Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 79, No. 138, Ed. 1 Monday, February 22, 1993 Page: 4 of 8
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PAGE FOUR—Sapulpa (Okla.) Herald, Monday, February 22, 1993
Editorials
Above laws
Members of Congress “can make no law which will not
have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well
as on the great mass of society. This has always been deemed
one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can
connect the rulers and the people together.”
This principle was set forth by James Madison in Federal-
ist Paper Number 57.
Witness (the) Family Leave Act debate should there be any
doubt that present members of Congress have wholly aban-
doned this principle and, instead, set themselves up as a
ruling elite.
An amendment to the bill was offered to grant the thou-
sands of employees of the Congress ... up to 12 weeks of
emergency leave — enforceable for those employees the
same as for everyone else — and it was resoundingly voted
down. ...
A movement is afoot to force Congress to abide by the laws
of the land.
The Washington Legal Foundation, a public interest law
and policy center, proposes a constitutional amendment
specifying: “Congress shall not exempt itself from the laws
of the United States.”
It won’t pass. Congress is too powerful. But almost all
would agree that, as a matter of principle, Congress should
not be exempt from the laws it has enacted.
As it is, Congress enjoys a broad double standard.
Members needn’t comply with such laws as minimum-wage
requirements, equal pay, civil rights, freedom of information,
age discrimination, occupational safety and health, and equal
employment opportunity.
There’s no better way for lawmakers to respond than by
making themselves subject to the laws they have sworn to
uphold.
Vicksburg (Miss.) Evening Post
Sym-Bill-ism
No politician knows more about what cranks the American
people up than Sym-Bill-ism Clinton, who is showing voters
these days how much he is in tune with them. ...
At a moment in his young presidency when he is under fire
for several stumbles (military gays, abortion counseling, Zoe
Baird, Kimba Wood) Clinton decided it was high time to cut
the White House staff by 25 percent. At the same time, Clin-
ton has made the remaining staff a bit more egalitarian by
reducing perks and converting an exclusive dining room into
a staff cafeteria.
Never mind that some of the staff cuts are accomplished
with political mirrors (some jobs are merely returning to their
original cabinet departments). And never mind that all of the
personnel chopping avoids certain politically sensitive areas.
The point is that Clinton knows that one thing people hate
most about Washington is that the bigger the bureaucracy
becomes, the more impersonal it gets.
People are restless and — in recent history, anyway —
have never been more willing to speak up about federal issues
affecting them.
Such a resurgence can only benefit a nation long alienated
by a distant government over which it felt no control. The
only ones who might disagree are the thousands of bureau-
crats who now may be washed out in a tide of voter
resentment.
La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune
Opinion
Jay. D. Hair
Environmental stress
Speaking at Georgetown Universi
ty just before his inauguration, Bill
Clinton forwarded a new premise for
U S policy in the world: "Our defini
lion of security must include common
threats to all people." That policy
supports the spread of democratic
government and the non proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction as
well as the need to address environ
mental damage that puts peoples of
different nations at mutual risk.
For the post war generation Pres
ident Clinton represents in a dra
matically changing world,
international environmental agree-
ments may assume a salience akin to
that previously reserved to global
arms accords.
As Mr Clinton’s words reflect, the
threats to international security are
shifting. In one aspect, the future's
burden increasingly will be seen in
bow humanity deals with the deteri
oration of the global environment, be
it in sustaining plentiful harvests
from the sea, in retaining an abun
dance of fertile soils and forests, or
in coping with the challenges of cli-
mate change and alterations to
Earth's atmosphere These tests will
be compounded by the simultaneous
need to address cascading Third
World population growth and unsus-
tainable demand for natural resource
consumption in the developed na
tions.
A surprisingly wide array of in
struments already exists to work on
these problems The United States
has either signed or has a direct in
terest in some 170 international en
vironmental agreements Over 600
agreements between individual na
lions and regional compacts dealing
with the environment are now in
force.
With few exceptions, these treaties
share several common features. Any
one of them could be faulted for de
flciencies. Little is known about how
fully they are adhered to In many
cases, the issue of where the money
will come from to pay for their im
plementation has been deferred
Formal mechanisms to enforce their
terms are either weak or non existent.
The element most crucial to their
future usefulness is an informed
public willing to exert the pressure of
its opinion.
The global climate change treaty
signed at last summer's Earth
Summit symbolizes the shortcomings
that mark many of these agreements
Statements of good intentions are sub
stituted for commitments to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. That deli
ciency is one that candidate-Clinton
said he would correct as president
Assessing compliance with the mea
sures that are in force is often a
matter of guesswork One recent
survey conducted for the U S. Con
gress showed more than half the com-
pliance reports due from nations
involved in four environmental
treaties have never been submitted
That does not prove violations are oc
curring, only that evidence one way
or the other is lacking. Suspicion runs
deep that violations of prohibitions to
trade in endangered wildlife are
common and that some ocean liners,
tankers and cargo ships ignore inter
national rules against flushing waste
and dumping garbage. But formal
protests can't be based on suspicion
alone
The treaty to protect the atmos
pheric ozone layer is auspicious on
two counts It provides for enforce
ment by the use of sanctions against
violators. It also creates a fund .to
assist poorer nations to meet its
terms In both respects, it is the ex
ception to the rule most often adopt
ed in international environmental
agreements. Most of them make ne
gotiation of disputes the most severe
penalty a violator is ever likely to face.
