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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1992)
Swir-u. News digest Clinton, Bush trade personal insults, spar on economy Bill Clinton and George 3ush clashed over the economy on Thurs day, and swapped uncommonly per sonal insults in their run for the White House. The president said “two bozos” are on the Democratic ticket, while Clinton accused his rival of saying “incredible, incredible dishonest things.” v Bush pressed his underdog’s cam paign in part by mentioning his dog. “My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos,” he said in Michigan of Clinton and his running male. Bush also stressed over and over that the economy is on the road to recovery. “Not as sick as the oppo sition would have you believe,” he said. Clinton said, “We arc 18 months after the bottom of the recession and we are still doing worse than at any comparable period since before World War II.” Ross Perot’s name turned up in the strangest place. Vandals doctored the 50-foot letters of a sign that says HOLLYWOOD in the hills above Los Angeles to read: PEROT WOOD. Most public polls showed Clinton with a lead in single digits. His aides insisted their margin was holding. “We’ve got a November surprise for Bill Clinton, and that is George Bush is going to be re-elected,” said Vice President Dan Quaylc. Democratic vice presidential can didate A1 Gore joined in. Texas is a dead heat, he said. Perot stayed out of public view in preparation for an evening appear ance on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” His spokeswoman, Sharon Holman, complained that the news media was inaccurately depicting the race as a two-way competition between the president and his Democratic chal lenger. “The American people do not con - sider this only a Bush-Clinton race,” she said. CIA refused to share information on Iraqi firms, documents show WASHINGTON—ThcCIA knew before the Gulf War that at least five rcc ipicn ts of U. S. ex ports to Iraq were defense industries, but it did not tell the Commerce Department, which approved the sales, documents show. The Commerce Department ap proved some S1.5 billion in exports to Iraq from 1985 to 1990, saying most were not designated for military use. Information revealed Thursday on both sides of the Atlantic indicated that the CIA had information about Iraqi defense industry purchases both in the United States and Britain. Many of the Iraqi companies that bought U.S. technology legally turn out to have been military industries with innocuous sounding names that didn’t set off alarms at thcCommcrcc Department. In any case, the depart ment was under White House orders to encourage trade with Iraq. The Cl A, and possibly the Defense Intelligence Aecncv, knew the true nature of some of the Iraqi compa nies, according to a congressional investigator’s documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. On Jan. 29, 1991, the senior con gressional investigator met with CIA officials to ask what the agency had known about 25 of the Iraqi end users listed on U.S. export licenses, and whether the agency had notified the Commerce Department. F. Douglas Whilehouse, who headed the CIA’s committee on tech nology transfer, said he had run a computer check comparing the 25 end users against a CIA data bank, according to the notes made by the investigator, who also was inter viewed on the grounds that he not be identified. Whilehouse said he had come up with “about five hits” — five compa nies about which the CIA had infor mation, said the investigator. He said the CIA told him it did not supply the information to the Commerce De partment because it was never asked to do so. Complaints about the CIA’s reluc tance to share information with other government agencies arc legion. The problem was recently underscored in the case of an Italian bank branch in Atlanta that approved unauthorized loans to Iraq. In a message to agency employees this week, CIA Director Robert Gates said he had asked his inspector gen eral to examine the records system of the Directorate of Operations and to recommend changes that will “put an end to difficulties in responding promptly to congressional and other inquiries.” Critics of the CIA argue that the agency has an instinctive mistrust of sharing information with outsiders, partly out of fear of compromising its sources, and that no amount of records reforms will help. Clinton delivered a speech on the economy in Michigan and had an other one on AIDS schcd8lcd lor later in New Jersey. He lashed out at B ush as a “desper ate person who just wants to hold power_And if you’re totally shame less and somebody tells you you re not telling the truth and you keep on doing it anyway, which is what Bush docs, it’s hard for the American people to know what to make of it.” Clinton said Bush says “incred ible, incredible dishonest things,” and aides said he was referring to radio commercials the Republican presi dent is airing in several states. bush denied Clinton saccusauons, and criticized the media liberally for what he said was overly pessimistic reporting on the economy. As for the economy itself, he said: “A