The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 26, 1995, Page 2, Image 2

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    f
!_
HUNDREDS OF TITLES
10C-75C
SEPT 25-30
NEW BOOKS OUT EVERY DAY!
118N14TH
M-SAT10AM - 6PM
Plug Into the
I World with FREE
Internet Glasses
Now that you have your computer account on Herbie, UNLCLASS1 or
UNLGRAD1 you can discover how to tap into the resources available
to you on the internet. These classes are free and no reservations are
required. Seats are available on a first come, first served basis. Call
472-9050 if you have any questions.
Intro to E-Mail
Tuesday, September 26 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Bancroft Hall, 239
Tuesday, September 26 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Bancroft Hall, 239
Friday, September 29 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Bancroft Hall, 239
Friday, September 29 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Bancroft Hall, 239
Advanced E-Mail
Wednesday, September 27 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Bancroft Hall, 239
Electronic News
Thursday, September 28 10:00 - 11:30 aim, Bancroft Hall, 239
- ~
Perot to form new political party
Group will nominatepresidential candidate
W ASHINGTON—In a turnabout
that could dramatically reshape the
1996 elections, Ross Perot vowed
Monday night to establish a new, re
form-minded political party that would
nominate a presidential candidate and
try to swing congressional races.
Perot said he had no intention to
run as the new party’s standard bearer,
he said. ‘The last thing I want is for
this thing to be about me.”
However, he did not flatly rule it
out.
As recently as six weeks ago, Perot
said he had no interest in launching a
third party. But, in a stunning change
of heart, he said his United We Stand
America political organization would
spearhead efforts to certify a new party
in California, Maine and Ohio — all
of which have 1995 deadlines to
qualify a new party for the 1996 bal
lot.
“We are going to start the process
of creating a political party for the
independent voters,” Perot said. “It
will not be owned by the special inter
ests.”
Perot left open the possibility the
effort could stop at the end of the year
—if polls now showing 60 percent of
Americans open to the idea of a third
party suddenly shift and indicate a
growing satisfaction with Democrats
or Republicans.
He said the new venture would be
named the Independence Party, or the
Reform Party in states that either have
an independent party or do not allow
use of that name.
Once the new party qualifies for
the ballot, Perot said it would open its
presidential nominating process to
anyone who could can get petitions
signed by 10 percent ofthe new party’s
members.
“We want world-class people,” he
said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
“Some weirdo is not going to get 10
percent of our votes.”
The organization then would
choose a presidential nominee through
a nationwide convention process. He
1_ —
“This is not about me
running for president. ”
ROSS PEROT
Ex-Presidential candidate
said it was possible, but highly un
likely, that the party could decide to
back one of the major party presiden
tial candidates.
He said the new party would not
field congressional candidates, or at
least not on any widespread basis, but
would endorse candidates from the
major parties and offer them its slate
on state ballots. This is not unheard of;
the Conservative Partv in New York,
for example, often backs Republican
candidates.
Perot said the new party’s agenda
would mirror that of his United We
Stand group: dramatic campaign fi
nance and lobbying reforms including
a gift ban, trimmingcongressional and
presidential pensions and balancing
the budget. He said he would finan
cially support the early work, but that
the venture ultimately would have to
raise its own money.
Joan Vinson, the Maryland execu
tive director of United We Stand, said
the new party could be available to “a
candidate like Colin Powell or Bill
Bradley or Ross Perot or Sam Nunn.”
A spokeswoman for California
Secretary of State Bill Jones said
Perot’s supporters filed papers on
Monday to organize as the Reform
Party.
Not since the Republican Party was
established in 1856 has a new party
been able to push aside a major exist
ing party and establish itself as a na
tional force. Like the Whigs did then,
Perot predicted either the Democratic
or Republican party would disappear
if his effort is successful.
Perot’s decision sets off an intense
organizational scramble in Califor
nia, where the deadline for qualifying
a new party for the 1996 ballot is just
a month away.
“I would be surprised if it doesn’t
sweep across the nation,” said Cali
fornia executive director Platt Thomp
son, who indicated that Perot had been
a reluctant convert to the idea.
Just six weeks ago, Perot said he
was “not focused on a third party.
We’re focused on trying to get the
existing System to work.” He later
called on both parties to adopt a litany
of political reforms by Christmas,
drawing bipartisan praise for his ideas
but, so far, little legislative follow
through.
The requirements for certifying a
new party vary widely from state to
state.
