Alas, poor Basher: a distraught widow Sese-Seko gets a new email address, adopts.

I'm guessing Basher was the one who knew how to spell EIGHTTEEN. Thank god Theophilus is still around to help with CHATEAUX.

Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 13:27:30 +0200
From: "MRS: MARIAM SESE-SEKO" <mariam_seki@yahoo.com> [add to address book]
Reply-To: mariam_seki@yahoo.com
To: [me]
Subject: assistance needed

ATTEN: PRESIDENT/CEO

DEAR FRIEND,

I AM MRS. SESE-SEKO WIDOW OF LATE PRESIDENT MOBUTU SESE-SEKO OF ZAIRE? NOW KNOWN AS DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC). I AM MOVED TO WRITE YOU THIS LETTER, THIS WAS IN CONFIDENCE CONSIDERING MY PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE AND SITUATION.

I ESCAPED ALONG WITH MY HUSBAND AND TWO OF OUR SONS THEOPHILUS AND NZANGA OUT OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) TO ABIDJAN, COTE D'IVOIRE WHERE MY FAMILY AND I SETTLED, WHILE WE LATER MOVED TO SETTLED IN MORROCO WHERE MY HUSBAND LATER DIED OF CANCER DISEASE. HOWEVER DUE TO THIS SITUATION WE DECIDED TO CHANGED MOST OF MY HUSBAND'S BILLIONS OF DOLLARS DEPOSITED IN SWISS BANK AND OTHER COUNTRIES INTO

OTHER FORMS OF MONEY CODED FOR SAFE PURPOSE BECAUSE THE NEW

HEAD OF STATE OF (DR) MR LAURENT KABILA HAS MADE ARRANGEMENT WITH THE SWISS GOVERNMENT AND OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES TO FREEZE ALL MY LATE HUSBAND'S TREASURES DEPOSITED IN SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. HENCE MY CHILDREN AND I DECIDED LAYING LOW IN AFRICA TO STUDY THE SITUATION TILL WHEN THINGS GETS BETTER, LIKE NOW THAT PRESIDENT KABILA IS DEAD AND THE SON TAKING OVER (JOSEPH KABILA). ONE OF MY LATE HUSBAND'S CHATEAUX IN SOUTHERN FRANCE WAS CONFISCATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT, AND AS SUCH I HAD TO CHANGE MY IDENTITY SO THAT MY INVESTMENT WILL NOT BE TRACED AND

CONFISCATED. I HAVE DEPOSITED THE SUM EIGHTTEEN MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS (US$18,000,000,00.) WITH A SECURITY COMPANY , FOR SAFEKEEPING. THE FUNDS ARE SECURITY CODED TO PREVENT THEM FROM KNOWING THE CONTENT. WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO IS TO INDICATE YOUR INTEREST THAT YOU WILL ASSIST US BY RECEIVING THE MONEY ON OUR BEHALF.ACKNOWLEDGE THIS MESSAGE, SO THAT I CAN INTRODUCE YOU TO MY SON (THEOPHILUS) WHO HAS THE OUT MODALITIES FOR THE CLAIM OF THE SAID FUNDS. I WANT YOU TO ASSIST IN INVESTING THIS MONEY, BUT I WILL NOT WANT MY IDENTITY REVEALED. I WILL ALSO WANT TO BUY PROPERTIES AND STOCK IN MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANIES AND TO ENGAGE IN OTHER SAFE AND

NON-SPECULATIVE INVESTMENTS. MAY I AT THIS POINT EMPHASISE THE HIGH LEVEL OF CONFIDENTIALITY, WHICH THIS BUSINESS DEMANDS, AND HOPE YOU WILL NOT BETRAY THE TRUST AND CONFIDENCE, WHICH I REPOSE IN YOU. IN CONCLUSION, IF YOU WANT TO ASSIST US , MY SON SHALL PUT YOU IN THE PICTURE OF THE BUSINESS, TELL YOU WHERE THE FUNDS ARE CURRENTLY BEING MAINTAINED AND ALSO DISCUSS OTHER MODALITIES INCLUDING REMUNERATION FOR YOUR SERVICES.

FOR THIS REASON KINDLY FURNISH US YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION, THAT IS YOUR PERSONAL TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBER FOR CONFIDENTIAL PURPOSE.

BEST REGARDS,

MRS M. SESE SEKO

Well, Isn't that Special

Just look what the Bush administration announced just in time for the Saturday papers (the least read paper of the week).

WASHINGTON, April 5 - The Bush administration unveiled a new workplace safety policy today that calls for no mandatory steps by industry and instead relies on voluntary actions by companies to reduce injuries from repetitive motions on the job.

The new policy addresses one of the worst safety problems in the American workplace: more than 1.8 million injuries, like neck sprains and carpal tunnel syndrome, that result each year from repetitive motions like lifting, bending and typing. Over the last decade, such injuries have hurt millions of Americans including seamstresses, secretaries, nursing home aides, journalists and poultry plant workers.

John L. Henshaw, the director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said the voluntary approach would work far better than the rescinded Clinton rules because it would be more adaptable to specific industries and would cost companies less to carry out. He said the Labor Department would work with some industries to develop guidelines by the end of this year.

