Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Homework Assignment Tonight

Friday, June 30, 2000

Now there is a forest fire in Washington State right next to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. What is going on here? Last month fires in Los Alamos caused two computer hard drives to sneak out of a vault and hide behind a copier. Now this.

Apparently, nuclear installations are to wild fires as trailer parks are to tornadoes.

The House of Representatives, Wednesday night, voted to accept the Republican plan which will extend prescription benefits to seniors under Medicare. Democrats, under the leadership of Minority-Leader-For-Life, Dick Gephardt, left the House Chamber en masse. The protest was cut short because it was, um, raining out.

For a quick comparison of the two plans, go here:

According to one wire service report, the Democrats turned a basement room in the Capitol into a mock pharmacy to dramatize the advantages of their plan over the GOP plan. It occurred to Mullings that was probably not the first time drugs have been dispensed in a Member's office.

So, the US helped sponsor a conference on democracy in Warsaw, Poland earlier this week. One of the co-sponsors is Mali whose best known city is Timbuctu, as in "Where's the next bathroom, already. Timbuctu?"

Later the World Health Organization ranked the world's nations in terms of their health care. Number 163 in your health-care program is Mali, four big places ahead of North Korea, but a full 25 places BEHIND that center of off-shore medical excellence: Haiti.

The United States Department of State's travelers advisory web page says the following bout Mali: "A number of incidents of banditry have occurred in the past three months, including armed carjackings involving U.S. citizens, and most recently, the brutal murders of three Dutch tourists traveling by car in the Kidal Region. U.S. and European non-governmental organizations have suspended operations � as a result of these incidents."

The Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook applauds Mali's environmental record, pointing to minor deficiencies in: "deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; inadequate supplies of potable water; poaching."

Amnesty International weighs in on Mali with: "Seven prisoners of conscience were unfairly tried and imprisoned. Dozens of students and opposition party supporters, including prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience, were arrested. At least five people were sentenced to death�Opposition supporters were arrested in June and remained in detention without charge or trial at the end of the year."

Some partner. Some foreign policy.

Here is a map of Mali.

Designer and shoe retailer Steven Madden was arrested this week on charges that he conspired to manipulate the value of his company's stock during its initial public offering. He SHOULD have been arrested for designing shoes for Boris Karloff.

Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham is beating up on Rick Lazio because Lazio missed a vote on home heating oil. HRCR said, "If I had any reason to believe that a vote like that was coming up, I would have taken the train, I would have ridden -- I would have gotten up early in the morning to take the shuttle."

Of course, what she MEANT to say was, "I would have had the Secret Service detail call the NYPD to escort my government-provided limousine between Midtown and the airport where U.S. Air Force pilots would waiting to fly me to Andrews Air Force Base where yet another set of Secret Service Agents, Maryland State Police, Metropolitan Police and Capitol Hill Police would have taken me to the floor so I could cast a vote" is what she meant to say.

Mullings will be appearing tonight on MSNBC's "Equal Time" with Ollie North and Paul Begala at 6:30 Eastern. This show is called: "Survivor Pundit-Palooza." Viewers will get to vote on which of the four pundits has to leave the show - one by one - until only one is left.

It would be totally inappropriate for Mullings to pander for votes here, so don't feel you HAVE to call (888) 977-VOTE or log onto the Equal Time web page.

Really. I understand. It's OK. I'll be the first one thrown off the show. But it won't be your fault. You haven't called your mother in three weeks, why would you call Paul Begala? It's Friday night. You just happen to have your first date in a decade. Fine. No problem.

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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