Art Bell dissects 1995’s telecom deregulation bill, praised by industry but criticized for internet censorship risks, while callers debate its impact—from skyrocketing health insurance premiums (300% in Kentucky) to UN overreach (Yellowstone gold mine concerns). A caller links rabbit-killing designer viruses in Australia to primate experiments, and Bell teases Krishana Duran’s Mayan calendar predictions. Polls show Bob Dole struggling against Steve Forbes’ flat tax, but Bell insists Clinton remains unbeatable. Gold hits $419.80 amid supply fears, while callers warn of UN-backed mining shutdowns and internet surveillance deals costing taxpayers a billion. Ultimately, the episode blends conspiracy theories, political skepticism, and tech speculation into a chaotic critique of government expansion and hidden agendas. [Automatically generated summary]
From the high desert in the great American Southwest, where finally the rain has stopped falling and the skies are clearing as they should in the desert.
I bid you a great big good evening or good morning as the case may be across all these time zones from Hawaii and Tahiti in the west, east to the Caribbean and the U.S. Virgin Islands, south into South America, north into Santa Country.
This is Coast to Coast A.M., and I'm Art Bell.
And let me give you sort of a little preview of what's upcoming.
This morning, nothing but open lines all the way.
Whatever you want to do.
Tomorrow night, there are a number of possibilities.
One possibility is that we may get the software and begin to make it available for download for the video telephone.
Maybe.
That's a maybe.
Because you never know about last-minute glitches and hitches, but we're that close.
Maybe tomorrow night.
That's one item.
Another item is I'm going to have Krishana Duran at the beginning of the program tomorrow night.
And she is going to talk about the Mayan calendar and how she interprets the Mayan calendar.
We're going to explore this together.
I don't know a lot about it myself.
And the future of America and the world.
And that should be very, very interesting.
Then a little later in the show, I think I might have talked my mom into coming on.
Lots of taxes encouraging her to do so.
And this is kind of one of those once-in-a-lifetime deals.
I don't think we've seen each other now.
And of course, we've been visiting like crazy in 12 or 15 years.
That's a long time.
And so, you know, we're doing a lot of catching up.
And it could be kind of fun to have her on the air.
And if you guys embarrass me, I'm going to be taking names.
Congress has passed the telecommunications bill, ooh, so feared across the internet.
President Clinton is hailing congressional passage of major telecommunications legislation.
House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure on Thursday.
Clinton calls the bill critical to building the information superhighway.
The measure, which is being praised by industry groups, but blasted by consumer groups and civil libertarians, will deregulate most cable TV rates in about three years, removes 62-year-old legal barriers, and encourages the telephone, cable, and broadcast industries to get into each other's businesses.
I favor it.
Now, I get a lot of messages from people who say, ah, but it regulates the internet.
Well, it regulates, for example, transmission of obscene materials to people under 18 years of age, intentional transmission.
So what?
I'm not that much of a civil libertarian.
As far as I'm concerned, you know, pornography or whatever ought not be sent to kids.
Is that the end of free speech in America?
I think not.
So I favor it.
And generally, look, telecommunications is exploding.
And to allow competition with the telephone, cable, and broadcast industries can do nothing ultimately but good.
We will have more diversity, more delivery, cheaper prices.
Yes, in the short term, maybe the cable companies will hike their rates, try and make up for some of the cuts they took.
But ultimately, my view still holds that in America, competition produces lower prices.
And so I think in the end, it'll be good for you.
It'll be good for me.
It'll be good for all of us.
So I do favor it.
And I know there's going to be some argument with that.
And there are people out there, many of them on the Internet, sort of anarchists who think that anything at all should go.
Well, I'll tell you something.
I don't feel that way.
As a matter of fact, if it was up to me, people who would write messages on the Internet, slanderous, libelous kind of stuff on the Internet, ought to be required to sign their name to it.
Just as you would if you wrote a letter to the newspaper, they'd print it, but they'd require you to sign it.
If you wrote an article for the newspaper, if you go on television, if you're broke hawk, you say something.
NBC stands to be sued if they have libeled or slandered somebody.
All the other networks.
You write a book and slander somebody and get sued.
You go on broadcast and libel somebody and you can get sued.
So, you know, I don't think the internet and the information superhighway should be stunted, but I also don't think that it should be a land of anarchy where anybody can say anything about anybody they want without attribution.
Now the cold.
Now, I'm getting faxes from people who say, hey, it's wintertime.
What are you guys talking about, all this weather talk?
Well, it's leading a lot of the newscasts around the country because baby, it's cold out there.
A snowstorm taking aim at the East Coast now.
Forecasters warn, bitter cold temperatures across the north are about to get even colder with freezing weather likely as far south as get this folks, Mexico and Florida.
It was 41 degrees below zero Thursday at International Falls, Minnesota.
Forecasters expect the town's 28-year-old record for the lowest temperature, 46 below zero, to be shattered on Friday, literally shattered.
Now, how cold is it?
I will ask you.
We are having hotter summers, bigger storms, bigger snowstorms, bigger blizzards, bigger cold waves.
We are having weather that rivals the extreme of our politics.
Now, do you suppose there might be something to that?
The more extreme politics gets, the more weather becomes extreme.
That's a reach, I know, but I thought I'd try.
Train derailed, carrying hazardous go.
You ever notice, inevitably, Murphy's law, any train that derails has hazardous stuff on it, chemicals.
It was about 50 miles east of L.A.
The fire sent up a huge toxic cloud.
People were evacuated.
People were hurt.
And I guess that's going to happen.
Speaking of people hurt, two U.S. soldiers have been injured by a landmine explosion in Bosnia.
Predictable.
Here it comes.
Pentagon says the two are in stable condition now at a military hospital.
One of the soldiers suffered injuries to his right foot.
The other hurt by shrapnel.
No identification of the soldiers yet.
