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•'•*•:•:-«.•.•• . A good deal for cable patrons The Clinton County Cable Television Council was the creation of Platt- sburgh Mayor Clyde Rabideau. It was a good one, as can be seen in the con-: tract just negotiated with Falcon Cable TV. It used to be that Falcon negotiated with each municipality it served. Rabideau correctly saw that, under that arrangement, Falcon enjoyed more leverage than it would have if the communities ganged up. He instigated the council, which now includes 11 municipalities. The 10-year agreement recently con- cluded contains such extraordinary benefits to the customers that it has prompted some to speculate as to the following: • The council comprises the finest negotiators since the purchase of Manhattan Island. • Falcon Cable comprises the most beneficent human beings since Schweitzer. Whatever the provocation, the coun- cil got as good a deal as state Cable Commission officials have ever seen. Under it, Falcon not only will increase its payments to the municipalities geometrically, it will pay for service improvements and offer service to many more homes than it does now. Whereas, currently, Falcon doesn't service houses unless it has 35 of them per area mile, under the new contract it will service areas with 20 per mile and, by the year 2000,15. Although this feature isn't subject to municipal contract, Falcon is now paving the way for a dramatic increase in the number of channels available within the next couple of years. Council Chairman Bryan. LaPier, who could have used this imminent contract to boost his failed re-election bid but didn't, acknowledged Falcon didn't drive a very hard bargain, agreeing to almost all concessions without a fight. Whether or not the cable firm need- ed the contract as much as the custom- ers, it remains certain that the council was and is a force for its constituents' best interests. They clearly profited from the strength of their numbers. Defending America Peace talks as treacherous as Bosnia The inside word is that the Clinton shotgun peacefest in Dayton, Ohio, between presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Franju Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia was falling apart at midweek faster than a Liz Taylor marriage, despite the State Department's high- fivi' hype. The U.N. tribunal's lingering of human scum- bags such as Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Hatko Mladic and Bosnian Croats Tihomir Blaskic ami Dario Kordic and Bosnian Muslim Naser Oric for war crimes could cinch the breakup. Serbia's Milosevic won't easily hand over his two chosen cutthroats because they're sure to rat on his own muiderous conduct in the 42-month civil war. Nor will the other presidents spring their favorite killers for the same reasons. Besides, Milosevic is in deep trouble back home. Must recently, he let the Croatian Serbs get whip- ped in the Krajina by a Croat blitzkrieg planned by our own Kent-An-America-General-Inc. and ap- proved by Bill Clinton's gang that can't think si might. State Department dissenters are calling the peace plan a sham cooked up by Assistant Secre- tary Richard Holbrooke. A Foggy Bottom source says, \When all the war crimes indictments come down involving almost every big and small leader in that three-way civil war, the hard core will have two choices: to fight or surrender and be hanged.\ Right now, Karadzic, Mladic, Blaskic, Kordic and Oric are on top of the Hague Tribunal's Most Wanted List, but there are dozens of others — Croat, Muslim and Serb — about to be named. Take Croatia's Tudjman. This Nazi-like monster is responsible for the largest ethnic cleansing of the war. Last summer in the Krajina region, he caused more than 200,000 Croatian Serbs to be brutally bayoneted/burned/bombed from their ancestral homes. The third mobster who bellied up to the peace table is Bosnia's Izetbegovic. His specialty, besides importing hard-core Muslim killers, is ordering the execution of his own people and then blaming the Serbs. There have been dozens of these grim inci- dents, but let's just replay three that happened in Sarajevo: May 27, 1992 — 20 Bosnians killed and 70 wounded in a mortar attack on a bread line. Feb. 5, 1994 — mortar rounds hit a crowded market, killing 68 people and wounding about 200. Aug. 28, 1995 — 38 people killed and dozens wounded when a mortar shell slammed near a market. All three horror shows were initially blamed on the Serbs. U.N. investigators later said Izetbegovic's goons did the killing. Besides it being repugnant to deal with such slime (can you imagine FDR sitting down and talking peace with Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini?), it's a waste of time; whatever deal is struck won't stick for long. And here Clinton is, trying to make peace with these murderers. Sure, he has arm-twisted the combatants to the peace table, but he can't by presidential decree force longtime enemies into holding hands while they warble \Imagine.\ No way will he be able to bring off a Haiti, stuffing peace down the belligerents' throats and then sen- ding in peacekeepers. Even after a peace agreement is signed, Bosnian Serb extremists will push to secede and join greater Serbia. Izetbegovic's Muslims will try to stop them at all costs. And in eastern Slovenia — another potential killing field — both Belgrade and Zagreb are at this very moment massing large forces. Similarly 1 , large-scale fighting could occur be- tween Muslim and Croat forces over already bloodied turf. Because Tudjman isn't going to give up the Bosnian land he's already \cleansed the U.S.