Volume 7, Number 40 1 October 1990 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | FidoNet (r) | | \ \\ | | International BBS Network | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Vince Perriello Editors Emeritii: Thom Henderson, Dale Lovell Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings Copyright 1990, Fido Software. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact Fido Software. FidoNews is published weekly by the System Operators of the FidoNet (r) International BBS Network. It is a compilation of individual articles contributed by their authors or authorized agents of the authors. The contribution of articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the authors. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1:1/1. 1:1/1 is a Continuous Mail system, available for network mail 24 hours a day. Fido and FidoNet are registered trademarks of Tom Jennings of Fido Software, Box 77731, San Francisco CA 94107, USA and are used with permission. Opinions expressed in FidoNews articles are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of Fido Software. Most articles are unsolicited. Our policy is to publish every responsible submission received. Table of Contents 1. ARTICLES ................................................. 1 Louisiana meets The Great Abortion Debate ................ 1 FidoNews now in ECHOMAIL! ................................ 16 Answer to a squeeking mouse .............................. 17 News about WorldPol ...................................... 19 2. LATEST VERSIONS .......................................... 30 Latest Software Versions ................................. 30 3. NOTICES .................................................. 34 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 34 FidoNews 7-40 Page 1 1 Oct 1990 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Alan Jennings FidoNet 1:3800/6 Greetings from The Gret Stet of Louisiana, The following is an article which appeared in GrisGris (BR city magazine) written by UPI Capital Correspondent Steve Watsky. It was uploaded to my system (with his permission AND blessings) by Jerry Williams, Gris Gris Business Manager. Jerry, who also sysops the LaLaw BBS here in Baton Rouge, is making great headway in becoming part of the net. However, his software, MAJORBBS, has only recently become friendly to networking! Anyway, it is both Jerry and Steve's desire to share this story of the wonderful 1990 Legislative Session with the world, in order that the thinking folks out there know that despite all they read, there are a few of us here in Louisiana who have retained our reason and who have not succumbed to the insidious disease of "YAHOOism" Please, read and enjoy this article. Then, if you would be so kind, make it available to your callers, and forward this article to those whom you know have retained their reason, that we may all benefit from the knowledge that we are not becoming extinct. Yet. *-Alan Jennings [Ed's note: This is a really long article. But it's a fascinating study in American Democracy. In my opinion, it's must reading for anyone who wants some insight into why things work the way they do in the United States. The issues, while admittedly very powerful ones, are secondary to the real message here. I recommend that you sit down before starting this article.] A B O R T I O N PROLOGUE: Another Fashion Statement Bites the Dust The blonde network reporter is confused. FidoNews 7-40 Page 2 1 Oct 1990 All the nice people with "Right To Life" stickers on their chests are staring at her, and it isn't with that "You're A Teevee Star" look. No, not hardly. This is Wrath of God stuff she's getting from the prim-and-proper set. In fact, it is apparent to everyone in the packed-to-the-ceiling Senate chamber on this Saturday that Ms. Network sticks out like a sore thumb as senators debate whether they will override Gov. Buddy Roemer's veto of a virtual ban on abortion -- a bill that could become the strictest statute in the nation. Purple. She is dressed in purple. Abortion-rights purple. To add insult to the brewing angst among the pro-lifers, her cameraman also is dressed in purple. "They got me out of bed at 1:30 this morning to come over here," she later explains. "How did I know purple was the abortion-rights color? Jeez, purple's such a big fashion color this year." Well, maybe it is in the other 49 states, but there's only one thing purple means this Saturday in Baton Rouge: You're for the "killing" of 15,000 unborn children in Louisiana every year. Or, as Baton Rouge Rep. Louis "Woody" Jenkins is fond of saying, "You're for the killing of 15,000 little PEOPLE" as he points to replicas of the fetus at various stages of development. Jenkins is most proud of his model of a five-month-old fetus, which he refers to as this "little boy" or "little girl." On the last night of the 1990 legislative session, Ted Koppel is in no mood for Jenkins' plastic people. There, for the nation to see, is Jenkins explaining on "Nightline" his abortion bill -- complete with his plastic-person-prop. "Put the plastic baby down, Mr. Jenkins," mutters Koppel, live-via-satellite from his lofty cocoon in Washington D.C. Without knowing it, Ted has condensed three months of often surreal moments into three seconds of soundbite-life. About the same time "Nightline" is signing off at midnight, the Louisiana Legislature is signing off for the session, adjourning for good a day after passing an abortion bill. FidoNews 7-40 Page 3 1 Oct 1990 Not just ANY abortion bill. But a real-honest-to-goodness "Let's-beat-up-the-flag-burner" abortion bill. I: The Holy Crusade On a bright April day, three charismatic Christians obtain parade permits from the City of Baton Rouge and proceed to quite literally shout Bible verse AT the State Capitol. They stand on the steps, shouting up at the building that the Legislature's "judgement is not God's judgement! The Supreme Court is not the most supreme judge of what is right! It is God who is the supreme court! Abortion is murder! Repent!" For three straight days they repeat this ritual, driving workers in the building to distraction because the ministerings can be heard all the way up in the 24th floor offices of the attorney general. Some workers devise evil torture for the three earnest saviors on the steps below that includes boiling oil. The push to ban abortion starts in April, almost a year after the U.S. Supreme Court in its Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services