It's going to be a long, hard year if it is a year, ha ha ha, in Bosnia.
Big breaking news about AIDS.
And I always take this with a bit of caution because there have been so many times, but this does seem to be substantial.
NBC did an in-depth report on it last night.
A new class of drugs are working called protein inhibitors.
They will join six approved drugs used for AIDS now, sharply reducing the level of the virus in the body.
Now, this may be a breakthrough, and it may be that this group, along with what else they're using, will be able to allow people with AIDS to live relatively normal lives.
AIDS hotlines are going nuts.
FDA expects rapid approval.
Now, of course, they don't know about all the side effects because they have not been able to test very long, but they're not going to hold it back.
They're going to let it go.
And we shall see.
But that is certainly good news, and I guess everybody wants to know about it.
A million Americans infected with the virus.
The commander of U.S. naval, make that NATO forces, I guess some naval in Bosnia, is promising swift retaliation against snipers in Sarajevo.
Says anyone who takes shots at any NATO peacekeeping troops had better be fast and be clad in bulletproof stuff because we will attack without warning.
And I keep wondering, you know, there are three million landmines in Bosnia, and as our American soldiers lose feet and legs as a result of them, who are we going to attack?
Clinton and the French President Jacques Chirock are talking.
They're meeting in Washington, agreeing on the future of NATO and on efforts to achieve a total nuclear test ban.
Yeah, we ought to be talking to the French about that, huh?
Congress has passed a measure to ensure social security checks to go out to $43 million so you don't have to worry by March 1st.
But the bill temporarily increases the debt limit and was very narrowly tailored, does not remove the threat of a U.S. default on March 1st.
Can you imagine that if we default?
That'd shake up the whole world were we to default.
The big bombshell news is Bob Dole is in big trouble.
Now this was, to me, predictable.
I am not surprised.
There is a new poll in New Hampshire.
You're not going to believe this, showing Steve Forbes, Steve Forbes is nine points ahead of Bob Dole in New Hampshire and rapidly closing the gap in Iowa.
Steve Forbes may be a runaway.
Slowly, we're finding out more and more about him, and the more I hear, the more I like.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole dismisses the significance of a new poll, says his rival, Forbes, has taken a solid lead in the key primary state of New Hampshire.
He says, we're not going to worry about polls.
We're just going to win the race.
Dole told reporters after a campaign appearance in Nashua, bad news for him.
And I, you know, I feel sorry for Bob Dole.
I actually feel sorry for Bob Dole because he's a good man.
He's just not the right man.
And he's going to be denied, I believe, the nomination.
And it's because of all the things I've been telling you about Bob Dole.
My perception apparently is not much different than a lot of other Republicans out there, and that is that he can't beat the president.
And you just don't give somebody the nomination sort of as a rite of passage, you know, because Bob Dole has been there so long, because he has earned it, because he's been the minority, and then the majority leader in the Senate.
It's not supposed to be automatic.
It's not supposed to be, you know, we don't have, it's not a kingdom we've got here.
There is not a succession to the throne.
And up until Forbes came along, it was kind of like that's what we were going to have, a succession to the throne.
Art, regarding the, this is a fax now, we're off into fax country here.
Regarding the Casabaum-Kennedy health care bill and its provision to force insurers to accept pre-existing conditions, could this be an attempt at driving insurers out of the health insurance biz so the government can take over our health care industry?
Get ready, America.
I think we're getting ready for another government takeover of one-seventh of the nation's economy, God help us, Julie from Brighton, Colorado.
Now, this new group of drugs that will keep AIDS patients alive for a long time, or maybe even something approaching a normal lifetime, well, that's great news.
But they are going to cost a fortune for the lifetimes now extended of the people with AIDS.
And if you force insurance companies to accept people who go down and get a test and suddenly find out they've got AIDS, and then they're going to run out and they're going to get their insurance, and they cannot be denied, well, who's going to pay for all of that?
The other people who have decided to keep their insurance?
Why would they keep their insurance, I ask?
After all, they get sick, they can go down and just, you know, the company has to accept them.
Even with a high premium rate, lifetime AIDS patients, you know, you're talking millions, perhaps.
Pretty good deal, huh?
Sounds like socialized medicine to me.
Again, on the weather, Art from Wisconsin, we're getting dangerous wind-chill situations tonight at the Bondulock airport.
It's currently hovering at about minus 54 to 56 degrees with the wind factored in.
Minus 50.
Well, that's life endangering.
So, and my facts are obtained three frost-bitten fingers just trying to put gas in my truck.
Says that AP ran a story saying a severe storm over northern Japan, get this, dumped more than 22 inches of snow by Thursday evening, and another 40 inches could fall before all ends.
Some isolated mountain areas will get twice that much.
That's nearly never happened.
Most airports in northern Honshu are now closed.
So, as last night, I will ask, how many of you think some little guy is sitting behind a curtain somewhere pulling levers, maybe up in Alaska, the Harp Project, whatever else?
Oh, I heard from Dr. Nick Begich, who would like to come back on the program on the HARP Project.
And he may be coming down to visit me in a couple of weeks from Alaska.
And I'll be telling you more about that.
So lots going on.
And in a moment, we will take the plunge, open the lines, and we will talk about anything you want to talk about.
Tis up to you.
The night is yours.
The calls unscreened.
The topic matter unexpected.
The show ranging from the funny to the very frightening to the sometimes ridiculous, blind.
I never know what it's going to be and don't want to.
I'm Art Bell, and when we come back, it's open line talk radio all night long.
unidentified
This is Premier Networks.
That was Art Bell hosting Coast to Coast AM on this Somewhere in Time.
You're listening to Art Bell's Somewhere in Time.
Tonight featuring Coast to Coast AM from February 1st, 1996.
I advertise it and I try and tell them what it is, but they don't quite get it.
You know, a lot of people don't get it.
It is an FM transmitter, and you can put anything into it.