-conceived Muslim-Croat federation is a joke. A doable peace won't occur until all sides accept each combatant's military capabilities and the sheer reality of the battlefield. Without such understanding, the peacekeepers will be placed at high risk trying to keep a peace that doesn't exist — and too busy protecting themselves from the many hate-filled extremists/war criminals on all sides doing their best to blow them away. Too, if renewed fighting kicks off, the Clinton- concocted NATO and Russian peacekeeping force could end up backing opposing sides. Then look out for a wider war that could suck in all of Europe. How to avoid the disaster? Simple. Arm Bosnia, keep NATO air on station until Bosnia can defend itself, and most important, stay the hell out of Bosnia with U.S. ground troops. King Features Syndicate, Inc. -In Washington- Your voices in government Rep. John McHugh 24th Congressional District Room 416 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone:(202)225-4611 (518) 563-1406 Rep. Gerald Solomon 22nd Congressional District 2265 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-5614 (518) 477-2703 Sen. Alfonse D'Amato 520 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-6542 Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan Room SR-464 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-4451 -In Albany- Sen. Ronald Stafford 45th Senatorial District Room 502, Capitol Albany, N.Y. 12247 Phone: (518) 455-2811 (518) 561-2430 Assemblyman Chris Ortloff 110th Assembly District Room 450 Legislative Office Building Albany, N.Y. 12248 Phone: (518) 455-5943 (518) 562-1986 (518) 483-9930 Won't go out of his way to travel I keep reading surveys telling me how people think, what they're buy- ing, how long they sleep, what they watch on tele- vision, what their sex. habits are and several thousand other things that are none of a survey's business. The most striking thing about the answers to these surveys is they are wildly different from the answers I'd give to the questions they ask — if I was ever asked, and I never have been. This occurs to me now because the editors of Conde Nast Traveler magazine say they have found out from a survey that Sydney, Australia, is what they call \the top destination in the world.\ This is just one more survey that I've been cut out of and which bears no relationship at all to me. I have ho negative feeling about Sydney, but Sydney is 9,936 miles from where I live, as the crow flies, although a crow couldn't fly that far and probably wouldn't want to go there anymore than I do anyway. It takes about 20 hours to fly there and 20 hours to fly back. That's an airplane, not a crow. American Airlines charges $4,526 for an economy round-trip ticket. \Economy\ translated into English means \jammed in.\ At the risk of being excluded from consideration as a member of the smart set, I hereby announce that I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of spending that many valuable hours of what I have left in my life going to a place I have no interest in getting to. Put that in your survey, Traveler maga- zine! The fact of the matter is, there are more places to see in the world than anyone has time to fly to, and you can't break your heart about never having been to Sydney just because Traveler says it's the place to go. Distance lends enchantment — but pick a closer city. Have the editors ever been to Milwaukee? What about Bangor, Maine, or Buf- falo? Not fashionable enough for a fancy magazine, I guess, but darn good cities to visit. I like to visit \cities I've already been to. There are hundreds of those. I know the name of the main street — quite often \Main Street.\ I may know a good hotel there, a restaurant,, and that's about all I need. If I have a friend living there I haven't seen in years, I'll probably call him as I'm leaving to say I wish we'd had time to get together. It gives me great pleasure to go back to a city I know. I feel so proud of myself when I can find my way around a place I haven't visited in 17 years. This is the kind of satisfaction I look for when I travel. Exotic turns me off. I don't know Sydney. I'm sure Sydney is a nice city, but the name re- minds me of. a boy in my fourth grade arithmetic class who cheated, and I'm adding it to a wide va- riety of reasons I'm not joining the Traveler crowd's rush to Australia. In more of the same survey, the magazine has determined that Los Angeles has replaced Miami as the world's least friendly city. Charleston, S.C., is the most friendly. As a New Yorker, I defy any editor to prove to me that there is any city on Earth less friendly than mine. There is nothing so dull and boring as a friendly city. \How do you like Charleston?\ the natives say to every visitor. Why don't they go about their business and leave us alone? My attitude is that I didn't come to Charleston to hand out a lo.t of fatuous praise for a city I hardly know anyway. Just give me the name of a good restaurant and show me the shortest route to the airport. You'll know I liked Charleston if I come back. And, by the way, I like Charleston just fine. It's the people who keep asking me how I like it that I can't stand. