Notes and asides

The federal government cannot be trusted.

The F.B.I. and the Justice Department, in particular, cannot be trusted. They lied about the Waco, Texas tragedy. They may have killed dozens of innocent children.

The U.S. Interior Department also cannot be trusted. Secretary Bruce Babbitt mismanaged the Indian Affairs Office and may have been involved in other improper activities.

The Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, of course, cannot be trusted. We all know what Al Stayman and David North were practicing.

The Clinton administration certainly cannot be trusted. The scandals and the patterns of deceit are too numerous to detail in full.

Nothing the federal government declares can be considered reliable. The possibility for deception is far too great.

Given the flagrant lies that have been told about the Northern Marianas, we might justifiably sooner believe Slobodan Milosovich and Saddam Hussein over Bill Clinton, Bruce Babbitt, David North, or Al Stayman.

True free trade

The Marshall Islands recently announced that it will eliminate all of its import tariffs altogether, which should be a lesson to the Northern Marianas.

Actually, we should really be quite embarrassed. While we fiddle with a cumbersome “Free Trade Zone” riddled with assorted requirements, the Marshall Islands, which should be behind us, is actually proving to be more progressive, more committed to free trade, and less anti-business.

In fact, the CNMI leadership refused to even ratify Congressman Pete P. Reyes’ bill to eliminate the one percent import tax on all food items.

Clinton’s task force

We understand that the Clinton administration has appointed a special inter-agency task force to administer policies and procedures concerning the Insular areas. This is yet another example of the federal government’s irrational propensity to lump all of the Insular areas together, as if we were all the same.

The CNMI is not American Samoa, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. The CNMI is not Yap, Truk, or Palau. The CNMI is a unique American Commonwealth.

It is about time the feds stop lumping us all together. The Clinton task force and the Office of Insular Affairs should be abolished altogether. We no longer have any use for them. They are certainly not the least bit concerned with our fundamental political or economic interests. What’s worse, these government agencies represent a waste of U.S. taxpayer funds.