security breaches for years, has another problem. "Nearly $4.9 million in employee credit card purchases at Los Alamos National Laboratory were not processed properly, were questionable or had been disputed by the lab and not credited by the bank, according to an audit report. . .," reported AP last month. "The report accuses several employees of using the lab’s credit cards to buy goods unrelated to their work, including a Ford Mustang, jewelry and casino cash advances. . . . The FBI, DOE Inspector General, and two congressional committees are investigating the card program as well as allegations of theft of lab equipment. Investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee were at the lab [recently] interviewing people about the alleged irregularities."