lot of people arc hurling, but we’re growing. And that is the key factor,” he said in an appearance on CBS’ “This Morning.” He pointed to this week’s report showing economic growth was up 2.7 percent in the most recent quarter, more than had been predicted. “That’s a pretty darned good turn around here, pretty beginnings, not robust growth, but it’s far more im pressive than, obviously, all these economists had been predicting,” Bush said. —■-——i Cleaner, costlier gasoline required for urban drivers WASHINGTON—This winter automobiles in most American ur ban areas will be polluting less, thanks to a cleaner burning, pep pier gasoline required by the gov ernment. As a result of the regulation that takes effect Sunday, carbon mon oxide emissions from automobiles and small trucks will be sharply reduced in 39 urban areas from Boston to San Diego, say air qual ity experts. “This is the first big program under the Clean Air Act to go into effect,” said Dick Wilson of the Environmental Protection Agency. Under the two-year-old law, service stations in the 39 areas, which don’t meet carbon monox ide health standards, will be al lowed to sell only gasoline contain ing an additive that provides more oxygen, thereby allowing it to burn cleaner. The new blend must be used over a four-io-scvcn-month period depending on the severity of air pollution. The EPA estimates that the new gasoline will result in a drop of about 20 percent in carbon monoxide emissions from cars and trucks. Carbon monoxide is emitted when a vehicle’s engine is wann ing up, and is a greater problem in winter and in high-traffic areas. Even in relatively mild concentra tions, it can cause dizziness, head aches and problems for elderly people with heart conditions. The new “oxygenated” gasoline blcndscut down on carbon monox ide emissions because the gas bums cleaner during warm-up, say EPA officials. Oil companies say itcosls3 to 4 cents more a gallon to produce the oxygenated fuel. Motorists also may have to buy more gasoline because the new blend is less fuel efficient. HALLOWEEN W, SALE v K 50% OFF U Halloween gifts Is I- I- : & L A c Ml . - : ; •- p Accessories U Ayfi V0* ' - " V • ; V I / _/ 10% OFF £ Halloween greeting L Cards L M t Horse race campaign Pre-election polls play increasing role It’s an old complaint: Prc-elcction polls arc turning the Republic’s greatest deliberative exercise into something as unseemly as the fourth race at Aqueduct. This season the charge has new ur - gency, as poll results ' dominate the closing days of the presiden tial campaign and ■) threaten to shape the very outcome of the race. On Thursday, Presi ) dent Bush’s rise in the pells was all over the airwaves and across Page One in New York’s tabloids. “CLOSER” reported Newsday, while 7 the New York Post had Bush “BREATHING 7 DOWN BILL’S NECK.” The president, head lined the Daily News, had pulled off “A LATE POLL VAULT.” 7 It’s all part of what University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabalo has called “the worst orgy of polling in American history.” Two television networks update their clcc / lion polls daily, giving a fresh answer to the one question that matters most in a political cam , paign: Who’s ahead? L The number of national presidential election / campaign polls increased from three in 1972 to 259 four years ago. This year, a half-dozen I polling organizations arc dialing tens of thou h sands of people across the nation in the twe / weeks before the election, and hundreds of state and local news organizations and candidate; arc conducting their own polls. 7 The Seattle Times is notamong them. “Who’; / ahead” polls arc “the junk food of our demo cratic process,” executive editor Michael R. Fancher wrote in a column this month. He admits, “readers love to talk about them.” That doesn’t mean everyone wants to talk to the pollsters. For those who don’t, Daniel S. Greenberg, a syndicated columnist specializ ing in scientific issues, has a homemade rem edy: When the pollster calls and asks for your opinion, preference or plans, simply respond: “None of your business, thank you.” - 44-— Don’t believe these crazy polls! Don’t believe these nutty pollsters! — Bush -ft " Even the candidate^can grow impatient at the barrage of polling. Earlier this month, when many polls had Bush with a double-digit defi cit, he told a crowd in Cornelia, Ga: “Don’t believe these crazy polls! Don’t believe these nutty pollsters!” On Thursday, Bush said in Michigan, “I’m encouraged by the way these polls that we live and die by arc shaping up.” “We’re seeing an excessive amount of horse race analysis,” said Lee Miringoff, director ol the Marisl Institute for Public Opinion and normally an exuberant advocate of polls and polling. , “There might be some front-runner voters out there who want to vote for a winner, but ; there aren’t many,” says Guy Molyneux, coor dinator of polling for Cable News Network. ; “And they would only add a bit to a winner’s margin of victory.” - --—I NelSra&kan FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., (Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. 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