I mean, you can make it into your own little radio station.
What are you doing with yours?
unidentified
What I do basically is, for example, you know, I have to admit, I sound like a total geek saying this, but the first night I got it, a bunch of my friends came over and we played radio.
In my case, I hook it up to my audio output here on the board.
So my mother, in this case, in her bedroom, my wife in hers, can listen to the program throughout the house.
But there's a million uses.
For example, people in metal buildings, you know, they can't receive AM radio.
It gets blocked up on the metal.
So what you do is you go over to a window and you hook up an AM radio to the FX wave and it transmits it throughout the metal building on beautiful FM.
unidentified
Well, sometimes what I do too is I've got a high-fidelity VCR and I make big long six-hour music tapes.
And what I do is like if I'm outside, which isn't too much with the wind show and everything right now, but we're upstairs away from my studio, I just batch it in there and I've got perfect the music that I pick on my radio.
That would mean that you could broadcast on the internet.
I'm going to be doing it next month, starting middle of next month, will be full-time stream audio on the internet.
And it would mean that somebody could sit in Italy or the North Pole or the tip of South America and with a computer and a local access number of some sort, listen to my show.
Now, I'm not as sure that it is ready for music yet.
Now that I think about it, I see the nature of your question.
It's getting better all the time.
I think for voice quality, it's quite sufficient.
But for music, it's marginal.
It's got a little bit of a warbly sound yet to it.
So there you are.
unidentified
I would love it if it would get there because what we do is so different from most everything that's on the radio.
And maybe, you know, if we just had even just a few people in each different locale, you know, if you're talking worldwide, eventually you can accumulate quite an audience.
Yeah, well, I just had a funny story I wanted to let you know about.
I'm originally from Milwaukee, and I'm down here at school at Northwestern, and I just had a funny story about a football sports cast that I don't think got much national attention, but it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on live TV.
What was it?
Well, the local sports team was down in Dallas, and they were doing coverage of the Green Bay Packers from Texas Stadium, and they had kind of a dual split-screen broadcast of the people down in Texas Stadium and the anchors back in Milwaukee.
And there was this local sports girl, and I'm not going to say any names or anything.
Thank you.
But they were commenting on Mike Holmgren writing a Harley-Davidson to the workout.
She came out and said it was nice to see a successful motorcade in Dallas for a change.
And she honestly said it, and I don't know if she had been thinking it up for a while or if it was just like a sprung thing that she thought would be funny, but it was really hilarious.
And every time you go to the hospital, just like clockwork, they send you in for an x-ray.
Well, I got sick of it.
And finally, I said to one doctor one time, excuse me, doctor.
You know, he was writing up the x-ray order.
I said, listen, I've had a lot of x-rays.
I'm beginning to be concerned.
I really don't think I want to get x-rayed again.
And he stopped cold.
And he looked at me and he said, you know, you're right.
I said, I am.
He said, yeah, we don't really need to do this and canceled it.
unidentified
Yeah, we have a right to refuse, you know, and I refused today.
I definitely did not want that shot because I don't feel that my day and age I need a tetanus shot because I was afraid it would give me a tetanus.
You know, it would give me the log jaw, whatever, diphtheria, whatever they wanted to give me.
I just feel, you know, I heard someone on your show one night say that he lived a healthier life, never got a cold or anything because he didn't get it.
Well, I'm not sure welfare recipient is the right.
Well, other people would use other words, some of them quite mean.
I'll tell you my attitude about it.
don't condone at all clinton's behavior for anybody who doesn't know that's who i did and you and i both know that's who we're talking about but uh i So I don't condone it.
He was wrong.
But on the other hand, he's the president.
And he was duly elected, properly elected, and he's the president, and he actually is, nauseating as it may be, the commander-in-chief.
And when he gives an order, it is the military's job to follow it.
unidentified
Oh, I agree with you, but can I say one more thing?
I think you're counting on a lot of people voting who, if there's one thing that's going to save this country, if the militias want to do something really worthwhile, and all the Republican women's clubs, go check out how elections are handled because we've had scandals in our county.
They had them in San Francisco when Willie won.
And I believe they've had them nationally.
I think we have to really review how votes are counted and policed in this country.
Anyway, let me just say that as far as I'm concerned, I think if this guy were to win the nomination, which he won't, I think what he's going to do is damage Bob Dole and beat him up all the way until Bob Dole eventually gets a nomination.
But if he were to get the nomination, Bill Clinton would be throwing a party.
Well, I would say if you honestly sit there and you honestly believe that Forbes would stand any kind of a chance, A, of getting the nomination, which he won't, and B, of beating Bill Clinton, you got a very, very serious problem.
And I can always tell when I'm hitting the mark because you come in here sort of with a higher tone of voice, all concerned, laughing it off, three octaves higher than you are.
You want to know the candidate that the Clinton people fear most, and this is what every political expert in the country is saying, is Lamar Alexander.
Well, all I can say is that if you run a guy who the first thing he's going to do is get rid of one of the major tax deductions as far as homes is concerned.
Look, and I'm a homeowner, and I take advantage of that every year like clockwork, Charlie.
But I do believe Forbes when he says that the extra money that would go in pockets like mine would more than make up for any home mortgage deduction that I get.
I would pay more attention to the price of gold than I would each new daily record of the stock market.
unidentified
Yeah, I know gold is outperforming in silver, and it's, I don't know, it's since January, since the beginning of January, it's at $389.80 or something, and that's a huge move.
Art, you may not have heard, but yesterday in San Diego, the U.S.-Mexican border crossing, southbound, was closed for five hours because of a near riot.
A church apparently formed a group called Pastors for Peace.
They organized an effort to get computers into Cuba to assist in medical care.
U.S. Customs received info weeks back about the effort, challenged the church with potential criminal action should the group attempt the border crossing.
Customs said that due to long-standing embargoes, no computers go to Cuba.