Efforts to protect biological diversity
and to sustain the world's forests are
at an impasse over developing na
lions' insistence that they be com
pensated for their costs to live up to
the arrangements that their richer
neighbors are urging upon them
Above all, the peoples of the world
will have to accept a more assertive
role in broadening the monitoring of
these agreements beyond a tight
circle of diplomats and civil servants.
Public opinion will be the chief means
by which most international environ
mental agreements succeed or fail
Nearly all these accords require
member nations to report what they
are doing to meet their treaty obliga
tions. Without informed public scruti
ny this information will become mere
grist for bureaucratic stalemate
One positive trend emerging from
the Earth Summit is agreement that
groups representing citizens be given
a place at the councils where treaty
compliance is discussed. They must
now make use of this opportunity.
As valued as presidential leadership
is, this generation's environmental
challenges summon involvement from
us all.
“...And, as I was saying to a radio talk-show
host just yesterday..."
SAPULPA DAILY HERALD
Publiihed By Park Newspaper of Sapulpa,
Inc.
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Barb Wire
It’s been a long time since they had to
put the cat out at the White House.
Hillary will have an office in the west
wing and they can expand it later.
We now know if you hire illegal aliens
you won’t get to be Attorney General.
We’ve got a Democratic President and
Democratic Congress and a Republi-
can economy.
Ann Richards was going to meet
George Bush at the plane, but couldn’t
cancel her hair appointment at the last
minute.
Clinton is now ready for the real
reason he was elected, his re-election
plans for 1996.
Robert Wagman
JL
Was jury muzzled?
DENVER (NEA) — Members of a
federal grand jury who, for three
years, have heard evidence of envi-
ronmental law violations at the Rocky
Flats nuclear weapons plant, believe
the Department of Energy and the De
partment of Justice are engaged in a
cover-up. However, they have been
stifled in their efforts to reveal their
findings by threats of prison terms for
violating their oaths of secrecy.
From 1975 to 1989, Rockwell Inter
national operated the plant, located 16
miles northwest of Denver. Activists
long charged that serious environ-
mental law violations were occurring
behind the locked gates. On June 6,
1989, agents of the FBI, Environmen-
tal Protection Agency and the state
raided the plant.
On Aug. 1, 1989, a 23-member fed-
eral grand jury was empaneled, and
began receiving evidence from Assis-
tant U.S. Attorney Ken Fimberg and
his boss, Denver U.S. Attorney Mike
Norton. Early last fall the grand jury
was suddenly disbanded; Norton an-
nounced that his office and Rockwell
had agreed to a plea bargain in which
the company admitted to some minor
environmental violations, and paid a
fine of $18.5 million.
The government trumpeted the set-
tlement, pointing out the fine was five
times greater than any ever paid by a
company for an environmental viola-
tion. It said that the extensive inves-
tigation had failed to uncover evidence
of the two most serious charges
against Rockwell; that it secretly
burned nuclear waste at night and
that it dumped toxic chemicals into
streams that flow through and near
the plant.
The government said the most se-
rious violations uncovered were that
Rockwell had let small amounts of
liquid waste in solar ponds seep into
creeks and allowed blocks of liquid
waste mixed with concrete to disinte-
grate.
The grand jury was outraged It
gathered in the law offices of Ken
Peck, a grand jury member, and wrote
a scathing report perhaps unique in
the annals of federal grand juries.
Addressed to U.S District Judge
Sherman Finesilver, the report ac-
cused the Department of Energy and
Rockwell of engaging in a an “ongo
ing criminal enterprise” and reeom
mending that eight individuals be
indicted and prosecuted.
Portions of the report were then
leaked to the press. Various grand
jury members, especially foreman
Wes McKinly, a rancher, gave state-
ments decrying the settlement and ac-
cusing Norton of a cover-up The gov-
ernment responded by defending the
settlement, and by starting a formal
investigation of the grand jury for se-
crecy violations.
The report itself remained secret.
But in response to a lawsuit by news
organizations, Finesilver has now re-
leased an edited version.
Finesilver blocked out the names of
individuals the grand jurors recom-
mended for prosecution, and inter-
jected detailed point-by-point
responses from the government to
each charge raised by the grand
jurors. He also accused the jurors of
accusing public officials without
regard to a lack of evidence, and of
engaging in social, legal and political
argument outside its scope of author-
ity.
Norton, who is leaving office so that
a Democrat can be appointed, said the
report vindicates his handling of the
case: "We were as aggressive as we
could have been given the lack of ev
idence."