decision said that it would not ban abortion outright, but would allow states to set some limits on abortion. Jenkins is the point man for the anti-abortion movement for the 1990 session, ready for the challenge of leading the Pure and Righteous to victory, spewing soundbites and showering photo-op on the unwashed photographers. He files legislation banning abortions unless the woman's life is threatened by the pregnancy, and it become House Bill 1637. Jenkins' bill will criminalize abortions, making it a felony for someone to perform one, punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and 10 years in prison. He knows from day one that Buddy Roemer will veto such a measure. Roemer says the only bill he'll sign is one that allows abortions in the cases of rape, incest, or if the woman's life is threatened by the pregnancy. Politically, Roemer's approach sounds like a pretty good compromise. It's the "fight fire with fire" approach. The governor gets to give equally good soundbites with words like "violent event that is rape" to counter the anti-abortion side's "tearing the unborn limb from limb during the abortion." But Roemer soon finds he is almost alone in his position. Even his handpicked House speaker and Senate president have co-authored bills banning abortions. II: The Art of No Compromise FidoNews 7-40 Page 4 1 Oct 1990 On the third day of the session, about 1,000 anti-abortion supporters crowd on the capitol steps to hear from Senate President Allen Bares, House Speaker Jimmy Dimos and Jenkins, who promise the Legislature will pass a bill banning abortion. "The bottom line is we don't intend to compromise in our effort to protect human life," says Sandy McDade, head of the Eagle Forum. Those words will come back to haunt McDade less than three months later. H.B. 1637 goes to the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee, headed by Norco Rep. Ralph Miller who knows the bill is hot and promises to devote one day of testimony to the pro-life alliance and one day to the pro-choice faction. Over in the Senate, a virtual carbon copy of Jenkins' bill is sent to the Health and Welfare Committee, coincidentally chaired by its author, Mike Cross of Baker. What the bill is doing in Health and Welfare to begin with is a mystery. By Senate rule, it should be referred to a judiciary panel because it deals not with health or welfare, but with criminal statutes. Cross grabs the first headlines in the holy crusade. Just 45 minutes before his committee is to meet on June 5, he abruptly places his abortion bill on the panel's agenda. Cross says he is not sure how much longer he will chair the panel because of committee shakeups instituted in the wake of the ouster of Bares as president and the ascent of Sammy Nunez. The disorganized abortion-rights people are stunned when they enter the committee room and see it jammed to the rafters with anti-abortion supporters. The word has somehow gotten out to the pro-life lobby but not to the pro-choice folks that Cross is taking up the bill. During a mere 30-minute hearing, Cross repeatedly cuts off testimony by abortion-rights activists. Several efforts to bottle the bill up in committee are killed, including one to put off action for a week. "Why don't you also make a motion that we meet next week at Memorial Stadium," Cross angrily and sarcastically suggests. He is joining Jenkins on the abortion high ground. "I don't care -- I don't -- if 80 percent of the people in my district are pro-abortionists. I am not going to change my mind," he says. FidoNews 7-40 Page 5 1 Oct 1990 His district includes the Bethany World Prayer Center, one of the heavy hitters in the anti-abortion battle. Three days after the Cross bill is approved in Senate committee, the House Criminal Justice panel takes up H.B. 1637. Jenkins opens the hearing the first day by testifying before the panel it has "the opportunity to influence not only what is happening in our state, but in the entire United States." Dr. Jerome Lejeune, a noted French geneticist, testifies "the symphony of life" begins at the moment the sperm pierces the egg, meaning any abortion -- including those for rape and incest -- is murder. Those arguments are shot down the next day by a host of abortion-rights experts, who testify no one knows when life actually begins. After two days -- seven hours of testimony -- the committee unanimously approves the bill and sends it back to the full House for debate. Miller explains the panel did so because it wanted a "clean record of testimony," in case the bill is finally approved and makes its way to the Supreme Court where it could be used by anti-abortionists to test Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision legalizing abortion. But a couple of members of the panel privately say they're "trying to stick it to Roemer," so they vote the bill out of committee without objection. The bottom line in the Legislature is that the anti-abortionists have enough votes to pass some form of the bill in both chambers. If they do, Roemer -- who is not popular with the Legislature -- will have to put his signature where his rhetoric is and veto the measure. III: Cheers From Angola Despite the obviously impending approval of H.B. 1637 in the House, some representatives are still concerned. Because the bill prescribes such a stiff penalty for a person committing an abortion, River Ridge Rep. Robert Garrity claims the measure could end up in a state court testing Louisiana's second-degree murder statutes -- never mind ever making it to the nation's high court. Garrity, an attorney, says the bill appears to create a separate crime of second-degree murder for doctors, as well as the 10-year, $100,000 penalty. He worries the penalty clause is a sure way of having the bill tossed out in court because current second-degree murder statutes usually carry a term of life in prison. FidoNews 7-40 Page 6 1 Oct 1990 "I've got some guys up at Angola (serving life for second-degree murder) who are clapping and cheering about the bill," muses Garrity. "They want to see it pass because the first thing they're going to do is come in and file a writ saying, 'If he (doctor) gets 10 years, then I want 10 years.'" A week later, the full House takes up the bill, and it's showtime for Jenkins. He starts his speech with LeJeuene's perfect soundbite, "The symphony of life..." The abortion-rights lawmakers are slaughtered in their attempts to at least amend on the rape and incest clauses. Dimos, a