The church rented trucks, had over 300 computers for what they say is to help the many people who are being seriously hurt by our embargo.
So the whole border got closed down going southbound for about five hours.
There are a lot of border guards.
There is military.
I think that we are anticipating some difficulties at the Mexican border.
Hey, listen, a friend of mine called me a little earlier this evening and told me that a friend of his called him and was telling him about a mine, a mining operation north of West Yellowstone, Montana.
I was shocked when my friend called me, and I said, well, where did your friend hear this?
And he said on the news.
And he also said that the people in Butte, Montana were very upset about it, and will, I guess, you know, guns type thing.
I have heard nothing, so I thought if anybody have heard anything about this, whether you or some of your listeners there in the Butte, Montana area or West Yellowstone, I'm sure they pick you up up in that country.
They sure do.
Or Helena, you know, Great Falls, any of that area.
It was on an island off Australia, and they thought nothing can go wrong.
We will simply test it on this island.
But of course, it got out.
And when it did, and the rabbits began dying by the millions, at first the Aussies clapped and yelled and screamed because they've got a plague of rabbits and they were really happy.
Now it may well be that they're beginning to get a little worried because all the rabbits may die.
Before they do, they may pass this on to another host.
And it is a form of hemorrhagic fever related in some way to Ebola.
Same family, same idea, dissolving organs, that kind of thing.
Well, this Kennedy-Kasbaum bill that would mandate that insurance companies would accept you when you get sick, even with some sort of prior condition, yeah.
unidentified
Yeah, if you'll take a look at Kentucky's H. Bill 71, I believe you'll find it word for word.
I mean, if people are allowed not to get insurance until they need it.
It's like saying you don't have to have car insurance.
But listen, if you get into a terrible accident, you go down to the All-State or whoever, and they're forced to sell you insurance and pay off on the accident?
I don't think so.
unidentified
Well, that's what they're doing here.
We've got a morning talk show that comes on directly after yours does.
And there's only one way that that company, if you want to call it that, could stay in business under those conditions.
And that is it would be subsidized by the federal government.
It's just a sneaky way for the president to get what he wanted all along anyway, and that's health care for everybody, period.
unidentified
Well, because of them, they've got four.
We've got four plans, and no one can be turned down from them if you can afford them.
The majority of the working people, and I am in that class, Aren't going to be able to afford I'm not going to be able to afford to keep my family insured after my policy runs out in about three months.
So look, there are two segments to the Kennedy-Castlebaum bill.
One is portability, and I think that's fine.
If you're buying insurance, there is no reason that you should lose it when you change jobs.
I'm all for that.
Easy to do with legislation.
But this you cannot be turned down business removes the whole basis of the idea of insurance.
And companies will insure you based on risk.
In other words, as you get older, insurance costs more.
If you are a risky lifestyle, it costs you more, and so forth and so on.
And based on that, they can eke out a profit.
But if you are allowed to go down and run and get insurance after the fact, then who's going to carry it?
Who could afford it?
The people who do carry insurance would have such a burden placed on them, premium-wise, to take care of all those people who wouldn't go down and get it till they get sick that the whole thing would collapse.
But it wouldn't, you see, because the government would subsidize it.
So then what would we have?
we'd have the Clinton plan right through the back door.
It was an entity which was called by the common folk the Bell Witch, although was not a human entity by any means.
There's been different theories.
One that it was a dispos actually a dispossessed demon, one that it was possibly even an alien entity.
But, you know, it it's one it goes along the lines, if you believe that, basically, that if you have superior technology, it appears like to be as magic to those who, you know, don't understand it or whatever.
But there's lots of documentation about it.
And the reason I wanted to bring it up to you is I remember way back during your Halloween show, you made a mention that if there was a haunted house that someone knew that was very well documented, a very haunted house that you would like to know, and I can't remember whether you said you'd just like to visit there one day or whether you'd actually like to do a show from there one day or whatever.
Well, there's not a house involved with the Bell Witch legend anymore.
And the only part of the Bell Witch legend which is still existent since the homes that were built in the time which you frequented are now dilapidated and gone for good was an area called the Bell Witch Cave.
And it's currently owned by a family called the Kirbys who have people from all over the area that come and visit there.
And in fact, if you wrote a letter to the owners of the Bell Witch Cave, quote, the Kirbys, and sent it to Bells, Tennessee, Adams, Tennessee, you would actually get that letter mailed to them because everyone in that area knows who they are.
But they allowed this to occur.
The reporter and the photographer set up a camp just inside the entrance of the cave, and they didn't want to go any deeper because they saw a few brown-like clue spiders.
So they decided they were going to set their costs up more towards the outside.
Some of the things that I heard you speaking about, or some of your guest speakers were actually saying some things, numerous things that the Bible predicted for end time prophecy.
Some of the things that you admit that were talked about with the United Nations kind of taking over control of things, the Bible predicts that there will be a one-world government in the last days.
You've talked about earthquakes and pestilence or disease.
Yes.
Jesus himself had predicted in the last days that there will be famines, earthquakes, and disease in the last days in the generation that saw.
I've got a fax here, um, very anti-flat tax, and I will read it and challenge you to answer it.
Under the Forbes flat tax, I would lose $1,900.
Millions of Americans in low-income brackets will be very big losers.
Under the Forbes plan, all deductions are eliminated.
So are all credits.
I am totally disabled.
My wife of 20-plus years lost her job last year due to plant cutbacks, and I've got three children at home.
Now, wait a minute.
The loss I refer to is the loss of the earned income credit.
Ah, for low-income families.
I agree it's not fair to other taxpayers to give someone more money back in the form of a refund than they actually paid in to the federal government in taxes.
But the fact remains that many will lose this credit.
This will translate into a real tax loss for those that need it.
David.
Well, on the face of it, that's probably true.
Let's see, you're married and you have three children and almost no income, so you pay no tax.