The two most serious charges con
tamed in the grand jurors' report were
trivialized in the government re
sponse:
— The grand jurors called the way
DOE was storing waste at the plant
illegal, and thus a “continuing crimi
nal enterprise." The government said
the grand jurors had been told that
Rockwell had complied with various
DOE orders and regulations, except
in minor areas for which they paid the
fine.
— The grand jury said the June 6
raid uncovered compelling evidence
of serious law violations. The govern-
ment dismissed the findings as much
less then compelling.
Many of the grand jurors are still
angry, but the threat of years in jail
has effectively silenced them. Fore-
man McKinly commented that “in this
form the report is more the govern-
ment's than ours." He also noted he
could say nothing more: “I'm looking
at 20 years of hard time, and that's
not an encouraging thought."
Another juror, who asked that his
name not be used for obvious reasons,
said “nothing in the government re-
sponse has made me change my mind
one bit. Both Rockwell and DOE em-
ployees should he prosecuted for the
w«y they ran Rocky Flats I am con
vinced the Justice Department were
not prosecutors here, but acted as de-
fense counsel for DOE and its con-
tractor, Rockwell."
McKinley has requested a pardon
for all the grand jurors from President
Clinton and a full-scale congressional
investigation into the operation of
Rocky Flats.
Jo—ph Spear
it
Nanny
war about
to start
President Bill Clinton today
launched a "War on Nannies" and
pledged to put an end to the epidem
ic of illegal nursemaids his adminis
(ration uncovered in its search for a
woman attorney general.
"It is time to stem the scourge of
illegal nannies," he said in a press
conference called to announce the
new endeavor. He said he will ask
Congress today for a $5 billion pro
gram that would establish a new
Office of National Nanny Control
Policy, headed by a Nanny Czar and
supported by a force of Nanny Police
who would be responsible for track
ing down husbands and wives who
have hired illegal immigrants as baby
sitters and failed to pay Social Secu
rity taxes and other fees for them
The president also said he would
appoint a National Commission on II
legal Nannies to explore policy options
and to suggest additional courses of
action. The commission would also
direct an inter agency project to de
velop a urine test that would assist
the Nanny Police in the detection of
offenders.
The $5 billion program would be fi
nanced by deficit spending, the pres
ident said, prompting an immediate
reaction from Senate Minority Leader
Robert Dole. R Kan. "We absolutely
are not going to borrow billions to pay
for the War on Nannies," he said
“Some other Democratic program will
have to be terminated to finance what
is essentially a Democratic problem
The Nannygate scandal erupted in
mid January, when Clinton's first
nominee for attorney general, corpo
rate attorney Zoe Baird, admitted that
she and her hus'band. a law-school
professor, had hired two undocu
mented Peruvians to baby-sit her
young son. An avalanche of faxes and
calls to Congress and talk shows
doomed the nomination and Baird
withdrew
New York federal district Judge
Kimba Wood was the next likely se
lection, but when the White House
"vetters" learned she had employed
an undocumented immigrant as a
baby sitter even though it was per
feetly legal to do so at the time the
Clinton White House refused to place
her name in nomination.
According to White House sources,
the subsequent search turned up scores
of female attorneys who were qualified
in every way but one: They failed the
Nanny test. One unmarried woman with
out children was all but announced, said
one source, when it was discovered that
her pizza delivery boy was an undocu
mented Sri I.ankan
In Dallas, former presidential can
didate Ross Perot called a press con
ference to blast the Clinton proposal
"The War on Nannies will be just an
other expensive bureaucracy," he
said "We don't need a Nanny Czar
running around in thousand dollar
suit and alligator shoes. Give me a
dozen private eyes and I'll have the
nanny problem solved in a week It's
that simple."
Joseph Spear, president of the
Spear Foundation, a small but re
sourceful Washington think tank
which has been researching the nanny
problem for weeks, said. “Nannygate
is the stupidest Washington erime-du
jour ever to come down the pike
There are more undocumented house
hold workers here than anywhere in
the country, and not a single employ
er of one here has ever been arrest
ed. How many members of Congress
do you suppose have hired illegal do
mestics? How many reporters who are
now covering the story? Zoe Baird and
Kimba Wood were savaged by hyp
ocrites .”
L.M. Boyd
Where a
cat goes
Q. Doesn't a cat tend to go more
readily to a woman than to a man?
A. If it’s a woman who feeds it. But
you could say that about an alligator,
too. In the matter of affection, a cat,
even as you and I, goes to whoever
treats it best. Sometimes.
President Andrew Jackson held
strongly to his personal beliefs. Parti-
cularly to these two: 1. That the inte-
grity of man is basic. And 2. That the
caroi is flat, not round.
Lot of middleagers aren’t told all
they need to know about their aching
backs, says one medical specialist.
The example: That 10-pouad.tirc
around your midaection exerts 50
extra pounds of strain an your back-
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Lake, Charles S. Sapulpa Daily Herald (Sapulpa, Okla.), Vol. 79, No. 138, Ed. 1 Monday, February 22, 1993, newspaper, February 22, 1993; Sapulpa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1498869/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.