"We know that one size does not fit all," Mr. Henshaw said. "This approach provides the flexibility needed to reduce these injuries."

At a news conference at the Labor Department, Mr. Henshaw promised to put some teeth behind the voluntary guidelines, warning that OSHA would bring enforcement actions against industries that had high injury rates and took few steps to reduce them. He declined to identify the industries that government safety officials might focus on, saying only that the government would concentrate on industries with the highest rates of injuries

We good so far? Industry wanted these things rescinded because it would cost too much to protect workers who were most at risk of injury, but now they're going to be good citizens and voluntarily protect those workers, because (as we've seen the past six months) the workers come first in american capitalism. Well, except possibly at HP.

Just in case, though, the Secretary of Labor wants us to know that they are going to go after anyone who doesn't follow the voluntary guidelines and strictly enforce them. Only they're voluntary so there's nothing to enforce. But they'll get a really stern note.

My favorite part of the rest of the story: a tie between

Mr. Henshaw promised vigorous action beyond the guidelines, brandishing the threat of enforcement actions. He said companies could be fined if they failed to meet a minimal general duty to prevent serious workplace injuries.

and

Randel Johnson, vice president for labor policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, said the administration's plan was not all good for business because of the threat of such enforcement actions. "It remains to be seen how new and increased enforcement under these guidelines will play out," he said.

but I think I have to go for this spectacularly blatant attempt at mollifying a much-lusted-after constituency:

The administration pledged stepped-up compliance assistance in which government officials would train companies and workers on how to reduce injuries. It also promised special efforts to reduce injuries and deaths among Hispanic workers, who, since they often accept the worst low-end jobs, have a higher injury rate than other workers.

Up to this point, I've been thinking that this next election will be a referendum on whether anyone is paying attention. Now I'm starting to think it's a referendum on whether anyone is awake.

Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award, one more time

Colin Richardson
Friday April 5, 2002
The Guardian

As resignations go, Alum Mpofu's is a corker. The chief executive of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has been brought low after allegations that he was caught in a sex act with a man in a Harare nightclub. It must be embarrassing for him to have details of the alleged incident made public (a bouncer chained him to a fire hydrant).

It's got to be no fun at all being this poor schmuck right about now. It's hard to be sympathetic in more than an abstract way, though, when you look at who he's been working for, and who he's been playing with.

The Herald (Harare)
April 3, 2002

The alleged incident is understood to have taken place at a city nightclub just before the Easter holiday.

He was allegedly caught in a compromising position with another man and was then chained to a fire hose by a security guard.

Mr Mpofu was allegedly briefly detained by security guards at the night club despite his pleas that he was the ZBC chief executive and a friend of Mr Pearson Mbalekwa, the owner of the night club.

He was only released after the MP was summoned to the club and verified that he was indeed the corporation's top man.

Mr Mbalekwa is the MP for Zvisha-vane.

President Mugabe has consistently denounced homosexuals as being "worse than pigs and dogs".

This has raised the ire of the international gay and lesbian community, which has criticised President Mugabe for his anti-gay stance.

He has also called the British government of Mr Tony Blair a "government of gays and lesbians".

The government has also been on record saying: "We know that God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve."

(Some day I'd love to hear one of these levitical hobbyists explain how Steve got here, but I digress).

Anyway, this is a quandary for me. On the one hand, for all practical purposes letting it out that this guy is gay is like breaking the news that Ann Coulter has a vagina - there are just some clubs in this world that have a very, very relaxed door policy, and what does it prove? On the other hand, the ruling class in Zimbabwe is by all accounts not one of those clubs, and apparently you need to belong to that ruling class in order to be gay with impunity in Zimbabwe.

There is a movement towards this in the United States as well - three strikes is certainly not going to apply to Noelle Bush any more than the jail term a less well-connected "little brown one" would certainly be on her way to. David Brock can be hit on by Matt Drudge and all his raging homophobic puritan political allies can embrace him anyway, because in the final analysis People Like Us can handle that sort of thing, it's Those People who need to be reined in for their own good. (Like, say, Andrew Sullivan? Nah).

Our fearless leader himself was a serial drunk driver, and his daddy, who was sworn to preserveprotectanddefend the laws of our country as the head of the Executive Branch of the Government knew all about it. His own children are apparently serial lawbreakers in search of their substances of choice. The staggering concept of the Republican leadership under Clinton presenting the moral objections to anyone's marital conduct has been more than adequately covered, I think.

Do we all do this stuff? Well, probably. Lots of people certainly do. But the suggestion seems to be that the rich and powerful have smooth successful lives because of their work ethic and their sterling values, instead of because, perhaps, they just don't get busted like poor and middle class folks do. Someone with a pillow strapped to their ass can land awfully hard and still have a nice smooth shiny butt.

So yeah, I'm a hypocrite, because my own copybook has very little light between the blots. You know what, though? I don't have a problem with homosexuality, but I would have been completely gleeful if Roy Cohn had been outed, with all the attendant unpleasantness from the right to follow. I agree with very little about the world these people are working so hard to build, but it looks to me like justice that now that it's here, they should have to live in it for a while.