Under the Forbes plan, you would pay no tax.
But you're probably right.
Under the Forbes plan, all deductions.
Well, wait a minute.
That's not a deduction, though, is it?
So, look, I'm not an accountant, and I cannot answer this.
Maybe somebody else can.
Can anybody tell me what would happen to this man under the Forbes plan?
He pays no tax now.
He would pay no tax under the Forbes Plan, but under the Forbes Plan, with all deductions and credits gone, he would lose the credit he has for being disabled.
Low income.
All right, Steve Forbes has the answer.
Why don't we do something about all those lazy freeloaders who aren't able to pull their weight in the job market?
Free trade is not the problem.
It's laziness.
Unemployment is low.
Over the last seven years, first-time claims for unemployment have only averaged around $350,000 a week.
That's nothing.
$350,000 a week times 52 weeks times seven years equals 127,400,000.
That's peanuts.
When are these people going to wake up and go out and get a job?
Pap Buchanan is off the mark when he claims free trade is costing America jobs.
We need somebody like Steve Forbes who supports free trade so we can keep the cost of goods cheap here in America.
D in Auburn.
Or this.
Art Bell, Steve Forbes.
He's saying exactly what people want to hear.
Doesn't that remind you of someone else?
Wake up and smell the coffee.
He would never be able to follow through with any of his idle promises.
I'm going to vote for Dole in the primary, and if Forbes wins the Republican nomination, I will vote for Clinton.
Love your program, he says.
Now, let me get this straight.
You're going for Dole, but if Forbes wins, you're going to vote for Clinton.
What it is, is a trial brief for proving driving is a constitutional right.
Well, I'll read that.
A lot of people think driving on the roads is a constitutional right.
You don't need a license.
You don't need insurance.
You don't need any of the stuff they tell you you need.
You can just do it.
Then this.
All right.
I think you are guilty of becoming a little like the mainstream press, supporting Clinton by default because you think he'll win.
Well, I'm just telling you what I think.
If that makes you think I'm like the mainstream press, then I can't do anything about that.
If Forbes is the candidate, he may well give Clinton a run for his money.
I don't think Bob Dole can win.
It's true.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry if that makes you think that I have sold out.
Then that's the way it is.
I'm just honestly telling you what I think.
Bob Dole does not have the personality to beat Bill Clinton, to beat him at all.
As a matter of fact, Bill Clinton would push every hot button Bob Dole has, and he's got them all over him.
Bob Dole's hot buttons are easy to push.
Bob Dole has not been a happy man lately.
Have you seen him?
Since the answer, if you call it that, to the State of the Union address, Bob Dole has been frowning.
He's obviously unhappy.
He knows he's in trouble.
He knows a repeat of what occurred in 92 is about to occur again.
And frankly, he's a good American, and I feel sorry for him, but not sorry enough to say that he should ascend to the nomination in the presidency should he be able to win it as a king would ascend to the throne.
And the hemorrhagic fever and that, I was wondering what would doom us.
And the only thing that I can think of that would really be a sore spot is if the oceans themselves caught some of the diseases and moved completely through our sea life.
Oh, yeah, there's nothing like going down to the beach for a nice day at the beach and finding a bunch of used hypodermic needles with some red fluid floating about inside and that sort of thing washing up on shore.
Really makes you want to jump right in.
Somebody just wrote me a quick facts and said, hey, Art, next time you get an immortal on the line, ask them how long they can hold their breath.
Well, this is from our local paper, and it's telling about the World Heritage Committee voted in Berlin, and they voted that Yellowstone, that the gold mine was a threat to Yellowstone Park.
Right.
And Bruce Babbitt and Al Gore brought them over at taxpayer expense, and I was really not amused.
A UN delegation to Yellowstone National Park has spurred outrage among Westerners who accuse the international body of meddling in domestic policy.
No kidding.
After a three-day evaluation by international experts, the World Heritage Committee, a Bureau of the UN Environmental, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, declared Yellowstone a world heritage site in danger.
Chief among the delegation's concerns was the proposed reopening of the new World Mine, a gold mine located near Yellowstone in Montana.
But debate about the mine has all been overshadowed by the uproar over the delegation itself.
In areas of the West where the state's rights movement is flourishing and distrust of centralized government is at an all-time high, the arrival of a UN committee has been viewed as nothing less than an attempt to subvert U.S. sovereignty.
And I've got to agree, the U.N. can stuff it, as far as I'm concerned.
What right do they have out West telling us what we can and can't do?
I really do feel that way.
And apparently a lot of other people do too, because I, you know, this delegation is going to be lucky to get out of town without being tarred and feathered.
West of the Rockies, you're on the air.
Hi.
unidentified
No, they don't.
But anyway, Art, long time ago, you gave out a picture, what, 10 years ago?
He was going to come back and give us real numbers, and we didn't get real numbers, and I don't believe you have them, sir, and I don't believe you went anywhere to get them because you didn't give them to us.
You gave us the typical anti-flat tax argument, not based on real numbers, and you didn't give us real numbers.
You said, well, all the poor people lost, and all the rich people did real well.
Well, some of that's going to be true.
I think everybody will benefit.
I think the middle class will pay roughly the same amount.
Poor people will pay much less.
Rich people will pay much less.
Now, that does bulge it, of course, into the middle class.
Arguably it does, but that is where all the money comes from anyway.
And the bureaucracy and the size of the IRS and the collection agency and the whole mess, the whole range of deductions that allow the rich to skate anyway, all of that can be done away with along with the bureaucracy.
No, I'm a fan of the flat tax.
And I have yet to have anybody prove to me it is a bad idea.
And I've seen people taking shots at Forbes, but also without specific numbers saying it will not work.
So you couldn't compress the signal onto a regular audio cassette, could you?
No.
Oh, that's too bad.
Also, with environmentalists, maybe an environmentalist could call up and explain to me why it's actually vegetarians, I guess, why it's okay to eat fish, but it's not okay to eat a dolphin.