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Revamping system To the Editor: In reference to the continued construction and proliferation of new, \Club-Med type\ prisons, I quote from an. ar- ticle appearing in the New York Daily News, on Jan. 8, 1995, by Stanley Crouch, wherein the author recommends \that prisons be constructed and operated in the style of prisoner-of-war camps, i.e., good solid wood or concrete buildings without rooms or cells, well lighted and con- tinuously manned by guard per- sonnel to prevent rape. \No television, but plenty of books and reading material. No prisoner would be released on parole until he could read and write. His teachers could be educated prisoners. The grounds would be surrounded by triple razor wire fences, with the mid- dle fence being electrified.\ In other words, simple but sufficient prisons, not colleges, health spas, nor vacation areas. Along the crimnal vein, I strongly recommend that juve- nile-offender status be limited to individuals under age 12, unless charged with a capital crime, when age should not be a criteri- on for prosecution. Driving while intoxicated, as well as being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or dealing in drugs are crimes. Where does the rationale stem from, that these individuals are disabled and en- titled to disability payments in excess of $400 per month? These people are willful user/addicts and the federal/state payments subsidize their habits at the tax- payers' expense. The Press-Republican wel- comes letters to the editor. All letters must be signed (except e-mail) and include the address and telephone number of the author. Letters must not contain more than 300 words. They should be typewritten. Those letters not meeting the criteria will not be published and will be returned. The Press-Repub- lican reserves the right not to publish letters it judges to be inappropriate. By mail: Letters to the Editor Press-Republican P.O. Box 459 Pittsburgh, N.Y. 12901 By e-mail: PRepub@aol.com By fax: 561-3362 Fence needed To the Editor: Some candidates are concerned about the future of Willsboro, but what about the problems we are faced with to- day. Town neglect of the children's playground is only one problem. A fence is badly needed around the town park, but the town officials will only discuss it. The Town Board approved a park-hours sign in July. Does the town government have the right to reverse that decision? What kind of message is being sent to the younger people in our community: That it's okay to make a promise, then change your mind? Children can't vote, but they don't forget. Martha Lacey Willsboro Found money On the subject of frivolous per- sonal-injury lawsuits, the plain- tiffs lawyer preparing such charges on a contingency per- centage basis and the plaintiff should be held liable for total court costs if the case is decided against them. I believe that this procedure would cause a sudden drop in these type cases. James Wilson Keeseville To the Editor: I would like to thank the two college boys that helped me on Saturday night. I was in the Grand Union parking lot at Consumer Square when my purse dropped and $300 went blowing in the wind. Twenty- dollar bills were flying every- where and those guys went through the parking lot and picked up all they could find. Thanks to them and another gentleman I recovered $280. Thank you again to the fine young men. Mary McLean Pittsburgh Press~Republican 170 Matgarel St.. Pittsburgh, N.Y. 12901 (USPS 443-240) , ^»., SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18,1995 The Republican 1811, The Press 1894, The Press-Republican 1942 Bretida ). Tallman Publisher James D. Dynko, Editor Robett J. Grady, Managing Editor Lois M. Uermont, News Editor Uruce Rowland, Business Editor John Downs, Design Editor Robert O. Goetz, Sports Editor David Paczak, Plioto Editor Damian F anelli, Sunday Editor Daniel B. Swift, General Manager Sean T. McNamara, Marketing—Sale* Manaier . Lymsn O. Be«io, Classified Advertising Manager George Rock, Retail Advertising Manager Chris Christian, Circulation Manager Catherine A. Duquette, Controller Virgil L. Croat, Pratt Foreman Daniel L. Thayer, Production Manager Jamae O. Frenya, Distribution Supervisor Published daily oach morning except certain holiday*- at 170 Margaret Straat, Ptattaburgh, N.Y. Telephone 5612300. Second class postage paid at Pittsburgh, N.Y. 12901. The Preea-Rapubllcan It published by the Plattsburgh Publishing Company Division of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. National Advertising Representative: Papnt Companies, 400 North Straat Paul No. 800. Dallas, Texas 75201-3119, Area Code 214-969-0000. Subscription rates by U.S. Mail $195.00 ona year; 1107.90 six months; $63.95 three months. (Mail i utes not applicable In areas served by carrier or motor delivery). Ratee for all other placet and tpaciau out oMown servicemen rates on request. DOONESBURY Garry Trudeau T JUST M/AMT7O SAY ITTAKE5 AIOT0FGW5 GOING PU3UC0N TUP AIR. UKB YOUANPNBIL AR3 DOING.,.\ MVNAM&'S WN&'TIIME L AU7T0FPE0PL5UVB \ A U&, KNOWWHATl'M SAYING? THe/JUSTSPeN& THBIR.WHOLE UVB&PR3-i TENP/N6.' YOU GUYS ARB mwAH, 003, THANKS Am .ALBANY, I tion, flip-flopp that the govei not disclose < three-day evei Pataki spok the inaugural contributions Late last ; committee wo that it would finance laws water runni fort to escf flames. 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