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Fighting Dirty Police Admired Barry Cooper When He Lied to Put Drug Dealers in Prison

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Fighting Dirty Police Admired Barry Cooper When He Lied to Put Drug Dealers in Prison Fighting Dirty Police admired Barry Cooper when he lied to put drug dealers in prison. Then he flipped the game on them. BY MICHAEL Mkb ON THE COVER Barry Cooper and Jello the pig face off PHOTO BY MATT WRIGHT-STEEL LOCATION AND PIG COURTESY OF GREEN GATE FARMS, AUSTIN 12TOO BLACK FOR SCHOOL by Foffest How race skews school discipline in Texas Brandarion Thomas (left) landed in court for grabbing a classmate. His mother thought that was too much. PHOTO BY FORREST WILDER FLIM—FLAM FIGHTING DIRTY by Melissa del Bosque by Michael May How Rick Perry has spun disastrous Police admired Barry Cooper when OBSERVER economic policies into winning politics 16 he lied to put drug dealers in prison. 06 Then he flipped the game on them. ONLINE See videos of Barry Cooper's REGULARS 26 DATELINE: 25 STATE OF THE MEDIA 2.1 URBAN COWGIRL stings and 01 DIALOGUE EL PASO Borderline Bias Space Politics watch a mini— 02 POLITICAL Recollections of a West by Bill Minutaglio by Ruth Pennebaker documentary on INTELLIGENCE Texas Dreamer the photo shoot 05 EDITORIAL by Elroy Bode 26 BOOK REVIEW 23 PURPLE STATE for the cover story. 05 BEN SARGENT'S Radical Write Populism vs. www.texasobserver.org LOON STAR STATE 22 CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK by Todd Moye WASPulism 19 HIGHTOWER REPORT Slack and Slash Cinema by Bob Moser 23 POETRY by Josh RosenbiaU by Alexander Maksik 29 EYE ON TEXAS by Sarah Wilson A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES SINCE 1954 I V* OBSERVER VOLUME 102, NO. 8 1111.0011E FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger Turd Blossom Special EDITOR Bob Moser MANAGING EDITOR I was shocked to see an acquaintance post that he had become a fan of Karl Rove on Chris Tomlinson ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Mann Facebook ("Bush's Fist," April 16). Curious, I went over to Rove's home page and was CULTURE EDITOR Michael May shocked again by the significant adulation posted by his fans, balanced, of course, by INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Melissa del Bosque expressed contempt for Democrats and Liberals. I am baffled by that kind of sup- STAFF WRITER Forrest Wilder ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Julia Austin port for someone so ethically challenged. Helen Hopson CIRCULATION/OFFICE MANAGER AUSTIN Candace Carpenter ART DIRECTION EmDash LLC HELEN: WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING ULTRARADICAL SOCIAL- MARKETING ASSISTANT is probably true. But for others, there are issues of Jaime Kilpatrick ist firebrands like Obama, Harry Reid, and now I increased taxes and negative long-term effects. WEBMASTER Shane Pearson guess all remotely "moderate" Republicans, there's Tony Trevino COPY EDITOR Rusty Todd no time for ethical considerations, I guess. HOUSTON Lassiter Jones POETRY EDITOR Naomi Shihab Nye AUSTIN SO MUCH NONSENSE IN THE PUBLIC DEBATE WAS FOCUSED INTERNS Laura Burke, Robert on Obama health care and abortion funding. I was Green, Lara Haase, Hudson ROVE'S LIFE STORY SOUNDS LIKE A PLOT FROM A waiting for an equivalent fury demanding no federal Lockett, Maddie Pelan, Jen Reel Lifetime movie. Sadly. funding for Viagra or similar male sexual enhance- CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Deborah Kirksey Coley ment drugs for non-life-threatening reasons. Emily DePrang, Lou Dubose, James K. Galbraith, Steven AUSTIN Enough already with all this focus on restrictions for G. Kellman, Joe R. Lansdale, women's health, and let's put some scrutiny on the Robert Leleux, James E. I REFUSE TO HAVE ANY PITY ON KARL ROVE. HE HAS NO outrageous Viagra-induced male health care choices. McWilliams, Char Miller, Bill pity on the American public. I hope there's a special Kathleen O'Hara Minutaglio, Ruth Pennebaker, Josh Rosenblatt, Kevin Sieff, place in, well, you know, for guys like him. AUSTIN Brad Tyer, Andrew Wheat Karen Cardwell Diller CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS HOUSTON I'M A RETIRED STATE EMPLOYEE, AND MY RETIREMENT Jana Birchum, Alan Pogue, insurance will cover drugs like Viagra, but not my Steve Satterwhite wife and daughter's birth control, or an abortion CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS should that be required. That is consistent with Michael Krone, Alex Eben Who Needs Viagra? Meyer, Ben Sargent I THINK JIM HIGHTOWER NEEDS SOME VIAGRA FOR HIS the absurdity pointed out by Kathleen. brain ("Needed: Viagra for Backbones," March Scott Cherry TEXAS DEMOCRACY 19). Seriously Jim, President Obama has passed MICHIGAN FOUNDATION BOARD Lisa Blue, Carlton Carl, Melissa landmark health care reform, landmark student Jones, Susan Longley, Jim loan reform, and an economic recovery package Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, expected to create 3.5 million jobs. How in the True Colors Gilberto