So you can kill a fish, but you can't kill a cat or this or that, you know?
Yeah, so hey, you've got to get down there sometime because there's a lot of ruins down there, Mayan ruins, and they've got a big calendar out at Terracol, the one out by Coppola's place.
It's a credit that you get back from the government, but only if you work.
And the more you work up to a certain point, the more you get back.
Remember, poor people do pay taxes called Social Security tax, excise tax, gasoline tax.
This is an attempt in part to hold them unharmed for all the other federal taxes they pay by giving them this credit, which, as I said, single people can get it, married people can get it.
A family of four earning $29,000 a year can't receive it.
I don't think any of us fully understand this, and even our accountants don't fully understand it.
It has not been fully explained.
All I know is this.
I'm sure there are those who will have to, one way or another, be taken care of.
At the very low end, the disabled, those kinds of people, you can't let them begin to starve.
And there's got to be a way to eliminate the horrendous tax system we have now in the IRS and the bureaucracy and all of that and simplify the whole affair, tax what is now in the underground economy, which I am in favor of doing, and just simplifying the whole mess.
And that's what Forbes wants to do.
Now, there are those who may fall through the cracks, and that question is going to have to be addressed.
East of the Rockies, you're on the air.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning, and greetings from Matt, the all-night studying, almost graduated college student in central Kansas.
First off, you are on the air in Belize, and that's great because it looks like that's where I'm going to be going in the Peace Corps here in June, and I'll be able to listen to you down there.
Well, would you do me a big favor and try and call me at least once?
unidentified
I certainly will.
I'm not actually leaving until September, and one of the things, the other thing I was going to say is I'm hoping to meet you because when I graduate, which is in May, we're looking at your cruise as a possible graduation gift.
My parents and I are thinking about going back here if I study.
Well, I'm told St. Petersburg, which is where the cruise ship is going, is beautiful, the most beautiful place you can see in Russia.
But then I'm debating whether I should get on a plane and go to Moscow.
I kind of want to see Moscow.
I know it's dark and sinister and scary, and the mobs there, the Russian mob and all that, but I want to see it.
unidentified
It's incredible.
I studied in St. Petersburg, and I was there in the middle of winter, so I can't wait to see it in the middle of summer when it's all going to be lit up, and it'll be light most of the time instead of dark.
But Moscow is just incredible.
And I mean, of course, I was there right before October.
I was there in 93, from January to May of 93.
So this was before the coup happened, and so it was a little different.
So Moscow is a little bit more scary than it was even when I was there.
Right.
One quick question, though, I do have for you, and I'll hang up and get your answer.
You're in Nevada, and what are your thoughts on riverboat gambling?
That's becoming quite an issue here in the Midwest, and it's something that it's going into debate.
And one of my professors was talking about it in class.
I think you people really ought to think about this before you indulge it, before you allow it to occur in your area.
Who knows what kind of stuff it might bring with it?
Think of how it might erode your morals to have gambling in your area.
There's only one place where gambling ought to be, and that's in Nevada.
They ought to even outlaw New Jersey, as far as I'm concerned.
You see, here in Nevada, we have no income tax.
State income tax.
You know why?
Because of gambling.
Because of all the Californians and all the rest of you that come into Nevada and leave with us sufficient revenue so the state does not have to reach into our pockets.
And so, as far as I'm concerned, in every other place but here, it's immoral and wrong and should be outlawed, shouldn't be on the rivers, shouldn't have it on the Native American reservations.
I am against gambling anywhere in America, but right here, where it works very well, thank you.
You asked.
We'll be back.
unidentified
You're listening to Art Bell Somewhere in Time.
Tonight featuring Coast to Coast AM from February 1st, 1996.
Somewhere in Time with Art Bell continues, courtesy of Premier Network.
Futures, of course, are very volatile, but what I'm watching carefully is gold.
unidentified
Okay, well, I have the cash prices, too, for all the, you know, whether it's bullion production or whether it's jewelry or fabrication or whatever they want.
On the Forbes, a couple of nights ago, I was listening to one of the talk shows on television, and they were talking with him, and he said that there's a $10,000 deduction for each parent, and then a $5,000 deduction for each child.
So a husband and wife with two children would have a $30,000 deduction before there was any tax, and then above the $30,000, it would be 17%.
See, that's how that would depend.
You know, a guy making $40,000 would come out fairly well.
I can't remember where I heard it or read it or wherever, that they had chemically figured out a way to make lead into gold, and it acted like it and all kinds of things, except when you actually ran an assay on it, it still come up and said lead.
I don't know how true that is.
I know that's been a dream of chemists and alchemists for a lot of years.
You know, they're a good, solid ounce of verifiable real gold.
unidentified
Well, what I would like, I've got a few silver dollars, not the old ones that are worth a lot of money or anything, but the newly minted ones that were minted in 1984.
And I think that if things really got tough and you had to spend this as money, they would be a lot easier to handle than would gold because gold would skyrocket so much.
And if all you wanted to buy was some chicken and some bread or something, you'd have a hard time with a $1,600 ounce of gold.
So I would think that you need to have a little bit of silver that's a little less expensive and a little bit easier to stay.
How about 10% for individuals, which would not be taxed on food, medical needs, medical supplies, et cetera, and a 20% on corporations and a 30% tariff flat across the board on all products imported into the U.S.
You'd slap 30% on, everybody else will, too, and we'll have a trade war.
How would that help anybody?
unidentified
Well, we might.
We might not.
Again, the tax would be being paid by U.S. individuals, yes, and that would discourage purchase of foreign goods, and they may threaten to do the same thing.
But Japan, right now, my brother-in-law lives in Japan, and they basically do that to us right now and have, and we've been running in trade deficits.
Well, since we're running a deficit already, even if we lost the foreign trade, you're looking at $700 billion right there, according to the U.S., you know, what's been published in the $700 billion range.