In California, supporters would
need to gather signatures from 890,000
registered voters expressing support
for the idea. Or, they would have to
convince 89,000 people to register as
members of the new party. Perot re
ceived 2.3 million votes in California
in 1992. In either event, the deadline
to make the 1996 ballot is Oct. 24.
In Ohio, where the Perot organiza
tion is embroiled in an internal power
struggle, 33,000 signatures are re
quired by Nov. 19.
Maine, Perot’s best state in 1992,
requires 25,551 signatures by Dec. 14
if the party wants to qualify to run
candidates in time for next spring’s
primary. *
“I am quite dubious that they will
be able to do this,” said Richard
Winger, editor of the newsletter Bal
lot Access News. “Many of these very
independent-minded people who are
in United We Stand may not want to.”
Arizona, for example, has a United
We Stand chapter that is in open re
bellion against the Dallas headquar
ters. “I don’t know of anyone here
who wants to do a third party,” said
Mary Lou Stanley, the Arizona execu
tive director.
I Spend Our Dollar...
Not Yours!
Use this Disc Dollar to receive
$1.00 off your next purchase.
" mm* ONE DISC DOLLAR *P ■ ■ |.
1
°ne Disc Dollar per purchase Redeemable Only At
Not redeemable for cash. ,n,L . mrv c. c.
No. good With any other 50th & O" St. Store
coupon or offer.
• ^ II 1
Ml fc;;, J r |
disc dollar
New and Pre-Owned CDs
• Various Styles
• All Used CDs $5.99 to $7.99
• Computerized Inventory
• Request Lists
• All CDs Guaranteed
• Listen Before You Buy
• Posters and Imports
I 50th & 'O' Street, Lincoln • 486-0047
i ^ ■ ===J<
j| Author welcomed to South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The last
time author Doris Lessing ventured to South
Africa was in 1956, when two policemen es
corted her back to the airplane she had arrived
on saying: “Never attempt to set foot in this
country again.”
She arrived in South Africa last week prima
rily to visit her daughter and two granddaugh
ters. But because the trip coincides with the
South African launch of her autobiography
Once shunned because of her Communist
Party membership and outspoken criticism of
apartheid, Lessing is now being welcomed here
as a writer acclaimed for seeking to break down
barriers—social, cultural, sexual and literary.
Netnraskan
Editor j. Christopher Hain,
^ 472-1766
Managing Editor Rainbow Rowell
Assoc. News Editors DeDra Janssen
Brian Sharp
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and
comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763
between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The
public also has access to the Publications Board. For
information, contact Tim Hedegaard, 436-9253,9 a.m.
11 p.m.
Subscription price is $50 for one year.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Ne
braskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE
68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT
1995 DAILY NEBRASKAN
’Corrections
I RIFICATiOHS
A story in Monday’s Daily Nebraskan
incorrectly identified Donald Gregory,
the director of general studies. During a
Sunday memorial service, he presented a
framed honor roll listing of general stud
ies students to Martina McMenamin’s
/ mother.
“Under My Skin,” she has squeezed a few
speaking engagements and interviews into her
vacation schedule.
South Africa today is nothing like what she
remembers from family holidays during the
1940s, when a trip to Cape Town from her home
in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was a
five-day ordeal by train.
“When I was here last there were benches for
whites and blacks,” she told The Associated
Press on Friday.
“God forbid that any dark-skinned person
went into a cafe or restaurant where whites
were. All that has disappeared so totally, as it
has in Zimbabwe.”
Residents watch sky
as volcano sputters
WELLINGTON, New Zealand—Train ser
vice between New Zealand’s two biggest cities
was canceled and air traffic diverted Monday
because of an erupting volcano that belched
ash, steam and car-sized rocks into the sky.
Authorities also closed the highway around
Mount Ruapehu and the ski resorts on its slopes.
Eruptions from the Crater Lake area were oc
curring every two to three minutes, and scien
tists said a major eruption may be near.
Civil Defense officials warned people living
within 60 miles downwindto expect heavy ash
falls from the 9,000-foot peak, which is midway
between Auckland and the capital, Wellington.
Rescue services at the Waiouru military base,
12 miles from the volcano, were placed on full
alert, and wives and children at the base were
evacuated.
There were no widespread evacuations, how
ever, not even of the 60 residents of Whakapapa
Village on the volcano’s slope.
Dozens of people gathered Monday at the
Whakapapa Visitors Center to watch the ash
and steam spewing 12 miles into the blue sky,
cheering each new explosion. The village has
an alarm system to give 20 minutes warning if a
mud flow from the slopes heads towards town,
giving residents time to reach high ground.