Word: states
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...feathering have shocked and outraged ordinary citizens, party members and nonmembers alike. Disgrace knows no limits for Erich Honecker, less than two months ago the most powerful man in East Germany: last week the former party chief and eight of his erstwhile top lieutenants were formally charged by the state prosecutor's office with "enriching themselves through abuse of office." Seven of the ex-Politburo members were packed off to jail pending trial. Illness spared the other two, including Honecker, from suffering the same fate -- at least for the time being...
There has been one scandal that adds up to major marks. The Politburo's once powerful economic czar, Guntar Mittag, and Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, a shadowy financial dealer and former state secretary for foreign trade, are suspected of helping divert to Swiss bank accounts tens of millions of dollars' worth of hard currency. The proceeds came from the illegal sale of arms, artworks and other goods. The affair has become known as the Ko-Ko scandal, after the office of Kommerzielle Koordination, through which the funds were funneled. Last week Schalck-Golodkowski surfaced in West Berlin, offering to return some...
Still, the Americans were impressed with the candor of Polish leaders and their determination to pursue tough reform measures. Polish Deputy Prime Minister Leszek Balcerowicz was especially forthright in outlining an ambitious program to sell off state-owned enterprises, balance the budget, break the back of hyperinflation and move toward currency convertibility. Said Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter, who led the mission: "We listened, and all we had to do was say 'Amen...
...film ends with a great shot. Blaze walks out of the state house where Earl's corpse lies, and the camera ascends to take in Long's old domain. Randy Newman's poignant song Louisiana 1927 -- a cracker's lament about a devastating flood -- reaches its apogee of symphonic paranoia with the line "They're tryin' to wash us away." Just then, the camera discovers the Mississippi roaring past, washing away Earl and his wily, wild, pre-TV tradition of Southern politics. What has happened down there is that the wind has changed, and for its last three minutes Blaze...
...affair made in tabloid heaven: stripteaser Blaze Starr ("Miss Spontaneous Combustion, and I do mean bustion!") and Earl K. Long, fine Governor of the great state of Louisiana. Long was too full of his princely power to be discreet about his indiscretions. Blaze could have told him -- and in this lengthy, clever, depressing film she does -- that "your political instincts are clouded by the aroma of my perfume." By 1959, when Long's campaign slogan was the forthright "I ain't crazy," his liaison with the stripper was as controversial as his tax evasion and support for Negro voting rights...