European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 26, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday August 26, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary George f. Will nations Are stirring Del Over soviet Union too bad the coup the final flaring of a political Faith did not end with the plotters fleeing Russia by train from St. Petersburg a Finland station where Lenin arrived in 1917. The plotters were in Lenin a phrase useful idiots. Because of what they did Mikhail s. Gorbachev cannot again be what he was a retrograde Force Tempo izing with a bankrupt system and retarding the Advance toward democratization and economic rationality. Gorbachev now has the prominence of a ship s figurehead. Boris Yeltsin is on the ships Bridge. Tanks Are so telegenic scant attention was paid to the plotters initial proclamation. The detested word a a communism did not appear but communism a faintly flickering spirit did a the chaotic spontaneous slide toward a Market provoked an explosion of  eroticism too Drew the plotters denunciation of a the propaganda of sex and a glaring  the plotters hoped to rally popular support by saying a whereas on y yesterday a soviet person finding himself abroad be t himself a worthy citizen of an influential and respected state now he is often a second rate  for almost All soviet citizens finding food not finding themselves abroad is the infuriating problem. Capitalism according to marxism is the transitional stage from feudalism to socialism. Under Gorbachev socialism has taken society Back toward feudalism the Wall Street journal says Many soviet manufacturers no longer accept rubles preferring to barter products. A this a says one Quot is How it was in Feudal  a manager of a state farm needs filters for machinery but the manufacturer demands a car not the nearly worthless currency As payment. �?o1 could Trade vegetables with a nearby factory that makes chinaware then Trade that for a car and then Trade the car for the filters but its All very  and unproductive. Think about it. A regime responsible for one sixth of the Earth a landmass has Only a ghost of a  f. Buckley or. While the soviet Union slides into a primitive barter system what does Gorbachev do when Yeltsin russians elected president recently banished communist apparatchiks from their traditional posts in workplaces Gorbachev who holds no office by direct election vowed implacable resistance to Yeltsin a order. Gorbachev has made Clear that he seeks Only change that is compatible with the party a Primacy. His Barren strategy is to try to improve the centralized command Economy with commands from the Center. But the Center Moscow can no longer preen As the Vatican City of an entity the soviet Union defined by a political Faith. So Moscow must revert to being the capital of a Sovereign nation Russia. The workers of the world said Marx have no fatherland. But soviet citizens have the plotters insisted a  the plotters proclamation began a compatriots citizens of the soviet Inion we arc addressing you at the grave critical hour for the destinies of motherland and our Peoples. A great mortal danger has come to loom Large Over our great  the proclamation uses a a motherland 10 More times in trying to portray the soviet Union As what the plotters called a a single family of fraternal  but a soviet nationalism is an oxymoron. The soviet unions existence requires the suppression of All real nationalism within it. The most powerful idea of the modern age is that of culturally distinct people finding fulfilment in nationhood often the revival of ancient nations. Nations Are stirring All Over the soviet Union. The coup occurred on the eve of and stay have been intended to prevent the signing of the new Union treaty. Think about that. The soviet in Ion a constituent republics Are to have Between them a treaty relationship the sort that usually is signed by Sovereign nations. The treaty As Constitution contains provisions that Are to anyone familiar with american history promises of disintegrative disputes. A constitutional court will mediate disputes Between the National government and the republics. While appealing to the court the republics can suspend National Laws they consider contrary to the treaty while appealing to the court. This resembles the a doctrine of interposition and the theory of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions authored in 1798 by Madison and Jefferson respectively. They argued that states could declare null and void Laws they considered unconstitutional. Furthermore under the Union treaty the soviet republics can conduct their own diplomatic and commercial relations with other countries. Finally the republics retain the right to secede. This is a recipe for an association much looser than that of the articles of confederation that proved so problematic in America 1781-1789. Americans eventually chose More centralization but americans Felt american. Soviet constitutional disputes will occur Between republics nations really defined in Large measure by Mutual animosities. And the National government s sovereignty will he so severely attenuated that the new arrangement will make probable what . Interests make desirable the end of the soviet Union. C Washington Post Wirters group Justice can t be measured by number of suits there Are to amp Omamoy la\nyfcr6l theres one time Tooman them was that we Experiment in a few some of my Best friends Are lawyers but what the president of the american bar association did to vice president Dan Quayle reminds us that the Aba is in Many respects just one More Trade association As anxious to maintain its tariffs minimum wage Laws tax loopholes and immunity to Sherman antitrust act Auto monopoly legislation As any other vested interest. Quayle has been serving As a member of a commission to promote american competitiveness and he gave a speech citing Legal costs As a part of the overhead of doing business in America and he was greeted by Aba head John j. Curtin or. As though the he had just proposed genocide for . Lawyers. Said Curtin if you can believe it a anyone who believes a better Day dawns when lawyers Are eliminated bears the Burden of explaining who will take their  to say there Are too Many regulations in life is not the same thing As saying you Are against any regulation. To say there Are too Many people farming in America is not the same thing As saying we could get along without bread. Quayle said things that greatly need stressing. It is curious that the Legal profession is about the Stod Giest in respect of self Reform in the whole human circus. It took a generation to bring about elementary reforms in respect of no fault automobile insurance and what Quayle recommends in respect of civil lawsuits we will probably gel around to in about 100 years. Meanwhile we live in an age in which i take a personal example it took five years to bring to trial a civil suit in Washington. . And the situation in new York City is worse. Because there Arentt enough lawyers Quayle pointed out that the United states has 70 percent of All the lawyers in the entire world. What we have too much of is litigation a but diminish litigation and you diminish the things that keep lawyers Busy. And Speed up procedures in litigation and you  same thing. The result is the current litigious mess. The figures the source is the Agenda Lor civil Justice Reform in America a report from the president s Council on competitiveness lawyers per 100,000 population Japan 11 England and Wales 82 Germany 111 United states 281, Quayle made several proposals. One of states with the idea of charging the loser in a civil lawsuit the Cost of the defense. This system by the Way. Is not revolutionary it is the convention in great Britain and in several other countries. The arguments in favor Are obvious ii 1 sue mrs. Jones Tor breach of contract and mrs. Jones persuades the jury that she is not guilty she walks out of the courtroom an unencumbered lady. However she has had to pay a lawyer to take depositions through a Long discovery process has had to pay a lawyer and the entire support system for a lawyer to defend her in court. So she May be out More Money than she would have been out if she had paid me the Money i asked her for. On the other hand if 1 knew that 1 would have to repay mrs. Jones the Cost of her defense in the event i lost the suit i would have been much More careful before instigating that lawsuit. What the Curtin types Tell you is that this robs us of the precious right of poor people with meritorious claims to sue because the economic Odds become so heavy. Translated this Means the following if a poor person thinks he has a Good Case against a doctor say for malpractice he goes to a malpractice lawyer who looks at the Case bets on the Odds of winning it and says yes. Ill take your Case on contingency or no i wont. The Impact of loser pays All costs is to cause the lawyer to be a Little More careful about what cases he takes. Because tie poor plaintiff is not going to run the risk of having to pay the Legal costs of the defense in the event of loss. So everybody takes in a Little easier. Now the question arises ii litigation were reduced from the current 18 million lawsuits per year to. Say. 12 million lawsuits per year would that suggest a Signet ieans drop in Justice done my own View is exactly the opposite. Because when someone is exonerated but is also out the $51it Cost to defend himself an injustice has been done. Curtin Speaks As though 18 million lawsuits is a measure of Justice accomplished. If so would i million lawsuits double our ration of Justice or is it time to look in the other direction As Quayle suggests r Universal Pross