Okay, even if you lost that, since we're running a deficit, you would still, I mean, the U.S. consumer is such that there is a fair amount of people out there who would be willing to pay the 30%.
So you wouldn't really lose all that.
I mean, you would only lose probably about 25% of it.
I appreciate your call, but I disagree with your premise.
I am very, very much interested in continuing to expand, not contract trade.
But I want fair trade.
And as long as it is fair trade, then everybody ultimately is going to profit.
We are.
They are the big they, the Japanese, the Mexicans, the Canadians.
I'm a believer in trade.
That is how we have become what we are.
We began as little villages.
We traded with each other.
We were enriched by it.
Then we became bigger villages and cities and traded with each other and became richer.
And then states traded with each other.
Then international trade came along.
And slowly the standard of living in the world rose.
And so I'm a believer in trade.
Now, the Japanese don't play fair, and so I would, if I was president of the U.S., I would have gone and done what the president threatened to do, but didn't have the right body parts to do.
He should have raised the tariffs until they cried, Uncle, Sam.
Then we'd have fair trade, free trade.
Everybody'd be richer.
Well, this is a good time.
Look, North American Trading sells gold coins for the most part, silver as well, but mostly gold.
And I've been preaching about the new money, about the economy, about the price of gold for a long time now.
Now, all of a sudden, the people that took my advice are significantly richer because the price of gold has gone up.
You're making money, aren't you?
Well, I bet that it's going to go up more.
It's a bet.
It's an investment.
But gold is a pretty safe bet, you know?
Let's go to the first time caller line.
You're on the air.
Good morning.
unidentified
First question, after all these years in radio, what is it you still enjoy most of it?
You know, if you've been listening for a long time, you know that we rarely do the same thing night after night.
It's a good question.
Thank you.
I'm glad you asked.
And that is the answer.
Really, that is the answer.
What do I enjoy most about being in radio is doing this show, this particular program.
I love it because it is never the same.
Now, this morning we're in a broad discussion about the flat tax and Forbes and politics, but we as easily could be off onto something totally different, and it varies day to day to day.
And I am absolutely more than ever convinced, particularly after this last round of surveys that have come in, that a broader scope in talk radio is being well received by the American public.
Now, there are many times that it is appropriate to talk about the government, or to talk about tax, or to talk about the presidential race.
But to do so day after day after day, relentlessly, or to even be bashing the Clintons relentlessly, day after day after day, is not only, well, to me, it's boring.
All right?
If Bill Clinton does something that drives me up a tree, I'll come after him that day.
If he does something I agree with, fairly rare, I'll say so.
Otherwise, I'll leave it alone, and there are other things in life, some of them more important, frankly, than the machinations of the day's politics, and so I talk about them on this program.
And that's what I love about it.
The fact that I've been able to do it and that it is being accepted and that hopefully it will drive other talk show hosts around the country to realize they don't have to be Rush Limbaugh bots and follow in his little footsteps or excuse me, big footsteps and talk about nothing but politics day after day after day.
If there is anything right now, talk radio is the number one format in the nation.
And if it doesn't change, it will not hold on to that mantle.
It will lose it.
And the change is, you know, people became enlightened and said, my gosh, we can talk about these things on the air.
And now they've discovered programs like this where even other aspects of life can be discussed on the air.
If they technologically cannot prove that you knowingly, that's an important word, and that's in the bill, that you knowingly allowed the passage of this or encouraged it even, then they would prosecute you.
They can't do that.
unidentified
But here's the problem.
There's something like IRC.
Now, by having IRC on the system, I know there's going to be pornographic material on that.
But my other option is to take it off, to take news off, because news will carry pornographic material from all over the world.
So I have no USET news, no IRC, take FTP, because somebody might FTP to another site, and I know that's going to happen if it's available.
So basically, by the time you eliminate everything that could fall into that category, you don't have a service left.
And I'm at risk now for a business that I've spent 12 years building up, now I have to worry about going to jail for just doing business.
I'm at a breakpoint here, but I'm willing to hold you over.
So stay right there, will you?
Sure.
All right, good.
We're at the bottom of the hour, and we're talking about the new telecommunications bill and the provisions in it that are going to try to stop the passing of pornography to minors.
Will it end the internet as we know it?
I don't think so.
We'll be back.
unidentified
The trip back in time continues.
With Art Bell hosting Coast to Coast AM.
More Somewhere in Time coming up.
Listening to Art Bell Somewhere in Time.
Tonight featuring Coast to Coast AM from February 1st, 1996.
Well, then, what would you do as the net guru if you were with regard to these problems?
How would you address the problems?
unidentified
Well, my feeling is that right now, the technology isn't sufficient, and it's going to take time for it to become sufficient.
And you have to look at the amount of time that it developed over before it got into the mainstream public view and understand that you're going to need a developmental period that's in that realm.
Some problems are very difficult to solve.
Internet Relay Chat, as I started to mention, is a real-time service.
And how do you censor something in real-time without losing that spontaneity that's there?
You know, I mean, on a radio show like you have here, you have a tape delay.
So if somebody says a bad word, you can hit a button.
But in IRC, you don't have a delay, and you would really ruin the spontaneity because it's not just a two-people conversation and then going to the air.
It's a everybody can participate type situation at the same time.
The individuals who run these repeaters and have the license are ultimately responsible for that which goes over the air.
And if somebody gets on there abusing, swearing, cussing, doing whatever, the licensee is potentially in trouble, and the licensee is required to monitor as best they're able.
And the Federal Communications Commission is not arbitrary.
They don't come charging after people if the S word or the F word gets said occasionally.
But if it is an ongoing real problem, the Federal Communications Commission moves in and the guy might lose or lose the license or get fined.
unidentified
Okay, here's the problem, though, that's different in the Internet.
The Internet has become the people's voice, the ability for people to talk to the masses, and it's become a method for people to form grassroots associations.