Ocafias, Jesse Oliver, world can you, with any semblance of credibility, TEA PARTIERS HAD NO OBJECTIONS TO GOVERNMENT Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, Geronimo Rodriguez, not call that change? You don't think that's differ- spending until late 2008 ("White Tea," April 16). I Sharron Rush, Kelly White, ent than what John McCain would have done? It's wonder what could possibly have happened to trip Ronnie Dugger (emeritus) one thing to challenge Obama because he's not liv- off the outrage? Government interference in our OUR MISSION ing up to expectations. But this kind of over-the-top lives was just dandy according to the same crowd We will serve no group or rhetoric is useless and shows the author as being ill- when it was limiting reproductive rights and stop- party but will hew hard to informed. It's disappointing to read this here at The ping the gays. Connie Chai McKenney the truth as we find it and Texas Observer Phillip Martin ALISO VIEJO, CALIF. the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole AUSTIN truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of WITH DEMOCRATS CONTROLLING BOTH HOUSES OF humankind as the foundation of democracy. We will take Congress and the presidency, why so much give? I A orders from none but our own know what the Republicans would do. I don't think conscience, and never will we it would take that long to get their agenda through overlook or misrepresent the if they had that kind of control. The health care truth to serve the interests of Sound Off the powerful or cater to the debate was sold as something the opposition did not ignoble in the human spirit. want (not on the merits), and for Republicans that edttors@texasobserverorg APRIL 30, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11 POLITICALINTELLIG Tea Party supporters brave the rain on Tax Day to protest the Obama administration PHOTO BY JEN REEL TAX DAY DIARY A Tea Party Flop AT A TEA PARTY RALLY IN AUSTIN ON TAX DAY 2009, Gov. huddled in a downpour under the Capitol entrance- Rick Perry tacitly endorsed the notion that Texas way to hear a series of speakers shout indictments of could secede from the Union. It caused a bit of a stir. the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve and In the year since, the tea party movement has only one-world government through a hand-held bullhorn. grown. So the 2010 anti-tax protests figured to be a As the proceedings wore on, members of the small must-see. Or so we thought. The various, sparsely crowd began to steal the show, interrupting with out- attended rallies—four in Austin—showcased traits bursts: "Jefferson was a terrorist!" screamed one man. that might be the movement's undoing. "So was Washington." Gov. Perry skipped the festivities. Steady rain no "What did he say?" one woman asked standing doubt chased away some people, and other Texans in the back. Her friend answered in a dejected tone, were attending the Washington, D.C., rally. Still, it "People are just shouting random stuff"—DAVE MANN was surprising that the Tax Day protests couldn't attract more than a few hundred stragglers. The day's first scheduled event, in front of Austin DEPT. OF ENERGY City Hall—where Perry spoke last year—never even happened. When this reporter arrived, he found Coal, Coal Heart three members of the press outnumbering two lonely ULTIMATE INSIDER BOBBY RAY INMAN—RETIRED ADMIRAL, activists. There were the trappings of a protest—a former CIA deputy director, former NSA director, podium, a microphone, a tent—but the activists had Austin venture capitalist, failed nominee for defense apparently not shown up. secretary, professor at the University of Texas' LBJ READ ABOUT Texans for Accountable Government at The final rally, sponsored by Texans for Accountable School of Public Affairs—got so steamed in the after- www.tagtexas.org Government, got going around 6 p.m. About 150 people math of April's coal-mining disaster in West Virginia 2.1 THE TEXAS OBSERVER WWW.TEXASOBSERVER.ORG THE STATE ENCE OF TEXAS that he threatened to take up the tea party cause. his book (Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Since 1985, Inman has served on the board of Conservative in the Fight). College Republicans gen- Massey Energy, the company under fire after 29 erated media coverage that might attract some new workers died in a preventable disaster at its Upper Big members. The protesters went away with the satis- Branch mine, which had some 3,000 safety violations faction of having taken a stand. But the human col- 2009 since 1995. It's been a nice side gig: Between 2006 lateral of the policies that Rove's clients have brought average price and 2008, Inman collected $1 million as Massey's into being—foreign and domestic—were nowhere to of a kilowatt-hour lead independent director. He showed little patience be seen, and nowhere to be heard. —ROBERT GREEN of electricity with bad press of the company's dismal safety record, or with calls from unions and others for the resigna- tion of controversial CEO Don Blankenship.
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