And there's a lot of politics that happen on the net.
Now, you say that, but if you've got a situation where the laws are ambiguous, in other words, they say the carrier can be held for this, liable for this.
But if you take a position politically that's unpopular, they can then say, hey, but you're distributing pornography and come after you for that, even though that is not, you see what I'm saying?
It's a...
It's something where they can enforce the law arbitrarily.
And that gives them a tool to censor political views, even though that is not what the law was intended for.
I think that unless there is an aggravated, conscious effort to allow the passage of pornography, they're not going to come after you because they dislike you politically.
I mean, after all, sir, after all, look, if somebody disliked you politically, they could come after you with the IRS, the FBI, the ATF, and a million other agencies.
unidentified
Yeah, but with the IRS, I know that my taxes, I don't cheat on my taxes, I have records, I have an accountant that takes care of this stuff for me.
I know that they can audit me, but I'm not going to find anything.
I sympathize with your position, but I don't agree with you.
I think that in America we do have certain moral standards, and one of them happens to be that we do not pass child pornography.
It is against the law to do so through the mails, and should be against the law to do so over the Internet.
We do not pass pornography to children, and I think it ought to be against the law to do so.
I don't have a problem with it.
Now, I realize a lot of people on the Internet are very libertarian-minded.
All of the surveys that are done show Harry Brown to be the favorite candidate of those on the Internet.
He is an aspiring libertarian, a presidential nominee, and that's fine.
But I disagree, and there is some regulation that is needed.
I don't want to pass around child porn, and I don't want it passed to children.
And I'm adamant about that.
And as we regulate the mails, as we regulate amateur radio, as we regulate broadcasting in the mass media, so then we should regulate the Internet, and laws should apply there just as they do everywhere else.
I think, you know, most everybody I've talked to on the net and through the IRC and other places with the Internet, they pretty much feel that way as well.
I think the argument about distribution of pornography to minors has to do with a lot of them think that there should be more parental input into it.
And there is software available that can lock out any place within the Internet to minors.
Well, it's the same reason why we wouldn't want them getting passed on to either arbitrarily going into one of the areas on the net that has it so if they know how to download it, it just comes up arbitrarily.
Or the other problem that they're having, which I have a real problem with as well, is people who distribute it knowingly on the net are actually interfacing through areas and finding out that it is a minor and then getting it loaded onto their email.
And that's really disturbing as well.
But the thing with the software is one way that it can be done.
I agree that there can be regulations so that that's as against the law as it is with sending it through the mail or any other way.
Possibly so, but there are the thing about it is I've read a lot about this particular bill that's been going through, and there's a lot of discussion about it on the net, and the actual bill itself is up on the net, you know, and then the full thing.
But one of the things is that there are other aspects to that particular bill that do cause problems with ISP, the service providers, and also they've set it up now so that they can survey in any locality a thousand telephone or data links at any given time from a remote area.
But the thing about it is that most of the people on the net, what they really look at this as is a further erosion of privacy, and for not really a good reason, because there's only been in the last 10 years something like about 85 successfully prosecuted cases against people who've actually been surveilled had surveillance on them through wiretaps.
And there's just got to be a better way.
And I don't want to just debate it, but I just see both sides of the situation where a lot of people feel like that this particular bill is improperly written.
Well, one of the things is that the U.S. government has made, in this deal, has made a deal with the telecommunications companies to give them a billion dollars of taxpayers' money to be able to go back through their systems because all telephony now is really computerized.
But they are setting it up so that they would have to go back at the average citizen's expense to be able to put the programming into their computerized telephony systems to be able to have all of these wiretapped systems, which includes the whole of the Internet because it is connections of computers and services.
Well, yes, but it is merely ⁇ all right, thank you.
It is merely an extension of, for example, what the Federal Communications Commission does now with broadcasting.
They monitor broadcasting.
Telephones are monitored for certain things.
And of necessity, eventually, digital communications are going to have to be monitored for certain things.
We don't want people planning bombs and planning crimes on the Internet.
You know, let us go back to the original definition of freedom.
Freedom means that you are free within certain limits, and there are limits.
Like everything else, there are limits to freedom.
You are free to do this and or that.
But you're not free to distribute child pornography.
You're not free to plan or conspire a crime.
And so the Internet is going to have to be watched as telephones are watched, as the mails are watched, to the degree that things that we as a society do not want to go on don't go on.
Or if they do, they're stopped.
So it is logical to me, and I understand that the law is of necessity kind of vague.
And that ends up scaring a lot of people.
But I don't think the Internet police are going to be closing in on some poor little guy running a server or running an Internet access and something slips through.
It's like every now and then, even on this program, I've had a word over the years, the S word, probably the F word, although I don't think so.
I think I've caught them.
But, you know, every now and then it happens.
And the Commission looks at that.
They went after Howard Stern.
Why?
Because it was a daily diet of objectionable material, what a lot of people consider to be objectionable material.
Day after day after day.
Intentional, repetitive, and to many people who wrote in and complained, so they went after him.
And it's going to be kind of that way on the Internet.
If an occasional word slips, they're not going to come tearing into your house.
But if you are a provider which specializes in the passing of pornography, well, then yes, they might come after you if you're distributing knowingly to children or distributing child pornography to adults.
I don't think that encompasses freedom.
First time caller line, you're on the air.
unidentified
Yeah, it's not what I want to talk about, but I believe what the Internet provider was concerned about, it's possibly that another area like the seizure laws.
I understand that they would somehow be politically unhappy with him, so they would wait and they would lurk and wait until one piece of porn came across his server and come in and get him, right?
unidentified
Yeah, well, the seizure laws, they don't even have to convict you.
They can just go take things.
And you have to prove your innocence.
But anyway, what I wanted to talk about was the currency.
And all they're doing with the currency is providing us with something that's not easily counterfeitable.